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sportyclown · 3 years

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how sawamura, miyuki, yuki, and kuramochi text (friends + s/os)

will most likely do a part 2 with more boys at a later date! these got freakishly long because i am, at my core, a very mad. also might revisit as i get re-familiar with the characters, i just had this idea floating around in my head. also the way these got pro

sawamura eijun

no matter who he texts, it’s always extremely extra. not only does he always give more information than you asked for – ex. if you text him wya? he will give you a play by play of his entire route or something

he also uses tons of emoticons. and yes I do mean emoticons, baby boy has a flip phone. ifhe does eventually get a smart phone, then this boy overuses tf out of emojis. he’s the sort of person that sees someone use a combination of emojis he likes and then tries to copy them, but uses it completely incorrectly, but its v cute.

if you send him a meme, he will respond with an unnecessary amount of hahas.

when he’s texting his lil bae, they’re always on his mind so he ofc texts them every thought that comes to his mind! when he sees something that reminds him of you, he won’t hesitate to share it with you.

if you have been together for a long time, then we will definitely text you words of affirmation and be very honest/blunt about how he feels about you. he’s also always sure to ask you about your day - and he seriously cares. but i still i feel like with a s/o he would prefer facetime to texting just because he likes to see you :)

overall, a very adorable texter and his enthusiasm is just as contagious when texting as it is in person. he’s kind of clueless so he doesn’t pick up on subtext. so be blunt, just like he will be with you~

kuromochi youichi

my bias might be showing here, but I feel like he is one of the most well-adjusted boys in terms of being ready for a serious relationship tbh (at least post-high school). i mean we all saw that he regularly corresponded with wakana wish that were me lmao

i think he would most often use proper capitalization, but not to the point where he uses a period after every text

would send his friends news articles about his favorite fighting games where u like gaming or not

a meme fiend in general. the sort of person who uses reaction images of people he knows. (if you’re dating, he would still have a stash of funny pics/screenshots of you on ft, but he’d ofc only use them with you <3). his convos with his friends are rarely serious

i don’t think he’d be the type to text haha out loud, but he does use LOL on occasion. with close friends/his lil bae he might send a voice memo of him laughing hysterically if you send him something REALLY funny. ugh my annoying king <3

unlike eijun he’s the king of being perceptive / picking up subtext.

similarly, i do think he’s pretty reliable, but for friends i feel like he might make a lil bit of a stink lmao. like lets say a friend wants him to pick something up for them, he might play like he won’t do it then miraculously shows up with the requested item. its giving tsundere vibes on the low.

with his partner: i feel like he would use emojis when he’s trying to be ~cute~. i think with a established partner he’d be pretty flirty still but he’s v much whipped for his partner so its way more mushy than it would be early in the relationship.

yes your name has hearts/stars in his phone. mans is a SAP for you

his love language is more quality time imo, so I think he values time spent with you over texting time. so a lot of your texts might be asking you to come over to hang out / get a meal or vice versa

like eijun he wants to hear about YOU, and is very supportive and good at advice when he wants to be. he can be goofy but this is how he shows you he cares/sees you as more than a friend

he’s a blushy/shy boy with his s/o esp early in the relationship, so he might be hesitant or nervous to say “i love you” or anything like that outright, but you know anyway, which just makes the times when he does outright say it that much sweeter.

miyuki kazuya

i mean it goes without saying that this man is snarky. he’s not a meme king himself but he enjoys when people send them to him and will usually play off the meme to make his own jokes.

i feel like he also likes deep-fried memes or the very abstract, post-modern memes. miyuki is good at making other people laugh, but he has a generally very-off brand humor and the things that make him cackle hardest are either at someone else’s expense (very similar to kuramochi, so they bond a lot over that) or just indiscernible without access to a huge layer of context/background

saves the reaction photos kuramochi sends him, but doesn’t usually use them. but seeing an ugly pic of eijun yelling never fails to make him grin LMAO

i think he also texts A LOT about baseball, even more so than these other baseball dummies. texts his teammates a lot of articles he reads or clips from games/cool plays. this is mostly about texts, but in terms of social media I think miyuki uses twitter/instagram the most especially for baseball related reasons, while kuramochi uses snapchat the most.

he probably texts a lot about baseball as well, both seriously and playfully

i can see him using hahas and LOLs in equal measure, but he would also utilize the haha reaction if he had an iphone. this boy does value his wit so he would definitely have commentary about any memes or jokes he’s sent

you won’t win a joke war against him, he will definitely one-up whatever you send him with either a one-liner or another joke. how tf does he do it?

definitely ignores people/conversations if he really wants to - but ofc he never does that to his BAE

if miyuki give you a dry one-line response...he’s not interested at all or he’s feeling frustrated about something else. but when he’s really happy? he will text his friends all the time and spam them! i see him as someone who enjoys texting when he has the attention span/state of mind for it. and when he’s texting his s/o his texting gets even more ~flavorful~

wit his lil bae: i don’t think miyuki would switch it up much w his s/o. is probably even more teasing with you over text than he is with his friends, which is saying something.

like talking with you just by nature of you being his partner. prob prefers texts to facetime because text kinda allows for maximum snark

he LIVES for you guys’ witty back and forth

if he’s traveling for work or something, will definitely relish in you guys binge texting a tv show or something but just making funny commentary (or he’ll just send you funny commentary to get a reaction)

he can dish it and he’s also not a super sensitive guy so he can take it tenfold from you as well. nothing y’all wouldn’t be used to when talking in person!

sometimes when texting him you’ll want to beat his a*s because he can be so cheeky but its endearing in a way. he definitely adds emojis to the end of his more annoying messages to give it that loveable vibe (and it works ofc, we love u miyuki)

he’s kinda clingy on the low so i think he’d prefer a partner that’s more open with their affection via text than he is. he would live for your random ilys or whatver throughout the day. also would not mind at all if you updated him on your actions throughout the day or sent him snaps - might not be able to respond to everything, but will react and appreciate it. very likely to make jokes about whatever you’re doing.

would also apologize over text. he’s not always used to apologizing can be awkward about it, so text makes it easier for him.

he would use emojis w you in a joking/ironic way. would absolute use those dumb but genius emoji combinations

yuki tetsuya

i’m literally cracking up thinking about texting him. he is one of my ultimate baes but im sorry i just know he texts dry asf. but its part of his charm!

has a flip phone. either never upgrades or gets the chunkiest most basic android if he is forced to

the thing is this man thinks that he is infusing all his texts with, like, tajin level seasoning, when in reality its pepper

uses punctuation. always. exclamation marks are used sparingly to express excitement.

but i can’t get the image out of my head of an upset tetsuya texting you a simple angry emoji (or the angry emoticon >:( LOL) if he’s reeeeeeally mad. but its v cute i can’t take him seriously. i just want to give him a hug <3

but you know what he is so PASSIONATE about whatever he’s talking about that his passion bleeds into his text through sheer quantity of words and depth of thought. ultimately, all his conversations end up being extremely flavorful in terms of content. he is surprisingly good at having deep conversations over text.

he’s better at holding conversations with more extroverted personalities, truthfully.

he’s another one who sends random things to people when he thinks about them. miyuki of course gets so many texts/thoughts about shogi. if you get a random haiku, poem, or quote from testu, that means you’re blessed enough to be in his inner circle! he definitely thought of you when he read it and and wants you to respond!

with bae: he doesn’t really change up his texting style tbh, but he has a stronger outward reaction to what YOU text in response.

definitely the type to smile almost imperceptibly at his phone as he texts you, even if you send him something like “hey i’m at the store, want anything?”

he’s not great as verbal affection early in the relationship, so you’ll have to discern his love/affection. however baby boy is NOT afraid to just straight up say he loves you, he does it all the time and early.

he’s KNOWN for being reliable and responsible, so he will be at your beck and call when he’s able to for anything you need, but his heart is also warmed by the thought of you reciprocating that care. if your texts show him you’re thinking of him just like he does too. he’s very gentle and sweet, and checks up on you when he’s able to see if you need anything at all.

he might be reliable, but that doesn’t mean that he’s the quickest guy to respond to texts. he’s a busy guy, and he doesn’t think about his phone all the time, but he will always get back to you (bae does not play when it comes to completing things).

if they came up with a shogi game for gamepidgeon and tetsu had an iphone, your phone probably would be spammed with requests for games lol.

this is my first time doing headcanons like this so please let me know what you think or give me tips on how to improve! I really enjoying thinking about it so I hope to do more in the future <3

#daiya no ace #daiya no ace headcanons #sawamura eijun #miyuki kazuya #kuramochi youichi #yuki tetsuya #sawamura eijun x reader #miyuki kazuya x reader #kuramochi youichi x reader #yuki tetsuya x reader #dna headcanons #miyuki x reader #kuramochi x reader #ace of diamond #headcanons #texting headcanons #my writing #diamond no ace

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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Can we talk about the rampant bi/panphobia surrounding Yang "looks at guys like they're fresh meat in the first 3 volumes and chibi" Xiao Long? Blake's gets brought up a lot as 90% of her reason for existing is to be the romancable NPC, but it's hardly talked about with Yang. She has shown express interest in guys. Even if Bees goes canon, it's not a Bi/Lesbian ship. It's a Bi/Bi or Bi/Pan ship or what ever other possible identity that doesn't erase Yang's attraction to men. I get the whole wanting rep thing but there's more lesbians in RWBY than any other LGBT identity and they aren't really that good in terms of representation. Do we really need another angry/aggressive/problematic lesbian in RWBY? And whenever it does get brought up, Lesbian!Yang fans always go "oh, it's just comphet". Um, excuse me? Isn't comphet not supposed to be a thing in Remnant?

Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here, and I do get why you're so frustrated because as a bi person, it gets so frustrating dealing with not only a huge lack of representation, but also feeling boxed out of, undervalued by, and invalidated by your own community sometimes. I myself have been really frustrated and even hurt by the way many RWBY fans (and specifically Bumblebee fans) have talked about Blake and Yang's sexuality, like they would be less gay or less rep if they were bi, how shipping them with men is 'wrong' because it's 'straight behavior' and 'validating the straights,' and I got particularly annoyed once by a post that claimed that people only shipped Yang and Weiss so that they could force Blake - who they claimed was a canon lesbian - into a relationship with a man. I think it's clear why people talk about Blake's status as bi more than Yang's - Yang has one moment in eight seasons where she acts clearly attracted to men, whereas Blake has had two canon romantic relationships with men, Adam being her ex and her having gone on a date with and kissed Sun on the cheek. When people dispute Blake's status as a bi, sometimes they (rightly) come at it from the point of view of 'this is just my own personal headcanon for my own benefit.' But too often, Blake's attraction to men is dismissed outright and fans try and find every excuse to invalidate it so that they can insist that Blake is a canon lesbian. That's pretty openly biphobic imo. (Also I don't agree that 90% of Blake's character is a romancable NPC. I think maybe she's become mostly not an active character who only really exists as support and romance, but the idea that it's 90% of her overall show character is weird to me, Blake is done dirty by the show but that doesn't mean she's not a character for the first five seasons.)

But Yang is also worth talking about. Because of the fact that her moment of displaying clear attraction towards men is brief and early in the show, many fans have just... Thrown it out entirely, and decided that not only does it not count, but that anyone who brings it up is living in the past and is stupid for paying attention to the early seasons. That's obviously really dumb. The idea that after the first five seasons, Yang is displaying clear romantic attraction towards a girl for the first time, she is now one hundred percent a lesbian in canon because she's only displayed romantic attraction towards men once... That's also rooted in biphobia. Being attracted to men doesn't just suddenly go away because you're attracted to women and vice versa, no one chooses to be bi, gay, straight, ace, whatever. If Yang was sexually attracted towards men at seventeen, that part of her doesn't stop existing just because she's sexually attracted to women too. The thing is, headcanoning Yang (or even Blake!) as a lesbian is totally fine. I think the RWBY creators did say that sexism, racism, and homophobia doesn't exist in Remnant, but like ??? Idk why they'd decide something like that if they were gonna make jokes about Jaune and Qrow wearing skirts haha laugh at the non-gender-conformity of men, and if they'd write the first five seasons with literally one gay character, while tons of straight relationships that get credence, everyone else expresses no clear romantic inclination towards the same sex for five years of the show running. And we're supposed to think there's no heteronormativity at least? Cardin and Jaune both have clear toxic masculinity problems that Jaune grows out of, but we're supposed to think that toxic masculinity has nothing to do with any sexism or homophobia, however internalized? I think if people want their fans to believe there is not sexism or homophobia or racism in their fake world, they need to make good and sure their own internalized issues don't leak into their work. So I don't think it's wholly invalid when people decide that in their headcanon, they think Yang just acted like she was attracted to men because she thought she should. I especially think it's valid for people to headcanon that Yang had acted like she attracted to men because she thought she was. She was only seventeen, seventeen year olds put on behavior that they think is cool and she is the niece of Qrow 'wink at Winter to piss her off' Branwen, and Yang could've realized maybe during school that putting on behavior was all that was, and that she isn't actually attracted towards men and likes girls - specifically the girl dancing with Sun at the school ball. That's perfectly valid as a headcanon. But that's all it is, a headcanon.

Yang is not a canon lesbian and it's perfectly valid and supported by Yang's canon interactions for people to consider her bi or pan, and people can even headcanon her as ace if they want. Trying to demand that other people see fictional characters as the sexuality you prefer them in is just going to drive wedges, especially when so much venom seems to be directed towards bi characters, with others acting like they're literally less rep if they also have romantic interactions with people of the opposite sex. Like, people literally have the idea of "I love that Blake is bi, but I hate that people are shipping her with men or talking about Blake's romances with men and idk why the show put any focus on her romantically interacting with men." Like, sure, okay, so you support bi characters so long as they don't be bi too obviously. But... I'm getting off topic.

Here's the thing... I would caution not to get too deep in this "there's too many lesbians," concept. We're supposed to all be one community, supporting and fighting for each other. The problem isn't that there's too much representation for lesbians, the problem is that there is not enough representation for bi people, or pan, or ace, or trans men, or trans women, or non-binary people, etc. We don't have to wish less for other gay people to wish for more for ourselves. I agree that disregarding Yang's moment of attraction to men maybe isn't the way to go, but it's not that there are already enough lesbians in RWBY. There are only three side characters (by the way, two of them aren't confirmed lesbians, just because they're in a relationship with each other,) two of whom made a very minor appearance in all of two or three episodes and will likely never return to the story. As you say, the rep that lesbians have gotten in RWBY isn't very good. Them desiring more representation is perfectly valid, and I even get them wanting that representation from Yang, despite her single moment of lusting after boys in season one. That's a perfectly understandable desire. I myself want gay Neptune despite him expressing interest in women. It's not wrong. The only thing that's wrong is villainizing and mocking people for their own very valid ships like BlackSun or Yang x Jaune or Yang x Mercury or Blake x Ren or whatever ships people like. I'm sorry that I can't agree with you here, but if there was a scene in RWBY where Yang discusses her feelings for Blake and says that she realized she's a lesbian... I might not be particularly happy with the writing staff, because I already heard there's an element of disregarding Blake's former relationship with Sun in things like the comics, which is frustrating as a bi person. But I would be happy for the people who would find in this something that speaks to them and makes them feel like their own experiences are represented. Sometimes I can feel excluded from the LGBTQ+ community due to my attraction towards men, and that's hard, but I'm not going to start devaluing the victories of other gay people because of it, I'm not going to start getting upset when they get representation, or when a character they love claims an identity that reflects their own.

I do get where your frustration is coming from though, and it's perfectly valid to feel upset and exasperated both with the way MKEK write their queer relationships and in how people in the fandom tend to disregard the bi identity of characters.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby criticism #rwby critical #representation in rwby

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ladyloveandjustice · 3 years

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Fall 2020 Anime Overview

I started out watching the a ton of anime for the Fall 2020 season, but then ended up not being caught up with most of them by the the time the end rolled around. I still pretty much intend to catch up with Yashahime Princess Half Demon someday (I do like the three leads, it just the plot’s been dull as dirt and the fights aren’t very inspired either) and though I dropped Wandering Witch after bad press started rolling in (I CANNOT deal with pointless tragedy in my current state of mind) I might check out a few more episodes someday just to from my own opinion. For now, let’s just quickly review the anime I DID manage to finish on time this season.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is exactly what it says on the tin: Princess Syalis isn’t too bothered about being captured by demons and locked in their castle, but she does value a good night’s sleep, and she is absolutely ruthless when it comes to getting it- so ruthless, in fact, that the demons realized it might not be that she’s trapped in here with them, but that they’re trapped in here with her.

Sleepy Princess is top tier comedy comfort food. It rarely got a huge belly laugh, but it always but a smile on my face and was a great thing to watch before going to bed. Syalis’s single-minded search for some shut eye is a joke that could have gotten old very quickly, but the show consistently found creative ways to expand on the gags and build it’s world and a fun cast of characters along the way.

Though Syalis is downright brutal to the demons when it comes to getting what she wants (and has a knack for getting herself killed at well), thanks to a demon cleric that offers easy resurrections, you never feel too bad for anyone involved. In fact, the demons and Syalis form a strangely heartwarming bond over the course of the show , and it’s clear by the end that Syalis definitely has the ability to come and go if she damn well pleases and just finds this castle a fun place where she can find respite from her princessly responsibilities.

A nice bonus for those of us who like a little subversion is that the show has a lot of fun playing with standard adventure tropes- the demons often lament that Syalis is not at all what they expected from a captive princess, for one, but my favorite fun little twist is how Syalis feels about the hero currently on a (seemingly endless) quest to rescue her- she manages to both hold him in contempt AND consistently fail to remember his name. That level of disregard takes some impressive effort.

The show has the same director as the Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun anime and as such has a similarly nice comic and visual flourishes throughout. It definitely gets two sleepy thumbs up for me.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen follows a young man named Yuuji Itadori who, after tangling with a demon, ends up with one inside him. With a death sentence hanging over his head, he’s inducted into a school for “jujutsu sorcerers”, and begins training to use his newfound powers to defeat demons and curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen quickly tells you on no uncertain terms it is Action Shonen, introducing a huge cast of a characters and powers and super high stakes and hey there’s even gonna be a tournament arc soon. It is really, really pretty to look at, with a killer opening and ending, some seriously great animation and cool visuals for the fights especially. But is it particularly memorable otherwise? Noooooot really, so far. The sea of technobabble it tends to descend into when trying to explain how the various powers work often has me zoning out and wishing they’d just let me watch the pretty punches. The villains and the general plot isn’t particularly compelling. The characters are nice enough, but haven’t given me much to be attached to so far. Though I do appreciate this one dude who is the embodiment of millennial ennui:

I’ll keep watching though, because it is a visually stunning, action-y thing to my turn your brain off to and god knows I want to turn my brain off all the time lately.

And the characters do have potential- the One Girl of the main group, Nobara, has a really fun personality in that she’s a total shitlord doofus brawler who can thus doof around with our equally dumbass protagonist, which is an pretty fun, unusual personality for the One Girl to have! Her interactions with Maki, the weapons expert senpai girl, are promising too. I’m just waiting for her to actually, you know, DO something that really shows off her skills- I’m told she DOES eventually get to (gasp) win fights on her own and do cool stuff, but so far show has kind at that of failed miserably and underused her like most action shonen underuse their girls. Plus, taking Yuuji out of the group for such a long stretch seems like a weird choice, we’ve been deprived really seeing him for relationships with his peers. The pacing seems off. But maybe the upcoming tournament arc will make up for that and actually be worthwhile!

Talentless Nana

In a world where kids with superpowers are sent to island schools to fight mysterious “enemies of humanity”, one class of such kids is thrown into chaos when they find themselves targeted by a deadly force.

It’s pretty much impossible to talk about Talentless Nana without discussing how it deviates dramatically from what its premise appears to be in episode one, so I’ll just say if you like stories with superpowers and intrigue, you should definitely sit through that first episode and see if the plot that’s eventually revealed is something that you’re here for. But if you want to avoid spoilers, DON’T GO BELOW THE CUT, because I’m about to get very spoilery.

Basically, Talentless Nana pulls a bait and switch, starting it’s first episode posing as generic superhero anime where the protagonist appears to be your standard meek-but-powerful anime boy (Nanao) who just needs some support and encouragement from a pink haired mind reading manic pixie dream girl (Nana) to unlock his self-confidence and ~true power~ (ugh)...only to take SHARP swerve when Nana ruthlessly murders Nanao and reveals she’s been sent by the government to take out the superpowered kids one by one because THEY are the considered the true enemies of humanity. Oh, and she doesn’t have any superpowers, or “talents”- she was just able to sus out everything Nanao was thinking through basic deductive reasoning because he was so flippin’ obvious and basic.

As my love for a certain character in a certain game may have clued people into, I am ALWAYS delighted when what appears to be a generic, underwritten girlfriend character is then revealed to be an interesting, ruthless mastermind. And having an anime appear to be about a bland boy with a Dream Girlfriend but then actually turn into a show about a deeply cynical, morally dubious girl who’s clearly holding down a lot of messy feelings as she considers everyone her enemy...well, it may be a cheap trick to some, but it also feels a little bit like justice for all the underwritten female characters sacrificed to bland male leads. It’s still rare enough that I dig it when it happens. And the metatext of Nana zeroing in on this kid as the most standard of main character boys, assessing him as the biggest threat because of it and knowing the perfect way to take him out, is pretty inherently funny to me.

But if the show JUST banked on that twist and was about Nana brutally and cynically slaughtering these kids, it would get boring quickly and Nana would be a bland character herself. Fortunately, it doesn’t go that route. Nana struggles and grows a lot over the course of the show. She finds opposition in transfer student Kyoya, a stoic (and socially awkward) young man who pretty quickly becomes suspicious of her. A lot of the tension from the early episodes comes from her sweating as she tries to outmaneuver him and she makes plenty of mistakes along the way. She also slowly but surely starts to question her mission, and we get an idea of her backstory and how the government specifically has groomed her into believing people with powers to be evil. That belief is one that’s challenged by her friendship with another girl, and it’s pretty rewarding to watch Nana’s feelings and world expand little by little.

The show is definitely a little schlocky-some of the plots (as well as the general premise of the government thinking this is the optimal way to get rid of their superpowered kids problem) fall apart if you think too much about them, and some of the kids Nana goes up against are sleazy and unlikeable in over the top ways (which makes it easy for her to stick to her convictions all these kids deserve to die at first). In particular, I have to give a heads up for some sleazy guys doing and saying sleazy things, though the show never gets too overbearing or graphic with it (and the gore is generally PG-13 level as well).

Basically. There are some truly ridiculous happenings in this show. But how ridiculous and pulpy and over the top it is can be part of the appeal, and it’s fun to just sit back and watch the spectacle of Nana and her peers head-scratching machinations.

So, while certainly not an anime with airtight construction or flawless quality and depth, I found Nana an overall entertaining watch, especially as a fan of cat-and-mouse murder-y shenanigans, and thought it has a very compelling main character and managed to end on a heartwrenching (but earned) note. I definitely wouldn’t say no to a second season and would be interested to see where things go from here.

#anime overview #sleepy princess in the demon castle #jujutsu kaisen #talentless nana #munou na nana #maoujo de oyasumi #fall 2020 anime #anime #my reviews

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trailerparkbubbs · 3 years

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Hi hello I need to talk more about my feelings on Julian interacting with animals because I think it’s a very underrated element of his character.

So, we know that Ricky and Bubbles are both big animal lovers – Ricky has Orangie and Willie Goat and the Raykins, and of course Bubbles has his kitties, and they’re both very verbal about how much they love their respective pets. For Bubbles especially it’s a major part of his character.

However, the way that Julian interacts with animals is very understated, almost like it’s an afterthought. He’s often even doing something else at the time, or someone else is holding an animal and Julian absentmindedly reaches over and pets it.

In a way, it’s actually kind of similar to how he’s always holding his drink? Like, Julian is holding a drink in every scene because when JP Tremblay started acting he didn’t know what to do with his hands, and the solution was to give him a character detail that gave him something simple to always do with his hands while also making it a funny running joke. The scenes, especially in the early seasons, where Julian is holding an animal feel similar to me – just something for JP to do with his hands.

Like, look at this. He’s listening to his answering machine, he’s drinking his drink, and also he just happens to be holding this dog, no big deal.

It totally makes sense for Julian’s character, of course; he’s the calm, rational one. I mean, sure – Bubbles is often rational and Ricky is often calm (well... maybe not often but sometimes) but Julian has to be the straightman to both of them. This is especially true in the early seasons, before they changed his characterization to be more greedy and ambitious.

Also in the early seasons (and throughout the show, but it’s very prominent early on) we see Julian as a sort of natural caretaker. He keeps Ricky out of trouble, he keeps Bubbles from getting too anxious (most of the time), and he’s sort of the guardian of the whole park. We see it again in season seven with Jacob, where Julian realizes that this guy is emulating him and seems to genuinely care about him and goes out of his way to be friendly and keep him safe as much as possible. It’s also the reason Erica is attracted to him – she sees that he genuinely loves everyone in the park and would do anything for them.

So, the way Julian interacts with pets as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, as if he was meant to always be holding a pet (and the fact that he’s often actually physically holding it, not just petting it or talking to it) reflects this. His body language is sort of casually protective – he sees an animal and immediately wraps it up in his arms and then just continues to hold it while he carries on with his life.

And it’s like... very comforting to see? Like, look at this cat, just hanging out, having a rest, totally at ease. Julian isn’t working overtime to try and convince this cat to come play with him; neither he or the cat is putting a ton of energy into this. It’s just super low key, just Julian and a cat, doing a talking head.

It sort of allows Julian to maintain an air of dignity while also humanizing him; we see him being affectionate with random animals, we see him clearly thinking like “this cat is too adorable not to pet right now, even if I’m in the middle of something”, we see him being very gentle and caring – but at the same time, he’s totally poised and he’s still very much the articulate, intelligent adult in any given situation. He still feels like someone we should respect.

Of course, they break this several times in the series, because once you’ve built up a character who needs to be composed and in command at all times, you’ve gotta put them in some positions where they are not at all composed and in command. Probably the most jarring example is this sequence:

(For reference, this is where Julian finds out Ricky has sold all his furniture while he was in jail, as well as doing various illegal activity in his name, decides to leave the park, gets super drunk on swish, hangs out with Randy, and ends up wasted in a back alley until Erica discovers him and tells Ricky and Bubbles)

Julian is still trying to do his normal thing here where he’s picking up the dog and holding it, but he’s much less casual about it than normal, and the dog doesn’t really fit into his arms as well. He’s also dancing around with it and talking to it in a slightly manic way. It’s got a very different vibe from how he normally interacts with animals, which is congruent with the fact that this is the furthest from himself that we’ve seen Julian until this point – and arguably after.

Also in that same episode is this:

This is closer to normal – definitely more subdued – but it’s still a little off. Julian is at his lowest point here; he’s sitting on the ground, defeated, pretty much hopeless. It feels less like he’s protecting and taking care of the dog, and more like the dog is trying to take care of him, or like he’s trying to help calm himself down by petting it. Of course, I may be reading too much into that, but I’m writing a veritable essay on Julian interacting with animals, so I think I’m already well past the point of reading too much into things.

I think it’s very interesting that they choose to have him interacting with a dog in this sequence – I remember when I was watching it for the first time thinking to myself “Is that dog just there for JP’s benefit? It feels like they just brought a dog in so JP could pet a dog.” It really has no bearing on the plot at all. However, it’s a really good illustration of the mini arc Julian goes through in this episode – seeing the difference in how he interacts with animals allows us to see the difference in what he’s feeling and how he’s acting, without filtering it through the lens of him interacting with a specific character.

Anyways tl;dr Julian interacting with animals makes me feel very happy and safe, and I like how his interactions with animals are generally understated and calm. Thanks @heyodaddio for telling me which episodes Julian interacts with animals in so I could make this post.

#trailer park boys #tpb #tpb julian #i am so sorry for how long this post is #also i'm not a Julian simp I swear #i just like watching him pet cute dogs

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thiswasinevitableid · 3 years

Note

68 from the winter prompt list seems Very sternclay and I would love to see your take on it, nsfw if it fits would be great too, thank you!!!

Here you go, it is indeed NSFW!

68. you’re obsessed with my homemade soup that I serve at my cafe and I’m too embarrassed to tell you that I’ve only been trying out new recipes to see you get excited for the soup of the day

Stern tries to avoid being rude in public, or in general, really. But right now he’s wondering if he can get away with shoving his face into this soup bowl and licking out the bottom. The food at Amnesty Lodge has always been stellar, but lately the soups are the highlight of his day.

Reluctantly, he leaves the last delicious dregs at the bottom of the blue ceramic bow and heads to the counter to pay his bill.

“How was everything?” Dani rings him up with a smile.

“Incredible. I swear, Barclay out does himself every time I come.”

“Great! I’ll tell him you said so. I know he loves getting feedback on new recipes.”

-------------------------

“You did not say that.” Barclay drags the rag down the counter top.

“Okay, so I didn’t add ‘especially from guys who he thinks are hot,’you got me.” She smirks as she clocks out.

“It’s not my fault he’s so cute when he gets excited about food.”

“Barclay, just ask him out already.”

“But he’s a customer!”

“Who you also see once a week at game night at Duck’s. He’s for sure in friend territory at this point.”

“She’s got a point. Besides, sometimes flirting with customers ends well.” Aubrey leans against the kitchen door, twirling her car keys and winking at her girlfriend, “right, honey?”

“Absolutely, firebug.” Dani loops her arm around Aubrey’s waist, then levels Barclay with the look that routinely makes people mistake her for his little sister, “ask him out, or I am going to leave your number on his check the next time he comes in.”

“Okay, okay” He holds up his hands, chuckling, “you win.”

He waves goodnight, finishes locking up once the two women are gone. Then he climbs the stairs home. Amnesty Lodge was a real lodge, once upon a time. But as the city grew and buildings were divided and repurposed, only the restaurant and the rooms above it, plus the small house next door, remained. Mama, the owner, lives in the house, and Barclay has the apartment. It’s nice; he has no commute, he can run up and change if he gauges his layers wrong, and he likes being able to hear the river running nearby and the traffic humming through his window.

Maybe Joseph would like to come up here after closing some night for coffee? Or is that too forward? Would he be interested if it was forward, or if they took it slow? Would he be interested in Barclay at all? Does he just like him for his soup?

God, the soup. He never meant for it to become a thing. His usual menu had three or four soups of the day in rotation, but then Joseph ordered a bowl of the corn cheddar chowder to go with his club sandwich and ate it so joyfully that Barclay caught him licking his spoon. Which did nothing to quash his budding crush on the guy. So he started trying out new recipes just to see Joseph get excited, and now it seems like Joseph is coming in just for the soup, and the upshot is he may be stuck forever in a soup-loop because of the way Joseph’s eyes crinkle when he’s happy.

He knows that Joseph agreeing to a date would make him happier than a fresh produce delivery. But he has no clue if he really stands a chance with a guy who’s always well-dressed and friendly, when he himself is an often quiet, scraggly looking cook.

Well, if nothing else, he has to try. Dani is not a woman of empty threats.

------------------------------------------------------

“How do you do it?” Joseph rests his chin in his hand, spoon sitting in his empty bowl. He’s at the counter seating, so he can see Barclay working at the grill.

“Do what?”

“Come up with such good recipes. And don’t try to say it’s cookbooks; you said last week that you’ve come up with a lot of them on your own.”

“It’s, uh, it’s nothing special, just a lot of tinkering.” He gets an idea, one that flashes over him so hot and fast he’s afraid the stove caught fire.

“Would, uh, would you like to help me out with the newest one? I get off in an hour since I was on the early shift today.”

“I’d love to! I have some errands to run downtown, so as much as I’d like to hang around for an hour and watch you show off, I’ll see you at seven.” He sets down the cash to cover the bill and a tip, winks, and heads out the door. Barclay really hopes he stays in the suit when he comes back.

“Uh, dude?”

“Yeah, Jake?”

“Toast’s on fire.”

“Fuck!”

-------------------------------------------------

Barclay finishes setting out his mise en place right as there’s a knock on the front door. He swings it open and finds Joseph waiting patiently, a grocery bag slung over his shoulder. He’s still in his suit; Barclay can just spot his black tie with little ufos on it peeking out of his winter coat.

“Dani said I should just come on up.” He slips off his shoes, revealing socks with Bigfoot on them, “and I brought some wine, and a fancy beer I found at Jenny Street Market, since I wasn’t sure what kind of soup it is.”

“My take on a traditional Irish stew, so let's do the beer.” Barclay grabs two pint glasses and pours as Joseph finishes hanging up his coat and joins him in the kitchen. He’s down to his dress shirt and slacks, eagerly rolling up his sleeves before taking the glass.

“Right, what do we do first?”

Barclay takes a prolonged sip to avoid blurting out his real answer, then starts explaining that they need to figure out the right ratio of vegetable to lamb and which spices work best in the stock.

They talk as they work, Joseph sharing his theories on the plausible plot twists in this season of Agent X and Barclay teasing him whenever he gets going on a tangent about the monster of the week episodes. The easy back and forth, the warmth of the apartment as the air fills with spices and butter, the way the kitchen lights plays off Joseph’s face; it feels like a home, and his stomach twists whenever he remembers that the other man will leave in an hour or two.

“Barclay, I have to ask; why the sudden zest for soup?” Joseph sets his glass down, still half full because they’re talking too much to drink more than a sip at a time.

“Uhhh, just, uhh a good fit for a winter menu.” Barclay sets the lid onto the dutch oven; it’ll take at least forty-five minutes for this batch to thicken and develop flavor. When he hazards a glance at Joseph, the man is studying him, one eyebrow raised.

“Is that all?”

He washes his hands to buy time to build up his courage, then sighs, “Nope. It started after the first time you ordered it. You just got so excited whenever I had a new soup of the day, and I liked making you feel that way, so I just kept finding or making new recipes I hoped you’d like. Heh” he rubs his wrist, anxious, “sounds hella weird when I say it out loud like that.”

Turning, he finds Joseph with his hands covering his mouth.

“Fuck, sorry, probably shouldn’t have confessed that when we’re alone-”

“What? Oh, Barclay,” Joseph steps forward, taking his hands, “I’m not upset, I’m shocked. That’s, um, that’s one of the sweetest things anyone’s done for me, going to all that trouble, you didn’t have to.” The words are a bit stuttery and jumbled, Joseph going pinker after each one.

“I wanted to. I’d make a whole new menu every day if it’d make you smile that way.”

His lower back bangs into the counter as Joseph crowds him, fingers digging into his hair so roughly that it starts coming loose from its tie. He tastes like beer and stock he kept sampling, and Barclay licks it up, pressing his tongue between his welcoming lips, desperate to bring them as close together as possible.

Joseph pulls away, resting their foreheads together, as he undoes Barclay’s shirt with ruthless efficiency, “Do you have any idea how hot that is?”

“The...doing nice things for you part?” He cups Joseph’s cheeks, trailing his thumbs over the hints of five o’ clock shadow.

“You went to all that trouble, just for me.” Joseph drags his mouth up Barclay’s neck as he continues, “just to make me happy.”

“I mean, made me happy too.” He mumbles into black hair.

“I’m trying to compliment you, big guy.” Joseph nips his bottom lip.

“Oh fuck.” He whimpers at the nickname, at the way the other man doesn’t hesitate to shove his hands up his now-bare chest, demanding and adoring, “guess all those jokes about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach are true.”

“While the food helps, there’s so much more about you that I like. For instance” he drags his hands down to Barclay’s stomach before palming his hardening cock through his jean, “you’re the most handsome man in town.”

He whimpers louder this time, Joseph keeping up the light pressure on his cock.

“Bedroom?” It’s both an encouragement and a question, the ton letting Barclay know he’s welcome to continue but not obligated to.

“The, can’t, can’t leave the stove unattended.” He gropes Joseph’s ass through his slacks, kisses his neck as he tries to calculate if turning off the stew will mess up the recipe.

“I love how responsible you are.” It’s another compliment, a dead serious one, “and I have an idea.” He steps back, hurries over to the grocery bag, and pulls out a small, rectangular box.

“I couldn’t tell if this was a date, so I decided to be on the safe side.” He surveys the kitchen, “feel like picking a surface to bend me over?”

Barclay practically knocks a stack of cookbooks off the tiny kitchen table, dragging a laughing Joseph over to shove him across it.

“This okay?” He pants as he covers the back of his neck with kisses.

“Better than okay. Barclay please, I’ve, um, I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, and basically non-stop for the last two hours.”

“Fucking-A” He’s amazed there isn’t a cartoonish boi-oi-oing when he gets his pants and boxers down, his cock--his whole being, really--aching for the chance to fuck the man in front of him. Getting Joseph’s pants down takes two tries, and opening the condom takes three because he’s shaking so hard from excitement.

“Need a hand, big guy?”

“Nope. Just need this.”

“FUCKohfuck, shit” Joseph reaches forward, gripping the far edge of the table as Barclay sinks into him, “yes, need it too, need you so bad.”

“You got me babe” he loops one arm around Joseph’s hips, sets his free hand next to his on the table for balance, “and I got you.” He starts slow, relishing every little sound he gets in reply to his thrusts, kissing any exposed skin he can find, then rucking Joseph’s shirt up his back to find more.

Joseph’s hand moves down towards his cock, but Barclay gently guides it back onto the table, “No need to babe. Like I said, I got you.”

He doesn't mean to start railing him the instant after his fingers find his cock. It’s more that feeling him soaking and hard, all because of (and all for) him, the grateful moan he lets out at the contact, the way he grinds his hips back and forth, it sets off every part of Barclay’s brain at once, and all he wants to do is take him, make him cum, break the fucking table showing him how much he wants him.

“Ohmylord” Joseph gasps, raising his head, “oh my fucking--Barclay yes, like that, lord you don;t disappoint.” His smile is ecstatic, more than the worlds clumsiest hand-job deserves, and Barclay forces his fingers to find their professional finesse, rub and stroke in the ways that make Joseph beg for more.

He growls as he feels his orgasm building; not yet, no fucking way, he wants to feel Joseph cum around him. With Herculean effort, he stills his hips and focuses, growling again as Joseph tightens around him. When the man beneath him cums, the last of his restraint evaporates and he hammers into him, table scraping forward inch by inch in time with his grunts and Joseph’s weakening moans.

His climax doubles him over, and he spills with a muffled moan, mouthing at Joseph’s shoulder through his shirt.

Then his legs give, ten minutes of furious fucking after a ten hour shift enough for them to peace out. He lands with an “oof” on the floor, and Joseph is laughing again as he turns to stare down at him.

“Are you okay down there?”

He gives a thumbs up, “Cute guy just shorted out all my circuits, no big.”

Joseph fixes his pants and shirt, joins him on the floor and pulls him into his arms, “I’d say it was very big.”

Barclay snickers, rests his head on his shoulder, “Walked into that one. Gimme sec, then I can make us some dinner. Don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“We’re not having soup?”

Barclay kisses his cheek, “Nah, you can have that for dinner tomorrow at the Lodge.”

Joseph’s smile is full of delicious trouble, “How about for breakfast?”

He holds him close, smiling at him, “Babe, you got yourself a deal.”

#agent stern/barclay #sternclay #winter fills #trans agent stern

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d-criss-news · 4 years

Link

Darren Criss acts as playwright when he writes songs. He’s far more confident, and certainly more vulnerable, when he allows himself to play the part. In such a way, songwriting opens up a whole new world that pulses with untapped potential. So much of what he has accomplished in 15 years resides in his willingness to expose himself to what his imagination and intuition have in store. He steps into a playwright’s shoes with considerable ease (just look at his resume), and always one to put on plenty of bravado, especially during our Zoom face-to-face, it’s the natural order of things.

“As I get older and write more and more songs, I really recognize that I’ve always preferred to write for another context other than my own,” Criss tells American Songwriter. He speaks with a cool intensity, gesturing emphatically to accentuate a sentence, and when you let him go, he’s like the Energizer Bunny 一 “I can tell by just how quiet you already are that you’re fucked,” he jokes at the start of our video chat. But he remains just as engaged and focused when listening.

He soaks in the world, taking astute notes about behavior and emotional traits he can later use in song. His storytelling, though, arrives already in character, fully formed portraits he can then relay to the world. It’s not that he can’t be vulnerable, like such greats as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, and Rufus Wainwright, who have all embroidered their work with deeply personal observations, it just doesn’t feel as comfortable. “I’ve always really admired the great songwriters of the world who are extremely introspective and can put their heart and soul on the chopping block,” he muses. “That’s a vulnerability that I think is so majestic. I’ve never had access to it. I’m not mad about it. It’s just good to know what your deal is.”

Criss’ strengths lie in his ability to braid his own experiences, as charmed as they might be, into wild, goofy fantasies. In the case of his new series “Royalties,” now streaming on Quibi, he walks a fine line between pointed commentary on the music industry, from menial songwriting sessions to constantly chasing down the next smash, and oddball comedy that is unequivocally fun. Plotted with long-standing friends and collaborators Matt and Nick Lang, co-founders of Team StarKid, created during their University of Michigan days (circa 2009), the show’s conceptual nucleus dates back more than a decade.

If “Royalties” (starring Criss and Kether Donohue) feels familiar, that’s because it is. The 10-episode show ─ boasting a smorgasbord of delightful guest stars, including Mark Hammill, Georgia King, Julianna Hough, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lil Rel Howery ─ captures the very essence of a little known web series called “Little White Lie.” Mid-summer 2009, Team StarKid uploaded the shoddy, low budget production onto YouTube, and its scrappy tale of amateur musicians seeking fame and fortune quickly found its audience, coming on the heels of “A Very Potter Musical,” co-written with and starring Criss. Little did the trio know, those initial endeavors laid the groundwork for a lifetime of creative genius.

“It’s a full circle moment,” says Criss, 33, zooming from his Los Angeles home, which he shares with his wife Mia. He’s fresh-faced and zestful in talking about the new project. 11 years separate the two series, but their connective thematic tissues remain striking. “Royalties” is far more polished, the obvious natural progression in so much time, and where “Little White Lie” soaked in soapy melodrama, the former analyzes the ins and outs of the music world through more thoughtful writing, better defined (and performed) characters, and hookier original tunes.

“Royalties” follows Sara (Donohue) and Pierce (Criss), two struggling songwriters in Los Angeles, through various career exploits and pursuits. The pilot, titled “Just That Good,” features an outlandish performance from Rufus Wainwright as a major player in dance-pop music, kickstarting the absurdity of Criss’ perfectly-heightened reality. As our two main characters stumble their way between songwriting sessions, finally uncovering hit single potential while eating a hot dog, Criss offers a glimpse into the oft-unappreciated art of songwriting.

In his own songwriting career ─ from 2010’s self-released Human EP and a deal with Columbia Records (with whom a project never materialized) to 2017’s Homework EP and Computer Games’ debut, Lost Boys Life, (a collaboration with his brother Chuck) ─ he’s learned a thing or two about the process. Something about sitting in a room with someone you’ve never met before always rang a little funny to him.

“You meet a stranger, and you have to be creative, vulnerable, and open. It’s speed-dating, essentially. It’s a different episode every time you pull it off or not. All the big songwriters will tell you all these crazy war stories. Everyone has a wacky story from songwriting,” he says. “I slowly realized I may ─ I can’t flatter myself, there are tons of creative people who are songwriters ─ have prerequisites to just put the two together [TV and music]. I’ve worked enough in television as an actor and creator. I can connect the dots. I had dual citizenship where I felt like it was really time for me to go forth with this show.”

But a packed professional life pushed the idea to the backburner.

Between six seasons of “Glee” (playing Blaine Anderson, a Warbler and lover to Chris Colfer’s Kurt Hummel), starring in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” on Broadway, and creating Elsie Fest, a one-day outdoor festival celebrating songs of the stage and screen, he never had the time. “I was lucky enough to be busy,” he says. “As Team StarKid’s star was continuing to rise with me being separate from it, I was trying to think of a way to get involved again with songwriting.”

At one point, “Glee” had officially wrapped and his Broadway run was finished. It appeared “Royalties” may finally get its day in the sun. “I went to Chicago for a work pilgrimage with the Langs. We had a few days, and we put all our ideas on the map: every musical, feature film, show, graphic novel, and animated series we’ve ever thought of,” he says. “A lot of them were from the Langs; they were just things I was interested in as a producer or actor. We looked at all of them and made a top three.”

“Royalties” obviously made the cut.

Fast forward several years, Gail Berman’s SideCar, a production company under FOX Entertainment, was looking to produce a music show. Those early conversations, beginning at an otherwise random LA party, showed great promise in airlifting the concept from novel idea to discernible reality. Things quickly stalled, however, as they often do in Hollywood, but Criss had at least spoken his dreams into the universe.

“I finally had an outlet to put it into gear. It wasn’t until two to three years after that that things really locked in. We eventually made shorts and made a pilot presentation. We showed it to people, and it wasn’t until Quibi started making their presence known that making something seemed really appealing,” he says. “As a creator, they’re very creator-centric. They’re not a studio. They’re a platform. They are licensing IP much like when a label licenses an indie band’s album after the fact.”

Quibi has drawn severe ire over the last few months, perhaps because there is a “Wild Westness” to it, Criss says. “I think that makes some people nervous. Being my first foray into something of this kind, Quibi felt like a natural partner for us. If this had been a network or cable show, we would’ve molded it to be whatever it was.”

Format-wise, “Royalties” works best as bite-sized vignettes, charming hijinks through the boardroom and beyond, and serves as a direct response to a sea of music shows, from “Nashville” and “Empire” to “Smash.” “Those shows were bigger, more melodramatic looks at the inside base of our world. I’ve always been a goofball, and I just wanted to take the piss out of it,” he says. “This show isn’t about songwriting. It’s about songwriters… but a very wacky look at them.”

“30 Rock,” a scripted comedy loosely based around “Saturday Night Live,” in which the focus predominantly resides around the characters, rather than the business itself, was also on his mind. “It’s about the interconnectivity of the people and characters. As much of the insider knowledge that I wanted to put into our show, at the end of the day, you just want to make a fun, funny show that’s relatable to people who know nothing about songwriting and who shouldn’t have to know anything.”

Throughout 10 episodes, Criss culls the “musicality, fun, and humor” of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and Max Martin, two of his biggest songwriting heroes, and covers as many genres as possible, from K-Pop to rap-caviar and classic country. While zip-lining between formats, the songs fully rely on a sturdy storytelling foundation ─ only then can Criss drape the music around the characters and their respective trajectories. “I wanted to do something where I could use all the muscles I like to flex at once, instead of compartmentalizing them,” he says. “I really love writing songs for a narrative, not necessarily for myself. I thrive a little more when I have parameters, characters, and a story to tell.”

Bonnie McKee, one of today’s greatest pop architects, takes centerstage, too, with an episode called “Kick Your Shoes Off,” in which she plays a bizarro version of herself. “She has her own story, and I’ve always been fascinated by it,” says Criss, who took her out to lunch one day to tell her about it. Initially, the singer-songwriter, known for penning hits for Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, and Britney Spears, would anchor the entire show, but it soon became apparent she would simply star in her own gloriously zany episode.

In one of the show’s standout scenes, Pierce and Sara sit in on a label meeting with McKee’s character and are tasked with writing a future hit. But they quickly learn how many cooks are in the kitchen at any given moment. Everyone from senior level executives to publicists and contracted consultants have an opinion about the artist’s music. One individual urges her to experiment, while another begs not to alienate her loyal fanbase, and then a third advises her to chronicle the entire history of music itself ─ all within three minutes or so. It’s absurd, and that’s the point. “Everyone’s been in that meeting, whether you’re in marketing or any creative discussion that has to be made on a corporate level by committee. It’s the inevitable, comedic contradictions and dissociations from not only rationality but feasibility.”

Criss also draws upon his own major label days, having signed with Sony/Columbia right off the set of “Glee,” as well as second-hand accounts from close friends. “There are so many artists, particularly young artists, who famously get chewed up and spat out by the label system,” he says. “There’s a lot of sour tastes in a lot of people’s mouths from being ‘mistreated’ by a label. I have a lot of friends who’ve had very unfortunate experiences.”

“I was really lucky. I didn’t have that. I have nothing but wonderful things to say,” he quickly adds.“It wasn’t a full-on drop or anything. I was acting, and I was spreading myself really thin. It’s a record label’s job to make product, and I was doing it piecemeal here and there. I would shoot a season [of ‘Glee’] and then do a play. I was doing too many things. I didn’t have it in me at the time to do music. I had written a few songs I thought were… fine.”

Both Criss and the label came to the same conclusion: perhaps this professional relationship just wasn’t a good fit. They parted ways, and he harbors no ill-will. In fact, he remains close friends with many folks from that time. So, it seems, a show like “Royalties” satisfies his deep hunger to make music and write songs ─ and do it totally on his own terms.

“I still say I want to put out music, and fans have been very vocal about that. I feel very fortunate they’re still interested at all,” he says. “That passion for making music really does come out in stuff like [this show].”

“Royalties” is Darren Criss at his most playful, daring, and offbeat. It’s the culmination of everything he has tirelessly worked toward over the last decade and a half. Under pressure with a limited filming schedule, he hits on all cylinders with a soundtrack, released on Republic Records, that sticks in the brain like all good pop music should do. And it would not have been the same had he, alongside Matt and Nick Lang, not formed Team StarKid 11 years ago.

Truth be told, it all began with a “Little White Lie.”

#darren criss #american songwriter #royalties press #press #royalties #june 2020

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kuroopaisen · 4 years

Text

manager matchup #2 ♡

NOTE: these are NOT open! please do not send in matchup requests!

@desi-studys hello love! thank you so much for your support, and i’m sorry this took so long for me to get to! i hope you enjoy it, because i had a lot of fun with it. i remember i’ve done a matchup for you once before, but i actually decided to mix it up this time! i hope you like this!

that being said, on with the matchup!

school: aoba johsai year: 2nd

you got roped into the whole manager business by yahaba. you met him early on in your first year, and you became friendly acquaintances – but you wouldn’t necessarily consider you guys particularly close. so, you’re a little confused when he walks up to you one day, asking you if you’d like to be the manager of the volleyball team. it’s before class, and at the tail-end of your first year – which, honestly, makes it even more confusing.

you’re not quite sure why he’s asking you to be the manager. but, you do remember that you’d certainly stepped into the role of leader on that last group assignment the two of you were part of. maybe that was why? either way, you agreed. it might be fun, and seijoh’s one of the top schools in the prefecture, right?

you settle into the team almost astoundingly well; you hit it off with the second years easily, and your fellow first years are nice enough. you stepped into the role of manager quite naturally, and it genuinely became quite enjoyable. it became even more pleasant as you moved into your second years, and there were a new influx of first years on the team (even though you joked about the idea of oikawa being captain – you knew he was quite capable of it, but you didn’t want him to think he could get away with bragging).

about mid-way through your second year, you ask yahaba why he asked you to take on the role. he tells you, “yeah i asked you because i wanted our team to have a female manager and everyone else turned me down.” suffice to say you were ready to kill him--

your team ♡

✧ you know how we don’t talk about the fact that you’re 5’3 ½”? yeah, well, oikawa definitely does. doesn’t let you forget the fact that he’s exactly nine of inches taller than you. you insist that it’s really not that many, but he elects to ignore that fact.

✧ he flirted with you a ton when you first joined the team, thinking you were one of his fangirls (until iwa knocked some sense into him because look she’s going to be our manager for the next year and a half show some respect--)

✧ okay, but once you two become friends? obnoxiously loud. there’s no-one on the team who quite meets oikawa’s level of melodramatic flair, but you’re more than capable of handling it. he actually enjoys having someone around who can riff off his personality quite easily; it’s a different kind of fun, you know?

✧ he actually gets jealous when the team lets you off the hook for being so loud. he’s like “hey, you guys never cut me any slack!” to which the response is, “yeah, because you’re not a cute girl.” almost always followed up with, “but i am cute!”

✧ you two have,,, the chattiest friendship. you always find something to talk about, and the two of you can talk any topic to death. The rest of the team is impressed by just how much you two have to say on things; it’s a talent within itself.

✧ okay, so you’re into astronomy, and that’s close enough to aliens for oikawa. expect to be constantly bombarded with his alien conspiracy theories; he’s convinced that there’s life out there, and he tries to get you to go along with him by trying to tap into your knowledge base. iwaizumi begs you not to encourage him.

✧ have you seen that picture of him just going for it at karaoke? oh yeah. finding out that you enjoy singing meant that he started arranging a ton of karaoke nights. the reason? because he’s constantly trying to out-sing you. of course, it never works – the rest of the team is adamant about that – but oh boy, does he try.

✧ there’s a lot of snark traded between the two of you, and you’re always (playfully) bickering with one another. you’ve just got one of those friendships that’s constantly sarcastic, you know? and honestly, the rest of the team just likes watching oikawa get roasted from time to time lsdkj

✧ oh, he’d be so easy to scare. you’re constantly finding ways to frighten him because he’s definitely a scaredy cat. often tries to hide behind iwaizumi in an attempt to protect himself. it rarely works.

✧ but, on a sweeter note, you’re definitely the sort who’s always trying to look after him. you’re a mum friend, and oikawa has the tendency to be a human disaster (especially when he gets stuck in his own head and that spiral of insecurity). you’re rarely overt about it (mainly because he’ll insist that he’s fine), but you’ve always got an eye on him. just in case.

✧ he’s convinced he’s the best wingman on earth. he’s actually the worst – but we’ll get to that later. you’d constantly tell him that he was just making things worse, but he simply couldn’t be convinced that he was anything other than a stand-up friend. honestly, it’s a miracle things worked out as well as they did.

✧ truth be told, he’d developed some feelings for you, too. they’re weren’t very loud, but they were certainly present. but, he keeps them to himself, because he values his friendship with both you and iwa too much to interfere. for once in his life, he’s content with ‘losing’, if it means the two of you will be happy.

iwaizumi hajime

✧ your personalities contrast so well, you hear me? he’s such a,,, straight-forward, grounded person, and i that’s such a fun contrast against your full-out theatre kid energy.

✧ he’s a polite dude, so he wanted to make sure that you were okay and comfortable when you first joined as manager. that’s how you two ended up being pretty good friends, even in the early days! he does his best to make polite small talk (since you’re quiet at first), but honestly you end up getting quite close. he turns into your anchor in the team more or less on accident, but he’s happy to oblige.

✧ iwaizumi, even though he’s more lowkey himself, is more than fine with how loud you can be – he’s been close friends with oikawa for almost his entire life, after all. it’s a nice contrast, and it means you often fill the silence between the two of you. but, he’s a good listener, and he always finds something insightful to say.

✧ he’s pretty responsible, so he does his best to try and help you with your tendency to procrastinate. it doesn’t always work, but he checks in with you often to see if you’re doing your work. on that same note, he’s a godsend when it comes to dealing with the team – he might be the only other responsible person there, and he’s always lending you a hand with your managerial duties.

✧ he really appreciates how responsible you can be, and the fact that you’re willing to tell things as they are to the boys, while still looking after them. he thinks that’s invaluable, and just the sort of presence they need in their life.

✧ but, he’s endlessly entertained when you direct your sarcasm towards oikawa or one of the other third years. he likes that spunk; sure, you might be younger than them, but you can certainly hold your own, and they can certainly take it.

✧ okay, but iwaizumi’s very aware of when people aren’t looking after themselves (see: oikawa) so i think he’d be tuned in to when you were hit by seasonal depression, too. he’d research ways to help you out with it (and, of course, he’d check with you to make sure what’s actually helpful), and it’s just so earnest and thoughtful of him?

✧ you two are mum and dad of the team, without a doubt. that’s kind of a running joke amongst the team, although nobody actually says that to you guys. they learnt their lesson after iwaizumi sent oikawa a very icy glare one time (and, of course, followed up with the threat of a headbutt).

✧ but, the fact of the matter is that they’re not wrong. about half a year in, and there’s definitely something brewing between you and iwaizumi. he finds your presence comforting, and your personality is just very endearing to him. he finds you easy to be around, and he always catches himself smiling more whenever he’s with you. and come on, who isn’t at least a little attracted to iwa?

✧ your feelings for each other develop slowly, based in the sense of comfort you feel with each other, and how well you complement each other. and trust me, the team knows. that, plus your roles as parents of the team, means they’re big supporters of the two of you getting together. even though the two of you seem determined to keep your (obviously) blossoming feelings to yourselves.

✧ and oikawa, perceptive and sneaky as he is, gets you to accidentally confess to him (oikawa, that is). it’s all a blur, but you’re just hanging out, getting boba one afternoon, and the next thing you know oikawa is whooping to the sky, yelling “called it!” he has his suspicions about iwaizumi, but he knows that the boy’ll be obtuse. so, he’s like “okay, i’ve got a plan” (cue you groaning, because of course he does)

✧ fucking oikawa’s like “okay okay so i can’t get iwa to tell me about his feelings for you so we’re gonna drag them out of him” and you’re like “honest to god, what are you talking about?” and oikawa’s like “we’re gonna make him jealous”

✧ and you’re like “tooru this is the worst idea you’ve ever had. i literally don’t think it’s possible to get dumber than this. this is both cruel and stupid.” and oikawa’s like “it’ll be fine just jealous enough that he. you know. says something!” and you’re like no

✧ but oikawa’s a man with a one-track mind. over the next few practices, he makes an extra effort to flirt with you; brushing your hair out of your face, telling you that you “look cute today!”, and just being a general sleaze (and he does it so effortlessly that you kind of want to slap him in the face for it). and you, personally, want to d i e. and the rest of the team is honestly confused? because they’re like “weren’t we,,, weren’t we rooting for iwaizumi?” kindaichi in particular had a crisis of allegiance, poor boy.

✧ and poor iwa. poor iwa. he’s genuinely mad at himself for not telling oikawa the truth. and he actually starts overthinking things? which he never really does. and he gets mad at himself for feeling like maybe something was happening between you and him, when of course the reality was that you were interested in his best friend. after all, it always seems to pan out like this.

✧ so, the two of you are walking you home, as they usually do. it’s more tense than usual (mostly because you’re Anxious about oikawa’s tomfoolery, and because iwaizumi is Going Through it). but then oikawa’s like “gotta bounce iwa you walk her home yourself!” and iwa’s like “i’d rather die” in his head. you’re like “i’d rather die” in your head. you both know this is going to be an excruciatingly awkward walk. but, it’s dark, and gentleman that he is, iwa’s not going to see you walk home alone.

✧ and you’re right – it’s awkward as hell. and you’re completely silent for once and iwa can’t take it. he’s used to you chatting his ear off. so, he decides to just. instigate the conversation because he might as well get it over with.

✧ and he’s like “if you’re into oikawa, you should’ve just told me.” and you’re like “what—” and he takes a deep breath, knowing he could very well come to regret what he’s about to say, but he’s used to ignoring his own feelings; and he just can’t do that tonight. so, he goes, “i thought maybe something was happening between the two of us. i’m not mad about it, because it’s my fault for misunderstanding. i’m just hurt you weren’t straightforward with me.” he’s not quite sure what’s compelled him to say it, or to say it like that, but he figures it’s his best chance of getting back to normal.

✧ and you freak out because 1) iwaizumi haijime might’ve just confessed to you? kind of? and 2) it sounds like he’s already breaking up with you. and you’re like “no no no no hajime i like you i’m not interested in oikawa like that he’s just being a piece of shit—” and iwaizumi’s like wait. what? what?

✧ and you’re like “yeah he knows i like you so he wanted to make you jealous.” whoops. iwaizumi’s like “w h a t” and you know you’ve just sentenced oikawa to death. but then you’re like !!! hold up we’re not discussing the most important thing here

✧ iwa’s like ????? because he’s so rageful in that moment. so, you say “you just told me you liked me.” and he goes “o h,,, you just told me you like me.” and you two just sort of stare at each other and iwaizumi realises that he still has no idea how to talk to girls. and he just goes “are we… dating now?” and you’re like “i… guess?”

✧ and iwa’s berates himself, thinking “you idiot you were supposed to confess better than that i can’t believe this is how you’re confessing i’m—” but you reach forward and take his hands in yours and he’s !!!!! and you’re dlkjdfkldjf but you’re resolute. so, you go “friday?” “friday,” he replies. and with some surge of courage he brings your hands up to his lips and he presses a gentle kiss to them. in your head you’re like aaaaaaaaa but you muster a smile. he can’t help but marvel at how you’re even prettier when you blush.

✧ thankfully, it’s much smoother sailing after that, and the two of you transition to a relationship quite comfortably. the only real difference is that iwaizumi’s more overtly affectionate with you (mostly when you’re alone, but he allows little acts of pda – mostly handholding – to slip through the cracks)

✧ loves your voice? finds it so soothing? after you start dating, he makes a habit of calling you so you can sing him to sleep. nothing helps him relax quite like feeling your fingers in his hair while listening to you sing.

✧ i mentioned it earlier, but you make him smile so easily? whether it’s your potty mouth, your loud, bright personality, or your sarcastic side, iwa just,,, gets overwhelmed by fondness. honestly, just the way he looks at you betrays just how much he cares about you.

✧ the team adores you two together. like,,, they think you guys are so sweet, and nobody has the heart to tease you guys about it. well, too much (also they’re just grateful because they thought for a second there that you guys wouldn’t happen and that’d be a travesty). oikawa tries to take credit for the two of you finally getting together, but that usually nets him a ball to the face.

✧ you’ve just got a very sweet, loving relationship, and he helps ground you while you bring him some levity. we love to see it.

matsukawa issei

✧ you two have quite the entertaining friendship, let me tell you. he often teases you about the fact that you’re just a second year (even though you blend in with seijoh’s third years so seamlessly), but honestly it’s because he’s secretly a little miffed that he only gets one year with you as the manager. not that he’s going to say that point blank.

✧ like oikawa, he’s always teasing you for being short. and somehow, he’s even more ruthless. he also teases you about being loud. and about being an astronomy nerd. the short of it is that he likes to tease you. but, it all comes from a place of love (and he wouldn’t want you to be any other way).

✧ you two are constantly sassing back and forth (this is,,, a running theme fslksdfj), and he’s delighted that you can dish it back. It keeps things interesting, you know?

✧ okay, but you two have terrible potty mouths together, and iwa gets sflkjflkjf when the first years are around. you guys even point to yahaba as being just as bad, but iwa’s still the responsible parent in this equation. not even a kiss on the cheek can convince him to let you guys go buckwild. although, it does give matsukawa an opportunity to tease him for blushing so hard.

✧ you guys tease oikawa all the time,,, it’s so easy to y’know,,, y’know,,, oikawa tries to fight back, but nothing can defeat the power that is you, matsukawa and hanamaki with a target in mind.

✧ but at the same time, he appreciates you being able to flip the switch and step into the role of a responsible manager. He’s glad that you can look after the first and second years so well, and he knows that they’ll be left in good hands by the time the third years graduate.

hanamaki takahiro

✧ so, (in my head) makki is a notorious procrastinator. so, you two are always hitting each other up when you’re trying to avoid your schoolwork. and you always find just,,, the most bizarre ways to waste your time.

✧ “wanna go see this german arthouse film about a death cult?” “makki how,,, how did you even find out about this?” “dunno. are you in or not?”

✧ oh, but he always gets so miffed when you do well on exams and he doesn’t— he usually just calls you a nerd. doesn’t mean he’s actually going to study, tho dslkfj

✧ the banter in this friendship. you, makki and matsukawa form something of a trio, and if the three of you are feeling particularly goblinish one day, oikawa is in for it (as i pointed out earlier). on the more wholesome side of things, it means that the three of you are always laughing whenever you’re together? no matter what, you always find something to be amused by, and that adds some much needed levity to things.

✧ him and matsukawa definitely team up to tease you and iwa. like, they love you guys as a couple, but seeing iwa soft is such a contrast that they just. can’t help themselves. you’re iwa’s last defence, but the fact that the quips are coming from two directions makes it harder for you to protect him ldfjlklj

yahaba shigeru

✧ you two are best friends. sometimes it doesn’t seem like it, but you are.

✧ you’re constantly roasting each other (of course), and you’re always teasing each other for something. You tease him about his hair, he teases you for zoning out. You tease him for having terrible luck with girls, he teases you for being a procrastinator. Your conversations tend to turn into a battlefield fdslkj.

✧ you also have the worst potty mouths when you’re together. you always have to remind yourselves to reign it in when you’re around the team sdlkjd and seijoh’s no angels when it comes to language! even matsukawa’s like !?!?!?! mainly because nobody expects that to come out of yahaba, for some reason. which gives you yet another reason to tease him.

✧ you’re always trying to frighten him, and it works well during the first few months of your friendship. after a while, though he tries to steel himself; it works for the most part, but sometimes you manage to land a hit. the team went to a haunted house on halloween, and let’s just say that him and oikawa would not shut up.

✧ honestly, yahaba seems like the type of person who’s quite straightforward. he’s not the best at comfort, but he’s a good person to talk to about your problems because he’ll be honest with you. and, if you need someone beat up, he’s ready to go.

✧ yahaba has no problem with confrontation lmao he would literally get into a fight for you if you needed him to.

✧ okay but like,,, self-care days. he’s like LoOk MuM I’m TaKiNg CaRe Of MySeLf and you’re like “shigeru doing a face mask doesn’t count.” he ignores you, instead asking you if you’d prefer camomile or green tea.

✧ but he’s always looking out for you, you know? for example, he supports you and iwaizumi, and he has a lot of respect for him as his upperclassmen, but oh boy those first few months were full of side eyes. also, he knows when you’re down in an instant, and pulls you along for one of your infamous self-care day.

✧ you also cheer each other on, as good best friends do. your support is invaluable in his transition to captain, and he’s grateful to have you involved with the team. he knows that you, as manager, will cover the bases he can’t as captain. he’s honestly just relieved to know you’re there, supporting him and the team at large.

✧ tries to get you to start a band with him in third year. you’re like “okay!” until you find out the reason is because he wants to impress girls lfjdfskljdsjl also he wanted to be the vocalist while you played instruments, but he can’t sing for the life of him.

✧ you just have a lot of fun together, you know? while still providing each other with the support you’d expect from a pair of best friends. bless you guys!

kyoutani kentarou

✧ okay so, there may be a little tension here – especially at first. I get the feeling kyoutani doesn’t like loud people very much, nor is he a fan of anyone too enthusiastic. Your theatre kid vibe might rub him the wrong way.

✧ it’s going to be quite difficult for the two of you to connect (but, that’s kyoutani with everyone). blah he’s abrasive, and your loud, energetic personality is just so foreign to him. and he’s not afraid to be mean, you know? he’s confrontational and i feel like that might not sit well with you.

✧ honestly, he starts showing you a bit more respect when you start dating iwaizumi. because iwa obviously likes you, he sees you as worthy of at least an iota of respect. i think your relationship would smooth out over the next year, but dating iwaizumi definitely gave you an edge!

kindaichi yutaro

✧ oh, this boy is so fond of you. him and yahaba form a bit of a ‘protection squad’ whenever you’re at games. if they so much as catch someone from another team just looking at you, they’re ready to glare them down (so the tanaka & noya to your kiyoko, i guess?)

✧ first of all, the fact that this first year towers over you is both funny and upsetting. he doesn’t try and bring attention to it though, bless his soul. no, it’s all oikawa; he likes to point out how funny it looks when you two stand next to each other. you make him pay for that one--

✧ he looks up (but down sdffjk) at you as an older sister figure? he takes you advice very seriously, and he does his best to make you proud. honestly, he just likes being taken care of, and he really appreciates that you look out for him.

✧ always trying to try and cheer you up whenever he catches whiff of your seasonal depression. he’s not necessarily super perceptive, nor if he a master at talking about feelings (i mean,,, the whole kageyama issue dfkdj), but he doesn’t like seeing you sad. so, he tries to life your spirits by doing stuff like bringing you hot drinks in the morning before practice, and giving you other little gifts. his earnestness is honestly quite touching.

✧ he just treats you with a lot of affection and respect, and he gets genuinely surprised when kunimi sasses you because he cannot comprehend it? why would one of your underclassmen talk to you like that?

✧ another big fan of you and iwa as a couple. he holds a lot of respect for the both of you, and he’s honestly delighted to see you guys make each other happy! definitely the member of the team who’s most archetypally your ‘son’.

kunimi akira

✧ okay, but the contrast? exquisite

✧ it takes the two of you a while to acclimatise to each other, but i think you’d vibe eventually? he rails in the face of energy and enthusiasm, but he does appreciate that you can rope some of the other team members in by your “harsh parent” persona.

✧ once you’re friends, you two are so sarcastic with each other; there’s always a quip or two, and you also have a lot of fun sassing people together. he likes seeing how you can pull the third years into line too, even though you’re a year younger than them.

✧ i don’t see you guys being particularly close, but at the end of the day, you get along quite well, and you have a sense of mutual respect (well, in a very kunimi way).

some other interactions ♡

tsukishima kei

✧ alright, so you’ve never really,,, spoken much. but, tsukki ends up with a tiny little crush on you anyway. not strong enough to really try and do anything about it (especially given the obstacles in the way), but strong enough to be noticeable.

✧ it’s the preliminaries, and he saw you ragging out oikawa one time while you were in the hallway and tsukki’s like.,,, “hehe”

✧ tadashi notices immediately, and goes “what are you laughing at?”

✧ tsukki goes “i’m not laughing what are you talking about?” but he very hurriedly walks towards the rest of the team in an attempt to shake the slew of questions about to come his way.

✧ anyway, karasuno’s game is finished, and they’re watching aoba johsai verse another team, and they’re shit-scared. but, tsukki’s eyes kept wandering to the bench.

✧ and he’s just like “what the f u c k is happening to me, i’m—” tadashi’s sat next to him, and he goes “tsukki, are you blushing?” and tsukki’s like “i—”

✧ this is tsukki, you know? he’s not going to admit that he has a crush on a girl. especially one he hasn’t spoken to properly. how dare you assume he likes someone—

✧ but tadashi’s like !!!!!!!!!! oh my god oh my god oh my god – and tsukki’s like “w h a t are you on about?”

✧ tadashi’s all “!!!!!!!! you like a girl!! we’ve got to get you to speak to this girl!! this is the romeo and juliet of the modern era!!” tsukki just goes “that’s not a good thing—”

✧ but somehow tadashi manages to drag the two of you into a conversation while you’re in the hallway. he told tsukki that they absolutely needed to go to the toilet right now, and when tsukki tried to refuse he just grabbed his sleeve and dragged him down the hallway. tsukki was too shocked by his insistence to stop it from happening.

✧ you’re minding your business, checking your phone for something when suddenly there’s a very nervous freckled boy introducing himself and his exceedingly tall blond friend to you. you’re like ????? but you don’t want to be impolite, so you play along

✧ when you and tsukki finally speak, it’s,,, the world’s most awkward conversation. tadashi pushes him towards you and he’s like, “so,,, you’re seijoh’s manager.” and you’re like, “yeah,,, i guess i am?” because you know nothing about this guy and you have no idea why he’s talking to you. you just know he’s a middle blocker from karasuno.

✧ and you, bless your soul, try to keep the conversation going. it’s a little awkward, because you have no idea what to even talk about, and tsukishima’s,,, struggling. part of him really wants to talk to you, but another part of him is just frozen in confusion and a little bit of fear.

✧ it’s at that point yahaba and kindaichi round the corner. and in typical fashion, they whisk you away from the conversation before you even know what’s happening, shooting tsukki glares that say, “how dare you speak to our manager.”

✧ after that, tsukki stuck to admiring you from afar (even though he would never admit to such a thing), and he certainly didn’t make any more attempts to introduce himself – nor did he let tadashi pressure him into doing so fdskljdf

tendou satori

✧ this boy is,,, genuinely sad that seijoh and shiratorizawa have such an intense rivalry because he would be friends with you in a heartbeat. and he can tell this just by seeing how you interact with your team, and the scant conversations he’s managed to have with you.

✧ he can glean some of your personality just by watching how you interact with your team, you know? and your banter with the third years? immaculate, in his eyes. essentially, he really likes what he sees.

✧ semi’s like, “dude, if you think she’s cute just ask for her number—” and tendou’s goes, “it’s not like that (it is a little bit) she just seems cool, okay?” and semi’s like, “whatever you say, man.”

✧ also, that number 4 who’s near-constantly at your side is a little intimidating, you know? he certainly doesn’t have the gall to approach you all bold-faced, so he’s content to just stay on the other side of the court.

✧ he did bump into you in the hallway one time, and it was a disaster; he wasn’t ready for it, and that number four was standing right next to you. some part of him wanted to try and introduce himself, but his brain shortcircuited. tendou just kind of,,, looked between the two of you and gave you a thumbs up before basically sprinting down the hallway. semi never let him forget it.

✧ sorry this one’s super short! I just thought he deserved an honourable mention, because in another universe (hhh) you’d get along wonderfully imo

#rowan plays matchmaker #manager matchups

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoldretired · 4 years

Text

some p!g-drv3 theories (spoilers obvi)

First of all I think people demonize the pg versions wayyy too much because its a good way to be le sexy in like fanfictions. And i get it, villains are hot or whatever. and also hs is a horny age to be. But even the edgiest and horniest of teens aren’t like. that sexual/monstrous. its kind of insane the portrayals people are placing

maybe this could also be like me being older bc when i was early hs i was like yea its fair to place these super mature portrayals on a 18-22 year old they are like adults but young and now im that age and im like woah there pardner. might be an age/maturity thing.

also like its normal for people to relate to and portray characters their same age in a similar fashion, but when adults write more sexual content about the dg kids i get hella fucking sus

idk where i was going with that first comment i guess its like a preface and in the end i think its important when characters especially teenage characters are morally grey not because they’re mature and dark/brooding but because they are still young and learning. fuck im older than like most of them, but im still young and learning. its good to be in turmoil and confused, especially the drv3 cast. they are more confused than anything.

which i think is a reason why people would join dr because if you are completely loss and in turmoil, it is appealing to be given a purpose in life and amazing talents/abilities. despite the morals of danganronpa, it is a simple reality to be told who you are and what to do

OK ONTO HEADCANONS (not doing all bc i dont have thoughts about all)

first of all i understand changing stories but i think, deep down, you can’t change fundamental personalities/values. so while the backstories might be different i think, in the end, a baseline is always the same

SHUICHI being a Bad Boy is like canon obviously but i dont think he’s as manipulative as people make him out to be. i think he falls in the more the bully role that like. mae borowski or tf2′s scout filled before they grew up. rough background, bad anger issues, lots of emotional turmoil, and the only way he knows how to deal with shit is by committing crimes and beating the shit out of people. and, similar to those characters, drv3 represents an older, more emotionally sober yet equally confused version of himself. the urges are still there as foreshadowed in the dialogue. i think he struggles with guilt, mostly survivors, but there is still a lasting impact of guilt of what he did in his past, even if he can’t remember.

KOKICHI is a child. a piece of shit motherfucker child but a child. I really do think he’s like one of the youngest people in the cast. he reminds me a lot of when my brother doesn’t take his adhd medicine and takes jokes way too far and does mean and cruel things because he thinks its funny and that its just a fun joke, but is hurting people. he desperately wants approval, which is why his leader role is so interesting because in the dr narrative he has the approval he craves and so he is satisfied. still, he does try to impress characters like rantaro and values his opinions a lot, even developing a brotherly relationship in the time they knew each other. this being said, its established kokichi was bullied before, but i dont think he’s like. the wimp people make him out to be. i think he’s more of like the class clown who desperately uses humor to make people like him, and ends up resorting to be the butt of most of his jokes. you don’t just develop a good sense of humor out of a brainwash, and that’s not something you can program in. i think that was a remnant of before, and he’s so good at bullying people and coming up with roasts - i just think that in p!g the roasts were about him.

KAEDE is baby but her p!g personality seriously reminds me of any ~quirky/edgy~ girl in a teen coming of age story who tries to be edgy and cool and act like she doesn’t care but deep down, she really does. if she didn’t have an empathetic personality, she wouldn’t want to end the game. i also think she has that self-identifying QuIrKy personality because its like she lives in her own narrative, practically announcing this story is about her and she is the protagonist. i know i used to self narrate like that and distinguish how i was different when i was like. 15-16. she has a tumblr.

I really like the theory where KAITO is a make-a-wish kid who was better when he was younger but relapses later in teens. he never used his wish before, so he decides to use it now to be on danganronpa and become the hero he always wanted to be. i also think he might have joined as a way to raise awareness about adolescent healthcare. definitely the type who puts on a “heroic” character to make everyone else feel better about the fact he is literally dying of a terminal illness, and keeps that act up till the end.

i think KOREKIYO is still a serial killer. i think honestly a reason why he mightve auditioned for danganronpa is because he is a serial killer. maybe his sister found out and he felt so much shame that’s why he auditioned. he probably mentioned why in his interview because duh, tell them im a serial killer and then only reason im coming clean is my sister found out and im ashamed, that is like a guarantee to get on the show. i LOVE the theory that his sister is still alive, however, and has to watch her brother go insane because they wrote her into the story as the villain. because technically, she brought on this guilt, and is the reason why he auditioned - as a way to cause despair, twist it around so she’s the one to blame for his insanity. also, because its pretty accepted DR members become celebrities, kork’s sister is totally bombarded with paparazzi and is demonized in the media. she might end up writing a tell-all memoir about kork’s actual childhood and personality. quiet kid, thoughtful, interested in anthropology, she never thought he’d hurt a fly. watching her brother go insane probably destroyed her.

I also think, timeline wise, kork is probably one of the oldest members along with rantaro. tbh i think kork actually graduated hs and went on a gap year doing the whole “hitchhike around the world to discover myself thing” which is where he began killing people. he was getting ready to go to college when his sister found out about what he did. this is when he decided to go on danganronpa instead of university. this would help explain why he knows so much about other cultures/travel/been so many places with so many memories/killed/is knowledgable on a level most other students are not. this would place him at like, 20-21, where everyone else is like 15-18.

ok so there’s two p!g RANTARO, p!g before 53 and p!p!g before 52. i’d like to establish now i think rantaro is the oldest of the characters, seeing as though he was already pretty old to begin with in 52, it takes time between television seasons, and he was in another game. so im placing him like 21-23, similar to yasuhiro in d1 being so much older than everyone else. i do think, in all iterations, rantaro was pretty much raising his sisters, though i don’t think he had twelve like the story (i think that’s an exaggeration, his sisters mean a lot to him, lets make him have a TON and then lose them all and feel GUILTY) rantaro joined the first game, partially to get money for his family and hopefully establish them as celebrities and let them have a comfy lifestyle, even if he doesn’t live...and also to finally ahve some sort of experience without his siblings tagging along. if he’s been raising his sisters all his life, he’s never had like something that’s JUST his. that’s his adventure. 52 is his ULTIMATE adventure. ahaha. mostly for money, kind of dreading it, still a tiny bit excited

ok p!g rantaro between 52 and 53 probably came back broken. he did the signings and appearances, but mostly wanted to spend time with his family and make sure they were set up. i think he knew the whole like few months between seasons he had to go on another show, but he did’t tell his sisters. his family found out when they saw a billboard with his face plastered on it hyping up the return of a fan favorite. yikes!

ok i get it a lot of people hate HIMIKO but i think she’s not nearly as similar as other “useless” characters in other games. its like, pretty clear she’s depressed, and the only thing she’s holding onto with dear life is magic. lack of hygiene, lack of personal care, constantly tired, social interaction exhausts - she has depression, but she’s not an UWU depressed character. so people find her depressive traits (which are some of the most realistic portrayals of mental health in the series) SUPER annoygin. she joined dr because she was completely lost and needed some sort of direction in her life, even if she’ll die for it. the thing is, even with direction, her mental state didn’t change because she wasn’t getting legitimate help. it’s like that one SNL skit that’s like. same sad you from before but in a new place. i also think she knows the magic is not real, because how could she not. i think she’s so adamant that it IS real, less as a way to convince others, and more of a way to convince herself. it’s like really super cruel that team danganronpa took a girl who is desperate for meaning and gave her literally a meaningless, fake talent.

i also kin himiko and find her a comfort character because i feel seen by her, replacing her useless talent of magic with mine of like shitty film making and comedy. i am seen.

related i don’t think she’s nearly as ugly as everyone says she is, i think she’s probably just depressed and takes absolutely no care of her hygiene and sleep and looks like sick and greasy all the time. same queen.

honest to god i think RYOMA’s backstory, tennis and all, is like 100% real and he’s the only one who keeps all of his memories except for the fact this is a tv show. i think he rolled up, a hot fucking mess, and the danganronpa team were like damn. we cannot improve upon this.

#ryoma hoshi #himiko yumeno #rantaro amami #korekiyo shinguji #kaito momota #kaede akamatsu #shuichi saihara #kokichi ouma #drv3 #killing harmony #pg dr #pre!game danganronpa #danganronpa #theories #danganronpa spoilers

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cookiedoughmeagain · 4 years

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Haven DVD Commentaries: 5.08 - Exposure

Commentary with Nick Parker (writer for this episode) and Brian Millikin (writer for 5.07)

In which the writers discuss various aspects of the episode including, Mara and Duke, Vince and Dave, the Trouble of the week, production and writing challenges, and Duke’s backstory with regards to his mom.

Content warning for discussion of alcoholism.

[They talk about how a lot of the episodes this season function almost as two-parters, including 5.07 and 5.08 and how the two of them worked together to make sure these two episodes fit together well.] BM: We broke these two episodes on the board side by side and the outlines and scripts went out together. That was the way we did it this season, both for production reasons, because to help us save time we shot two episodes together in block shooting, and also it kind of helped up to ever so slightly change up the pace and story telling of the show a little bit. Keep it a little fresher in this super-sized fifth season.

[They talk about how happy they are with the director for these two episodes and how they turned out; “Nice, dark, moody.”] NP: Some of the most fun scenes to write were between Duke and Mara here where she’s chained up, but she is the one that’s in control. BM: I love it. I think she’s so good as Mara. Look at this, just leaning into Duke’s face and just trying to work him at all times. She was great. They basically spent two full days doing all of these scenes in the hold of the boat. So Emily sat in this chair, literally chained to it (she had to be unchained to get out of the chair) for two days, and Eric just came in and out. And Lucas is in there a couple times as ghost Nathan but that’s it. And I think, she’s never been better. She’s been just as good, but never better.

NP: Yeah, these were super fun to write and then when we started to get the dailies in they were even more fun to watch because they did such a good job in these scenes. And what’s fun about 5.08 is the task of this episode was partly to tell an important Duke story but also to draw them closer together for where they’re going in episodes 9, 10, 11, 12. And starting to elevate their story. And in these scenes Duke starts to see a little bit of, maybe a kindred spirit, or he sees something in Mara that he respects if not likes. BM: And of course the question to be asking is, is that real what he’s seeing? Or is she putting on a show for him? Is she trying to draw him closer, or is it legitimate? Which is a question you’re asking all the way up until 5.13, when … spoilers. NP: Yeah, and also, what she asked him for there, she says she wants the Crocker Journal at first but then that’s not really what she wants. It’s about getting the story about Duke’s mother. Which is something we’ve never heard about, Duke has never talked about his mother. We’ve heard him drone on and one about his father who we’ve even seen in the past (episode 2.12, back in the day) but never heard tale of his mother. Which was an important thing. BM: It’s funny, I know big fans of Nathan groused a little bit because we once again are dealing with a story about Duke’s history and we get comparatively little about Nathan’s past. I think, they’re not wrong. It’s just kind of the way it worked out. The first season of the show was so much about Nathan and his dad - his dad was a regular on the show. And about the loss of his father and the aftermath of that. And we set up that his mom was gone from an early age and we learn a little bit about that in season 5b. But it was just the way of things that is just worked out that Duke’s history just kept coming up in ways that were more organic to the story. But never more so than this episode. I think it’s my favourite part of the episode. NP: It was my favourite part to write, outside of some lines from a character who’s going to be introduced very shortly [Seth], a returning character from an episode I wrote in season 4, 4.11 - Shot in the Dark.

BM: Now, Audrey and Duke here are both in the same wardrobe that they were in the previous episode. But we imagine this is the next day, we imagine a work-all-night situation. I think you kind of get that a little bit with Mara’s cut being a bit more healed. But it made sense that they’d be in the same clothes from working all night - if they know that Nathan’s out there and they need to save him, are they really going to go home, take a shower, change clothes?

[Nick comments on the Ghost Busters reference as Duke calls Seth and both of them laugh as Seth appears on screen, and comment how good Kris Lemche is in the role.] NP: Seth is named after my brother. BM: Kris is fantastic. NP: He’s great. He was such a delight on set and everything. The cast and crew liked working with him so much. He also brings shot of energy into everything. BM: Absolutely. He’s just a different kind of voice than we have in the show a lot. Especially without Jennifer who was a little bit of that outsider commentary. But I just love him. That scene in the script was exactly as written; cut to the inside of the van and a mountain of dirty clothes and cheetos and then you see hair like a shark fin pop up. NP: Which is basically a description of my bedroom and how I wake up every morning. BM: Absolutely.

[Vince and Dave in the hospital] NP: Ah here they’re playing Gin Rummy, which is a game I used to play with my grandfather all the time, before he passed away, and yeah I just thought it would be a great game for two old men - I imagine all old men play Gin Rummy, that’s just how they go through life. BM: Well this is the third time I think we’ve seen them play a different game together. It’s king of a motiv for Vince and Dave that we find them in the middle of playing something. I like it, it speaks to them a little bit. NP: Yeah and I kind of wanted to have them in a little bit of a different space in this episode. Seasons one and two especially, Vince and Dave were comic relief. BM: Absolutely. NP: We’d go to them and we’d have some nice back and forth, and bickering and banter, and it was a nice change of pace. But as things got darker and Vince revealed who he really is and Dave’s revelation about him being adopted, things got darker and I enjoyed being able to write them in a little bit of a lighter way. Which happens in this scene a little bit and then more so later in the episode. BM: Yeah and they also were not in the previous episode. These guys have never been in every single episode in a given season, but I think we had them so much in the previous episodes that they’re absence was felt in the last one so we were happy to have them back.

[Both of them laughing as Seth appears on screen again.] NP: That was also a nice thing about Seth. There’s kind of timelessness about Haven in some ways. We know when it’s set, but it feels kind of timeless because it’s the quaint small town and everything. And to be able to have Seth come in and make some strange pop culture references is always fun. BM: Yeah. We don’t typically have ton of pop culture references, so when we do it it stands out pretty well, like the Groundhog Day joke from a couple seasons past. But yeah you just get away with it with Kris Lemche. NP: Well luckily he sells it so well I can just be silly. And it’s fun. BM: It was great. I don’t remember when it was that we came up with the idea of bringing him in for this episode, but I think it was after we had settled on the idea of the ‘ghost’ Trouble. And then we knew that episode 7 was going to have All The Bad Things, and then episode 8 was going to be; now we actually have to solve the thing. And even you and I were like; how are we going to do that? And I think it was someone else who suggested, what they need is to try to find a way to reach out to Nathan and we’ve had one other episode where we’ve had devices that do that kind of stuff. And I remember someone was like; Come on, we can’t do a ghostbustery thing. And I was like; Well if you think about it, Nathan is the victim of a Trouble which means it’s caused by aether which means there’s a kind of residual aether quality to it, so of course it would work. NP: It was a conversation I was having with our excellent leader Gabrielle Stanton, where she was saying; We’ve been looking for a time to work Kris back in, they want to have him back up there and this could be a good time to do it. And I jumped all over the idea of writing him again, because he was just so much fun to work with. BM: Yeah, it’s funny, it’s a little bit like with William who shows up again in season 5b and so Seth, and they were just characters we really liked and actors we really liked in the role. And whenever we have a chance to, it’s something we’ve always tried to do, is bring people back. It helps to flesh out the world and make it feel a bit more real. NP: Absolutely. Living in the reality of the way things are. And though William is a transdimensional character from another world, he still brings - he jokes about the situations there’re in, he points out the ridiculousness of where they are, which is something that Seth does as well. So that’s always nice to incorporate whenever we can. And also necessary to just lighten things. I mean Audrey is now talking to her ghost boyfriend in a desperate attempt to bring him back; it’s pretty heavy. BM. Yep. But this episode establishes Seth as a solid recurring character in our world, right along the lines of Marion from the pilot, Agent Howard, Stan, all the other people who have come to have a real role to play and I’m happy that he’s part of the club.

NP: The bourbon Duke and Mara are drinking here, Gunslinger Standard, we named that for a Stephen King reference. Gunslinger is a reference to Roland Deschain from the Gunslinger. And now they are just going to drink, and drink, and drink. BM: I love his glassware. NP: It’s pretty classy. I love how Duke is like; I’m going to have to tell this story so I’m going to have to be drunk, and the first thing he does is drink about three shots of bourbon in one go. BM: We joked about it internally and maybe we should stop joking because maybe it’s a serious problem that Duke has; he might be an alcoholic. We joked about having a drinking game; what if you just drank whenever Duke drinks. If you were to watch a couple episodes in a row, you would be hammered. NP: Yes. Luckily Eric Balfour is drinking sweet tea.

[As Seth and Audrey are talking in her office] NP: So we’re seeing Audrey’s confidence hit the bottom here. She’s come to rely on Nathan, she doesn’t have her immunity any more; she kind of feels lost in a way. And so this is asking a lot of her to put all this weight on her shoulders while also going through the stress of losing the person that she loves. And with Seth talking about he lost his partner as well (Anderson from 4.11) there’s a little bit of kinship there between them. BM: Yeah absolutely, I think that parallel of them both having lost a partner, and what are you without your other half, is fantastic. NP: It was fun to write. BM: And also just on a purely mercenary level; she needed someone to talk to in these scenes. Because Duke is off on the Mara side of things, which he has to be. Audrey can’t talk to Nathan. And there’s nobody else. So the fact that he’s there is useful, but he really brings something to is; the actor does, the character does. NP: Yeah he’s good. And he did a great job with Adam Copeland in past episodes, though we don’t have Adam for these episodes as we said before. BM: Yeah and Vince and Dave are still in North Carolina. NP: And thankfully for us, Emily is a hilarious person with great comedic timing, so her dry delivery works so well. BM: Yeah I know, I always wish that we could get more opportunities for her to be funny. Because she is.

BM: So we’re back in the Raleigh hospital with Dave trying to make a desperate escape. BM: I remember how much conversation we had, you and I in particular, about the fact they’re in the Raleigh hospital. NP: Oh my god. [They discuss the journey from North Carolina to Maine and how they’ve driven it before and the routes you might take and the places you might go past, and how Raleigh is not one of them.] BM: But we figure they’re not locals, they don’t know North Carolina. NP: I was fighting hard. But I remember it also came down to a discussion about how is Manteo pronounced. And I called the Manteo tourism board to confirm. BM: But these hospital scenes were fun for these two. We shot them all in one day, I think, one afternoon? And it wound up being really fun. You had kind of an uphill battle because you knew they basically just had to be in the hospital room; that was it. And we needed four scenes. But you did a great job with it.

NP: Oh here comes the story about [Duke’s] mother, which was quite a doozy. BM: Now I remember, we had always talked about how this episode would be the one where Duke opens up and tells Mara a story. Tells her a story about his mom, something that Mara wanted him to tell her. And it was a big deal because she’s asking for something and now he’s giving it to her. And something he didn’t want to share, something he hasn’t shared before. In the thumbnail document, the story pitch and then the outline of these scenes, it just said; Duke tells a story about his mom. And the outline was great, so it’s like; Nick, go write the scripts, and I think it was Speed Weed, one of our other writers, was like; Should we talk about what this story is? And our show runners were like; Nah, Nick go deal with it. We call it a WP - Writer Problem. So a lot of times the outline will call for someone to steal something, and the details of how they steal it is a WP, it’s left to the writer to figure out. But this was a HUGE WP, because this was a significant story about one of our main characters, and none of us knew which way you were going to go. I remember seeing you in the office thinking and working on it, and then we all finally saw the script you came up with, and it was Awesome. NP: Thanks! It was a lot of fun to write. But, as you said, it was a mountain because, I mean Duke is such a big character. So I kind of decided to go the whole way with it and turn it into a kind of origin story. BM: It’s what made Duke, Duke. Or, finished the job of turning him into Duke. NP: Yeah. Duke had learned some things from his father and saw the path his father was headed. BM: He’d already been abandoned, his father was a douche, and then he died. NP: We know from past episodes that his father died in 1983-ish, because of Lucy. And so he would have been 8 years old or something. So it’s like, where does he go from there, how does he turn into the character that we know, this guy who speaks Mandarin and is a rogue and smuggler and everything else? And so I really kind of tried to have that story tell what made Duke, Duke. BM: Yeah, like part two of his origin story. NP: Yep. BM: But it was really great. Really sad. NP: Real sad. BM: But it felt earned. I don’t know, I just loved it. I think If it changed at all [from the first draft], I’m talking like we moved the word ‘the’ or ‘and’ around. Sometimes we have stuff that really doesn’t get changed at all, just because everyone really liked it. And it made perfect sense. Once you read it, it really couldn’t be anything else. NP: Thank you. It was also funny later on in production when we were talking about cutting a couple things and knowing we had to cut for time, there was never any discussion of shortening any of those scenes whatsoever. It was like; everything in the hold we’re keeping, forever, so the cuts are going to have to come from elsewhere. BM: I remember you also had to work a lot on the details of Seth’s stuff because one of the other WPs was; And then Seth’s got “the device”. And it was never really specified what that was. But when you’re writing the script you’re going to have to talk about what it looks like and how it works. So this idea of having to stick the electrodes on Nathan, but that won’t work because he’s a ghost - you had to come up with all this too. NP: Yeah and hopefully it works, because he’s developing this idea but then we put a much quicker ticking clock on it, so that he doesn’t have a chance to modify the device the way he’d envisioned. And so it has to be taken through to the other side as Audrey ends up doing. [Both of them laughing at Seth with his hands in the air as Audrey reminds him she’s armed.] BM: Congratulations by the way on that classic moment, of wait say that again, what you said just gave me an idea. This one totally works, because of the pose that he does with his arms up, the exact pose that Reggie did before he disappeared. NP: Yeah I tried to cover that moment with some Kris Lemche joking and of course he sold it super well. BM: They both sold it, and that idea that it was the pictures that was making them disappear and that the shadows they left were related to the photos, that was something that we had from the start.

BM: Oh here’s Vince [sneaking into the hospital office]. I always like when we can show Vince and Dave kind of being badasses a little bit, showing off their skills. NP: Everyone knows them as the lore-keepers and protectors of Haven, but you don’t get that job in a place as crazy as Haven by being a softy or being a sweet man who wears pink glasses. You’ve got to be a bad ass and these moments are fun to write for that reason. BM: They are, and we always talk about a Haven prequel series you could do about these guys in the prime of their youth. And they were probably the Nathan and Duke of the town. But they’ve still got it, sometimes, and it’s always a great opportunity when we can have them doing stuff as opposed to just being the librarian-type exposition devices that in previous season they often ended up being, just by necessity because they knew so much. NP: I also find that whenever you can have Richard Donat pull out a Southern accent. BM: He’s also really funny. He doesn’t often get to play as much comedy as John Dunsworth as Dave does. So I like seeing him try and fail at this grifting attempt here. And he gets busted, which was great. And the other actor in this scene is really great too. NP: Yeah we had some great casting in both of these episodes, between Chris Masterson [as Morgan], Kris Lemche [as Seth] and Lara Jean Chorostecki [as Amy Potter]. We both know Lara Jean originally from Hannibal, as investigative journalist Freddie Lounds. That was a role that was gender-swapped from the books for the TV show and she was cast in it and that could not have been a better move on Hannibal’s part. She is just awesome, awesome, awesome in that role. BM: She is terrific. We were totally in her corner from the get go. I think she even just looked like what we imagined the character might look like. But just her energy and everything, we were just like; let’s get her. And so she did it and everyone loved her. And we were like; Can we bring her back? But her Trouble doesn’t really lend itself to something that we could keep using. So we were like; Could we just give her a job in the police station or something? NP: New crime scene photographer? BM: But I think she’s going back to Hannibal, or some other project. We were lucky to get her. NP: We should write a Haven spin off series that’s just Kris Lemche and Lara Jean Chorostecki on the road. They just made people turn into ghosts.

[As we’re back with Duke and Mara again] BM: How much of the bourbon is gone by this point I wonder? NP: They have drunk a lot of Gunslinger Standard, and that is some strong, strong bourbon. BM: But think about his tolerance. I mean, he’s not slurring his speech. I’d be asleep. Or at the very least drooling on myself or something. He’s a cool customer. [They joke that maybe Mara is immune to alcohol as well as the Troubles.] BM: But they did a great job with this. We’ve talked about how well this scene was written but they take it the rest of the way. It’s kind of like passing someone a football - it’s a good pass but then they have to run the rest of the way with it. And they absolutely did. NP: They score a touchdown. Eric really, really killed it here. We do tone calls before each episode to talk through the big scenes, and I just remember the tone call with Eric was so very, very short this time. Because I think he had just really lived in that story and really kind of got a good handle on it. And then once we saw the dailies we were like; Yeah, we didn’t need to say a single word to him. He couldn’t have done a better job with it. Kudos Eric. BM: Yeah, he was like; Totally get it, completely, let me do it.

[As Nathan is searching Guard HQ] NP: Here you can see what we talked about before, the desolate Children of Men, post-apocalyptic look to this warehouse. BM: It’s a little bit of a preview of things to come. I love Nathan going through the wall there. NP: Yeah we had a bunch of these moments, but it was a production question as to how man can we actually afford to do, how many do we have time for. There are some that are critical, like Morgan falling through, and the gun getting knocked away. BM: But there’s none for me that are cooler than Nathan with his gun out going through those two walls. It looks great, the fact it was all just this one swooping camera move. And it’s good from a story stand point because it’s Nathan using his situation to some extent to his advantage. NP: Yep and coming up here we’ve got Audrey doing the same thing of using her situation to her advantage. Right now they’re putting together all of the math of how the Trouble works. She’s understanding that Nathan is in mortal danger, which leads to a big decision for her, to put herself in danger and using her lack of immunity to her advantage in order to be able to save Nathan. BM: Our art department killed it with these photos here. And this is great with Seth being the voice of reason a little bit. And Audrey stepping up - this is a really important moment for her because she’s not immune and that’s been getting to her but now she’s going for it. NP: And credit goes to you for that set up, because it was something that you were really pursuing that her being immune is going to be the story for these episodes. And I think it worked out great. BM: That’s the thing people will refer to these episodes as; Ghost Nathan and then Audrey not being immune. I think the cutting back and forth here [from Audrey and Seth at Amy’s place to Nathan fighting Reggie in Guard HQ], both in the script and by our editor, works so well. The gunshots come [into Reggie’s back] and you don’t know if it’s Audrey, and then you reveal that it’s Morgan. NP: And it’s funny, that kind of action sequence would normally come much later in an episode, but we were trying to keep things so fast here, and really the last couple of acts of this episode take place over the course of minutes. It’s all in real time and it’s really fast, so we were trying to keep it energetic as a result. BM: Pretty much everything this season is real time. Like, last week’s episode happened 25 minutes ago.

BM: It’s funny, we had one real goal going into this episode for what the Vince and Dave story was going to be, and it didn’t really have much to do with this scene [where Vince is caught trying to steal Dave’s biopsy sample from the hospital]. All we knew was that Vince and Dave were going to get a sample of Dave’s leg wound taken, by the CDC as it turns out at the end of the episode. NP: Oh, Dearing Place there [on the note Audrey’s left for Nathan], that’s the street I used to live on. BM: So all of this with Vince and Dave trying to steal the sample back and failing and pretending to be other people, was all sort of invented to make more of a story out of it and it ended up working out really well. It’s fun for those guys, because things have gotten pretty serious for them and they get very serious as the season goes along, so it’s good to give them an opportunity to have fun. NP: Yeah and I was trying to accomplish a lot with that storyline; giving them some playful banter, having them show off their skills and what got them to where they are and the men that they were, and also platforming where they’re going because Dave’s leg wound is getting worse and worse. BM: Yeah, and it’s my favourite kind of B story, or C story really, which is that it has nothing to do with what’s going on in the episode but it’s the last scene in the episode and that story with Charlotte Cross coming to town comes to dominate the entire series. So it seemed like it was just this, tangential something, but it winds up being more significant than anything else in the episode. The best kind of C story there is. NP: I enjoyed this scene as well [Mara and Duke talking in the hold again], this was fun because they’re trying to figure out the math of the Trouble and how it works, and for dramatic, and also story, purposes we needed a delay between when Amy takes the picture and when the person disappears. And so we were trying to figure out how does that work? And because this is a Trouble that has evolved from a painter back in the day, the printing is the completion of the photo. And that just made sense and felt right for us in the digital age. BM: It’s funny I’m not sure when we came up with that idea, it must have been pretty early on. But it solved so many problems. Because we needed there to be a delay, and also a reason why Audrey tries it on herself and it doesn’t work. And I think we were struggling with that at the same time someone else - it might have been Speed Weed because he so frequently bangs the drum of like; Well, this is the Trouble now, but what would the Trouble have been like hundreds of years ago when Mara and William first made them? You know, they didn’t have cameras back then, so how did it work back then geniuses? And we were like; Well, back then it would have been something else. NP: Oil painting. BM: We’ve always liked the idea that they, sort of, not evolve but that a Trouble could mean something different nowadays than it would back then. So we thought well it could have been a painter’s Trouble way back when. Or a sculptor, maybe it left some clay dust. NP: Yeah a splash of paint, or clay dust. BM: And nowadays it leaves this photographic imprint. But before it was when a painting is finished, so when is a picture ever finished, in the world of photoshop, resizing, filters … Well it’s when you print it out. NP: And I think once we found that in our conversations, it was like; Great, perfect - now we know and everything evolved from that. [And they then compare that moment they had to Seth’s kind of triumphant reaction when Audrey disappears.] NP: I think this [as Dave comes to Vince’s rescue with his Garland impersonation] is my favourite of all the Vince and Dave scenes, just because John is so funny here. I remember writing this and I think I went a little bit … BM: We share the same office, Nick’s desk is on another wall, and I could hear you laughing. I had my ear buds in but I could hear you laughing to yourself. And you were writing this scene. NP: I was laughing at myself, which was not cool. BM: But this was one of the few scenes that’s really written specifically for him to play this kind of comedy character and he sunk his teeth into it. NP: He goes fully nuts. I actually ended up cutting the rest of that scene and moving it later. But the interesting thing about this here [as Amy’s getting ready to take a photo of herself] is, there used to be another scene in between where we saw the Morgan side of it. But instead we wanted to delay the mystery of what’s happening in the other room. So we cut that whole scene, and I couldn’t have been happier with that.

[As Amy hugs Morgan] BM: This is where we realised how good Laura Jean was too in the role of Amy, because this was an incredibly hard scene for her. You don’t really think about it, but if you’re the actress that has to play the role; this is impossible: she thought that her fiance was dead and gone until a few minutes ago, and now she’s seen him again, but she’s also processing everything else that’s happening with this situation. She’s got an incredible amount to work though. And she totally did it. NP: Yeah, and she doesn’t get to do it in a lot of lines, because a lot of the exposition of it has to come from the other characters. BM: She was great.

[Both laughing at Dave rescuing Vince] BM: This makes me wish we could have them as con artists more frequently. NP: Yes, they’re good at it. BM: And that was kind of the impetus behind episodes five and six, to get Vince and Dave out of Haven and on a mission. Even if it goes horribly awry.

NP: Laura Jean is really selling it here. She gets two or three words to go through all of this emotion but she really sells it so, so well. BM: Yeah, she’s terrific. I mean I thought she was great in Hannibal, but I really thought she brought something even more to the table here. NP: Well and what’s great about it is, her character in Hannibal is very manipulative, a bit of a psychopath in her own way, she’s very, very cold. But here, she has to be extremely empathetic but also go through really complex emotions super, super fast. And she handles both the Hannibal role, and this much smaller - and probably less rewarding - role both very, very well. BM: She’s very good.

[As we see the final flash that signals the Trouble’s resolved] NP: It’s always tough figuring that exact moment when the Trouble is solved and, how does everyone know. BM: What I also really liked about this is that she kind of solved it herself. NP: We’ve been talking about Lara Jean a lot but Chris [as Morgan] also does an awesome job, escalating this emotion here, getting in Nathan’s face; he’s really selling it. And there’s Seth with the knock-out blow. I just really like his line here [“I am the one who goes bump in the night”]. It is terrible and it was a fun thing to write - and I knew Kris would exactly get the humour of that moment. And in the dailies it was funny, he kept picking up the tripod and saying other ridiculous things; I’m sure it’s going to be all over the blooper reel because he was just hilarious. BM: It was originally going to be a picture frame that Seth used to knock Morgan out, but I think there was concern that we could have seriously injured Chris Masterson, so it became a tripod. But his line there is an obvious reference to Walter White’s “I am the one who knocks” line which is just one of the best lines ever in television. This being of course one of the worst lines ever in television.

[As Seth is saying goodbye to Nathan and Audrey] BM: So this scene here ended up touching on maybe a bit of a touchy subject for Audrey and Nathan, which was brought in relief with what Morgan said earlier about; Why are you the only ones who get to be happy? So they’re starting to ask themselves if Morgan was right and if they’ve been selfish - because, she got Nathan back, but at what cost to Morgan? NP: And it’s been going for a while too, since season four - they keep fighting for each other so much, and what is the cost? BM: I think it’s an important thing, a realistic conversation for them to have. Granted of course it’s not just Nathan; they’ve just saved a bunch of people around town who were also ghosts. And Morgan’s a bad guy, and Nathan can do a lot of good, as a human being, not a ghost. NP: It’s funny, the tail end of that scene changed a lot because as we were getting closer to it, it became more and more clear that we were going to want to bring Kris back as Seth again for more episodes in the back half of season 5b. So before he was like; I’m getting out of Haven, goodbye forever, kind of thing. And then it softened and softened. BM: Yeah we left the door open because at this point we knew we were going to bring him back, but we didn’t know if he was going to be a surprise new resident of Haven, or if we were going to have them be like; Hey man, come back to Haven. So we had to be super vague about where he was going.

[As we’re back with Mara and Duke again] BM: So they’re probably on a second bottle at this point, right? NP: They are fully drunk. BM: I would be on the phone with a hospital [if I had drunk that much] NP: A hospital or an ex-girlfriend, one of the two. [As Mara is talking about the importance of intention when releasing a Trouble] This also is something that was in the works from the very beginning, what we always knew we wanted to accomplish was Mara saying; You were the one who was in the driver’s seat when you split me and Audrey, this was your Trouble you were expressing. And over the course of those episodes he’s probably learned better how to express them and she’s saying here that; You want me here - why? BM: And it kind of answers a question that was posed at the beginning of 5.07, which was - how did this happen? Why did this happen? Duke was flicking through the Crocker Journal but he had no idea. And then Mara poses a theory here which is that he selects the Trouble that he wants to, whether he knows it or not, and that he maybe wanted to split Audrey and Mara apart. NP: Yep. BM: And I love it, it’s great.

[The final scene with Vince and Dave outside the Gull] NP: Of course they drink drinks with little umbrellas. BM: It’s not exactly a sunny day outside either. NP: Well it was funny, for production we didn’t have a Grey Gull day. BM: This moved tons of times. NP: Moved a bunch of times; I re-wrote this scene probably half a dozen times. BM: It was going to be outside the Haven Herald at one point, or just on some patio somewhere, some place they could shoot in town. But in the end we shot this weeks later, right? NP: Yeah, Shawn picked it up with a second unit some time. BM: But from back in the beginning of the year when we started mapping out what are the big tent poles for every season, this was always the last scene of this episode; Charlotte Cross comes to town. Because that really kicks off what is the rest of the season; it’s really the main story for the next couple episodes. NP: I thought the art department did a great job with the CDC logo. You can’t use the actual CDC logo; every show that uses CDC has to come up with their own logo, and our art department is really good with those kinds of things. BM: Yes. Shout out to Laura Mennell as well, as Charlotte Cross. We were really lucky to get her. NP: She’s so good. BM: She ends up joining the cast as a regular and I think we’re better for it. She obviously has some big surprises to come, which I guess we can’t talk about now. NP: It’s funny, we’re kind of the book ends for her character; introduced and then …. BM: Oh that’s right, well we can’t say. But this was a great episode. Thanks Nick! NP: Thanks for watching y’all.

#alcoholism #haven syfy #haven dvd commentaries #5.08 - Exposure #haven 5 #mara and duke

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freddiesaysalright · 5 years

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Dancing With Ben Week 6

A Ben Hardy x Reader Series Trio Night - Salsa

Summary: Reader is one of the pro dancers on Dancing With the Stars. It’s her second season on the show, and this time, her partner is none other than Ben Hardy. Will they win the Mirror Ball? Maybe they’ll win something even more meaningful!

Word Count: 3.8K

Tag List: @psychosupernatural, @someone-get-a-medic, @twigleektribute23, @ionlyhavepicturesofflowers, @asquiresofftime, @caborhapch, @iwasnothingbutacityboy, @a-kind-of-magik, @anxious-diabetic, @royalblueviper, @toms-irish-girl, @doingalrightt, @borhapqueen92, @angiefangirlworld-2, @ziggymay, @pink-lemo, @riddikuluslypotter, @wearewiththebands, @i-was-born-like-this, @prince-lucifer-v, @mariekuuuuuh, @teenwolflover28, @minigranger, @7-seas-of-fat-bottomed-girls, @theprettyfandom If you want to be added, let me know!

A/N: Alright, some serious pining happens in this chapter but *slaps fic* this baby is what we call a slow burn. Also, SPECIAL GUEST JOE MAZZELLO GIVE IT UP!!

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Week 6 here we go!!!

You were in the studio alone. James had gone home the day after the show and you were a little relieved that the pressure was off, even though he and Ben ended up friendly by the time dinner was over. However, because the upcoming week was going to be a little extra challenging, you decided to get to rehearsal early and work out something more of a routine than you had. You were trying out a step when Ben came in.

“Hello!” you greeted brightly, but you frowned when you saw his expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you see what they did on Good Morning America this morning?” he asked.

You shook your head. He pulled out his phone and opened YouTube, pulling up the clip of Gleb and his partner’s interview. Every eliminated couple did a GMA interview after being voted off the show, but you wondered what Gleb’s interview had to do with you and Ben. He skipped toward the end of the video.

“So, Y/N and Ben Hardy,” said the host. “Are they smushing?”

Gleb choked on the sip of water he was taking and looked, astonished, at her.

“Well,” he began. “What they do off the show is none of my business, but as far as I know, Ben and Y/N are just friends. Like all the pros are with their partners.”

“But their chemistry is crazy,” said another host. “Especially that rumba.”

“Like I said,” Gleb continued. “I don’t know, but part of our job is to put on a show. To tell a story. If people believe what they’re saying through their dance, then they’re doing their jobs.”

“Come on, there has to be -” began the first host, but Gleb cut her off.

“Look, we came here to talk about our experience this season,” he said firmly. “Not to gossip about our friends. What they do or don’t do behind closed doors isn’t my business, and it’s certainly nobody else’s.”

You felt a rush of affection for Gleb as Ben stopped the clip.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Ben said. “Should we say something?”

You rolled your eyes. “Of course not. That’ll only make it worse. The best thing to do is ignore it, and it’ll blow over.”

“I dunno,” he said. “I’d like for people to be talking about the dancing, not our relationship.”

“We can’t control other people,” you told him. “All we can control is how we conduct ourselves.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he conceded.

“I’ve got something I know will cheer you up,” you said, taking his hand and leading him further into the studio.

“Ah, the big surprise,” he returned. “What is it?”

You checked your phone. “It’s gonna be here any second.”

At that moment, the door to the studio opened. You and Ben both turned to watch the newcomer poke his head in. Ben gave a boyish cry of excitement and bounded over to the door as Joe Mazzello came through it.

“Joe!” Ben shouted and barreled into his friend.

Joe beamed and embraced Ben warmly as they fell to the floor in a laughing heap. You couldn’t help but chuckle as well while you watched. They cuddled on the floor and giggled when Ben kissed Joe’s neck.

You turned to the camera. “That is true love right there.”

After a few minutes of them gushing over each other, Ben got up and helped Joe to his feet as well. They were all smiles as Joe came over to you.

“Nice to meet you,” you said, pulling him into a hug. “I’m Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you too,” he replied, kissing you on the cheek. “I’m Joe.”

“I know,” you returned. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“If they’re from Ben, they’re lies,” he joked.

You laughed. “Well, why don’t we start dancing, guys?”

“What are we doing this week?” Ben asked.

“We’ve got a salsa,” you told him. “So get ready to move those hips.”

“I’m so excited,” Ben said, hugging Joe again. “I can’t believe you’re our partner.”

“There was no way I was turning it down,” Joe said. “Although I don’t know if I can keep up with you, man, you’re incredible.”

“Well, I’ve got the best teacher in the world,” Ben replied, smiling at you.

You beamed back and Joe raised his eyebrows as he looked between the two of you.

Rehearsal started smoothly, but most of the first day you worked with Joe to get the basics down. He actually moved really well, and once again you were impressed. The routine you were forming was going to be pretty complex, but you quickly became sure they could handle it. By the end of the first day, you had the basic steps down. You were confident in Joe.

Also, Joe was a ton of fun to work with. He was hilarious, and kept you and Ben laughing all through rehearsal. He would miss a step and quickly blame it on you or Ben, which was always amusing. He and Ben had a great back and forth that often left you in stitches. What was best was that they never made you feel excluded from them. You were part of every joke, every conversation, and they paid close attention to your instructions.

You went to dinner together after rehearsal. When the hostess led you to a table, Joe and Ben sat down. You excused yourself to the restroom, but told Ben to just get you water in case the waitress came by. Joe took this opportunity to catch up with Ben.

“So, man, who knew you were a freaking ballroom dancer?” he teased.

Ben smiled. “Really, it’s all because of Y/N. She is such a great teacher. She taught me to foxtrot. She can do anything.”

Joe gazed seriously at Ben. “So, you’ve got it pretty bad for her, huh?”

Ben’s face flushed. “Don’t tell anyone, but yeah, I sort of have a massive crush on her.”

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” Joe assured him. “But I could tell by the way you look at her. Like she just...hung the moon or something.”

“She is so amazing,” Ben continued. “Like, every time she holds my hand or we sleep in her bed, my heart skips a beat.”

“Sleep in her bed?”

Bed explained the night you were drugged at the bar and the night after watching a scary movie. Joe smiled.

“If it helps, I think she feels the same way,” he said. “It’s the way she looks at you too. There’s...something there.”

“Thanks, mate,” said Ben. “It does help, actually. I don’t really know what to do about it. I mean, this is only a limited time we have together. Then I’m going back to England, and I think she’s gonna go on tour with the rest of the pros from the show.”

“Don’t worry too much about that,” Joe advised. “Enjoy what you’re doing right now, and feel it out some more. It seems to me like she might be worth the distance.”

Ben didn’t have time to answer, as you returned from the bathroom, taking a seat beside him. His arm subconsciously slid around your shoulders. Then the waitress came over and you ordered your dinner.

Within the next two days, you were getting to rehearsing the lifts of the dance. There were a few and you knew they would require a lot of practice. The first was for the opening part of the dance.

“Okay, so you guys are gonna be on either side of me,” you explained. “I’m gonna hold one hand, and with the other you’re each gonna grab the inside of my thigh and flip me backwards.”

Joe moved to start, and you didn’t catch Ben shooting him a warning glare. Joe’s hand landed just above your knee. Ben’s was only slightly higher.

“I appreciate that you’re both gentlemen,” you said, amused. “But you’re gonna have to grab from higher than that.”

You brought their hands up your leg. You missed Joe sending Ben an apologetic look. Carefully, they flipped you, before stepping into the rest of the routine. They did well, so you decided to do the hardest lift of the dance.

“Ben, on this count, you’re going to throw me up over your head, and backwards into Joe’s arms,” you said.

“Jesus,” Ben breathed. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I trust you,” you said. You looked at Joe. “Both of you.”

“Do not drop her,” Ben warned Joe.

“I won’t, man,” Joe replied. “Not on purpose anyway.”

You giggled, but Ben frowned.

“Oh c’mon,” you said lightly. “You dropped me once before, remember?”

“So I’m allowed at least one,” Joe joked.

“As long as you don’t drop me on show day, I don’t really care,” you said.

“I do!” Ben protested.

“Okay, let’s just practice,” you said,ignoring him.

You explained the exact mechanics of it. You practiced it once, Ben sending you soaring up. You spread your legs above him and then carefully fell back into Joe, who caught you without a problem.

“Yes!” you cried, beaming at them. “That was great! Let’s do it again!”

You went through it another three times. On the fourth, it faltered. Joe caught you perfectly, but you didn’t close your legs right and you landed on your ankle at a bad angle. You started to go into the next step with Joe but you cried out at a sharp pain.

“Stop!” you said.

“What happened?” Joe wondered, steadying you.

Ben was instantly at your side as you reached out for him. They both held you up as you whimpered.

“I landed wrong,” you said. “I think I rolled my ankle.”

You tried to put some weight on it, but your muscles screamed in protest. You hissed at the pain and Ben turned accusing eyes on Joe.

“What happened?” he demanded. “Did you catch her?!”

“Yes!” Joe insisted.

“It was my fault,” you interjected. “Ben, relax. I just landed wrong. But I think I’m okay.”

There was a nurse from production that they called. She came to the studio, where Ben and Joe lowered you to the floor. They stepped out while she treated you. She gently moved your foot around to gauge the severity of the roll. You winced as she examined you.

“I don’t think it’s sprained or anything,” she said, and she retrieved a wrap and began to bandage it.

“Can I still dance?” you asked.

“Yes, but don’t put too much stress on it,” she said. “Maybe break for a while before trying to start again.”

You nodded.

Meanwhile, outside, Joe and Ben were tense. Ben was pacing. Joe could feel Ben’s irritation.

“Hey,” Joe said. “Can you chill out? I’m not trying to make moves on Y/N, okay? This is just the dance and you’re acting like I’m trying to take your place.”

Ben looked at the floor, ashamed.

“I’m sorry, mate,” he said. “I just - I met her partner from last season and already feel like I’m competing with him.”

“You’re not competing with me, Ben,” Joe reminded him.

Ben nodded stiffly. “You’re sure you didn’t drop her?”

“I’m sure,” Joe said. “She didn’t even know she was hurt until after.”

“Okay.”

They waited outside when the nurse fetched them and told them it was okay to resume rehearsal. They came back and sat down with you. The nurse left, and you thanked her.

“So I’m okay,” you told them. “No sprain. Just a roll. But we’re gonna forget the lifts today and work on the other steps. Tomorrow, we’ll work on the lifts some more.”

You guided them through the rest of rehearsal, and you were able to do a few things in hold but for the most part, you helped them. You didn’t notice that Ben’s brow furrowed whenever you put your hands on Joe’s hips or shoulders to help him move. Joe did, and tried to give Ben a significant look, which Ben accepted. He was trying so hard not to be jealous, but now that he had admitted his feelings, out loud, it was more difficult to disguise them.

When rehearsal was over, Ben helped you home, allowing you to lean on him as you made your way to your apartment. Joe had already gone back to his hotel. Ben opened your door and you looked at him in admiration.

“Ben, you’re practically carrying me,” you said. “You don’t have to do that. I danced today and everything.”

“I don’t want you to stress it any more than you have to,” he insisted.

He assisted you to the couch. You eased yourself down onto the cushions while Ben got you some water. He handed it to you and you thanked him.

“You are incredibly sweet to me,” you said.

He joined you on the couch and you draped your legs over his lap. He placed a warm, soft hand on your wounded ankle. Then he began to gently rub your feet. You hummed and relaxed back, closing your eyes to the comfort of him.

“Tired, darling?” he asked.

You nodded. “You can turn on the TV or something. But I think I’m gonna go to sleep.”

“Well, don’t fall asleep out here,” he said.

He scooped you up and you squeaked with surprise. He carried you to your room and placed you in the bed. You grabbed his hand and pulled him down to join you.

“You wanna have another sleepover?” you offered.

He smiled. “Oh, always.”

You rested on his chest and he wrapped his arms around you.

“Joe is so much fun,” you said.

Ben smiled. “He is great, yeah.”

Ben thought about what him and Joe talked about at the restaurant and for the few minutes outside the studio after you’d rolled your ankle. He wasn’t upset that he told Joe his feelings, but now could not remove the idea from his mind. He looked at you as you closed your eyes against him, his gaze trailing down your face, really taking in the details. The feeling of your smooth skin. Your thick hair falling around your shoulders. The sound of your breathing. He wanted desperately to kiss you. But he held back. He knew he had to consider things after Dancing With the Stars.

Your breathing evened out and he knew you were asleep. He ran his finger across your cheeks and down your nose. Your lips were slightly parted as you slumbered against him. He felt his heart rate quicken at the sight of you. He considered that it might be more than a crush he was feeling. The closeness he felt to you was not something that had ever happened to him before. Dancing with you every week made him happier than he knew he could be, and it wasn’t the dancing that made it so. It was you.

As he held you that night, he thought about what it would be like to share every night with you. Then he sighed. The remaining weeks were going to be rough for him.

The next day, your ankle was rested enough to try the lift again. You kept a brace on it just to be safe. You were putting the whole routing together now, and you could almost do an entire run through of it without stopping. Tweaks had to be made, of course, but it was really getting there.

You were currently in hold with Joe.

“One, two, three, four, step, turn, dip me now,” you instructed before he lifted you and spun you into Ben’s waiting arms.

“Very good!” you praised. “Don’t stop moving, Joe, come with us.”

Finally, you made it through the whole routine without stopping. As a reward, you took a water break. You smiled at both of them.

“We’re killing it, guys!” you said. “I was a little worried since we have salsa, but I really think it’s gonna be great. Len might not like it, but everyone else will.”

“Why won’t Len like it?” Joe asked.

“Not a lot of it is in hold,” you explained. “Which he is particular about.”

“Well, so what?” he replied. “It looks cool as fuck.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” you said, high fiving him.

You spent the afternoon perfecting it. You only had one more day before dress rehearsal and camera blocking, so you wanted to really get it down. As you wound to a close, Joe got a text from Rami.

“Ben, Rami wants us to come to dinner tonight, what d’you think?” Joe asked.

“Well, what about Y/N?” Ben returned.

“That’s very sweet, Ben, but you don’t have to spend every moment with me,” you assured him. “I mean, we spend every day together. Go have fun with your boys.”

“Are you sure?” Joe wondered. “I don’t think Rami would mind.”

You shook your head. “Go. I’ll see you guys in the morning. Really, really good work today.”

They gathered their things, and Joe gave you a quick hug goodbye. Ben embraced you, then looked hard at your face. You searched his eyes for what he wanted, but you couldn’t quite place it. He leaned forward, as if to kiss you, and you tried to think of how you should react to that, but he hesitated. He instead went with a customary forehead kiss and a squeeze of your hand before telling you goodnight and departing with Joe. You felt your heart pounding in your chest and it wasn’t from rehearsal.

You were pulled from your thoughts when Clark, one of the producers spoke.

“You look really good,” he said.

“Oh, um, thanks,” you said, brow furrowing with confusion. “Everyone says Ben and I look good together, but I don’t really see how we look different from the other couples.”

“Well, you and Ben dance well together,” he clarified. “I just meant you, in general, look good.”

You cocked your head to the side before grabbing your bag and water bottle. “Yeah, uh, thanks again. Have a good night, Clark.”

You clapped him on the arm and left the studio. You glanced back to see him sigh and shake his head. But you didn’t wonder about that just now. All you could think about was that look on Ben’s face before he left. The more you thought about it, the more you were convinced he had wanted to kiss you.

On one hand, you were glad he hadn’t. You didn’t want your first kiss with Ben to be some passing thing after rehearsal. On the other, you wondered why you would consider it your first kiss. Why did you even want to kiss Ben? You’d thought about it the morning after he slept over the first time, but you chalked that up to physical attraction. Now, you were pretty certain you wanted something more. Heat rushed to your cheeks as you slid into the driver’s seat of your car.

“Get a grip,” you told yourself as you turned the key and started the engine.

When you got home, you showered and got into bed. You checked Instagram, looking at everyone’s stories. Sasha and Emma posted their dog, Ruby. Sharna was out with some friends. Witney was snuggled up to her husband. Ben’s story popped up, which was unusual since he didn’t post very much. It was just a simple selfie of him, Rami, and Joe, smiling. Joe was kissing Ben’s cheek. You tapped it and held your thumb down to just look at the photo and focus on Ben’s face. His eyes, even behind a screen, stole the breath out of your lungs.

You groaned, closing your phone and laying back on the bed.

“Get a grip, Y/N!” you scolded yourself again.

But as you settled in, pulling your covers up to your neck, you couldn’t help but miss the weight of Ben’s arm around your waist.

Dress rehearsal went off without a hitch. All the trios looked really good, but you were always impressed with the other pros and their choreography. And then, it was showtime.

You, Ben, and Joe were going last, closing the show again. You were excited, though, because you were certain you had the most exciting dance of the night. Joe didn’t look nervous until right before it was your turn. But he hid it well.

Then, they started your video package, overplaying you rolling your ankle of course. You held Ben and Joe’s hands, helping them to ignore it so they would come in right on the beat. Just as it faded to black, you took your places before you began.

youtube

The dance was so exciting. The crowd surrounded you all as you, Ben, and Joe moved all over the dance floor. The lifts went just right. They both stayed on the beat, and they looked incredible. Joe kept up nicely, and didn’t miss a step.

When it was over, you pulled them in for a group hug. Tom ushered you over to get the judges comments. Carrie Ann adored it and praised Joe for his ability to keep up. Len said exactly what you predicted, that he wished there was more of the dance in hold. Bruno shared Carrie Ann’s sentiments. You then went to the skybox to talk to Erin before receiving your scores.

“So, Y/N, what was it like working with these two handsome guys?” Erin asked.

You chuckled. “They are kinda handsome, aren’t they?” you teased. “Actually, both of them are so great. Joe fit right in with us and picked up on everything really easily.”

“Joe, how did you feel coming in to this?” she asked him.

“Honestly, I was just excited,” he replied. “I’ve never done something like this, and to come in and support my friend was really cool.”

“You didn’t feel like a third wheel?” she pressed, and you resisted a brutal urge to roll your eyes.

Joe shook his head. “No, never. If anyone was a third wheel, it was Y/N,” he laughed. “Ben and I can get really wrapped up in each other.” He cupped Ben’s face. “God, you’re beautiful.”

Everyone laughed. Erin turned to Ben.

“Anything to add, Ben?”

“Not really,” he said. “We did good work, Y/N miraculously didn’t get hurt, and I got to spend time with Joe, so no matter what the scores are, I had a perfect week.”

Luckily, the judges scored you tens again. You jumped into Ben and Joe’s arms and celebrated with them. You were at the top of the leaderboard again, and couldn’t be happier. Even better, you survived elimination without even being in danger.

When the show closed, you went to change, but Ben remained outside to talk to Joe some more. You didn’t ask why, but let them be.

“Thanks, Joe,” Ben said. “For doing this and listening to me be stupid about my feelings.”

“They’re not stupid,” Joe assured him. “Honestly, Ben, if you want my real advice when it comes to Y/N, it’s go for it. I just think you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

Ben considered this. He already regretted not kissing you before leaving the studio or when you woke up after that first sleepover. How much would he regret it if he left this show without ever taking the chance with you?

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Under The Christmas Tree (Branjie) - houseofhytes, hy-jinkx

A/N: We both had a ton of fun working on this, and wanted to write something super fluffy for the holiday season, so why not a domestic lil kid fic?

You can also read on AO3!

When the end credits finally started rolling, Brooke couldn’t hold back her smile at the sight of her little family sprawled out on the couch. It was, in more ways than one, the perfect picture of domestic bliss, and she still couldn’t believe that she of all people had been blessed with something so very precious.

Luca was cuddled up to his mama, his eyes just as teary as Vanessa’s after watching the festive display on television, the Christmas lights and cheerful songs more than enough to make those two emotional babies soft. It wasn’t the first time for them to cry over something small, the both of them always so sensitive, but it always warmed Brooke’s heart. Luca had clearly inherited Vanessa’s love for everything cuddly and sweet, while his personality itself had Brooke Lynn written all over it, impossibly calm and gentle, yet determined and headstrong when it came down to it.

Leo had ended up right in between Brooke and Vanessa at some point. When the movie had started, his overly energetic self had been way too excited to keep back any of the comments rolling off his tongue, the animated energy just radiating off him as he talked all of their heads off. In the end however, his eyes had quickly started to close as he rested his head on Brooke’s side, the music and the sound of the television in the background quickly making him nod off to sleep before the movie ended.

Little Rosalie wasn’t in a much better state, resting on Brooke’s lap with a fluffy blanket draped over the two of them, absentmindedly sucking on her thumb as she tried to keep her head from falling. Her long eyelashes fluttered as the small girl struggled to keep her eyes open, desperately trying to fight the need for sleep so that she could stay awake on Christmas Eve. Normally Brooke or Vanessa would have pulled the thumb out of her mouth, in fear of it becoming a habit and ruining her teeth in the long run. Today, however, the look of the four year old fighting back sleep was just simply too adorable to say something about it, instead letting her indulge for the night as she nuzzled her head against Brooke’s chest.

“Okay babies, time to brush our teeth and go to bed.” Brooke gently attempted to shake Leo awake, laughing as the boy groaned and tried to bury his face deeper into her side, clearly not in the mood to leave his comfy spot between his mommies. Brooke and Vanessa both almost felt bad that they couldn’t carry him to bed anymore, the boys having grown so much over the past few months that it had gotten a lot harder for either of the women to move them into the bedroom without waking them up in the process.

“Don’t wanna go to bed,” he mumbled sleepily as Vanessa teasingly ruffled his hair, leaning over him as she kissed his forehead.

“Oh? So you don’t want Santa to come no more, is that it? Should I just let your mommy call and tell him that the three of you don’t want no presents this year? How rude!” Vanessa joked, tickling his sides as the boy threw his head back laughing, trying to squirm away from his mother’s iron grip as he protested.

“Can we sleep in your bed tonight, mommy?” Luca muttered, his big brown eyes staring at Brooke, reminding her so much of Vanessa’s that it made her heart swell, making it impossible to not give into his request. She had never been good at saying no to any of her wife’s requests, and the same went for their children, especially when they looked so very adorable in their spiderman pyjamas.

“Just this once Peanut, but we do need to head to bed now, ‘kay? Because Santa won’t come if he knows you’re still awake.” Both boys dutifully nodded, taking their blankets with them as they headed over to brush their teeth, leaving their mothers and little sister on the couch.

“You too, little Miss Rosie Posie” Vanessa cooed, stroking the soft cheek of the small girl who was still sitting on her mother’s lap, comfortably warm with the blanket covering her as she her worn-out teddy bear close to her face. Her eyes nearly closed as she buried herself deeper into Brooke’s arms.

“…I’m tired…”

The sight of those big blue eyes fighting to stay open was way too endearing.

“You want one of us to carry you, darling?” Brooke asked, nearly having to hold back a yawn herself as she spoke the words, the domestic scene making her feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside as she felt herself fully relax.

“Want mama to carry me…” she mumbled, reaching her little arms out to Vanessa who lifted her out of Brooke’s arms with ease. Every inch of their little girl reminded her of Brooke, making her heart burst whenever she looked at her.

“You so sweet baby, so damn sweet-” She whispered into the crown of her head, even though she could tell their daughter was already fast asleep by the deep breaths she took against the crook of her neck.

When the two women walked into their bedroom, their hearts swelled at the sight of their two boys cuddled up under the sheets. The large bed made them look impossibly small as they buried their noses into the small blankets Brooke’s mom had bought for them when they were infants. They were clearly close to drifting off, fighting to stay awake just so that they could say goodnight.

Brooke curled up next to them, allowing the boys to snuggle up to her as Vanessa carefully put Rosalie down on the other side of the bed, trying not to wake her in the process. It proved to be difficult, since their little monkey had fully clung onto her, her small hand tangled in Vanessa’s hair as her little feet locked her in at the waist. But in the end, she was able to safely place their youngest into the bed, her soft breathing indicating that she hadn’t noticed any of her mama’s struggle.

“Mama, how will Santa come into our house, does he have a key?” Leo muttered sleepily, his mind still fixed on the mystery man who would hopefully bring him everything he had written down on his list a few weeks ago. The boys hadn’t been able to stop talking about Santa that day, evidently excited by the magic of it all. They were at the perfect age where they still believed so wholeheartedly, and Brooke and Vanessa couldn’t help but find it adorable.

“Through the chimney, lil’man” Vanessa softly smiled at her son, revelling in the innocence of their children. She herself had always loved the magic of the holiday season when she was a kid, believing in Santa until she was in her early teens, just because she loved the tradition so much.

She never wanted them to lose that feeling.

Luca’s little brows furrowed, looking at Vanessa in confusion. “But mama, we don’t have a chimney?”

Brooke had to hold back laughter at the sudden look of panic on the twin’s small faces at the idea of not getting any presents. Vanessa’s face matching their look of shock as she realised what she had just said.

Oh lord.

“Your mama is just being silly peanuts, Santa’s belly is way too big to come down through a chimney anyway, he just knocks on the door until we open it”

Both boys breathed a sigh of relief, clearly reassured by Brooke’s simple explanation, or just way too tired to further interrogate them. Vanessa nervously laughed, mouthing a silent thank you towards Brooke who had to hold in her laughter at the ridiculous scene.

Vanessa leaned over to place a kiss on the childrens’ foreheads, stroking the locks of hair out of their eyes before whispering a muted goodnight. Brooke did the same thing, before moving over to their daughter and pressing a kiss into her soft hair, tucking them all in before turning off the lights. They then tried to leave without making any noise, even though it wasn’t necessary.

Their three angels were already dreaming of a snowy christmas and a pile of presents before they even managed to close the door behind them.

“They’re getting so big now,” Brooke whispered after closing the door, settling down on the carpet in front of their brightly lit Christmas tree. It took a second for Vanessa to join her on the floor, her arms filled with a bunch of wrapping paper and craft supplies that she promptly dropped on the floor. The items sprawled out on the rug as the both of them started their last minute preparations.

As a small family tradition, they always left a few presents that still needed to be wrapped until Christmas eve, so that they could spend some much needed alone time together to make the final adjustments. A moment that was usually filled with tons of excitement over what the next day would bring.

“Tell me ‘bout it, Rosalie will probably be taller than me by the time she’s six!” She muttered, almost sounding resentful even though Brooke knew she was most definitely teasing. She had to admit that Vanessa was probably at least partially right though. If Rosalie was anything like Brooke at that age, that would definitely be the case.

“Do you still remember when we found out we were having the twins? I think I still haven’t recovered from that shock…” Brooke couldn’t help but reminiscent a little bit, always feeling a bit nostalgic whenever the holiday season started approaching.

Vanessa just laughed as she started wrapping some of the smaller gifts that were meant to go in the bright red and green christmas stockings that were hanging next to the christmas tree.

“Baby, you don’t need to remind me. It was all worth it in the end, but best believe that pregnancy was somethin’ out of a horror movie!”

Back in the day, it had never occurred to them that getting pregnant might become an issue. They hadn’t even considered that struggling to conceive was something that could possibly happen to them. The both of them so hopelessly optimistic, yet still slightly naive at the same time. Their longing for a child had seemed all-consuming at the time, a missing piece in their lives that the couple desperately wanted to fill.

Vanessa could see it in Brooke whenever she interacted with one of their many nieces and nephews, the sudden extra layer of softness and care so apparent in all of her actions as she played with them. Brooke, on the other hand, first noticed the growing need in Vanessa whenever they passed by the local playground in the park close to their apartment, the brunette’s eyes filling with tenderness at the sight of happy toddlers playing and going down the slide. It was clear from day one that they wanted to be parents.

So when Vanessa finally started fertility treatment, they had been over the moon, thoroughly convinced that it would be a walk in the park for them. It just had to be. It was written in the stars.

When the first pregnancy test had come back negative, they hadn’t been phased by it in the slightest, it was just a slight setback in their otherwise foolproof plan. But it wasn’t just that first test that came back negative. The words not pregnant popped up on the second test as well. And the third, the fourth and the fifth tests too. None of them told the couple what they so badly wanted to hear, resulting in a lot of tears shed. Vanessa’s sobs were filled with guilt and despair, angry tears that threatened to consume her, her soul filled with an unbelievable amount of sadness. Brooke’s tears were full of hopelessness and frustration, because she hated the feeling of not being in control, hated not being able to help her wife.

But just when they were about to give up, they got their first positive on the sixth test.

“You did amazing though, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.” Brooke smiled tenderly at Vanessa, who had started wrapping the huge purple dollhouse they had bought for Rosalie a few weeks ago, the gift so big that it barely fit into the light blue wrapping paper.

“I really wouldn’t have changed it for anything.” Brooke knew Vanessa was speaking the truth, but she still couldn’t help but admire her.

The pregnancy had been rough to say the least. The first few months were filled with various aches and pains, almost daily morning sickness that never seemed to end, and the wildest, most disgusting cravings a human being could ever imagine. Brooke had been right there by Vanessa’s side through it all. Holding her hair whenever she was hunched over the toilet, taking over the cooking and cleaning duties just so that she could rest a little bit longer, giving her elaborate back rubs whenever she complained about the growing pressure in her back.

And then, just when they thought they finally had it all under control, the doctor gleefully informed them that they better prepare, because they weren’t just expecting one baby. No, they were expecting two.

And Vanessa had never seen the blood drain from Brooke’s face as fast as it had that day.

Now they could both laugh about it, but back then, they felt like scared fools because they had no idea what they were doing.

The rest of the pregnancy had been filled with some of the best and some of the worst moments of their lives. Decorating the baby room, picking out coordinating onesies, discussioning baby names for hours on end.

Those were the moments that made it count, made it all worth it in the long run.

Yet all of the sleepless nights, worry-inducing doctors visits, and emotional meltdowns weighed heavily on them. It was one of the most stressful experiences they had ever gone through.

But no matter how hard it had been, they couldn’t help but look back on that time with fondness.

Because it made them stronger, and gave them two of the greatest gifts they had ever received.

“I do envy you though, I only had to look at your fine ass and just a quick second later you were knocked up.“

“Excuse me?” Brooke snorted, desperately wanting to look offended even though she couldn’t help but crack up at the sight of the cocky look on Vanessa’s face.

“Don’t try tellin’ me it ain’t true, Mary. I was there”

Okay sure, maybe Vanessa was kinda right. After the hellish pregnancy with the twins, Vanessa really hadn’t been open to carrying another child. Even though her heart desperately wanted another baby, she wasn’t sure whether her body was capable of going through it all again.

Luckily, the obvious solution had been right in front of their noses the whole time.

So even though Brooke was beyond freightened, she still threw all of her fears out of the window, because she knew that as long as she had Vanessa by her side, everything would be fine.

And to their surprise, almost exactly nine months after making that critical decision, little Rosalie was born.

“Okay, maybe you’re kinda right,” Brooke laughed.

Compared to Vanessa’s pregnancy, Brooke’s had been a breeze. No cravings, no morning sickness…nothing. She didn’t even start showing until she was around four months. Vanessa had wanted to hover over her like a mother hen, trying to get her to sit down and take a break every couple of seconds. She could still vividly recall her wife scolding her, telling her that she was insane for working until two weeks before her due date. But Brooke had just shrugged her off, telling her that she and their baby girl were totally fine.

And she had been completely right, like usual.

Vanessa just shrugged, a smug smile on her face as she concentrated on the gifts in front of her, the next statement coming out way more casual than it should have.

“Well, on the plus side, at least now we know who’s gonna carry the next one”

Brooke nearly spat out her hot chocolate after hearing that comment.

“Next one? You want another one?!” She couldn’t tell whether her wife was messing with her, or being deadly serious. With Vanessa, one could never be fully sure, and that tended to scare the living daylights out of Brooke more often than not.

“Have you looked at our kids? They’re stinkin’ adorable! I want at least a full basketball team of ‘em ” Vanessa stated matter-of-factly, like she just knew it was going to happen no matter what.

“You’re crazy…” Brooke muttered out of disbelief, laughing at the determined look in Vanessa’s eyes as she shook her head, trying to hide the fact that in some ways, the idea did seem terribly tempting.

“You can say I’m crazy now, but lemme tell you, I just know. Don’t doubt my sixth-sense Miss Hytes-Mateo. Just you wait!” Vanessa winked at her, evidently teasing, even though there was definitely truth to those words.

And honestly, Brooke was whipped either way, so she didn’t doubt that Vanessa’s crazy dream could become a reality one day.

Brooke and Vanessa continued reminiscing as they wrapped presents for their children, time flying past once they hit a groove. They laughed about the crazy things their kids had done throughout the years and teared up over how quickly they were growing up. The entire time, they did their best to keep their voices down, not wanting to accidentally wake one of the kids up.

By the time they had finished wrapping presents and stacking them neatly beneath the tree, it was just after one in the morning. While Vanessa cleaned up the scraps of wrapping paper in the living room, Brooke took their mugs into the kitchen.

As she washed the two hot chocolate mugs, Brooke found herself humming excitedly. She couldn’t wait to see the way their kids’ eyes would light up the next morning, enamored by the magic of the holiday. It was a sight Brooke would never tire of, especially when Vanessa often looked just as excited as the kids.

Brooke wasn’t quite sure how she ended up quite so lucky. Finding the love of her life, getting to have a family with her - it was all she had ever wanted and so much more. Vanessa was kind, charismatic, and loved her more than anyone else ever had. It made her emotional just to think about.

She did her best to fight back a couple stray tears of joy while she dried the mugs off. As she was setting them on the rack beside the sink to dry, Brooke felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, accompanied by a soft kiss on the back of her shoulder. Brooke turned around in Vanessa’s arms, only to watch her wife’s face change from one of joy to one of concern.

“Baby, why do your eyes look all puffy?” She asked softly, one hand cupping Brooke’s cheek. “Have you been crying?”

“I’m fine,” Brooke promised, though by the look her wife gave her, she could tell Vanessa didn’t exactly believe her. “Just got emotional thinking about how lucky I am to have you and the kids.”

“Aw, baby,” Vanessa cooed, then kissed Brooke on the cheek. “We both got lucky, m'kay?”

Brooke nodded her head gently, a soft smile spreading across her face as Vanessa’s arms tightened around her, pulling her in for a hug.

No matter what happened, no matter what they went through, she had always felt at home in Vanessa’s arms. Vanessa made her feel loved in a way no one else ever had, something she was incredibly grateful for as the pair stood there hugging each other tightly.

Vanessa began to rock side to side subtly as she hugged Brooke, humming softly to soothe her wife. But soon enough, Vanessa’s rocking turned into swaying, and Brooke found herself swaying with her wife. She let her chin gently rest on top of Vanessa’s head as her eyes fluttered shut.

Moments like these were the reason why she had fallen in love with Vanessa in the first place.

Brooke drew back just a little, enough to grab one of Vanessa’s hands and spin her around. Her heart felt like it was soaring when she heard Vanessa let out a soft laugh as she spun around once, then twice. Vanessa’s hands came to rest on Brooke’s shoulders once she stopped spinning, standing on her tiptoes to press a brief, soft kiss against Brooke’s lips.

“I love you,” Vanessa murmured softly, flashing a smile up at her wife.

“I love you too,” Brooke whispered back, then placed a gentle kiss on Vanessa’s forehead. “C'mon, let’s go to bed now.”

Hand in hand, the couple made their way back to their bedroom, taking special care to avoid stepping on creaky floorboards or making any other noises that could wake up their children. The moment they stepped into their bedroom, they could see the little ones curled up together on one side of the bed. Rosalie was lying half on top of Luca, who was snoring lightly. Leo, on the other hand, seemed to only be half asleep, stirring as Brooke and Vanessa carefully climbed into bed.

“Mommy?” Leo mumbled sleepily, heavy eyes barely opening enough to squint at his moms.

“Shhh, go back to sleep sweetheart,” Brooke whispered, putting a single finger to her lips in an attempt to keep him quiet. Leo nodded his head in response, but rather than closing his eyes and dozing off once more, the little boy crawled over to cuddle up with Brooke, laying his head on her arm.

Brooke smiled softly, draping her free arm their little boy as she pulled the blanket over them. Vanessa mirrored Brooke’s movements, arms wrapping around her wife’s waist as she tucked her head into Brooke’s shoulder.

Leo was fast asleep within a matter of minutes, but it took the two women a bit longer to drift off. Just before falling asleep, Vanessa lifted her head up slightly, her eyes searching Brooke’s face to make sure she was still awake.

“B?” She whispered as quietly as possible, not wanting any of the kids to wake up again.

“Mmm?” Brooke hummed in response, too tired to even open her eyes.

“Merry Christmas, Brookie.”

“Merry Christmas, Nessa.”

As they finally drifted off to sleep that night, they both knew what the next morning would entail. Excited squeals from the kids, their cats darting out of the room as the little ones and the family dog ran straight to the living room. They would all sit on the floor in a circle by the tree, passing presents around and eagerly watching each other open them as Brooke and Vanessa took dozens of pictures. It was something they experienced every year, but never grew tired of, didn’t think they would ever grow tired of, no matter how old the kids got. Because that was what made Christmas feel like Christmas to them.

It wasn’t about the lights or the tree, nor was it about matching pajamas and baking cookies. It was about spending time together as a family, and the light their children brought into their lives. After all, being able to start a family had changed their lives for the better.

#rpdr fanfiction #branjie #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #lesbian au #holiday fic #christmas #kid fic #fluff #hy jinkx #houseofhytes #concrit welcome #submission #parenting au

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norahastuff · 5 years

Note

At this point , I am really scared , I need some reassurance that Destiel will happen , so many posts saying that it is unlikely , please help!! :(

Ok first of all, I get it. These days I’m relatively chill about most aspects of the show, just taking things as they come and trying to enjoy the story they’re telling - it’s still a pretty good one - but I have those moments too. For example my knee jerk reaction to the “Cas has failed his brothers” tweet (which again means nothing - people that run the CW social media accounts know next to nothing about what’s going on in the show) was genuinely “I can’t believe Dean made Cas a mixtape of the music his parents fell in love over, in a scene that was shot so romantically, and people are still out here calling them brothers.”

And honestly that’s still where I’m stuck with all of this. I haven’t been in fandom long. I never even really knew what shipping was until last year. I was watching, enjoying and analysing the show (albeit in my own head), long before I found tumblr, and had thought it was blindingly obvious that there were romantic elements to Dean and Cas’ relationship. I think that’s something a lot of us forget when we’re talking about “Canon Destiel” and what will happen etc. We discount everything that has already happened between them in favour of some proof down the road. Which I get, trust me, but I really don’t think we should forget everything that led us to see Dean and Cas this way to begin with.

Ok so what helps me mostly be chill about all this?

1) The wealth of canon material that already exists between them (mixtapes, grief arcs, human weakness, colette parallels, sweeping reunions set to rousing musical cues, Amara supposedly having control over Dean but when in a room with her and Cas all Dean can do is call out Cas’ name over and over again in a broken voice - I honestly could go on all day.)

2) I don’t believe any of this was being done in bad faith.

I’m going to focus on 3 of the current writers, 2 of whom are openly queer and one of whom is the showrunner:

Berens

His first episode 9x06 was the one where Misha was instructed to play Cas as a “jilted lover” by Carver, the showrunner, and that episode was just romantic af. There’s so much staring through wistfully at each other it’s ridiculous. If you watch Berens episodes, it’s pretty clear that he considers Dean and Cas’ relationship vital, he often makes a point to place them in the same tier of importance as Sam and Dean’s relationship, and on top of that it seems to me he’s always just contextualised their relationship as having romantic elements. Whether it’s Colette parallels or mixtapes, Bobo’s always presented them a certain way.

Yockey

If you even glance at Yockey’s resume you’ll be able to see he’s a genius playwright whose work tends to focus on gay relationship dramas. Of course that in no way means that any relationship between two men that he writes has to be romantic, but what it does mean is that he understands when it is. It does mean that when he writes an episode like 12x10 (an ep about angels falling in love with humans), where Dean and Cas are bickering like a married couple and Ishim dubs the woman he was in love with his human weakness, whilst in the same breath calling Dean Cas’ human weakness, he’s doing it intentionally. That episode was a lot of things, well written, smart, beautifully crafted - but one thing it was not was subtle. Claiming Yockey didn’t mean it that way seems pretty absurd to me, and honestly, trying to claim Yockey - a gay man who writes nuanced LGBT+ stories - meant it as bait or whatever, is even worse. I mean that episode even had an exploration of how angels do not have genders like humans do by showing Cas in a female vessel and having him reiterate that angels are their own thing, regardless of whether they are in a male or female vessel at any given time.

That’s not even mentioning 13x05 and how ridiculously romantic that ep was. I mean I can’t - that final scene was ridiculous.

Andrew Dabb

And then we come to the showrunner himself. Dabb joined the show the same season that Cas did. He’s always placed a great deal of importance on Dean and Cas’ relationship, and always made sure to differentiate it from Sam and Cas. Even as early as 5x16, he made sure to emphasise how it was Dean who felt for Cas when he lost his faith in God (note: I don’t think there was any romantic intent there at the time but he was showing the depth and importance of their bond even back then.) 8x08 with the “talk to me” and the heart breaking conversation that followed that was cut short when Sam walked in. Dabb cares.

Dabb has also clearly been intrigued with the potentially romantic aspects of their relationship. I don’t know what his intentions have ever been with it, but at the very least, he has often seemed like he wanted to explore it. In 9x22 where Metatron delivers the “he’s in love with..,humanity” line, Dabb reportedly wrote that Metatron created Cas’ heaven as having tons of photos of naked Dean (which allegedly was axed by a higher up). His era led to Cas being given a vital, central role in the show and story like he’d never had before and also the escalation of the Dean/Cas romantic story like never before. In Dabb’s eps all of heaven and hell assume they’re banging with a demon even saying it to Cas’ face. Not to mention 12x23. Just all of it. Seriously.

I have no idea what TPTB intentions are, or ever have been, with Destiel as an eventual textual development, and yes I definitely believe that the right thing to do is for them to address it in some way. But I will say it bothers me a little when people throw it into the same category as a couple of other shows that shall not be named for the very important reason that the show has never invalidated any of the romantic elements of this relationship they’ve crafted between Dean and Cas, at least not post s8 and certainly not since Dabb took over around mid s11.

Kripke and Gamble definitely had a different approach that was pretty much just homoerotic subtext with the occasional (extremely on the nose) gay joke thrown in, but that’s not something Carver and Dabb did. However explicit they did/will get with it, every development between Dean and Cas has been anchored by serious emotional importance and nothing about their bond has ever been dismissed or downplayed as unimportant.

If there’s one thing I’m reasonably confident about is that that isn’t going to change. They’re not going to invalidate or “no homo” any of this by throwing Dean or Cas a last minute love interest. There’s a lot simmering under the surface between Dean and Cas right now, has been for a while now, and it’s definitely something they’re going to address if they’re going to give any kind of sensical end to their story.

Regardless of how explicit it winds up being - and again I want to reiterate, I do understand people’s pain and frustration if it winds up not being especially overt - this is a story that the people who created it cared about. The writers have treated in seriously and none of them ever mocked or dismissed any of the fans and are not evil villains cackling over a cauldron because they’ve tricked so many people with this story. Also, because I’ve been seeing some baffling commentary about intent - some from former Destiel shippers even - even if there isn’t a clear cut romantic endgame that makes it obvious to 100% of the GA, none of that invalidates all the romantic storytelling that has been, and continues to be, a part of the narrative for a long time now. It exists. To quote Misha “you are not crazy.” And don’t let anyone make you believe that you are.

TLDR: I have no idea what’s coming next and I’m sorry but I can’t give you any assurance that things are going to be wrapped up the way you or I would want them to be, but I can give you my long rambling thoughts about why I feel the way I do. Why it can still bug me that we can watch a story that if it was between a man and a woman would be blindingly clear to everyone but if it’s m/m (or even w/w) has constant denials levelled against it, but how at the same time I’m not constantly filled with rage or sadness about why it has played out the way it has.

So yeah, that’s how I’m going into the final season. There’s a lot more I wanted to say but looking at this wall of text I’m realising I’ve already gone on for far too long so I’ll stop now.

#spnloversstuff #asks #canon destiel #my spn thoughts

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murphystartedthefire · 5 years

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Conageddon: Luisa d’Oliveira’s Panel + associated stuff

So it’s just my luck that immediately after posting my Richard/Luisa recap, a whole bunch of the Conageddon panels including that one became available online! I definitely encourage people to check them out!

Unfortunately the people who taped them missed Luisa’s solo panel and Richard’s solo panel. So I will still recap those to the best of my ability like I was planning to.

PANEL

- As with all the panels, it was introduced with a fan video - it was this one that had an angsty/uplifting focus on Emori finding acceptance with spacekru. <3 Luisa said afterwards that she loves watching videos that fans cut together because it’s seeing her character's journey through their eyes.

- She talked about the backstories she’s come up with for Emori. She had different ideas and then the stuff with Baylis filled in some gaps but left a lot open. (Some of this came up at Unity Days also btw! I just don't think I wrote it up then because I didn’t have time. *hides*) She thinks the real Baylis was someone who collected outcast/mutated children and basically raised her, in an abusive and psychologically manipulative way. Her headcanon is that Otan was not her biological brother, but that she bonded with him during that time and they’d gotten out together.

- Going into season five, she said she had two ideas about what could happen with Emori in space -- she would either end up friends with everyone, or she'd not know how to deal with it and become more antagonistic. Which is basically what happened to John Murphy, so she was like “I nailed it” for both of them, hee.

- She has a project coming up but it’s on a new show/pilot and can’t say anything about it. [Note from Nicole: To be clear it might just be a minor role and not necessarily a big 100-affecting deal.]

- I asked her a question about her video game role in "Far Cry 5" -- she did the motion capture as well as voice acting for the game! So she talked about what that was like, wearing the suit with the beads and moving around a room reacting to people who weren’t there. The hardest part was knowing how much to act with her face, because on TV you would try to use subtle expressions, but the animation might not catch it and just look blank.

- In season 4 it was interesting having scenes with a lot of new characters and she’d think about what Murphy would have told her about them. A moment that didn't make it onscreen is when they're planning to go up in the rocket, John says something snarky and Bellamy gives him a "Shut up, Murphy" or something like that, and on one of the takes she just immediately GLARED at Bellamy like how dare you talk to him like that. *G*

- An audience member asked how she would want Emori to die. She says "happy", she would like an ending like Monty and Harper had, either that or in a "blaze of glory." Emori would not go down quietly.

- Moderator Jo followed this up with asking if she would lay down her life for John Murphy. Luisa says absolutely, he would for her and she would also, that's been established many times. Pointed to the scene in God Complex when she was trying to convince him not to fight for her. (She started cutely “reenacting” it like noooo save yourself and joked that was the original version before she helped them rewrite it.)

- Luisa’s Book Club recs: "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge and "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. She also loves Jane Austen and a book character she wishes she could transport into The 100 is Elizabeth Bennet.

- A character she would like to do more with is Indra. She never had any real female mentor relationships, at least before space.

- There were two really moving comments/questions in a row about her portrayal of Emori from people with diabilities, one said it was so important especially to see disabled love on TV, the other talking about the humanity and poise she gives her like few other disabled characters. She acknowledged she comes to it as someone who doesn’t have that experience in real life and wants to be respectful. She always just tried to ground it in something real and draw from the times she’s felt judged and isolated in her life, the feeling of walking into a room where everyone else is part of a family and she didn't belong there. :..( Authentic without it being the only thing that defines her.

- Toward the end she was trying out her English (Cockney) and Irish acccents. Not bad at them! She said she once talked to a drunk man in Ireland and he believed her fake accent, just thought she was from some other town. But she thinks it wouldn't have worked if he was sober. *g*

- Her favorite hot snack on set is pierogies. She was definitely also asked about her love of Italian food and what she likes to cook but I forgot! There was one audience guy who said he also has his friends over for dinner to watch the 100 and she was like “we were probably cooking at the same time.”

- Asked to describe Emori in season six with one emoji. She eventually went with “the one that's a straight line mouth and big eyes” -- which is actually the "Neutral Face". LOL clever.

- HI I GOT BACK UP ON THE MIC AND ASKED ABOUT THE "JOHN MURPHY I FELL IN LOVE WITH" SCENE and when (or if) Emori's feelings changed between that and the finale. Luisa says: Emori's feelings never changed, that wasn't the problem. To her that scene was about her trying to be logical and think with her head. When he was injured, her heart took over and everything else went out the window.

- What Emori now (or at the end of S5) would tell herself in her first episode: "There are people worth trusting even if they don't seem that way at first."

- Luisa’s advice to her own younger self (I’m pulling this from a livetweet): Don’t be so afraid of taking chances, saying or doing the wrong thing. Just keep paying attention and keep your mind open. Be kind. Be confident. You're good.

OTHER LUISA STUFF

- While her VIP and panel were criminally under-attended compared to some of the guests, I was really happy to see a ton of people did visit her in the autograph room and she had a good line throughout. She even got an Emori Pop! from the same person who’d made mine.

- I should also mention that when I interrupted her and Richard’s beer pong tournament in my party dress Friday night, she immediately recognized me as the one who always dresses at Emori and told Richard that was me. *blush* So I decided to go to her auto table on the day when I was in the outfit and my friend captured a shot of her hugging me.

- Whew, the other big thing was that I gave both her and Richard the mixtapes I made for their characters. Hers is basically the same as the one I posted for Emori Appreciation Week... She seemed genuinely touched and happy and was like “I’ll probably put these into my workbook” and I was like ohhh no haha I hope you just like *one* of them. She already knows “Creep” is on it, was saying it’s a big Emori song for her and describes exactly how she felt in vulnerable moments.

- I also brought up something she said on one of the early panels (with all the girls) about how Emori carries stress in her body and I did notice that in the scene she was talking about. I also noticed that when she's scared she usually reacts with anger like she's trying to cover it. She said she definitely did that intentionally, it’s an animal-like instinct Emori has -- when some animals are threatened, they try to go “I’M SCARY!!” (aww) Another way she’s like a cat.

- Also on Sunday toward the end, I ran into some of the cast near the VIP hallway and Luisa grabbed me and thanked me for my questions at her panel. ;___; This woman.

#luisasource #luisa d'oliveira #emori #emorisquad #the 100 cast #cute for a thief #conageddon

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