#Did this before I get yeeted into play rehearsal

[homobrainjuice]

THE silly

:P

[bular]

Welcome to Live Commentary

I had no one to talk to while watching the movie and I hate being alone with my thoughts so I wrote everything down in my notes app. It's not coherent! Enjoy!

Aw yeah 1.5 seconds of Bular that is all I needed! Might as well stop now I've seen my boy I'm satisfied.

Why is there a nearly 4 minute recap as if I haven't watched the show at least 50 times. I should be the one giving the recap.

The beginning felt a bit forced to me but maybe that's just me? Like they just tried to squeeze too many things into a small timeframe without any buildup, it just didn't really work. Congrats on the engagement! This is my OTP so I'm very happy! But it came out of nowhere.

Nari in Douxies body is so wrong and I love it and hate it at the same time (positive)

Eli is BIG. I knew he was gonna be tall but I was not prepared for that chiseled face. Or the fact that he stepped off the ship without glasses? I wear glasses and I would not choose to step off a spaceship blind.

OkAY who had mpreg on their bingo card?

AAARRRGGHH actually said a full sentence 🥺 there is no heterosexual explanation for this scene and I'm here for it

Arcadia being the center of the universe really does make a lot of sense. I hate how much sense it makes. Despise it.

Strickler in a Christmas sweater is something i didn't know I needed. Jim's jacket too but that's just adorable, Jim's adorable. Oh sweet baby you're about to get fucked over so bad.

Love seeing Barbara actively participating in battle too. Good for her! Power family!!

Where are the kids tho? Is NotEnrique babysitting? Either that or they hired the girl from the Incredibles movie.

Nomura is so talented I love seeing her fighting on the good side. I can't explain it but I love digitigrade legs they're just so pretty?? Aesthetically pleasing??? Fuck yeah, legg! I could watch Nomura run around and be badass all day.

WAIT NO OH SHIT HOW DARE YOU FUCK

STRICKLER DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE NOT YOU TOO THAT'S TOO FUCKING RUDE DON'T DO THIS TO ME

THERE'S NO WAY HE'S DEAD RIGHT WE SAW NO BODY

Barbara does not deserve this I refuse to accept it. He's fine he'll be back they wouldn't kill two Changelings at once. Also Nomura is with Draal now I take no criticism.

So my favorite characters were Bular, Draal, Gunmar and Angor. And before this movie I always half-joked that everyone I love dies, how I still like Strickler and Nomura but apart from them all of my faves were killed in the very order of favoritism. AND NOW LOOK AT THIS. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LOVE A CHARACTER. MY LOVE IS TOXIC.

OKAY I LOVE GUN RO- WAIT NO I DON'T LOVE HIM FUCK ABORT ABORT

It's great tho omg

I didn't realize it was Gun Robot when I saw it in the trailer this is amazing

Okay but imagine you're chilling in your trollmarket minding your own business when some misfit group of strangers waltzes in, steals your favorite shiny and celebrates your death before running off

"I AM GUN ROBOT" IS THE HORN LMAOOO

Nana better show up at some point to reunite with her boytoy, I'll cancel this entire franchise otherwise

Something bad is going to happen to Toby isn't it. He's getting too much screentime

Jim's hand got DEEP FRIED

ARCHIE NO

We can play Scrabble okay if they don't free them (which they must) I want an after credits scene of them playing scrabble

Douxie and Nari's bond 🥺🥺🥺

Nari pls just say what you fuckin mean the world is ending

Oh god is she going to remember killing Nomura oh nooo

Claire don't make the portal you will die again. Your hair gon be white all over

EVERYONE AVOIDING THE SCHOOL JUST RIGHT THERE LMAO RIP

I love how Darci is just with the school bus. Civilian girlfriend. But also love how the world is ending and Coach is like "fuck that I'm gonna teach these kids"

Does he know his son is pregnant

"Going back to the city where it's safe" buddy have you been to that city

Whatever happens, Nari has the coolest looking titan. Giant four legged gremlin. I'd adopt him.

WAIT SHE CAN FEEL THE PAIN?

Me: oh i love that titan

The titan 5 seconds later:

Did Nari just fucking die what the FUCK

Oh of COURSE the pages are stuck together RIGHT THERE

Seriously tho how do you not notice an entire nougat nummy in a book

Wait so Arcadia has another heartstone? Or OH SO IT'S ALIVE. OKAY GREAT. GUNMAR COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT RIGHT HUH

Love how the Heartstone has been dormant/dead for months and apparently heard Blinky say it's alive and decided to wake up RIGHT THEN

Finally they're evacuating the city. This is like, the third apocalypse there. About time.

Okay so you can't pull Excalibur from the rock, but you CAN carve out the stone. Couldn't you just carve it off the sword as close as possible and like. Use that? Just swing the whole damn rock around?

God i can NOT get over Steve's pants. I mean I read a spoiler he was gonna be pregnant but I thought it was a prank or shitpost. I did not see this coming and I am never going to be over it. I love how he and Aja just roll with it and nobody else even cares. They've seen weirder stuff. So he's pregnant now. Whatever.

Jim's hand is bandaged and his ribs still hurt. I love that they're actually consistent with his injuries. I mean sucks for him but hell yeah for hero that doesn't always win!

Okayyy here comes the heartstone. Why not!

IS HE IN LABOR

So if you kiss an Akiridion 7 times you will have 3-5 babies in a few hours. How are they not overpopulated?? Also Aja couldn't have WARNED STEVE BEFOREHAND?

Eli is so supportive omfg

So uh where are the babies gonna come out of? I'm not into mpreg how does this usually work

OH STEVE THANKS FOR ASKING MY QUESTION

Oh good thing he happens to have 8 friends still alive. Otherwise this would've never worked. Nomura had to die otherwise there would've been 10 of them.

Why is everyone bowing to Jim? Did they rehearse this?

Stuart if you hadn't taken a bathroom break you would've thrown off the math and doomed the world. That was a poop of fate my man

Ahhh the signature quote. Where did Douxie and the Akiridions learn it? Did they rehearse this too? It's really cliché but I do like it tbh

If Strickler were dead we'd see more Barbara right?

WOOO BLINKY DRIVING

Ah Jim just used she/her for Bellroc! Finally we're learning some pronouns. I've been wondering this whole time.

MY VIRGIN EYES. WHAT IS GOING O N

How are they not dying with all this lava?

She really just yeeted Varvatos

Did Claire just tell AAARRRGGHH to jump off the titan and he did it without question

I want to say I like Stuart and want him to have more screentime, but I won't say it because I don't want him to die

Jim's poor ribs

Toby can drive yoooo

Tobyyy you're scaring meeeee

So did they really need the different stone or was the amulet just waiting for Jim to choose death over giving up

I saw the armor before but it looks VERY COOL

Also I didn't mention this before but I love that they cut Merlin's name from the incantation. Good for them.

Toby you lost your helmet noooo

For real tho I'm terrified for Toby rn. I saw a comment somewhere earlier that just said "Toby no" with no context and I am AFRAID

So do Bellroc's eyes work after all? I thought she was blinded back in Wizards in the past.

DID SHE JUST FUCKING STAB MY BOY

TOBY YOU SHOULD NOT BE THERE GET OUT THE TRUCK

Bellroc maybe screaming "i'm powerless" in front of your enemy isn't the best idea

She sploosh

DID JIM SURVIVE THAT FALL AND ALSO IS THE TACO TRUCK OKAY

How is he lifting Claire like that buddy you have bruised ribs and just got stabbed

ELI HI CAN WE SEE THE KIDS

SEVEN KIDS! AND ELI JR I LOVE IT

This show really loves to give people more than the recommended amount of babies with no warning huh

She immediately knows which one is Eli Jr 🥺 okay listen I'm not the biggest fan of comic relief sideplot surprise babies, but I have to admit they're cute. Cute couple. Throuple. Eli is in on this. He even has a Junior.

I TOLD YOU WHERE'S THE DAMN TACO TRUCK NANA WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU AND NEITHER WILL I

Oh yea he better fuckin be alive I will commit murder

HE BETTER FUCKIN BE ALIVE BITCH

FUCK YOU

THAT'S A WHOLE ASS CHILD HE ISN'T ALLOWED TO DIE IT'S ILLEGAL

JIM IS GONNA LOOK DOWN AT THE GREEN GLOWING BITCH AAARRRGGHH CONVENIENTLY THREW THERE AND SEE HIM ALIVE OR SOMETHING

YEAH USE THE SWORD TO UNDEAD HIM! THAT'S HOW YOU USE SWORDS!

Unbecoming Part 2

So is Jim just gonna Groundhog Day it until everyone is fine? There's only 13 minutes left we're gonna need a bigger movie

Also I screamed so much about everyone's death and now everyone reading this after they already saw the whole thing is gonna shame me for clowning huh

The scene where Blinky is giving his goodbye speech, there are no babies and Steve has a round belly? Did he reabsorb them?? I mean I know Jim is about to un-birth them but he hasn't started yet

JUST HOW FAR BACK IS HE PLANNING TO GO

WAIT HOLD UP EXCUSE ME WHAT

Oh they did NOT just do that. I though he was just gonna go back to like, the start of the movie maybe. Not all the way

Imagine being in your early twenties with as much trauma as this kid has and having to pretend you're 16 again

Somewhere Unkar is complaining because "oh sure NOW it's a good idea"

I know Jim is wondering where Toby is because he was there before. But before, he made an entire meatloaf AND did his homework before leaving the house, so honey maybe wait a minute

For a second I thought Toby wasn't gonna be there and Jim would return to the right time. But there he is!

Alright so they're in school now, did they take the canal and just didn't mention the amulet on screen or did they pass it as if the Unbecoming episode hadn't been that traumatizing? Jim you know what happens when you ignore it

Jim maybe you're being too obvious here lmao

Soooo. Anyway. These whole past years I've rewatched this show over and over and over again are cancelled now?

OKAY AT LEAST WE SAW NANA FOR A SPLIT SECOND THAT'S IRONIC TIMING

So we get the quote again. And Trollhunter Tobias is nice. Cool. Cool AU I mean, but I don't know. I don't knowwww. I've been way too invested in everything to just accept that it never happened?? So uh. Hm. How about this.

Strickler survived because fuck you, and Toby also survived and just has scars now. Maybe a wheelchair but he's fine, also he can use the Warhammer for super speed and make it awesome once he's used to it. Archie and Charlie get freed once they rebuild the bridge (and they were playing scrabble to pass the time). Nomura is still dead because she died on screen and I can't really deny that but she's with Draal so it's okay. Everyone is traumatized but they'll be fine. NotEnrique is still babysitting 500 babies and Steve is about to bring 7 more.

In summary, I reject Groundhog Day ending but everything else was great, as long as it actually happened. It was a good movie. But you can't just cancel years of passion. Having the prospect of a million "canon AUs" sounds great for writing but at the same time nooo you can't do that he didn't have to go back THAT far HHHHH

I liked the movie. It was a great watch and a satisfying end to a franchise, but I gotta say I do not fancy the ending of it so I will from now on be in denial. I honestly feel kind of betrayed that this show was my whole life for so long, I learned every smallest fact, and they basically deleted it from existence. I know what they were going for, I think, but no thank you I will be going with my own opinion. Still gonna rewatch it a few dozen times though ✌🏻

And that concludes my live commentary that was supposed to be a small handful of notes. Feel free to shame me for my opinions. See ya!

[bluefirewrites]

I'm sorry about your presentation, idk if your still doing hcs but can you do one where Reggie is julies older brother by 1 or 2 years and Julie in love with Luke and Luke likes her as well but neither will do anything because of Reggie. If not its ok. ☺

I brought up an idea similar to this a while back! But let’s rework it. 

In this scenario, let’s say that the Molinas and the Peters' have known each other for a long while, ever since Julie and Reggie were kids. They’ve pretty much grown up together. 

And then they get older and a lot of shit happens. Julie’s mom dies. And Reggie’s parents finally get a divorce. 

As the two families are healing and trying to move on, eventually Ray and Reggie’s mom sorta just clicked. 

And years later, they ended up getting married- officially making Reggie Julie’s brother. 

They move into the Molina’s house and they transition to one big family so seamlessly that Julie often forgets that Reggie isn’t her brother in the biological sense. He’s always been an older figure to her, always looking out for her and Carlos. 

She’s so used to having him around. And even used to having Reggie’s friends around growing up. 

They all met when they were in middle school, but Julie hasn’t seen them much over the years, only seeing them during special occasions or whenever she would go to the Peters’ from time to time. 

She remembers Alex, the shy blonde one who does his best to keep the peace when everyone got too rowdy. 

And then Bobby, who is just hitting his stride in his sullen, moody teenager phase. Still nice though. 

And Luke, the wild one. The guy was all long haired, energetic, and sporting some gnarly braces the last time she saw him. 

She hears a knock at the door the night Reggie and his mom had moved in. Julie opens it and it’s the boys: Alex, Bobby, and- woah. 

“Julie?” Luke smiles, his long hair cut to a still shaggy ‘do, braces gone, and now ripped, telling by how he’s proudly wearing his Nirvana cutoffs, “No way! Long time no see,” 

“Y-yeah,” Julie instantly wishes that she wasn’t wearing her dinosaur slippers at the moment. She leads them all inside, telling them to make themselves at home while they wait for Reggie to come down. 

Julie hurries off to her room, red in the face, internally freaking out about the idea of a cute guy coming over to her house on a regular basis. 

A cute guy she cannot get involved with... imagine how Reggie would react... 

The guys note the dreamlike expression on Luke’s face as he watched Julie go up the stairs. Once she’s gone, Luke whirls around, “Has she always been like that?” 

“Squirrely?” 

“No...” Luke drops his voice down to a whisper, “I mean, has she always been that cute?” 

Alex and Bobby shoots this idea down real quick, “Woah! No no no! Off-limits! She's off-limits, Luke!” 

“How come?” 

“She’s Reggie’s sister,” 

“Step-sister,” 

“Still,” Bobby cuts in, “You know Reggie. He takes the brother role very seriously. He won’t let you stand a foot away from her if he heard what you just said.” 

“If who heard what?” Reggie says, coming down the stairs. 

“Nothing!” They all exclaim, and Luke silently thanks the boys for not ratting him out and invoking Reggie’s wrath. 

He does know how Reggie can get when it comes to Julie. He’s already so protective of her. So he’s not going to try and do anything to piss him off. 

And besides, he just finds her cute. It’s not like anything’s gonna come from it. 

Wrong. 

Luke and Julie are hardcore pining for each other the more time the boys spend over at the house. 

And they’re over a lot. 

Julie would come into the garage, now a studio space for the boys’ band, and watches them practice. 

Somehow Luke finds a way to gravitate towards her. Always standing beside her, ready to show a song he’s been working on or just ask how she’s doing. 

And Julie would find an excuse to hang around the boys, whether offering to help with songwriting or help clean up the equipment. One time, she hands Luke his guitar and their hands met. They both blush but quickly part before Reggie could see what transpired. 

They sneak little casual touches here and there, both to gauge if the other person reciprocates their feelings and to hide whatever was going on between them from Reggie. 

This all coming from the fear of Reggie flipping out on them. 

Apparently when the boys bring up Nick from Julie’s class, joking about the way he was starry-eyed when dancing with Julie (secretly trying to get a rise out of Luke), Reggie immediately asks Julie about a thousand questions: 

“Who is he? What does he do?” 

“Do? He’s a student. In my grade...” 

“Oh. No job? So he’s a deadbeat, huh? Doesn’t sound like a suitable match,” 

“What are you going on about?”

“Does he like the Star Wars Prequels? Yes or No? There is a right answer” 

“What does this have to do with anything, Reggie?”

“I need to know if he’s good enough for you!” 

Reggie starts watching Nick like a hawk at school, going out of his way to intimidate the junior (well as much as he could. he’s still pretty much a puppy and super non-threatening). 

It’s getting ridiculous. 

So Julie goes to talk to Luke, to try and nip this in the bud before Reggie notices their weird behavior. She manages to play off needing help to get something in the laundry room to get him alone without suspicion. 

“Look, we can’t do this anymore... whatever this is,” 

Luke nods, “Agreed. Reggie’s my best friend.” 

“And he’s my brother,” 

“I don’t want to do something that would upset him,” 

“Me neither. Glad we’re on the same page,” 

“Right. Same page. So just friends. Deal?” she sticks her hand out. 

He shakes it, “Deal,” 

They lock eyes, appreciating how the other one looks under the warm dimmed light. 

It takes only about .5 seconds for them to crash their lips onto each other’s, igniting a full on make out session. And by the time they finished, they realize their mistake. 

Uh oh. 

They can’t go back after this. 

Now they really have something to hide from Reggie. 

They sneak around the house, whenever they could. 

Luke would make up an excuse to grab water or go to the bathroom in the middle of rehearsal, just to sneak up to Julie’s room to grab a quick kiss and maybe a small tickle fight just so he could hear that laugh he loves so much. 

And Julie would join the boys at the dinner table, sitting next to him and discreetly slipping cue love notes into his pocket that she knows would make him blush and smile all goofily later (and if they turn into potential song lyrics? Well that's for them to know).

Alex warns Luke the next day, “I think he’s catching on. Be more careful,” 

They spend more time together now that Julie starts writing songs for the band. Her and Luke would huddle over the piano, scribbling the night away, always sitting dangerously close to each other.

Once, Reggie observes them quietly from the couch with an unreadable expression on bis face.

“We are careful,” 

Bobby raises an eyebrow at him, “Really? You tried to pass off the hickeys on Julie’s neck as rashes.” 

“And Reggie bought it, remember? He went out and got ointment for her and everything,” 

“He’s not stupid, Luke. You better do something about this. Fast,” 

Luke sighs, “You’re right.” 

Later that night, Luke pulls Julie into the upstairs bathroom, the one between her room and Reggie’s, to talk. 

“Jules, as much I want to keep doing this... I can’t stand lying to Reggie,” 

“Me too,” she says, “So, let’s just tell him. I don’t like hiding you.” 

“But we need to plan it out. We can’t just spring it on him,” 

“Catch him in a good mood hopefully, and we’ll tell him together,” 

“Sounds like a plan, boss,” 

“Love it when you call me boss,” Julie smiles, angling her head up to kiss him. 

Just then, the door connecting to Reggie’s room bursts open and the said bassist enters in his bathrobe. His eyes grow wide at the sight of them tangled up in each other. 

“What is going on here?” 

The couple breaks apart. Julie and Luke jump to opposite sides of the bathroom, hands up in surrender. 

“You didn’t lock the doors?” Julie hisses at Luke

“Was not my main priority!” Then Luke steps forward in an attempt to calm Reggie down, “Hey, Reg, pal, um, what you just saw-” 

“You guys were kissing in here?” he yells. 

Julie and Luke lower their heads, “...yeah,” 

Reggie sighs, throwing his hands up in the air, “Unbelievable!”

“Reggie, we’re sorry-” 

“In the bathroom, really? Can’t you guys do this in the laundry room like you usually do? My toothbrush is here, come on!”  

Wait. What?

Did they hear him correctly? 

“You knew?!” Julie all but screamed at her brother. 

“Duh. You’re not really subtle,” 

Luke splutters, “B-But Nick-” 

“Found out real quick that he’s not the one I should be worried about,”

“And the... the, well..?”  Julie gestures lamely at her neck, “Why did you get me ointment?” 

Reggie smirks, “Just to mess with you.” 

“So... you’re not mad?”

“Nah. Like I said. I need to make sure whatever guy you end up with, Jules, is good enough for you. And, well, I’ve known Luke almost all my life. And I trust him. Honestly, there’s no other guy I could think of that could be a better match for you.” 

Luke’s hand rests on his shoulder, “You mean that, Reg?” 

“Of course. I’m happy for you guys. But uh...” he sticks his thumb towards the door, “Could you like skip on out of here. I did come to the bathroom for a reason.” 

“Oh, right,” 

“Your Tia’s chicken went right through me-” 

“Ok, Reggie! We’re leaving!” 

“But one more thing,” 

Luke and Julie stop in the doorway leading to the hallway. 

“If you think I’m bad,” Reggie shakes his head, “Try breaking the news to Carlos,” 

Luke pales, “Oh no,”

“’Oh no’ is right,” 

The couple spins around to find Carlos in the hallway, arms crossed, staring them down, “Care to explain why you two were in the bathroom?”

“Well, uh, um, we were-” Luke turns to Julie, but the girl is nowhere to be found, having already yeeted to her room to escape an overprotective Carlos. 

Luke throws a pleading look at Reggie, “A little help here, buddy?”  

Meanwhile, Carlos is unamused, carrying so much tension in his small body that it has Luke gulping nervously. 

“Nope you’re on your own,” he winks, “Make sure to tell him about the ‘rash’ while you’re at it.”

And with a laugh, the bathroom door closes. 

“I can explain...” 

[centrally-unplanned]

I rewatched Hibike! Euphonium’s first season this weekend, and it really held up! I don’t have enough of a hook for a big conceptual essay, I am just going to write down the interesting parts of the show that it executes on really well.

Hibike is very much the story of the main character, Kumiko, and her story is one of learning to care about music - and excellence in music - despite being surrounded by people who in various ways look down on people for being try-hards or bucking a seniority (as opposed to merit-based) system. Kumiko starts the show unaware of her real motivations in life, and her arc is to figure out what she really values as opposed to playing along. This story is told in two ways - a main plot about the band shaping up to compete in competitions, and the romantic relationship between Kumiko and ultra-try-hard music savant Reina. Hibike does a really good job of marrying these two plots together into a thematic whole so that they really just feel like one story. Romances can often be based on very shallow elements, but Kumiko & Reina both connect by being two sides of the same coin; Kumiko compromises on her passion to fit in and not risk trying, an ‘outsider’ pretending to be an insider, while Reina cannot compromise on passion and suffer socially for it, and wears a mask of apathy to others to compensate. Kumiko admires Reina but at first doesn’t realize it, and as they connect she not only realizes how much Reina’s musicality is attractive to her, but that she also wants that for herself, and wants to be open about it. (The classic queer girl conundrum - do I want to *date* her, or do I want to *be* her?? For Kumiko, like so many, its both)

Which, as is hopefully obvious, is the same exact theme as the main plot of a band trying to win!

This blending is really encapsulated in the peak of the show’s penultimate episode (episode 12, aka the best episode). At the beginning of the show, in a flashback to middle school, Kumiko and Reina’s band gets essentially second place in the local competition; nice, but not enough to advance to regionals. Most people are happy but Reina is devastated, and Kumiko (who barely knows Reina) is the only person to be honest enough with her to say “you didn’t honestly expect us to win, did you? No one else did” with nonchalance. Because she is right - no one else, including Kumiko, was *really* trying to win. She doesn’t get how Reina could ever think otherwise.

So flash forward to episode 12, tons of club drama has gone down, Kumiko & Reina are ~dating at this point, and everyone is gung-ho for the competition. And Kumiko...starts falling apart a bit musically. She was always talented, but is by no means a prodigy, and hasn’t tried the way Reina has tried - and still hasn’t, all the pieces in her life are accelerating in intensity but her self-awareness hasn’t caught up yet. And she keeps failing in rehearsals to the point where she is removed from a section of the performance, and she is devastated by it - which is new to her! She wouldn’t have been devastated before! So yeah its arc moment time, she has this huge breakdown running across a bridge where the animation staff flex every muscle they have just because they can:

Like seriously, they didn’t *have* to start the scene where Kumiko is rounding the corner paired with a zoom change at the same time, in 90% of all shows this would have been a single-perspective panning shot; so much work went into a shot that’s just a girl on a bridge and that level of effort is 50% of the appeal of the show. But anyway, Kumiko breaks down, she realizes that dammit she gives a shit about this stupid euphonium and band competition and she is not too ‘cool’ to not be wounded by the idea of failing at it any more, and oh look, hey:

What I love about the call-back is actually how understated it is. Sure, in the moment it's dramatic, it is where Kumiko and Reina’s arcs merge, but it happens...maybe two-thirds of the way into the episode? And it is well past the peak of Kumiko’s emotional intensity in the scene - there was actually like a small joke with her male friend just before this! - and it's over in seconds before we move on to other things. Kumiko’s *emotions* aren’t understated, but everything stays grounded; its orchestra practice, you aren’t gonna ~yeet over the bridge Javert-style due to it. The arcs are merged, the scene is beautiful, but Kumiko stays very real, which matches the tone of the show. And from that realism the scene is therefore more believable, and thus more powerful. Which is the raison d'etre of Hibike Euphonium in general, how important and beautiful those small things can be, and that is a tone lots of other shows struggle to hit.

(And of course they communicate the emotional bridge between Kumiko/Reina not only via dialogue but visually via a match-fade cut, its film-making 101 but by god do the majority of shows fail that)

Bonus Note: Since it didn’t fit anywhere else without breaking flow, I’ll just add that it was really smart to have Kumiko be only a ‘good’ euphonium player with no hint of being a prodigy. It makes her passion more relatable and more meaningful, as it is relatively trivial to be passionate about something you are a savant at. And it gives bonus depth points to Reina, who you would totally expect to be stereotypically only into other musical geniuses, but instead is attracted to Kumiko for her personal qualities, a much more solid foundation.

[mirinda03]

CONVENTIONAL FAMILY? Who’s that?

Chapter 2: Where a bike is nearly stolen and the rivalry begins

Roman Berry’s first thought before crashing against a tree was

‘My father is going to kill me’.

Roman’s first thought after crashing against a tree was

‘Well, at least my bike is in one piece’

Roman Berry had been running late from rehearsals. Usually, he arrived at his house at 3 pm to have lunch with his dad. It was one fo the only times they got to see each other on weekdays, since his father was almost always at work.

Roman knew that most teenagers would probably resent their parents for being busy, but he understood. His father, Logan Berry, was a successful bussinessman but he took the time to always eat lunch with Roman in his spare time. Unlike popular belief, his father thought that ‘Family interactions were an upmost priority. That’s something you teens of today would call ‘a woke take’”

Roman had pleaded to his father that he didn’t try to use slang anymore. Not after the ‘would you please yeet me that glass, roman’ incident. Roman had been practically traumatized.

He carefully picked up his bike, checking it’s conditions. It didn’t look THAT bad to him. Maybe his dad wouldn’t even notice?

Sighing in relief, Roman let go of his bike accidentally and watched as it fell to the pavement. A rock intercepted the fall and left a dent in the otherwise spotless bike.

Behind him, Roman heard a mocking giggle.

Turning his head, the 15 year old came face to face with an 8 year old laughing blatantly at him.

“What are you laughing about?” Roman asked offendedly.

The kid took no time to respond

“You” he said, snorting once again and delving into another round of giggles.

Roman watched umcomfortably as the small kid continued laughing as if Roman was the funniest circus performer in town.

“Hey kid, mind your manners. Wouldn’t want the Dragon Witch to go hunting you” Roman reprimanded, a bit amused himself.

The kid looked at him confused

“Dragon witch?”

Roman smirked internally. But outward, he nodded solemnly

“Yes. The dragon witch. A.. well Dragon witch who casts spells on misbehaving kids like you” he said dramatically, his theater skills definitely shining through.

Roman expected many reactions. He expected a frightened gasp, or maybe a wide eyed look. He also expected the kid blatantly not believing him. He didn’t seem like a naive kid after all.

What he didn’t expect, was a ferocious grin to stretch on the young boy’s face.

“So i’ll get hunted by a witch if I misbehave? Well well well. I should really have strived to be more misbehaving today” he said in a mockingly thoughtful tone “hmm how to be even more misbehaving? I know!”

He stood up and grinned evilly at Roman

“I’ll steal your bike”

And with that, the kid launched himself towards the bike. Roman screamed and began running away from the scarily menacing kid, carrying his bike with him.

It wasn’t until he had been running for about 5 miles that he realized. The kid wasn’t even running after him anymore. There was no trace of him.

Roman grumbled and walked all the way back home, already hating that kid.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~••~•~•~

Remus proudly walked into his house and headed for the kitchen. There, he saw his dear old dad making dinner.

Janus noticed Remus’ grin immediately.

“What did you do?” Janus deadpanned, cutting right to the chase.

“On nothing. Just went to the park and swung on the swings” Remus innocently answered.

Janus scoffed at that

“If you’re gonna lie to my face, at least make it believable” he said “Now tell me, what 4 year old did you scare now”

Remus’ grin widened at that.

“I didn’t scare a 4 year old. I scared a teenager. He seemed older than Virge!”

As if on cue, Virgil stepped down the stairs

“I heard the words ‘Virge’ and knew you did something. Spill” Virgil said, also cutting to the chase like his dear old dad.

“I terrorized a you”

“A ‘me’?”

“He means a 15 year old, so someone older than you” Janus answered simply, focused on making dinner once again.

Virgil spluttered.

“I’m almost 15” he grumbled “but anyway, who was the kid or whatever?”

Virgil casually took a glass of milk, inspecting it just to check it wasn’t poisoned. One could never be too careful.

“Very dramatic kid. Curly brown hair and like, green eyes.“

Virgil spit out his milk.

“What did you do?” He asked, trying to play it off as casual and failing miserably.

Remus smirked

“Oh you know, threatened to steal his bike after he tried to scare me with some ‘Dragon Witch’ story. He looked really familiar, like that boy you always seem to be bickering with when Dad and I go pick you up. Are you ever gonna ask him out or what?”

Virgil stared wide eyed at Remus. His eyes narrowed into a murderous glare.

“I’m going to KILL YOU” he hollered, beginning to chase the boy across the room as Remus giggled wildly.

Janus rolled his eyes at the two, instead focused on finishing the dinner. SOMEONE had to be the rational one in this family after all. And neither of his kids seemed to posses any braincells.

[unsaid-stardust]

Cowboys and Sheriffs

Author’s note: ok wow an overwhelming amount of people said they wanted this fic so uhhh...here it is!! Tagging those of you who commented! 💜

Tagging: @littledancersun @mambofivehargreeves @sunsetcurves  @verified-dumbass @julie-and-the-phantoms-stan @jatpobsessedgirl @meangirlsx @letyourcolors @kikicalanmai

"Aha! Gotcha! Any last words?" Reggie holds his hands up in defense, cornered, unable to escape. He stares his enemy down, not wanting to give up his guard. 

"No need for last words when I won!" Reggie shouts. He immediately reaches into his back pocket and forms his fingers into a fake gun. He proceeds to shoot at his enemy in front of him, throwing a pillow in place of a bullet. The enemy is hit, flying backward onto the ground, crying out in surrender. 

"Ah! Mijo! I told you to stop playing dead and throwing pillows around the house! Someone could get hurt and the ghost could take it as an opportunity to haunt you!" Tía shouts, almost tripping over Carlos on the floor. Reggie felt his jaw drop slightly in hurt, he would never haunt anyone and the fact that Tía even felt like he could, showed how much she didn't know him. That's because she doesn't know you. Reggie heard Alex's annoying sarcasm in the back of his head. He chose to ignore it; it's what he does when Alex is there anyway. He would never haunt anyone, especially Carlos. Carlos stands up with a sigh. 

"Tía I told you-pillows are harmless! And there is no ghost! I never thought this day would come, but as the man of the house, I have to be honest. I was wrong and ghosts don't exist," Carlos explains, winking in Reggie's direction. Oh good, he's faking it. I really thought I was losing him there for a second. 

"Man of the house? Mijo what are you-" Carlos takes the opportunity to stop her from lecturing. 

"Uh you know, why don't you go ask dad? I think he was in the kitchen when I saw him!" Carlos guides Tía towards the kitchen. She protests, but goes with it nonetheless and leaves Carlos and Reggie to their own devices. Reggie makes himself visible to Carlos then. Yeah, they could do that now, well, sometimes. Reggie was still having trouble figuring out this newfound power of visibility. He couldn't do it all the time and when he id able to do it, it's not for very long. But, it's long enough to talk to Carlos. 

"Good save, little man. But, Why'd you have to go and put Ray in that position? Tía's gonna be lecturing him for awhile now and I wanted to stop by and see him before rehearsal!" Reggie explains. 

"Well it was either have us go through Tía's lecture or have it be dad and that was an easy decision. And I don't really get why you like hanging out with my dad so much. I mean he is a pretty cool dad, despite the times he tries to use modern slang like 'lit' and 'yeet', but otherwise he just kinda sits there and sifts through mail or whatever it is dads do. Besides, you can't even be visible in front of him because Julie hasn't told him about you being a ghost yet," Carlos responds.

Reggie suddenly feels like an anchor just tethered him to the bottom of the ocean. His feet feeling as though they were glued to the floor beneath him and he couldn't go anywhere, he couldn't even poof out if he tried. And suddenly, he could hear the echoing yells. The ones that fifteen and sixteen and seventeen-year-old Reggie knew oh so well. His parents. 

"Regg, you okay?" Carlos snaps him out of wherever he was. He blinks to get rid of the remnants of his memories. 

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good. But, I gotta go get to practice! Sheriffs and Cowboys round 3 tomorrow though, right?" Reggie finger guns in Carlos' direction and Carlos' face lights up again. 

"Yeah, totally! But I'm the cowboy this time!" Carlos adds, a stern look on his face. Reggie frowns.

"What? Come on! You know cowboys are my thing!" He protests. Carlos raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms in defense. 

"Aren't you late for practice?" He interrogates. Reggie drops his jaw slightly, almost forgetting about practice completely. He poofs out quickly, but realizes that he hasn't fully solidified his accustomed position as cowboy. He poofs back into the living room briefly and adds

"We're not done here!"

~*~

Later that night, after practice seemed to have end, Carlos heads towards Julie's room. He may not know Reggie all that well and he might only be 12, but he knew something was bothering Reggie and he wanted to change that. Reggie's kinda become a big brother to Carlos. Julie is cool and all, for an older sister Carlos couldn't have asked for a better one, but it was nice having another guy in the house. Julie doesn't play Cowboys and Sheriffs with him or watch all the Star Wars movies or show the same enthusiasm over the third French Dip. Besides, if Reggie is all mopey or spaced-out or whatever, then he wouldn't play Cowboy and Sheriff with the amount of energy that it requires! 

Julie claims that the guys don't talk about their past that often, so she didn't know much about Reggie, but Luke had told her after an argument had erupted during practice one day and Reggie poofed out, that his parents used to argue a lot. They were close to divorcing apparently. She thinks that's why he likes hanging out with their dad all the time even though it can appear to be boring. 

"So then why haven't you told dad about them yet? That's what Reggie needs! The ability to talk to dad!" Carlos shouts.

"It's not that simple, Carlos. I mean yeah, dad's pretty cool, but do you think he'd be cool with three teenage boys living in our studio?!" Julie responds. Carlos stopped. He hated to admit it, but she was right. As much as he wanted Reggie to be able to talk to him, he didn't think that'd go over so well. 

"Fine, you got a point. But, there's gotta be some way Reggie can talk to dad. Please, how are we supposed to watch Star Wars if he keeps spacing out all the time?" Carlos pouts. Julie looks at her little brother. Her first instinct is to say "no". Reggie isn't that subtle at being a ghost, Tía still won't be in the living room by herself. But, She can't help, but think about how proud their mom would've been at how caring Carlos is. And because of this she says

"Ok, alright, I think I have a way," 

~*~

"Carlos! Little man! Where are you!" Reggie calls, searching the house for Carlos. He's been everywhere and he hasn't seen him, which is odd because it's 3:30 and Carlos should be home from school by now. Plus, they were supposed to meet at the usual spot to play their round of Cowboys and Sheriffs. 

"If this is because you have to be Sheriff again, I'm sorry! You can be the Cowboy this time!" He tries again. Suddenly, he feels all tingly and warped and that can only mean one thing. 

"Oh hey, Julie! Have you seen Carlos? We're supposed to play Cowboys and Sheriffs," He explains. Julie shakes her head and decides to keep the fact that Carlos can't actually hear him  unless he's visible to herself. 

"Yeah! He's in the kitchen," Julie motions Reggie to follow her and she leads him to the kitchen. When he enters, he sees Carlos sitting at the dinner table with Ray. They're chatting about something, but Reggie can't follow the conversation. Carlos and Julie exchange a look then and Julie motions him to follow her towards the table. 

"Hey, daaaad. Remember when you said you wanted to meet the band?" Julie questions. Reggie raises his eyebrow. 

"I do, but I think I recall you saying that they don't like to be seen or something along those lines," He answers, sitting back in his chair. Julie's jaw drops a bit from an unexpected answer. 

"Uh yeah, yeah I did say that didn't I? But, but, I think we may have figured out a way for you to meet them! Well, one of them anyway, Carlos!" Julie nods in Carlos' direction and Reggie has never felt more confused in his entire afterlife. Except, maybe when he, you know, brought back as a ghost. Because that was pretty confusing. Carlos stands up with a smile and hands Ray a pen. 

"Julie and I found this cool app that allows you to link this very pen to another. We sent one to the guys so whatever you write on your page, will show up on their page and what they write, will show up on yours," Carlos explains. Ray shakes his head, his eyebrows furrowed; Reggie does the same and Julie rolls her eyes with a smile. 

"You kids and your technology. I will never understand it. But, I'll try it," He responds. Reggies stops. Was he-supposed to go write to Ray? And if he is--what was he supposed to say? Hey I've been hanging out with you and you're a cool dad, I wish you were my dad? Even Reggie knew that wouldn't work! He turns to Julie for some kind of reaction; she nods and Reggie makes his way towards Ray and his notebook. Ray finishes writing his sentence and Reggie peers at the notebook. 

Hey Phantoms, this is Julie's dad. Can you read this? 

Reggie let out a small chuckle and picks up the pen. 

Loud and clear, Ray-Reggie 

"This technology is amazing it looks like it's writing itself! You kids are incredible!" Ray shouts, dramatically motioning towards the pen. Carlos walks towards his sister, exchanging a knowing smile. She puts her hand on his shoulder and he leans into her side. He watches Reggie and sees his smile widen every time her dad writes something. He sees him looking like a kid who has just opened the gift on Christmas Morning that they had been asking for all year. He sees him jump up in excitement at their dad's answers. 

"He likes Country music!" Reggie couldn't be happier. 

"I told you guys he'd like Country! I have to play him some of my Country stuff!" Carlos shakes his head and looks up at his sister. 

"I'm gonna have to find another Cowboy, aren't I?" 

[sync-up]

My BMC Experience

Hey y'all I saw BMC on February 24, 2019 at 2:00 and I have so many thoughts in my head so let's get this ball rolling. Everything is under the cut because it's a super long post and I have a lot to say

Changes:

WILL ROLAND HAS GLASSES! He has them at the beginning of the musical. The morning after he got his Squip, the Squip corrects his vision and he loses them for the rest of Act 1 and most of Act 2. After "The Play," he gets them back

New dialogue in More Than Survive from the teens

Mr Reyes rewrites A Mid Summer Night's Dream just cause he wants to

The Squip has a brand new verse right before BMC part 1!

More Than Survive Reprise has been replaced with a song named (Let's) Sync Up with only a few remaining lyrics at the end

There are a lot of changes to Upgrade lyrics, including the repeated line "I'm tired of being the person that everyone thinks that I am"

Halloween also has a new verse!

Jake no longer comes through the window, he just bursts through the door

Jason Tam sings along with the kids in one of the verses of Halloween, and dances along too. He's front and center

The Squip now wants to, and I quote, "take over the entire human race" to achieve Jeremy's goal

Michael at the hospital: "Hi Rich! ...Bye Rich!"

Overall, it looks like everyone is more thoroughly and explicitly explored? I mean everyone

Visuals:

Everything was very neony and flashy, like in off broadway

The band is behind the stage, behind a wall that can lift and drop

There's like a conveyor thing in the back that brings a lot of people on and off

There are these phone shaped rectangles that drop from the ceiling? At one point during the smartphone hour Jason Sweettooth Williams and Gerard (?) enter via those. They ride them

Right after More Than Survive, when Jeremy is about the go into the drama room, he waits outside for a bit prepping before Michael goes kind of “Really?” and pushes Jeremy into the room

During "I Love Play Rehearsal," Christine leans really close to Jeremy when she says "A part of me also wants to do this" and she looks like she's about to kiss him

During "Do You Want a Ride," Brooke has a soda can and a straw that she repeatedly jams into each other. She also sucks and licks the straw a lot

There was this weird streamer thing during Halloween? It was orange and long and it kept getting caught on people's costumes as they came out

Pretty sure this was unintentional, but during Smartphone Hour Brooke tried to yeet her banana off stage only it fell onstage

When Michael made his entrance, he ripped through this tapestry thing

JEREMY FLIPPED OFF THE SQUIP DURING THE PLAY

Squip (or Jason Tam) Stuff:

The costumes' color schemes transition from light blue/white to black/silver/white

He has maybe 5 costumes in total? Each change was pretty fast too, the longest amount of time he had offstage was maybe a minute or two and the shortest maybe 15 seconds

He didn't change between Act 1 and Act 2 which was surprising

He does not have a Neo costume during Halloween

He has emo hair at the end

As he "dies," the wall to the orchestra room behind the stage lifts and the Squip mimes being dragged into it

He's definitely the fourth wall breaker in this show. Several times he goes to the outside border of the stage (a place where no other character goes) and stares out into the audience. After DYWR he looks at them like "can you believe this guy?"

He also directly interacts with the audience by throwing sparkly confetti into them during "A Guy I Could Kind Of Be Into." The only time the wall to the orchestra is lifted is when the Squip dies

The Squip dabbed

For whatever reason, during DYWH he just... looked out the window a lot

I've been told this also happened off Broadway, but I'll say it again: After glitching out and speaking rapid Japanese, the Squip screeched and flopped face first onto the bed. He stayed there until the scene ended, and was carried out by the bed rolling out

He's now noted as a "learning program," and learns from observing human behavior

Christine confuses and frustrates him because she doesn't follow normal social rules

He loves?? Climbing shit

During the Play, he controlled the squipped teens like puppets and physically fought Mich & Jer. Every time Mich or Jer hit them, Jason would also mine being hit

Miscellaneous:

Oh my god, the line around the theater was SO LONG. It like doubled within five minutes!

I sat super close (Row E) and almost cried

The orchestra area was smaaaall. I only saw maybe 10-15 rows in the center orchestra. Big theatre though, there were two levels above us

Everyone in the audience was very enthusiastic, but respectful! They all cheered at the end when Jeremy kissed Christine (they were very cute)

A lot of people came out at stage door, especially for a Sunday matinee show! The list goes: Both Jasons, Stephanie, Gerard, George, Katlyn, Lauren. Troy and Cameron also came out even though they didn't perform!

Someone asked Jason Tam to say "How do you do, fellow kids" In his Squip voice. He did

Someone also asked Katlyn what headcanons she had for Chloe. She said that Chloe was in anger management because she slapped her pony named Cinnamon

PLEASE feel free to send me asks about this!! I had so much fun and can feel myself wanting to get into this show again! Please keep in mind that I saw this during previews, so some of this might not even have been in the evening show that same day and won't be in the final version after opening!

[all-hail-the-witcher]

Soft but angst Ralbert where one of them has had a day that starts taking a toll on them emotionally, and when it all climaxes they start having a panic attack over something small like forgetting socks and someone else in the friend group snaps at them because “it’s just socks” and tells them to get it together and then the other half of the ship gets super protective of the one whose panicking and snaps at the friend who snapped and then helps the boyf??? Is that too complicated???

WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THATSAPH IS BACK WITH THE REQUESTSYEEEEET_________ship: ralberrtttttt what elsegenre: flangst, s o m f o r twarnings: Very Descriptive panic attack, shitty pet names, Finch is an asshole accidentallywords: like uhh 1200editing: i thinkst the fuckst not_________

There wasn't a single thing Race hated more than his brain. Why did it choose to freak out over the smallest, most trivial things? He didn't know. Why did it seek out dark corners to dwell upon? He also didn't know. Why did it choose to freak out at the worst possible time? You guessed it, he didn't know.

He strolled into rehearsal that morning, hand in hand with his boyfriend Albert, fully aware of the rocky state of his stomach and the fuzziness clouding his mind that he couldn't seem to shake. He had had woken up in a panic, feeling dangerously lightheaded after a nightmare that had left him on edge at three am, followed soon after by breaking a glass in the kitchen while eating breakfast which subsequently caused him and Albert to miss the subway, and when they did finally get on an older man had flipped him the finger after he leaned heavily onto Albert’s shoulder and planted a kiss on his cheek. Luckily, Albert had been occupied with something on his phone, and hadn’t noticed the tears that threatened to spill from Race’s eyes, otherwise he would be bandaging his knuckles in a walgreens bathroom right now.

Race forced himself to take a deep breath as he placed his bag down on the bench in the locker room, blocking out the deafening chatter around him as he slowly and deliberately pressed the pad of his thumb to each of his fingers, using his other hand to root around in his dance bag for a pair of socks, making sure to focus on his breathing as he-

Where were his socks?

He swore he had packed them.

Breathing forgotten, he navigated through the contents of his dance bag at random, pulling out stray shoes, shirts and a few plastic water bottles, until all of his belongings were strewn across the bench and the surrounding floor, no socks in sight.

His vision began to blur as he shoved the haphazard items back into his bag, some landing on the floor because of his trembling hands. Blinking hard and forcing himself to swallow the rising unnecessary panic in his throat, he stumbled over to where Albert was chatting with Finch as he pulled on his warm up clothes. Upon seeing Race approaching, he smiled brightly, an action that Race fought to return. He couldn't let Albert know he was slipping right now, it had been weeks since the last time this had happened and he had been doing so well.

“Hey broski, what's up?” Albert leaned against the wall casually, his signature smirk playing across his lips.

Race smiled shakily. “Do you, uh, have a pair of….socks i could borrow?” He ducked his head slightly, fighting against the tightness consuming his chest.

“Yeah, of course,” Albert said, turning his back to Race to dig through his bag. As he did so, Race began to feel his nerves lessen. He would make it through this, he would be okay, he would be-

“Jeez dude,” Finch said suddenly, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Don't lose your mind over it, it’s just a pair of damn socks.”

Race felt his breathing pick up again as he saw his hands visibly begin to shake in front of him. He knew he wasn't okay, he knew he was sinking, but it felt like he was experiencing it from an outside perspective and there was nothing he could do but stand there, rooted in place and let the all too familiar feeling of hopelessness and dread wash over him that came with an attack.

In a last attempt at sanity he felt his eyes flick up to Albert, who was just turning back around, a pair of socks in hand.

•••

“Finch, what the hell,” Albert hissed, dropping the socks he was holding and hurdling over the bench, focus trained on Race who was half slumped over, clutching his arms to his body as he shook violently.

“I’m sorry, I-”

“I don't wanna hear it,” Albert snapped loudly, lowering his voice significantly as he noticed Race’s recoil at his tone of voice. “Just go, okay? You’ve done enough damage.” He didn't look up, but the quick footsteps and bang of the door shutting indicated quite clearly that Finch had left.

“Hey dude,” Albert whispered softly, standing in front of Race. “Can you hear me?”

Race’s head moved in a tiny nod and Albert sighed in relief. At least it hadn’t gotten really bad yet, he could still pull him out.

“Think you can sit down?”

When Race failed to respond, Albert tried again. “I’ll do it with you, see?” Albert sat down slowly on the floor, watching as Race slowly followed, his shaking legs threatening to buckle, but making it to the ground all the same.

“Good, that’s good,” Albert praised, keeping his hands in his lap where Race could see them. “Can you look at me, Racer?”

Slowly, Race’s tear filled blue eyes lifted to meet Albert’s. They were glazed over, and darted away every few seconds, but he was still trying and Albert was immensely proud of him for that.

“Yes, just like that,” Albert smiled gently, keeping his voice low and steady despite the nerves that were seeking into his stomach. He hated seeing Race like this. “I need you to breathe with me, okay? Let’s take a nice big breath in…” He sucked the air in through his nose in an over exaggerated fashion, and Race followed with a much shakier one. “Good, now hold,” Albert directed, holding for four beats, watching Race carefully. “And blow out,” he said, expelling the air through his mouth. “Good, Racer, you’re doing great,” he assured, beginning the breathing process again.

As he guided Race through the measured breaths, he let his mind wander. How had he not noticed Race was slipping? Sure it had been a few weeks since his last panic attack, and he’d been making good progress, but he should have picked up on the signs, then maybe Race wouldn’t be struggling to breathe right now, maybe-

“Al…?”

Albert was ripped suddenly from his thoughts by a soft, unsteady voice.

“Yes?”

Race twisted his hands in his lap for a second before opening his arms sheepishly, his quiet voice barely heard above the music seeping in from the studio. “Hug?”

“Of course, I got you cupcake.” Albert gently pulled Race into his lap, beginning to rub gentle circles into the back of his hands as he hummed quietly.

“I’m safe, right?” Race muttered into Albert’s shoulder after several more long minutes of calming breaths.

“Yes, you’re safe,” Albert assured, running his fingers through Races hair. “You’re okay. I’m okay. We’re okay. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”

“Okay,” Race mumbled, yawning slightly.

“You can rest. I got you.” Albert said, shifting into a more comfortable position as Race began to nod off.

“I love you,” Race whispered tiredly as his eyes began to fall closed.

“I love you too cupcake,” Albert smiled fondly. It didn’t matter to him that Race had had an attack. All that mattered was that he was okay, and he would be there for him next time.

__________

kfjdjsja i lov writing comfort it’s such a yeethuuu thanks mikey for cupcake ;)I guess the writing is Back so if anyone’s got a request shove it in the ask box and I’ll try to get to itfeedback is always appreciated hmu to be on the tag list

tag list@fairly-awkward-trashcan@well-the-kids-do-too@racetrackcook@bouncyscreamingnewsboys@ughwaitwhat@aw-jus-let-em-try@ben-cook-can-cook@the-woild-is-my-what-now@tommy-s-s0cks@voice-foundshoe-lost@galaxy-tree@stopthe-presses@ridin-in-style@pinecovewoods@i-got-no-clue-what-im-doing@bencookisagod@be-more-chill-evan-hansen@hellasoulless@stellar-alpaca@saxoph-ella@smolcanadiankid@disney-princess-sized@the-newsies-justice-for-zas-blog@insane-tomato@spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn@have-we-got-news-for-you@thatfancyclam@myidkwhatmynameisblog@legoflambwrites@that-one-newskid@not-a-scab@albertdasillva@entschuldigung-bitches@thebroadwayaesthetic@tea-and-theater@thomasbeingthomas@seasickdolphin@auspicioustarantula@newsies-of-ny@mrs-higgins@sunshine-e-cigarettes @spot-me50-papes @santafe-cafe@papesdontsellthemselves@king-of-new-yoirk@deathcast-s@the-poodles-of-pulitzer@hopefully-not-the-ghostbusters

[hey-hamlet-bmc]

Be More Chill August 1st Previews Things

• The cardigan! It’s here! It looks the same as the original! Jeremy’s shirt is also red blue and yellow, but we saw it in some bts videos. Also: WILL DOESN’T WEAR HIS GLASSES THE WHOLE TIME which is an odd sight to see.

• Madeline didn’t tell Jake about pool. Chloe is complaining at the beginning of More Than Survive about Madeline not being French, essentially what she originally said about it during Be More Chill Pt. 1.

• Because of that, Jake’s line is different too. He says “She’s definitely French” while gesturing to his uh...area.

• When Jeremy holds the backpacks together, Michael gets this giddy look on his face and says “My mothers would be thrilled.” He also has not one but TWO rainbow patches. The rectangle one on his arm and a more rainbow shaped one on his shoulderblade.

• Brooke occasionally hums the tune to Do You Wanna Ride/Hang and is always playing with a straw.

• Mr. Reyes doesn’t work at Hobby Lobby anymore. He’s a teacher as well as a cafeteria worker now.

• Jeremy watching Christine sing I Love Play Rehearsal is the purest part of the musical.

• I’ve not heard anyone else mention this, and my friend said it didnt happen in the performance he saw, but when Jake is telling Christine about all the pressure he’s under to be the best, he just paused and dabs before continuing.

• Rich draws a dick on the urinal before using it.

• Mr. Reyes is in the bathroom when Rich enters and thinks he’s talking to him when he calls Jeremy tall-ass.

• There’s a new rappy part of the SQUIP Song where Rich tells Jeremy the ‘shit’ like thinking about washing his hands after peeing doesn’t matter when you have a SQUIP.

• Two-Player Game takes place on Jeremy’s bed, not bean bags. Which makes sense to me because the bean bags were at Jeremy’s house, not Michael’s, where everyone writes/draws them. This gets rid of the issue altogether.

• Two-Player Game just kinda seems a little less chummy now? They don’t mess around as much, I don’t think.

• The end of the song has a really cool graphic in place of the odd running-dance in the original. The journey to the mall is depicted by pixelated zombies as Jeremy and Michael fight past them á la Apocalypse of the Damned.

• I haven’t mentioned how Jason Williams’s costumes are so different so now’s the time. As Mr. Heere, he’s himself, but Mr. Reyes has glasses and a wig, and the Scary Stockboy has really exaggerated sideburns so the Wolverine comment is even more ridiculous.

• After Jeremy takes the SQUIP, Michael goes to Spencer’s like normal, but not for Crystal Pepsi. It’s Ghostbusters Ecto Cooler (which he says tastes like ghosts) and it’s apparently making a comeback right now IRL.

• Jake carries a huge jug of water around the mall AND his feelings about his parents come out a lot more.

• The SQUIP wears all whites instead of all darks.

• The SQUIP’s modes are different. Keanu Reeves, Lara Croft, and sexy anime female with cat ears and tail. So take that how you will.

• In the clothing store (I think it’s Forever 21?) Gerard and George’s mall characters bicker in the background over shirts.

• Chloe breaks a hanger in half when Jeremy says Madeline is French.

• Stephanie’s mall character is onstage the shortest amount of time but it’s okay because she steals the show with her incredibly slow electric scooter.

• Michael is in More Than Survive (Reprise) for a moment. He waves to an ignorant Jeremy in a classroom and eventually gives up trying to get his attention.

• I feel like I’m forgetting something from A Guy I’d Kinda Be Into but it’s more or less the same.

• Upgrade is very different! The end specifically, to split it into the new song. Upgrade no longer ends act one, but instead comes right before the new addition I’m sure most everyone has heard already, Loser Geek Whatever. The part Jeremy originally sang at the end after Michael shows up is what’s changed—the SQUIP and the ensemble now sing it, and Michael shows up afterward.

• Loser Geek Whatever is really good. It gives Jeremy more of a reason for what he’s doing and makes it harder to demonize him. It’s basically him convincing himself that he deserves the upgrade, despite being worried he may fail Michael.

• Jeremy’s hairstyle changes in act 2. It’s more flat Will Roland than messy bed head. He goes from Wirt from Over the Garden Wall to Jared Kleinman.

• Halloween is great! Some of the idle dialogue is different though.

• Also, Chloe doesn’t tell Jeremy Brooke is waiting upstairs. They just leave in the background during the song.

• Do You Wanna Hang is so...Chloe. She twerks in front of Jeremy.

• The SQUIP faceplants on the bed after Jeremy drinks from Chloe’s (baby bottle) flask.

• Michael in the Bathroom is like, exactly the same. Incredibly powerful, of course, but I think changing it would have made a lot of people angry. The way Jeremy calls Michael a loser right before the song reminds me of how Will portrayed Jared during Dear Evan Hansen’s Good For You. He’s not as angry as Will Connolly, but sounds almost heartbroken, as if Jeremy really is upset he ‘has’ to do this to Michael.

• Will Roland’s laugh is really taken for granted when Jeremy and Christine chat.

• You see Rich argue with his (female sounding) SQUIP, and see him grab a can of gasoline.

• The SMARTPHONE HOUR!! Jenna’s got a lot of vocalized parts added the day I saw the show that were just AMAZING (Tiffany Mann is phenomenal and I’m lucky to have heard her voice in person)

• Chloe has a retainer that she just THROWS off stage.

• Brooke throws a fake banana twice as hard and twice as far. She just yeets it.

• The stage lights up in flames when they sing about the fire.

• The ensemble does that weird flossing dance in sync and it looks ridiculous.

• Gerard cartwheels and George does a really high jump split.

• THE SCREEN IN THE BACK SHOWS A SELFIE OF JENNA WITH THE HOUSE FIRE.

• The Pitiful Children starts about Christine, not how Jeremy was always a loser. The whole conversation about “that is to say you’ve had experience with the opposite sex” doesn’t happen. Instead of Jenna, Jeremy sees Christine troubled in the hallway. He talks to her and she tells him she knows about SQUIPs. A kid from her theatre camp got one and is now in a mental hospital, like the guy Michael found out about. That’s what leads to her walking away from him angrily saying she doesn’t need a pill to help her figure herself out.

• Then Jenna shows up and it’s basically the same from there.

• Jeremy’s clothes are all dark and emo chic when he argues with his dad.

• “Do you love him?” “........Wut?”

• Michael wasn’t burning his possessions.

• The fact that Christine knew about SQUIPs and turned Jeremy down just makes the part when you find out she drank from the beaker during the play so much more heartbreaking tbh.

• Jenna’s “I know what everyone’s doing” little spiel is to the tune of The Smartphone Hour instead of just kinda spoken, which is nice!

• Jake really does just pour the Mountain Dew Red out and Michael and Jeremy just sit there watching, individually.

• Rich is still bi! He asks if Michael is single after Jeremy says they aren’t dating.

• Michael RUNS to Jeremy’s hospital bed.

• Rich’s lisp is so good...so pure.

• During Voices in My Head, Michael is by Rich’s bed and hurts him twice while dancing.

• Christine’s SQUIP is Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the real old lady on the Supreme Court.

• Jeremy and Christine still end up going on their lunch date. This makes less sense than it did originally. Before, she says no to him on Halloween and ends up saying yes at the hospital anyway, but now, along with her rejection on Halloween, she is angry at Jeremy for using a SQUIP to talk to her, which to me makes it less acceptable for her to agree to go out with him. It would have been fine I think if they left it vague enough so it could be interpreted as platonically or romantically going out for lunch, but the two of them make out pretty hard during the instrumental.

• Overall: 100/10, would recommend.

[turtle-steverogers]

Far From Ideal

lets yeet this wheat to mars

warnings: nightmares, dissociation

editing: no but are we surprised

ship: sprace i guess

Race slammed the door to the hotel room, throwing his bag down angrily, “I can’t fucking believe this,” he snapped, chucking his jacket onto a chair and sitting in it heavily, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, well, I ain’t too happy about this either, chief,” Spot grumbled, refusing to look at Race as he began to unpack his suitcase into one of the provided dressers.

Race groaned, hitting his head on the back of the chair and rolling his eyes to the ceiling.  He was currently in Los Angeles, California for the second stop on the national tour he’d booked.  They were to be staying there for nearly three weeks and because of a slip up with room assignments, Race was staying with Spot Conlon, the one person he despised in the company.  He wasn’t secretive about his little vendetta either, which was probably the reason the feeling was mutual.  He didn’t truly have a good explanation for his feelings, aside from the fact that Spot intimidated him with his talent and all around cool energy.  Having never been good at handling his inner dilemmas, he chose the course of action he knew best, turn the insecure energy into angry energy and no one will bother you.  Well, it worked, because Spot seemed to hold him in the same regard, but it wasn’t ideal for their current situation.

“Just, don’t talk to me,” Spot said, glancing at him quickly, before looking away again, “I don’t have the energy to put up with your annoying shit for three weeks.”

“Right back at ya,” Race replied, smugly.  They unpacked their things silently, the only sound being the too loud music playing through Spot’s headphones.  Race tried to ignore the noise, but eventually his nerves got the better of him and he tapped Spot’s shoulder.

Spot looked at him, raising his eyebrows slightly.  Race motioned for him to take out an earbud, and rolling his eyes, Spot obliged, “What, asshole.”

“Turn down your music,” Race snapped, “I can hear Mariah Carey from my side of the room.”

Spot set his jaw, fixing Race with an impressive glare, but turning down the music nonetheless, “Happy?” He asked, plastering a sarcastic smile on his face.

“Yes, very,” Race sneered back.

“I’m sure glad, princess,” Spot said, before turning back to his suitcase.  Race let out an irritated hum and got back to work unpacking.  

Twenty minutes later, Race and Spot lay on separate beds, completely enthralled in their phones.  They hadn’t spoken a word since their last interaction and Race fully intended to keep it that way.  At some point, Spot got up to take a shower and Race savored his moment of almost solitude to watch some TV.  He discovered that he had access to Netflix and logged in.  After a bit of scrolling, he decided on John Mulaney and settled into his pillows to watch.

Spot came back some time later and Race moved to turn off the TV, but Spot waved a hand, “Keep it on if ya want,” Race cast him a side eye, “I like John Mulaney, too,” Spot said, somewhat defensively.

Race nodded and turned up the TV, relaxing as John Mulaney schooled them on “street smarts”.  They started Comeback Kid after the first show had ended and Race got up to wash up before bed.  It was approaching 1 am and they had early rehearsal the next morning.  By the time he got back , he noticed that Spot had fallen asleep, and in an odd moment of care, Race took his phone from his loose grip and plugged it into the charger Spot had attached to his bedside lamp.  He kicked off his socks, climbing under the covers of his bed and turned down the TV, watching it until he, too, dozed off.

When he woke up two hours later, he was confused.  He didn’t usually wake up in the night, but his body must have been thrown off by the new setting and leftover jet lag, so he shrugged it off.  Then, he heard a soft whimpering coming from the other bed.  Frowning, he lifted his head, squinting in the dark towards Spot.

“Hey,” He whispered, “You good over there?” No response, “Spot?”

When there was still nothing, Race figured he must have imagined the noise and he rolled over, sinking back into the mattress and willing sleep to overcome him once more.  But before he could fully slip back into unconsciousness, a clear sob echoed through the room, shocking Race awake once more and causing a pit to form in his stomach.  He shifted so he was facing Spot’s bed and propped himself up on his elbow, reaching out to turn on his bedside lamp as he did so.  His stomach dropped as his eyes adjusted and he took in the sight of his coworker, sheets tangled around his legs and eyes screwed shut in fear.  Race could see him shaking and his head would twitch periodically, as if he were dodging something.

Race froze, unsure of what to do.  Should he wake him?  Offer him help?  Was this a common thing for Spot?  Race knew he was close with Albert, one of their other castmates, should he call him?  Would he even know what to do?

Another, louder cry sounded from Spot, breaking Race out of his thoughts.  He was starting to hyperventilate in his sleep and Race threw all rational thinking out of his mind as he jumped into action, instinct taking over.

He slipped out of bed and knelt next to Spot.  He tentatively reached out a hand, placing it slowly on Spot’s shoulder, “Hey, man, wake up,” he tried, shaking his shoulder lightly.  Spot didn’t respond and Race made to shake him harder, but stopped abruptly.  Didn’t he read somewhere that you’re not supposed to wake someone having a nightmare by touching them?  He bit his lip, considering his best course of action, but before he could make a decision, Spot startled awake, a final gasp escaping him.

Race rocked backwards, not wanting to accidentally invade the other man’s space.  He sat on the edge of his own bed, watching anxiously as Spot sat up, shoving his blankets away from him and and pushing himself into the headboard.  His body was wracking with tremors and his breathing was still ragged as he reached up to tug at his hair.

“Hey,” Race called, hesitating as Spot jumped and looked at him, recognition, then fear growing almost impossibly in his eyes.  He held his breath, holding terrified eye contact with Race, “Yo, it’s aight,” Race said, “You-”

Spot shook his head, seemingly regaining his voice, “Race, what’re you doing up?” He croaked.

“Uh, I was on my phone,” Race lied, not wanting to guilt Spot by admitting that he was the one that had woken him up, “You were freaking out a bit in your sleep.”

Spot blinked, taking his hands out of his hair and lowering them slowly to his lap.  He looked around owlishly as he tried to ground himself to his surroundings.

“Can I do anything?” Race asked, awkwardly.

“I, uh..” Spot trailed off, “I don’t really know what’s happening.  I can’t really feel my legs,” He lifted his hands again, sluggishly touching his right pointer finger to his left palm, “Or my hands.”  he looked dazed and immensely out of it and Race couldn’t help but be put off by his sudden change in demeanor.

Race frowned when Spot didn’t look up from his hands.  His eyes were glazing over and the spasms in his muscles had returned.

“Spot?” He asked.  Spot didn’t answer and Race stood up, crossing over to Spot’s bed and slowly lowering himself down next to him.  

“Spot,” He said, more firmly this time, “Can you hear me?”

Spot blinked slowly, looking up at Race and flinching, “Fuck,” he mumbled, “I don’t know what’s happening,” panic was leaking into his eyes once more, “What’s happening?  Why can’t I feel my legs?”

“Okay, okay, hey,” Race said, quickly, reaching out to turn off the lamp, aiming to relax Spot a bit.  It seemed to work as Spot’s shoulders lowered from their tense position ever so slightly.

Race reached out to grab Spot’s hand, but stopped short, “Can I touch you?” He asked.  

Spot nodded and Race gripped his shaking hands tightly, “Can you, uh, can you feel that?” he was bullshitting a solution, but what other choice did he have?  Besides, if he remembered correctly from AP psych in high school, physical contact sometimes helped with dissociation, and he was pretty sure that was what was happening to Spot right now.

Spot nodded again, fixing his attention on their intertwined hands, “Yeah..”

“Okay, cool, yeah, so we’re just gonna keep that happening,” Race said, gradually increasing the intensity of his hold on Spot’s hands.

“I kinda feel like m’still dreaming,” Spot mumbled, “Am I?”

“Still dreaming?” Race clarified.

“Yeah.”

“No, you’re not, I gotcha.” “Oh, okay.”

“Yeah, we’re both here,” Race said, calmly, “So, like, do you remember where we are?” he tried.

Spot didn’t answer for a moment, then, “Uh, yeah, Cali.”

“Yeah, man, nice,” Race praised, he floundered for a moment, trying to remember other grounding techniques.  He wasn’t the best with this stuff, “Uh, what color is your shirt?”

“My...shirt?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh,” Spot glanced down, “Blue.”

“Awesome,” Race smiled, “and mine?”

Spot looked at his chest, “Uh, grey?”

“Yep,” Race noticed the shaking in Spot’s hands was slowing.  That was progress.  They were getting somewhere, “How about the sheets.”

“White,” Spot said, this time with more confidence.

“Pillows?”

“Brown.”

“Walls.”

“Green,” Spot paused, “Ugly green.”

Race laughed, relief flooding him when a ghost of a smile appeared on Spot’s face as well, “Yeah, they are pretty bad.  Who the fuck paints a room bright green?”

“The idiots at this hotel.”

“Right you are.”

Spot hummed and pulled his hands away, looking to the side, “How are you doing?” Race prodded.

Spot shrugged, curling in on himself a bit, “Better, I’m back mostly, I think.”

Race nodded, “Uh, does that happen a lot?”

“Hm? Oh, kinda,” Spot’s tone didn’t leave much room for further discussion, but Race pushed.

“You wanna talk about it?” He questioned softly.

Spot swallowed, “Not really,” a pregnant pause, “My dad was pretty awful and I’m still fucked up,” he said, scowling.

Race pursed his lips, “I’m so sorry.”

Spot shrugged, “Whatever.  I’m tired.”

“We can go back to sleep?”

“Yeah, uh, hey,” Spot was fidgeting with his fingers nervously and Race cocked his head.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Could you, uh,” Spot shifted his shoulders, “I mean, I know you hate me or whatever, but I always like, uh, like contact, uh, physical contact after this shit and I was wondering if you could maybe uh stay for a bit?”

Race frowned at how utterly shaken up Spot seemed to be.  He wasn’t used to seeing the other man as anything but calm and collected, “Yeah, “ he agreed nonchalantly, motioning for Spot to shift over in the bed.  Spot laid back down and Race reached out, carefully hugging him, “This good?” Spot cleared his throat, “Uh, yeah, thanks.”

“Of course, whatever helps,” a moment passed, “Also for the record, I’m sorry I treated you like shit.  You were cool and you scared me.”

He felt Spot laugh against his chest and his stomach fluttered, “I scared you?”

Race shrugged, “Yeah, you’re like an intimidating meatball.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

Spot laughed again, Race joining in with him this time, “But seriously, I’m sorry.” “It’s chill,” Spot said, casually draping an arm across Race’s stomach, “Thank you,” he added after a moment, “By the way.”

“Yeah, of course,” Race said, “Thank you for letting me help you.’

Spot hummed, “You’re not bad for an asshole Italian beanpole.”

Race scoffed, “Go to sleep, meatball.”

Realizing how utterly exhausted he was, Spot closed his eyes, falling back asleep, feeling much safer than before.

-

thanks for reading, chiefs

hmu to be added to my tag

stay tuned for chaotic ralbert

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[sweetbirdlittlebird]

The Everclear Machete Story

Boy howdy do I have a yarn to spin for you motherfuckers. 

So I have this friend, Sally. She’s my best friend and she’s super little and I love her. She’s from a tiny redneck village in the Midwest that for the purposes of this story we’re gonna call Fuckville Nowhere. Fuckville Nowhere is like two+ hours away from the college we’re dicking around in. One night, she asks me if she’ll drive her home for her friend’s graduation party. I didn’t know her super well, but she was nice and literally everybody else bailed on her, so sure, fine, why not, let’s go to a party.

I, by the way, had only been to one actual party. It was in an on-campus apartment and consisted of booze, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and exactly one knife. I have not, by any stretch of the imagining, ever been a partier. I had like one one-thousandth of a solo cup of sangria and I thought that was lit. 

So we drive out there, we go to IHOP with her friends who just graduated high school, everybody’s psyched, we ate crepes, it was super. And eventually they say the magic words (manic whisper: “alcohol”) and we go back to this one dude’s house to get cRuNk. I had to park my tiny city person car in a church lot and get Captain Mochismo to take us up the awful gravel roads in his Truckstosterone vehicle to Casa de Crunk. The roads go up and down a bunch, it’s total dark, and after like ten entire minutes of driving through the most cursed looking forest I’ve ever fucking seen, we pull up to this decent little house on patio stilts. It’s surrounded by trees and there’s no other houses in sight, so this is definitely where I’m getting murdered. 

So we go in, Sal starts up with the boys in the kitchen pretending they know how to make screwdrivers (there was like a millimeter of vodka for every entire glass of orange juice) and I sit with the girlfriends on the couch and start nursing a lemonade bitch beer. A few of the guys go out on the back porch to get high, because this is Grady’s house and he doesn’t want the whole place to smell like weed when his parents come home, and everybody’s settling into their Party Places. I know exactly one of these people, but they seem nice. We’re chilling. We’re having a grand ‘ole time. 

And one of the guys is like “DUDE LOOK” and takes out this upsettingly large bottle of Everclear. 

Everclear is 100% alcohol. This isn’t just the good shit, this is the Platinum God of All Booze. This is how Russians commit seppuku. 

So Dude #1, let’s call him Simon, who is this spindly little Barbie Doll of a dude, fills a shot glass with this liquid insurgence, knocks it back, and crumples to the floor like he’s been shot. 

And I’m like, I’m sure he’s fine. 

Dude #2, Grady, who is only slightly larger, takes a shot of Everclear. Then he takes another one. Two full shots of arsenic’s bastard child, and he looks like he just mainlined lemon juice. 

Something like five seconds goes by and he’s almost gonna take another because he “isn’t feeling it yet”, and there’s this shift, and suddenly he’s this huge drunk caricature of a human person. He’s smiling and his eyes are mostly closed and he’s taking off his suit jacket. He starts reciting passages from the Bible in fluent and dramatic German, because this dude is deeply Lutheran, and it’s all slurred and abandoned-snow-cone slushy. He stops, he looks around, says, “I wanna be a pastor”, wobbles, and hits the floor like a sheet of metal. 

The level of chaos in this house exists in direct proportion to how much clothing Grady is still wearing. 

The Parent of the Party, Parent Dude, gets him off the floor and into a chair. Next to this chair, there is an ashtray. In this ashtray is a cigar that had been confiscated from Grady sometime during his ramblings. This cigar is out. Grady sees this cigar and thinks, yes, mine, and he picks it up and sticks it in his mouth. A solid ten minutes pass before he realizes it’s not burning. 

So somebody else, the Parent Dude, looks at the Everclear and is like, this is the stuff that ends the world, we’re putting this away now, and Grady pounces on him like a pissed-off cat. Parent Dude is holding the bottle in one hand and trying to push Grady off of him with the other, and Grady screams, “Is it with a kiss, Judas, that you betray the Son of Man?” while trying to kiss him. He takes off his dress vest. 

Meanwhile, Simon is on the couch in the corner, watching TV, and let me tell you, you have not seen somebody properly dissociate until you’ve seen someone drunk on Everclear watch 2001 Space Odyssey on mute in the dark. 

But eventually they get the booze away from him and they start piling all the bottles over by me and the Parent Dude, because this is Grady’s house so there’s no cabinet we can hide it in that he can’t reach. And it’s suddenly my job to watch the alcohol so Parent Dude can make sure Grady doesn’t set the house on fire. 

Time passes, Grady stands up, says some more stuff in German, and he opens his shirt. It’s not off yet, but the buttons are undone. He does a couple of passes by the alcohol stash and scoops up some booze, and Parent Dude has to keep chasing him down to get it back. Eventually, Grady gives up and wanders off and by now Simon has moved over to my couch and he’s playing with my hair telling me how soft it is, so I don’t notice that Grady’s gone. I’m babysitting the Bunny Drunk, the Disaster Drunk isn’t my problem yet. 

Yet. 

So he’s gone for a while and Parent Dude eventually is like, where the fuck did the apocalypse engine go, so he goes looking. And before anybody can find him, this bitch-ass German comes prancing out of the laundry room with a goddamn bag of Tide Pods like, “I found a snack!” and goes to put one in his mouth.

We get the bag away from him and he’s like, awwwww, and we decide to put him the fuck to bed because this is getting out of hand. 

So we grab his girlfriend and she helps us get him into his bed and we leave them in there to pass out. 

Except he doesn’t pass out. 

This is Grady’s house. Grady’s parents have lots and lots of really cool toys in this house. We are in the middle of Fuckville Nowhere in Redneck Ravine, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods. 

Two minutes later, drunk Grady comes tumbling out of his room, shirtless, with an entire fucking shotgun. 

And everybody still in the house is like, fuck, fuck, fuck, and Sal and two of the dudes rush him and grab it and Grady falls back giggling like the Joker on laughing gas. I’m still on the couch watching this all happen, and it’s fucking surreal, my dudes. At some point, the girlfriends yeeted out, so I am now the only sane person on this property with maybe the exception of Sal. 

They get him back in bed and hide the shotgun in one of their cars or something,. We think we’re clear. Then Grady’s girlfriend comes running out, giggling, to get Parent Dude because Grady’s trying to eat something. They go back, and Grady has locked the door from the inside. They lure him out with the promise of his naked girlfriend and Parent Dude rushes in to stop him from literally biting a bullet.

They take all the ammo out of the room and lay him down with a glass of water. They watch him drink it, they make him promise to fuck his girlfriend and go to sleep (her idea) and he’s like, sure my dude, no problemo. 

Time-lapse, twenty minutes. I’m sitting with Simon and talking to Sal about her certifiably insane friend group. It’s like five, closing on six in the morning. Simon is playing with my hair and he’s about to fall asleep on me, which is fine, he weighs like half an ounce plus the shot of Everclear. I’m chatting with Parent Dude about the woes of babysitting drunk rednecks. It’s all fine. We’re fine. He gets up to go check on Grady, make sure’s he’s either fucking or sleeping, leaves me to guard the booze, etc. 

And he comes back all pale like, “Guys where’s Grady?”

So they start looking, Parent Dude and Sal, and they go out to the back porch to ask the crossfaders if they’ve seen him. Crossfaders say nay, they come back, sit down, reason he’ll come back when he comes back. 

And within minutes of them sitting down again, the front door bursts open and Grady, with his tie wrapped around his head like he’s a goddamn pirate, runs in waving the biggest fucking machete I’ve ever seen. He’s singing something in German that might be a pirate shanty and might be something from Lamentations. I don’t know. The important part is: knife. Drunk man have big knife.  

Sam and Parent Dude charge him, Sal gets the machete out of his hands, and Grady is slurring like his life depends on it. “Chill, dudes, I just wanted to scare you guys,” and we’re like “congratu-fucking-lations, you did it, now for the love of everyone who’s ever been drunk, go to sleep.” 

So we get Grady to actually go to sleep, and then we passed out, and me and Sal get up four hours later to drive two hours back to the college because she had a rehearsal to get to at like noon. 

And that my friends is the Everclear Machete Story. 

(reblog with the dumbest thing your drunk friends (or your drunksona) have ever done)

[crazymecjc]

Quotes from Mary Poppins

So I was in Mary Poppins this summer and it was the best show I've ever done, it was also one of the funniest backstage experiences I've ever had so here's some quotes from rehearsals :)

I'm referring to everyone by their character names except if they're my friends yeet

My friend Miranda, staring me dead in the eyes: “Cannibalism."

Both of us simultaneously: "hmmmm”

Miranda, frantically: “Do you want some.... boNeLesS AiR”

(She then proceeded to research if boneless air was a thing for like ten minutes)

Me, angrily: “buT wE hAvEnt had our mILK”

Honestly idk who this was: “What is in your boob?”

(Context: we were all volunteering at a meat raffle, which I didn't know was a thing before then but ok)

The guy in charge of the raffle: “If you’re selling tickets, stand up”

*everyone simultaneously drops to the floor*

Guy running the raffle: “Hors d’oeuvres is not a person”

The same guy, a half hour later: “I’m not trusting you, because you said hors d’oeuvres were a country”

The radio:“I’m looking for some way to bond with my kids” Miranda, whispering: “Mr. Banks?”

My friend Anthony:“That’s like the worst way to reduce reuse recycle”

Miranda during rehearsal for Step in Time, pretending to be on Disney Channel:“Hi, I’m a low class citizen, and the only time I see the light of day is at night”

Anthony, sinisterly:“We’re all dead bodies in the end”

Anthony, in the car: “Smells like... g g g g g g g g g g ggrravy”

Miranda:“buT THEY TORE MY spinal cord.... aGAIN!?!?!”

Anthony, walking out of rehearsal:“It smells like a hot dog out here”

Me:“mE”

Anthony, incredulous:“you smell like a hotdog?!?”

Also Anthony:“My uvula is quook”

My friend Maddie, who we all call Marcy bc that was her "character" for the show and it stuck:“Why do you guys know what windex smells like??? Hello???”

Miss Andrew: “You don’t smell windex? What’s wrong with you???”

Anthony, in the car, shouting:“sTEP AWAY FROM THE GOODS”

Anthony, discussing Into the Woods:“I feel like Little Red is sort of like Smeagol”

Me: “There’s a whole family standing in the middle of the road??”

Anthony:“Are they ok?” Me:"They’re not even crossing, they’re just chilling.”

Anthony to me, while in the fake plant section at the craft store: “It’s like you’re trying to get into leaf Narnia”

Miranda to me: “You look like the Kool Aid Man”

Anthony, to me:“Go onto stage like ‘OoOh yEaH”

Anthony, to the tune of one of he songs:“Reeeedd Robin, Yum!”

Miranda, dramatically crossing her legs:“I’m a fucking queen” *mouth pops*

Miranda calling after me on my way out the door:“Wait I’ve gotta tell you a secret “ *whispers in one ear* “the snack that smiles back” * in other ear* “goldfish”

Me, singing:“Someone is returning”

Miranda:“the demons in my house when I’m coming home”

Miranda, in a whisper:“Mary and Bert look like they’re gonna fight”

Anthony, in the car: “No one is alone.. that’s kinda scary”

Anthony:“When I was young, I ate people”

Miranda:“crispy”

Miranda, in the car after a long rehearsal, exhausted:“Can we play some tunes? I don’t want some hard tunes tho, I want gentle tunes”

I honestly don't know who this was, probably Anthony:“Why are you discriminating against whales?”

Miranda, with jazz hands:“Just a spoonful of... pizazz!”

Miranda, a few minutes later:“Just a spoonful of soot helps the depression go down”

Miranda:“What’s the month after January?”

Me, sister struggling:*counts on fingers* “October, November, December, January, feBRUARY”

Anthony,:“Doesn’t it smell like cat food? Oh no that’s McDonalds”

Anthony:“You smell like Cheerios.”

Me:“Thanks????”

Mary, standing by the roof set we had:“Bert, you look like a cat”

Bert, on the roof: “meow”

Marcy, working on her character:“I’m doing research... drug research “

Marcy, trying to explain her character to me:“Marcy Tippetome is a drug addict. But she’s addicted to Tylenol”

Bert:“Bloody hell”

Michael:“sTOP THERE ARE CHILDREN “

Bert:“well you’re the one who keeps pretending to shoot people on stage”

Anthony, singing:“Someone smells like celery!!!!”

Anthony, moments later:“So I was in my room and my body collapsed”

Miss Andrew:“In 20 years I’ll be like ‘hey, you owe me a soda kid’”

Michael:“I’ll be dead in 20 years”

Mr. Banks:“All hair is dead”

Miranda:*bad Italian accent* “would you like some rigatoni???”

Anthony:“Spit the alcohol out Marcy”

Miranda, ranting:“The government can leave. I only know... I don’t know English”

Miranda, reenacting the Sound of Music:“Donde es Maria??”

Miranda and Anthony:*speaking in simmish for ten minutes*

Bert:“I’m gonna hiss. Like a cat. Meow.”

Mary:“Bert, I’m done with you. Jump off the rooftop.”

Probably Anthony??? I don't know:“My name is Margaret, and I like cheese”

Me:“Michael who? I only know mILK”

Anthony:“Remember when I asked what century it was?”

Anthony:“There’s blood on my finger”

Miranda, deadpan:“blood is the cure”

Me:“There’s something in your pocket”

Anthony, nonchalantly:“it’s just a chair”

One of the statues:“Ohmigod who’s on your phone screen Anthony?”

Anthony:“I’m gay”

Anthony, staring into the distance:“Death is my cure”

Anthony, moments later:*valley girl accent* “I’m gonna die”

Miranda, disdainfully:“I never had emo phase. I didnt want to associate with tHAT”

Me to Anthony because he had to wear this frog costs and it was skintight: “Dicks out for Mary Poppins”

Anthony, giving Mrs Banks a hug:“Hi mom!”

Mrs. Banks, deadpan:“did I give you the permission to touch me?”

Anthony, after we went to Wendy's:“Oh my gosh there’s a spoon between my legs! I just wanted my phone and I reached down and then... there’s ice cream on my crotch”

Also Anthony:“I was exhaling really intensely the other day and my tongue started flopping around”

My little brother right before tech week:“Dress rehearsal?? More like stress rehearsal”

Anthony:“Marcy put the Tylenol DOWN!”

Miranda:“Noooo, she’s doing cocane”

(I swear we're good children I'm sorry)

The lady who played Queen Victoria, approaching Miranda:“Can you blow into my eye?”

An ensemble member:“Don’t choke me”

Mr. Banks:“I don’t even know you yet”

Miss Lark, handing someone her dog puppet:“Here, hold my bitch”

Literally all of my friends: *simultaneous “it’s poppin”*

Who knows, but now we all say it:“Rest IP”

Anthony, buying frozen yogurt at the mall between shows:“Is chocolate supposed to be crispy??”

Me, dying inside because I thought it would be a good idea to leave my show tights on while we went to the mall:“Oh No tHeReS SorBeT oN mY TigHtS!?!”

Ok backstory: we had this table for Spoonful of Sugar that is supposed to break and then magically repair itself. So it's motor powered, and so far it's been working great. Fun! So the last night of the show arrives. I accidentally sweep the guy playing Robertson Ay because he's on the floor, so we're already dying. Mary goes to fix the table, and it goes as planned, only to revert back to broken a moment later with a bang. I'm breaking character, and trying to keep singing, but I lose it bc out stage manager offstage, sounding completely dead inside, goes:“Well, there goes the table.”

????:“Why is it wet??” Anthony:“Because I salivate”

Michael, on his way out the door on closing night:“Keep it poppin”

(I cried)

Other notable moments:

This girl started crying about cows in the middle of rehearsal bc she loved them so much

The guy who played Mr. Banks did origami and he made me a dragon

The lady playing Mrs Andrew would regularly balance chairs on her chin

I had to pretend to rip a dolls arm off and the second night I actually ripped its arm off oops

One night I forgot to preset said doll, so it didn't have an arm for a full scene

We'd been joking about building a fort in the dressing room for a while so on the last day, we walked in to find Mrs Banks surrounded by chairs. "It's Fort Banks." She said. Someone had blankets in their car and suddenly there was an actual blanket fort in the dressing room

The girl who played the messenger would write letters to Mr Banks to read during the shows. One of them was about robbing a bank, I think??? She gave him her address and we're still waiting for a reply for the final letter

The flying equipment got caught on the lights one rehearsal and Bert almost died

We'd sing Feed the Birds for warm ups sometimes and I'd cry. every. time.

We were in the Disney store, and the Mary Poppins trailer starts playing as we’re buying Mary Poppins shirts, with Mary Poppins shirts already on

[writingevanhansen]

Flannel - pt. 3 (Modern!Race x Reader)

summary: now that race and (Y/N) are a ~~thing~~, (Y/N)’s “friends” have something to say about it.

word count: 2,934

(Y/F/N) = your “friend’s” name (friend uses female pronouns yeet) (friend is in quotations bc like someone not good)

alexa this is so sad play santa fe

pt. 1   pt. 2  masterlist

It felt like everything was happening so fast. Ever since you had held hands at the movies, you weren’t sure there was a moment where Race wasn’t by your side, his hand glued in yours. However, if you were forced to use your hands for normal human functions, he would always have an arm around your waist or his hand pressed against the small of your back. Not that you were complaining- oh no. You loved every minute of it. The only time you were apart was at lunch, where you still sat with your separate friend groups.

Your friends began to notice after a few days of this. They knew you were going to prom together, but had no idea that you shared an interest in each other, which made sense, because you had been spending more and more time with Race and his amazing friends Spot and Albert, and hadn’t got the chance to talk to yours as much outside of school. You didn’t see a problem with it until one of them pulled you aside in the hallway.

“(Y/N), how have you been?” (Y/F/N) said sweetly.

You smiled. “I’m doing well! Listen, I’m sorry we haven’t seen each other as much lately but I promise we can go get dinner or something soon. I’ve just had a lot of fun with Race and his friends, and-”

“No, I get it.” She said, placing her hair behind her shoulder. “I just…” She hesitated, sighing before resuming. “I’m worried.” Her frown was subtle yet noticeable when she spoke.

“About…?” You asked.

“You.” She paused, tilting her head. “And Race.”

You smiled at the mention of Race’s name. “Wh-I’m confused.” You said, your repressed laughter slowly turning into concern. “Why are you worried about us?”

Her frown slowly disappeared into a neutral expression as she talked as if this was common knowledge. “I just don’t think he’s right for you. He’s loud all the time-which is super annoying-actually, he’s just annoying a lot of the time. He’s not smart, and not to mention, we all know he’s a huge flirt. He could have any girl here at the snap of his fingers, and is that really something you want a relationship with?” She stood, looking at you as if this was just a normal thing people said. Your smile quickly disappeared into a look of shock. “I just don’t want you to get hurt, (Y/N). Someone had to tell you the truth.”

The bell rang, giving (Y/F/N) an excuse to walk away before you could give any form of response.

You knew the things she said weren’t true, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. What shocked you the most were her parting words, “Someone had to tell you the truth.” Were there other people that believed that stuff, too?

Floating through the rest of the day in a distracted and insecure haze, you landed in your bed upset and confused. Your nightly conversation with Race was cut short as you decided to go to bed early.

“Is everything alright? You sound...off.” Race asked with a concerned tone.

You shrugged and then realized that you were on the phone. “Yeah.” You mumbled.

“Okay, I’ll let you go now, even though I really don’t believe you.” Race sighed. There was a pause over the phone, neither one of you having the heart to end the call. Race spoke up. “Will you open your window?”

You slid off your bed and trudged over, pulling up the blinds. Race was standing there with his hands in his flannel pajama pants and a concerned look on his face that quickly melted into a smile when he saw you. Your concerns softened and you gently smiled back, too.

“Goodnight.” He said softly.

“Goodnight.” You replied. You reached over to pull the blinds back down.

“I-” Race spoke, and then stopped himself.

“What?” You asked.

“Nevermind. Sweet dreams, (Y/N). See you tomorrow.” He said, walking back over to his bed. You watched him sit down before you lowered the blinds.

“See you then.”

You turned off your bedroom lights and got into the bed, plugging in your phone. Closing your eyes, you tried to sleep, thinking of Race. Keyword: tried. But you couldn’t. (Y/F/N)’s stupid words were still rattling relentlessly in your brain. You picked your phone back up and sent Race a text.

Y/N: can i sit w you at lunch tomorrow?

Race: ofc

Race: why don’t u wanna sit where u usually do?

Y/N: tell you tomorrow

Race: ok

You sat your phone back down, only to hear it buzz again as you closed your eyes. You picked it back up.

Race: be warned the boys may not be on their best behavior…

Race: but are they ever lolol

Race: i’ll talk to them tho Race: ok. i’ll stop spamming u now

Race: gnight

Race: ♡

Now smiling, you rolled over again, finally falling asleep.

The next day, you walked into the cafeteria, summoning your courage to walk directly past your friends to the other side of the cafeteria where Race was. You hoisted your backpack up higher on your shoulders and kept your eyes fixed on the back of Race’s head as you walked to the other side of the room. You could feel your friends’ eyes on you as you walked past them, but none of them spoke up. Getting closer to the table, Race turned around and smiled, patting the empty space between him and Katherine at the long table.

Setting your bag down, you greeted Race and sat next to him.

“I didn’t know you’d be joining us today, (Y/N)!” Katherine smiled, wrapping her arm around your side and squeezing. You smiled and gave an excited hello.

“(Y/N), these are the fellas.” Race said proudly, gesturing to all of the boys, who either waved or smiled with the occasional finger gun. “Fellas, this is (Y/N).”

“How’d you like to be Ms. Romeo?” The boy, who you assumed was named Romeo, stuck out his hand from across the table, palm facing up. Confused, you laid your hand in his. He brought it to his lips and kissed it, making you laugh.

“Hey, paws off.” Race said, slapping his hand away as Romeo winked.

“The name’s Jack Kelly.” You felt a tap on your shoulder and looked towards it. An older looking boy leaned from behind the other side of Katherine, hand stuck out. You shook it with a smile.

“This here’s Davey.” Race said, gesturing to the boy sitting directly across from you. He gave a gentle smile and a wave.

“And you already know Albert and Spot.” Race concluded, pointing at the two boys, who smiled at you.

The next couple of days you kept this routine, and since your friends didn’t say anything about it, you didn’t either.

“(Y/N), you’re just not acting like yourself. You seem down.” Race spoke into his phone, stretching after his dance class.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to worry about it.” You said, sitting on your bed.

“Listen...if we’re going to be in this...for the long haul...then I’m ready to listen to whatever problems you have.” Race said slowly, nerves forming. His words made you stiffen. Was he for real?

You paused. “Do...do you want to be in this...for the long haul?” Butterflies began to swarm in your stomach.

Another pause. “I mean, I do. But I don’t want to pressure you into anything, I swear.” You could hear shuffling in the background.

“Well...what if I said I do, too?” You could feel the smile growing on your face.

“Wait just a sec.” Race said. Your posture softened, but your smile didn’t. Through the phone, you heard clambering and Race walking around.

“How long is this gonna take?” You said with a laugh.

“Just a second, I swear.”

You heard your doorbell ring, and you laughed again.

“You did not.” You smiled through the phone.

“I told you it would be just a second!”

You ran as fast as you could to the front door, pausing a second to catch your breath before swinging it open. There was Race wearing his shirt from dance and a pair of sweatpants, still holding the phone to his ear. He didn’t even have any shoes on, just his socks. The sun had just set, the porch light giving him a gorgeous glow. His skin was dewy, which may have been from rehearsal or the fact that the air was warm, a sign of spring coming soon.

“(Y/N),” Race said, still talking into the phone, but maintaining eye contact with you. “This may be a little sudden, I don’t know.” You both chuckled a little. “But, will you be my girlfriend?”

“I’d love nothing more, Race.” You smiled and ended the call. You both stared at each other with what felt like unending happiness. You finally broke the silence with, “Would you like to come inside?”

“Sure.” Race beamed. You held the door open for him, and he held your hand as you both walked to the couch. “So what’s wrong?”

“Losing friends is always hard.” You say. He nods in agreement, pulling you closer to him. You throw your legs across his lap and lean your head on the side of the couch, arms folded in front of you. He puts one arm behind you, holding your waist, and the other on your leg. “(Y/F/N) just said some hurtful things the other day, and I don’t want to be around that kind of mentality, yknow?” Race nodded again.

“What did she say?” He asked. After he saw your frown at his words, though, he spoke up again. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“No, I will.” You sighed. “She said we weren't right for each other. That you were annoying. And flirty. And other stuff that’s untrue. And I don’t even feel like talking to her anymore because I don’t want her to say more stuff.” He rubbed up and down your side.

“I’m sorry to hear that, (Y/N). Is there anything I can do?” Race’s face grew concerned.

“You’ve done enough just by being here, Race.” You smiled.

“Well, you always have me and the boys. We’ll be here for you. And Katherine, too, of course.” Race said proudly. You nodded, eyes feeling heavy. Today had worn you out. “Do you want me to leave? You look tired.”

“No, no.” You said, waking yourself up. “Just put on Netflix or something.” Race obliged, turning on the TV and then The Office. You got through about half an episode before your eyes felt as if there were weights tied to them.

You don’t know how you got there that morning, but your phone’s alarm woke you up in your own bed, still in your pajamas from last night. You rolled over and looked at your phone and saw a text from Race.

Race: sorry for leaving u. i let u sleep on me for a couple hours before i had to go home.  woke u up and helped u walk to your room, but i don’t think u will remember. also, pls tell ur mom thanks for letting me stay so late. ♡

Another day of school, another day closer to prom, and another day of sitting with Race’s friends (now your friends). Walking to the parking lot, you noticed Race turn a corner. Usually, he rode with Spot or Albert, so you weren’t sure why he was walking the opposite way. Your curiosity got the best of you and your eyes followed him. You quickly sat in your car, continuing to watch Race. Suddenly, he stopped on the sidewalk, looking at his phone. That’s when you noticed (Y/F/N) approaching him. ...Weird. After a minute of them talking, you felt awkward. You couldn’t read either of their expressions from where you were. You trusted Race, and you could always just text him later.

Pulling out of the parking lot, something felt off. Your gut dropped. Something wasn’t right.

You knew your gut was prophetic when the following day, Race seemed distant. He didn’t talk as much, he wasn’t as smiley, and he didn’t touch you once throughout the day. After he refused to even look at you at lunch, you decided to text him during class.

Y/N: hey, is everything okay?

Race: no

Race: we need to talk

Y/N: ??

Race: meet me in the parking lot after school

For the next two and a half hours, you were a mess. You weren’t able to focus in class, and you couldn’t calm down for the life of you. Finally, the final bell rang, and you quickly walked to the parking lot, scanning for Race.

You found him standing next to your car with his red hood pulled up over his head, looking at his phone. You locked your car, making the horn honk and making Race jump. You giggled as you walked over to him, trying to ease the tension. Race’s face remained unreadable. When he didn’t say anything, you offered to give him a ride home. He simply nodded and sat down in the passenger seat, slumping down after buckling.

The ride was eerily quiet, aside from the soft music playing on the radio. Race scrolled mindlessly through his phone, avoiding any conversation.

You reached Race’s driveway and parked the car, turning to face Race, who finally sat up and took his hoodie down, still not making eye contact with you.

“You said you wanted to talk.” You said gently. “What’s up?”

Race inhaled, eyes fixed straight ahead. “I don’t think we’re going to work out.”

You could feel a hole forming in your chest, heat rushing to your neck and shoulders. “Race, we haven’t even been official for a week, what’s making you say that?”

“I just...I just know.” Race said. He still wasn’t looking at you. You weren’t even sad yet, you were livid. How could he give up on you so quickly? And for what reason? You could feel tears beginning to form in your eyes.

“Race. If you’re going to break up with me after not even a week of dating, you could at least look at me when you say it.” Your voice was commanding; it was obvious that you were now angry. Race listened, and his hard expression turned into hurt when he saw your face. You clearly had nothing to lose, so you spoke up again. “I saw you talking to (Y/F/N) yesterday. Is that what this is all about? Why she doesn’t want us together? Why you’re breaking up with me? Are you with her or something?” Race remained silent, mouth slightly agape. The silence was deafening as you felt yourself begin to choke. You had grown so attached in such a short period of time and where had it gotten you? You felt weak...used, almost. And to make matters worse, you still didn’t have an explanation  “Race, please.” A mix between a cough and a sob slipped out as a couple tears fell. “Say something.”

Suddenly, Race lunged at you from across the armrest, his arms wrapping around you. “I’m so sorry.” He said as you began to cry into his shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry. I take it all back. I’m so sorry. I thought it would fix everything, but I-I’m sorry.”

“What?” You say in between tears, now even more confused. Race began to run his hand through your hair. Your anger melted away. The confusion remained, but you were so relieved you didn’t care. Race quietly whispered more “I’m sorry”’s while your crying slowed, your face never leaving the crook of his neck, his hands never leaving you, rubbing gentle circles on your back. When you finally collected yourself, you sat back.

“I thought you would rather be with your friends than me. I thought I was in the way. That’s what (Y/F/N) told me. You guys used to be so close but I’m taking you away from them.” Race said, holding your hand as you wiped your face with the other. You shook your head, laughing through the tears.

“They aren’t my friends, Race.”

“They aren’t?”

“No, if they were...they’d be understanding.” you sniffled. “They would be supportive. That’s what real friends do.” You sighed. “I’d rather be with you, a friend who is supportive and understanding and kind, than be with fake friends who aren’t.” Race smiled.

You pulled down the mirror to look at your reflection. “God, I look like a mess, don’t I?” You laughed.

“No, you don’t.” Race said. You turned to face him, smiling. “You look beautiful as always.”

“Thank you, Race.” You said.

Something shifted.

Everything was happening so fast, and the number of feelings you had right then was too much to not act upon.

It seemed that Race had that same idea, his eyes flicking towards your lips before back up at your eyes.

You couldn’t stand it anymore. If you were going to move fast, why stop now. You leaned towards Race, no hesitation.

Your lips connected, and Race immediately got into the kiss, placing his hand on the back of your neck. It was sweet, soft, and mildly uncomfortable leaning over the armrest. It felt perfect.

You decided fast was good.

Taglist: @seriously-ceci @pastel-songs

[millesbianforce]

Long Phantom post because I have a lot to say

OK HERE WE GO

•Even though I knew the chandelier and the overture were going to be loud my jumpy ass still jumped when they lit up the chandelier and when the overture started

•The chandelier was SO COOL but I'll get more into that later

•Carlotta kissed the decapitated head prop for Hannibal and then yeeted it into a chest

•Madame Giry was yelling at everyone

•Meg and Christine low-key had chemistry??? At first I thought I was just imagining it but other people I know who also went also noticed it. I don't really ship them but I am HERE for bisexual Christine Daae and it is a pretty cute ship not gonna lie

•I am and will forever be extremely gay for Christine I love her so much she is a gift and these girls sitting in front of my brother and his friend kept calling her stupid and I almost threw hands

•Raoul low-key seemed kinda standoffish and sort of seemed like a jerk for a very short amount of time when he first comes in but that thankfully changed pretty quickly so I was probably just imagining it

•When Erik's voice just echoes throughout the theater when he'a doing his "insolent boy" thing after Raoul leaves Christine's dressing room and it just sounds like he's everywhere at once I am just in awe

•When Christine is singing Angel of Music and Erik just,,, aPPEARS IN THE MIRROR?? LIKE HELLO?? THEATER IS AMAZING

•The phantom of the opera. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. This scene is just so gorgeous on stage. The lighting, the effects, it's so beautiful.

•There was some dude behind me who clearly knew nothing about this musical and kept trying judge it and analyze it like he was some kind of professional critic it was really annoying like when Erik opens the music box the first time he was like "that's the music box from the beginning" like it was some groundbreaking scientific discovery and me and my just gave each other this look

•Christine started flinching and pulling away from people after she goes with Erik the first time and it made me sad

•The costumes are gorgeous

•For some parts when Erik is talking offstage they have these projections of a silhouette of him on the stage that are really cool

• "Her singing will shatter the chandelier!" Proceeded by the chandelier actually flickering and swinging a bit

•The fact that they're able to make it look like Buquet was actually hung is pretty wild

•Right about here fake critic guy was being particularly loud and my brother shushed him and during intermission I heard him say "that 5th grader is gonna put me in my place". My brother is 17. (Though to he fair he did stop talking after that.)

•I cried during All I Ask of You because love is pretty neat

•WHEN THE CHANDELIER DROPPED AND IT STARTS POPPING AND FLASHING AND SPURTING SMOKE WHY IS THIS SO COOL TO ME

•The choreography to Masquerade (and the rest of the musical really) was amazing

•During the scene where they're rehearsing for Don Juan Triumphant and they keep messing up then the stage goes almost completely dark except for a spotlight on the actors and flames just start shooting out of the piano and it starts playing by itself and everyone just starts singing eerily perfectly in unison it was pretty wacky but really awesome

•Speaking of flames THE PYROTECHNICS WERE AMAZING whether it was the minor explosions when Erik is fighting or when Erik stomps at some point and flames shoot out across the entire stage and there's just the blinding orange light throughout the theater there are no words

•I also cried during Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again because I love Christine so much and she's so SAD

•During the scene where Erik and Raoul are fighting Raoul just DECKS HIM IN THE FACE and runs off it's truly incredible

•Before they preform Don Juan Triumphant when Christine is all terrified and stuff and Raoul is telling her that they're all depending on her she gets really upset and says something like "you said were going to protect me, that you were going to keep me safe" and Raoul tries to say something but she says "Just leave me alone" or something to that effect and runs off and that as well made me cry

•During The Point of No Return when Erik let's go of Christine after they dance for a bit Christine scurries away from him so quickly I just :((((

•Christine kept trying to pull away from Erik when he brought her back underground and again I :(((( leave her alone :(((

•At one point during that scene Erik forcefully blindfolded Christine and shoved her onto the bed and I was like n,ooo,oo stop that >:(((

•Erik was like two times Christine's height so he had to crouch down just to look her in the face

•When Erik lets Christine and Raoul leave and Meg and the officers come to arrest him he just poofs off of the stage it's pretty wild

•After the musical ended one of the actors was talking about Broadway Cares and the stuff you could get for donating in the lobby and he said "you could get this Phantom of the Opera tote bag and be the envy of everyone at Trader Joe's" and he's not wrong

•Me and my brother were waking back to the car I just said "I really love Christine" and he was like "shut up I know when do you not love Christine" like I don't listen to him gush about the fictional characters he loves 24/7

•My mom's friend said that Christine's Masquerade dress looked like a Disney princess dress and she said "what if there was a Disney Phantom of the Opera" and I just started silently screaming about Phantom Manor.

•I don't know what else to say at this except I really hope I get to see it again preferably soon

Sorry for going on for so long this post took me all day to write I just really love this musical

[geo-theatre-diary-blog]

Mary Poppins Diary 2018

well hello There, I had diary of the show last year, so I'm making one this year, or at least I'm starting it, I won't continue it until we get into the opera house on Thursday, so in 4 days, also I don't have much down time in the show, so idk if it'll be longer or not, and similar to last time there's a hurricane a-comin, hurricane Florence is apparently going to hit North Carolina hard, it won't be as close to us as irma, but we will probably get some bad weather, oh also, do you remember noah from the last show, he is playing Bert in this show. Welp that is enough introduction so... se ya Thursday!

  Surprise I'm back, they are reworking step in time... a week and a half before the show..... UUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!

In other news, there is a big group chat (like last time) and it's a bit bigger now, there is: holden, caraline, Lillian, savanna, cadence, noah, lolly, kane, Damaris, Bethany, mary grace, Clara grace, Brenley, kasha*, Lydia*, Cassie*, hope*, caleb* and Zoë* (* means they are new)

ALSO we have 2 sets of Janes and Michaels. So that's a little bit of an introduction, so ye, NOW I WILL SEE YOU AT THE OPERA HOUSE.

    _____________________________________________

  Hi, it's the next day, I've decided that Imma still update it a little before we get to the opera house. Hurricane Florence is now a category 4, and South Carolina has evacuated its coast, o boi. Also we aren't moving into the opera house on Thursday like I thought, we move in on Saturday.

  Im at rehearsal right now, they are about to start practically perfect. Clara grace isn't here so margo is having to say her lines from the audience. Mortimer and I had a long conversation about video games; his favorite is Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, mine is Super Paper Mario. Winston and Holly are playing Jane and Michael Oh shoot, gotta be on stage, I'll be back.

 Im back, hi. The bank scene is next and i have to be in that, they are doing spoonful of sugar now, holden is KILLING it as Robertson Ay so that's good, aight gotta go

 Im back again, it's feed the birds right now, and I think I'm going to finish with the diary for today. So see ya tomorrow.

 Hi actually another thing happened, someone is filling in for Clara Grace, she is doing ok surprisingly (considering she hasn't done this for 2 months like CG, and that she is a fair bit younger, so I am pleasantly surprised) ok NOW im gonna end it here, today was a lot.

 WELL IM BACK AGAIN, Carrie Elaine FRICCIN ROCKED IT AS MISS ANDREW.

  _____________________________________________

   Hi, I'm back at rehearsal, we are about to run the show. The talking is way worse than normal, and I'm not feeling well; so rip today. The new Nintendo direct is hopefully coming out on Thursday, last week a huge earthquake hit Japan so they had to cancel it, which was the best thing to do in that situation. Either way, they are doing jolly Holiday, so ye.

 I just did the scene where I yell at the kids, the anger in it skyrocketed, and the book slamming perfectly only multiplied that anger, which sounds bad, but it was actually really good; I actually think I scared Everyone on stage

  _____________________________________________

  Hiya, it's Wednesday now, not much has happened today, there wasn't a rehearsal today, so tomorrow is our last day before we get to the opera house

  _____________________________________________

  Today is the last day before we move into the opera house, they are doing a flying rehearsal tomorrow but I don't fly so I want be able to tell how that will go, there is normal rehearsal tonight, we have 5 days until media night and 6 days until the show, so hell week (tech week) has officially started

 Im at rehearsal now, the fly guy, Marquee, is here and all of the props and set have been moved to opera house. I'm STRUGGLING without my umbrella. Oh also the Nintendo direct came out today and Isabelle from animal crossing is in smash bros so I'm HYPED. They are about to do jolly holiday. We haven't been able to condense the show into an hour and 15 minutes yet, and that is our max time for the school shows, so that is extremely stressful. Amelia is being adorable as ever, god I love her, we haven't gone on another date in a few weeks so we need to do that after the show is over

 Marquee seems impressed so far, we are at supercalifragilisticexpialidocious now, the show is going well so far

 I just did the yelling scene, Marquee is taking notes, that's both good and stressful.

 Mrs Andrew is singing her song now, Marquee was really impressed with the last note, we are about to start fly a kite, trisha is doing better as Jane, ok I gotta go on stage soon

 Ok, rehearsal is over and the next is gonna be in the opera house, I got sauce containers for my accio sauce; I will be eating in my dressing room a lot and ranch gets everywhere so Imma just bring the  accio (also noah may want to try some). Hurricane Florence is hitting land now, North Carolina has declared a state of emergency, I hope Abbie doesn't get too bad of weather.

  _____________________________________________

    Well hi, so today was stressful. Imma get all the good stuff out of the way first, so, amelia and I went on a date today so that was good. And that's all the good stuff done, NOW THE STRESSFUL STUFF.

          ༼strong language is used here༽

 Today was a cluster fuck. The new staff at the opera house has no clue what they are doing and can't think ahead far enough for anything to get done. So for starters the stage left stairwell is being remodeled, and the ensemble dressing rooms are under the stage, that means that anyone who is in show that enters from stage left has to walk behind the god damn psych. And in the event of a fire, they won't have an easy exit, because the pit doors are usually locked during shows, and the stage right staircase is a spiral. And what is the opera house doing about this? Jack fucking shit. Also the school shows are being fucked up too, some idiot thought it would be a fucking brilliant idea to have the school buses park 2 blocks north of the actual opera house on an unpaved road. That means that 1000 elementary school children will be walking in a line to and from the buses for 30 minutes before and after the show FOR 2 BLOCKS DOWNTOWN, and we don't even know if the weather will be good or not, if it rains then to fucking bad, those kids have to walk in the rain. Because why not, it's not like there is a HUGE parking lot for the civic center across the street that has been more than welcome to hold the busses OH FUCKING WAIT THERE IS. The fire Chief almost had to cancel the show because the opera house crew can't actually finish the INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT FIXES before the show. NOT TO MENTION THE HANDICAPPED ENTRANCE IS ACTUALLY BLOCKED OFF BY THE CONSTRUCTION. AND NO ONE THOUGH THIS WAS POSSIBLY A BAD IDEA. The city isn't doing anything about it either, what can they do, none of the new opera house staff will respond to their calls. And I get that they are busy but the previous staff had all the work done for them, they've just been sitting there with their thumbs up there asses for A MONTH finishing none of the work and only making their jobs HARDER. I just don't understand how a group of adults can fuck up so badly to endanger the lives of not only all of the 88 kids in the cast, but the 1000 that are going to just be walking the streets during school shows and not have one person, just one person, say "hey what if instead... we didn't" also the renovation to the stage left stairwell is purely to make a new room, there are no structural readjustments or improvements being made.

     ༼ok im done yelling and cussing now༽

   So yeah, today sucked, I have my first rehearsal in the opera house in over a year tomorrow, so YEET

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    So today is my first rehearsal in the opera house, im getting ready to leave soon.

 Cherry tree lane just ended, we are now working with flight so that is fun, we are having to re block some scenes to work around it. Holden actually hit his head on the desk this time so that ain't good they are working a scene change right now. The curse of the opera house, everything that seems to be going well suddenly isn't and has to be changed. They are about to start jolly holiday, I gotta get to stage left now

 Ok so it's spoonful of sugar right now and the moving around is stressful,

  ok so they are doing feed the birds and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious now, next is intermission, this show is extremely stressful, and having no stage left is... oh boy. We haven't even gotten to intermission yet and we've been rehearsal for an hour and a half

  rehearsal is almost over, they are working on the flying parts

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  Im heading to rehearsal now, we are doing act 2 and whatever else we can today. The stress is really getting to everyone, Lillian almost had an emotional breakdown all throughout yesterday.

Both holden and I actually did have an emotional breakdown, we hugged and both almost cried. It's gonna get better though, tech week is always the most stressful. I have a lot to do when I get there, I have to get my makeup on, then my costume, then my mic, then who knows what else .

  Hi im at rehearsal, in costume.

 Ok so we just finished the show and are doing it again, Winston and Holly are now Jane and Michael. Ok imma check and see if im needed

   Im back home, and a FRIPP ton of stuff has happened; for starters, Carrie Elaine almost died, not exaggerating either, her flight was horrible, she was sideways and nearly slammed her head on the balcony. Noah was basically drunk after the run through due to his harness being so incredibly painful.

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  It's spoonful currently, Andrew is changing right now next is the bank scene, Andrew looks like a freaking albino raccoon because of the makeup.

 I just did the bank scene and Andrew is still getting his makeup off. im sitting in my dressing room for the next few scenes and intermission. They recording aswell, also I just learned that a piano is a percussion instrument and I don't know how I feel about that. But now my question is, what type of instrument is an electric keyboard, like is it wind, string, or percussion, I know that there is brass, woodwind and keyboard, but like the three basic types. Also I hate the fact that there is a "keyboard" type I mean like all of the keyed instruments can be placed into other categories other than the electronic keyboard, organs are wind, pianos are apparently percussion, accordions are wind, so why make a specific type?

  Act 2 has started, and there have been a few hiccups here and there but so far, it's good. The audience is enjoying it too. My feet are killing me.

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  Today is media night, oh boi. Media night is always cursed, and we open on Wednesday, another cursed day

 Im in costume the entire main cast is jamming out to Africa, take on me, boogie wonderland, and we're not gonna take it. We were gonna listen to jimmy buffet but other people had to change so rip. A PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL CONTACTED AMELIA, IM SO HAPPY!

 Ok house is about to open.

 I'll update the journal later, my phone is at 6 percent

 I ran directly into a wall.

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  OPENING NIGHT

 I'm heading to the opera house now, amelia is gonna watch it tonight, and considering that until recently she didn't even know that people could fly on stage, she will LOVE it.

 I just carried Winston, also we can't have our phones on during the show, it's interfering with the mics.

 Act 2 just started and a cable has broken, marry and mrs Andrew can't fly for the rest of the night, bert still can but still.

 Other than the lack of flying the show went very well.

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 Hi it's 2 days later, flying is working again, we have already done 2 shows today, and are about to do a 3rd one, someone is stealing some of the costume pieces, Lillian's apron and gloves are missing and hope's apron was found in someone else's dressing room. Lillian had to take all of her clothes with her when she left so it won't get stolen.

 We are heading to the show, dancing queen just came on the radio so yEET. During the break between shows today, Andrew and I listened to music in our dressing room, he tried to squat on top of the trashcan.

 School shows were fun today, we had to cut jolly holiday because of time.

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  Hey so is the final day and there were two shows today and both were really good, noah didn't knock over the vase in the second show and I played it off and he did too and the scene continued and it was AMAZING. Also in the first show the flying kite didn't work. Abbie was here for them and really liked the shows, ALSO ALSO tate and trisha really stepped up their game for the last show, and it really worked. IN THE FINALE HOLDEN KISSED HOPE ON THE CHEEK AND I FREAKING LOVED IT. Andrew strapped a bunch of wire hangers to himself to try and conduct electricity. Lillian was bawling and it was really sad, she was literally born to play mary poppins, and now it's over. But like actually though, Lillian just actually looks like Julie Andrews, the hair, the face, the VOICE, etc. It's gonna be hard to not do this show anymore but not as hard as others. But I'll make another diary soon, for next show. I guess you can say "the showS must go on". Also my favorite part of this was watching noah walk up the opera house proscenium during step in time.

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  and now i guess it's over, this show was incredibly fun, but incredibly stressful, from the opera house construction, to the rivaling theater companies, to the costumes being stolen. All in all, I don't want to start the show over, nor do I want to do one more show, I want to be done and be ready to move forward, and to remember this show as a good memory, not a bad one. So that's what I'm gonna do.

 I'll make more diaries soon.

                        -Gorge Banks

                              (Geo)

[hermionegrangcrrs]

things that happened during my production of into the woods

I just stage managed a production of into the woods and a lot of hilarious shit went down

during the first show the witch said the “you can let me have the baby that your wife will bear” line and waited for the baker to say “I had a brother?” but the baker forgot his line so the witch just went “.............it was a girl”

jacks mom said “doesn’t anyone care a giant has fallen from the sky” and an audience member said no

mysterious man was supposed to throw a bag of coins at the baker and hit him in the back but he missed so the baker just picked it up and said “woah that almost hit me”

cinderella: “look it’s a giant beanstalk growing up into the sky....it looks like, um...a beanstalk....”

*milky white dies* audience member: yay

wolf: “what might be in your basket?” audience member: “a palm tree bitch”

*witch cuts off rapunzels hair* audience member: “R I P”

me and the lighting operator made vine references throughout the entire show over headset

*milky white dies* us: “miss keisha? miss keisha? oh my fuckin she fuckin dead”

*witch turns over empty goblet* us: “this bitch empty yeET”

early on in rehearsals a girl was like damn this is tough or something like that and another girl turned and said very confidently “that’s just STEFAN Sondheim”

instead of a horse that the prince and steward could ride in on our director gave the steward two coconut halves and made him bang them together to make horse galloping sounds like in monty python and the holy grail

during bows of one of the last shows my boss came over to me and my ASM and was like “I need to see you two in the green room immeadiately after the show” and we when went down to the green room some of the other techies were like “hey she’s piSSED at you” and we were so worried so then my boss calls us over from the stairwell so we go over, all terrified, bUT WHEN WE GOT THERE she was PERchEd oN the fuCKiN stairwell and she says “iM A spiDEERRR” then started laughing like crazy

side note: we found out later that she did this to literally everyone on tech

ok this one is long but bear with me so my boss’s mom is the principal at a lower income, mostly non-white school and she brought some of her kids to see the show; so the girl playing our witch was black and apparently after the show one of the little kids from that school asked my boss if she could meet the witch because she was “so amazing and so talented” and he “loved her so much!!!” and my boss was like yeah ofc my dude and went to get the witch and when they came back the little guy started shaking the witch’s hand like “ahhhh you’re so amazing!!!” anyway this whole exchange basically cleared my skin, watered my crops, and gave me back my faith in humanity like thIS IS WHY REPRESENTATION IS IMPORTANT PEOPLE

before the show sometimes I’d go up to the booth with the lighting and sound operators and we’d turn up the volumes on mics so we could hear the conversations happening backstage

the witch once forgot to take off rapunzels hair after the scene where she cuts it and so it was just sitting on the stage until the baker ended up “casually” kicking it off