#everybody meet Bailey

[merakisphere]

When I say my products are 100% handmade, that's only the surface. They're also 100% showcased, 100% processed/organized, and 100% packaged/shipped by myself as well. I find that some people don't realize that a small handmade business is more than just making the product. It is also promoting it on your socials, organizing ways and processes to manage your orders, financial accounting (very important), packaging, and customer service.

I think this level of work and detail shows in my reviews as customers see more than just the product, they recognize the raw passion that goes into every order that goes out. :) ETSY | WEBSITE

[digenerate-trash]

everybody only ever wanna talk about yan bailey…nobody wanna talk about yan avery making you cockwarm him while he sits at his desk working or suck him off while he’s on a business call…. 💔💔💔

(you're so right. wheres the love for my terrible man with all the money in the world???) AMAB Avery | GN pc Avery bringing you to the office as a treat for the day. He introduces you to everyone and they all comment on how polite and quiet you are. He loves that about you. You're the perfect little socialite.

Several people comment on the skirt Avery made you wear. Some even say how much it suits you with a wink. Avery's hand on your shoulder gets tighter at these responses but he's still proud and happy with you as he leads you to his office. It's flashy and nice. With a beautiful view that overlooks the shoreline. Not that you get to look at it before Avery is pulling you into his lap.

His hands reach down under the skirt his lean fingers tracing over your bare skin. His hands are cold and it makes you whimper as he slides a finger inside of you. You're barely ready for it tight and uncomfortable as Avery prepares you.

He's happy to keep fingering you as he looks over his work. Every time he hits a sweatspot you whimper and he hushes you gently. He presses more fingers in as well just to tease you and keep you spread for him. After he's satisfied with that he unzips his pants and teases your hole with his cock he leans you over his desk and takes his time pressing just the tip against you popping the head in and out of your entrance until he can't stand it anymore and he eases you on his cock.

He lets you stay like that for way too long while he works. He lets you squirm and readjust as much as you like. Avery prides himself on his self-control. As you lean back against him your face flushed. Your hands covering your mouth to stop your moans. This is much better than any date he could have taken you on. This way he gets to be entertained and continue his work.

Eventually, though he leans you forward again and starts to thrust in and out of you slowly. He presses you down into the desk by your neck and urges you to be quiet. People are working after all. Your hips are starting to get bruised with every bump against the desk and when you both finally cum you are spent. But Avery still wants more.

He pushes you down to your knees under the desk and urges your face into his crotch demanding you clean him up

"I have a meeting in here in 5 minutes. So try to be quiet." 

[papermint-airplane]

Eleanor: ...and that's why we have to find the control room. If Rose could get in that way, we can get out that way.

Bailey: Don't you think the Watcher, or whoever it is doing this to us, would have that room more heavily guarded now?

Eleanor: Of course, which is why we need a distraction. Something big enough that the so-called 'Watcher' -- and Angel -- can't ignore. Maybe we could-

Angel: Hey, I heard my name. What are you two talking about?

Eleanor: Nothing you need to concern yourself with.

Angel: Oh, ok, so you won't mind if I take a seat riiiiight here then.

Angel: Go on, continue your conversation. Don't let me interrupt the meeting of the minds.

Bailey: So, as we were saying, we need a distra-

Eleanor: Bailey! Hush!

Angela: Hey, girlies! Dig the new looks! Were you playing hairdresser in here?

Eleanor: ...maybe.

Viridia: ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY SHUT THE FUCK UP. I, VIRIDIA, HAVE HAD A LONG-ASS DAY AND I NEED SOME REST.

Eleanor: Uggggh, I hate it here.

Lights out, ladies!

Eleanor: Fine.

Angela: Night, everyone! Sleep tight!

Viridia: SHUT YOUR NOISE HOLE, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP.

Angela: *giggles*

~~

[Beginning] [Previous] [Next]

[jbaileyfansite]

Interview for 'Out Magazine' for Fellow Travelers (2023)

Starting in 1950, hundreds to thousands of gay men and lesbians were fired from government jobs for allegations of homosexuality under the intrusive eyes of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn. They were labeled deviants and morally weak. McCarthy and Cohn said that gay people couldn’t be trusted with your children, let alone to run your country. It’s shockingly similar to what’s happening today.

By 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which barred homosexuals from working in the federal government. Five thousand people were not just fired but were outed to their families and communities, effectively and in some cases literally ending their lives. More followed. It wasn’t until the 1970s that this policy barring gay people from federal jobs started to change, and not until 1998 that it completely ended.

In Fellow Travelers, an eight-episode series airing on Showtime this fall, actors Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey play Hawk Fuller and Tim Laughlin, two men who meet while working in Washington, D.C., at the start of McCarthyism. They fall in love. For Hawk, this means living an existence of discipline and barriers, hiding who he is so he can build a life working in the government. For Tim, it means losing his career and finding a path that allows him to follow his truth.

In order to survive, Hawk and Tim form a chosen family with two other gay men swept up in the big political and cultural changes happening: journalist Marcus Hooks (Jelani Alladin) and drag-queen-turned-activist Frankie Hines (Noah J. Ricketts). Throughout the four decades covered in the series, the four men come back into each other’s lives when things get hardest. For the four out stars of the show, forming that kind of found family was important in order to be able to play some of the most complex and challenging (but rewarding) roles of their careers. That family found its leader in Bomer, a veteran actor (Magic Mike, The Normal Heart). Bailey, an English actor with an extensive background in theater, is internationally famous as the male lead in season 2 of Netflix’s Bridgerton. Alladin (Frozen) and Ricketts (Frozen, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) are known for their Broadway roles.

“Matt is such a giver, and he gave to all of us and provided the space for all of us to feel safe, to feel that we can make bold choices and that we can all play along,” Alladin says, thanking Bomer. “And it really connected everybody on set to say, to trust each other. Rarely do I feel like there’s a circle of four queer men or four queer bodies and I feel like we can all say, ‘I would fall on a sword for you.’”

For Bomer and Bailey, that also meant building the kind of trust that allowed them to film some sex scenes that are among the hottest in the careers of two men who have filmed a lot of heated moments. “It’s funny, isn’t it? Personally, when I read the script, I didn’t think it was explicit,” Bailey laughs. “I think it’s so important. You can’t tell the queer love story and not show how the sex is so intrinsic.”

“It’s all something that is hard to talk about to people who come together and have separate bodies,” he adds. “But if you exist in the same body, how you negotiate that and what that means, how being submissive [affects sex], and well, really what is kink…. It’s all a thing. I just think it’s a really hearty and honest examination of something which I know I’ve always yearned to see properly explored.”

Bomer says they were able to explore that because they had conversations throughout filming the scenes. “We could call audibles on the fly or really communicate with each other or say we wanted to try this or that, so it all felt pretty free,” he says. “And in terms of the story, all those scenes really carry the story forward. Their relationships are not the same after those above scenes as they were before. So they’re all intrinsic and inherent to the story.”

“I think it’s so nuanced and personal, isn’t it? The way that people have sex is so presumed,” Bailey says. “It definitely was the first time that I’ve seen a light being shown on the roles within a gay relationship and power and status with being submissive and dominant.”

“But to me, what I find interesting, it’s a give and take between the two,” he continues. “So actually it’s not one person going, ‘I’m now going to do this.’ It’s like they move as a unit. And I think that’s beautiful. And I feel like it always is negotiation, and I’m always interested in people who identify as one role, and I would wonder what that is.”

He points to the first time Hawk and Tim have sex, where Hawk takes on the dominant (top) role, and the last time, when Tim takes charge. “Literally, it’s a complete reversal,” he points out. “It’s a love story. So that bleeds into these scenes. So even in the way they have sex, it’s always about generosity and communication. And that is essentially how I feel how this whole show was made on generosity and communication and truth.”

While the sexual intimacy is groundbreaking in the show, the intimacy is there for the characters in other ways too. Because the actors played the characters throughout four decades of their lives, they were presented with a unique opportunity to showcase development — especially for Alladin and Ricketts, who know the importance of showing Black queer love on screen.

“There’s also something so powerful in telling this story to the world right now in hope of either educating or simply revealing to those who don’t understand that love can happen in all shapes, sizes, and forms, and be inside of all people,” Alladin says. “And that it should not be something that is limited by law or limited by the venom of segregation.”

“For me, some of the intimacy that I enjoy the most in this series is when we’re all old,” he continues. “Because they’re still caring for one another. I’ll never forget shooting that scene in the bedroom in one of the later episodes where we’re at age 80 and we’re still connected, we’re still loving each other. That’s something I’ve never seen — caring that lasts through decades.”

For Ricketts, playing the role of a Black gay man who is a drag performer in an illegal gay bar in the ’50s and then becomes an activist and organizer throughout the rest of his life, caused him to look at his own life and priorities.

“I think there’s something so beautiful and beautifully hard about being yourself in a world that is determined to hate you,” Ricketts says. “And playing Frankie, a character that was out and loud and proud with a glossy lip and a painted nail. It really forced me to look inward at the way I moved through the world and see if I’m coming out authentically, if I’m moving in the world authentically. And so I hope that as people watch this, they ask themselves that question so we can break down these barriers of hypermasculinity and feeling like we have to change who we are to subscribe to societal norms.”

“I think living out loud and living as an effeminate person in the world, you put on a type of armor,” he continues. “There is a lot of fear underneath that. And even though to the external world, you’re going out there being brave, what I tried to show was that it’s actually a really difficult thing to stand up and be yourself. There’s a lot of emotion underneath that. And so I think throughout the years, you beat someone down one time and you get stronger the next time. And I think that’s what you see in Frankie’s evolution.”

“It’s amazing to see how much [Frankie’s] priorities shift as the world shifts through the decades. And I think that’s what I responded to so much, is that my character Frankie gives up, puts his heels away to fight the good fight and to make a better existence for the people that come after him,” he says. “And I think that’s something that’s so real for queer people that it’s a call to action. We don’t have the luxury of hanging back. We have to fight for everything that we have.”

That fight became even more real for each of the actors the more they learned about the real Lavender Scare — the aforementioned persecution of queer people in the U.S. government — a history lesson that’s not taught in most schools. “I had no idea it was a thing, and I was embarrassed by that,” Alladin admits. “I was ashamed of that. Why was that chapter skipped in the history books? Why not in social studies class? It is 101, and here we are staring in the mirror being like, Well, did anything change? Well, no. Because we didn’t teach it. We haven’t taught it. So therefore, how can you learn the lesson?”

“I think there’s so much erasure that happens of queer history in general that I’m happy this exists because it forces people to ask the question, Did this really happen? And to seek out answers for themselves,” Ricketts adds. “And the answer is, ‘Yeah, it’s real.’ And it’s happening again today. So yeah, call to action, babies!”

“A lot of the transformations that we’ve seen in the community come from Black and brown bodies that really put themselves out on the street and out on the front lines to fight the fight. And so that’s something that I knew, but it’s amazing to see that it didn’t just happen at Stonewall, it happened in San Francisco and other places with the street queens, that they were out there really going to jail, fighting for their lives so that we could have what we have today,” he says. “And I just think it’s so beautiful to show that. I’m happy that it’s represented.”

Before the July photo shoot for this article, Alladin and Bailey had the chance to go to London Pride together, something both actors say they’ll never forget. “I think it was really crazy to have to experience Pride in New York City and to land in London and experience Pride in London and feel that it’s almost exactly the same,” Alladin says. “There’s a need to release joy. There’s a need to feel that. The world is trying to squish it out of the community with every law that’s being passed, every kind of denial of existence. And you’re like, I just want to enjoy one day.”

Bailey says that working on the show has made him more aware of the political fervor at Pride than any time he’s been previously, and it’s causing him to examine how he uses his platform to fight for LGBTQ+ rights. And Bomer also felt that this year’s Pride was a special one — particular in the wake of Supreme Court decisions that struck down affirmative action and opened the door to businesses discriminating against LGBTQ+ people.

“In light of the past week in all the Supreme Court rulings, it was so important for me personally yesterday just to go out into the streets and take in the Pride celebrations and the sense of community and hope and joy and love that everyone was feeling,” he says. “And to allow that to fill my cup a little bit and inspire me to educate myself and form myself to do what I can and keep moving forward and in the most productive way possible for our community.”

Bomer also wants to make sure he honors those who fought to get us where we are today. “I was fortunate enough to be in Houston last week for the 20th anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas [the SCOTUS ruling invalidating U.S. sodomy laws], and it was so profound for me to meet members of the community in Houston who I was totally unaware of,” he says. “There are generations of heroes who are doing the real grassroots behind-the-scenes work who don’t want accolades, who don’t want awards, who are doing the real work that’s changing all of our lives. And I think I value that today more than I ever have before.”

“For me, I think Pride is always a time to reflect on how far we’ve come but also to realize how much further we have to go,” Ricketts says. “And I think that’s what I’d say to the younger communities, is really understand and know how we got here in the first place and figure out what your form of fighting is. If it’s just showing up in the world authentically as you, that’s wonderful. If it’s getting on a podium and preaching until midnight, that’s wonderful too. But we all need each other and no one can sit back and rest. We have to keep fighting in the fight.”

Talking about queer joy as a form of activism at Pride makes Alladin think of a note he was given during filming from series creator Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) about the balance of difficulty and joy found in the series.

“Ron gave me a note one day,” Alladin recalls. “I texted him being like, ‘I’m watching all this research on the ’80s and the AIDS crisis and I’m just sitting here crying.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, but Jelani, I still went to birthday parties. I still found a way to play games with my friends. I still found a way to have a beer and enjoy that.’ So there is still some semblance of light being found in darkness and chaos.”

“When I was in Houston, I was at home with one of the activists and he was showing me pictures from the time period,” Bomer contributes. “And obviously, there was so much heartbreak and loss, but there was also so much celebration and so much joy. It’s really the balance.”

Source

[sweeter-innocence-fics]

Can We Be Wrong Tonight? - Chapter Six

Pairing: Colin Zabel x Reader

Work Summary: In the wake of Missy Sager’s disappearance, you’re having trouble staying safe while making ends meet. Colin Zabel x Sex Worker!Reader.

Chapter Summary: You wake up to a small room and a familiar face.

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Word Count: 1790

Read on AO3.

Masterlists.

Taglist: @trashmaximoff @raincoffeeandfandoms @josephines-simps-fics @mrs-kai-anderson @cursedandromedablack @pappachismoth @ang3l1te @missryerye

Taglist info.

Notes: Big warnings in this one for kidnapping, violence, generally and also specifically against sex workers, violence against the reader, prejudice against sex workers, misogyny, blood and injury

---

Consciousness hit you like a brick. You sat up suddenly, and pain shot through your entire body.

“What-” you gasped, feeling as though there wasn’t enough air in your lungs. “Where-”

“Shh, shh.” A familiar voice was shushing you. A warm hand touched your arm. You looked up.

“Missy?” Her clothes were filthy and her face was pale, but even in the darkness, you recognised her. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. Behind her, there was another young woman watching you warily. Noticing your gaze, Missy said, “This is Katie.”

“Katie Bailey,” you breathed, recognising her now. “I saw you on the news. I thought you were dead.” You looked around yourself. You were in a small room with wooden walls, a tiny window in the ceiling, and a couple of dirty mattresses on the floor,

“Everybody probably thinks you’re dead now too,” said Missy. Your stomach twisted painfully. The combination of hunger and fear was painful. Emptiness was gnawing at your insides.

“I don’t think anybody’s gonna miss me,” you said, trying to make it a joke, but your breath hitched halfway through and you had to stifle your tears.

You thought of Colin. He had told you he loved you. He wasn’t the first client to do that. But he was the first client that you’d invited back to your home. The first client you’d fucked for free in an alley. The first client who’d bought you pizza and cleaned up your grazes and eaten you out.

Would he miss you? Or would he push you to back of his mind, chalking you up to a confusion of lust and move on with his life? The thought hit you right in your empty stomach.

“We have to get out of here,” you said, wiping your face. Your hand came away dirty, and you noticed rope burns on your wrists.

“He ties us up whenever he has company,” said Katie. “He didn’t wanna risk you waking up.”

“It’s just one guy?” you asked.

“Yes.” She’d been living through this for over a year. She knew better than anyone.

“There’s three of us,” you said. “We could absolutely take one guy.” Both Missy and Katie started shaking their heads.

“He has a gun,” said Missy, at the same time as Katie said, “He has cameras, he’s watching us.”

“The police aren’t going to find us,” you said, desperately. “They’ve been looking for a year.”

“Keep your voice down,” Katie hissed, but it was too late.

Somewhere outside of the room, you heard a floorboard creaking. Summoning what little strength you had, you pushed yourself to your feet.

“He’ll kill you,” whispered Missy. There were tears in her eyes.

You looked around you for anything you could use as a weapon, but there was nothing. Fear bit into you deep. Making a split-second decision, you sat back down on the mattress, hoping that you’d be perceived as meek and innocent. The other girls got on their knees and put their hands on the ground. You waited.

The door burst open suddenly and a man stepped in. He was tall with short, dark hair and fire in his eyes. You looked up at him just in time for him to descend upon you, grabbing you by the hair. Gasping in pain, you were pulled to your feet and dragged from the room. The door slammed behind you.

“Stupid girl,” he hissed, throwing you to the ground. “You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t see what you’re trying to do?”

“Please,” you whimpered, but a swift, sharp kick to your ribs knocked the air out of your lungs. His big hand grabbed your hair again, clawing at your scalp. You tried to throw your hands out in front of you, but it was no use. He bounced your head off the banister and everything went black.

*

When you woke up, the room was dark. You tried to bring your hands up to rub your eyes, but you found that they were bound behind your back. You were gagged. Distantly, you heard the sounds of men’s voices. Your head was pounding. Sleep took you by force.

*

The next time you awoke, the sun’s rays peaking through the window hurt your eyes. You were no longer bound, so you covered your face with your hands. Everything hurt.

“She’s awake,” you heard one of the other girls whisper. You ignored her, curling up into a ball and trying to shield yourself from the pain that was permeating your entire body. “Hey.” Someone poked your foot.

“What?” you mumbled. The word was blurry and got stuck in your throat, burning as it worked its way out of you.

“You should eat something.” Missy pressed a sandwich into your hand. “He doesn’t give us plates, sorry.”

You grimaced. It was a very sad-looking cheese sandwich. Your distaste at the idea of eating it was only eclipsed by your hunger pangs. You had no idea how long it had been since you’d eaten. Maybe days. 

With great effort, you sat up. Supporting yourself on the wall, you took a bite of the sandwich. You had been expecting the pain in your throat as you tried to swallow it, but you hadn’t anticipated that your jaw would be aching so badly that chewing was a nightmare. It was only the emptiness of the pit inside you that kept you going.

“Are you alright?” asked Katie.

You didn’t respond. You couldn’t. This sandwich was taking every part of the little energy you had left. It nourished you, it abused you, you needed it. It was your torturer and your saviour.

“Are you in withdrawals?” she asked.

“She doesn’t take drugs,” said Missy, shifting to a more comfortable position on the mattress.

“Okay, good. That’s one less thing to worry about.”

“Yeah, you don’t wanna detox here. Trust me.”

You wanted to nod, but you were too busy swallowing. In truth, you could barely hear what the other girls were saying. The sandwich was gone now. It could torment you no longer.

“I need to…” You slumped to the side, unable to finish the sentence.

“Hey, hey.” Katie crawled over to you and helped lower you onto the mattress. “It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

“I’m scared,” you whimpered. The two girls exchanged a look.

“Hey, it’s alright.” Katie put her arm around you. “It’s gonna be okay.”

You didn’t believe her, but you didn’t push her away either. Her presence was comforting. Again, you slept.

*

Hours turned into days. You had no idea how long you were stuck in that room. As strange as it might sound, the boredom was worse than the fear. Fear at least gave you something to focus on. Something to think about. But you spent so many hours just lying there, with nothing to distract you from the pain.

You thought about Colin. A lot. In your head, you lived in a world where you’d gone home with him that night. Where you’d slept in his bed and let him make you breakfast and made easy, casual love to each other. A world where he was your boyfriend, and he took care of you.

The longer you were here, the more you thought you might never see him again. Katie told you that there had been other girls, but they’d all disappeared without a trace. Your captor had removed them from the room and never brought them back. She thought he was going to do the same to you when he dragged you out. Fortunately, he’d only beaten the shit out of you.

Mostly, you slept. When you were awake, you hardly talked to the other girls. The pain made you angry and you had to keep quiet to stop yourself from snapping at them. They left you to it.

You were lying on that dirty mattress, teetering on the edge of sleep again when the unmistakable sound of two gunshots rang out.

The other girls were on their feet in seconds, backing up against the wall, petrified. You weren’t sure you could’ve moved even if you weren’t injured. You closed your eyes, hoping that if death was coming for you, it would be quick.

The door opened. You didn’t even turn to look, but you heard Missy let out a quiet sob. This was the end, then. He’d come to kill you all.

“Katie.”

You must’ve been halfway asleep, because that almost sounded like Mare’s voice. Someone was saying your name, but you couldn’t hold onto the thought long enough to respond.

“Hey, wake up.” A hand was on your shoulder, shaking you gently but firmly. It hurt. You let out a little whine. “Zabel, I found her.”

There were more footsteps. That didn’t seem right. You opened your eyes but the world was blurry. Someone else was saying your name. It was a man’s voice this time. A familiar man’s voice.

“Colin,” you mumbled, and then someone was cupping your cheeks, forcing your eyes to focus. Colin’s face swam into view.

This was a dream. It had to be.  

“What did he do to you?” His voice was gentle, but there was a barely controlled rage bubbling beneath the surface.

“Colin.” If you were allowed to have one good dream, then you were going to make the most of it. He was leaning so close to you now. You put one hand on the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss you.

He inhaled sharply, but didn’t push you away. On the contrary, his hand tenderly cupped your jaw as he deepened the kiss. Your hands went to his shoulders, and he let out a sudden hiss of pain, pulling back from you. Your right hand came away warm and wet.

“What?” you mumbled hazily. Colin was bleeding. You could see the pain in his pretty brown eyes. You wanted to kiss him better. You wanted to find what was hurting him and make it all better.

It didn’t take long to find the hole in his shirt, right by his left shoulder. Blood was seeping out of it. He’d been shot.

This wasn’t a good dream. Colin wouldn’t be shot in a good dream.

“He hurt you,” you said, feeling delirious. The world was spinning too fast.

“He hurt you worse,” murmured Colin.

Mare cleared her throat loudly, and you looked up. She was standing in the doorway, looking down at you and Colin. Katie and Missy were gone.

“The paramedics are here,” she said.

“Is this real?” you whispered to Colin.

“What?” He looked down at you, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Is this real?”

You didn’t hear his answer, because you were unconscious.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Grey's Anatomy: Baby Can I Hold You (20x04)

It was lovely to see Arizona, but I kind of feel like her guest starring here was a bit of a waste, in some ways!

Cons:

This show is usually so good at fanservice, to the point where I find myself rolling my eyes sometimes at it... but damn it all to hell, I can't believe we got Arizona on our screens and nobody mentioned Callie or Sofia?? What the heck is that about! Not even a passing mention to give people hope that they ended up back together, even if they didn't want to confirm it?

This show has been playing chicken with the idea of Richard retiring for such a long time now that it really does get tiresome. We see that he gets frazzled in the OR and has to step out, but Teddy promises to have his back and tell him if he doesn't belong there anymore. I don't know, man, let the dude retire! I don't want to watch him dealing with his sobriety and his age and his career for the bajillionth time, actually.

Lucas feeling bummed out and being a slop and annoying Amelia is just... dude, you are all the thinnest of thin ice with me right now. I was totally with you about Simone being a jerk, but that doesn't give you the license to be a permanent jackass forever.

Pros:

I do like a feel-good success story, and the big fetal brain surgery thing was pretty cool. It's always nice when a show like this lets everybody get a clean win, to offset all the tragedy inherent in the show's DNA. It was nice to see Bailey drink in the magic of the surgical miracle, even if she is still exasperated with the interns for failing to appreciate it and stay in the moment.

But speaking of the interns, I really enjoyed everything with Kwan, Jules, and Yasuda this week.

To start with, I just want to say: Yasuda didn't do anything wrong, and she doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the other four fuck-ups! I'm glad at least Jules acknowledged that this week, and I hope Bailey will ease up a little. She even manages to finish her procedure logs, just in time to be told that she can't get back in the OR until all of them complete theirs. Tough break! I do like that we have this character who comes off a little scatter-brained and intense, and yet we see that she's actually pretty kick-ass at what she's doing.

Meanwhile, Blue freaks out when trying to place a chest tube and Schmitt has to step in and do it. This leads to a great conversation where Schmitt tells him he'll probably always see Maxine in his head when he's stressed or uncertain at work, but that maybe this isn't the worst thing. I love seeing Levi get to be a mentor in this moment, and I continue to love the development of Kwan as he deals with his insecurities and aspirations for his career.

And then Jules: she's the intern character I feel like I understand the least so far, but this was a good episode for her. We meet her brother, who calls himself a doctor but who is actually just a "wellness influencer." I love that she has to spend the episode dealing with his bullshit and then is rewarded with Owen coming in and tearing him down while giving Jules a compliment. She really needed that! And a rare W from Owen Hunt, too, I love it when he does stuff that doesn't annoy the hell out of me.

I hope that Arizona is in another episode this season, because I feel like I didn't get nearly enough time with her! In some ways this episode was a bit of a disappointment, but I still enjoyed several of the pieces and how things are coming together.

7/10

[nerdyenby]

Double Life playlist

Explaining the song choices for the Double Life segment of my Traffic series playlist

Automatic by The Mowgli’s: all the functional soulmates finding each other. “Something about our love is automatical, never really know until you’ve had it.”

Tragic by Bailey Bryan: “I move too fast for love, it don’t last.” Pearl going on her own adventures instead of looking for her soulmate, causing a rift between them before they even meet. “Don’t wait up for me, I got a long way to go. Go get what you need, I’ll be getting gone. […] Don’t wait up for me, I’ll be fine.” Her realizing her soulmate is Scott and that he’s not willing to forgive her for abandoning him. “Know what it could be, maybe in another life. […] It’s just tragic, tragic, this shit could be magic. Dancing laughing, hold my hand in traffic. Pause then panic, I can’t break the habit: run from love ‘cause I ain’t ever had it.” They had something special in Last Life, but they’ve already lost the opportunity to be that again. Pearl doesn’t know how to love like that, (I headcanon DL!Pearl as aromantic) she doesn’t need or want a soulmate, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss what she and Scott had.

Out of Style by The Wrecks: “You can let me know when you wanna be close again, but if you call and I don’t wanna answer my phone it’s ‘cause […] I just wanna know: when the hell did love go out of style?” Scott declaring him and Pearl not soulmates after she ran off without him.

The Man by Taylor Swift: Pearl’s sadness giving way to frustration and resentment. “I would be complex, I would be cool. They’d say I played the field before I found someone to commit to, and that would be okay for me to do. Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you. I’d be a fearless leader, I’d be an alpha type. When everyone believes ya, what’s that like? I’m so sick of running as fast as I can, wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man. And I’m so sick of them coming at me again. ‘Cause if I was a man, I’d be the man.”

People Watching by Conan Gray: Pearl being alone on the sidelines, watching all the other soulmate pairs living happily together. “I’m only looking to live through you vicariously. I’ve never been in love, not seriously. […] Cut people out like tags on my clothing, I end up all alone but I still keep hoping. I wanna feel all that love and emotion, be that attached to the person I’m holding. Someday I’ll be fallin’ without caution, but for now I’m only people watching.”

Normal by The Wrecks: Pearl watching Scott from a distance, sending pain through their soulbond. Whether it’s to get his attention — to remind him that she’s still his soulmate — or to torment him, no one knows, least of all her. “I’m getting used to your silence, it can’t hurt me like I can. I don’t hate you but goddamn, you didn’t make it easy.” This next part of the song goes hard if you interpret Pearl as aro and dealing with internalized aphobia, but it’s not necessary. “I just wanna fall in love like everybody else does, how come it’s so hard for me? How come it’s so hard for me? Why don’t I get to be normal?”

Getting Over You by Cemetary Sun: Scott and Cleo being chosen soulmates. “I think I found somebody new. I know I don’t deserve it but it’s true. I didn’t wanna have to cut you loose. Yeah, I’m getting over you.”

Mad Woman by Taylor Swift: “What did you think I’d say to that? Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike to kill, and you know I will.” Pearl’s angering simmering and her reputation spreading. “Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy, what about that? And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry. And there’s nothing like a mad woman, what a shame she went mad. No one likes a mad woman, you made her like that.”

WITCH by Devon Cole: Hex’s animatic is what got me into this fandom, I couldn’t not include this song. People talking about Pearl behind her back. “I swear to God I saw her howling at the sky. She ain’t out to get you, but she’s better on your side.” Pearl embracing her reputation and going full in, doing everything in her power to get under Scott’s skin.

Play w/ me by Bailey Bryan: Pearl reclaiming her image and proving a point to Scott. “You act all innocent […] but then don’t text me ‘til it’s time to fall asleep. Boy you don’t see, you play yourself when you play with me.” She’s not seeking an apology, this is not remorse or a chance for reconciliation, this is a warning. “Hit me like a sucker punch, feeling like a bitch slap- ever seen a bitch snap? Well you about to. […] Tell me why you thinking you can come around me with all this different, always switching energy. It’s childish and tiring to say the least, that’s why I don’t trust these men.”

Killing Boys by Halsey: “Told me pick my battles and be picking ‘em wise, but I wanna pick ‘em all and I don’t wanna decide […] ‘cause you don’t need me anymore. And I won’t ever try again, and all I want in return is revenge, ‘cause I don’t need you anymore.”

Midnight Rain by Taylor Swift: Pearl about Scott, they form a tentative alliance but she’s not ready to put their past behind them. “He was sunshine, I was midnight rain. He wanted it comfortable, I wanted that pain. He wanted a bride, I was making my own name, chasing that fame. He stayed the same, all of me changed like midnight rain.”

Slowly, Slowly by The Mowgli’s: As others drop like flies, Pearl take an active role in the battle but it still catches her off guard when it’s down to just her and Scott. She’s even more surprised when Scott hands her the win, saying it’s her who deserves it. “It’s only you, it’s only me. It’s only love, and it’s only fair you find your peace.”

The last great american dynasty by Taylor Swift: There are no survivors, there never are. “And they said, ‘there goes the last great american dynasty.’ Who knows if she never showed up what could’ve been. There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen. She had a marvelous time ruining everything.”

[fanartfromsharp]

This is my incredibox fanOC! His name is Luke.

And here's his introduction

⬇️

Name：Luke・Bailey

Age：16 Specie：Human

Likes❤️：Friends, Café au lait, Jazz music,

Playing cello,

Dislike💔：Enemies, Brusseles sprouts, Bullies

・A high school student

・Honestly and nice person

・Good at playing cello, fighting without

any special abilities, and backflip

・Used to learn karate when he was a child

「Hi guys, I'm Luke! Nice to meet you☆」

He want to be nice to everybody! I hope you like him✨

[onelungmcclung]

MotA pt five:

dare I say this is a little more... ensemble-y with buck mia. therefore I am fine with him being mia for a bit longer but otoh I really want to catch up with the other guys who are mia

all the characters in these shows are so nice. a lot of terrible subject matter combined with lovely supportive sweethearts

ohhhh I'm worried about bubbles 😟

like I was already worried because croz is crying in the intro and now command is switching up everybody's roles so maybe bubbles is out of a desk job .... but hopefully he won't fly out this episode...?

oh, no, now bubbles is heading out and I'm worried about him now 😟

everything is awful

oh bubbles

oh hambone (that is. truly horrifying. I'm upset)

oh crank

I don't know who clanton is but george is really upset (I don't know who george is) 😢

I don't think any of the deaths in BoB or TP really broke my heart, so MotA is making up for all that by punching me repeatedly in the stomach

but ijs if I were dramatising a story about real people who served in ww2, I would ensure that those who died got a good amount of time centre stage instead of treating them like named extras in the egan & cleven show. ijs

I believe this is called "fancy flying"

how the absolute fuck do they pull themselves up into a plane feet first. I think this every time

much to be said about bubbles's letter and that whole scene. parallels. friendship!! etc (did jean and bubbles ever meet?)

anthony boyle is Good, I have thought so for a few years

(perhaps I should have put off watching this until the whole thing aired? how am I supposed to cope until mid march)

I hope for an update on quinn and bailey

egan and brady aggressively "after you"ing each other as their plane goes down is. well. delightful. moronic. heroic. take your pick

do not leave us like this all over again😭

next episode looks even worse

[brettdoesdiscourse]

Orange Is The New Black and the "good cop" fallacy

Personally, I think CO Bayley storyline in Orange Is The New Black is a perfect example of what exactly people mean when they say all cops are bastards/bastardized. Of what people mean when they say that there can be no good cops.

"Listen to me. This isn't for someone like you. This place crushes anything good. It's like a monster that's grown too big for it's stubby little legs and now, it's stumbling around, crushing whole cities. You can't survive it, Bayley. Even if you're the city now, one day, you'll be the monster. Working here, it changes who you are."

We first meet him as a young man, barely old enough to even hold the position. And he's very obviously still young. He wants to help in what he's been socialized to see as helping. He thinks being a prison guard is cool and has this glorified image of what it is in his head. A glorified image pushed by society and their idea of the "hero cop."

And despite the fact he doesn't really seem cut out for it, young and immature, he's pushed through and into a position anyway.

He gets virtually no training before he takes the position. Despite Caputo wanting to train the guards in how to use non-lethal force and how to peacefully deescalate in an emergency, Danny is focused solely on the bottom line of the prison and if money is being "wasted" in training them before they start. And so, the guards all begin without training. Yet, they all still had pepper spray and tasers.

And the poor training on both emergency situations and how to handle them non-lethally very quickly catches up to them. During a peaceful protest that turned hectic due to guards pulling inmates off the tables, he ends up killing Poussey.

He didn't intend to, but he absolutely did. And the prison system plays off what he did as necessary and caused by Poussey's actions rather than poor training. They paint Poussey, a young black woman, as a dangerous criminal and a threat to others. A woman who was protesting peacefully and not resisting when she died.

Because it looks better if she is that. If she's a dangerous criminal who caused her own death, rather than the prison being completely at fault

Even when Bailey feels genuine remorse and tries to take accountability for his actions, nobody lets him. The prison does everything it can to preserve their image, including not letting Bailey say it was his fault and that it shouldn't have happened.

But not just the prison. Everybody in his life told him that it was okay and that it was unfortunate it happened, but it wasn't his fault. And just making every excuse they could for the situation.

Bailey's a perfect example of the "good cop" ideology. This image of a good American just wanting to do their part to make the world a better place, someone who doesn't want to hurt others. But it also shows in a system so deeply corrupted, the existence of this "good cop" directly contradicts what prison's prioritize. How society has been brainwashed to feel the same way and to see that as normal.

That people's first response is to justify why police killed somebody because police are only supposed to kill the bad people. So surely, that person was bad and deserved it rather than the cops being bad.

And prisons love to forward this notion because it helps their own priorities. Money over lives and their image over accountability.

A "good person" cannot exist in an inherently bad system. Either they change to conform to that bad system or else they don't end up lasting as an employee of that system.

[rockislandadultreads]

New Mystery Recommendations

Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala

Lila Macapagal's godmothers April, Mae, and June - AKA the Calendar Crew - are celebrating the opening of their latest joint business venture, a new laundromat. What should’ve been a joyous occasion, however, quickly turns into a tragedy when they discover the building has been vandalized - and the body of April’s niece next to a chilling message painted on the floor. The Calendar Crew have stuck their noses into everybody’s business for years, but now the tables are turned as Lila must pry into their lives to figure out who has a vendetta against them.

This is the fourth volume in the "Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery" series.

Reykjavík by Ragnar Jónasson & Katrín Jakobsdóttir

Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lára's case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, it becomes clear that Lára's disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved.

Seams Deadly by Maggie Bailey

Lydia Barnes is excited for a fresh start when she moves to the quaint mountain town of Peridot, Georgia. Her friend, Fran, offers her a job at the Measure Twice fabric store and even sets her up on a date with the handsome Brandon Ivey, who also happens to be Lydia’s new next-door neighbor. But after a disaster first date that ends with a fist bump instead of a kiss, Lydia doesn’t think her night can get any worse. She’s soon proven wrong when she later stumbles upon Brandon’s dead body. Considered the prime suspect by the police, Lydia calls on her friends to help prove her innocence.

This is the first volume in the "A Measure Twice Sewing Mystery" series.

The Clementine Complex by Bob Mortimer

Unremarkable legal assistant Gary Thorn goes for a pint with his coworker Brendan, unaware his life is about to change. There, Gary meets a beautiful woman, but she leaves before he catches her name. All he has to remember her by is the title of the book she was reading: The Clementine Complex. And when Brendan goes missing, too, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Clementine to get some answers. And so begins Gary’s quest through South London to find answers and, hopefully, some love and excitement as he meets a cast of unforgettable characters.

[uncxntrxllable]

@ayakoito sent:

Do you have any people you look up to? If you had the chance to meet a fictional character IRL, who and why? Which of your muses do you relate to the most?

Do you have any people you look up to? not really, to be honest. I mean, I have family who I really love to hang out with but, I wouldn't say I "look up" to anybody. I don't know, maybe I just don't really know how to tell the difference.

If you had the chance to meet a fictional character IRL, who and why? uhhh... Clifford the big red dog. Because who doesn't want a ten foot tall red puppy. Don't mess with me, my 800 pound dog will sit on you.

Which of your muses do you relate to the most? There's like, maybe a few that I have super miniscule... Relate, to? Ish. Like, bits and pieces, but I'm be honest I don't really relate to any of them on a personal level. I am basically the opposite of everybody that I write lmao, if I had to pick one I guess, kinda sorta Bailey but also not really?? The only reason I pick her is because she loves her stuffed teddy bear and I love my stuffed animals, but that's literally where it ends.

[papermint-airplane]

I know it's only been one day, but the audience wants to hear your initial impressions of each other, so I'm unlocking the confessional room. Line up outside. You'll each go in, one at a time, and share your thoughts with everybody. And I do mean everybody. Probably the whole world at this point. Maybe even the whole galaxy.

Eleanor: Am I the only one weirded out by this?

Angel, you're up first.

Angel: First of all, may I just say what an honor it is to have been chosen by the Watcher for such an important task? My whole life, I've tried to find ways that I may be of service to our great and powerful deity, but I never dreamed that I would meet her in person! Well, as in person as one can get with a disembodied voice, I guess. Still, it is an absolute privilege to be here and I will do my best to do whatever the Watcher asks of me. Even if it does mean wearing synthetic fibers and competing to date a strange green man who sits in the coat closet crying all day.

Is that where he's been this whole time? I'm gonna have to drag him out of there.

Angela: Hi, again, guys! It's me, Angela! It sure has been a crazy day but I've had lots of fun getting to know everyone! The girls are all really nice, but I think Rose might be my closest friend in the house so far. She is sooo sweet! I'm really looking forward to getting close with everyone else, too, so I hope I'll stay in the competition for as long as possible.

Bailey: I'm tired. I miss home. There's a lot of pink here, which is nice, but it's not Moonlight Falls. This whole competition is dumb.

Eleanor: Ok, everyone, listen to me. I don't know exactly where we are but I think we're being held in a space colony of some kind. I saw some foliage through the windows and if I'm correct about this particular species, we may be in L--

Ok time's up. It's Kitty's turn now.

Eleanor: But you let the others talk twice as long--

I. said. It's Kitty's turn now.

Kitty: Friends, I am despondent. I have never been as close to depths of despair as I am now. My knees are showing! After a lifetime of striving to be a virtuous and proper young lady, to see it all undone in a matter of minutes is truly painful! I daresay I am crushed. I may never recover from this wound. Never!

Viridia: ...AND SHE KEEPS GOING ON AND ON ABOUT HER STUPID KNEES, AS IF ANYONE GIVES A SHIT. THEY'RE KNEES, GET OVER IT. AND FURTHERMORE, IF I HAVE TO LISTEN TO HER INSIPID RAMBLING A MINUTE LONGER...

Rose: Wow, what a journey it's been so far, huh guys? 🙂 All of the girls sure are such colorful characters, to say the least! 😅 Well, I'm having a blast so far and I can't wait to see what happens next! 😊 If my years of watching reality TV have taught me anything, it's that the first challenge should be due to start any moment now! Isn't that exciting? 🤩 And don't you silly gooses think for one second that just because I've made a few friends that I'm going to go easy on anyone! 🤭 I said I'd annihilate these bitches and I absolutely meant it. 😤 Teehee! 😆

And what do you have to say for yourself, Mister?

Aiden: Did you really mean what you said earlier? Are we going to die?

I mean, anything's possible...

Aiden: Ohgodohgodohgodohgod.

[Beginning] [Previous] [Next]

[jbaileyfansite]

GQ Hype Interview (2022)

Jonathan Bailey felt lost and didn’t know what to do with himself. It was March 2020, and for nearly a year, the British actor had been immersed on the set of Bridgerton, Netflix’s horny and ornate period drama set in a fictional and fantastical 19th-century London. The show’s debut was months away, but working on it was consuming just about every conscious moment of Bailey’s life; his usually modern, slicked-back hair had been permed into the style of his character, Lord Anthony Bridgerton, a lothario of landed gentry, with two sharp muttonchops stroked against his cheek. “It was like being a part of some social experiment,” he thought. A wonderful abduction in which he’d be lifted from his normal life and sent tumbling like a stray astronaut into space, crashing into a new planet. 

Here, on planet Bridgerton, gracious ringlet-haired women danced in ballgowns to string quartet covers of Billie Eilish, charming potential suitors who were fucking and flirting their way through the city, while an anonymous columnist would chronicle everybody’s secrets and stir up drama for London’s aristocracy. Until Bridgerton, Bailey’s own modest fame had stemmed from nearly three decades in theatre and television: popular prime-time detective drama Broadchurch, programmes from prestige talents, including Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Crashing, as well as prolific spells on West End stages, most notably in a  gender-swapped reimagining of Stephen Sondheim’s classic Company, for which he won a best supporting actor Olivier Award.

“When you do a play, you share it with the audience every night,” says Bailey of his fondness for the stage. But then you’re done. Working on a period set such as Bridgerton was all-enveloping. After season one wrapped, Bailey should have been able to rest and recharge. But weeks later, the pandemic shut down the UK and, like everyone else, he found himself stuck in that gloomy malaise.

And then Bridgerton landed like a confetti bomb posted through his front door when it hit Netflix on Christmas morning. Suddenly, Bailey was on video calls with breakfast television and E! News from his bedroom. The first season of the Shonda Rhimes production went massive: some 82 million households watched the show over the festive season and into January 2021, a chart-topping figure only recently surpassed by Squid Game. The show’s second season, out in March, will be loaded with the expectation of a large and attentive audience, and for Bailey, there’s an added layer of pressure: Anthony will take the centre as the season’s main character. “The idea that [Bridgerton] is coming out again is a bit of a rug pull,” he says. “It’s quite scary.”

Bailey and I meet in Hyde Park during that strange limbo week between Christmas and New Year. He blends in well with his surroundings, wearing a black Gore-Tex jacket and green corduroy trousers. The signature muttonchops, which he grew himself for the show’s first season, are dialled down this time around – “a glow-up” for the character, he says with a laugh. Bailey had just returned to London after a holiday in Switzerland, though he’s spent much of his free time recently at a quiet spot in Sussex. It shielded him somewhat from the hysteria of the show’s success, which propelled its last two leads into new spheres of fame: Phoebe Dynevor, who plays Bailey’s onscreen sister, Daphne Bridgerton, will executive produce and star in the buzzy Amazon series Exciting Times. And the man who played her onscreen lover Simon Basset, Regé-Jean Page, will appear in 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons reboot.

We sit with our coffees on a bench by the Italian Gardens. At 33, Bailey doesn’t seem eager to get noticed on the street. Dispositionally, he’s one of those actors who’d rather work than be famous, who is more comfortable reciting Dickens for a small audience than he is wearing designer clothes on the red carpet. That he’s in this position at all feels both like a fluke and completely serendipitous.

Bailey grew up in Benson, a South Oxfordshire village of fewer than 5,000 people. When he was a child, his parents sent him to dance classes after he was inspired by a stage version of Oliver! he’d seen age four. He won his first part three years later, playing Tiny Tim in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Christmas Carol. (When reached for comment, the show’s director, Ian Judge, admired his success but couldn’t really remember him. “Humbling! Put that in there,” Bailey says.) Around the same time, his older sisters, who’d left home for university, would return for odd weekends, armed with stories of city nightlife. They would play Bailey pop and disco classics from a compilation CD called Dance to the Max – “queer anthems” – by artists such as Freddie Mercury and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. “I’d have to go up to my room and perfect the performance,” he says, before coming downstairs to sing and dance for his family.

Historically, he’s played valuable supporting roles that bolster a show’s narrative but has rarely occupied the main spotlight. Until this season of Bridgerton, one of his only other lead television roles was in a BBC children’s show based on the life of Leonardo da Vinci. “I’ve never gone into a screen test and had the ‘That’s him!’ reaction,” says Bailey. “I’ve always crept round through the back door.”

It was during his teen years that Bailey learned how to perform as someone he wasn’t, as many queer people do growing up outside big cities. He attended Magdalen College School in Oxford, a nearly 550-year-old institution that counts saints, sirs, and the composer Ivor Novello as past alumni. Bailey came out to family and friends in his early 20s and is, today, one of the few gay British actors working onscreen whose roles don’t seem defined wholly by their sexuality. Bridgerton has made him a sex symbol to many men and women, but he doesn’t like to talk about it. “Any actor who thinks they’re a sex symbol? Cringe,” he says. 

I wonder whether his career decisions and his sexuality have stood in direct opposition to each other; if he ever felt the need to suppress that side of himself to get ahead. He recalls a story concerning a callous word of advice that someone once gave an actor friend during pilot season. “At the time he was told, ‘There’s two things we don’t want to know: if you’re an alcoholic or if you’re gay.’” The words stuck with Bailey. “All it takes is for one of those people in that position of power to say that, and it ripples through,” he says. “So, yeah, of course I thought that. Of course I thought that in order to be happy I needed to be straight.” The thing that’s always led Bailey’s decision-making in his career has been his own happiness, which is why it took so long for him to talk publicly about his own sexuality: “I reached a point where I thought, ‘Fuck this’, I’d much prefer to hold my boyfriend’s hand in public or be able to put my own face picture on Tinder and not be so concerned about that, than get a part.” 

That instinct to stay true to himself is part of what makes him good at his job. “Jonny operates at a different voltage,” says Phoebe Waller-Bridge, his Crashing co-star. “He’s a meteorite of fun with an incredible amount of energy and playfulness. Smouldering at one turn and then utterly innocent at the next, but all the time playing with this sense of untapped danger. That is the quality I love most about Jonny as a person and as a performer: his danger.”

Bridgerton is based on a series of New York Times best-selling romance novels by American author Julia Quinn, and Bailey treats the source material with the same level of tact and seriousness as he would King Lear. What might seem like a straightforward, frothy show about scandal and romance in Regency-era England harbours a deeper meaning to Bailey, specifically in playing a philanderer such as Anthony. As a teenager, period dramas were a Bailey household staple, but “you never really got behind the men,” Bailey observed, “or know why they’re avoidant and toxic.” This season, Bailey gets to dig into the show’s narrative, exploring exactly why the show’s men are avoidant and toxic. Anthony yearns to settle down, but struggles to find a woman deserving of the title of Lady Bridgerton. The shots of Anthony’s post-coital buttocks and his flippant remarks about women’s inadequacies could be seen as signs of a crass and shallow character. But Bailey sees them as symptoms of a man grieving the loss of his father, and who is struggling to assume the patriarchal position. “Going into the first season, I wanted to fully break Anthony,” the show’s creator Chris Van Dusen says, “so that we could put him back together in the second.”

Bailey, meanwhile, says that he “started to think about [Anthony’s] charm,” and specifically “what it means to be a rake, and how his anxiety and self-hatred plays into that.” Anthony also forced Bailey to, in his words, “think about love a lot.” It’s one of the few allusions to his personal life that Bailey seems to drop, almost by accident: “You put your life experiences into [the work]. What’s most interesting is not necessarily having to talk about what that is, and keeping a sense of privacy.” He’s navigated that carefully, the balance between being affable and guarded when the circumstances call for it. His Company costar, Broadway legend Patti LuPone, remembers the former most fondly. “He’s quite open as a human being,” she tells me. “I love him.”

After Bridgerton’s release, an old friend, Marianne Elliott, Company’s Tony Award-winning director, reached out and gave Bailey what he considers one of the greatest holy-shit moments of his career: an opportunity for them to work together again. “We’d read many scripts with the specific task of finding something for Jonny Bailey,” she tells me. Eventually, they settled on Cock, premiering this spring, a scintillating, dialogue-heavy and stage-directionless Mike Bartlett play about a man named John, his ex-boyfriend (played by Taron Egerton), and the woman that he’s fallen for.

That side of things, the award-winning work, has helped catalyse Bailey’s other holy-shit moments, which seem to be happening with more frequency. These days, producers approach him to offer roles: the days of creeping through the back door are over. Often, these projects clash with Bailey’s Bridgerton schedule, and some producers will say, “No, don’t worry. We’ll wait”. I joke that it must be strange to have people waiting for him now, and Bailey retreats inside himself. Hands in his pockets, a little embarrassed. But smiling. “Yeah…I mean…that sounds…I can say that now but, you always think they’re going to move on – and it’s only for a moment,” he says sheepishly. Bridgerton is wonderful, he adds, “but in 20 years, you don’t want to be famous. You want a sustained career.”

SOURCE

[maiagaru]

not like it hasn’t already been 10 years since its publication, but i’m satisfied to report that the scott and bailey book "dead to me” by cath staincliffe seems to be just as delightful as the show. i literally just started it, but i got excited to read how rachel met gill for the first time and ‘godzilla‘ already came up. ;)

snippet, spoilers and copyright infringement under the cut.

The DCI arrived back, her mouth screwed up tight, thrust a lanyard with her warrant card at Rachel. Painted nails, Rachel noticed, scarlet talons. There was something birdlike about the woman. Hawkish, attractive, cheekbones like scalpels, but hawkish all the same. ‘DCI Gill Murray,’ the woman said, her eyes flashing. Or reptilian, Rachel thought: lizard, velociraptor. ‘Thank you,’ Rachel said. She pulled off one of her thermal gloves and made a note in the log. ‘And your name, Constable?’ Gill Murray said brusquely, pulling on her disposable gloves with a snap-snap. Rachel took a breath. Oh God I am such a dick. She’s gonna what … report me for doing my job? ‘DC Rachel Bailey.’ ‘Working out of …?’ Nose wrinkled, as if Rachel was something she’d found on her shoe. ‘Sex Crimes, boss.’ ‘Line manager?’ ‘John Sutton.’ Sutton the Glutton. ‘Right,’ the DCI said, a sharp jerk of her head and she stepped through to the crime scene. Rachel put her glove back on, her fingertips stung with cold. She wanted a fag now; a fag, a pee and a bacon-and-egg sandwich. And a hole in the ground to hide in while Gilly-knickers dreamt up her punishment. They told us there were no superior officers, Rachel thought; senior, but not superior. Reflecting a more democratic force. You weren’t supposed to say force any more either – too many connotations of police brutality and deaths in custody, riot gear. A service not a force, partnership with the people. Seemed they’d forgotten to tell Gill Murray she was no longer superior, treating Rachel like a kid who’d wet herself in assembly. I don’t care, Rachel told herself, screw her. Godzilla. But she did care really. She really, really cared, because Gill Murray – well, she’d been the one Rachel wanted to be. The one Rachel followed in the news, the one everybody agreed was a superb detective, an inspired strategist, a charismatic leader. Clever and forward-thinking. The one who had broken through the glass ceiling without a scratch to show for it. And hadn’t hauled the ladder up after her. Rachel had dreamed of meeting her, working with her someday. But now? She shook her head, annoyed, stamped her feet.

Dead to Me, by Cath Staincliffe (Goodreads)

[thessalian]

Thess vs ALL THE DEMOS

It’s not a Steam Next Fest, but last night I was sitting there going, “I hurt too much to sleep and I should do some hyperfocus Zen until the pain meds kick in a bit more or I’m too tired to care” and decided to prune my current Demo folder. And then today I went perusing for more demos (thanks to recent time spent on DREDGE, it really wants to throw eldritch horror at me, to the point where it’s pointing me at things where not even the demo is out yet, never mind the game). So now there are a lot more demos.

Sometimes I worry about seeming pretentious because I barely play anything that isn’t indie or, like, nearly a decade old? But honestly, I think I’ll just be glad I can sit here and celebrate indie games. Besides, the Stray Gods: RPG Musical demo dropped and this is David Gaider writing and a whole lot of very talented voice actors and I have got to see this. And the others look interesting.

So, yeah. More demos.

Lake: This one’s an older game, but it’s been on my wishlist for quite awhile. I just hadn’t seen the demo before. I was checking the store page to see how long it’s going to be on sale, since I was considering adding it to my purchases when Cook, Serve, Forever and Pan’Orama come out in a couple of days, and boom, demo. So I gave it a try to see if I actually wanted to buy the thing. And ... I think I do? I mean, there’s some vehicular stuff that occasionally feels a little counterintuitive to me, and I’ve clearly been living in this country too long because I keep driving on the wrong side of the road, and some of the people in that town need a slap across the mouth (don’t even get me started about Meredith’s regular boss), but there are stories there and I want to see where they go. And I haven’t crashed the postal van yet, so that’s something. Basically it’s driving around, delivering mail, occasionally talking to people, and getting bits and pieces of the stories that float around little quasi-rural towns in Oregon. The scenery’s nice too.

Blue Wednesday: This one’s kind of a maybe. The bit of it I played was interesting, but I’d really need to practice the piano minigame if I really want to actually do the thing. Then again, I guess that’s what playing the game is for. ...Also admittedly this one hits a bit close to home, as it features a young aspiring jazz musician who’s more or less having to put his dreams of being a professional musician on hold because capitalism, basically. I think everybody who’s likely to play this one is going to get a twinge out of that one, and that’s just the first in-game day. So I’ll be keeping an eye on that one when it comes out - the gameplay’s pretty clever and the premise is relatable, for sure.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical: I got fairly interested in this one as soon as I heard about it. This game has got pedigree. David Gaider’s one of the directors and writers, one of the other directors was writing for Pillars of Eternity, and as for the cast ... well, in the demo alone I got Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, and Khary Payton, plus a couple “I know that one sounds familiar” that haven’t hit IMDB yet and Janina Gavankar, who I mostly know from having been into True Blood and a fairly minor role in Horizon Zero Dawn’s The Frozen Wilds expansion ... but also from some of the Forspoken trailers. Anyway, it also has Troy Baker, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Allegra Clark, Erika Ishii, Rahul Kohli, Anjali Bhimani, Felicia Day (which ... ehh for me but y’know)... Fans of Critical Role will know a lot of these voices. But still, pedigree doesn’t count for much if the story and mechanics aren’t there. Now, the demo’s really short, and doesn’t touch on the plot that much? But the mechanics are interesting. Basically ... okay, think of it as The Wicked and the Divine meets Scooby Doo meets that one Buffy musical episode, Once More With Feeling, where you’re given options and the decisions you make not only affect how you proceed, but also shape the lyrics of your big musical numbers. It’s honestly clever as shit, and that’s another one I don’t think I’d mind pre-ordering. Don’t know if that’ll be an option, but it’s coming out in August, so at least it’s not a massively long wait.

Lighthouse of Madness: Steam has been throwing eldritch horror at me because of the amount of time I’ve spent on DREDGE lately, so here we are. This one’s ... interesting but problematic. I mean, it’s first person, so that’s an issue for me, and honestly the controls are a little janky. It looks wonderfully atmospheric and creepy, but it’s a low priority on my wish list because honestly, I’m not sure how well I’d be able to play it. Still, lots more eldritch horror where that came from.

Not right now, though - if for no other reason than that this post is going to get insanely long if I don’t knock it off. So more later - this is going to be a “Poking At Demos” kind of weekend. Yaaaaaay!