#he was so excited to record lol i have audio of him laughing his ass off over hearing his own voice

[what-kinda-fuckery]

Hey so, I was one of the star struck falsettos stans that spent the forty dollars for the webinar, and I took notes (like a weirdo). So I decided I would share my funny moments and updates from the cast here!

- Host: Everyone should be keeping their audio off.

Christian: Oh alright!

Host: nO Christian not you

- Christians in Manhattan and his hair is back and he’s wearing a Superman t-shirt.

- Brandon is with his parents in NJ

- Stephanie and Brandon still love each other

- Brandon: Meat should be cooked just right

- Betsy: Stephanie are you in maple wood?

Stephanie: Well thank you for telling everyone where I am (she’s in NJ)

- Stephanie: Are you fucking kidding meee!!!

- Tracie is in LA, she looks like she’s in Costa Rica and I love her dog.

- Anthony’s VOICE IS LOW EVERYONES FREAKING OUT

they’re all talking about Anthony’s clear skin

- Andy Randy is in LA with a fresh haircut his boyfriend did it and he’s watching too much TV

Andrew: I’m watching this is America

Stephanie: SO GOOD

Andrew: SO GOOD

- Everyone’s having hard days

- Christian is acting out tracies dog’s pathetic bark and everyone’s like WHAT are you doing bc it looks like he’s about to throw up

- BETSY IS A WEEK AWAY FROM HAVINGA WHOLE CHILD

Betsy: What else do you do during a pandemic? Have a baby!

Andrew: Can I toss out another baby name? Celery.

Literally everyone: Goodnight Andrew goodbye!

- Christian is living with a girl (?) and playing board games instead of watching television

HE COOKS NOW EVERYONES PROUD OF HIM

Christian: yesterday I made pork filet en croute

Stephanie: I MADE PORK WITH SAGE AND APPLES ON WEDNESDAY

Stephanie: In mean girls they wear pink on wednesdays. In falsettos they make pork.

- I can’t get over Anthony’s voice

Again everyone returning to his literally perfect skin

- Stephanie: When watching four jews in a room in the beginning who’s in China?? I know the answer I just want to hear someone say it.

Andrew, with a thick accent: It was Bryna, in China, with a torn miniscus

- Christian: Did anything interesting make it on to the telecast between me and you? Andrew? Actually I dont remember I need to do my research.

Andrew: There’s been some strange comments about Christian and I- (AT THIS POINT IM WHEEZING)

HE MENTIONED THE TONY BONY

HE SAID IT WASNT A THING

HE DIDNT HAVE ONE

Andrew: No that’s not a thing that happened

Brandon: Andrew i want you to know that it’s okay if it was. It’s a safe space just the seven of us. (Lol)

- Bill Finn would take two steps into the room: “WROONG”

Stephanie: he wanted me to sing the end of I’m breaking down up the octave and I said #notmytrina

Brandon: #NOTMYTRINA

- Tracie what did you do during act 1

Tracie: Betsy and I sat in that dressing room for like an hour and a half

Andrew: You SANG the WHOLE SHOW TRACIE

- Betsy watched parts of the first act to feel like she was there

- Betsy sprained both her ankles at one point during the run and was a trooper anyways

Brandon reenacting Betsy limping during look look look look

Everyone dies laughing

Christians LAUGH makes me SO HAPPY

- Betsys screen is frozen like this: 🤨

Andrew: What if she went into labor??? (This is a common thread throughout the zoom)

- Anthony: I’m getting a lot of glitching so Stephanie is just like “HUH UH UH UH”

- Betsy comes back and everyone is like

YOU GUYS ITS COMING!!!

- They bought Andrew an ice cream for his birthday from the vending machine at rehearsal

- Andrew: The Hawaii crop top

Betsy: I would give anything to have that

- Tracie: it was very hard. Very precise bringing the blocks together

Brandon: Trying to be like oh my god we’re going to a funeral

Andrew: MY DEATH IT WAS MY DEATH

- fan question: What did the blocks weigh?

Stephanie: They were like thick yoga blocks. Not heavy but awkward shaped

Andrew: Significantly heavier when Anthony sat on them

Anthony: I just realized how much I got thrown around

Stephanie: Anthony were you proud of yourself? #proudofyou

Anthony: The one moment I was cringing was father and son

Christian: HERE WE GO *SLAPS TABLE*

Betsy: Anthony’s like BLAH BLAH BLAH blah my line BLAH BLAH BLAH my line BLAH BLAH

Christian: I LEAVE THE PAUSE IF YOU CANT GET IN THATS ON YOU

Anthony: I was blinking in that number like constantly

Christian: THE WHOLE THING LIKE A SALAMANDER

Oh Anthony.

- Andrew: I HAVE A STORY ABOUT CHRISTIAN BORLE. Tech for what more can i say. He was laying on me. We were shirtless in underpants under the blankets.

Christian: SLOWER

Andrew: he leaned over; He sniffed his armpit and said “I hope you like France”

EVERYONE DIES LAUGHING INCLUDING ME

Christian: i haven’t worn deodorant in 10 years true story

- Christian: i seem to remember holding our pillows and blankets pretending like we were partying on fyre island and Andrew said:

Andrew: WHATS YOUR NAME???

Christian: No no it was something like:

WHAT HOUSE ARE YOU STAYING IN??

Andrew: WHAT HOUSE ARE YOU STAYING IN???

Betsy: James lupine I feel like we’re ruining this show

- Andrew: The shenanigans were real but so was the sadness

Stephanie: We’re real and we’re funny what you gonna do

- Andrew talking about how hard the show was to do: Finding some liberty, It’s a hard world to live in all the time. It was a hard time especially for Christian. I would sometimes go home and cry for no reason

Brandon: Building up emotion with nowhere to put it

Betsy: then Lesbians come in and provide all the levity

Stephanie: Although Dr. Charlotte brings in horrible news

Tracie: Everything’s beautiful at what more can i say and I’m like not so fast

- Tracie always had a funny thing to say

- Who broke character the most on stage?

Anthony Stephanie and Christian

Anthony: it was when I said “I don’t want a bar mitzvah” and I spit in your face a lot and you went like *puts arms up* and someone at stage door was like very condescending like it’s not professional

Christian: Oh my bad we’re people sorry

- Stephanie wrote a line in the show “YOU HAVE PAINTINGS OF DICKS”

- James wanted her to cut off her finger during I’m breaking down

And turn around with a bandaged bloody finger

- Betsy’s nose bleeding during something bad is happening

And Tracie was like something BAD IS HAPPENING

Tracie: Christians throwing up right now

Betsy: Bloody Kleenex up the nose THE SHOW MUST GO ON

- Fan question: Stephanie how do you belt with a banana in your mouth

Christian: Practice practice practice

Stephanie: just shove it in your cheek. But Really that wasn’t supposed to happen

Anthony’s nickname in the rehearsal room was little bananas because he had to gather up all the pieces of stuff after Stephanie shoved the table over with her rear. Sometimes he didn’t have enough time to put it somewhere so he would just put the pieces of banana in his mouth and that’s where it came from

That’s why

- Andrew: Stephanie your glasses are very chic

Stephanie: Oh my gosh thank you *shocked*

- Betsy: Bill was like I’d rather DIE than change lyrics for the pbs special

FLaT aS a LaKe

- Cue everyone accidentally talking over each other and saying what at each other for 30 seconds

Christian: what? what? what?

Who is it?

What’s going on?

- If you could play anyone else in the show who would it be

Anthony said Mendel

Tracie said Mendel

Brandon said Trina

Andrew said marvin

Betsy said whizzer

Stephanie said Mendel

And I honestly couldn’t hear if Christian said anything whoops

- Brandon: If someone could at some point explain to me the Mendel eats dirt meme? People have been Asking me if Mendel eats dirt? I don’t think it’s about Trina Trina is not the dirt. I was overwhelmed. Can someone in the Q&A explain this? *A few seconds later* oh It was from a meme generator?

Christian: Greaat.

Brandon: It’s a fan fiction about Mendel eating dirt and getting aroused by it

Everyone: WHAT

- They still get fan art

Someone recreated the whole soundtrack 8bit and also with KAZOOS

- Brandon: CONGRATS CHRISTIAN ON LULOS WIN FOR LITTLE SHOP. If you haven’t seen Christian in little shop it’s revelatory I’m not just blowing smoke up your ass I have not laughed that hard in a while at the theatre

- Christian talking about little shop

Christian has a 12 inch Batman toy in his dressing room and he misses it

- Ticket prices were getting out of control before corona everyones hoping this will make a difference

Brandon and everyone think it should get more accessible

- Brandon: Hear hear I need a refill

- Stephanie: Your hair looks incredible Brandon (it did)

Christian: She’s been waiting to talk about it for 53 minutes

- Andrew: Well Betsy what I’m wondering is have you crowned yet??

Proceed everyone dying

Brandon, taking a picture of the screen: This moment will go down in history as When Betsy was asked if she was crowning

- Everyone mimicking zoom freezing by starting a sentence and freezing halfway through

- Christian: What new Steven sondheim musical are you excited about Anthony *devilish grin*

Anthony having no idea what Christian is talking about

Christian: Come on Anthony you know the answer. Ugh. The minds of the young. You’re smoking pot now aren’t you??

Christian: We have a lot of fun

- Andrew: I’m trying to get people to pay attention to me

- Christians pretending to be frozen

Cue a lot of yelling: Stephanie BRANDON STEPHANIE

NO CHRISTIAN

Everyone accusing each other of being frozen

NO YOURE FROZEN

- Andrew: Let’s all act like we’re frozen

Steph: I see Andrew acting like hes frozen

Betsy: Watching you do that is killing me

- Listening to the cast recording for the first time together

Stephanie: Why was I the a-hole that couldn’t be there???

Christian: That’s a question only you can answer

- Betsys husband came in everyones like BETSY LOOK OUT

Christian: that scared the shit out of me

- What is marvins last name and what was his line of work

Christian: we definitely said it at some point right? (They didnt) but he was in advertising. What was the last name? Gardens? O’Malley?

- Andrew: Betsys gone oh no

Betsy: I’m right here!!!

Andrew: She’s giving birth (again)

Stephanie: Betsy Wolfe is a ceiling

- Brandon: Welcome back Anthony. You’re here now.

Anthony singing merrily we roll along over Betsy trying to tell a story

Christian: STOP SMOKING POT IN YOUR BEDROOM ANTHONY

- Betsy: Steve (Steven Sondheim) comes to the door I call him steve

Into the woods is the reason Betsy is in theatre

- Betsy: Andrew was nervous singing at the tonys for Book of Mormon and he got dry mouth he sang like 😬I BELIEVE and he licked his lips so much during the song.

Brandon: Did you have a boner then too?

Andrew: GUYS DONT BE DICKS

Stephanie: It’ll be like dry mouth, boner

Andrew: BETSY YOU FUCKIN BITCH ITS ACTUALLY NOT THAT BAD

Stephanie: Bets maybe we should wrap it up

- Brandon sings MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

EVERYONE TELLING HIM TO STOP SINGING I took a video it was beautiful might post that later

- “Tracie Thomas from Lent!”

Tracie having stage fright

Tracie: Billy porter said “oh child we all forget the words” and walked away

- Anthony said WHO SHAT THE BED in four jews once

Anthony: That’s my contribution. Steph got her line, I got who shat the bed

- Steph: We lost andrew oh no

Christian: Um, we lost andrew ten minutes ago. Yeah when Brandon started singing

- Then Betsy sang a song by Bill Finn beautiful

- Steph: Wear your masks and eat pork on wednesdays

That was it!! I hope you enjoyed and people who were there if I got anything wrong that’s my human error it was hard to note everything I wanted to. Smooches! Byee

[richterbelmont]

LISTEN TO HOW CUTE MY LITTLE BROTHER SOUNDS AS AN UTAU?

[neverheardnothing]

rewatching joe iconis and family lincoln center performance at 4 am instead of packing or sleeping just to feel something and i have so FEW and so MANY thoughts and yall are gonna hear em all. no i will not put this under a cut. im going to be an absolute bastard about this.

i love the story joe tells about why he's singing mitb as the first song so much. like. the spite of it all. the defiance of it all. the pride of it all. the dig it or fuck off and disappear of it all. the joe iconis of it all. 

“i know exactly the song im going to sing as my first song at the american songbook series.” i love that he highlights the fact that this is the american songbook series.

then immediately jumping right into broadway here i come with molly hager, the other song he is most known for!!!

every time i think about this performance i think about how this was the first (?) time this song was performed by them since the closing of bmc.

and then lance rubin comes up to sing try again. which is the only time that i know of that anyone but joe has sung this song.

i remember a remark made during watching it live that having someone else sing the song made it seem so clearly more about joe and his career. but also having lance sing it immediately makes me think of bbh closing early which yeah is part of joe’s career but also lance’s.

and also the line “if you’re an actor and another actor gets the part you auditioned for” reminds me of how lance found the auditioning process of acting and the whole [not acting part] of an acting career to be terrible which is why he quit to then become an author and the juxtaposition of him singing try again is Something. but also he DID try again he is just applying his efforts to a different creative field and it’s working out great for him. good for lance rubin.

lol i haven’t even talked about the actual performance aspect of this song anyways it’s very different from the two versions ive seen of joe doing it. he plays it a lot more comical. i love it.

sidenote not specific about this performance, but i love love LOVE the line and the music at “use the stairs, walk to the street. see the people, feel the heat, and apply yourself again.”

and also the line “when they cast you out to sea, there’s a lifeboat manned by me called try and try again” will never not make me think of bsol/last on land and bonus lance was also in that show! it just keeps circling around.

everything about these past 3 songs performed at this venue in this set list order in this moment at joe’s career is honestly so wonderful. like you had a songs about an anxiety attack, a suicide/loss of self in success, and repeated failures before this song all sung by individuals. two of these songs were written at points where joe felt frustrated/sad with his career. one written in the aftermath of specific frustration about the first closing of be more chill. one an actual song from bmc. like what a SETLIST for your first three songs! fucking michael in the bathroom, broadway here i come, and try again. truly something.

THE WHISKEY SONG!! i love hearing joe sing so much. while i think we can all agree he’s not the most skilled singer there’s something special about hearing a composer perform their own work. he adds like 3 levels of charm to make up for lack of singing skills lol. just a very charismatic guy.

lance rubin back on tamborine for the next bit of the song and he’s like laughing through it. not completely sure what he’s laughing about honestly but this Is a comedic song (after 3 real downers of songs) and also joe was playing it up.

jared weiss down on the floor with his guitar playing along. that’s its own bullet point.

audience cheering as more family members start coming on stage! i love that the band is getting cheers. love that!!!

the camera isn’t on him but from the audio, nick blaemire is presumably running around giving high fives to people in the audience.

i can’t exactly tell with the camera angle and the lighting but i think that more family members get up from different seats in the audience or at least enter in the back and walk through the audience to get to the stage during this instrumental break. reminds me of how joe loves theater that physically touches you. giving you high fives in this case.

love liz lark brown. she plays it pretty like. frenetic and frazzled. love it.

amara, badia, danielle, will, and nick are just chillin sitting on the steps of the stage. 100% contributes to the vibe of this song. top fuckin notch.

SOMEONE screams AH during the drunk part of the song and i cannot figure out who but it gives me so much life.

jared pulling lance down to the floor with him.

jason going “man.... this place is a dump” like i LOVE the irreverence.

everyone actually getting back up and also converging On the stage during the (kind of) acapella break.

and now your whole gang is up on the stage at the fancy ass appel room singing your what sounds like a mostly upbeat fun song but is actually about self medication with alcohol and it’s a fucking jam. i love the 3 solo songs and then bringing in everyone for a big group number.

sidenote not about this specific performance: the lyrics “i’ll pour some more and then—AND THEN?—i’ll pass out and then—AND THEN!” the and thens were not on the things to ruin album and i wonder why not ALL the time. was it just deemed extraneous? or was this an innovation after the album was recorded?

i love that you can see the band singing along.

yesterdays / i can’t relate. i love this song i fucking love it. i love the synthy keyboard that was an active choice made. which means that joe is not the one accompanying jared in this song.

jared: i hate today. joe: *snorts in the background*

“i like music you can hold” -> old records black suits, susannah’s obsession with music which was of course in vinyl format back then

will once said hearing lgw was very exciting because he’s first and foremost a fan of joe’s so he was hearing a new joe song for the first time and the world got just a bit larger and i think about that quote a lot in relation to this song because i was like Oh i Get What He Means now because this is the first new joe song i heard since like getting into his work and i felt that world getting a bit bigger.

jared’s monotone chorus on top of the girls underneath is so good. it’s so fucking good i cannot.

liz lark brown velociraptor fuckin classic. specifically in this performance the weird ass electric guitar noise at “there’s a dinosaur” is SO good. i love it.

i know people say Trans Vibes from next song (jeff) but this song also gives me trans vibes. i think joe inadvertently writes stuff trans people relate to because of his propensity to write for People Who Are Different.

people cheering as will takes off his jacket hell yeah.

i am way more used to the jeremy morse version of this song and really consider it more his so it’s so fun to hear will sing it.

i love the canon of the “oh”s so much.

after will sings “i go to the window looking out and what do i see? myself just staring back at me.” and someone in the audience AUDIBLY goes “oh.” like what a MOMENT. way more subtle than when someone screamed “WHAT” at the “naked korean girl” reveal during the pipe night performance but on the same tier of Great Audience Reactions.

smooth fuckin gliss bro i love it. arms out by side. i love it.

Classic Jason Sweettooth Williams Singing Helen. but this time they added like some REAL like. oh god i have no idea how to describe it. electric crunchy electric guitar noises. and it’s so good.

i havent mentioned this yet but in the background of every song people who are not in it or are backup vocals are just sitting and jamming along and it’s so nice because me fuckin too.

honest to god just have to give a timestamp for this but bullet point for whatever the fuck eric is doing in the background here.

will and katrina circling each other singing directly into each other’s faces. so good.

the Unexpected dynamic change and following crescendo i am Living.

katrina rose dideriksen riffing up top. yes. YES.

joe starting to play helen sharp and then forgetting part of his introduction to the song is so good.

the inevitable laughter at any performance of this song at “it is not lost on me you’re all here at my show”

i know nothing about the movie death becomes her so i honestly always just think about joe when this song gets performed. also thinking about how in the youtube premiere of this song, joe was talking about how lauren was shouting out the names of all the musical theater composers joe is jealous of.

right place/wrong time. i read a bsol review a while ago about how katrina rose dideriksen was underutilized and gotta say i Agree holy Shit let her sing More.

i also remember how joe once said this song felt the most personal to him and that he cried when writing it

police siren piano.

the first time in this entire song they sing in sync is at the line “i wonder if his/her life is just like mine” and i just start screaming.

when eric and katrina turn to each other for the first time and start singing At each other!!!!!!!!!!!

honey! thinking about jen ash tep talking about how Each performance of this song gets Wilder and Wilder.

love it when nick just gets off the stage and starts singing to people in the audience. apparently one of the people was will’s mom lol.

ACAPELLA BREAK!!!!!! joe just fully gets up from piano and starts WILDLY clapping along!!!!

woman of a certain age! i remember when the live show happened the album had not come out yet and then when the yt premiere of it happened it Had been out for a week or so.

piano note elevator bell

the electric guitar is doing some fucking weird ass things in this song and i am living so fucking much for it.

the riffs badia does are so fucking incredible i immediately paused this video to go and watch her sing big fat ruby again just because i wanted more badia content.

the story behind old flame is so good and joe waiting until the last fuckin moment to give her the song is so fuckin funny.

i love love love these types of joe songs that are like 7 minute long story epics like right place/wrong time and the actress and ammonia and old flame.

“the best way to get past the past is to shoot it in the head” and then the audience cheers and i fucking love it. my commentary is getting shorter. it’s 6 am and i’m tired can you tell. i also just had a lot of thoughts about this early on and less thoughts about later on.

revolution song. the deep ass fucking electric bass is So good i Will go apeshit. like honestly that might be my favorite smaller detail of this song. like i imagine if i were in the room it might be loud and deep enough that i could feel it In my chest. like you can Feel the revolution coming.

i love the faster tempo revolution song has in the cabaret version.

i also love the cabaret specific lines of “evolution in the institution”

joey is a punk rocker was honestly not ever on the list of songs i thought would get performed here but im so glad that they did. like the obvious choice would have been veins for annie golden but they went this route. obsessed with this choice. obsessed with the fact that amphibian replaced this song as the act 2 opener. obsessed that annie is the one singing this.

i am never not screaming about wave and yall know this. just throwback to me losing it in the tags in a reblog of picture of the wave passage going on about how it really does mirror joe’s career and bmc specifically. and again this song being performed for the first (?) time since bmc closed makes the “so today on a hill in las vegas” and onward part SO fucking sad i literally just started crying. the entire song being in past tense up until that part. i will just go die now.

will in the yt premiere talking about texting the line “our energy would simply prevail” in the leadup to bmc coming back.

find the bastard. for some reason when this happened live i thought it was gonna be outlaw that was performed. 

i swear to god it is literally physically impossible for me not to AT LEAST mouth along to “what’s your name, what’s your name” during this song

NAMES ARE FOR ACCOUNTANTS.

MY NAME IS AWFUL LONG AS IT’S THE LYRICS OF THIS SONG.

the goodbye song. it’s never not sad. i love love love that this song is the final song every concert. i also love the recent lore of finding out that penny dreadfuls was the encore song at concerts before they became too long and it had to get cut.

finally gonna mention the background car lights. what a beautiful backdrop.

also since im always on my wrol bullshit i love how fucking clearly you can hear him at the end

accelerando accelerando accelerando. insert [joe iconis peaked when he wrote the accelerando in the goodbye song post of mine].

katrina singing an octave up is always SO fucking impressive i am so impressed by her voice she is so fucking good i love her so much

the bows are so fucking sweet i love them.

goodnight it��s 7 am.

[dafukdidiwatch]

Cool Cat Saves The Kids

I watched this movie and I still can’t believe this is the actual cover art for it.

God I wrote so many notes about this that even my flipping Bullet Points were basically an essay. I don’t even know how to begin just thinking about it hurts my head.

Overview: Cool Cat is Cool. Things happen to him, and he has to deal with bullying.

That’s it. That’s the thing I watched. Because there is no Real Flipping Plot to this movie.

This is a kid’s show. Or at the very minimum, a movie that is intended for children. It was based on a kid’s book series I’ve never heard of whose author Derek Savage decided to turn it into a movie. Though movie isn’t exactly what I would call it. When you watch it, it honestly feels like there are six 15 minute shorts that they just mashed together to a feature film, but even then that is a Generous Description.

Basically, the film tries to be a children’s program (and I guess has beef with Barney?). And you can see intent behind it being informative child-friendly psa. But the execution was so bad.

First, there is no plot. Sure the cover says that this is “an anti-bullying kid gun safety movie,” but it really give you nothing. What would happen is that Cool Cat has a problem, like someone bullying him or his friends. It would either A) be addressed immediately and solved so that’s great, or B) it is dropped immediately and never really addressed throughout the rest of the film.

And example of A is that the bully kid Butch just starts stealing candy just to be “evil,” Cool Cat sees that and chases him, and the kid gets arrested twenty seconds later. The End.

For B, Cool Cat gets a mean email. And...that’s about it. He responds to the email, but doesn’t actually address the issue and the subplot drops entirely until that VERY Last wrap up scene.

I think the reason for this lack of plot is that there was just WAY too many messages in here. Like, take a shot every time you see a psa announcement. It ranges from don’t bully, how to deal with bullies, being creative, crossing the street safely, to fricking GUN?! Like, the gun thing that I Guess was promoted in the movie tagline, only shows up the last 10 minutes. It caught me so off guard. You cannot call this a Gun Safety movie when guns aren’t even prevalent!!

And the lack of plot is counterproductive when you want to make a Kid’s Movie like this. If you want to tackle each issue as a show or a short, the messages would come across better. There would be more time to develop each message for kids to really understand. But because there is So Much to cover, a lot of the things are gonna fall to the wayside. There is no way a kid would pay attention to this, and if they do I doubt they are gonna learn everything that Derek Savage is trying to teach. There just isn’t any real focus.

The acting, god like they Tried to go with the kid friendly vibe, but was not working. At All. It was like they thought that to add emotion is to just enunciate your words as loudly as you can. Cool Cat was way too yelly. Every line he was just screaming, has no change whatsoever. Even Elmo can sound sad when need be (fucking love Elmo, but he does has a similar voice vibe to Cool Cat, just better).

Then the kids....I don’t want to be mean but I’ll be blunt. They are just reading lines, this is a middle school stage play basically. I’m not blaming the kids, Butch look like he had a hell of a time doing his villain laugh. It’s just that some of the scenes felt like it was taken in one shot and they didn’t bother to retry. Example: One kid got too excited and jumped his line, but they couldn’t just retake that??

And the lines, man. OOF. Some of it was bad. Like, really really bad placement.They should have had someone proof-read this.

Cool Cat: “Why Are You Painting That Wall?”

Random Kid: “Because Nobody Loves Us”

lol what?

Maria: “I bet those kids have never been shown love before.”

Cool Cat: “Thanks, and it’s all true”

LOL What??

There are just a LOT of lines like that that should have been rephrased.

THEN there are the freaking technical issues.

The audio kept fluctuating in sound quality, which honestly started to hurt with Cool Cat’s constant yelling. Some scenes it sounds like they recorded in a studio, sometimes it sounded like the actors had to yell in order for the camera to capture it. There were echos, there were layers, you can’t hear the lines over the song, you can’t hear the song over the cheers. There was one point whispers overlaid on top of the lines where I thought that Cool Cat just got haunted now. And the fun side of having headphones on means I heard the phone button noises in only One Ear. LOUDLY.

Blocking could have been better. There were a lot of backs to the camera, shots of characters walking away from camera not just off screen. This didn’t bother me as much, because I know this isn’t professionally made. But it didn’t feel like they really tried as much as just half-assed it. Example:

Cool Cat was drawing a picture with different colors, but the actor only used one marker and just said different colors. Or Cool Cat is working on a poster but really just rubs the already completed poster  on a clean table as him “working.” Like, how hard is it to just film on a table with a bunch of craft supplies around you?

Then there are the questionable camera shots. LOTS of lingering shots to I assume fill up run time. These are shots of just showing Cool Cat walking round without having any real purpose. It shows Cool Catwalk all the way Up Stairs. Walked all the way Down Stairs. Walking into the House, walking into the Car. Even just shots of the parents doing things with no real motivation or impact to whatever Cool Cat is doing. It’s just there. If you want to say stuff like "oh well its to show the parents relationship" no it doesn’t. You can’t really add nuance to characters when the rest of the film is just one chaotic shot after the other. It just gets lost in translation.

The music number is probably what hurts me the most. You see Cool Cat WRITE the song. Then he SINGS the song. Then he DANCES to a DIFFERENT song. And that was it. He just needed the song for the parade, but there wasn’t any explanation or anything. I don’t even know WHY he needs the song for the parade! There was no explanation. It was just an excuse to have two back-to-back bad music video of poor choreography that again, NO POINT to whatever plot/message/psa thing he is trying to do.

I get that there should be some leeway since it looked like this was shot at Derek Savage’s house/neighborhood, so there really isn’t much they could do with their setting. But they could at least tried more with what they had. Cool Cat’s room doesn’t look exactly child friendly. There are only blank drab walls with two, maybe three posters of just Cool Cat himself. There is a reason the settings in other children shows have vibrant colors to engage them. Along with that, another half-assing moment was Butch graffiting Cool Cat’s poster, but it was one of those political posters you stuck on the lawn so it was like a foot tall outside. 1) You can’t really see that shit that small. 2) You couldn’t put the poster on a wall to film that scene at, to give a better view to the audience? It’s just a bunch of little things like that all over this film that really adds up.

Also, what’s with the posters only being about Cool Cat in his own room? A bit narcissistic if you ask me.

I'm also like 70%,sure they made this movie around the footage of them being in the Hollywood parade twice. They were at the parade, got the film, and wanted to use it so they made a movie for it. And I know it was twice because the announcers that were there to announce the arrival of Cool Cat had a costume change after switching scenes.

And after ALL of this, there is just so many random shit that really don’t do anything. Elements are randomly introduced and just as randomly dropped. We get a “next day” transition in the middle of the movie when days have already passed before them. Cool Cat breaks the 4th wall a couple of times with no real reason why. There is this joke where the camera was following Cool Cat into the bathroom for Cool Cat to ask for privacy, only to just ignore that bit every time he goes to the bathroom afterwards. Cool Cat just makes random ass noises when doing things, not important stuff. Just Doing Things. And he does this weird thing where I think he is trying to do Air Guitar, but it just looks like he is just shaking his leg a lot. I don’t really get it.

(Oh Shit, it is only after like the 3rd proof-read of this review I notice that in the gif you can clearly see the dude’s actual leg. I don’t know how mascot suits actually work, but I’m pretty sure that you’re not supposed to let kids actually see that there’s a person underneath in a kid’s show.)

There is also this....lowkey humblebrag going on? Which does not do the movie favors. After the first dumb song number, Derek shows off that he has a signed guitar by Van Halen. Like not just him playing it (which after the 15th zoom in on the guitar how could you NOT notice it thank you Derek), but pointing out to the audience that, Yes it was Indeed signed by Van Halen. Then there is the footage from the Hollywood Parade about the cars there. Sure, I get showing off like the Ghostbusters car, or Jurassic Park car, or the Batmobile. But Hurby the Love Bug? Night Rider?? Starsky and Hutch??? Magnum P.I.?????? The target audience is elementary kids, they aren’t going to know these old shows. So who is this for exactly?

Kudos to the cop for actually doing this, seriously. That cop probably had a hell of a lot of better things to do than arrest children for a bad after-school special.

And this is just SOME of the main problems of this film. There’s so much going on it would be impossible for me to go over everything without

The thing is, there is good material here. Maybe not great results, but there are a lot of ideas here that you can work with to make a decent kid’s movie. I actually loved the part where Cool Cat is dreaming and trying to figure out how he should handle bullies. I thought that was a good scene and a good way to show kids how to think through different options. There are good ideas here, but it was just way to much going on at once the movie basically shoots itself in the foot.

So here is My Version of what Cool Cat should have done. 

Cool Cat is running for School President. That’s the main story line. Early in the movie he learns of a writing contest where the winner gets their own float at the hollywood parade (stretch but roll with it). But Cool Cat has no idea what to write, and talks to it with his friends who offers ideas. So he is juggling that along with running for Student President.

However, the Butch the Bully doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want Cool Cat to win. So he vandalizes his posters. Cool cat still runs and makes better posters. Butch tries to frame Cool Cat for vandalizing the playground, but instead his cronies get caught and convinced that it was a bad idea. So Butch decides to cyberbully Cool Cat and his friends to scare them off. He works with the other kid running for President to make a hate ad against Cool Cat, telling everyone how terrible and bad Cool Cat is. Cool Cat tries to go against this my making his music video song over how cool he is to swing the votes, making Butch more angry and vindictive to his bullying scheme.

Cool Cat doesn’t know how to get Butch to stop, but after getting advice from his friends, parents, teachers, and some hard thinking, he decides to confront Butch about his bullying issue, tell someone, and thus solves the problem. Later on after talking to Butch, maybe manages to convince him to start being friends. 

Finally, Cool Cat uses this scenario to write his story about how to deal with bullying and make new friends. Which wins and we end with the Hollywood Parade.

Is this perfect? No. But it focuses the idea to one main plot (running for president) with the other issues naturally coming off of it, instead of making each issue it’s own separate thing. There is no random shifts in narrative, no GUN moments (or GUN in general we kick that shit out) and just focus on the main bullying theme.

Overall: This was a weird and bad children’s show. You have to put in a lot of effort into making a movie, but there was just too much going on for this to be a Good Children’s Movie, least of all a Good Movie in general. But it isn’t to say that it wasn’t morbidly enjoyable. It’s was like playing Spot The Difference to find all the Wrong Things in here. It was fun in a bad way.

So will I show this to children? No. But will I play a drinking game with my friends where we take a shot every time someone says the phrase “Cool Cat”? Yeah that sounds enjoyable. 

Take a shot for every time you read “Cool Cat” in my review.

Side Note:

You had this as a GUN PSA, wtf are you doing holding a gun!? Given how the only 3 videos this channel has is only Cool Cat Trailers, I’m assuming this is official Cool Cat. Soooo.....what the hell?

[soda-kpop]

Trumpet Player!Mark - NCT Dream Band AU

NCT Dream Band AU: ML - HRJ - LJN - LDH - NJM - ZCL - PJS

Word Count: 5763

Warning: I’m a hopeless romantic at heart so forgive the cliches

Rest of Dreamies + Coordinating Sports AU Coming Soon!

Trumpet boy for life

Like he can even imitate it with his mouth it was meant to be

Would not stop playing the john cena theme when that meme was a thing

Like seriously mark

We are trying to play the fight song right now

It’s not time for john cena

It’s either that or justin bieber love yourself

Anyways

He’d be the first chair trumpet despite not looking like he gives a shit at all???

Like to be honest a lot of people think he’s just in band to goof off with his friends

But he actually is very talented and loves playing his trumpet

The duality of it all shocks everyone

When he’s not playing, he looks chill and just there to have a good time

When he brings that instrument to his mouth though

Wow

It’s like a whole different person

His posture straightens

His focus is only on the music and the ensemble

Nothing can disrupt him

Perfect tone like 100% of the time

He is so talented with music he can hear the pitches and if they are out of tune or not easier than the others

Everyone usually tunes to him tbh

Has a crazy ass range compared to the others

Model trumpet tbh

Except when he never sees the cut off

When he is playing his trumpet, he gets into his own little world away from everyone else and like the band is simultaneously annoyed and amazed like mark come on but also mark keep going lol

He may seem very intimidating to other trumpets

But as the section leader

He is very nonjudgmental

If they are having troubles he will ask “did you practice at home” but whether the answer is yes or no he will help

“Alright let me help you.” wow fuck me up fam

He’ll even try to learn the second and third trumpet parts to help them out

Be also tries to balance sports and band

He is on the basketball team!

As much as he loves playing the pep tunes

He loves playing basketball as well

So when basketball season comes around the band has to say goodbye to their first trumpet

But the band still supports him anyway

When he gets called for the starting lineup

The band just goes nuts

“I KNOW HIM!!!!” - jeno

Cue blushing mark cause wow cause you guys are embarrassing

Donghyuck laughing and calling him a loser when he misses a shot during warm ups

(during the game though he is as loving as every)

His teammates call him trumpet boy

They tease him but love him

That could basically describe Mark’s relationship with anyone tbh

He is always that one in class where it’s the day of the concert and he goes

“Wait there’s a concert today????????”

But no one blames him cause he busy af

Even the director (since the end of his freshman year) is like

“The concert is on March 23rd” *glares at mark*

“The concert’s in a week” *glares at mark*

“Mark when’s the concert?”

“Uhhhhhhh I don’t know, Tuesday?”

Cue haechan face palming

“God mark he literally said it’s in a week two seconds ago”

But poor mark was too busy trying to study for his calculus test that he didn’t hear him

He gets especially busy during pep/marching season cause he’s first chair trumpet and gets all the belty parts for the pep tunes

So football season can be a handful

But absolutely nothing compared to basketball season

His schedule multiples with gym practices for basketball, extra weight sessions, hours practicing his trumpet, and trying to keep up with his school work

If he can get to sleep before midnight any day of the week, he is so thankful as most days he needs to get up early for his 6 o’clock weights sessions

God bless his soul but he somehow gets by and survives each day

To add to his plate even more

Mark decides to do solo and ensemble!!!

After weeks of trying to find the perfect song, all that he could find was a duet

It was called “The Prayer” and Mark thought it was absolutely beautiful

So when it was sectionals time in class

He gathered all of the trumpets into the office and searched for the audio file to show everyone and see if anyone would want to maybe play it with him

Everyone was kind of bored with it tbh

The rest of the section enjoyed “fun” pieces full of energy

(Mark swears if they suggest they play Mouthpiece Mania one more time he is going to shoot himself.)

That and no one really wanted to play during solo & ensemble

They all had their own things they needed to tend to

So when everyone is walking out, Mark starts to feel a little discouraged

That is until he realizes that someone stayed back

You!

You actually thought the song was quite beautiful and would love to play it

Although you are nervous about having to play this yourself

You see Mark’s excitement and can’t help but feel that excitement to

“So you’ll do the duet with me?!?!?!”

And his eyes are so big and his smile is so wide that you cannot say no to this boy

And when you say yes, he begins jumping up and down and immediately asks for your snap so you guys can schedule practices.

“I’m a little busy with basketball coming up, so I can mostly practice on home game days and weekends! I have a week until that starts, so we can practice for a week until then if that’s okay.”

You just smile and say that those days work for you

Not only do you get to sharpen your trumpet skills and play a beautiful piece

You also get to become closer to Mark!

He has always caught your eye with how calm and sweet he was when working with your section even if you or other members hadn’t practice any of the tunes yet

You two just haven’t had much time to talk other than that

Any other classes you may have shared, you were both in different period/hours. 

It was a shame but now you didn’t have to worry about that

After you guys exchange your snapcodes, he quickly runs out of the office in a mad search for your director to sign you guys up as a duet

Donghyuck just looks at him like he’s insane

You just laugh and mutter to yourself

“What did I just sign myself up for?”

So after school both you and Mark come to the practice rooms in order to start your first rehearsal

You go through some scales in order to warm your instruments up

And Mark stops you and “show me your embouchure”

You slowly pull your horn away from your mouth and show him

He giggles looking at your face because it actually looks ridiculous without a mouthpiece attached

You begin to return to normal as he continues to giggle

He quickly stiffens back up and protests “no I’m serious let me see it”

So you do and

“See, your embouchure is all wrong. Your lips are turned upward not down like it’s supposed to be” and he pokes the edges of your lips

“Having this smile still allows you to play, but it weakens your tone. You want to have them down kind of like a frown!”

He pulls the edge of your lips down and giggles

“Try that now”

And your tone steadies and your eyes widen

“Haha see! Let’s go again!”

After you finish Mark’s like

“You are gonna take over my section leader spot!”

And you are just kind of like

“Yeah right 1. The director loves you and 2. I’m gonna fuck it up”

He just signs and says “well they’re gonna need some more first trumpets for pep season… you better volunteer ;)”

“Sure.. let’s keep working”

And y’all mostly just sight read the piece for the rest of the practice time

And the rest of the practices before basketball starts are spent in a similar fashion

If Mark hears something wrong, he’ll point it out (whether it was him or you)

If it is him, he’ll apologize to no end

But if it’s you and you try to do the same, he will continually reassure you that it’s fine

As basketball starts, you don’t get to practice

Mark is just swarmed with practices before the first home game

You didn’t want to let him down with not practicing so you spent everyday practicing along to the recordings in the hope of impressing him when the next practice arrives

So it’s the day of the first home game and all of the basketball team is wearing their matching sweatpants and warm up jerseys

And you cannot lie that Mark looks really nice

You can’t ignore the tiny little crush that you may have developed working with Mark

He was just so responsible and hard working and talented

So it was hard not to start falling a little bit

When you saw him in band

He came up to you with a big smile on his face

“Are we still up for today after school?”

You nod your head and confirm “Yes, 3:30!”

And yall sit in your sections and wait for class to start

After school, you have to meet with a teacher to review a concept before meeting with Mark

By the time you got out, it was only 3:15

You decided that waiting the other 15 minutes in the practice room wouldn’t hurt maybe you’d even be able to practice some before you have to show Mark

When you got there however

There was someone asleep in the practice room

It was Mark

You opened the door softly just to confirm and the tuffs of brown hair paired with his white sweatpants were all you needed

He looked too calm and peaceful to disturb

But you were also concerned

Clearly Mark hadn’t been getting enough sleep

And as a starter

This boy is going to need his energy for the game tonight

You pull out your wallet and see some cash

You make a quick run to the store and pick up a few drinks

An energy drink, a sports drink, and a large water

Everything that he could need at the game

Plus a juice for yourself

You make it back with three minutes to spare

Holding the plastic bag, you knock firmly on the door before opening it

Mark begins to stir and once he realized that he fell asleep, he quickly jolted up

“Oh my god what time is it?!”

You laugh at his shocked face and muster out a “3:27”

“Oh thank god…” he falls back into his char and notices the bag, “What’s that?”

You sit on the floor and take each drink out of the back

“I thought I’d treat you for your first home game!”

And his cheeks began to heat up

No one had ever tried to gift him anything besides Donghyuck

And even then

All he gave him was complete junk food like a bag of Skittles or a soda

He was touched to say the least

But he didn’t really express it well

All he did was look at you and the drinks with such shock on his face for about a minute

To avoid any other awkward tension, you quickly suggest to start

He snaps out of it “Oh! Yes, let’s do it!” and you sit down in the chair next to him

After your warm ups, you begin to run through the piece

And something seems off?

And Mark can sense it too

You stop playing and Mark follows

“Mark, can you play again for me? I want to hear something”

And he hesitates cause he knows it is him

Him playing confirmed him

“Your notes…”

“They are football shaped, I know.” He hangs his head embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I’ll work on it.”

“Hey, it’s okay! You usually don’t sound like this; is everything okay?”

And he takes a deep breath before completely spilling out

“I’m just about to collapse. I used to be able to balance everything so well, but this final year is just so much worse. I feel like I don’t have any energy left.”

You drop your trumpet and close the distance between the two of you, putting a hand on his back for comfort

He didn’t say anything too specific but you are still able to offer support “I feel like you may be too hard on yourself. You have so much on your plate, you shouldn’t expect to do everything perfectly. It’s okay to have bad days sometimes - it helps you grow and learn.”

“But everyone expects so much from me. Living up to that pressure is hard, and I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”

His breathing quickens and it sounds as if he is about to cry

“The only person you need to impress is yourself. As long as you are happy with what you’re doing and where you are at, everything is going to be okay. I know you can do it!”

And his shoulders relax and his breath steadies and looks down shyly

You can’t help but swing your other hand around him and give him a hug

“Give yourself a break sometimes, it’ll be worth it.”

He puts his hand over yours and squeezes it

“Thank you.”

After you let go, he starts to try and play again but your hand pulls his bell down

“We don’t have to continue, Mark. It’s okay. You have a big game tonight.”

And he looks at you with concern

“I don’t have to be there until 5:30, it’s only 4… and we haven’t practiced in almost two weeks! I’m obviously behind…”

You laugh to the side and propose a deal “How about we go for another 20 minutes, then you can get a nap in here before call time? Does that sound good?”

And you best believe this boy looks at you like you are an angel sent from heaven.

“Deal.”

When those 20 minutes are up, you just sit inside the band office with your director while Mark is taking his nap

When people start filing in early, you situate yourself close to the practice room Mark is in so you can make sure his slumber is not disturbed

When 5:15 comes around and almost all of the band members are destroying the room, you decide to finally wake him up

When you walk in, you almost decide to not wake him up

He looked so peaceful and content

But he was either gonna be woken up by you or by the percussion section running through their cadences

So you figured this would probably hurt less

You hunch over his body and slightly shake his shoulders

“Mark… it’s time to wake up…”

He flips over and before you could try again, he attempts to rub the sleep out of his eyes

“It’s call time!”

You say trying to get him up

But he just smiles and quietly goes “I’m up, I’m up.”

So you stand up and offer him a hand that he quickly takes but before you can get away, Mark pulls you into a hug.

“Thank you, honestly. For the drinks and everything.”

And you are stressing out, wondering if Mark can feel either your heartbeat increase or your face redden

“N-n-not a problem!” You stutter quickly releasing yourself from his grasp.

He quickly grabs the bag full of his drinks and runs out to store his bag in the locker room

But not without screaming “THANK YOU!!”

And you just come out of the practice room with a blush on yourself and mutter “you’re welcome”

ANd Donghyuck comes up next to you and just nudges ya

“So… Mark huh?”

“Shut up Donghyuck”

When you guys set up, you spot Mark hanging out with his teammates

Y’all make eye contact and just give him a big thumbs up

He instantly smiles

When you are playing during the girl’s varsity game

You guys constantly make eye contact and he makes faces at you

(MOstly it’s just him saying a smile is bad and you need to frown which is counterproductive because all it does is make you laugh)

It’s when warm ups start that you guys really start interacting

It becomes his turn to shoot at the 3 point line

And he misses the first one

“Nice shot!”

You immediately elbow Donghyuck

“OW! What the hell was that for?”

You look at him and with a serious tone just “Just lighten up, okay?”

And he just rolls his eyes and walks away… “Lovebirds…”

You turn your attention back towards the court and make eye contact with him

He had seen the whole interaction and was shocked

You just mouth to him good luck

And he smiles and guess what?

Makes his next shot

Nothing but net :)

And he sees you smiling out of the corner of his eye and you bet your butt that he’s replaying that image in his head throughout the night

When the game starts, Mark seems to be real nervous. Starts the game shooting 1 of 4 and you can tell he is frustrated

His team doesn’t pass as much to him and he gets taken out of the game before the first half is finished

When the half finished, your school is losing by 10 points

When he gets pulled out, he runs his hand through his hand in frustration and looks up towards the band section

Right now he’d rather be up there with everyone than on the court right now

He sees you in the corner with a look of concern on your face and once again you make eye contact except this time, you notion to your head and mouth “Believe in yourself. I believe in you.”

And maybe just maybe

You see his frown turn upside down

When they come out from halftime and start their warm ups again

You see Mark make almost every single shot

You know this is a different person out there

When you see him in the starting lineup again, you get on the edge of your seat

Soon he is almost unstoppable making the next 7 of 9

And you swear but you cannot confirm

That everytime he makes a shot, he looks in your direction to see your reaction

Which is nothing short of a smile and a fist pump

There’s 10 seconds left in the game and the other team has possession

The score is 73-75, your school down by 2

The person who Mark is blocking has the ball, but he kept the ball far from his body

Mark saw an opening and stole the ball with two seconds left

And before he could get in a proper position

He just chucks the ball just before the buzzer sounds

And in goes the ball

3 points for Mark

A winning game for your school

You instantly start screaming for as long as you can

But you have to start playing the Fight Song

It wasn’t the cleanest as the hype flowed through the brass section creating a blatty and harsh sound

But no one cared because Mark just shot a buzzer beater and won the entire game for you guys

You wanted to go up to him after the game, but you had to put all your equipment away and when you looked at him, he had so many people surrounding him

After helping the percussion with their equipment, you finally have time to pack up your trumpet

When you place your mouthpiece in it’s hole, you get tapped on your shoulder

You turn around and see Mark, all hot and sweaty

“You got a lotta attention out there, huh?” You laugh

“I think you should be the one getting the attention; I don’t think I would have been able to do that without you.” Your face reddens “So same time next home game?”

“Of course” you laugh

And he walks off to go find his parents and go home

And you shut your case with a smile and with some pep in your step

And for the next month and a half before every home game

You bring Mark those three drinks during every practice

And he becomes more and more supportive of your playing

Anytime you may doubt yourself, he quickly reminds you to believe in yourself

And you do the same

He starts becoming more confident not only in class and on the trumpet, but also on the court. He doesn’t need to look at you in the stands as often when he plays, but you can still tell he takes some glances

And Donghyuck notices it all and develops a plan

The day before the final home game, Donghyuck approaches Mark in the locker room before practice

“Mark you gotta do something,” he whines

The look of confusion takes over Mark

“What are you talking about? Do something about what?”

“Don’t act dumb, your special trumpet friend!” the blush on Mark’s face just confirming his best friend’s suspicions

“I can’t! Especially before the biggest game of the year so far! What if they reject me and I lose my spark?” He says tying up his shoes

“Wow you might actually be dumb. Have you seen the way they look at you? You have absolutely nothing to worry about. You are Mark Lee. Everyone wants to be with you, whether romantically or mutually, and I can bet your ass that they feel the same way… romantically of course.”

And Mark melts at the thought of you being an item.

“Well what can I do?”

“It’s Senior Night. This could be the last time you could ever wear this uniform again, wouldn’t you want someone special to wear it with you?” Donghyuck smirks, winks, and walks off leaving Mark to stare inside his bag to see his jersey for away games

Boy is he going to have to wash that a lot tonight

For the final home game, you decided to get him a bag full of extra gifts

He had done so much for you in these last two months that you needed to celebrate it somehow

You had gone to the store and picked up the usual drinks along with multiple cups of watermelon, a gift card to his favorite pizza location, and for an extra special gift, you had ordered him a custom mouthpiece with the word “Believe” engraved on it

You really hoped that he would like it and not be put off by it

When you walk into the band room, you can hear him practicing through the walls

Your performance would be in two weeks and you guys knew the piece by heart

And despite hearing him play the same song over and over again

You were always mesmerized every time he played

You wait for him to finish before barging in

“Oh hey! I was just working on secti… oh that’s bigger than usual” he says pointing out the large bag

“Well it’s a special day, and I wanted to celebrate that. If we practice till call time, you may be able to get everything before your game.”

And you swore you had never seen Mark so eager in his life

So you play and play (but not without water breaks and running it by your director for final feedback)

And finally it’s 5 o’clock and the rest of the band is supposed to be there in 15 minutes

“Good rehearsal!” Mark says placing his horn in his case

“You too, I’m excited for Solo & Ensemble!” You start getting giddy just thinking about it

“Me too, it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I’m really happy with how it’s sounding.”

“You’ve helped me so much with playing so in order to say thank you…” you slam the bag into Mark’s lap, “Thank you!”

If you thought that you have seen his biggest smile, that’s a giant lie

He has never smiled that big in his life

He takes out the water, energy drink, and sports drink with care

When he sees what else is in there, he absolutely flips

“I love watermelon!!” He immediately opens the cup and pops a cube into his mouth, melting into the sweet and soft fruit “And I’m totally going to use the gift card this weekend.”

The mouthpiece, however, was in your pocket

“Mark, I have one final gift…” His head turns in confusion, “Here, just close your eyes.”

He is hesitant but ultimately shuts his eyes

You reach into his case and pull the body of his trumpet out and place the mouthpiece on it

You hold it out to him “okay open!”

“My trumpet?”

You couldn’t help but laugh

“Just inspect it okay!”

He takes the brass away from you and starts examining the bells and the valves. It wasn’t until he finally checked the mouthpiece that his confusion left

“‘Believe?’ Why?”

“Because, you can do anything if you just believe in yourself. You taught me that, and now if you need any reassurance, it’ll be right there for you!” When you are explaining, his head drops down as he smiles at the ground

You couldn’t help but become shy after giving it to him, still not sure how he felt about you

“I have a gift for you, too…” He trails off before reaching into his bag behind him. Your head picks up at the mention of a gift.

Before you realize it, Mark is handing you a piece of black cloth

“It’s my away jersey, and I’d love it if you wore it tonight.”

Your cheeks begin to burn as you take the jersey in your hands

“I would love to”

And mark just whispers a gentle “great” before staring at you

Once he notices Donghyuck in the window, however, he quickly starts packing up his things

Seeing him so frantic makes you do the same

You were about to leave when Mark calls your name

“Wha…”

As you turn around, Mark’s lips touch your cheeks before he mutters out a quick thank you and he runs out of the room

You stay in the practice room for another minute or so in order to compose yourself and to change into the jersey

The second that you walk out, Donghyuck starts a melody of harassing whistles causing you to walk out of the band room, but not before screaming “I swear to god, Donghyuck!”

Walking into the gym, heads turn everywhere seeing Mark’s jersey rest upon your shoulders

He couldn’t stop smiling to himself seeing you play the first trumpet parts he loves so much with his name on your back

And just like the first game, he wishes he could be up in the stands

Not because he is struggling

But because you looked like you were having so much fun and he’d love to be up there to experience it with you

Also to get Donghyuck off your ass

And after the buzzer sounds, your school won by a landslide and as you play the fight song, Mark looks and points up at you with the biggest smile on his face

It almost causes you to stop playing, but you had to

People swarm him like always but his attention is somewhere else

You let people get their share of Mark while you put all of your supplies away and change back into your old shirt

You hurry as fast as you can and run back into the gym to see all of players with their families, including Mark saying goodbye to his

When he turns back to pick up his bag, he sees you in the corner of his eye

“Good job out there, Mark.” You walk toward him handing him his jersey

“Thank you! It’s all because of you.” He smiles “Also keep it, you look nice in it.”

You immediately started laughing

Mark’s eyes grew, “What?”

“Mark, you do know you have an away game next week right?”

His eyes widen even more and he slowly grabs the jersey from your hand

“Oh… right.”

And he stashes the jersey in his athletic bag

And your laughs just continue

“Anyways, you did really well out there, Mark.” and this time you find the courage in yourself to do what he did to you earlier and place your lips on his cheek, “Goodnight”

And you walk out with a fire on your cheeks and a pulsing in your heart

Mark was no different

From then on, band with Mark had been….different

He can barely look you in the face, he can’t focus, and his tone starts to suffer

He hasn’t even played your duet since that home game and you still had until their final game to start practicing again

After that game, you only had seven days to rehearse and finalize any changes you needed to make in order to get that superior rating

While in the zone, it was as if nothing had happened between you guys

When you guys are playing, there is absolutely no tension between you. The only way you guys connect is through the music

But again

Something is missing

You ask your director to listen in and really analyze the song - not just say if it sounds good or not

And he says

“The notes are all there, you have all the dynamics and rhythm set, but there is not emotion. You feel like you are just two people playing together, not two people playing as one. It may look the same, but the sound is so different.”

You both just look at each other and frown

“Playing the same music is not enough to connect each other, our emotions are just as valuable. Maybe try hanging out together, let loose, something like that.”

And he leaves you and Mark in the practice room

“So….” Mark starts

“So….”

“What are we?” he quickly asks

Almost to the point you couldn’t hear him, but you most definitely did

“I hope at least friends…” you say with some hesitation, “but I would love to be something more”

“I-I…”

“I understand if you don’t think of me in that light. I can come together to play this song with you, but I don’t know how much more I could stay around you.”

You held your head low unable to look him in the eyes, softly playing with your hands in your lap

Suddenly, your hand is being warmed in the presence of Mark’s

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’d love to be with you.” And when you look up, you can see Mark’s calm, sweet eyes meet yours. He wraps his arms around you, trying his best not to be too awkward in this chair hug (which is absolutely awkward you cannot escape it)

“So….” Mark starts, “Should we start playing again?”

And you just nod

You don’t make it three measures in until Mark stops you

“Hey, what did I tell you about smiling?” He teases.

“Sorry,” you laugh, “I’m just really happy right now.”

And you just smile at each other

Solo & Ensemble couldn’t come faster

You had one practice with Accompanist!Johnny then all of a sudden, you and Mark were on a bus with other contestants from your school headed to the performance venue

You were one of the first groups to perform that day and to say you were nervous was an understatement

And as if Mark could sense it, he takes your hand in his and starts rubbing it

“You are going to do great today, just believe.”

And you can’t help but smile to yourself

You walk into the performance room and hand your score to the clinician

While Johnny gets his sheet music in order, you and Mark set your stands facing each other so not only will Mark be able to comfort you if your nerves get the best of you, but you will also be able to create an intimate atmosphere 

As soon as you get the go ahead, you introduce yourselves and begin playing

[LINK TO DUET]

Afterwards, you feel absolutely breathless

Between playing the songs and watching Mark play full of passion, your heart was beating at a mile a minute

Your clinician has a lot to say, but most of it is good things!

His main critique was for stylistic reasons - he’d prefer more accents in some places and a ritardando in others

But his main compliment was

“You guys feel connected. You respond to each other almost perfectly. If he does one thing, you are right there with him as support. For some people, it’s about being the best, but you only try to compliment each other. They try to feed on these emotions while you guys try to feel them. Outstanding job.”

And both of you immediately blush while your director is almost crying because he was so proud of how you took his advice and it was actually paying off

When you walk out of the room, your smiles never stop.

Not even when the scores are posted

You promised each other that no matter how you placed, you would be happy with your performance

There was no need to be worried

Not only did you receive a superior rating, but you were the first place Trumpet Ensemble

When you read it, you wanted to cry

And Mark’s eyes just grow really wide and he looks at you with all the shock in the world present on his face

All he can do is hug you

And it lasts for a solid two to three minutes

Celebratory pictures are taken of course, but you guys are quick to watch your friends’ performances

During which, Mark holds your hand

Earlier it was calming, but now it was doing everything but

While the clinicians went on their breaks, Mark pulls out his wallet

“Celebratory dinner’s on me”

You turn your head and see the gift card you got him that final basketball game

“I thought you were spending it that weekend!”

“Well, I felt pretty confident about this performance. I was going to ask you no matter what happened between us, so pizzas on me!”

And before you can respond, the only thing you hear is

“GUYS, MARK’S BUYING DINNER”

“Shut up, Donghyuck”

I haven’t written an AU in a long time! I missed this so much. I will be doing a Band AU for the rest of the Dream Team along with a corresponding Sports AU! That means that there will be a full Basketball AU for Mark. This took almost all day to write, so I can’t guarantee when they will be out!

I hope you enjoyed this! Thank you guys <3