#i was always in the choir

[cellsshapedlikestars]

Prompt: Winterfell High School doing a play/musical, maybe Sansa as a bit of a bratty actress and Jon working with the lights/sound/off-stage?

it's friday, i don't feel great, i've had a bad day, so here you go, have some nonsense high school jonsa! I hope everyone else is having a lovely friday and has an even lovlier weekend.

also, please note that I have never in my life done a play/musical and I went to maybe ONE in my entire school career and I have no idea how they work so do not @ me theater kids

read it on ao3 here:

ephemera, chapter 29

.

Jon's lounging when she comes storming back, pushing the heavy curtains aside. They're too bulky, and he watches her struggle through them as they barely move, but she manages to get through and when she's in front of him, she brushes a stray hair from her face and scowls at him.

“How hard is it to get spotlights right?” Sansa Stark asks, splotches of red high on her cheeks, her voice pitched up in irritation.

“I dunno,” he shrugs, looking over at said spotlights, ignoring the pull in his gut.

She stares at him, eyes wide, as if she can't comprehend his answer.

“We have three weeks until opening night,” she hisses, eyes narrowing when he doesn't give her any further explanation. “You're going to ruin everything!”

“You know what?” he says, scratching at the stubble on his chin – his newly grown beard. Or, the start of one. He hopes. “I must've switched scenes. I think I've got it now.”

She glares at him, but doesn't say anything else before she turns back around and heads out to the stage.

Jon behaves for the rest of rehearsal.

Mostly.

...

She tries to get him fired, except the drama teacher – who insists everyone call her Miss Melisandre – won't listen.

She had a vision, he overhears her tell Sansa. A vision that Jon Snow would be critical to the success of their play, and so she'd bargained with the principal and plucked him out of suspension and gave him stage duty instead. He knows he should be grateful that he isn't actually suspended, but he'd almost rather be than have to do a stupid school play.

The only upside is getting to see Sansa Stark regularly. Getting to watch her on stage, in her element, as she recites her lines perfectly. Not that he'd ever admit that out loud.

He never misses his cues with her. The only person he does-

“Can we please get Joffrey's light?” Sansa's voice echoes from the stage, an edge to it that makes it sound like she's five seconds away from murdering Jon.

Jon can't help the roll of his eyes as he leans over and turns Joffrey's light on. It's off center, and he keeps it that way.

“Just keep going, we'll fix the lights later,” he hears Miss Melisandre say.

Jon sits back where he was before, in his spot with the perfect view of the stage between the curtains, annoyed that they're continuing. Annoyance that morphs into a different sort of thing when Joffrey says his line and goes in for a kiss.

Jon looks away.

...

He's in a bad fucking mood today.

Ramsay was up to his normal bullshit. Apparently he didn't learn his lesson the last time, when Jon beat his face in for what he did to Sam. The thing that landed him a suspension, which threw him at the drama club's mercy.

He's early, because he needed to get away from Ramsay, before he lost his shit again, and he figured some alone time before the drama club arrived would do him good.

Just as he's passing the costume room, he hears something that makes him pause.

Someone's crying.

Not your business, he tells himself.

But instead of walking past the room like he knows he should, he lets out a sigh and opens the door.

Sansa looks up at him, nose red, face pale, eyes wet and shining, her mascara pooling beneath them.

“What are you doing here?” she spits, though the venom is lost when her voice hitches halfway through.

“You okay?” he asks, because he doesn't know what else to do. He's not great with emotions - or words - which is why he ended up fixing the Ramsay situation with his fists.

“Don't act like you care,” she says, it comes out stilted as she continues to cry. “I've been,” a hiccup, “practicing so hard,” another, “for this to be perfect.”

“The play?”

“Of course the play!”

“You've got your lines down,” he points out, shoving his hands into his pockets as guilt starts to creep through him.

“Not the kissing scene,” she argues. “We never get through it properly because you-” her voice breaks, but she keeps on, “-can't light it right, ever.” He winces, eyes dropping to the floor because he can't bring himself to look at her anymore. “I know you think the drama club is stupid-”

“I don't,” he interrupts, heart picking up pace in his chest until it's thrumming, beating out of control. “I mean, it's not my thing, but I don't think it's stupid.”

She watches him for a moment, eyes roving his face like she's looking for the lie.

“You're, uh,” he continues when she doesn't say anything, “you're really good. At acting.”

She's still watching him, eyes narrowed in suspicion. He feels the weight of her stare, guilt sitting like a stone in his stomach.

“I'll get it right from now on, I-”

He doesn't get a chance to finish, because suddenly there are voices in the hall. She quickly wipes at her eyes and picks up her bookbag and leaves the room, he guesses before anyone can see them together. He doesn't really blame her. She might be a theater nerd, but at least she isn't a loser burnout like him.

He gives her a head start – a long one - but he makes sure he shows up for the start of rehearsal on time.

...

On opening night, she's glowing.

In her pretty dress with her hair down, she looks like she's just stepped out of some sort of fairytale, which he figures is appropriate. Everyone looks good, he tries to reason. They did a good job with the wardrobe and makeup. Except Joffrey. He still looks like a weaselly little shit.

The play goes perfectly.

He wasn't joking when he told Sansa he'd get it right from now on. He always could, he was just being... petty, his mind whispers, even though he tries to ignore it.

At the end, he watches her bow to the audience and he wishes he could've seen it from their perspective, he wishes he could get the full force of her smile. He only gets pieces of it, as she turns to look at her fellow actors lined up on the stage next to her, wide and toothy, eyes shining.

He waits until they're all off the stage, then shuts down the spotlights, and he waits for the theater to empty before turning off the lights completely.

He grabs his bag and slips out, past all the theater kids standing in the halls with their parents, through the noise and bustle and excitement. They're all going to Denny's after, but Jon isn't. He wasn't really invited, except for the time a few of the girls cornered him after rehearsal and told him about it. He'd declined, and hadn't been asked again.

It's not really his scene, anyway.

As he's headed to his truck, he hears a voice call his name, and he halts in his tracks.

“Aren't you coming to Denny's?” Sansa's standing in the parking lot behind him, a bouquet of cheap grocery store flowers clutched in her hands.

“Uh,” he says, dragging his eyes from the flowers up to her face. “I'm not-”

“We're all going,” she cuts him off, though this time she doesn't seem mad at him. “They've got good pancakes.”

“Oh,” he stutters, like an idiot. “I don't think anyone wants me-”

“Sometimes they give us free fries, if Nan is working.”

“Guess some food would be nice,” he says slowly, and he watches her nod, as if that's exactly what she wanted.

He heads back towards the school, feeling like this is all some sort of prank, and she falls into step next to him.

“Aren't these pretty?” she asks, holding up the flowers.

“They look sorta cheap,” he shrugs, staring straight ahead, refusing to look at them again. “I'm sure you got a million flowers.”

He knows she did. He saw them when he snuck into her dressing room earlier and set that cheap bouquet among them.

“Doesn't say who gave them,” she hums, twisting the flowers around in her hand, as if that will magically make a card appear. “Margie says a secret admirer.”

Jon's face feels hot, and he shrugs again.

“Do you think you'll do the spring musical?” she asks.

“Oh, I don't know. I was only doing this becauase-” he can't finish the sentence, though he knows it's no secret he'd been suspended originally.

“I should give these to my parents, they're taking the rest home,” she says, when he doesn't keep talking. “Wait for me?”

“Yeah, okay,” he pauses, and watches her run back out into the parking lot, towards people loading flowers into a minivan. Her family – he recognizes Robb, who graduated last year, and Arya, a few years below them.

When she runs back to him, she's got one of his flowers tucked into her hair, and it makes his stomach flip.

“Let's go,” she says, then gives him one of those megawatt smiles, and he knows that he'll sign up for the spring musical.

[mkzmerryfriend]

*cracks knuckles* we know Tyler isn’t the original Clancy right? Y’all caught that? Clancy’s bishop was Keons, Tyler’s is Nico, and now “Clancy” is Tyler. Because “scaled and icy” is an anagram for “Clancy is dead” and that album was the one where dema was using Tyler’s popularity for their own purposes. Clancy failed to stop the cycle on his own, and despite already being used as a figurehead for dema, Tyler decided to take up the role of “Clancy” in the wake of what seemed like a total collapse of the Banditos. Their leader had been taken out, and now they had no one to organize them.

But Tyler taking on the name Clancy isn’t him taking on the role of leader or even organizer. He is showing us (the Banditos) that we all can be our own inspiration, we don’t need a figure to follow, we don’t need a leader to lead us. We can do this, fight dema, ourselves.

Y’all got that, right?

[iratusmus]

karaoke night

[bumblingbabooshka]

TUVOKTOBER Day 2: Lunch Break [Interrupted]

[canisalbus]

I'm sure you get loads of these but heck I said I'd give it a shot anyway!

Your artwork is so inspiring and beautiful. I recently graduated from art school with a degree in Animation Production but I've decided I'd love to be an illustrator some day. Your work really motivates me and gets my brain juice buzzin. Keep it up!!!

.

[noctude]

fucked up being tricked into enjoying a traditional childrens song bc theres no good recordings of them that arent clearly for babies. im a freaking Adult can i not enjoy a good melody in canon once in a while....

[undefeatablesin]

Me rising from the dead after 3 months

[lucifer-kane]

Throws these two into Bloodborne

[uncanny-tranny]

for transexual thursday!!

i am nonverbal and use an aac all the time and recently i changed the voice i use from the default feminine one to one that suits me a lot better! it is a younger masculine voice that i pitched up a bit so to me it feels very androgynes (tho there isn't any one way to be androgynes of course). it brings me a lot of comfort and euphoria to have my voice match up to how i feel about my gender!! i love it a lot!

Aw, that's so sweet! It's so awesome when they make AAC super moldable like that! I'm glad your voice matches who you are better <<3

[aromantic-diaries]

You don't even know how great it is that I don't have to use a proper name here. I have a weird thing about names

[torosdottir]

thing is idk i know hormones have an effect on mood i know i was just literally about 3 days ago joking about oh i know it's coming when i start listening 2 a certain sad sad song or whatever. but i do think weve been conditioned to play it up i do think the whole world sees women as these hormonally controlled creatures and i knoooow theres genuine mood effects but also like. idk man my mood is up n down back n forth like a rollercoaster on the regular and sometimes its so easy to say "oh i felt down/angry this week bc im pmsing" but bro i can feel down or angry any week. and i can feel bright and light and happy when im premenstrual. i dunno maybe women are thoughtful intelligent complex emotional beings not driven solely by hormones? maybe theres other things going on w us? seems sometimes that some women write off any emotions they experience (ESPECIALLY THEIR ANGER..) if it's at a certain time of the month bc they somehow figure those feelings aren't "real". girl its as real as any other day and ur magic hormones didnt conjure this feeling out of nowhere. you're still you. u know?

[katyspersonal]

It is a really a cool reoccurring bit of lore for me that Elden Ring sort of reused the "conflict" between Choir and Willem's teachings from Bloodborne with Raya Lucaria's primeval current and the ideas that Carians brought!

Imposter Iosefka is the best example of the Choir's generic mindset we have, speaking about transcending the "stupidity" and forcibly turning people into cosmic Kin! More or less Sellen is a very good successor to this character, especially with the fact that Choir and ancient sorcerers (?) both have history of experimenting on children (Choir's Orphanage + little Aurelia and Aureliette being implied to have their souls cut with a glintstone blade). And in general, Raya Lucaria and Research Hall (that IS the past of what is now the Choir) are okay with experimenting!

But Willem, after all, suggested that humanity is better evolved and improved than abandoned completely, he said to possibly level with Great Ones as men! I can see this sort of parallel with Rennala and generally Carian standards being brought back; interest in the 'Moon' suggests something closer to the human plane. Like, instead of obsessing over stars and nothing but stars and sipping that cosmic horror and "returning" to them as "fallen children of the stars", it brings more attention to THE satellite that is close to humans and is less otherworldly both physically and philosophically! Both games have their academy that fell for its own hubris to propose the conflict of 'do you see humanity as useless shackle to cast away and become something bigger, or as something you should cherish but also improve and evolve with the wisdom you can get from otherworldly sources?' . And this is so cool!

Again, I guess it is the question players should answer to on their own. Both games try to nudge us to sympathize with 'humanity is not a liability' side of the question, saying that Willem was different from Choir and would be heartbroken about Mensis, and posing Carians as more sympathetic guys with showing Sellen (that speaks for primeval current) as this kinda... callous, determined woman... But you still COULD say that true discovery and knowledge demands great sacrifices and people that can't choke their human morality won't bring TRUE progress. Just... Elden Ring opened and explored the conflict way better, it is much plain to see advantages and disadvantages of both sides! It is less of intuitive speculation with subtle details than in was in Bloodborne, I am just DELIGHTED that they revisited the interesting issue in the next game. Basically nothing shows caring about the messages they want to deliver and discussions they want to raise in the fandom than "We didn't say that loud enough in the previous game, let's try again but better".

[testicularmanslaughtrr]

“It’s the holidays! You should be happy!”

[voltas-do-mar]

ooc, what's up yall, volta update :3

[faerynova]

on a social level i like my current choir more than the previous one. im actually getting to know people and enjoy talking and going to social events outside of choir which i havent done since my first choir. but also i definitely miss the music taste my last director had

current choir has a focus on north american composers. obviously theres baller stuff in that selection pool. but listen. listen i wanna sing bulgarian folk music again.

[judesstfrancis]

one thing I love most about hozier is that he'll be making all sorts of faces the entire time he's singing. like so true king if u wanna get the sound right u have to make a truly silly face first. he gets it