#thea shepard

[cav-core]

9, 16, 18 and 24 from the fifty (more) shep questions if you’re taking them!

9. What does Shepard like to wear when they’re out of the armor?

She's a pretty casual type unless someone tells her she has to dress up. Camo pants, tank top, sports bra, light jacket is her go-to.

16. What does Aria think of Shepard?

Honestly, I think she's mildly amused by her.

18. Obligatory gang beach episode! What’s Shepard doing?

Swimming, at first, and then passed out on her towel later on.

24. How does Shepard handle house arrest? How do they fill their time?

She would hate the absolute guts of it. She exercises a lot, both her body and her biotics, she reads (mostly comic books), she tries to learn to play chess with herself.

[jgroffdaily]

The New Yorker Interview

Jonathan Groff Rolls Merrily Back

The actor reflects on his journey in reverse: from his latest Tony nomination to his arrival in New York, waiting tables and dreaming of Broadway.

By Michael Schulman, Photograph by Thea Traff

June 2, 2024

Excerpts:

One of the problems with “Merrily” is its protagonist, Franklin Shepard, whom we first meet as a slick, philandering forty-year-old Hollywood producer. It takes two acts to arrive at the charismatic musician he once was, with a lot of mistakes in between. Putting effect before cause gives each scene a painful irony—but how do you get an audience to care about a guy who’s off-putting for so long? “Merrily” is back on Broadway, in a production directed by Maria Friedman, and it’s finally a hit. One big reason is its Frank, played by Jonathan Groff, whose natural warmth shines through even in the character’s older, sleazier incarnation. When this revival opened Off Broadway, in 2022, The New Yorker’s Helen Shaw wrote, “Groff’s silky tenor and angelic face elevate a part that can sometimes be contemptible—for the first time, I could see Frank as both the dreamer who believes in greatness and the glib charmer who believes every lie he tells.”

Groff, thirty-nine, is now nominated for a Tony Award, alongside Friedman and his co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez. He was previously nominated in 2016, for “Hamilton,” in the scene-stealing part of King George III, and in 2007, for the indie-rock musical “Spring Awakening,” as the rebellious schoolboy Melchior Gabor—his breakout role, opposite Lea Michele. Groff had come to New York three years earlier, as a stagestruck, closeted nineteen-year-old from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he grew up among Mennonites and was obsessed with the original cast recording of “Annie Get Your Gun.” “Merrily,” with its themes of aging, idealism, and the vicissitudes of show business, has had Groff thinking about his own path toward stardom. “Doing this show on Broadway at this time, moving to New York twenty years ago, I’ve now lived the time frame of the show,” he told me recently.

We were talking at a bakery north of Washington Square Park. Groff had glided in on a bicycle. As we spoke, he frequently welled up with tears—he’s a crier—but regained his composure by focussing on a pair of googly eyes affixed to the wall behind me. For our conversation, which has been edited and condensed, I had an experiment in mind.

Let’s start with the extremely recent past. Three days ago, you went to the Met Gala. How was your night?

The big headline for me was Lea Michele was pregnant, and I sat next to her at the table, holding her giant train thing while she peed. She took it off, and I was holding that and her purse. I saw Zac Posen, who was at our table, help Kim Kardashian up the little tiny stairs, and I said to him, “Wow, that was such a sweet moment of the gay helping the diva.” I was relating to him, like with me and Lea. It’s a zoo of famous people. I was going to go to the after-parties, but my body was just, like, “No.” I hit a wall from the shows and the epicness of the week, with the Tony nominations. So I was home by eleven-forty-five, and in bed by midnight.

The Broadway production of “Merrily” opened last fall. You told Jimmy Fallon that Meryl Streep came to your dressing room, where you have a bar named BARbra, and she took a video of you and sent it to Barbra Streisand. Who else has been there?

The first thing that comes to me is sitting in BARbra in October or November, drinking whiskey with Sutton Foster. I came to New York as a teen-ager and saw her six times in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”—now she’s in BARbra, dropping in for, like, an hour and a half after the show, and it’s so full circle. Who else? Patti LuPone was there—another big one for me. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Martin McDonagh. Glenn Close sent back a bottle of champagne to be chilled in BARbra, which we drank together.

This show, like every Sondheim show, is very dense. Over the course of three hundred-plus performances, are there certain moments that have suddenly hit you a different way, or that you realize have a double meaning?

Double, triple, quadruple, infinity. I’m still having revelations, which really makes me believe that it’s a true work of art. Maria [Friedman] talks about how, with Sondheim’s writing, he “leaves space,” which is why it’s always new. He always needed to work with a collaborator, and she talked about the actor being an essential collaborator. She said the lyric he wrote in “Sunday in the Park with George”—“Anything you do, / let it come from you, / then it will be new”—is Sondheim’s directive to the actor.

The Tuesday after the Tony nominations, I got to the theatre, screamed with Lindsay [Mendez], screamed with Dan [Radcliffe]. [He chokes up.] Then I was singing “Growing Up”—“So old friends, don’t you see we can have it all?”—which has meant so many different things to me in the run of the show. At yesterday’s matinée, Dan and I were sitting on the roof singing “Our Time”: “Up to us, pal, to show ’em.” We’ve done it a million times. We look at each other, and Dan just fucking loses it crying. He had to look away from me. We talked about it afterward, like, “What the fuck was that?” I don’t know. Something just happened.

When you started the show, in 2022, at New York Theatre Workshop, were there kinks in your performance that you’ve since figured out?

I remember feeling shocked at being disliked for so long in the first half of the first act. It was very clear from the energy of the audience that they loved Mary in the opening scene—immediately, they’re on her side. I’m out here as a gay guy, playing this straight, two-timing Hollywood producer who’s cheating on his wife. I’m already having to feel confident in a way that I don’t in my everyday life, this sort of swagger. And the audience hates me. I remember feeling scared and self-conscious. Maria, in that preview process, really helped with that, because she talked about the value of when it’s real, and you’re not playing ugly just to be ugly. The one line that I really struggled with was “I’m just acting like it all matters so people can’t see how much I hate my life and how much I wish the whole goddam thing was over.” That is a really confronting thing to say.

People might say that this is one of the fundamental flaws of “Merrily We Roll Along”—that you’re confronted with this cynical, smarmy Frank in the first act, and you don’t really understand him until the show’s over. I can imagine going into this not knowing if that’s a solvable problem, because it hadn’t been for decades.

Well, Maria wanted us to find the truth. She really believed that these characters weren’t archetypes, that there’s humanity in the writing from beginning to end. I found it after that first week or two of previews, not being so afraid. The line that made me want to do the show was “I’ve made only one mistake in my life, but I’ve made it over and over and over. That was saying yes when I meant no.” I’ve done that a lot in my life, and there was something that felt like the closeted version of myself. George Furth and Stephen Sondheim—I can only imagine being gay at the time that they were gay. Even though Frank is straight, there’s so much repression that feels very familiar to me.

Except that you felt it at the beginning of your life and not the middle, as Frank does.

Yes and no. I still feel it. I’m still trying every day not to go back. I’m obviously out of the closet, so that’s a huge relief, but I’m always going to be reckoning with the Republican upbringing that I had. I’m always negotiating whatever homophobia I’ve got. It’s all in there, still. What we see as ugliness in the top of the show, to stand and say, “I want to fucking kill myself, I hate my life,” and not overdramatize it but try to find it in the most pure, truthful place—it’s still, every night, a meditation to go there.

Let’s wind back. In 2021, you played Agent Smith in “The Matrix Resurrections.” Any good stories about Keanu Reeves?

Getting to play Agent Smith really unlocked rage inside of me that I didn’t know was there. That’s helped me so much with “Merrily,” particularly in the first act. Learning the kung fu was, like, months of fight training. They called me the Savage, because I was so into it. We were shooting a big fight sequence with Keanu, and, after the first few takes, I remember Lana [Wachowski] at the monitor, like, “Jonathan, come over here. Who is that?” I was, like, “I don’t know.” And she was, like, “And what is that?” I said, “Gay rage?”

I’d never shot a gun before. I shot Keanu and thought I had peed my pants, because I had this hot feeling. You know when you pee yourself and it’s warm? It lasted about ten minutes and then it went away. I sat next to Keanu and said, “Keanu, I just had extreme heat from my groin for, like, ten minutes.” And he was, like, “You opened up your root chakra.”

You turned thirty that year [Hamilton]? How was that?

I remember it vividly. We were at the Public Theatre. There was a fire in the East Village, and the show was cancelled that night. I got a cupcake at the deli around the corner from my apartment, on Sixteenth Street, and ate it by myself. I can be a bit of a loner, so that was a happy birthday for me.

(On Looking being cancelled)

But, in 2015, Michael Lombardo was our executive at HBO, and I was crying into my salad at some restaurant in West Hollywood, trying to convince him to keep the show going, right before getting on the plane to come do “Hamilton” Off Broadway.

I loved Raúl Castillo, who played your love interest Richie on the show. I interviewed him around then, and he told me that, since he’s straight, you all had to teach him some of the mechanics of what gay people do.

Oh, yeah! God, I love him so much. I officiated his wedding in July.

Let’s go back to 2013, when “Frozen” came out. You voiced the iceman Kristoff and the reindeer Sven. How did that film change your life?

It’s funny—I remember recording some of “Frozen” in San Francisco. I would be teaching Raúl, like, how to lick my asshole while jerking me off—not teaching him, but sharing the ins and outs of gay intimacy—and then going into the recording studio on a Saturday and being Kristoff and Sven in a Disney movie.

When they showed me “Let It Go” for the first time, I was, like, Oh, my God, this will help millions of people come out of the closet. This is the gayest thing I’ve seen in my life! That was the thing about “Frozen”: I don’t think anyone who worked on it thought it was going to be a juggernaut. It’s so weird to think of this now, but when it came out it felt quite alternative, because there was no villain, really, and the love was between two women. Now there are, like, tissues with Elsa on it.

Now we’re moving backward to “Spring Awakening.” By the time it moved to Broadway, in 2006, you were the twenty-one-year-old lead of the coolest musical in town. What was your actual life like?

I was so not cool. The show was cool, and the music was cool. I had people dropping me off joints at the theatre. And I remember fully understanding the stark difference between who I was playing onstage and who I was in real life, which was an extreme theatre nerd who wanted to be in the ensemble of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and never would have imagined playing Melchior. It’s his gravitas. And trying to tap into that side of myself, which was a side I’d never experienced before.

Tell me about your audition.

I went to the open call and knew who Michael Mayer was, because he had directed “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” But it was “Spring Awakening” and I was, like, There’s a beating scene? This is so intense! They called me in for Melchior, then had me sing “Hey Jude” in a falsetto, and Michael was, like, “That was your falsetto?” And I laughed at him sort of making fun of me. Tom Hulce, who was our producer, told me years later that he moved my head shot from the “No” pile into the “Yes” pile because I had laughed at Michael in the audition, and he thought, This kid has the ability to let Michael roll off his back. We should bring him back in the next month or two.

It was, like, ten people up for Melchior. They brought me in first, because they thought they would just see me and cut me. But I had worked so hard on the audition material. I remember calling my dad the night before the final callback and saying to him, “I know I can’t be this character all the way yet, but I—”[He tears up again.] I really got to get my shit together! Why does this keep happening to me?

Because we’ve gone on an emotional journey.

I guess so, in reverse! Fuck me. [Pauses.] I knew that I had it inside, if they would just give me the chance. That’s all I was trying to say, but I guess I can’t stop crying while I’m saying it.

In 2005, you made your Broadway début, as an understudy in “In My Life.” Now, this was the weirdest musical I’ve ever seen. As I recall, there were dancing skeletons in a song about how everyone has a skeleton in their closet, a giant lemon that came from the sky at the end, and a girl on a scooter who turns out to be a ghost. And it was written by the guy who wrote “You Light Up My Life,” who then came to a dark end.

And his son!

Yes, his son killed his girlfriend. What the hell was going on with that show? Did you ever go on?

I went on for the ensemble members. I was so excited! I was in my first Broadway show, at the Music Box Theatre, walking in where it says “Stage Door.” And you couldn’t give away tickets to see the show. People were coming to laugh at the show from the audience.

Like “Springtime for Hitler”?

Exactly. And the cast had to do the show, even though people were laughing at them, which is devastating for the actors. But we formed a little family. It’s the plight of the actor. You’re just out there, like Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.” I was twenty years old, so I was lit.

Had you been waiting tables?

Yeah. The whole year before that, I was at the Chelsea Grill, in Hell’s Kitchen. The day I got to New York—October 21, 2004—I moved to Fifty-first Street and Ninth Avenue, before it was super gay, and I walked down Ninth and got a job waiting tables. A week later, I waited on Tom Viola, who runs the charity Broadway Cares, and became a bucket collector. I’d watch the second act of shows and then collect the money at the end. I went to hundreds of auditions, trying to get my Equity card. That, to me, was “Opening Doors,” from “Merrily”—that moment of sheer will and ambition and ignorance.

We’ve now reached our finale, which is 2004. Can you tell me about the decision to move to New York?

My mom was a gym teacher and my dad is a horse trainer, and they didn’t really understand anything about the performing world. But my dad grew up on a dairy farm, and he was supposed to take over and become a Mennonite preacher, which is what my grandfather was. My dad didn’t like cows—he liked horse racing, so he sort of rebelled and did his own thing. My mom always says that nurse, secretary, or teacher were the options for women in a small town at that time, but her passion was sports, so she ended up being a coach.

So they understood the power of fanning the flame of passion. When I was a kid and into acting, they drove me to play practice. They drove me to community theatre. My senior year of high school, my mom drove me to New York to audition for this bus-and-truck tour of “The Sound of Music.” I got that tour, and deferred my admission to Carnegie Mellon. I made ten thousand dollars after a year on the road, and I learned so much from getting to act every day. I wanted to take my ten thousand and move to New York, and my parents were super supportive: “If you feel like you need to go to college, you can always go to college. But take a gamble and move to the city.” I’d worked at this theatre in Lancaster called the Fulton Opera House, where I’d met this girl who wanted to move to New York, so she became my roommate.

To me, “Merrily We Roll Along” is about how difficult it is to stay in touch with the person you were as adulthood knocks you sideways and forward. When you think about nineteen-year-old Jonathan coming to New York, do you feel like you’re the same person? What’s changed?

[He bursts into tears.] I can’t tell why I cry! When we were about to start rehearsal for “Merrily,” I would listen to “Our Time,” and I couldn’t sing it without crying. And, when I think about that version of myself—I think it’s because that person who brings you here does diminish. Maybe it’s the grief for that person. The whole reason that I’m here now is because of that person, but that person no longer exists.

But that person is still in there, somewhere. That voice is so quiet now, but it’s still driving my choices. You have to make choices. You get older, that pure inspiration dies, but it doesn’t have to go all the way away. I think that’s the whole point of the show, why it goes backward. Maria says that Sondheim put all of his regret into it, so that we could have less regret for ourselves. And perhaps the reason it ends with these people, with these versions of ourselves that we remember when we see it, is that it’s an invitation to remember and honor that person.

Why does that make me cry? Is it grief? Is it joy? I don’t know, but I’m so grateful for that purity and that optimism. The first month that I was here, feeling so lost and confused, I pulled the Bible that my Mennonite grandmother gave me off the bookshelf. She gave me that Bible before I left town. I was alone in the apartment thinking, What the fuck am I doing in New York? Or not even “what the fuck”—I didn’t swear until “Spring Awakening,” and when I would sing “Totally Fucked” I would get beet red. And I remember putting the Bible down and thinking, This is not the answer. This is not making me feel good. And then running to Central Park and standing in front of the Bethesda Fountain. I was nineteen, and I was, like, This feels better—but, like, What? Who am I? What am I doing here? I know I want to act, but I’m so scared. And gay. But it was something—some voice, some passion, some inspiration. Some something brought me here.

[lavampira]

OC MASTERLIST

last update: 02 september 2024

ORIGINAL

.

INTERACTIVE FICTION

ANGEL PAVON

alias: operative vesper

age: 28

identity: he/him, bisexual

appearance: 6’2

specialization: infiltration

romance: nash, evie thierry (ex, au), seb ariti (au) [belongs to consulaaris]

verse: project hadea + original

BENJAMIN “BENJI” FINCH

alias: sunset bird resident

age: 23

identity: he/him, bisexual

appearance: 5’10

occupation: guitarist + freelance artist

romance: cove holden, rowan hill (au) [belongs to consulaaris]

verse: our life + original

DAVINA VIRAC

alias: the painted phoenix

age: 25

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 6’, phoenix mythosi

weapon: double-bladed scythe

romance: syfyn javall (ex), amilia von clamile

verse: the exile

LEOVIC “VIC” RANE

alias: omen, commander-legate

age: 29

identity: he/him, gay

appearance: 6’4, hunter-raised mage

specialization: circle-trained diviner

romance: red antiqua (ex), trouble alder

verse: shepherds of haven

LINDEN “LUX” KENNEDY

alias: lead vocalist of saint reverie

age: 26

identity: they/them, bisexual

appearance: 5’11

occupation: alternative rock singer

romance: seven lawless (ex), orion quinn

verse: infamous

RIVER LOVELL

alias: rivlaughluv

age: 27

identity: they/them, bisexual

appearance: 5’10

occupation: private lab technician

romance: olivia santos (au)

verse: blooming panic + original

TABITHA ABRAMS

alias: the preacher

age: 26

identity: she/they, lesbian

appearance: 5’7

occupation: vampire-hunting swindler

romance: celina sokolova

verse: larkin

VERONICA SCARLET

alias: the wayward scarlet

age: 25

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’8

occupation: biology grad student

romance: avery belle

verse: scarlet hollow

YANA ROMANUS SEVILLA

alias: white company mercenary

age: 29

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’4

occupation: mercenary + latin translator

romance: hadrian

verse: the golden rose

TTRPGS

ELAITH NATHAIR

alias: the druid

age: 32

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 5’7, half sun elf

class: circle of spores druid

romance: none

verse: dungeons & dragons

LON LAURIER

alias: the investigator

age: 33

identity: he/him, gay

appearance: 6’3

occupation: wwi veteran + museum curator

romance: ethan ripley

verse: call of cthulhu

DC COMICS

OLIVIA SANTOS

alias: the lawyer

age: 27

identity: she/her, demiromantic bi

appearance: 5’5

occupation: defense attorney

romance: dick grayson, river lovell (au)

DRAGON AGE

GABRIEL COUSLAND

alias: hero of ferelden, hound of highever

age: 23 in 9:30 dragon

identity: he/him, bisexual

appearance: 5’10

class: duelist + shadow rogue

romance: leliana

ALTHEA “THEA” HAWKE

alias: champion of kirkwall

age: 25 in 9:30 dragon

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 6’

class: reaver warrior

romance: merrill

ARACELI “CELI” LAVELLAN

alias: the inquisitor, first to the keeper

age: 30 in 9:41 dragon

identity: she/they, bisexual

appearance: 5’5

class: knight-enchanter mage

romance: TBD

TBD

alias: rook

age: # in 9:52 dragon

identity: they/them, bisexual

appearance: TBD

class: reaper warrior + mourn watch

romance: davrin

THE ELDER SCROLLS

ARISE VALEN

alias: the vestige

age: 33 in 2E 583

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’9, dunmer

class: dragonknight

romance: fennorian

TORA THE DOVAHKIIN

alias: the last dragonborn

age: 29 in 4E 201

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’8, nord

class: conjuration warrior

romance: farkas

FALLOUT

MARISOL REYES

alias: courier six

age: 29 in 2281

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 5’6

skills: speech, guns, repair

romance: none

FINAL FANTASY XIV

D’ALIA LIVEQ

alias: warrior of light

age: 28 in ARR

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’4, seeker miqo’te

job: summoner, dark knight, dancer

romance: minfilia warde (ex), sidurgu orl

MASS EFFECT

MALENA SHEPARD

alias: the commander

age: 29 in 2183

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’10

class: vanguard

romance: kaidan alenko

SONORA “SONI” RYDER

alias: the pathfinder

age: 22 in 2819

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 5’8

class: sentinel

romance: vetra nyx

PATHFINDER

MERITHIA DE CHARON

alias: queen of the stolen lands

age: 29

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’7, aasimar

class: celestial line sorcerer

romance: tristian

RESIDENT EVIL

EVELINE “EVIE” THIERRY

alias: the detective

age: 28

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’1

occupation: private investigator

romance: jill valentine, angel pavon (ex, au)

STAR WARS - KOTOR

SHIVA AMHI

alias: the jedi exile

age: 31 in 298 BTC

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’5, mirialan

class: consular + master

romance: atton rand

VANNA PHY

alias: revan

age: 33 in 303 BTC

identity: they/she, bisexual

appearance: 5’9, human

class: scout + sentinel

romance: malak (ex), canderous ordo

STAR WARS - SWTOR

ANA MAITE VICARI

alias: the wrath

age: 21 in 10 ATC

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 5’3, human

class: marauder + shadow

romance: jaesa willsaam

ANDAN VICARI

alias: cipher six, sith intelligence commander

age: 24 in 10 ATC

identity: he/him, demiromantic bi

appearance: 5’11, human

class: operative + gunslinger

romance: rysandor riel [belongs to consulaaris]

CADRIEN TIRAI

alias: lord tirai, claw of the empire

age: 19 in 12 ATC

identity: he/him, gay

appearance: 6’1, miraluka

class: juggernaut + sage

romance: minaiph tirai [belongs to hythlodaes]

EDELIE LOK CADERA

alias: champion of the great hunt

age: 18 in 10 ATC

identity: she/her, bi demisexual

appearance: 5’2, human

class: mercenary + powertech

romance: torian cadera

JORANI RHA

alias: captain of the fortune’s favour

age: 24 in 10 ATC

identity: she/her, lesbian

appearance: 5’7, twi’lek

class: scoundrel + mercenary

romance: blaire myrrho [belongs to consulaaris]

KAIZEN “KAI” AMHI

alias: jedi battlemaster, the outlander

age: 20 in 10 ATC

identity: he/him, gay

appearance: 6’2, mirialan

class: guardian + sage

romance: theron shan

MITTH’ALIA’MIURANI “THALIA”

alias: CEDF infiltrator/biochemist

age: 25 in 10 ATC

identity: she/her, bi demisexual

appearance: 5’9, chiss

class: sniper + operative

romance: saganu

MITTH’ASTON “THASTON”

alias: cipher nine

age: 23 in 10 ATC

identity: they/them, bisexual

appearance: 6’1, chiss

class: sniper + powertech

romance: kaliyo djannis (ex), hunter (ex)

SARAJAH RIZAS

alias: jedi barsen’thor

age: 23 in 10 ATC

identity: she/her, bi demisexual

appearance: 6’, cathar

class: shadow

romance: felix iresso

VIN KHARU

alias: havoc squad commander

age: 25 in 10 ATC

identity: he/him, bisexual

appearance: 5’8, nautolan

class: vanguard + mercenary

romance: elara dorne

WYLAN ORIAS

alias: ex-padawan mechanic

age: 20 in 20 ATC

identity: he/him, bi asexual

appearance: 6’4, echani

class: shadow + guardian

romance: jase bralor

ZOYAH KALLIG

alias: darth occlus

age: 26 in 10 ATC

identity: she/they, poly bisexual

appearance: 5’, rattataki

class: assassin + sorcerer

romance: andronikos revel

VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE

INES DELAROSA

alias: the fledgling

age: 25 at embrace in 2004

identity: she/her, bisexual

appearance: 5’2

clan: toreador

occupation: metal singer

romance: ash rivers

THOMAS REAUX

alias: the sire

age: 28 at embrace in 1919, final death in 2004

identity: he/him, bisexual

appearance: 6’2

clan: toreador

occupation: jazz pianist

romance: none

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

💋 That's SO Fetch!: What To Read After Watching Mean Girls

🩷 Good morning, bookish bats! I actually have a weird, complicated relationship with Mean Girls. After reading Queen Bees & Wannabes, my mother didn't let me watch the 2004 film, as if THAT would somehow protect me from the realities of middle and high school (WOW, feeling old writing this now).

👠 Yet somehow, I CONSTANTLY ended up around people obsessed with the movie (and we love Tina Fey, so, I can't blame a single person). Right before the mess of 2020, I even had the luck of seeing Renee Rapp perform as Regina on Broadway, and WOAH. It was everything (and my little, late-in-life bi heart has a whole new appreciation for it). Funnily enough, my parents and sister were with me, and my mom thought nothing of it. It's been a while since I've done one of these posts (namely because of the strike, though I have a few sitting in my queue), so I figured now was the perfect time. Here are a few books to consider reading if you love Mean Girls!

💋 Wren Martin Ruins It All - Amanda Dewitt 🩷 I Kissed Shara Wheeler - Casey McQuiston 👠 Queen Bee - Amalie Howard 💋 Royal Scandal - Aimée Carter 🩷 Diary of a Confused Feminist - Kate Weston 👠 The Revenge Game - Jordyn Taylor 💋 The Night in Question - Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson 🩷 The Way You Make Me Feel - Maurene Goo 👠 Rivals: American Royals III - Katharine McGee 💋 The Favorite Sister - Jessica Knoll 🩷 Fat Talk - Virginia Sole-Smith 👠 Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek - Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Thea Glassman 💋 Queen Bees & Wannabes - Rosalind Wiseman 🩷 Gossip Girl - Cecily Von Ziegesar 👠 Pretty Things - Janelle Brown 💋 How Not to Be Popular - Jennifer Ziegler 🩷 Some Girls Are - Courtney Summers 👠 Pretty Little Liars - Sara Shepard 💋 Tiny Pretty Things - Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra 🩷 One of Us is Lying - Karen M. McManus 👠 The List - Siobhan Vivian

[flaggermuser]

Currently in the process of writing ficlets for Patriot feat. friends' OCs because it's super fun.

I have one fic finished for Cozy Corner kinktober and one that needs finishing.

I will also pick up some writing for Thea Shepard and Kaidan Alenko, my S tier blorbo.

Homelander might be squatting in my brain, but no one can replace Kaidan Alenko.

NO ONE.

[anderperries]

15 and 62 :)

15. Have any pets?

yes i do! i have two cats and two dogs. my dogs are a fifteen year old german shepard mix named indy (short for indiana jones) and a six (holy shit she’s already six) year old shih tzu bichon frise mix named thea (short for theodosia, somebody should have stopped 14 year old molly). and then my cats are pebbles and roxy who are i believe are ten years old. i recently had my cat, bonnie, pass away. she was fifteen but i’d only had her for a few years. we had a very special relationship but she had a nice long life. and then we had another cat, joey, but he has been rehomed and i know he’s better off for it. but he was an orange cat so you already know he’s awesome. OKAY SORRY THIS WAS WAY TOO MUCH TO SAY. feel free (anybody reading this) to ask for pics, it just might take me a little to write an image description.

62. What makes you happy?

so much :D there’s so many beautiful things in the world. taylor swift’s music, my girlfriend, my friends but especially my internet friends, well written fanfic, my blorbos, musical theatre, my pets, lesbianism, and G-d so many things.

thank you for the ask! ask game!

[thebookplatypus]

𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔: Once again, I was caught off guard on who the “villain” was. Catherine Cowles can write romance suspense a thousand times over and I’m always on the edge if my seat thinking I’m right.. and I always end up shocked.. and wrong! lol

𝑴𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘: We’re back in Sparrow Falls and finally see what has Thea so spooked. Shepard Colson is the lucky man to break her walls down softly and get to her to live life again.

Thea had a horrific experience with her ex and he’s haunting her. So she did what she could. She ran. Changed her identity. And tries to live in solitude. That’s a bit hard when you need jobs for money.

It’s where Thea and Shep met. The Local Bakery.

Shep is the sweetest man in that world. He does everything for his family and community. Even with his own insecurities and dealing with a town bully, he helps Thea overcome her own trauma and it’s a slowburn and beautiful romance.

I love the found family trope because we see all these characters in eachothers books… especially grandma Lolli. Shes a hoot!

“She made everything...more. As if just having her in my presence made the world around me crisper and more beautiful.”

Just as Thea and Shep get close, her past is creeping closer to her .. only this time, she’s not alone and Shep and his family are all in to help and protect Thea.

It’s another amazing suspenseful romance by Catherine Cowles and I’m completely in love with this series. 5/5⭐️

[commander-krios]

I managed to snag one of @savbakk ‘s soft commissions and I’m head over heels in love. Everything about this is perfect. The expressions, the hands, the colors, the mood. Ashley and Thea look so in love and happy which is so important to me. Thank you! 💛

[mooreaux]

I’m still alive after valentines week at the flower shop 😱😱😱 and playing thru mass effect to recover. 

Powell’s argument isn’t as good as he thinks it is.

[the-artistic-devotee]

This is my Trollhunter OC, Thea Shepard! She is athletic and creative. She is very intelligent and strong. She teaches kids how to protect themselves. Check out @kibbitzer they have amazing drawing reference sheets.

[youeggbastard]

No thoughts only them 😌

[cav-core]

For the Commander Shepard Ask Game, numbers 20 and 47 please

20. List five songs your Shepard is currently listening to

Assuming she has a 21st century Spotify subscription:

1. Glory Days – Bruce Springsteen

2. Cherry Bomb – The Runaways

3. Somebody To Love – Jefferson Airplane

4. Rock You Like A Hurricane – Scorpions

5. American Pie – Don McLean

47. What museum is your Shepard going to? natural history, science, art… the zoo, aquarium?

Definitely natural history. She's easily tempted by a dinosaur skeleton.

[ediediaz]

[rykards-moved]

(✿◡‿◡)

[alexis-dot-com]

My beautiful girl <3

[flaggermuser]

Wrote a small comfort snippet.

Thea Isabella 'Human Diaster' Shepard x Kaidan Alenko

Things are bad again.

Kaidan knows the signs, he's seen them all before.

She's become a recluse, locking herself away in cabin and barely leaving for food, even less so for coffee.

On missions, she's managed to keep up the professional facade but the cracks are beginning to show, and the rest of the crew are noticing.

The crew can't know.

The code for her cabin is the same, he's grateful that she's never changed it, out of complacency or sheer forgetfulness, he doesn't know.

Knocking would be pointless, she'd just swallow down her emotions and lie, say she's okay and that he shouldn't worry.

He knows her far too well.

When the doors open, the room is bathed in the familiar blue glow of the fish tank, helping to illuminate his path as he weaves his way past the piles of discarded clothes to the bed where she's curled up under the covers.

Her eyes are closed but she's awake, he knows she is.

He doesn't speak, only wrestles away some of the covers from her hands after very little resistance before sliding underneath, his arms around her tight.

He pulls her close, her body atop his, her face buried in his neck.

Then she starts to cry.

A sheet typhoon's worth of emotion bursts from her all at once, her body trembling in his embrace, her tears threatening to drown her if he wasn't here.

She's a ship a drift a sea, in danger of crashing against the rocks but suddenly, there in the darkness, he's appeared, a lighthouse with a blinding light, guiding her to safety.

Eventually, she exhausts herself, her eyes sore and tear ducts dry, and she falls asleep.

So he remains, holding onto her tight, not willing to loosen his grip for even a second, lest she slips free and disappears back into the void.