#there's no way ALL of their scenes are mostly improvised

[chirpsythismorning]

Did you see the Piggyback script dropped?? Thoughts?

The script is pretty much what I expected. If Mike's monologue had won out on the writer's twitter polls last summer, it would have looked the exact same and even back then I would have felt the same as I do now.

They knew that this script would be available to the public when they submitted it for an Emmy. They knew fans would be running to find out the 'truth'. I highly doubt they would release a script that revealed El's true feelings about the monologue, on a random afternoon, still almost 2 years before that reveal. That would diminish all of the work they put into keeping this surprise under-wraps. If they had released a script that gave away El's true feelings, the jig would be up, there would be no room for people to speculate about milkvan or byler anymore. Byler would clearly be endgame from the perspective of everyone if they had revealed that El was upset with what Mike said, including milkvans. S5 would have been spoiled with still 2 years of waiting left. And so, why would they do that?

Something I also want to point out, is that the script that the supporting cast/crew get, has to be bare bones to avoid leaks.

The leaks that tend to come out in the cases that they do, are from folks that are working below the line. Basic BTL employees sometimes have to have access to scripts in order to perform their duties.

And so a revelation that El was not happy with Mike's monologue, being written blatantly in the script, then being given to up to 100 people, poses a huge risk of a leak.

They want the audience to finish s4 believing that Mike's monologue was everything El wanted to hear and that they are now back together with no problems. That's indisputable. And so having their script contradict that, in a season that has no intention of addressing it, would be very confusing for everyone casually working BTL involved, who are being fed one story publicly and seeing a completely different thing on paper.

When it comes to the Duffers though, they definitely have a script that includes all those details that dozens upon dozens of BTL are not going to have access to.

Here's what I mean:

You'll notice that Matt is holding a script here that says Matt Duffer in big block letters across it.

There would be no need to have this big display of this script belonging to Matt, as like a watermark on literally every page, unless what's on it is unique and it's important that no one else has access to it.

It also makes sense he would need to give Noah and Finn pointers on the spot in the moment, considering a lot of Mike and Will's scenes have a record for having little to no details in the script, making it come off like every interaction between them is unscripted and impromptu. And while I do think Noah and Finn are fully capable of some in the moment ideas, I highly doubt every single scene between Will and Mike is improvised.

Considering what scene this is in this picture, I'm gonna guess Matt was reminding them of the knee tap here, which I doubt was in the script that the dozens of BTL got that day. For example, according to the piggyback script, the byler shoulder grab was unscripted... But really was it? They wrote that scene to parallel with the s2 super-spy scene and so they knew that original scene ended with a hand hold... I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the Duffers (and even probably Noah/Finn's) scripts included it, but the scripts with bare bone details given to random PA's didn't have it...

I would assume at best that the Duffers, directors, the handful of officials at the very top managing each department, and the main cast have a way different script than what the hundreds of average crew members are getting.

This is also something that would allow them to pinpoint who leaked things. Because if a script with a Matt Duffer watermark got leaked, they'd know that whoever had access to that script, less than a handful of people at most, would had to have leaked it. But considering those people are probably very very trusted by the Duffers, that would never happen.

And so they can sit comfortably knowing that any leaks that happen, are not going to have all the details that relate to things they don't want fans to get too close to figuring out right now, least of all the entire audience. Because they give out those bare bones scripts, knowing that they could be leaked, and so they avoid those details with full awareness of the worst case scenario.

I will say, something that really stood out to me though about this script is that SOOOOOO much ended up being different on screen than what it originally was in the script... Like entire scenes are either missing or there are scenes that aren't even in there that ended up being added the day of it seems (I guess originally Jonathan and Nancy were going to be on the roof?). Which just goes to show that the writing process never stops, least of all during the filming process. It's there constantly. If an actor wants to change the wording of a line or if they want to go about a scene differently, a writer needs to be there to green-light it.

Another thing that had me cackling after reading fans thoughts about the script on Reddit, was how some were acknowledging that Nancy's feelings about the situation between Steve and Jonathan were sort of missing (her POV), and everyone agreed that it was probably to keep the love triangle uncertainty up in the air...

All I could think was DAMN! These Wheelers!!... I'm sure if I even presented the comparison they would deny it, despite being able to recognize it in the script for Nancy. Just like they're willing to recognize that Jancy/Stancy is a love triangle, but are incapable of acknowledging that Byler/Milkvan is as well.

With roughly 2 years left until ST5 is gracing our screens, and with filming not even having started yet, us bylers need to realize that this back and forth of validating both sides won't be put to a stop officially any time soon.

While that might be hard to hear, the good news is that they're gonna continue to create uncertainty for both sides, including milkvans.

Because the reality is, byler isn't queerbait because they have every intention of following through with it. And so that means stuff that constitutes as bait will continue, bc for them it's just literally foreshadowing.

And so when s5 is really starting to approach and posters drop and we see yet again that Mike and Will are being paired up in promo... It's gonna be hard for milkvans to insist this isn't queerbait anymore. And it's gonna be hard for them to insist none of it means anything when they fully expected to go into s5 with little to no byler interactions and with Mike and El being in love and in their endgame fluff era...

In the mean time, get ready for uncertainty if you're already at risk of byler doubt. Just remember that all of the evidence in the show doesn't evaporate bc they want to keep fans guessing during hiatus. They don't want anyone to feel 100% certain right now. If anyone is, best believe that they're ready to throw something in the mix sooner than later that will inspire doubt. And it'll continue to go back and forth like that until right before s5 drops.

[bruciemilf]

No Capes! AU where Bruce and everyone else is an actor.

Famous Hollywood moguls Thomas and Martha would've rather died in real life than make Bruce a child actor so he didn't start till he was 24

It's an ongoing gag that Thomas always tweets "On my way to die again! As if you didn't know" with every Gray Ghost remake

The Waynes are always just. So chaotic

Bruce and Selina constantly bring stray cats on set; Bruce just hides them under his black shirt famously known as a void with no end.

Behind the Scenes cuts have images of this man pulling 10 cats from under there and the director is convinced he has a cryptid on set

They have to edit so much footage because Bruce always says "sorry" after "punching" someone. "Bruce, they have padding, they're fine!" "And no health Insurance. Do something about that."

Sometimes he forgets to take off the costume after filming. The record set for how many Subways he sent into a panic is infinite

That being said, Bruce's kids aren't afraid of him at all, and WILL run up to him everytime they visit to chant "dork! Dork! Dork!" While flocking around him. He cries from happiness

But he cries all the time, so it's hard to tell for what

The movie's soundtrack is just Bruce's middle school playlist, " They said they needed something rotten and terrible, like, -- poison for the ears. If you listen to it you get sick."

Bruce's biggest "diva moment" was refusing to give up the eyeliner and he still sends apology cards to the cast and crew for his " horrible behavior"

"He just kinda said no a bit loud and ran out of the studio while sobbing quietly."

Literally every villain on set is a sweetheart. Selina does her own make-up as well as Bruce's and Oz's and you can see Carmine lurking like a little gobling behind them just to scare her

There's this joke that none of Selina's streams ever go well because the crew is her curse. She's trying to talk about how to steal on set, meanwhile, Bruce next to her, "Did you know cats have no collarbone. Also, the electric chair was invented by a dentist."

You'd think everyone's favorite duo would be Bruce and Selina, and you wouldn't be wrong, but the public can't wait for Bruce and Carmine to have a press conference or interview together

Mostly because Carmine obviously dealt some shady cards in his past and Bruce is so clueless . " Have I ever tried coke...No, I like Pepsi." While Carmine is trying not to laugh behind him

Edward is just as bad. He's trying to tell the director that's not how bombs are made, and someone's head exploding wouldn't look like that, and Bruce is like :O Eddie, I didn't know you were a gamer

Edward is a menace on set and Bruce stays blind to it because he like him. There's rows of videos of Bruce stopping mid scene, going " Eddie," before jumping on the guy like the kitten he's NOT

Alfred still brings Bruce lunch and snacks and he throws down with Oz for no reason. He always brings the kids (read; they sneak in) and it's very clear they're not getting any shooting done that day

Dick, age 10, impatiently asks why Gray Ghost can't have a sidekick. In the last moments of the movie Dick runs in, improvises a scene with Bruce, and the fans love him too much not to include him after

You just leave Bruce alone when his babies are on set; Damian is strapped to his chest cause he's so small that everyone almost steps on him, Jason is giving the writers tip, Tim is taking pics of everyone, and Bruce smothers them with kisses constantly

[dailyadventureprompts]

Tableskills: Making a Game of It

Recently I learned a bit of an unspoken truth that I'd brushed up against in my many years of being a dungeonmaster that I'd never seen put into words before: If you want to liven up whatever's going on in your adventure, figure out a way to engage the players in some kind of game. It's simultaneously the best way to provide a roadblock while making your player's victories feel earned.

This might seem redundant, since you're already playing d&d but give a moment of thought to exactly what portions of d&d are gamified. Once you learn your way around the system, it becomes apparent that D&D really only has three modes of play:

Pure roleplay/storytelling, driven by whatever feels best for the narrative. Which is not technically a game, nor should it (IMO) be gamified.

Tactical combat with a robust rules system, the most gamelike aspect.

A mostly light weight skills based system for overcoming challenges that sits between the two in terms of complexity.

The problem is that there's quite a lot of things that happen in d&d that don't fall neatly into these three systems, the best example being exploration which was supposed to be a "pillar" of gameplay but somehow got lost along the way . This is a glaring omission given how much of the core fantasy of the game (not to mention fantasy in general) is the thrill of discovery, contrasted with the rigours of travelling to/through wondrous locations. How empty is it to have your party play out the fantasy of being on a magical odyssey or delving the unknown when you end up handwaving any actual travel because base d&d doesn't provide a satisfying framework for going from A to B besides skillchecks and random encounters (shameless plug for my own exploration system and the dungeon design framework that goes with it).

The secret sauce that's made d&d and other ttrpgs so enduring is how they fuse the dramatic conventions of storytelling with the dynamics of play. The combat system gives weight and risk to those epic confrontations, and because the players can both get good at combat and are at risk of losing it lets them engage with the moment to moment action far more than pure narration or a single skill roll ever could.

I'm not saying that we need to go as in depth as combat for every gamified narrative beat (the more light weight the better IMO) but having a toolbox full of minigames we can draw upon gives us something to fall back on when we're doing our prep, or when we need to improvise. I've found having this arsenal at hand as imortant as my ability to make memorable NPCs on the fly or rework vital plothooks the party would otherwise miss.

What I'd encourage you as a DM to do is to start building a list of light weight setups/minigames for situations you often find yourself encountering: chase scenes, drinking contests, fair games, anything you think would be useful. Either make them yourself or source them from somewhere on the web, pack your DM binder full of them as needed. While not all players are utterly thrilled by combat, everyone likes having some structured game time thrown in there along with the freeform storytelling and jokes about how that one NPC's name sounds like a sex act.

A quick minigame is likewise a great way to give structure to a session when your party ends up taking a shortcut around your prepared material. Oh they didn't take that monster hunter contract in the sewers and instead want to follow up on rumours about a local caravan? The wagon hands are playing a marble game while their boss negotiates with some local mercahnts, offering to let the party play while they wait. The heroes want to sail out to the island dungeon you don't have prepped yet? Well it looks like the navigator has gone on a bit of a bender, and the party not only need to track them down but also piece together where they left the charts from their drunken remembrances as a form of a logic puzzle.

Artsource

[once-upon-an-animation]

Things I would like to see fixed in PJO S2:

- More worldbuilding, but do it in a way that isn’t heavily reliant on dialogue. Show us more of the camp, maybe let us meet some of the other characters.

- More humor. PJO is supposed to be a fun adventure story where the dark and serious elements are balanced out by the humorous moments. S1 felt so somber and cynical, and I feel like that isn’t the right tone for Percy Jackson.

- More whimsy/campiness! Mr. Riordan, your books got really weird and silly sometimes! Let your show be weird and silly sometimes too! Not everything needs to be dark and gritty. It doesn’t have to be super childish, but there needs to be more magic and charm in this world.

- Let the trio be vulnerable to traps. Yes, I know it makes sense for them to know the myths or whatever, but if you want the monsters and traps to feel like they’re a serious threat, you can’t have them be this easy to explain and maneuver. Conceal them better; make them tougher to figure out. In addition, show off more of Percy’s street smarts. We love this character because of his ability to think fast and improvise a bad situation even if he doesn’t know all the details of the relevant myth. Emphasize that more; it’s not everyday that he needs to be a walking encyclopedia.

- Luke and Annabeth’s relationship needs more oomph. Their relationship felt kind of hollow in the first season, and y’all need to tighten that up in future seasons because their relationship is only going to get more integral to the plot. It’s okay if you want to leave out the crush, but man, you should have given them something.

- For a story that was inspired by a boy’s struggles w/ ADHD and dyslexia, the impact of these conditions felt kind of absent during the actual quest itself. I’m not saying that they need to go overboard with this or anything, but if you’re going to do neurodivergent representation, I feel like it should have a stronger presence during the actual quests, yes?

- The action scenes are kind of weak. Sea of Monsters has a lot of action going on, so y’all will have to really think out those action sequences so you can capture the excitement within them. I’ll be disappointed if the action in S2 feels as flat as it mostly felt this season.

- Annabeth is not a stoic character. She’s actually quite expressive; she’s just selective about what she discusses, and sometimes she chooses to convey emotion through action, behavior, or cryptic words instead of explicit words. But she was never stoic, so please allow her to actually show more of this emotion. It’s okay to let her be vulnerable; that’s what endears most people to this character in the first place, and that’s why that chair scene stuck with people. Therefore, this need to make her this mostly unshakeable girl boss should go away. The girl is a sentimental character; let that stay.

- Please fix the dialogue. Less exposition, more characterization.

[originalaccountname]

There are some posts I've seen floating around that at the start Dazai may not of known that Chuuya wasn't a vampire which I kind of agree with. I'm at work currently so I cant double check but when he goes "that's a nasty trick you've pulled fydor" im pretty sure its in his thoughts?? To which why would he think that if he knew the whole time. I think dazai must of caught onto the fact Chuuya was faking it at somepoint but not sure when that would of been. Also at the end of the ep Dazai said he didn't have a plan. (I did watch the episode at just after 2am my time when it came out and then fell asleep afterwards so my memory could be not correct). I do think chuuya not being a vampire at all is a little disappointing tbh but this idea softens the blow. Would like to know your thoughts on this idea if you are open to sharing?

I'm in that category too, yes. I've left a few tags saying basically the same thing on some posts.

First, there are a few things the anime didn't answer (more than failing to justify Chuuya faking it since the start, there's Sigma's case about needing to help the ADA, which... didn't happen at all) so either we haven't seen the repercussions of this arc yet, or we got the shortened version of what the manga will offer. Which could work either way. (not ideal necessarily, but besides huffing what can we do huh)

Dazai not knowing though! Dazai did admit to his "plan" being to mostly adapt on the fly and trust his allies to help him back. He implied this prison break was one big trust fall. But that's how I've always interpreted Dazai's way of planning! I even made a post about it a full year ago!

Since Dazai knows Chuuya slowed down the elevator (which I can accept, Dazai's ability shouldn't affect random objects he touches, and Fyodor had told Chuuya through a comm to go finish off Dazai because he wasn't in the room), I assume that by then he was aware. Maybe not before though. Definitely not at first. Because this?

I refuse to believe was entirely scripted. Why is he acting? For Sigma? For corpses? I'm of the opinion that no matter what is going on through Dazai's head, his expressions are always genuine (ex: he might react with surprise at something he completely expected, if only because of how sudden it was, or when/how it ended up happening. Here? genuine distress.)

And I extend that feeling to Dazai having an emotional moment, complete with flashbacks, while "drowning" Fyodor and Chuuya. He did say he wasn't expecting to kill them that way, but perhaps it really was a moment of weakness triggered by concern or guilt.

I can accept Dazai having caught on during his face-off with Chuuya. That's Mr I-know-your-breathing-patterns we have here, so if they didn't high-five after the elevator crash-landing (still broke Dazai's leg), I would say Dazai knows physics enough to go "hold on" and connect the dots. So yes, that baiting of Chuuya, the light taunting, the bratty attitude he only really has with Chuuya, the angry YELLING and insults when Chuuya shot him in the shoulder? The destiny talk? Yeah I can re-contextualize those as Dazai over-acting his part. And then not being able to shut up after being shot in the head.

Maybe there's some reaching here, maybe this will not be totally accurate to the source material. But Asagiri does have a habit to write scenes from an outsider pov while knowing whats happening in the characters' heads and behind the scene, but then not give us that input directly. Never before today was it confirmed that Dazai improvises a lot in his plans. And yet! That's something I've believed in for a very long time.

This all could very well be covering Asagiri's poor decisions, but between this being the adaptation and bsd being an unfinished story, I have a hard time deciding at the moment how much of a poor decision this was. Maybe it's worth a raised eyebrow. Maybe it deserves some criticism in hope the author takes notes. Maybe this was an anime-original resolution due to time constraints (think of the Fifteen final fight). I can only raise concerns for now, and wait.

[thealogie]

q&a report q&a report (late but better than never) q&a report i didn't catch quiiiite everything in detail but i did my very best

we got: dt ros watt (malcolm) jatinder singh randhawa (porter) cal macaninch (banquo) casper knopf (fleance, the kid actor) alasdair macrae (musician, murderer) annie grace (gentlewoman, musician) and i think? kathleen macinnes (singer)

the last three people all shuffled in a bit apart from each other after the round of everyone introducing themselves by name and character was already over so i'm not sure i caught them all accurately. i'll refer to people by first names

during the introduction round i think casper started introducing himself and got kid applause so the audience ended up giving every single person a sped up little round of applause like a cute lil call and response rhythm between introduction - applause of very specific short length which was kind of funny. the cast joined in for each others as well and everyone made funny faces while applauding.

most questions were asked by the moderator

question: What did you think about the production when they first heard about it? cal was confused but intrigued. a lot of "not sure how it was going to work or feel like". when david and cush got on it the binaural audio wasn't yet firmly part of the concept but he was intrigued by the approach through trauma and how that affects the macbeths' relationship.

question: Wow was it for them with the binaural audio knowing the experience is different for the audience? what do they think? dt: we don't quite now how it comes together. the sounds are all cued off us actors, not the other way around. all i know is without Laura we would be fucked! (Laura = live sound mixing person) ros: we never quite know how it sounds for the audience, we were able to put on headphones and experience scenes we're not in in rehearsal, but i want to watch the whole thing! the cue speakers have some stripped down sounds and music that are relevant for the actors. but the audio choices enabled us to create intimacy jatinder: i think it makes the audience better able to relate to mental health struggles and trauma, giving what happens in the characters heads into your heads and relate it to your own experience. i think everyone here in the room has some of their own experiences with mental health and… voices in their head

question to the musicians: how does your work add to the concept and experience? kathleen (i think mostly, but the other musicians might also have weighed in): music enables us to place the text in a very Scottish place, but without getting in the way of the text. The headphones make it possible that it mixes with all the layers, balancing between music, sounds and lines is possible thanks to the technology. you can have loudly, energetically played music but then mix it at a level where it doesn't interfere with lines, when usually you would have to play quietly to let the text come through, which creates a different atmosphere. kathleen: i was advised to sing when nobody is speaking and turn that to humming when somebody is. so it was also very useful to have the glass box and always see what is happening on stage.

question about the porter scene: how did that come to pass, especially making a more modern version out of it? jatinder: decided together with max to just play it and see where it goes, starting with improvisation and then fleshing it out. there was an interest in finding a modern equivalent to the original jokes that audiences would perceive in a similar way as audiences back then would have related to the original jokes. the scene purposefully takes a bit of the intensity out - basically an emotional intermission in the middle of this really intense and dark journey. but my job was also in the end of the scene to bring the audience back into it.

question to david: What makes you come back to the big parts? dt: Well, Max had a good idea and I like Max. I liked the idea of the themes of PTSD and child loss and I like the donmar warehouse. i performed here 20 years ago, which is remarkable because i'm in my mid twenties right now! (laughs all around). there's something a bit magical about this space and doing an olympic event of a part like this one in this intimate of a space.

audience member question to Casper (kid): What is your favorite bit of the play? casper: my favorite bits are the murdering… or the attempt to murder. (laughs all around) But no, seriously. I like scenes where I'm not being killed and I'm having a conversation with someone that's not about death. different cast member (not sure who): -Is- there even a scene like that? (everyone laughs) dt, turning to Casper kind of conspiratorially: My favorite bit every night is the audience's reaction to your neck getting broken. (raised eyebrows, nodding to the audience with a wide grin) That's always something.

audience member question: Do you notice the audience being different in any way with the headphones compared to your experiences in other plays? different cast members answer in bits and pieces (sometimes i have a vague memory who it was…) ros: with the headphones sometimes people are louder, sometimes i feel like you are more connected and zoned in on us! maybe because you don't have the opportunity to talk to your neighbor maybe… somebody else: i feel like it's very quiet and there is somehow less coughing than usual. (laughs around) i don't know why that is!!

audience member question: What other productions of macbeth influenced this one: [here be the the answer part with david's ian mckellen impression, see the other post] musicians (i think annie): we came straight, literally no break, from the RSC's macbeth production so we really had to empty our brains. there was no break in between, but the music is very different and Max's vision also very different, so we really had to unlearn parts

audience member question: The physical theatre stuff, the witch swarm, how did that come about? ros: We really tried to think more of what would be a physical representation of the voices in somebody's head. Everybody in Macbeth's life is watching, taunting, staring at him. It was always more about the intention of the movement, what these voices want to do to him and less what the movement itself is.

THANK YOU for transcribing all of this. I love getting an explanation for what the swarm of witches were meant to represent! It really did feel like a dance/feeling more than a literal scene and it’s fun to know that was sort of the intent. (Also the neck snapping bit - I also loved the audience’s reaction to that every night.)

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

in which this story comes to an end. (fucking finally.)

part eight of the post-marineford portion of the near miss fics! (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) if you have no idea what i’m talking about but would like to read a shanks/buggy story about kissing in disguise and then having to deal with the emotional fallout of doing that, click on this link, that’s the tag for the whole thing in chronological order. (plus a fair bit of complaining about writing, one inspirational improvised musical number, and a snippet of shanks pov) if you do know what i’m talking about: it’s done! it’s done!! i wish i could say i planned to end this on 3/8 but lmao, did not know the significance of the day until, like, this tuesday. but it’s done. i’m taking a break from the world of this story to work on some gift exchange fics, but i will be uploading the first few fics to ao3 soon, and should start posting the shanks POV post-marineford story in late april. if there are scenes you’d especially like his POV on, let me know! i’ll do my best to incorporate them.

Buggy spent a very cathartic half-hour shouting at a bunch of guys who ate up his words with a spoon.  Always eager to please, the men obediently found themselves disembarkation buddies, cleaned up the messes they’d made, and started gathering their things (mostly weapons they’d stolen off the guards at Impel Down).

It was nice to be respected, Buggy thought as he watched them scurry around the ship.  However misplaced the respect, it made people listen to him, something Buggy had wanted for as long as he could remember.  He’d never been able to get enough.  Probably never would, if the hunger that grew every time these men cheered his name was anything to go by.

He wandered up to the room he shared with Galdino—thankfully empty, he didn’t want to end up in another slap fight over details—and took care of his own possessions. (It wouldn’t do to have any excuses to delay or hang back when they got to the meeting point.) With the modified Marine jacket and hat back on, Buggy could fit everything else in a small satchel that he strapped around his waist, neatly hidden by a twist in a sash and the way the jacket fell.  He left the room… more or less the way it had been when he arrived—there was no way to hide that dent in the wall, and Galdino would have to be the one to deal with the smear of wax across half the bed—and exited the room for the last time, taking in the view of the deck below with a contented sigh.

The Red Force was a well-run ship—a compliment Buggy would never voice aloud, but in the privacy of his own mind he allowed himself to think it.  Even with hundreds of strangers aboard who couldn’t help but get in the way, she was clean, well-equipped, and sailing smoothly.  Buggy didn’t know if he’d be able to say the same in a few hours, when all these men would be trying to squeeze onto the somewhat smaller Big Top.  Buggy rubbed a hand across his mouth to hide his involuntary grimace at the thought.  Maybe the island they were meeting up on had some industry he could put them to work at?  A farm would be fantastic, if he could get paid for their labor and get the produce at a discount as well… 

Buggy looked over the deck in search of one of Shanks’ senior officers.  He didn’t know most of them by name, but those cloaks and capes they wore were distinctive enough that he thought he should be able to identify them on sight, and surely if the one he found didn’t know anything about the island, they could point him to someone who did.  The navigator?  Roux, who seemed to know a little about everything?  Beckman, whose job it was to know something about everything?

And, think of the devil, one of the doors to the interior of the ship opened to reveal Beckman, speaking with a few of those cloaked men.  They each went their own way, and Beckman crossed to the railing, taking up a pose not dissimilar from Buggy’s a few levels above him.  That was a first mate for you, always keeping an eye on things, one way or another.

Buggy sent his feet down the stairs and the rest of him took the shorter path, swooping down to Beckman’s side like a giant white bat.  To his credit, Beckman didn’t react to this unusual approach. Instead, calm as anything, he said, “Whatever you said to those men, it seems to be doing the trick.  Thanks.”

Buggy waved the praise off.  “If they’re so eager to be under my command, they’ve got to start learning to behave themselves sooner or later.  Might as well be now.”  Leaning an elbow against the railing, Buggy looked Beckman over.  He sure did seem a lot more relaxed now than he’d been outside Shanks’ rooms.  Relaxed enough to share intel?  “Tell me something.”

Beckman glanced sideways at Buggy.  “Hm?”

“What do you know about this island where we’re meeting up with my crew?  Is it populated?”

“Ah, I don’t think so, no,” Beckman said, tilting his head back, recalling the facts.  “Snake picked a jungle island that’s a bit out of the way of normal trade routes.  There’s some ruins, but no signs of recent habitation.”

Buggy tried not to visibly wilt.  “Ah.”

Beckman’s eyes lingered on Buggy.  “We didn’t want to risk a naval presence on the island getting word out to the rest of the Marines.”

“No, no, it makes sense.”  Buggy sighed, shoving a hand under his hat to scrub at his hair.  “Just trying to figure out how the hell I’m gonna feed all these guys in that case.”  No way had anyone thought to tell Alvida that Buggy was bringing new guys with him, let alone a lot of new guys.  She’d have gotten the ship supplied with their normal numbers in mind.

Well, the new guys were a tough bunch, maybe they’d see hunting for their dinner as a fun challenge.  Assuming there was anything safe to hunt and eat on this island… Buggy dug his fingers into his scalp, biting back a frustrated groan.

Beckman laughed.  “Yeah, I don’t envy you that job. At least we were expecting to take on passengers.”  He whistled to get the attention of someone up in the crow’s nest and flashed a hand sign at them.  After a few exchanges, he stopped signing and rolled his eyes.  “Stubborn, overworking little—” He cut himself off and glanced at Buggy.  “Was that all you wanted from me?”  Buggy nodded.  “Then I’ll see you when Shanks finally gets up the nerve to talk to you… or when we land.  Whichever comes first.”  With that, he walked over to the mast, got the attention of a young man who’d been leaning against it, and grabbed onto a low-hanging rope.  The two of them pulled themselves up into the rigging—to harass whoever was up in the crow’s nest into taking a break, probably.

Buggy watched them climb for a minute, a frown crawling its way across his face.  When Shanks finally gets up the nerve to talk to you… so there was something Shanks was hiding that he didn’t think he should, huh?  Buggy had figured the feeling he was getting off Shanks was about one of those topics he’d had private conversations with Roger about way back when, not something that Shanks would consider any of Buggy’s business.  But apparently that wasn’t the case.

Buggy’s frown deepened.  He could come up with a list of topics Shanks wouldn’t want to broach but would still feel obligated to bring up, no problem.  But that list was short, and Buggy didn’t like the thought of discussing anything on it.

Unsettled, Buggy leaned back against the mast, arms crossed.

“Look out below!!!”

Buggy looked up and shrieked at the sight of a man falling head-first out of the crow’s nest.  He scattered—it wasn’t like his body would soften the blow enough that the guy would live—and then blinked, as a rope he hadn’t noticed went taut, and the falling slowed to a gentle, somehow mechanical motion.

“The hell is wrong with you?!” he demanded, floating up to be eye-level with the slowly descending man.  This was, if Buggy remembered correctly, Shanks’ sniper, Yasopp, of the infamous years-long tempting out to sea.  Someone with good aim, and a keen eye, but not particularly decisive—or, at least, he hadn’t been back then.  He was also apparently someone with a shitty sense of humor; he wasn’t answering Buggy’s question because he was too busy laughing and pointing at Buggy.

“Your face!  Oh, my stomach hurts,” he said, clutching at his waist.  “Oh man, that was almost worth getting kicked out of the nest.”  As they approached the ground, he shifted his weight so his feet would touch down first, and untangled himself from the rope with practiced ease.  “Phew.  Sorry, uh—Buggy, right?  Yeah, sorry about that.  The crew knows better than to stand so close to the mast when the watch changes, and I didn’t think to check before I jumped.”

“Jumping from the crow’s nest for fun.”  Buggy shook his head.  “And here I thought you people were almost respectable.”  Yasopp, the maniac, cackled.  Beckman, drifting down to the deck on his own rope mechanism, in a much more orderly fashion, chuckled a little.

“It’s possible we’ve been on… well, not our best behavior.  Let’s call it better behavior than usual, these last few days,” Beckman admitted.  “Except for Yasopp, who doesn’t know the meaning of the concept and so stays up in his nest.”

“You haven’t been on your best behavior, you’re as mean as ever,” Yasopp said, putting on an over-the-top pout.

Beckman rolled his eyes.  “Because I need to be, to get anything done around here,” he said.  “And you need a break.  Drink, talk to someone, tinker with one of your ridiculous trick bullets, I don’t care, just—let someone else keep an eye on things for a few hours, okay?”  He nudged Yasopp in the side with an elbow.  “Or are you gonna say you didn’t train your juniors well enough at their job?”

Yasopp crossed his arms, sulky.  “No,” he conceded.

“Good,” Beckman said.  Giving Buggy an apologetic grimace as he untied himself, he said, “I trust he’s apologized to you already?”  His tone suggested that if he hadn’t, Yasopp would soon regret it.

What a mother hen of a first mate, Buggy thought, fighting down a smile. “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” he said, shrugging off the incident like it hadn’t carved a decade off his lifespan.  “I should’ve known you people had to be at least a little crazy, since you run around with Shanks.”

A small smile crossed Beckman’s face, and Yasopp muffled a snort of laughter in a fist.

Someone called out in a panicky tone for Beckman from a far corner of the ship, and the smile fell off his face.  “If you’ll excuse me?”  Not waiting for a reply from either of them, Beckman walked off.

“So mean,” Yasopp said, fondness creeping into his voice.

“That’s first mates for you,” Buggy said, unable to keep a similar fondness out of his own voice.  Shanks had done a good job finding this guy.  When you grew up with the gold standard first mate (or, heh, the Silvers standard?), it was hard to find someone who could measure up.  “Keeping things in order when your captain’s lost his head.”

Yasopp chuckled.  “Ah, the boss isn’t that bad off.”  When Buggy gave him a skeptical look, he smirked.  “Lost his heart, maybe, but he knows where his head’s at.”

“I—uh.”  Flustered, Buggy cleared his throat.  He’d really just gone and said it.  “You’re a lot less subtle than your crewmates.”

Yasopp shrugged.  “I leave subtlety to subtle men.  I’m not built for it; I’m built for getting to the heart of the matter, and doing it fast.”  He extended two fingers towards Buggy, lifted his thumb into the air, and twitched his hand like it was a gun recoiling.  “We both know where things stand.  What’s the use in dancing around it?”

“Sure,” Buggy muttered, his thoughts going back to what Beckman had said.  What was it Shanks both didn’t want to tell him and needed to tell him?  What was there left unsaid, besides the sort of thing Buggy had already decided didn’t need saying?  He crossed his arms.  Damn it, he’d been trying to avoid thinking about this shit!

“Hey,” Yasopp said, snapping his fingers to draw Buggy’s attention.  “You work with bombs, right?  You make them yourself?”

Welcoming the change in topic, Buggy scoffed.  “Of course,” he said, “only an idiot trusts the kind of weapons manufacturers who are willing to sell to pirates to make explosives that are good, reliable, and cheap, and I have better things to spend my money on.”  He narrowed his eyes at Yasopp.  “Why?”

“Because Beck just gave me permission to tinker with my trick bullets, and if you make your own explosives you might be able to figure out what I’m doing wrong with this one.”  Digging around in one of his oversized ammunition pouches, Yasopp presented Buggy with an unusually lightweight cartridge.  “Here, what do you think?”

Buggy cracked the cartridge open, curious.  Inside was a pool of silvery-black gunpowder and a thin-walled hollow bullet, which proved to have some other kind of powder inside.  Buggy pinched that powder between two fingers, rubbing them together to feel the grit and then sniffing at the residue left behind.  He stared at his fingers, baffled, and smelled them again.  “What is that, aluminum and an ammonium salt?”  Yasopp nodded.  “Are you trying to make a cartridge that explodes in the barrel?”

Yasopp sighed, running a hand through his locs.  “What I want is a smoke bomb I can fire out of a gun.  What I’m getting is… that, more or less.”

“Yeah, of course you are, a big velocity change ignites this stuff easily.  With a different catalyst, though, or maybe a better sealed chamber…” Buggy trailed off, considering the bullet.  A miniature smoke bomb, huh?  Something that could stand up to the initial shock of gunfire, and turns to noise and powder on impact… “Do you have a chem lab around here somewhere?”

Yasopp grinned.

The two of them didn’t emerge from Yasopp’s workroom until the bell rang out announcing last call for lunch.  Buggy wasn’t sure he’d ever get the metallic burnt smell out of these clothes, but he didn’t care; this had been fun, the kind of idle experimenting with explosives that he hadn’t had time to do in years.  Buggy hadn’t realized how much of a man’s free time it ate up, captaining even a smallish crew, until he’d gotten a fraction of that time back.

“Too bad we didn’t figure out a solution for your smoke bullet problem,” he said, dusting the last of the gunpowder off his shirt sleeves.

“Eh, I’ve been working on this on and off for months, it wasn’t gonna be an easy fix,” Yasopp said, shrugging his star-spangled cloak back on.  “But it got both of us out of our heads for a few hours, so I’d hardly call it a waste.”

Buggy blinked at him, frozen with one arm in his jacket.  “Both of us?”

“You were fretting, I don’t know what about.  Shanks, at a guess.  And I’m… not good at letting other people take on my responsibilities.”  Yasopp grimaced.  “Beck doesn’t always have to toss me out of the nest, but…”

Buggy frowned, sliding the jacket up his other arm.  “I wasn’t fretting.”

Yasopp gave him an unimpressed look.  “Sure.  And what kind of concealer do you use to hide the frown lines you must have, if you make that face every hour of the day?”  When Buggy scowled at him, Yasopp said, “I’m not a subtle man, remember?  If you want somebody to pretend to believe your lies, you’re looking at the wrong guy.”

Buggy sighed.  As Yasopp locked the workroom up behind them, he admitted, “It… was good to get out of my head for a while.”  Yasopp gave him a squeeze on the shoulder, and they left it at that.

Lunch was a bit less exciting than the past few days had led Buggy to expect: the fried rice with pickled cabbage and ham that had been served with Shanks’ breakfast was the main dish on offer, with other repurposed leftovers making up the rest of the meal.  When Roux wasn’t looking, Buggy gave him a curious look.  The rest of the crew had been on their best behavior, according to Beckman… so, had Lucky Roux been showing off?  If he had, it had worked on Buggy; he still wanted to poach Roux for his own crew, even if this less impressive offering was his usual fare.

Eating his bowl of rice with a couple promising-looking toppings—all well-spiced and delicious, of course—Buggy made his way out onto the main deck.  A few Red-Haired and Whitebeard Pirates glanced Buggy’s way, but most of them had gotten used to Buggy over the last few days and returned to their meals without paying him any mind.  He peered down at the lower deck, crowded with men in worn prison uniforms standing in surprisingly well-organized clusters of twos and fours, finishing their lunch.

“Afternoon, men!” he called.

“Captain Buggy!” they cheered.

“Let’s see,” Buggy said, and on a whim set aside his bowl to chop off his feet and swoop down, close enough to excite his men but just out of reach.  “Aren’t you arranged all nice and orderly?  It looks like you did as I asked.”

“Of course!”

“We’d do anything you asked, Captain Buggy!”

Buggy grinned.  Music to his ears.  “Then I suppose I should reward you, shouldn’t I?”  A few excited sounds rose from the crowd as Buggy returned to his spot on the deck above them.  “Hm… I’ve told you a few stories of the old days with Captain Roger, and a few more adventures of the great Captain Buggy’s crew.  But there’s someone I’ve yet to introduce you to, a captain who’s been allied with me and mine these last few months.”  Someone who might need some convincing to cooperate with the sudden appearance of all these guys… and who was more eager for praise than even Buggy.  “Let me tell you how the strong, beautiful Iron Mace Alvida saved my life.”

A hush fell over the crowd.

“Yes, I know what you’re thinking: the great Captain Buggy, in need of rescue?!”  The wide-eyed stares Buggy received confirmed this.  And by the look of it, some of the men were mentally tacking on the phrase by a woman? to that question, as he’d suspected they would.  Yeah, best to nip that potential problem in the bud.  “Well, I’d been through a terrible trial in the days leading up to our first meeting.  Separated from my crew, from my body, alone on a half-wrecked ship, starving, a vicious sea monster rising out of the waves before me, his many-toothed maw dripping with drool, eager to eat me—when suddenly!  A great iron mace came down on his skull!”  Buggy slammed his lunch bowl against the railing, the crash of metal on wood drawing the eye of every man below.

Buggy grinned.  If they hadn’t been hooked before, they sure were now.

He fudged some of the details, of course—no need to reveal exactly who had put him through that terrible trial, or how his crew had behaved in his absence.  But the broad strokes were true enough, and the changes he made were in support of his reason for telling the story: to convince these guys to respect Alvida, to flatter her as they did him, to make this joining of forces go as smoothly as possible.  Sure, it didn’t put Buggy in the best light, at least not at first, but he didn’t want Alvida taking a perceived slight out on a man who might be able to stand up to her mace.  If revealing one of his weaknesses was how he avoided that disaster, so be it.

He was just reaching the ‘rescuing his crew from cannibals’ climax of the story when a cry rang out from above: “Land ho!”

Finally.  The relief that rushed through Buggy nearly made him cry.  After all the many hells he’d been through since being arrested… things could finally start getting back to normal.

“We’ll continue this story after we disembark,” Buggy announced, to a few disappointed groans from his men.  “Find your buddy if you lost track of him during lunch!  Make sure you both have everything you’re taking with you!  Stay out of the way of the Red-Haired Pirates while they’re get us to shore, but be ready to leave the second we’re docked!”

“Aye, Captain!”

But of course, it wasn’t quite that simple.

Buggy found Galdino sitting in the empty mess with Lucky Roux, making polite conversation over a pot of tea.  Though, with these two, it might not actually be the conversation it seemed to be—something about the island Roux sourced his tea from?  Apparently it was a distinctive blend, and hard to acquire.

“Did you need something, Buggy?” Galdino asked, an undertone of irritation to his voice.  Because of course Buggy needed something, why else did he ever seek Galdino out?

Well, if Galdino didn’t want to be used, he shouldn’t have made himself so useful.

“The dock’s gone,” Buggy said.  “Either rotted through or swept away in a storm.”

Galdino glanced up at him, and set down his teacup.  “Well, at least it’ll be a challenge.  Lucky Roux, it’s been a pleasure.”

“It’s sure been something, having you people aboard,” Roux said with a wide smile.  “Hopefully not for the last time.”

Buggy snorted.  “In your captain’s dreams.”

Galdino muffled a laugh in his fist; Roux didn’t bother concealing his amusement.  Buggy realized how his words had come off, scowled, and stormed out of the mess with a mutter of, “Come on, Galdino.”

The two of them joined Beckman and the Red-Haired Pirates’ navigator at the bow of the ship, and considered the space where a dock clearly used to be.  A ship this big, an island with such a sharp drop from shore to sea?  They wouldn’t be able to land without a dock. 

“Can you do it?” Beckman asked.

“I’ll need to begin from the shore,” Galdino said, thoughtful.  “If it isn’t well anchored from the start it’ll drift away.”

“That’s no problem.” Buggy chopped his feet off and leaned forward, letting Galdino sit cross-legged on his back.  He flew them to shore, where Galdino made some long wax spears that Buggy wedged into place.  When they were securely dug in, Galdino melted the tops of the spears and, starting from that spot, created more wax to mold into a floating dock.  Nothing that would be any good at anchoring a ship the size of the Red Force long-term, but they didn’t intend to be here any longer than necessary.  So long as it could hold firm while the men disembarked, that was all they needed.

While Galdino worked, Buggy hovered above the canopy, looking for any kind of promising location to settle his men.  He quickly spotted the ruins Beckman had mentioned—several of the old buildings were tall enough to be seen well above the treetops, the gray of the stone standing out against all the greenery of the jungle.  There was one with a large paved area around it, not far from the shore, which seemed promising.  Buggy took a moment to fix the spot in his memory, then went back to tell Galdino about it.

Galdino barely paid him any mind. He was focused on his work, and confident enough in it to stand on the dock as he was building it, a foot or two of wax all that separated him from the awful, helpless death that awaited any Devil Fruit user in the ocean.  It was bold of him; Buggy preferred a nice, reliable boat any day.

“Any messages to pass on to the men?” he asked, hovering at Galdino’s shoulder.

“They’ll need to be light on their feet, and should stick to the center of the dock,” Galdino said.  He was starting to sweat; extruding this much wax in one go must take a lot of effort.  “If their weight isn’t balanced right, one wrong move could capsize this whole thing.”

Buggy blanched.  Yeah, he could never.  “Noted,” he squeaked, and flew back to the Red Force to convey these instructions.

Despite Galdino’s warnings, the disembarkation went well.  Buggy watched with no small amount of pride as the buddy system worked beautifully, each pair of men walking down the gangplank, across the waxen dock, and onto the shore without any signs of a bottleneck developing.  Being listened to was nice—it was very nice—but being listened to, having your orders followed, and seeing them work exactly as you imagined, now that was heaven.  Buggy might not be the strongest pirate the world had ever seen, but damn it, he was good at this shit.

As the last dozen pairs prepared to leave the Red Force, Buggy felt a gentle weight press down on his foot.  He frowned, tried to remember where he’d left his feet, and only then noticed a presence on the main deck that made his hackles rise.

Shanks.

“Are you holding my feet hostage?”

“That depends,” Shanks said, giving Buggy an unreadable look.  “Are you leaving without saying goodbye?”

Oh, this guy.  On his own ship, surrounded on all sides by his most trusted officers, and still managing to look like some kind of miserable wet cat, terrified of being left alone.

“And how was I supposed to say goodbye to someone who’s been hiding from me?” Buggy asked, instead of the dozen meaner things he wanted to say.

Shanks glanced away, suddenly awkward, and Buggy took the opportunity to look him over.  The shower had done him good, gotten him clean of all that secondhand makeup—though it had not, Buggy noticed with a quiet little thrill, removed the bruises that had apparently been hiding underneath some of that makeup.  His hair looked nicer, almost healthy, even pinned back by the sunglasses Shanks had propped up high on his forehead.  “Are these the shame glasses I’ve heard so much about?”

Shanks’ hand rose to fiddle with the temple of the glasses.  “Ah, yeah.”

“I thought your crew was supposed to laugh at you while you were wearing them?”

“They’ve been laughing at me, all day,” Shanks said, tired.  “And they’ve been right to, given… everything.”

Well, that was ominous.

With a sigh, Shanks said, “There’s something I should have told you earlier, Buggy, but there never seemed to be a good time, and… I didn’t know how to say it.”  A sheepish smile pulling at the corner of his lip, he said, “I still don’t, to be honest,” and pulled the sunglasses down over his eyes.

It took Buggy a moment to put it together.  Shanks’ discomfort, the way the large mirrored lenses took up so much space on his face, the nervous twist of his lips… then Shanks ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead, and it clicked.  All the blood draining out of his face, Buggy caught Beckman’s eye; he nodded, ever so slightly.

(Fuck.)

Buggy got up in Shanks’ face, looking past his own wide-eyed reflection to confirm that spark of recognition.  Shanks leaned back, Buggy reconnected to his own feet, and at this angle… yeah, he knew that face.  He’d kissed it, once.

(Oh fuck, he’d pickpocketed that guy, too.)

Fighting down a hysterical burst of laughter, Buggy said, voice high-pitched from the strain, “Well, uh, thanks for the ride, Shanks!  I’d say I owe you one, but I’m pretty sure you still owe me another two or three dozen favors before we’re even.”  He backed up, hands brushing along the railing as he inched towards the stairs, and beyond them the gangplank, the dock, the island, freedom.

(Somewhere he could have a little breakdown about this revelation in private.)

“Buggy…” Shanks cautiously held out a hand.

Buggy pulled back out of reach.  “I’m not saying goodbye to you, Shanks!” he snapped.  Shanks faltered, his hurt visible even past those ridiculous sunglasses, and Buggy sighed.  Did he have to spell it out?  “Stupid.  I already told you.”

Confusion wasn’t a much better look on Shanks.  Well, either he’d figure out or he wouldn’t.

Buggy rolled his eyes, spun around, and ran off.  Over his shoulder, he promised, “Until next time, Red-Hair!”

[meraki-yao]

RWRB rambles: promo photoshoots

I'm really curious about how the in-character photoshoots were done

You have this on which honestly could both be Alex and Henry or just Taylor and Nick

Then there's this one (that's cute but a little weird?) that sort of can be mostly Taylor and Nick holding hands and running, which, Q: were they legitimately running or just jumping in the air?

There's this one that's pretty much a screenshot or an alternative angle shot of the scene in the movie

There's this one, also could be just Taylor and Nick holding hands or firstprince

But then there's these two that's not directly from the movie, and fully in character

There's this one (that made me fully scream for ten minutes when it first came out)

I... How did they shoot this? It looks really edited so idk if it's actually shot on location. Also it looks like a snapshot of a continuous movement, so did Taylor just repeatively shove Nick into a wall? Also... Like... Who were they? This looks really speficially in character, were they actually in character and improvising to make it a scene? Or they just did the physical movement and they were cracking jokes between them to make each other laugh? (either way works and is adorable, I'm just curious as to which one is it)

There's also this one (I straight up died when this one came out)

They don't actually have a scene in the movie that's this combination of their costumes so I think this is speficially shot as a promo shot (which also makes me wonder if there's more from this setting) again wondering if this is edited or on location. This is a straight up pose so the movement isn't an issue, but again this looks so, so firstprince, that again I'm wondering how did this photoshot go. Were the boys in character or making stupid inside jokes that somehow translated into the sweetest, "I'm in love with him" smiles?

Yeah tl dr I want all the behind the scenes, including the ones for the photoshoots

[tame-a-messenger]

So I’m rewatching sword af for the first time since it premiered and I didn’t pay attention to their dynamic back then so I didn’t think about the implications of all the bug support from Damien’s npc. But my god he literally constantly hyped Angela up. Something I’ve been thinking about is how Chanse said that they put a lot of themselves in their characters. I think Angela does have a lot of that imposter syndrome, anxiety, and wanting her coworkers’ approval that Bug has (there’s a lot of little moments that make me think that but her trivial pursuit with Amanda was the thing that really made me realize that) and I wonder how much of Damien’s support of Bug was for character development and how much of it was for Angela yk? You can see a little split second character break whenever he does the little “I’m proud of you” stuff where I feel like you can see it really does mean something to her (maybe I’m delusional lol). I feel like most of the other times he compliments her she either like completely misses or or just dismisses it but telling him to shut up (jokingly) so I wonder if he used this opportunity to also compliment her and support her without her being able to just dismiss it Anyway the fact that all those moments in sword af are when the camera is only on them and they’re like making direct eye contact makes them such good special Damangela moments

That’s why I love that series so much!

She gets special treatment sometimes (based on her character it makes sense. We don’t really know their backstory yet) and we get moments like that and it’s so good!

What you said about the Trivial Pursuit, I never caught that actually! but you’re right! Angela constantly wanting Shayne to laugh at her jokes and waiting to see if he comes back, I totally missed that!

I really do love the fact they started a real D&D campaign recently (they tried it years ago but I never watched it) with all the new cast! I think that was such a great call having Damien DM! He really is very good at it! Had me hanging on his every word.

What I think I have the softest spot for is the behind the scenes for that season. (And the DWMP:CL) How much praise he gives her, telling her that people he met have told him how great she did and how much they loved Bug! (Side note- I wonder how much of Bugs anxiety and his arch was planned? Like did they have certain story beats or was it mostly Angela improvising? Either way it was such a cool thing to watch!) and how well she did, UGH SO SWEET.

Her telling him he gave her goose bumps at how well he wrapped up, and him saying “this is my job, I better be good at it” (I tried to find where they said this and I couldn’t, so I might’ve made it up? But it does sound like something they would say doesn’t it?)

I really can’t wait to watch the next season both because I want to see the story pan out and because we’ll be getting more Angela and Damien being cuties!

[princeanon]

I made a modern adaptation of some R&J scenes (2.4 and 3.1) for a film project, and just had to share some of my favorite moments, in no particular order

“Queen Mab get to you again?”

- Benvolio, to Mercutio

The film was called Queen Mab, and it’s centered around Mercutio, with an emphasis on his dreams and hints to a time loop situation?

There was SO MUCH DOMESTIC BENCUTIO YOU HAVE NO IDEa

Like, Ben wakes Mercutio up and calls him sUnShiNe before handing him water

Also, he calls Mercutio “Merc” a few times throughout the film

All of the characters names are shortened in the script purely because I didn’t want to type them every time (Tybalt=Ty, Benvolio=Ben, Mercutio=Merc, Romeo=Ro, and Juliet was just Juliet)

Ben is CONSTANTLY checking his phone for texts from Romeo like he’s so worried poor guy

Meanwhile Merc is tormenting him

“I can see it now:

Here lies Romeo. Died from being left on read.”

- Mercutio, about Romeo’s crush on Rosaline

Ben extends an arm to Merc as they leave, and he takes it before grabbing his dagger

When they go to find Romeo, Ben brings a notebook with him that disappears once the Merc and Tybalt fight starts

Ben is wearing a shirt that says “MERCUTIO IS MY HOMEBOY”

a necklace with a purple gem (👀)

a cute blue and green jacket

and a beanie that does not fit properly at all

Meanwhile Merc is wearing a purple MIT shirt

When Ben and Merc spot Romeo, they hide behind a tree like those classic cartoons where you can only see their upper half sticking out of the tree

Our Romeo & Juliet were in a production of Sound of Music together as Maria and Von Trapp respectively so when I told them to act in love in the distance, they just started doing the Laendler choreography

Ben shows Tybalt’s “challenge” for Romeo to Merc via his phone, which implies that Tybalt texted Benvolio and was like “hey man can you let your cousin know I wanna fight him?”

We needed a shot of our Tybalt appearing behind Ben & Merc, and Ty was insistent that he climb a nearby tree and jump out of it

That shot took 15+ takes before we even got to his part, so he spent the better part of half an hour sitting in a tree waiting for his queue.

He jumped down too early during one take and had to re-climb the tree

Merc boops Ben several times throughout the film, and we had a few very flirtatious takes that didn’t make the Final Cut because we kept breaking character

“Careful, Good Benvolio, your irrefutable temper is showing”

- Merc to Ben when he complains about Romeo’s terrible decision-making skills

He calls him “Benny boy”

During one take, he accidentally said “bunny boy” and I told him he could definitely do that purposely if he wanted

Tybalt had recently done a production of R&J, so he asked to add the “peace be with you” line into the script, which I 100% supported, we spent a while during the shoot just quoting R&J back and forth, and he noticed all of my references in the script

Romeo was instructed to enter the Tybalt scene after a specific line, so he hid around the corner and FULLY RAN into the scene yelling “GUYS GUYS YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I—“

Romeo is taller than both Ben and Merc, and he almost tackles both during his entrance

Oh my gosh Romeo and Tybalt have some kind of bromance going on IRL which is so fun but it was so difficult to get the two of them to pay attention because they were just hanging out with each other

Romeo had a line that goes “woah, Tybalt, calm down” and instead he said “Yoooo, Tybalt, chill out man” which made all of us break

When Tybalt confronts Romeo, you can hear a bird in the background, that stops the second Ty pulls out his dagger, which was accidental but iconic

I choreographed a sword fight, but Merc and Ty mostly improvised, they had a lot of fun

Our Juliet filmed the whole scene by the way, along with most of the other scenes

Also, in the script she had one line, in which she was supposed to say something with the word Capulet, and she kept joking to everyone that she was already off book

I ended up cutting the line for convenience and plot purposes, sorry Jules 😭

“Capulet”

- Not Juliet, since the line got cut

Romeo & Juliet joked about going to marriage counseling after they were struggling to film one of the scenes (J on camera, R with the boom mic)

They traded jobs after J accidentally filmed R for the entire take

In between shots, Ty and Merc were stabbing mushrooms with their daggers, Romeo was throwing rocks at a spider, and Juliet and I were just like, watching all of it happen

We had fake blood for Merc to put on his hand, and it ended up staining his hand so he spent like 10 minutes washing it off afterwards

When Merc dies, Ben holds his hand and rests his face against Merc’s head (also, he fully dies in Ben’s lap)

Then we went back and filmed the first scene and lemme tell you Mercutio is iconic but he was so so so bad at waking up

He kept asking me “how am I supposed to wake up???? How does one wake up scared???” And I was like “I don’t know man!!!!!”

Some lines taken directly from the play include “Romeo, my cousin Romeo!” (2.1) “A challenge, on my life” (2.4) “Come sir, your passado” (3.1) and of course, “Peace be with you” (3.1)

Also, Merc still calls Ty a ratcatcher, and Ty calls out to Ben and Merc by saying gentlemen

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Took 4 hours of filming for a 4 minute long film, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I played Benvolio by the way. Probably should have mentioned that sooner.

[roses-r-rosie3]

Everything goes according to plan

Ethan Landry x M!Reader

Summary: This is basically a More in Detail description of how y/n helped the Kirsh’s killing spree in my other story psycho

A/n: hopefully this fic makes sense to some of you b/c I can see why reading this would be confusing

Warnings: angst, character faking their death

Quote: No Quote :) it’s mostly just how involved y/n was in helping the Kirsh’s during the ladder scene

✁ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Y/n and the Kirsh’s have been planning their revenge for a while now, and all the needed now was to put their plan into action. It was the day that they were planning to attack the group in Sam’s apartment. Quinn planned ahead of time and took the knives and hid them under her bed.

Y/n and Quinn were going to fake their death so that they could both get away with attacking someone without being suspected of being the killer, Bailey was going to help them with the prosthetics, and Ethan was going to be the one behind the mask. It was the perfect idea, all they needed to do was execute it well enough.

As soon as y/n heard the “moans” coming from Quinn’s room, and the airdropped image of Quinn getting “attacked” by ghostface, y/n immediately got up from the couch while the core4 rushed into the room.

“Run”

Quinn’s body landed on both y/n and Anika.

Everything was going according to plan.

Y/n saw the masked Ethan slash Mindy in the arm as Anika pushed Quinn’s body off of her trying to tackle him the best she could, but Ethan easily over powered her and stabbed her in her abdomen and spelt glided the knife up her body. But before Ethan could finish the job, Sam hit him with a knife block.

Shit, this meant they had to improvise

Y/n slowly got up as Sam guided the y/n, Anika, and Mindy into Quinn’s room. Sam told Mindy to lock the door as she tried to find a way out of the situation.

Y/n heard Mindy yell in shock as she saw Quinn’s dead hookup in the bathtub and the masked killer infront of the doorway. Before Ethan could swipe at her, Sam pulled her into Quinn’s room as they pushed a drawer in front of the door to barricade it.

Not too long afterwards y/n heard Danny yell out to Sam and brung out a ladder to help them cross the dorm to safety.

Lightbulb

Y/n helped Mindy hold the door closed as Ethan tried shoving his way in. Sam tried to get Mindy, Anika, or y/n to go first but all three refused, forcing her to cross the ladder first.

“Mindy, Anika you guys go next, I’m less wounded so I can hold him off longer” y/n said.

Mindy agreed as she tried to get Anika to cross, but Anika refused and made Mindy go next, but not before kissing her before she crossed. After Mindy crossed this is where y/n had to come in.

As Anika was starting to cross y/n “accidentally” let go of the barricade, allowing Ethan to come in.

The masked Ethan started to “attack” y/n. As y/n was “fighting back” he eventually bumped into the ladder causing it to shake when Anika tried to cross.

After a few more of those, y/n “accidentally” pushed the ladder out of the window, causing both the ladder and Anika to fall, her shrieks filled the alleyway as she hit her head with a thud on the garbage cans bellow.

Of course, this isn’t where it ended. Y/n had to put his best acting skills to play as he let out blood curdling screams as Ethan pushed y/n onto Quinn’s bed and started to “stab” him over and over, forcing the group to watch helplessly as y/n was “dying” right in front of them.

[joons]

Hey! I’ve got an Elvis question, just popped into my head. So did he compose the instrument parts of songs? Or was he more of a vocals only guy. I feel like I should know this but I guess I don’t!

This is a great question! I would not go so far as to call him a composer of most of his material (he was very adamant that he wasn't a songwriter), but he certainly filled the role of producer. He often knew exactly the sound he wanted and would advise the musicians until they understood his intentions. Because of his encyclopedic knowledge of music, he could pin down sounds and influences in a way that surprised the experienced musicians he worked with. He was an adequate rhythm guitarist and a pretty good piano player, but in general, he gave musicians who worked with him space to create and then guided them until he found the pocket he wanted.

In the early days, there were only two or three musicians in his band, and it was mostly democratic, like, the takes either worked or they didn't. They were very improvisational. At the same time, Elvis could get hyperperfectionist about the recordings and hold them up for hours. For instance, "Hound Dog" was a staple at his live shows before he recorded the song, and he wanted it to have a different tempo and feel on the record, much faster than how they typically performed it. For whatever reason, Elvis wasn't satisfied with it until they were about ready to throw him through a window, but that's exactly when he got the angry, frustrated sound he wanted.

"Elvis drove the band through thirty-one takes, slowly fashioning a menacing, rough-trade version quite different than the one they had been performing on the stage." - Robert Fink

Obviously whole books have been written about the recording sessions, which I have yet to fully dive into, so I can't speak super authoritatively on this, but in general, Elvis lost quite a bit of control over the recording sessions as Col. Parker moved him more toward releasing movie soundtracks, which had to be sung to scene specifications. In those instances, Elvis would just tell the singers and musicians he was working with to "just do your best," knowing that the material was pretty lame.

But he was able to take control of his sound again in his gospel albums, during his TV special and while working on the Vegas/touring live shows. He handpicked the musicians here, so they were all the best in the business; he had a great deal of trust in them to contribute their own signatures. But again, he usually had a pretty clear understanding of the song dynamics, the shape he was going for, and could coax it out of everyone. You can see him conducting and coaching here:

Through the late '70s, he often lost interest in staying on top of his game, both in live shows and in recordings. The problem with the live shows is that he got bored with performing the same songs, and efforts to change it up didn't go that well due to a lack of rehearsal and underwhelming audience feedback, so he went back to playing it safe. And with some of the later albums, he just wasn't feeling well or didn't connect with the songs as much. So in those cases he could sometimes just churn out a song that had already been perfected by the musicians and he just came in for the vocals. But he loved music so much that he just always had Opinions About It.

But just to go back to the producer thing, he's the one who arranged "Blue Moon," which doesn't sound like anything that Sam Phillips or anyone else had ever or would ever put out. Elvis got obsessed with atmospheric sounds and different effects that he knew exactly how to tune to an emotional frequency. So this ethereal, distorted echo pairs with his choice of lyrics, only repeating the first, sad verse of "Blue Moon" and never letting the storyline resolve into finding love. No one knew what the hell he was doing, but it took them so long to get him out of his shy, anxious shell that they didn't want to tell him to stop.

[ardenrabbit]

your work is all so amazing!! do you have any advice for writers who maybe want to start writing longer fanfictions?

Ahh!! Fhhfkf thank you!!! ;^; I don't know how useful or coherent my advice might be, but here's what's helped me in the past:

1. Know what kind of writer you are. If you work better by starting with a structured outline, do that, but make sure to actually start WRITING the scenes after that lol. If you get more momentum by diving in and just seeing where the story goes, do that, but make sure you have a DIRECTION to go in. A healthy balance of planning and discover-as-you-go is the most fun in my experience. (I usually start by improvising and having fun with a concept and then gradually cornering myself into planning lol. By then, planning isn't a chore; it's just satisfying to see everything fall together.)

2. Don't force an idea to be a long fic if it doesn't need to be. If you feel like your concept would be better served by a short fic, do it justice by not stretching it into a shape it doesn't need.

3. If your concept is bigger and does need a long fic format, make sure you know what threads you're weaving together. Write an actual list of themes, subplots, and character arcs and keep track of them, and figure out how you want to pace them in relation to one another.

4. Have resources prepped! Name banks for minor characters; notes/links to articles on the time period/environment/culture you're writing about; pictures that inspire you; songs that hype you up for your story or the characters... Mostly, if you don't like doing research, START LIKING IT. Find joy in researching the symptoms of hypovolemic shock and the native flora of Northern China. Look up multiple sources for each little topic. (I just keep a messy list of links and notes in the bottom of my docs lol)

5. If you get stuck or bored, revisit the source material. Watching/reading the original story can remind you why you got so excited to write fic about it and refresh your ideas.

6. If you're bored while writing a scene, it's probably boring to read. Don't turn writing into a chore. Think about what needs to happen in a scene and why it matters, find what you care about in it, and follow that. If it starts feeling like you don't need a scene and that you were just using it to fill in time, cut it.

7. My favorite thing: don't be afraid to write out of order. Write little blurbs or pieces of dialogue for chapters way ahead, if you have something in mind! Give yourself a goal to catch up to. It'll help you get the big picture of your whole fic and then fill in the scenes you need to get there.

8. Don't let people tell you what to write!! This goes both ways: if people say "it should've gone like [thing you don't wanna do]," tell them to shush and write their own shit. If they say "it would be so cool if [thing you were already planning] happened," do it anyway! You don't have to change just for the element of surprise. Don't twist the story out of place just because someone guessed your awesome idea. Everyone will be happier for it.

9. Don't settle for your first draft if it doesn't feel right. If you're working on a scene and it doesn't fulfill what you need, restart it from as many angles as necessary until you're happy. Seriously, building off a scene you don't like will make you feel dissatisfied and poison everything to follow.

10. Talk about your fic with people who hype you up about it. If you're not used to writing long stories, do what you need to keep you motivated and EXCITED about it. If asking someone to beta read helps you, do it! (I almost never ask for beta readers bc I'm a control freak, but honestly they can be so helpful.)

11. The forbidden tip: if you lose interest halfway through, it's okay to drop it. Do what makes you happy. You don't owe anyone anything and you're doing this for free. Try to finish it though lol, it's so satisfying to see a work complete. Do it for the dopamine at the end.

Disclaimer: I write long fics 1) because I like to soak in them and savor them and 2) because I don't know how to shut up and write short ones lol. I deeply admire people with the skill to just say what they need to say and wrap up a story neatly.

Also, I don't follow my own advice. Plenty of my scenes have fluff that I could have cut but didn't because Mark Twain is dead and can't tell me what to do lmao

I hope this had something helpful in it 😅 Good luck! 💖💖💖

[kdrama-mama]

It’s interesting to me how so many people seem to have had their minds blown by learning that the spiciest parts of Love in the Air have been improvisation on the part of Boss and Noeul. It didn’t surprise me at all. For one thing, you really can’t fake chemistry. The best onscreen pairings (romantic or not, I can think of comedy shows that fit this bill) always have significant chemistry offscreen as well. I’m not speculating on their relationship beyond what they make public, but it’s clear they are exceptionally close and get along very, very well so they have a lot of trust in each other.

But also, what Boss and Noeul described is basically method acting, right? Although method acting tends to involve assuming the character offscreen as well I think, it comes as no surprise to me that their strategy was to become the characters in the moment, two people who are crazy in love and have just begun exploring each other, with Rain learning to express his sexuality for the first time. I’ve thought about this a lot long before this show aired. Even putting the NC scenes aside, I’ve thought about if I were an actor, how would I be able to show being madly in love with someone on my face? That’s one of my favorite things in a romance, the guy (or at least one of the guys in a BL) needs to look stupidly in love when they look at their partner. Bonus if both look that way.

As an autistic individual who has struggled greatly with learning to mask due to my facial expressions being misinterpreted (I tend to stare into space and scowl when I’m thinking hard and people take it personally thinking I’m looking at them), I think the only way I’d be able to achieve the right look on my face would be to imagine that I was truly in love with the other person in that moment. It’s only natural that it applies to kissing/sex scenes as well. Think of the detail we saw onscreen in the moments of intimacy in episodes 4-6. How could that have been choreographed down to those details and still felt natural? I’d be more surprised to learn that the scenes were micromanaged to that degree and been as good as they were because I would think the actors would be too preoccupied thinking about what to do to make it feel like they were going with the flow.

When it comes to sex scenes, I am in general in favor of them to be included and am happy for them to be as explicit as they want to be. I have watched a whole lot of Western premium channel series. BUT there are very, very few sex scenes I’d say I straight up enjoyed. Most fall into meh, and some I find gross and exploitative. For me to enjoy them, I need to really feel the romance onscreen, and the sex needs to feel like a natural development of the couple’s relationship. I don’t begrudge anyone who does like it, but porn isn’t my thing, and I don’t enjoy just sex scenes for the sake of being porn like.

IMO, Love in the Air blows pretty much everything I’ve watched right out of the water. In fact, I went back and watched another favorite of mine (from Outlander), and in comparison it now feels overacted. It’s so strange to me to see criticisms that it’s just mostly porn, like what?! Payu and Rain would be one of my favorite couples ever even without a single NC scene. Their relationship is so healthy and enjoyable to watch develop. But then to see them express themselves sexually in a way that real couples would actually act is the chef’s kiss. To me, the sex feels just as natural as the casual touches they constantly give each other, which is a huge part of what makes them so enjoyable to watch.

[snickerdoodlles]

📖

:D ❤

spiritual sister fic to red!! Chay breaks Kim's brain this time with curly hair (why does Barcode look so adorable with curly hairrr).

so that ft jealousy kink, because i adore jealousy/possessiveness kink, where the plot is Chay got talked into doing some music club mentor-mentee thing and his mentor has a crush the size of jupiter on him and keeps trying to monopolize Chay's time hoping he'll start crushing back (but mostly just annoying Chay). Chay isn't oblivious to the flirting, he just genuinely can't understand why anyone would genuinely try to flirt with him when he's dating Kim. obviously???? Kim is the best???? Chay loves Kim and loves dating Kim, who'd be stupid enough to think he'd date them instead???? the only part of this Chay cares about is Kim finding more excuses to visit (read: cling) to him on campus and the constantly refreshed hickies. Chay enjoys that very much.

anyways, ends with curly hair!Chay serenading Kim in public, Kim makes himself into Chay's backpack because he likes him so! much!, and Kim saying something like "bye Dew" to Dew (Chay's mentor) because he's a smug cunt, Dew angrily informing Kim his name is Drive asshole, and Chay going "*blink blink* it is?????" because he never actually remembered the guy's name and somehow his misunderstanding never got corrected. now it's Kim's turn to tackle Chay into a wall because so fucking hot.

idk why this fic got stuck where it did, but it's been stuck for months now rip. maybe i'll return to this one later and figure out how to unstick it or absorb it into something else, but for now, you can read the first scene of this fic under the cut since it makes me laugh;

Kim is about to embark on the most devious and tactical scheme in his whole life.

This isn’t his typical approach to things. He’s always been more of a doer than a planner, and so far his guns blazing approach in life has worked out pretty well for him. But for this scheme, with its potential rewards so sweet, he’s done weeks of recon and meticulous planning until he was nearly sure of his success. He could wait longer, eliminate all variables and refine his plans until things are guaranteed to run like clockwork, but it’s taken ages just to arrive to this point and Kim is low on patience. Sometimes, you just had to jump and improvise during the fall.

Despite his resolve, adrenaline floods his veins that morning as he leaves his shower. He refuses to let any of it show—timing is critical, so he dries his hair and applies his lotion the same way he would any other morning, taking no more nor less time than normal. His motions are smooth and relaxed—he is far too well trained to let his limbs tremble with nerves or anything so pedestrian. An obnoxious alarm sounds from the bedroom, right on time, and Kim’s heart skips a beat, but he forces his expression into something of indifference. The alarm cuts out, Kim just able to make out a faint groan through the door and, with one last roll of his shoulders, because he is the picture of nonchalance, Kim exits the bathroom wearing nothing but a short towel low on his hips and water drops across his shoulders.

He doesn’t actually see Chay as he, very casually, struts past the bed. Another groan emerges from the lump of blankets on it, then an enterprising hand that slaps the bed space Kim usually occupies. Chay whines cutely when his search comes up empty, and Kim forces himself not to smile and keeps on walking to get dressed.

The sheets rustle behind him and Chay grumbles incoherently, but Kim doesn’t turn and opens his wardrobe instead. Every morning, while he’s still fuzzy with sleep, Chay will seek Kim out for a quick nuzzle and a kiss when he first wakes up. If Kim’s not in bed, Chay will force himself upright, rub his eyes and blink blearily at their wardrobe past the foot of their bed, and then—if he has morning wood—seek Kim out for his missed kiss, or—if he’s just sleepy—head for the shower to wake himself up. Kim, positioned perfectly in Chay’s expected sight line, has plans to ensure the first.

“Mm,” Chay sighs, loudly. Kim is so tempted to turn around. But Chay’s extolled the virtues of his back, multiple times now, and while Kim’s not completely sure what he finds so great about it, he’s not above using it to his advantage.

(Besides, the scratch marks have started to fade. Chay could do with a reminder.)

A soft grunt comes from behind him, but Kim ignores it. He hums, some tuneless thing to drown out any of Chay’s soft sleepy sounds, until Chay finally rasps, “Kim…”

The sound scrapes pleasantly across Kim’s nerves, but Kim locks the feeling down and only gives Chay a careless, seemingly half-attentive hum as he looks casually over his shoulder, hips cocked in a way that makes it look like he has an ass but not like he’s trying too hard.

And fuck, is Chay a sight to behold. He’s propped his head up with one hand, staring at Kim with hooded eyes and his shirt sliding up to reveal a sliver of his hips. Chay hums, voice still raspy with sleep, and drags his free hand through his fluffy bedhead before dropping it back down to play with the hem of his boxers and ugh, Kim wants to be the one doing those things to him so bad.

But he has an agenda this morning, one he really wants to succeed, and for that he needs patience and subtlety.

Kim smiles at Chay but then turns back to his wardrobe, pretending to admire his clothing selection while using his peripherals to watch Chay, and subtly flexes his muscles. Chay sighs gustily.

Kim feels more than sees Chay’s eyes sweep up his form. Yes, he thinks, careful to hide his glee. He is so close, just a few more subtle pushes, and surely then—

Then Chay flops back and throws his arm over his eyes with a groan. “Nevermind.”

…On second thought, best not to leave anything to chance.

Kim turns heel and quickly—but casually—crawls onto the bed and into the space between Chay’s thighs. Chay grunts inquisitively, face still hidden, but automatically spreads his thighs to make room for Kim. He’s so good.

“You can’t just say that to me,” Kim complains. Chay moves his arm to squint at Kim, and Kim turns his pout up full force as he settles, half draped, over Chay. “Now I’m curious.”

Chay snorts. “You and your issues with secrets,” he gripes playfully. Kim nods solemnly, turning his pout into a well practiced, soulfully pleading look, and the corners of Chay’s mouth twitch as he tries not to smile. “Like you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Kim blinks guilelessly. “Hmm?”

Chay snorts again, but his hands find the warm skin of Kim’s hips. His towel, already barely hanging on, falls open with the lightest of tugs. Chay’s eyes sweep down, heavy lidded with appreciation.

“Not a single clue, huh?”

“Mm,” Kim agrees, and gives up trying to hide his smile.

A matching smile flashes across Chay’s face and then he’s pulling Kim closer, until their hips push together and Kim can feel the hard chub of Chay’s dick through his sleep shorts, and Kim’s moving from his hands to his elbows and trying not to smile too wide as he moves in for a kiss—

And Chay suddenly rears up to blow his morning breath right onto Kim’s face.

Kim pauses, instincts beating back his lust to keep them from whacking heads, nose wrinkled at the stale smell, and Chay falls back cackling over his prank. He gets exactly two seconds of laughter before Kim kisses him anyways, bad morning breath and all.

Chay laughs against his lips and Kim falls into him. “This is so gross,” Chay complains, even as he holds Kim close and lightly scratches his nails over the fading marks across his back.

“Mm,” Kim hums, not really agreeing, and moves in for another kiss. Kim loves all sides of Chay, from the gross to the clean, and he kisses him without reservation or care. And for all his little exasperated huffs and puffs, Chay yields easily, wonderfully, to the wet slide of their lips. Kim should plan and scheme more often, if it means getting Chay’s thighs around his hips, Chay’s nails scratching through his hair and down his back, Chay’s moans sweet against his mouth.

Just when Kim is about to declare this venture a success and trade in their sweet kisses for something more wanton, Chay’s second alarm goes off.

And. Chay. Leaves.

“Ignore it,” Kim whines as Chay slides out from underneath him, giving up on all attempts to seduce Chay into doing what he wants and finally just begging.

Chay pauses, his fingers frozen over his still-singing phone, a mess of conflicted emotions crossing his face. It’s unfair, for him to try to walk away when he looks so tempting, bedhead tangled in a wonderful mess of curls and his lips wet and red from their kisses. Kim shifts his hips and Chay’s eyes dart to his hard dick. He even moans, a delightful hungry sound that makes Kim want to tackle Chay off their bed and fuck him right there on the floor, but then Chay shakes his head and fully pulls away.

“I can’t,” he says, mournful but insistent, “I have that mentor thing, remember?” Then he shuts off his alarm and shuffles into their bathroom, looking sad and forlorn but not stopping.

Kim flops back on their bed with a curse. Scheme almost a success.

[ferrocyan]

15 lines of dialogue

Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

15 feels like too few haha! i'm picking these mostly from finished fics, with a couple of wips at the end. feels like i could go on forever otherwise

tagged by @improvised-finish (tysm!!) and tagging @pillowfriendly and @worldoshaking i wanna read more of your wols pls pls pls (*>∀<*)

(duo)

"I've never heard of such a name before! From which fair land do you hail, friend?"

"Coer--" C'astarhte said something and promptly bit her tongue. She covered her mouth, then quickly added, "Pardon. Meant to say... I come from the Exarch's homeland."

---

C'astarhte looked distressed. She glanced around at the rest of the bar, then at Reeq, and whispered intently, "But this worked before... Crystarium people don't ask about the Exarch."

(detour)

"So we've never really fought together, no? When you say we're partners, I'd like it to be earned."

---

"Doesn't need to," Tart shrugged. "What matters is we do it together. No more objections, right? Surely not." She stuck out her tongue at Lue-Reeq, then headed to the stairs.

---

"You know," Tart said, "you're not bad. I don't know much about archery, but your technique is very clean. Efficient, no wasted movement, very well timed. I was amazed how fast you could nock arrows and have shots lined up perfectly. It was nice to fight with you. Good job, Reeq."

(drown)

She just had to kill Andreia. All would be well if she killed Andreia. Remember what she had done to Alisaie, to Alphinaud? Blackguard. Scum. Bitch. Just kill her and get it over with!

(ask of me)

"No," Tart cuts him off. "Don't want to stop, just... want you to stop pretending I'm not here."

"Am I?"

"You're not touching me, not saying anything, not even looking at me! What's with that, Reeq?" she pouts.

---

"Reeq, you like it when complimented and told you're doing a good job. I feel the same. So, not asking for more, you're giving back to me." She smiles, putting her hand on his. "I like you. Always want more of you. If you're having a good time then so am I. Wouldn't know that if you don't tell me, though, so let me hear it, yeah?"

(focus)

"you're scaring me a little, right now."

she smiles. "is that bad?"

"not at all. i quite like it."

"good."

(wurm)

"Say, remember when you asked, would I still love you if you were a worm?"

Reeq snorts. "Why yes, I do! I remember perfectly well," he pinches her cheek lightly, "when you told me that you would feed me to your chocobo."

(peel)

The man is ecstatic, so very amused that he cannot hold his giggles back. His feet kick as he laughs and his tail thumps on the floor, shaking with glee. Unable to wait for Reeq to finish his sentence, he fills in with an exclamation:

"Tart!"

Tart only makes himself laugh harder.

(division)

"ishgard has ways of denying certain people's existnce. mean really, completely erase them, unlike the shite that bishop was spewing about himself. my family no longer exists. how dare he accuse me of not understanding how it feels to be rejected? and how dare you take my prey?"

---

tart holds his focus in his right hand, blade in the left. his tail flicks uneasily. "go easy on me, won't you?"

"what? oh my, i never thought i would hear that from the warrior of light!" aymeric laughs as he readies his own sword.

"i'm ill, you blackguard."

"then maybe you should rest properly."

"hasn't helped. this might, so stay still and let me cast magic at you."

(out to the cold)

"--get it, i get it. zenos wanting me makes me a liability. now that you all have the dragon scales' protection, i am not needed anymore. you--they're setting you up as my replacement. no. no, they can't. won't allow it. can't let that happen. oh--you--you're here to kill me. you can't replace me! i'll kill you first! you're dead, estinien wyrmblood!"

(aphelion)

"not that i want to die, g'raha. just... wish i'd died back there. it wouldn't've been good, but it would've been perfect. my life could've ended perfectly. haven't you felt that way too?"