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thedaveandkimmershow · 1 year ago

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Our second day was an Aunts day.

It was also jet lag day, sadly.

No idea why.

We went to bed coming up on midnight at the end of our first day, both mentally sluggish and sleepy. And yet...

And yet four-thirty in the morning of our second day we are fully, inexplicably, wide awake. Both of us at the same time.

So we streamed that movie, Enola Holmes 2, from my laptop to our room's large screen monitor. By the time credits rolled, it was just passed 630AM. We stayed up another forty-five minutes before setting an alarm for 830 and trying again.

Kimmer actually fell asleep while I lay there, eyes closed, waiting for sleep to come.

And then the alarm went off.

So that happened.

Fortunately, we enjoyed an easy, lazy morning after that, our only agenda item being to visit my aunt and uncle who live nearby. I did a bit of my own reading and writing while Kimmer worked on her current paper for her doctoral program studies.

Oh. And I had one of the marzipan rolls my one uncle gave me at the airport the day before. I think there are six total in the package. So I'm indulging one each morning until it's time to go home.

And yeah. Since you're thinking it I'm gonna say it out loud: it's AMAZING I have that kind of self-control.

😁

Around noon, we pivot toward readying ourselves for what will be a lovely, twenty minute walk to my aunt and uncle's home. Unfortunately, the morning's rain is persisting. Plus there's wind.

Kimmer had the foresight to pack a pair of small collapsible umbrellas that actually work on such a day... just barely. They keep our heads dry and manage to not blow out.

All we can ask for.

☺️

We're out the door quarter after one, walking a bit of cobblestone before reaching the main street that'll take us most of the way to my aunt 'n uncle's place. Ten minutes later we're at the local market trying to make sense of packaging labels, trying to figure out which ones declare nut allergens and which ones don't. There's a lot of dutch food here I remember growing up. We just need to make sure we identify the ones that'll kill Kimmer. ☹️

So yeah. Other than the possibility of random nuts baked into the food causing Kimmer to die on the spot... there really are a lot of fantastic food memories here: the traditional holiday raisin rolls, stollen, and oliebollen. And then everyday things like chocolate hail I used to spread as often as humanly possible on top of peanut butter that was spread on top of butter butter that was spread all over hot slices of toast.

Stuff like that.

There are a lot more goodies at this dutch market as opposed to what I would consider food staples. Which is just the best thing ever.

We're at the market about half an hour and by 2 we're walking the sidewalks again. Under a little harder rain. Into a little harder wind.

At one point I miss our turn and we go a block farther before turning back and landing at my aunt and uncle's place twenty minutes after leaving the market.

Approaching their front door, another of my aunts pops her head out. I manage to not embarrass myself identifying her after more than twenty years because I saw a photograph of her the previous night in a photo album from a recent family celebration.

Thank God.

Once inside, we settle down at the dining room table for the next coupla hours for a lunch featuring salad, meats, cheeses, teas, and breads both hot and room temp. At the table are Kimmer 'n I, my aunt 'n uncle, and my other aunt who's visiting.

Like the previous evening with family, the conversation ranges all over the place. And maybe what's fun about these conversations isn't just their eclectic nature but the general tone. Friendly. Light-hearted. Familiar. With an easy humor within reach at any given moment. Even as the topics broaden out beyond family.

Quarter after four, my aunt who's visiting whisks us away for the half hour drive to her home.

Now here's the thing about her home: it's a half block from where my grandmother, my mom's mom, used to live. It's in the same village in which my parents were married. I visited here as a child when my uncle, my mom's youngest brother, was alive, when this home was still home to he, his wife, and their two boys, my other cousins who are really super tall these days. 🤯

My uncle passed away nearly twenty years ago. He and his wife's two boys grew into men with their own homes, their own lives. This is now simply the home of my aunt who lives where she always lived, in this village of friends who've been here a long time as well, in this village in which she worked for decades.

We're here another couple hours and during those hours we explore memories going all the way back to how my aunt met my uncle when she was fifteen, how she left for Holland when she was eighteen.

The story she tells involves people I can't even imagine, by the way. My aunts and uncles as teenagers, as early twenty-somethings.

There are photographs my aunt shows us, over which we marvel because yeah. Teenagers and twenty-somethings.

It's hard to believe even as I examine the photographic evidence with my own eyes.

So we spend two hours and an insane number of decades and stories that span a wide range of emotional territory and narrative arcs. At one point my aunt wants to give my dad a call to thank him for the Christmas card he and mom sent her. Also to wish him a happy birthday in advance of today which is his birthday. I help her untangle a couple technical issues with the call and, the next thing I know, my dad's voice is on the line. We speak briefly and then I hand the phone back to my aunt.

And they talk for a while.

Later, my aunt hands the phone back to me and I fill my dad in on what's happened since our last call a day ago (ish).

One other theme of this day, by the way, is that we're relentlessly being offered goodies. As if we can't possibly have had enough.

That's not wrong, by the way. 😉

That definitely continued from one aunt to the next. Even before we got to my second aunt's home, she asked us if we like apple juice and pear juice. Soon as we both said yes, she stopped at a nearby shop in her village where they make the apple juice and the pear juice.

We've got a bottle of each, now. ☺️

Then at her home, she offered us a jar of pears that we gladly accepted. Then she offered us teas followed by an apple tart, two apple tarts, of which I ate one and brought the other with us. Then cheese(?) cookies. Then home-made cookies in a round tin that are simply delicious.

She even offered more substantial food like bapao, a steamed bun with a filling. We politely passed given the amount of eating we were already indulging. Which made me remember:

We always returned home heavier when I was a kid and we came to Holland for family visits.

Our family in Holland was always feeding us.

And that's a thing that hasn't changed from then to now. 🙂

In the end, we had an unexpected, deep, touching, and lovely visit. An absolute bonus to our experience.

My aunt drove us back to my aunt and uncle's place through a nighttime wind storm that threatened to push her car sideways off the road or into oncoming traffic.

Not the best way to end our day.

She was taking us back because Kimmer accidently left her phones there. After a quick hand-off of phones, she dropped us at our hotel, hugs all around.

We may get a chance to see her again before we leave. This was a pretty definitive visit, though. And I'm amazed by it.

Interestingly, we'll see her sons later tonight as, apparently, we continue this experience of my family's greatest hits.

☺️

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softquietsteadylove · 3 months ago

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Hello love how are you?

I miss the actors au, so i have a promt for you if thats okay.

Thena and Gil are casted in an action/romance movie where their characters have a lot of tension and have to flirt a lot, so their tension in real life gets real high and they kinda start flitring with the other but they are just "friends".

As always thank you for your works 🩷🤍

"You ready?" he asked her, his weapon in hand.

She gave him a look over her shoulder, raising a finely plucked eyebrow. "Are you going to ask me that every time?"

He gave her look right back to her, though, both of them grinning at the exchange. "Well, I believe in words of assurance. Doesn't that help set the mood or something?"

She tested the doorknob, preparing to charge in with him. "Are you asking me as your partner or as a woman?"

He pressed his back to the wall with her. He wasn't nearly as entertained by it as she was. "I'm asking if you're sure about this."

She was surprised by his sudden hesitance. "You think we aren't there yet?"

"I mean dinner is one thing, but taking down this whole compound just us?"

"I knew you had commitment issues."

"You think everyone has commitment issues."

She rolled her eyes at him. "If you can't do this, then fine, I'll take care of it myself-"

He stopped her from going in alone, his hand holding hers back. He moved closer, even, his arm around her and his face nose to nose with hers. "You'll never have to take care of anything alone so long as I'm here. Whether you think we're there or not."

The clip faded out and the audience applauded obligingly. Some was politely directed by the teleprompters and some was genuine enthusiasm. The movie did seem fun and light, with well paced action, based on the snippet presented.

Gil and Thena laughed at the scene chosen, as if they hadn't already seen it countless times during their press tour.

"That was a clip from your latest--I'm already excited," the host of the show exclaimed, leaning back in her chair. "I feel like we haven't seen you guys take on anything this light in a while."

Gil and Thena shared a look. It was always funny for them to do press and receive notes on how their careers were going. Whether they were working on something together or apart, they were spending almost all their time together anyway.

"Well, Thena had her more serious biopic, which swept awards season," Gilgamesh began, openly inviting the audience to shower her with adulation. He clapped as well, chuckling as she ducked her head and played with her hair in a moment of shyness.

"You see why I can't do press with him all the time? I can't take it," she laughed in good nature, spreading her time between the host and the audience. "He's too much."

"It's so sweet how close you are, though," the host beamed, dancing the line between innocent commentary and probing at something more. "I feel like it's not always the case."

"We are lucky," Thena agreed, looking at Gil again with a full smile. Her makeup done for the show made her seem to glow under the lights, from the blush in her cheeks to the colour on her lips. "I can't imagine how insufferable it would be if I didn't like him."

"Well, it'd be pretty hard, if that clip was anything to go by!"

She was somewhat luring them into something--saying something, admitting something.

"Is it hard to get into a character like the ones in this film, or do you find it easier because you already get along so well?"

Thena met the eyes of their host. She was good at her job; the audience was ooh-ing and ah-ing at all the right times. She kept her smile even, though, resting her cheek in her hand. "Well, movies like this one often focus more on the action and the humour than the characters. But we're lucky our writers actually have quite a fun story buried within the scenes."

"It was nice to be able to really play around with the characters and how they interacted and that would, in turn, influence how we played a scene or how we would allude to something that would come into play further down the line," Gilgamesh answered. It was a very practised, media coach approved answer. It really didn't say all that much, but it sounded like he was saying a lot.

"Now, just tell me," the hostess got a devious smirk on her face. "Are you flirting like that the whole movie?"

Thena resisted the urge to roll her eyes, much like her character for the summer blockbuster. "Would you call that flirting?"

Gil laughed beside her, their eyes drawn together and away from the third party on stage with them. "I think that's just how they talk to each other."

"It's natural for them," Thena joined in his laughter. "They get up, go to work, see each other in the elevator-"

"She says 'fuck you', he says 'how hard'?" Gilgamesh joked, which had both he and Thena laughing, as well as the audience in stitches. He made a sheepish face to the camera, "sorry, sorry, forgot you'll have to bleep that."

Thena shrugged one shoulder, "it's not rated R, we can have one truly good profanity."

"Yeah, and you got it," he pointed out, recalling the exact scene in which her character gets the privilege of saying the coveted once-per-movie-F-bomb. "It's a big one, too."

She gave him a look before purring, "not as big as you, baby."

The audience laughed again. Gil and Thena both leaned in their seats, losing themselves in the mirth of it all. The hostess was banging on the table.

She wiped a tear from her eye, picking up her coffee mug only to tip it upside down. "It's okay, there's no coffee in here."

The audience continued to laugh.

"How did you even get any work done like this?"

"Is it really work if you do what you love?" Gilgamesh chuckled, trying to calm his laughter and appear at least somewhat professional. He tugged at the lapel of his suit jacket, although he didn't button it closed. He looked at Thena again. "Wouldn't you agree?"

She made a face; Sprite got her mischievous side from Thena, but neither would ever admit it. "I think they do each other all the time, yes."

The audience roared with laughter again. Thena attempted to hide her completely open laughter with a hand in front of her mouth. Under the cover of it, she whispered to him, "sorry, but that one was too good to pass up."

"Takes one to know one," he whispered back to her.

"Okay, okay, okay," the hostess held her hand up, signalling the audience to cool it and drawing her guests' attentions back to her. "Cool it, kids--leave some room for jesus, 'kay?"

Thena and Gil both chuckled, but they had indeed gravitated closer and closer through the course of their banter. Their thighs were touching.

"Thena," the two women traded grins and raised eyebrows. "First, I have to know where you get your eyebrows done, because you're putting me to shame."

She was funny, Thena conceded. She liked her delivery and her genuine charisma. "It's all my stylist team, I assure you."

"Second," she held up a finger. "Did you write your own dialogue for this movie or what?--you're killin' me, here. You know how hard it is to get your own network show? I'm supposed to be the funny one."

The audience applauded again, the energy in the room still high.

Gil joined in. "She's always been funny--I keep telling people."

"No one believes you," she shook her head at him. They were ignoring their host again and getting lost in the fun of trading little jokes. She toyed with some of her hair, winding it around her finger.

He shook his head, capturing the lock of hair for himself. "That's what happens when you're pretty and talented, people think the rest of your resume is fake."

"Is there anything you can't do?" the host asked, partly for the info and partly so as not to let her own show get away from her again.

"Plenty," Thena looked back at her again, although it had to be said that Gilgamesh was still toying with her hair. "Cooking is top of the list."

"That's okay," the host jumped on the opportunity to bring up more inside info. "I hear he's a master chef all his own."

"It's true."

"It is not."

"It most certainly is," Thena cut him off, tipping her head in his direction again. He tossed her hair over her shoulder but she didn't let it distract her. "He's an amazing home cook."

The host pouted, leaning her chin into her palm with her elbow on top of her desk. "I'm jealous."

Thena nodded at her. "We had a break during filming, while we were changing location and our crew was doing the real heavy lifting work. And the day we were back on set, Gilgamesh brought everyone a little bundle of cookies he had made."

"For everyone?!"

Thena nodded again, confirming the other woman's shock. "He baked at least three hundred cookies so he could give them to everyone in the cast and crew. They were in cute little bundles, tied with ribbon and everything."

"Okay," Gil huffed, blushing modestly.

"Look," Thena pointed at the screen, where the showrunners were pulling up a picture taken and posted on social media. "Isn't it cute?"

The hostess dropped her jaw in the audiences direction. They were being well fed this segment. "Okay, I didn't think there was anything you couldn't do, but now it's him too?!"

Thena raised both her brows at him and crossed her arms with a smirk. "No, there is absolutely nothing he cannot do."

He rolled his eyes, still playing up his bashfulness. He raised his arm up onto the back of the couch, somewhat around Thena's shoulders. His fingers toyed with the fluttery sleeve of her dress. "Except get you to stop, apparently."

"Okay," the hostess tapped the desk, signalling the closing of their time. She turned to the frontmost camera while the other two turned to cover her other angles. "We are gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, the lovebirds here will have some insider info on release dates and we'll even have some questions from our viewers!"

The cameras pulled out and the band played until sound was done rolling. Gil and Thena waved to the audience, as well as the 'audience' at home through the cameras.

"That was amazing, you guys are nailing it," their hostess addressed them openly as her team came scurrying in to retouch her hair and makeup in their brief commercial spot. "Keep up the fun, flirty vibes when we come back, okay?"

Gil and Thena looked at each other. The hostess was further engulfed in assistants and scrip producers and coffee gophers swarming her for their brief five minute window to do their jobs.

"Flirting?" Thena voiced aloud, to which Gil also shrugged. "I wouldn't call it that."

"No," he scoffed in agreement with her. "We're just making friendly conversation. And you're totally killing the audience--just admit you're funny."

She scoffed at him this time, her arms still crossed, him still playing with the sleeve of her dress. "I admit nothing. If anything, you are bringing it out in me. And she's quite humorous."

Gil just chuckled, adjusting himself to fully sit sideways on the couch, since this was the position he would be in for the rest of the interview anyway. He abandoned the dress sleeve and found her stray curl of blonde to play with again. "You're funnier."

And they said they weren't flirting.

#Thenamesh Actors AU #an oldie but a goodie!!!#thank you so much for the ask my dear I hope you like it!#I wanted the vibes to be immaculate #Thena is well trained on how to seem fun and personable #and she and Gil definitely got into character for these roles #ie flirting and making dirty jokes nonstop #the hostess is like guys please this is my show eyes up here #it's giving Kathryn Hahn hosting for Jimmy Kimmel Live #anyway the interview continues #they've received questions from viewers through instagram and such #Gil and Thena answer the questions professionally #for the most part #but everyone online is just like is this publicity or a relationship announcement video???#there are memes online within minutes #'they look like a youtube couple announcing their pregnancy'#'this is how your parents look when they tell you they're going on vacation without you'#'like what are they even that close for???'#Sprite sees all of it and likes every comment like that #much to Thena's distress #and of course the movie PR is just like okay great free advertising for us #they knew their leads #they knew they already had insane chemistry on and off screen #and Gil and Thena got to film in a beautiful vacation spot all summer everyone wins #except for Sprite who stepped foot into the sun for ten minutes and got baked like a lobster

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