#I’m so glad I saw them on tour AND broadway

[thequeendomeffect-noah]

Currently not ok at all. 🥹

[thatshrillsymphony]

First Broadway Trip!

I had my first Broadway trip earlier in July and it was really cool! I just want to ramble about it for a bit. So here’s what I saw the 8 days I spent in NYC:

Plays:

Prima Facie (on closing night)

Life of Pi (lottery win)

The Cottage (first preview night)

Grey House

Musicals:

Some Like it Hot

Wicked

Camelot (lottery win)

Little Shop of Horrors

Shucked

Of the 9 shows I saw, I saw two of them twice (Grey House and The Cottage). Going into the trip, I was most excited for Prima Facie, Grey House, and Some like it Hot. At the end of the trip, I’d say my I’d also have to add The Cottage to my list of favorites.

Some of my brief thoughts about each show:

Prima Facie

I actually chose the week of the trip based on how/if Prima Facie dates lined up with me having enough PTO. Luckily, I was just able to make it to the final show the day my plane landed. 

Jodie Comer was amazing; the reviews describe her as “Tour de force” and that’s accurate. The play itself deal with the topic of sexual assault in the context of legal processing of it and all that. It was such a powerful performance; I knew I was going to cry but holy shit. I cannot fully stress how phenomenal the everything about it is. Truly grateful to have gotten to experience it.

Grey House 

I wanted to see as soon as I heard about it from Sophia Anne Caruso’s instagram. I went into this blind. I knew MatPat posted a theory video about it and there was a subreddit but that was about it. I did get some of the jump-scares spoiled for me just by over hearing people talk about the play right before curtain, but there nothing I could’ve done to avoid those. I just had the misfortune of being in earshot. It was still really eerie and suspenseful and more gore than I expected. Honestly, I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it after seeing it. I decided to see it again (if i was able to get discount tickets) just because there’s so much to unpack there. It ended up working out and I’m glad I did see it again. I decided I really liked it. It’s definitely not for everyone and is the most unique production I’ve seen.

The Cottage

I saw this because I saw Elizabeth Teeter post about it in support of Dana Steingold. I also saw it was opening the week I was there and I thought it would be neat to be able to see a show on its first preview. 

This was the funniest thing I’ve seen. I loved it, so much that I saw it twice. I’d see it on official opening night and closing night if I could. Side note, The Hayes Theatre also had the nicest bathrooms lol.

Life of Pi

I didn’t actually have this play on my radar. I just had a night were I didn’t have anything plan and decided to enter more raffles and see what happened. I ended up winning. I’m glad I went. I was blown away by the puppeteers.

Some Like it Hot

I started listening to the soundtrack because my friend mentioned that this old movie that they watched with their dad was being made into a musical. I loved the soundtrack so much. I wanted to see it so badly and couldn’t want for the tour to (hopefully) come to my city. Since I’d be in NYC, I knew I would be seeing this show. There was actually the understudy for Sugar that night and she was so good! The musical was everything I wanted and more. No complaints just phenomenal. It’s fun and funny. The set design is so cool and I love the train car scene so much. I’d see this again in a heartbeat. I’m excited to see how the crew/creatives are able to modify the set design to something functional for touring.

Camelot

I got an instagram for this and Phillipa Soo was in it, so I’m like I gotta try and see it. But, I wasn’t hell bent on seeing it. I actually won lottery tickets; the seats were sooo good. I love Phillipa Soo. Beyond happy that I got to see her.

Little Shop of Horrors

Honestly I got tickets to this because a friend of mine liked it. I’d seen the movie musical a couple years ago and enjoyed it; but I didn’t love it. Seeing it live was really cool! Joy Woods as Audrey; amazing! I got to talk to the puppeteers for Audrey II at Stage door for a bit and they were really nice. The puppets for Audrey II were all really cool. Tbh I want a plushie of the little Audrey II (like Act I).

Shucked

I knew it was about corn and it was a comedy. I got tickets from the TKTS booth because I wanted something chill and thought why not. After seeing the musical, I must say it’s corny and a little horny. It’s just a fun silly musical about corn and marriage and rocks.

Wicked

My friend was obsessed with this musical when we were in middle school. So, it just made me think of her. I really enjoyed the set design and all the effects and costumes and the performers were really good! I just was really baffled by the plot/pacing among other things. Nessa’s character deserved better. 

I have a lot™ of thoughts about some of these shows, that probably warrant their own post so I’ll probably do that.

[six-costume-refs]

I think I saw your post on this for the Broadway alts, but if you had to assign alt colors to the Aragon Tour alternates what would you pick for each queen? Because there's 5 colors and 4 alts, I'm also curious which one you'd either leave out (or because in this hypothetical money doesn't exist and someone gets two haha). Loving the blogs and all your takes on costuming and everything Six! (PLEASE feel free to disregard if this was an ask already and I somehow missed it)

Hey! Thank you, so glad you enjoy it!

It’s taken me a hot second to respond to this as I wanted to use the update for @lightleckrereins six dress up game and because I've been going back and forth a little bit, but here’s what I’m going with!

For starters I think having several variations for everyone would be really essential to the success of alternate costumes, so I've worked out scenarios with 2 variations per alt (like the 2019 NAT Tour) and 3 variations per alt (like the fall 2019 NCL productions). Cleves costumes would also actually be reveal.

Kelly Denice Taylor (A/B/C): teal

with 2 variations: an A skirt with peplum like @lightleckrereins drew here, and full Cleves with the shorts also worn for B

with 3: the same A skirt, Boleyn skirt, and full Cleves

Kelsee Sweigard (A/S/P): orange

with 2 variations: orange pants for A/P (peplum worn for P but not A), Seymour skirt

with 3: some sort of A skirt, S skirt, P pants w/ peplum

Erin Palmer Ramirez (B/H/P): silver or pink

with 2 variations: open-front skirt for B/H, pants with peplum for P

with 3: Boleyn skirt for B, open-front skirt for H, pants with peplum for P

Cassie Silva (S/C/H): black

with 2 variations: full C and a skirt for S/H (out of the existing designs it would be like Collette Guitart's, but I don't love it for S)

with 3: S skirt, full C, Collette's skirt for H

Some reasoning if anyone is curious: - My main focus was on matching up the colors of the costumes, both in terms of their covers and what colors would be most flattering on each alternate. Knowing that I would have a few variations meant designs weren't fixed, but colors and what colors would work for who were. As a result...

Here’s a post where I talk about the typical track usage of each alt costume if anyone wants to see some of the precedence.

Teal is almost always B/C or B/H, although I also like it for B/P. That would mean Erin or Kelly. Teal isn't as flattering on Erin and I definitely liked other colors better for her, but it would look fantastic on Kelly and works perfectly in an A/B/C scenario!

Orange has strong history as A/S/C/P. I love it for A/C so I briefly considered it for Kelly and I do think it would be a nice color on her, but I preferred teal and in every scenario I tried it was just too obvious a pick for Kelsee to be given to anyone else.

Pink is my favorite alt costume, but in my opinion the color is the least versatile. I knew if I used it I would definitely give it to a Howard cover, and that narrowed it down to Erin and Cassie. It could work for either (and I actually love it for S/H), but it’s a great color on Erin and with Roxanne Couch wearing it for B/H, there's precedent for Six using it for that combo. I still don't love it for P (which is why I have silver as one of my options for her too), but Erin is definitely a solid choice for pink.

Silver is a really polarizing color - some will look good in it, and some won’t at all. I cut out Cassie and Kelsee immediately because it’s not as flattering on either of them. Erin tends to self-select a lot of pink/blue pastels and white for herself, so it seems like one she might choose and would also look great on her. Erin with silver B/H/P also works with the original design of the costume for Esme Rothero as B/H/P swing. 

Black was the hardest to place, actually. It’s meant to be a really versatile color and design as a swing costume, and it could have looked good on most of them. I mostly focused on covers as a result: I like it for A/S/P, but by elimination Kelsee made sense as orange; it worked for Erin, but silver and/or pink also worked just as well for her and would have been better colors on her; it’s commonly used for A/C, but I didn’t like it for Kelly. Cassie has the combo of S/H that it was designed for and that I really like it for, plus it’s commonly used for Cleves, so it made sense for Cassie.

[peppertaemint]

I’m glad that anon brought up what you said a year ago and how it was pretty much spot on Namjoon’s sentiments at the festa dinner. I remembered you too and the shit show that ensued when you made your post. Because you had a bigger account at the time, many people saw what you wrote and so many asks were sent around to different blogs pretty much condemning you. Now many of the same blogs who assured everyone that BTS were still the same last year are now saying how they’ve actually felt the same deep down but didn’t want to verbalize it. I mean I’m not blaming anyone because not everyone could sense the change as early as you did but it’s just interesting to see how the public opinion on BTS’ music identity has changed over the last year. I can imagine that the harassment you faced was swift and unforgiving. I saw the asks sent to blogs accusing them of secretly being you and others throwing subliminal shade by referencing your ‘controversial’ post. Kudos to you for still continuing to blog after all that backlash. I guess the lesson learned is that everyone’s opinions are valid (as long as it’s not unreasonable hatred/disrespect) whether it’s a positive or negative take. Do you have any thoughts on how the boys solo careers and their relationship with their company will play out?

I appreciate you saying that, Anon. : ) It's not worth blaming anyone. What I would hope is that maybe some people will listen to others next time they present an opposing opinion and dialogue with them directly versus gossiping on other blogs. When we listen to each other, we get a whole lot further. You said it perfectly—everyone's opinion is valid. Just because we don't particularly like it, doesn't mean that person should become a target for horrible behaviour. I got off light, despite how horrible it was; other accounts I've talked to who went through the same thing on Tumblr & Twitter had their lives and the lives' of their loved ones threatened. Is it really that deep? We're talking about art here. Violent death threats, really?

I hope (probably in vain) that some of the army how joined the bandwagon to harass and degrade me and other people might reflect now that they know we weren't wrong. Idk ...

In terms of their solo careers, I'm really unsure what we will see because Hybe isn't exactly a consistent purveyor of the finest Kpop offerings. Consistent is the key word there. BTS have had these moments of brilliance (some MAMA/MMA performances, MOTS ON:E, LY:SY tour) but there isn't a consistency there. We also have Hybe saying on multiple occasions that they don't do "solo". So what will this look like? Hybe is still inexperienced and lacking in areas (styling, some of their music production/mastering, MV production—don't get me started on the weird CGI backgrounds).

So, I am hoping the solo work will be a sliver of what Kim Kibum (SHINee Key) has fought for at SM. He goes in with a PowerPoint presentation and lays out his ideas for his concept, including styling and other references. And then he takes part in all the production stages, including giving notes on the recordings themselves for the music producer. Kpop as a genre has been likened to Broadway; execution of concept, including styling, editorial photography, the physical production and the performance are all important, second only to the music itself. Some would probably consider all parts equal.

BTS' solos will display what their relationship is with the company and where they are in their artistic journey. The most important thing, I think, is to remember that a solo debut is a beginning. It's starting from scratch. Even though members have solo works in the BTS discography, they don't have experience of going solo. Readers should watch Taemin's debut solo stages. If you look carefully, you can see him trembling. And this was a person who never even wanted to debut in a group! ;D

[slipping-through-my-fingertips]

Thought You Liked Me Too

Part 1 of Not the One series.

Summary: Blaine is just starting at NYADA, spies Kurt Hummel, and promptly falls in love. One issue, Kurt is dating the lead singer of the acapella group Blaine wants to join. 

Notes: Partly inspired by Maisie Peters’ song “John Hughes Movie”

Read Part 2 here

AO3

Blaine tells his friends that the first time he saw Kurt Hummel was at the club they frequent.

When they tease him about his little crush, it’s everything straight out of his daydreams. Dancing with Kurt in the middle of a dancefloor not caring who’s watching, foreheads pressed together breathing in each other’s air, and being able to lean in anytime he wants to kiss him.

Except none of those daydreams are true and none of those friends are really Blaine’s friends.

Sam made friends with a bunch of upperclassmen who had connections to get the pair of roommates fake IDs. Callbacks was a primarily NYADA scene so the NYU students wanted nothing to do with it. Blaine had spent the last weeks of summer hanging out with Sam’s NYU friends exploring the city by day and clubbing at The Lion’s Den at night.

He knew once he started school some of his weekend nights would be spent here and others at Callbacks. Hopefully, Blaine Anderson could make friends at NYADA as easily as Sam had at NYU.

It had only taken two days before Sam came back to their apartment talking Blaine’s ear off about a group of guys he spent orientation with, “seriously dude, Dante and I are like long-lost twins.”

Blaine thought the same thing about him and Sam.

“That’s great, Sam.”

“We’re going out tonight. They want me to meet the rest of the group.”

Blaine was still scrolling through his phone, checking his emails again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything from school. They sent out orientation day schedules when he and Sam went grocery shopping yesterday. Ever since Blaine’s been slightly on edge. Maybe he should update his email notification preferences?

“You have to come!” Sam exclaimed, jumping onto the couch. “Please, Blaine! You’re my best bud. I want you to meet them.”

“I don’t know Sam…they’re your classmates.”

“Come on! It’ll be fun.”

It never took much to cave to Sam. Not when he made his lips so pouty.

“Fine, when and where?”

“Yes!” Sam did an air fist bump. “9 at the Lion’s Den.”

Then, Sam disappeared into his bedroom.

“The Lion’s Den,” Blaine murmured. “Doesn’t sound threatening at all.”

Blaine came to learn that The Lion’s Den was always crowded. Even on weeknights. From trivia night to karaoke to wing specials, everyone had a reason to be here. Not to mention their cheap drinks. If you wanted a fun, inexpensive buzz this was the perfect place.

Their lenient ID policy helped too.

The story of his first Kurt Hummel sighting went something like this: Spinning around on his barstool, after ordering himself a vodka coke and getting a weird look from the bartender, to admire the decor. Dark blue walls with high ceilings. Metal lion heads at every corner. Plenty of multicolored lights dancing over the patrons.

That’s when he saw him.

Bright blue eyes in a sea of dancers. Pushing his way out of the center of the dance floor.

He tells their friends for weeks to come that it was Kurt’s silver shirt that caught his attention that night. Blaine hadn’t known anyone could pull off such a color. It appeared to be made of silk and doused in glitter with the way it shined under the colorful lights in the club.

But that’s all fiction. A story he created because he was laughably bad at hiding his feelings. It took four days after he spun this tale for Tina and Angie to ask questions over lunch. By this point, Blaine had already had his heart broken by Kurt but kept up pretenses for the girls.

What’s his name?

Who’s got you smiling like that?

Someone put a twinkle in your eyes.

Tell us. Tell us. Tell us.

Even when Blaine knew there was no hope, his heart held on. Kurt Hummel had left his mark on him from just one measly conversation. So, he lied and told them he had a crush on some guy he saw at the club. A guy he didn’t speak to and would never see again. A guy whose name would never leave his lips.

Tina called him a hopeless romantic. Angie insisted Blaine would see him again.

If only she had known how right she was. Kurt Hummel wasn’t just some guy he saw in passing. Kurt had actually been at the bar that night dressed in that exact shirt but it wasn’t the first time Blaine had seen him.

Actually, Kurt went to his school. Not that any of Sam’s friends knew that—they all attended NYU. Blaine’s pretty sure they’re just tolerating him tagging along to their hangouts because of Sam. With the exception of Tina and Angie. They were the only ones who sought Blaine out—asked him to lunch. But even their friendship wasn’t solid. They had just met a few weeks ago when Sam started orientation.

A bunch of freshmen all desperate for friends in the big city. Who knows if it would last ‘til Thanksgiving. Now that school had officially started for them, they would surely get busy and Blaine’s feelings would be lost in the hustle and bustle of student life. The girls would forget about him and if he was lucky, Blaine would forget about Kurt.

Except, the real first time Blaine saw him was at NYADA. It was actually on the first day of school, four days before he saw Kurt’s silver shirt amongst the dancers at The Lion’s Den. He was using his space between class times to tour the school, trying to figure out where the rest of his classes for the week would be. Kurt had found him in the hallway where he had been studying the bulletin board filled with organizations you could join.

From chess to anime to superheroes, Blaine couldn’t choose which interests of his to pick. The only thing he knew he wanted to be involved in was Glee Club. Of which, NYADA had a ton. Luckily, Blaine already had his interests in a glee club narrowed down.

All of the brightly colored flyers had tabs to pull so you had the information to contact them about joining. He pulled the tab for the Apple’s Adams; the only acapella glee club on campus. Blaine had just finished his three years as the lead singer for the Dalton Academy Warblers and was pretty sure he’d get invited to join the Apples.

That’s when Kurt approached him though Blaine didn’t know his name at the time.

“The Apples?” he asked.

Blaine looked down shyly at the green tab in his hand. He met the man’s eyes and nodded. “I love to sing.”

“Me too,” he said, “I’ll see you at auditions, break a leg.”

That was it. No hello, no introductions, just a ‘good luck’ and a promise of seeing the most handsome man Blaine had ever seen again. If Blaine was going to daydream about someone at least he knew Kurt and he already had something in common.

He couldn’t wait for auditions.

The second time he saw Kurt Hummel wasn’t at the club either. This time Blaine was getting coffee. Standing in line debating if he should get another cronut or should he just stick to a medium drip and be on his way. Then he heard this voice coming from a table behind him.

Since their encounter the day before, Blaine had been replaying that melody of “I’ll see you at auditions.” It was getting him through his first week of school.

Friday’s auditions couldn’t come soon enough. Though, in reality, Blaine needed all the time he could get rehearing his audition song. The Lion’s Den karaoke nights these last two weeks had kept his vocals strong but Blaine wanted everything to sound perfect. He had more than just the judges to impress.

He quickly looked over his shoulder and noticed a girl sitting across from that blue-eyed man.

“Come on,” she was saying, “that’s not the Kurt Hummel I know!”

That’s how he learned his name. It was fitting. Sounded like a name that could very well be up in lights someday. Blaine hoped he was there to see it when it happened.  

“Rach, it’s only the second day of classes please contain your crazy for another week at least.”

She huffed dramatically. “Kurt, you need to put yourself out there.”

The girl, Rach went on to talk about how she was auditioning for as many off-Broadway productions as she could this year. After all, “we’re almost graduates”. Kurt had scoffed at that remark, “we have another 2 years.”

It was obvious then Kurt was an upperclassman. A junior. Blaine had to stand out at auditions to even be a blip on his radar. He moved up in line, ordered his coffee, and mentally going through his closet for the perfect outfit. Surely tight pants and a bowtie were enough to get someone’s attention but what combination of patterns and colors would appeal to one Kurt Hummel?

When Blaine turned back around, coffee in hand, Kurt was already gone.

Okay, he thought, he already had some practice getting along with upperclassmen. Tina and Angie seemed to like him. Chad and Dante tolerated him—Blaine was cool because he liked college football. Bryant and Xavier were the toughest to crack. He wasn’t sure they’d ever really like him.

But Kurt went to NYADA. He liked to sing, obviously enjoyed glee club and theater. They had to have tons in common.

The third time Blaine saw Kurt was at auditions. He was sitting as one of the judges in the audience. This time dressed in a green army jacket and a tight black tank top underneath. Kurt had his feet up on the seat in front of him showing off his white Doc Martens.

In his wildest dreams, Blaine might’ve wished for Kurt to remember him, give him a teasing wink before he began to sing. Of course, nothing happened. Kurt barely looked his way at all when he walked onto the stage.

It was during the last few notes of Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”, Blaine found out Kurt Hummel was taken. For a second, Blaine was glad the reason Kurt hadn’t given him a second look was that he was already in a relationship but in the next, he felt his heart sink to his stomach.

The man he had just seen Kurt kiss on the cheek was now talking to him. He was British. And taller than Blaine.

“I’m Adam,” he said, extending a hand, “we’ll let you know by Monday.”

Blaine can’t remember if he shook his hand before nodding and bolting out of the room.

Fuck fuck fuck.

There was no way he could stand to be in that group with Kurt and his lead singer, group founder, and British boyfriend.

That night Blaine had camped out on the living room couch, binge-watching the Star Wars movies knowing he had the day off tomorrow, and eating his heart out Sam found him covered in used tissues and Hershey kiss wrappers, with a half-eaten pint of Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough in his lap.

“Bad audition?” Sam asked.

He didn’t answer. So naturally, he just sat next to Blaine on the couch.

“At least tell me you’re watching them in order.”

Blaine shook his head.

“Fuck dude, it’s worst than I thought if you don’t care about the order!”

Sam reached over his roommate to grab the remote control and paused the movie. Even though both boys had seen them over and over again, they insisted on pausing it for conversation.

“Talk to me,” Sam said.

When Blaine couldn’t make the words come out of his mouth, Sam pulled his roommate to his side in a half hug, half cuddle. That’s all it takes for Blaine to start crying, murmuring about his perfect guy being taken.

“I made it all up in my head, Sam,” Blaine whined.

All that’s heard from their apartment is sobbing and gentle condolences from Sam, who is still confused as to why he’s consoling Blaine at all.

He may have only known about Kurt’s existence for four days but Blaine had been dreaming about him for years. Blaine Anderson had their whole life planned after their first interaction. His middle name was “too much, too soon.” When the Andersons wanted something, they just knew. The depths of his soul knew Kurt was his perfect man.

The fourth time Blaine saw Kurt Hummel was at the club. That Saturday in September after auditions Sam pulled Blaine out of bed to meet up with their friends.

“You’re friends,” Blaine had said, head buried under a pillow.

“OUR friends,” Sam corrected. “Tina loves hanging out with you.”

Sam took the pillow off his face and forced Blaine to sit up by pulling on his arms.

“Because she’s got a crush,” he sighed.

“She knows you’re gay.”

“Gay and depressed,” Blaine told him before pulling the pillow back over his face.

Sam ripped the pillow off and tossed it onto the floor this time and sat Blaine up again.

“Let’s go, you gotta get out of this room. It’s been forever since you’ve seen the world!”

“I was at school yesterday.”

Sam ignored him. “I picked your outfit.”

He held up his choice. The mismatched patterns are enough to get Blaine up and out of bed.

Thank god Sam only wanted to model clothes and someone else would be choosing them.

The rest of the night had been going fine until Blaine caught sight of Kurt. At first, he was captivated by him. Did Kurt Hummel always look like he stepped out of a painting? For a second, Blaine could forget that he wasn’t allowed to want him.

Then, Blaine caught sight of who Kurt was pulling behind him. It all came back full force like someone slapping him across the face.

They were laughing together, probably drunk off each other. What he wouldn’t give to know what he was like to have a man like Kurt look at him like he was currently staring at Adam.

All his earlier feelings, everything Sam hoped he’d drink away, came flowing back. Blaine downed his vodka coke, paid his tab, and asked the bartender to call him a cab.

That was that.

Blaine walked home alone, texting Sam when he got back to their apartment so his roommate wouldn’t worry too much. Then, he locked himself in the bathroom and sunk to the floor.

If this was a movie, Blaine knows there would be heartbreak music playing as a camera zoomed in on his breakdown. It’s not Kurt’s fault that Blaine can’t help but picture a happy ending with every crush he has. They just had so much potential to be a great love story.

Now it was clear that was a story never to be written. If Kurt doesn’t want to be with Blaine then he’s just not the one.

[someone-somewheresomehow]

Delayed Flight

After 5 months, I’ve finally posted another fic. Are y’all proud of me yet?

Characters: Roman Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Logan Sanders, Remus Sanders

Ships: Intrulogical

Content: Christmas fic bois, also Creativitwins (not ship!!)

Word Count: 3540 (exactly)

AO3

“4 hours?” Virgil groaned. “How can a flight be delayed that long?”

The flight attendant shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir. We could transfer you onto a different flight, if you want?” She offered.

��“No, it’s okay.” Virgil said. He scanned the airport lounge. “I’ll wait.”

 Spotting an empty corner, he walked over and sat down, slipping his backpack off of his shoulders and placing it beside the couch. The rest of the lounge was nearly empty - everyone else had obviously taken the transfer offer. That was fine with Virgil - it meant that it was quieter. Leaning over to his backpack, he pulled out his headphones, connecting them and putting them on. He slipped into the music, the rest of the world fading out around him, pulling out his sketchbook and starting to draw.

 Only a few minutes later, someone came rushing in, disturbing the peace with the huge racket that they were making. Virgil looked up, annoyed, and watched as the person ran over to the desk. “Am I late?” He asked the attendant. She shook her head.

 “No, the flight has been delayed for 4 hours. You’re actually early!”

 The man looked startled, before he composed himself and grinned. “Nice! I’ll find a seat, then.”

 He turned around and surveyed the room. Virgil took this opportunity to look at him properly. The man had tanned skin and light brown hair. He seemed to hold himself as if he believed that he was better than everyone else, and he looked very confident, even if he didn’t mean to.

 The man looked in Virgil’s direction, and Virgil quickly turned back to his sketchbook. But it was too late - the man had spotted him watching and started heading in his direction.

 The man sat down next to Virgil. “I’m Roman.” He said. Virgil stared at it for a moment before shaking it. He looked up at Roman and noticed that his eyes were a bright bottle green that sparkled with excitement and humour.

 “I’m Virgil.” He replied. "Uh, why are you going to New York?"

 Roman’s eyes lit up. “I’m going to Broadway! I’m gonna see Hamilton! They’ve reunited for a tour!” Virgil smiled faintly at the other man’s excitement. “Oh, I’m also visiting a couple of friends. Why are you going to New York?”

 “I’ve also got a friend that lives there. I’m visiting him for a couple of weeks.”

 “Oh, neat! Do you like Hamilton as well?”

 “It’s okay, I guess. It’s kinda overrated.”

 Roman gave a dramatic gasp, placing one hand over his chest. “Overrated?! Virgil, I can’t believe you! Hamilton is an excellent musical, with beautiful songs performed by the wonderful Lin Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, and everyone else in the cast!”

 He continued ranting for a few minutes, while Virgil sat in silence. When he finished, he sat, panting from the passion that had taken over him. Virgil stayed silent for a couple more seconds, before smirking. “I never said it was bad. I just said it was overrated.”

 Roman gaped at Virgil. Virgil looked at him for a moment, soaking in the satisfaction that he gained from the flabbergasted look on Roman’s face, before slipping his headphones back on and returning to his drawing.

 Roman waved one hand in front of Virgil’s face, but after Virgil responded with a glare, he moved away, taking his stuff and sitting somewhere else. And for the next few hours, Virgil sat in blissful peace.

 After the flight, Virgil arrived at the airport. He got his luggage from the baggage area and made his way to the exit.

 Outside the airport, he checked his watch. Logan had been prepared to pick him up, but because of the delay Remus, Logan’s boyfriend who Virgil had never met before, was picking him up instead. He was supposed to be here in a minute or two.

 The sky was a cloudy grey, and looked at if it might start to snow. It certainly felt cold enough. Virgil shivered, glad that he had put his coat on before coming outside.

 “Virgil!” Someone called out. Virgil turned, and saw Roman walking towards him, his own luggage in tow.

 “I’m sorry about what I said earlier.” Roman said when he reached Virgil.

 “It’s fine, man. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

 “I feel so bad, though! Can we meet up sometime so that I can make it up to you?”

 “You really don’t have to-”

 “I insist! We can go out and see the sights together, or maybe see a movie or something?”

 “Fine, sure, whatever.”

 Roman perked up. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and after a few swift taps, he handed it to Virgil. “Can you put your number in for me? That way I can call you about our plans!”

 Virgil took the phone and entered his number before handing it back to Roman. “Who are you waiting for?” He asked, changing the subject.

 “A friend of mine. His boyfriend was originally meant to be coming, but he couldn’t make it because of the delay of our flight. Annoying, am I right? Anyways, what about you?”

 “Oh, same here! I don’t know his boyfriend, though, so that will be a new experience. I think his name is Remus?”

 Roman gave a start. “Remus? Is his boyfriend called Logan?”

 “Uh, yeah?” Virgil replied, confused. Then it dawned on him. “Are you being picked up by them as well?”

 “Yeah, I am! This is awesome! We can get to know each other properly!” Roman was practically vibrating in excitement.

 Suddenly, a voice called out their names. “Roman! Virgil!”

 They both turned, to see a man running towards them. He had light brown hair, with one grey streak running through it, and had the wisps of a mustache that was just starting to grow. He was wearing a green tank top, along with a pair of black shorts, as if he were immune to the cold. He jogged towards them, one hand waving in the air.

 “Virgil,” Roman sighed. “Meet my brother, Remus, Logan’s boyfriend.”

 “It’s nice to meet you, Virgil!” Remus greeted. “Good that you two have already met! That way we can get the boring ‘making acquaintances’ stuff out of the way!”

 He turned back towards the way he had come, and gestured for them to come with him as he started heading off. “This way!” He called.

 Virgil and Roman set off after him, heading into the carpark. When they reached the car, Roman called shotgun, leaving Virgil to sit in the back. They drove to Logan and Remus’ shared apartment, the way mostly filled by Remus’ constant chatter.

 When they reached the apartment, Roman and Remus led the way while Virgil followed behind. They had started bickering over which musical was the best, Roman going for the obvious choice, which was Hamilton, while Remus went for Beetlejuice.

 Just as they got to the door, Roman turned around. “Which one do you think is better, Virgil? Beetlejuice or Hamilton?”

 “Hmm…” Virgil thought for a moment. “Personally, I think that Beetlejuice is better than Hamilton.”

 “Ha!” Remus crowed triumphantly. He opened the door and turned back to Roman. “I told you so!”

 “But!” Virgil interrupted. “Starkid musicals are better than both of them.”

 “No way!” Remus and Roman both said at the same time.

 “What are you lot yelling about? Hurry up and come inside!” A familiar voice called out from inside the apartment.

 They went inside and were greeted by Logan, who was wearing his usual black shirt and pants. The room was dimly lit, a few overhead lights having been turned on and the rest of the light coming from the soft glow of fairy lights on a Christmas tree in one corner.

 “Hey Logan!” Roman greeted.

 “Hi.” Virgil greeted Logan as well.

 “I’m glad to see that you two are acquainted. I apologise for not being able to pick you up, but the delay put me in a difficult position, as I was unfortunately busy during the time when I would have needed to get you. I also apologise for not telling either of you that the other was visiting.”

 “It’s fine, man. We’re practically best friends now!” Roman threw one arm around Virgil’s shoulders.

 “So you’re dating Remus?” Virgil asked, shrugging off Roman’s arm.

 “Yes.” Logan confirmed. Remus walked over to him and they shared a kiss. Roman and Virgil stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do until they broke apart. Logan’s face was flushed, and he had a lovesick smile on.

 “Did you wear a shirt and shorts in the freezing weather again? One of these days you’ll get sick, and when you do you better not claim that I didn’t warn you.” Logan told Remus quietly before turning back to Virgil and Roman.

 “Let me show you where you’re sleeping.” He flapped one hand aimlessly and led them away.

 The rest of the week was filled with fun - they went shopping together, saw Hamilton on Broadway (which was wonderful - Roman was talking about it for two days afterwards), and even went ice-skating together at a local ice-rink, making sure that they all bundled up to protect themselves from the cold winter’s air. Remus was an excellent ice-skater, and Logan and Virgil weren’t too bad either, but Roman was absolutely terrible, holding on to the wall most of the time. When he mustered the courage to let go, he had to cling on to one of the others to stay upright, often making both of them fall. There was lots of laughter that day, and Roman’s nose turned red from the cold (definitely not from embarrassment, Roman told them), but he restored his dignity when they bought hot chocolate to get warm and Remus tripped over, spilling it all over himself.

 On Friday, they were sitting on the couch, watching TV, just lazing around doing nothing. They had spent the day exploring whichever parts of the city they hadn’t already seen, and were happily resting.

 “Oh!” Roman suddenly cried out. “I just realized! Virgil, I need to make it up for you!”

 “Wha- oh.” Virgil said, realizing what he meant. “No, it’s really fine, Roman, we’ve spent the entire week having fun together, you don’t have to-”

 “I insist! Really!”

 “What happened?” Remus asked. “What did you do, dear brother of mine?”

 “I- in the airport, I kind of maybe accidentally took something he said wrong and went off on a rant about it?” Roman looked down guiltily.

 Virgil sighed. “The dumbass that he is went off on a rant about how I was wrong for saying Hamilton was bad when all I said was that it was overrated. Which is not the same thing.”

 “And now you have to make it up to him?” Remus looked at Roman, a huge grin on his face. Roman nodded slightly sheepishly, and Remus’ grin widened. “Well, there’s a nice cafe around the corner. You two could go there together. It’s new - I’ve been meaning to take Logan there.” Logan and Remus shared a love-filled smile.

 “Wow.” Roman looked back at Remus. “For once you’ve actually had a good idea.”

 “I- for once?!” Remus spluttered. He looked at Logan. “Can you believe what this man is saying?!”

 “Virgil, unless you have other plans, tomorrow I invite you to come to the cafe with me in order for me to make it up to you!” Roman said triumphantly before Logan could reply.

 “Um, sure, I guess.”

 “Fantastic! It’s a date!”

 The next morning Roman and Virgil set off for the cafe. They left Remus and Logan at the apartment, as they were doing… other things.

 The walk to the cafe was a short one, and was filled with talking. For a man that short, Roman sure had a lot to say.

 The bell above the door rang as they entered the cafe. The air immediately warmed up, a stark contrast to the cool Christmasy air outside. The smell of hot chocolate filled the air, and they breathed in deeply.

 The cafe was loud with chatter as Roman and Virgil approached the wooden counter. They waited in line for a minute or two before they were at the front.

 “Hi, what can I get for you today?” The employee asked cheerily, even though they were probably dead inside like most retail employees are.

 “One caramel frappuccino for me, a small black coffee for him, and one slice of apple crumble to share please!”

 They paid and went to their table to wait, chatting a bit more. Their names were called out, and they got their items, before returning to the table.

 “So, do you live in Gainesville?” Roman asked, downing half of his drink in one sip.

 “Yeah, why?”

 “I live there as well! We can meet up sometime after we go back!”

 “Neat! When are you leaving here?”

 “I’m here over Christmas, so about 2 more weeks. You?”

 “I leave tomorrow.”

 “Noo!” Roman cried dramatically, attracting the attention of a few people nearby before they quickly turned back to their own conversations. “So soon?”

 “Yep. I’m celebrating Christmas with my roommate, Patton. He’s a good guy, I don’t want him to spend Christmas alone.”

 “Oh, dang. I get it. Spending Christmas alone isn’t great.” He sighed. There was a short, awkward silence before the topic quickly changed.

 They ate the cake and drank their drinks - Roman finishing his quickly and trying to steal some of Virgil’s, with Virgil having to hide it away from him to be able to keep it for himself - before going back to the apartment. They had decorated it during the week, as the only decoration that they had arrived to was the Christmas tree. Now holly was strung up on the edges of the ceiling and fairy lights hung over doorways. Remus had tried to put up mistletoe everywhere but was stopped by a loudly protesting Virgil. Of course, he would still put it up occasionally, but it was dutifully ignored.

 Virgil knocked on the door, and was greeted by Remus.

 “You guys can’t come in yet! Go away!” He told them, grinning, before shutting the door in their faces.

 Virgil and Roman stared at the plain wood in front of them, as if that would make it magically open, but it didn’t, because doors don’t work that way.

 They exchanged glances. “What was that about?” Roman asked. Virgil shook his head - how would he know?

 The door creaked open a crack, and Remus poked his head out, this time looking disappointed. “Logan said I have to let you in. You just have to wait a moment.”

 “Sure, I guess.” Roman replied as Remus closed the door again.

 There was a short pause while quiet shuffles could be heard from behind the door. “Move it to the bedroom.” They could hear Logan whispering. Loud crumpling pursued, fading off.

 Logan opened the door and Virgil and Roman jumped slightly backwards from where they definitely weren’t listening with their ears to the door. There was an awkward pause, before Logan said, “Come on in.”

 Virgil and Roman shuffled in sheepishly, not bothering to wipe their boots on the mat before pulling them off their feet along with taking off their hats, scarves and jackets.

 “What-” Roman started before Virgil whacked him with a glove, shutting him up.

 “It’s pretty obvious, just use your head and don’t spoil it!” Virgil hissed. Roman turned bright red but didn’t say anything. They both entered the apartment and spoke no more about it.

 The next day, Virgil was standing in the living room, saying his final goodbyes to Remus and Roman before he left for the airport. They had had a wonderful time together, and would certainly be missing each other.

 Remus and Logan stood together. Logan whispered to Remus and Remus nodded before running to the bedroom and coming back, carrying something behind his back.

 “Since you can’t stay for Christmas, we bought something for you slightly earlier!”

 He pulled out a present, neatly wrapped in red with a green bow tying it all together. Virgil took it from him and held it, trying to guess what it was. It was flat, and not too thick - maybe a big book?

 “You can open it now or when you get home, we don’t mind!”

 “I’ll open it now.” Virgil smiled and unwrapped the present, revealing a sketchbook with a plain, cardboard.

 He looked at it for a moment, before flipping through the pages, admiring the plain white pages, ready for him to start drawing.

  “Do you like it?” Logan asked. “We thought you would like it, but if you don’t we can give you the receipt. It is a bit plain.”

 “No, it’s great! Thank you!” Virgil drew both Remus and Logan into a hug, and after a moment where they were overcome with surprise, they hugged back.

 After they broke apart, Roman stepped forward. “I also got you a present, but I’m not sure if you’ll like it as much.” He held out another present for Virgil, this one wrapped in white wrapping paper that had golden swirls all around it with a red bow slapped on top of it. Virgil slung off his backpack and carefully put the sketchbook inside, ready for use for whenever he mustered up the courage to ruin its perfectly white pages with his drawings, which like with every notebook will immediately make him feel bad before he goes on a drawing spree, filling it up with wonderful art.

 Virgil took the present from Roman and unwrapped it, struggling for a minute with the layer of tape that was wrapped around the entire thing before finally tearing it off, along with the wrapping paper. Virgil felt a bit guilty about doing it so crudely, but ignored the guilt and focused instead on the present. In his hands was a pack of pens - a giant packet, with every colour imaginable.

 “I- you bought this for me?” Virgil stammered, shocked.

 “Yeah.” Roman rubbed his neck awkwardly, looking slightly embarrassed. “Do you like it?”

 “Like it?” Virgil carefully put the pens on the couch, making sure that no one would sit on it before launching himself at Roman. Roman nearly fell over, and if Virgil could see his face he would have noticed how red Roman had become.

 “I love it. Thank you so much!”

 Roman stood awkwardly for a moment before embracing the hug, hugging back. They held the hug for a moment more before Virgil stepped back, picking the pens back up and holding them close to his chest for a second before placing it into his backpack, even more carefully than he had put the sketchbook inside. When he straightened back up (though he was still as gay as ever), the room was practically lit by his smile.

 “I have presents for you guys as well!” He handed each of them a package, each one badly wrapped in the same wrapping with the words Merry Christmas printed over and over on it in red and green writing. Logan, Roman and Remus took each of theirs and began opening it, Roman and Remus ripping the wrapping to pieces while Logan completed the procedure more carefully.

 Remus revealed his first - soap and deodorant. He bit into the soap, as he usually did, and was delighted to find that it was made out of chocolate!

 Roman came next - he got a packet of paints. There weren’t as many colours as the pack of pencils, but he was still super happy and excited to use them.

  Logan finished opening his last, the wrapping paper falling away to reveal the dvds of the bbc series Sherlock. Logan was practically vibrating with excitement to watch all of them.

 There were a few minutes of hugs and thank-yous before Logan stepped forward. “Though I hate to be the one to do this, I’m afraid that we have to depart now if you wish to make the flight. Have you got all of your things?” He asked Virgil.

 “I do.” Virgil replied, picking up his backpack and pulling it onto his shoulders.

 “Right, well then.” Logan started heading towards the door.

 “It was great to meet you guys!” Virgil told Remus and Roman, waving before he turned and walked towards where Logan was holding the door open, pulling his suitcase behind him.

 He exited the apartment and waved one final time before Logan closed the door and they headed down to the car.

 They drove together, chatting with each other as music played on the radio, until they reached the airport. Logan walked with Virgil as far as he could, until they had to part.

 “It was great seeing you!” Virgil said.

 “It was! I’m glad you could make it.”

 After a moment they hugged, holding on for as long as they could before letting go. Virgil waved, and started heading off.

 He went through the rest of the process and finally settled onto his seat on the plane (fortunately the flight wasn't delayed this time).

 As the plane started lifting into the air, he looked out the window, headphones placed comfortably on his head, and headed back home.

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

What’s Kirsty’s relationship with Jess like? (I know you touched on it a bit in the Yale ask but I wanna know more!)

Short answer: “true friends don’t judge each other, they judge other people together” meets “slow burn found family”

Long Answer: oh boy buckle up we’re getting an Outline™ bc I really don’t know how to sum it up bc it’s a lot of growth and shit!  it’s like... many many paragraphs so I’m tossing this under a cut bc i don’t want to be murdered lmao

(I’m just... v proud of how much work went into planning out their whole arc and how the dynamic shifts and how certain plots play into things and I just wanted to share it all I couldn’t chill and I’m like half sorry but thank you for this ask I love them)

So when they first meet they don’t really get along because they’re just generally both kind of abrasive and shit, like it’s not personal on either end but they both generally push people away so that they don’t open themselves up to get hurt which makes their first couple of meetings kind of rough

but then there’s the dinner at Lorelai’s and Kirsty went outside because the whole vibe was just setting her on edge, and she hears the Lorelai rant bullshit (hi lorelai he’s seventeen and your an adult grow the fuck up) and as he leaves she goes after him — she tries to apologize for “my mom being... well, the way she is” and Jess immediately snaps back that he doesn’t want her pity, and Kirsty just shrugs and goes “nah dude I get it, parents suck.  My dad is a piece of shit and my mom, well, you’ve met her... not to mention she named Rory after herself and me after my piece of shit dad so I’m sure you can guess who her favourite child is” and just keeps it very chill and Jess takes that a lot better than pity and they end up talking for a bit and are like “yeah okay I can get along with you” and like they aren’t close but they both like pissing Taylor off and giving Luke ulcers so it works well enough

Kirsty absolutely flips her shit when Taylor calls the town meeting about Jess like she tears into him more aggressively than anyone has seen before and basically tells them all to shut the fuck up and “let him at least settle in before you pull out the fucking pitchforks” and goes off on them all for trying to bully a seventeen year old kid out of a town he didn’t even choose to move to and like Luke still gets there and flips his shit too but Kirsty is completely feral calling out the hypocrisy and telling them to get off their high horses and pull their heads out of their asses — like they might not be close but Kirsty is so far beyond pissed at the idea of Taylor calling a meeting literally just to get everyone to hate Jess that she can’t just stand there quietly 

Fast forward a bit and they’re getting along a bit better, Kirsty spends so much time at the diner that she and Jess have taken to talking during Jess’ shifts and Kirsty helps out when she can so they’re starting to actually get along, Kirsty has figured out the tells for when Jess just can’t deal with people anymore and will make up all sorts of excuses to get him a break (anything from ‘hey can you read over this essay’ to ‘hey did you remember to grab that book from upstairs’ to basically anything else that comes to mind) which he appreciates and when he’s on his breaks he sits at the counter to do homework with her

By the Bracebridge dinner they’re like actually friends, and when Jess meets Tristan for the first time he’s fully prepared to hate him but when he sees how shitty Lorelai is being about Tristan he’s just like “okay guess we’re in the same boat” so the three of them end up working together to stay as far away from Lorelai as possible for most of the night and Kirsty is just very grateful for the buffer because like she just can’t deal with Lorelai and Jess remembers her comment on the “you can guess who the favourite is” and starts to see how much Lorelai’s disapproval actually bothers Kirsty

fast forward even more to Christopher coming to town and with Sherry and all that and oof Kirsty is not okay like her relationship with Christopher is terrible and Jess kind of knows this already (based on the fact that Kirsty asked Luke to stand in for her dad at the debutante ball because she wanted nothing to do with Christopher; and he’s heard her bitch about him before) but when Christopher and Sherry come to the house, Kirsty excuses herself for “dance rehearsal” and runs over to the diner and Luke is out at the moment and Kirsty is Not Okay™ and Jess is the one who sees her just standing in the doorway shaking and clearly about to start crying and he just quietly leads her up to the apartment and sits down and lets her sort of collapse on the couch and she tells him about Christopher and about how unreliable and flakey he always was and how Luke has always been more her dad than him and he always shows up and tries to play happy family and then bails as soon as he gets bored or something comes up and about how now he’s apparently changing and becoming mr family man and why wasn’t she worth changing for

and jess has no idea how to handle this whole breakdown because he's a little bit emotionally stunted (which is fair and so is she) but it definitely resonates with him and he ends up sitting next to her and telling her that if Christopher wasn’t willing to change for she and Rory then it’s because of him not her and trying to comfort her even though he really doesn’t know how, and ends up opening up to her about Liz and his life before Stars Hollow too.  It’s more than either of them have shared with anyone before and it’s very strange tbh — at this point they’re definitely veering into the friend category but neither of them would admit it, not to mention they don’t talk that often because neither of them wants to deal with a Lorelai Gilmore Hissy Fit, you know?

(also a sidenote, Tristan is completely chill about literally all of this like he and Kirsty are the healthiest relationship and have very good communication skills now and he's just like “hey I don’t live nearby and Kirsty hates cars, I’m just glad she has someone to talk to”)

and okay so now we’re at the episode where Lorelai accuses Jess of stealing the bracelet and this is just as Kirsty is getting home, and Lorelai is more of a bitch than in canon (but seriously Lorelai grow up and let Dean deal with his own relationship issues ugh) — as Jess is leaving, Kirsty turns around and calls Lorelai out on being an absolute bitch and on the fact that she’s an adult and Jess is seventeen and to grow the fuck up because she’s acting like her mother and believe it or not she doesn’t actually know everything.  Kirsty then sort of storms off, and Jess ends up walking with her and just goes “hey, thanks for that” and Kirsty goes “don’t mention it” and they just sort of laugh and part ways so she can go to Miss Patty’s but anyways I’m soft for Kirsty fighting the entire town for him

then we have the hilarious scene of Kirsty looking Dean in the eye, knowing full well that he literally just saw her getting out of Tristan’s car, and going “yes I’m completely in love with jess is that a problem” and jess going “oh Kirsty I’m really flattered but while you were gone I started talking to Paris and I think I’m in love” and they’re just such little shits I love them

and okay now I promise we’re getting close to the speedrun part of this relationship lmaooo

so Kirsty is the one who ends up tutoring Jess and like he’s not on the verge of flunking because Kirsty has already been forcing him to do his homework semi regularly but he has trouble staying on task (he’s a mood) so Kirsty is basically there to make sure that he gets all of his final projects done — they take a break to go get ice cream and the car accident happens and Kirsty gets injured and she’s having a panic attack and she begs Jess to stay with her so he does, she lies to the hospital staff and tells them that he’s her step-brother so that he can stay with her because she’s afraid of hospitals and doesn’t want to be alone.  He stays with her until they hear Lorelai and then sneaks out the window; at this point Kirsty has finally called him her friend — while high on painkillers and introducing him to Richard and Emily, who she had him call because she knew Lorelai wouldn’t (they like him much better in this !verse than canon because Kirsty knows how to play them lmao)

Lorelai still pitches a fit to Luke and Jess still leaves and jesus christ when Kirsty finds out about all of that she flips her shit even more than she did at the town meeting, calls Lorelai petty and selfish and a shit mother and tells her that she’s more like Emily than she wants to admit, and this is very possibly when Kirsty finally drops one of my favourite lines of hers — “you and Rory might be best friends first and mother daughter second but I never needed a best friend, I needed a mom.  And now I don’t want either.” — and crashes at either Luke’s or Miss Patty’s (and is not thrilled when she finds out that Lorelai called Christopher and that he’s now back and awnting to play dad again)

fast forward and Kirsty knows Jess is in New York but they haven’t talked and Sookie’s wedding happens and Kirsty and Lorelai have their huge fight (this is the other point where that favourite line might happen, I’m torn) and Kirsty packs up and moves to New York for the summer to play Victoria in Cats on Broadway

She gets to New York and she’s staying at a hotel provided by the production company and she’s lonely and miserable and she’s never really been alone before and low and behold she stumbles into some diner on the verge of tears (just a bad day and everything is too much and she’s about to break) when all of a sudden she hears “wow, deja vu.  Coffee?” and she turns around and low and behold it’s Jess Mariano.  She accepts and sits at the diner until his shift is done and then they leave together and catch up and he offers to be her tour guide, and over the next week they become really close (all of both of their coworkers think that they’re siblings at this point) and blah blah lots of details I won’t get into bc seriously how many paragraphs is this thing, but Emily and Richard end up renting Kirsty this huge penthouse apartment and she manages to convince them to let Jess live with her and they become super close and kind of codependent and skip right over the friend stage to the “this is my brother, Jess” stage lmao and basically everyone in stars hollow except for lorelai and rory (bc kirsty and lorelai aren’t talking for most of the summer and rory is in dc so she and kirsty aren’t talking much either) know because they all came out for her opening weekend and everyone thinks it’s hilarious and their new york friends think Luke is their dad bc he called them “my kids” without thinking about it

also Tristan visits as much as he can get away with and seriously he and Jess become really good friends too and they’re just like, an iconic trio okay I love them

fast forward they go back to stars hollow together the day of the summer festival thing and that’s when Lorelai and Rory find out about their friendship and Lorelai is Not Happy and then Tristan shows up and the three of them are being adorable and having a great time and Lorelai flips out and there’s yet another fight (seriously Lorelai pls stop assuming you always know best, you don’t) and the fight is angsty but there’s the softness of jess finally really accepting that Kirsty meant it when she said that things weren’t going to change when they got back to stars hollow and they don’t and it’s just great

and in season 3 they’re just still all soft and codependent and Lorelai is forced to accept that Jess knows Kirsty better than she does and Rory has some really fun “what the actual fuck” moments watching Lorelai & Luke and Kirsty & Jess have the exact same arguments because Kirsty did inherit Lorelai’s ability to annoy people into doing things like participating in town events and season 3 is just very very soft and there are so many scenes/episodes that I’m so excited for

and anyways this was so long and I’m sorry but also I’m not because like i just really love this dynamic and I want to just like skip two seasons and just write new york & season three because i love them so muchhhhhhhh and anyways yeah 

TLDR they’re a slowburn rivals to found family with a speedrun towards the end and i fucking love them so much

[beebleboosuwu]

Alright.

There are a lot of conflicting emotions about having The Music Man kicking out Beetlejuice from the Winter Garden. Although I am bitter that one of my favourite musicals is being replaced in favour of money and two big names is just.. not sitting right, but I am open to everything and trying to look at everything with open eyes and an unbiased opinion.

Did Will Blum’s influence this a little? Yes.

Was the post a little unsound and unprofessional? I think so but it brought up some great points.

Yes, I agree. The fact that you are selling a name instead of a GREAT show is disrespect to the source material. Hugh Jackman is an awesome guy and his tenure as the Boy From Oz is forever embedded into Broadway his(her)story as being a stepping stone for Hugh’s career. Also you have Broadway star, Sutton Foster, another big name who, if you are a theatre lover, can’t help but fawn and scream in excitement.

We all know and love Hugh Jackman as the Wolverine/James Howlett/ Logan, that’s what people associate him as such. Fun fact he played that role from 2000-2018. Wolverine is known to be big, all muscle and raw strength, but in the theatre world we know him as a musical theatre actor. Jackman first claim to  international's fame was in 1999 when he played the leading man, Curly McLain, in the film adaptation of Oklahoma! He played the titular character Peter Allen in Boy from Oz in 2004 which he won a Tony for and Jean Valjean in the film adaptation of Les Miserables in 2012 while that wasn't the best adaptation of that musical, they did include Broadway and West End actors which was awesome! And lastly the most recent entry musical/film role was P.T Barnum in The Greatest Showman, Jackman went on tour last year singing songs from The Greatest Showman and some other songs from other musicals he previously worked in. He is an amazing vocalist, actor and dancer. His performance in Boy From Oz says as such in a review by Charles Isherwood: praising Jackman but panned the show: "Jackman is giving a vital and engaging performance in this pitifully flimsy musical almost in spite of the material he’s been handed. It’s a sad waste of an exciting talent." I’m pumped.

Sutton Foster is a Broadway actress that is well known for her two-time Tony award winning performance as Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has also roles from other shows such as: Chess, Funny Girl, Les Miserables, Anything Goes, Grease and MANY more. I knew her best as Reno Sweeney from Anything Goes, her vocals are nothing but extraordinary and her acting is nothing to sleep on, she is an excellent dancer and I cannot help to try and recreate in my bedroom when I’m alone. You can say all you want about her, but she is one of the Broadway actresses I know from the top of my head, alongside Patti LuPone, Sierra Boggess and Liza Minelli. She is also the younger sister of Hunter Foster of Little Shop of Horrors and Urinetown fame. Foster is going to be amazing as Jackman's partner in the upcoming production and honestly as a fan, I am so excited! 

They are both triple threats but.. no one knows a lot about the Music Man. It is a classic and has been around since the late 50′s.

Broadway, coming into the new decade of 2020, is becoming more MODERN. All these new musicals that have come out during this past decade might not have made it to Broadway but they are more aligned with the changing times and modern settings. Though there are musicals based on films from the 80′s that reach out to that generation and reintroduce them into that mind space they were in back in the day.

American Idiot, great musical, angsty music but has that throwback niche to that rebellious stage some, or not most, of us went through in the 2000′s.

Elf, that also starred Will Blum at one point, is fan service to those who love the holiday season and those who loved the film that came out in 2003. I haven't listened to it yet BUT I WILL EVENTUALLY.

Heathers, we all love the Heathers. Also Winona Ryder, who played Lydia Deetz in the 1988 Beetlejuice film, starred as Veronica Sawyer. Like Elf, IT BRINGS INTEREST TO THAT GENERATION SO THEY COULD BUY TICKETS TO THIS SHOW THAT WAS BASED ON A FILM THEY WATCHED AS TEENS. Also can we just forget about the horrible rendition of Candy Store done by the cast of Riverdale? That never happened. NEVER. HAPPENED.

Beetlejuice, Come From Away, Ghost, Once, Book of Mormon, Finding Neverland, Newsies, Kinky Boots, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Big Fish, 21 Chump Street, Amélie, Be More Chill, Hamilton, Head Over Heels, Lazarus, School of Rock, Something Rotten!, Tuck Everlasting, Waitress, Anastasia, Hadestown, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Prom, Ain’t Too Proud, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Frozen, Mean Girls, Six, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, The Lightning Thief, Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge!, The Cher Show, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, & Juliet, Mrs. Doubtfire.

These are SOME of the MANY shows that came out this decade!

Some musicals are entirely satirical so that was a niche for audiences who love the weird and messed up humour, some musicals are named after the films or shows they were based off of. So old audiences can take interest into coming to Broadway, okay I get that because again, nostalgia, some are entirely original or had little to no source material! Some are based around history, some about civil rights issues and some of them are jukebox musicals that appeal to people who like those artists.

Broadway has always been conservative and prefers to play it safe when it comes to opening a new productions and the dominant audiences have been older and more traditional. So that stereotypical Broadway show people think of is just that, the lead character getting their “want song” in, a lot of dancing, internal or external conflict that ultimately gets resolved with cheerful songs and set pieces. Although newer audiences want those boundary pushing shows so CAN get introduced to musicals like the Music Man, it means nothing if they were never introduced to the strange and unusual first. Everyone wants to advance to find that next big thing but they can’t do that when it is all safe but we did get some of them with Cats, Beetlejuice, Carrie, Matilda The Addams Family and more.

I totally get the interest of bringing back a musical that hasn’t been on Broadway for 20 years (last performance was in 2000) and it is a great way to reintroduce an old piece back into the world again, but it was at the expense of new artists making their Broadway dream a reality. The decision to evict, not close, evict Beetlejuice from the Winter Garden was a big mistake by the Schubert Organization. The Schubert Organization is one of the biggest landlord of theatres in New York, they at least own 17 Broadway theatres. Here’s the reason why they’re so successful:

They don’t keep shows that don't bring the cold hard cash. It’s show business, it has always been about the business and never about the show. As much as we could scream and shout to keep Beetlejuice in the Winter Garden all we want, it is unfortunately their decision to keep them or boot them out. We all know that productions have to be approved by a theatre organization so that production can be leant one of their many theatres, they show also had to keep up a total of sales from tickets above that number per week. As all of you know, that’s what happened with Beetlejuice. Ticket sales dried up and fell way below the amount. There was talk around the theatre community that a production of the Music Man was in the works with Hugh Jackman as the lead. So... they saw Beetlejuice as dead weight and sought out to cash in on Hugh Jackman’s name and fame.

There was a lot of problems from the show but most of their problems came from the critics. Mixed reviews was all the show got but the biggest blows came from the New York Times and Ben Brantley saying that the show never came to that same conclusion of home and belonging like other Broadway shows. This killed their ticket sales cause everyone goes through those reviews before they see a show. However that’s the thing, Beetlejuice never wanted that. The entire creative team and the cast knew that what they had was entirely unconventional, like it was their way sticking of the middle finger at the word conventional.

There's no doubt that the Music Man, Hugh Jackman, Sutton Foster and the cast and creative team will be amazing at the Winter Garden and it is highly unfortunate that the eviction of Beetlejuice was done for the sake of financial greed. I’m glad they were only evicted and not closed, the show IS still on and the public demand for the show is high. I know a lot of us hate the decision but what could you do? It’s all about the business aspect of Broadway and never the show.

Even though Beetlejuice had its problems with its opening following the Harvey Weinstein controversy, having the Music Man revival during this time of political conflict is a little awkward. Let’s trade a sexual, murderous demon for a eulogized conman.. that seems right.

I’m sure the show will be fantastic but the circumstances leading up to the opening is shady and not shining a good light for the Schubert Organization but lets not hate the actors and the creative team of the Music Man, they didn't do anything wrong. Instead, point that dislike to corporate greed, but is okay. The show is not closed and is only evicted from the theatre. Eventually they will find a new theatre on or off Broadway for everyone’s enjoyment again! Also that National Tour is coming up in Fall 2021 I believe, I personally can’t just fly to New York but I will be watching the National Tour if it does roll by where I live.

Keep safe my friends 💚🤍🖤

[janeyseymour]

Dessert For Breakfast

I’ve decided to continue with this little SiX/Waitress crossover, so uh, here you go?? 

prompt: ooo i'm so glad to see that people are liking the jane and jenna story :') i can't wait to see what you write next! what if bo gets sad at the time jane spends with the pomatters. less in a mom/daughter way (personally i see bo and jane as close friends like abby and andrea would be) but more like jane is slipping away. jane is still around and ALL the queens hangout at least once a week so it's not like anything has really changed. it's a shift in the ~vibe~ ahfkjajf if that makes sense

I’m not quite sure that my brain did what it was supposed to over even really followed the prompt all that much, but I hope you still enjoy it? 

Since beginning to nanny for the Pomatter-Hunterson household, Jane had grown quite fond of the family. Oftentimes, long after the day’s work was done, the blonde hung around with the three.

Not much had changed in reality. The other five queens were usually out of the house during the times where Jane was watching Lulu. It’s just that every once in a while, the second queen would walk into the house expecting a home cooked meal to be on the table like it so often was only to be met with a silent household. The third queen would rush into the house mere minutes later apologizing profusely about how “Lu kept begging me to stay for dinner. I couldn’t say no to that sweet little face,” or “Lulu was so excited to have all of us together. I couldn’t leave right when Jim and Jenna got home.”

It’s not that Anne was jealous of the six year old. No. Even she, as petty as the green queen could be, would not be jealous of a six year old. So, the second queen let her successor have her fun. If Jane was happy, well then so be it. She could wait another thirty minutes to eat. 

But more and more, the conversation with the blonde would turn into “Jenna said the funniest thing today,” or “Oh yeah! Jenna and I did this today,” and that’s what would drive Anne up a wall. 

Since being reincarnated and travelling on tour together before settling at their home in New York, Anne and Jane had a special bond. It wasn’t quite like a mother-daughter dynamic as the avid fans of the show made it out to be; they were just exceptionally close friends. Regardless of who Jane was with, her mothering tendencies were bound to shine at some point; it just happened to be that she was out with her predecessor a lot. 

“Oh! Jenna and I-” Jane began.

“Would you shut up about Jenna? I get it! She’s great, she’s your new best friend, blah blah blah,” Anne snapped.

“What?” Jane was visibly confused. Anne was her best friend, not Jenna. 

“All you do now whenever you're here now is talking about Lulu, Jim and Jenna. What about us Jane? What about me?” The second queen asked the last question rather quietly. She was a bit embarrassed to admit she felt this way.

“Annie,” Jane sighed gently, her tone immediately getting soft. “Is that how you really feel?”

“I-” Anne threw her arms up in exasperation. “I don’t know!”

“Honey,” Jane reached out towards her friend. “Is that really how you feel?”

“It’s just that you always used to be around whenever I wanted to do something. You’re not always now. I don’t know,” Anne looked up at the blonde. “Maybe I’m just being stupid. You deserve to have other friends. I’m sorry.”

“If I made you feel that you’re not my best friend anymore, I’m really sorry Annie. You’re always going to be my number one. I can do my best to be here more again.”

“No!” Anne shook her head. “I was being selfish. I guess I just got used to having you around all the time. If Jenna and Lulu make you happy, you should hang out with them. I can go vibe on my own.”

“What if,” Jane smiled at her thought. “On Saturday, we head over to Jenna’s diner and grab some breakfast pie?”

“Dude, really? You always say I can’t have dessert for breakfast.”

“I think I can make an exception this once. Her pies are literally to die for.”

“Yes!” Anne fist pumped. 

So that Saturday, the two walked down to Lulu’s Pies. 

“Oh hey Jane,” Jenna smiled from behind the cash register when she saw the blonde. 

“Jane!” Lulu came bouncing out from behind her mother. “Guess what! I have-” the little girl took in that Jane wasn’t by herself this time. “Oh my gosh! You’re the lady from the cafe! Thank you so much for that extra treat!”

Anne smiled. She didn’t think that her sneaking an extra treat into the young one’s bag would be remembered a month later. “Anne.” She grinned.

“I’m Lulu. This is my mama. Do you want a slice of pie? My mama makes the best pies in the whole world! Today’s special is In The Dark, Dark Chocolate pie.” Anne had to bite back a laugh. The pie’s name was so dirty, but hearing it come out of the six year old’s mouth with such innocence was adorable. “There’s also Wild, Wild Berry pie, or Mermaid Marshmallow. Or, Lulu’s Strawberry Dream pie. That one’s named after me! And guess what? I made it up!” Anne could see why Jane had grown so fond of the youngster.

“That would be awesome! Do you think you can pick the slice of pie for me?” Anne grinned. 

“Yeah! But, we gotta sit down first. We can sit in my booth!” Anne was pulled by Lulu to a small booth in the back of the diner. 

“Jane!” Lulu called. “Come on! We have some coloring to do! Mama even bought me new colored pencils!” 

“Go on hun. I can bring over your usual. Anything special for Anne?”

“Maybe some hot chocolate?”

“You got it. I’ll be over to talk. The others have it covered for a while.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Anne asked the little one. Lulu nodded excitedly. “Jane never lets me have sweets this early,” she stage-whispered as she saw the blonde approaching.

“She doesn’t let me either,” Lulu laughed. “Mama and Daddy don’t either. They say I gotta eat all my vegetables before I can have pie.” 

“You girls are already gossiping about me?” Jane laughed good-heartedly as she sat down across the booth that Anne and Lulu were occupying. 

“No!” Both girls' hands shot up in defense. The two had very similar tendencies. 

“I’m just joking, loves.” 

“Alrighty, I got a cup o’ Joe for Jane, and two hot chocolates.” Jenna laughed as she watched the younger girls’ eyes light up.

��Really Mama? I get to have hot chocolate this early?” Lulu asked excitedly.

“A sweet treat every once in a while doesn’t hurt babe,” Jenna pushed the drink towards her daughter. “Just be careful not to spill.”

“Jane told me you like hot chocolate?” Jenna pushed the other one towards the girl with space buns. 

“Yes. Thank you,” Anne’s energy shifted with the presence of the woman she was slightly jealous of. 

“No problem hun. I’m just gonna go grab the pies, and then would you mind if I joined y’all?” Jenna wandered away only to return seconds later with four slices of pie.

“So you’re Jenna.” Anne looked the brunette up and down.

“So,” Jenna sighed as she took a seat next to Jane. “You’re the one who sugared up my daughter?” She looked at Anne.

“Ma’am, I-” Anne started getting defensive.

“Love, she’s just joking,” Jane stopped the second queen before she could finish her sentence. 

“No, no, I don’t mind at all. It’s not every day a broadway icon gives your daughter an extra cookie because she had good manners,” Jenna smiled. Anne relaxed slightly at this. She was still a bit weary of the brunette.“I’m sorry if I came off as rude at first.”

“It’s alright.” Anne lifted the fork up to her mouth and took a bite. The second queen’s face went from neutral to a grin in mere seconds.“Holy-”

“Anne,” Jane interrupted.

“Holy moly this is great!” Anne dove into her slice of chocolate pie. “How did you do this?”

“It’s baked from the heart,” Jenna grinned.

“No, seriously! How did you-”

“Anne! Look! I drew us!” Lulu shoved a paper in the second queen’s face. 

“Wow! This is so good!” Anne complimented. 

“You can have it if you want!”

“I’ll make sure it goes in a very special place in my room. Do you think you could sign it for me?”

“Yes!” Lulu wrote her name down on the paper before handing it back to Anne. “It’s not that good, but Mama says with practice, my handwriting will get a lot better!”

“You know Lu, Anne used to sign things all the time! She was on Broadway with Jane. Isn’t that cool?” 

“You and Jane were on Broadway together?” Lulu looked up at her new friend with big eyes.

“Yep. Me and ol’ Janey-”

“Not old,” Jane interjected. 

“Me and ol’ Janey did a show together! It was a lot of fun!” 

“Not old!” Jane laughed once again.

“The show was amazing,” Jenna said earnestly. “You have a spectacular voice. I wish I had that kind of talent.”

“Thank you!” Anne let herself go. Maybe this woman isn’t so bad afterall, she thought.

“I’m serious Anne. Your voice is killer. And my husband had tears rolling down his face from laughing so hard at some of the things you said. You were amazing.”

“Thank you so much. This pie is amazing.” The green queen turned her attention to Jane. “Is this where you disappear to every Saturday morning?” Jane nodded sheepishly.

“What does she get?” Anne turned her attention to Jenna.

“She gets pie,” Lulu ratted out the blonde. 

“Jane!” Anne exclaimed. “You preach all of this stuff about eating healthy and ‘no dessert’ before our meals, and you sneak off and eat pie every Saturday for breakfast?” 

“No?” Jane’s voice went up an octave.

“Oh just wait until Aragon gets a load of-”

“If you don’t tell her, you can come with me,” the blonde offered.

“Annie! You should come!” Lulu jumped around.

“You’re always welcome to come hang out with us on Saturday mornings. I’ll have a nice hot cup of cocoa waiting for you,” Jenna enticed the woman.

“You got me with the hot chocolate.” Anne pointed at the brunette. “I like you. Feeding into my bad habits.”

“Let’s not make a habit of it.” Jane put her head in her hands.

“So, you got any dirt on ol’ Janey here?” Anne spoke through a mouthful of pie. 

“Sometimes Jane will bring me to the diner to visit Mama, and she’ll always have a slice of whatever the special is.”

“I like you kid,” Anne chuckled. “I got one. One time I caught her in the kitchen at like 3 in the morning baking cookies for herself. I was silenced with a promise of getting half the batch.”

“One time Mama was eating ice cream out of the container! She let me have some if I didn’t tell Daddy.”

“And you did anyway.” 

“He wasn’t mad Mama,” Lulu giggled.

“Not with you anyway,” Jenna muttered. “I got a stern talking to.”

The four spent the morning together laughing sharing different anecdotes about each other. Every once in a while, Jane and Jenna would make eye contact and smile. 

When Jane and Anne made their way out the door, Lulu smothered them both in hugs. 

“I’ll see you next week?” Lulu asked Anne expectedly. 

“For sure.” The second queen hugged the small girl tightly. “Thank you for my drawings.” Anne held up the several pieces of paper Lulu had gifted her with.

“If you guys are ever up for it, I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind if you came over for dinner one night,” Jane offered. 

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to impose.” Jenna waved her off.

“None of them will care,” Anne said. “Once they meet you guys, they’ll know why all Jane talks about is you guys anymore.”

“Oh?” Jenna’s eyebrows shot up. She didn’t know her family had been the talk of the house.

“All good things I promise,” Jane assured. 

“Just bring a couple pies, and you’ll have their hearts,” Anne joked.

“Noted.”

With promises of returning the following weekend, Jane and Anne made their way out of the diner, bellies full- and both with a slice of Mermaid Marshmallow pie. 

As they were walking, Anne admitted, “You know, I walked into that diner intending on hating Jenna.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t though.”

“That’s good love.”

“She’s real good at baking.”

“That she is.”

“And Lulu is adorable.”

“That she is.”

“Can they come over for dinner soon? I think they’d fit in well.”

“I think they would too.”

“Hey, did you know that you and Jenna look kind of similar?”

“Oh her husband has made it known that he thinks that for a while now.”

Turns out, Jane having another friend was also a good thing for Anne: she got free pie and hot chocolate every Saturday morning now.

[unelectedofficial]

��    wow  !!  i  honestly  am  surprised  to  still  be  here  ,  if  that  doesn’t  sound  too  pessimistic  .  when  i  made  this  blog  ,  i  expected  it  to  be  something  i  did  over  the  summer  until  school  started  again  to  keep  me  busy  and  distract  me  from  things  happening  in  real  life  ;  i  never  thought  that  it  would  turn  into  one  of  my  most  fun  and  fulfilling  hobbies  .  this  blog  has  gotten  me  through  a  lot  of  tough  things  ,  helped  me  to  grow  as  a  person  and  writer  ,  and  has  connected  me  to  so  many  amazing  people  .  i’m  glad  you  all  still  follow  me  and  that  i’ve  (  hopefully  )  made  at  least  a  few  people  like  nessa  more  than  they  did  before  .  it’s  been  a  fun  year  --  let’s  do  another  ??      now  ,  a  few  special  shoutouts  under  the  cut  because  some  people  deserve  awards  for  putting  up  with  me  /  having  to  engage  with  me  for  as  long  as  they  have  .  if  i  left  anyone  out  ,  i  promise  it  wasn’t  intentional  and  i  went  through  my  blog  /  followers  like  ten  times  when  writing  this  .  

     @cadyhcrons  --  bro  ,  even  though  you  don’t  have  an  rp  blog  (  smh  rip  kara  danvers  am  i  right  ?  )  you  seriously  mean  so  much  to  me  !!  i’m  sure  that  no  one  cares  ,  but  everything  you  see  on  here  actually  has  to  be  seen  by  sophia  first  and  she  validates  most  of  my  choices  --  unless  i  make  them  at  3am  ,  of  course  ,  which  happens  a  lot  .  bro  ,  you’ve  let  me  yell  at  you  about  miss  nessarose  every  single  day  for  like  a  year  and  a  half  and  honestly  ?  i  don’t  know  how  /  why  you  haven’t  told  me  to  just  shut  up  by  now  because  i  even  annoy  myself  after  a  while  .  you  give  me  confidence  and  make  me  feel  special  a  lot  ;  you’re  an  irreplaceable  friend  (  and  as  soon  as  i  can  ,  i  have  to  mail  you  that  gum  that  i  bought  you  )  .  it’s  gonna  be  hard  to  pretend  like  i  haven’t  written  this  for  you  for  an  entire  week  ,  but  i  hope  you’re  surprised  at  least  a  little  bit  :)       @wldbirds  --  nic  ,  like  i  said  the  other  day  :  i  don’t  remember  when  you  followed  me  .  but  ,  what  you  don’t  know  is  how  this  is  actually  a  good  thing  .  to  me  ,  it  feels  like  we’ve  been  writing  for  ages  and  you  never  fail  to  impress  me  .  i  really  feel  like  our  writing  clicks  and  we’re  very  much  on  the  same  page  with  headcanons  .  i  cannot  express  how  much  i  think  your  blog  is  like  ,  cool  and  i  applaud  you  for  putting  up  with  me  .  there’s  much  more  to  say  ,  but  i  just  want  to  really  thank  you  for  writing  with  me  /  helping  me  grow  as  a  writer  !!      @shallowprince  --  charlie  ,  we’ve  actually  been  mutuals  for  a  lot  longer  than  i  remember  (  oops  ,  my  bad  )  and  i  think  you  saw  my  blog  when  it  was  ugly  .  so  ,  thanks  for  sticking  around  !!  on  a  more  serious  note  ,  of  course  ,  i  want  to  thank  you  for  all  you’ve  done  for  me  .  i  don’t  know  if  you  know  ,  but  that  one  night  when  you  bombarded  me  with  messages  just  ,  like  ,  praising  me  beyond  belief  i  literally  wanted  to  cry  because  you  were  flattering  me  so  much  .  and  still  ,  you’re  one  of  the  nicest  and  friendliest  people  that  i’ve  ever  met  .  your  fiyero  is  spectacular  and  #sidecharactersforever  !!      @orchestrahearts  --  linny  ,  you  probably  knew  this  was  coming  because  i  mention  it  so  much  buuuut  .  .  .  you’ve  literally  been  following  me  for  so  long  ??  we’ve  been  mutuals  for  as  long  as  i’ve  had  this  blog  i  believe  and  i  just  really  appreciate  that  you  stuck  around  because  there  were  certainly  some  unappealing  phases  to  this  blog  (  i  was  learning  !!  )  .  you’re  a  great  person  to  talk  to  and  i  will  never  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  work  you  put  into  your  blog  .      @songbird-not-found  --  ali  ,  you’re  amazing  !!  you  were  the  first  eurydice  that  i  followed  /  that  followed  me  (  i  can’t  remember  who  followed  first  ,  but  it  was  probably  me  let’s  be  honest  )  and  i  didn’t  even  know  anything  about  hadestown  .  i  asked  my  friend  about  things  for  like  a  solid  month  before  you  inadvertently  persuaded  me  to  listen  to  it  .  why  i  hadn’t  ,  i  still  don’t  really  know  but  .  anyway  ,  your  eurydice  (  and  all  of  your  other  muses  !!  )  is  written  extremely  well  and  it’s  been  so  nice  to  have  you  on  my  dash  .  i  know  that  we  don’t  talk  too  much  ooc  ,  but  i  really  appreciate  that  you  always  like  my  dumb  posts  and  support  me  !!      @madgirltm  --  max  ,  you  probably  also  knew  this  was  coming  because  of  how  much  i  openly  (  and  anonymously  ,  surprise  )  stan  you  but  !!  thank  you  so  much  for  following  me  for  this  long  ??  i  literally  can’t  remember  how  long  it’s  been  exactly  ,  but  i  know  it’s  been  a  while  .  i  hype  you  up  a  lot  ,  but  honestly  i  just  want  to  really  let  you  know  how  much  i  respect  you  .  the  confidence  and  dedication  that  you  have  for  your  blogs  and  muses  is  something  that  i  aspire  to  have  and  be  like  one  day  .  it  means  a  lot  to  me  that  we’re  mutuals  !!      @russicnrat  --  lyra  ,  i  know  it’s  my  turn  for  positivity  wars  (  even  though  it’s  been  months  )  and  i  swear  one  day  you’ll  check  your  phone  or  tablet  or  computer  or  idk  samsung  fridge  and  be  like  oh  carly  did  it  huh  .  maybe  now  isn’t  the  best  time  to  tell  you  (  and  i  probably  have  told  you  and  just  forgotten  )  but  i  once  had  a  cat  called  lyra  !!  anyway  ,  you  impress  me  .  end  section  .  no  ,  like  your  blog  is  gorgeous  .  your  writing  ?  beautiful  .  you  have  dmitry  down  like  crazy  .  i  saw  anastasia  on  tour  and  was  like  oh  when  i  could  like  ??  see  your  writing  in  the  acting  (  if  that  makes  any  sense  )  .  not  to  mention  ,  i  love  all  of  the  edits  you  post  and  think  that  you’re  just  neat  :)      @suverennaya​  --  czarina  ,  we’ve  only  really  written  together  a  little  bit  but  i  admire  you  so  much  from  afar  (  even  though  it  isn’t  really  afar  ,  but  you  know  what  i  mean  )  .  all  of  your  blogs  are  so  pretty  and  your  writing  is  stunning  .  you’re  super  knowledgeable  and  it  really  shows  throughout  your  blog  .  as  members  of  the  broadway  rpc  ,  we  gotta  stick  together  and  thank  you  for  sticking  with  me  .      @gclddustheart​  --  kasee  ,  i  know  you  hate  my  angst  .  but  maybe  .  .  .  you  don’t  hate  me  since  you’ve  been  following  me  for  a  while  ??  jk  ,  maybe  .  anyway  ,  you’re  amazing  and  i  hope  you  know  that  i  appreciate  our  interactions  .  whenever  you  send  an  ask  i  do  the  keysmash  thing  because  i  get  so  excited  .  your  blog  and  writing  are  something  really  special  ,  and  i  want  to  thank  you  for  sharing  it  with  me  for  so  long  .      @soulofsea​  --  lissa  ,  your  writing  is  beautiful  .  whenever  i  see  that  you’ve  replied  ,  i  quite  literally  have  to  stop  what  i’m  doing  (  if  i  can  )  and  like  ,  curl  up  in  bed  to  read  it  .  you  have  such  a  gorgeous  ,  metaphorical  way  of  writing  that  i  could  only  ever  dream  of  having  .  not  to  mention  that  the  aesthetic  on  your  blog  is  genuinely  so  impressive  !!  thank  you  so  much  for  writing  with  me  and  not  getting  angry  with  nessa  for  being  mean  and  awful  to  annie  all  the  time  .  and  know  --  i  love  annie  with  all  my  heart  !!      @wantlonger​  --  ashley  ,  i  had  to  include  you  (  of  COURSE  )  because  even  if  we  don’t  write  much  and  our  threads  take  place  in  some  strange  ,  unknown  place  ,  we’ve  been  mutuals  for  way  longer  than  i  thought  ??  i  just  suppose  the  time  flies  when  you’re  writing  with  someone  as  amazing  as  you  .  all  of  your  characters  are  so  well  written  and  i  love  the  aesthetic  /  vibe  of  all  your  blogs  so  much  .  i’m  so  happy  that  we  write  together  and  hopefully  we’ll  continue  to  do  so  for  a  while  xoxo  gossip  girl

[sincerelyreidburke]

A fic for day 2!

The 25 days of Kiersey continue! This is Thanksgiving-focused, but I wanted to get this one early in the countdown before Thanksgiving was too distant of an event. I’m counting this as a winter holiday.

For context, if you want or need it, here is a ficlet that will function as a faraway prequel to the events of the following fic.

In the summer between his sophomore and junior year, Quinn tours with a fictional production of a real Broadway show, Deaf West's Spring Awakening. I recently watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and decided that Quinn Cooper needed to be in on that action. Here's what happened as a result.

Heaven forgive me, for it is LONG under that cut! I saw the opportunity for Quindo fluff in New York City, and I ran with it, my friends. Featuring Quinn’s tour friend Kyra (in person, finally!), some stereotypical NYC tourism shit, and, of course, the actual Thanksgiving festivities.

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Playbill.com

November 1st

Summer Cast of Deaf West’s Spring Awakening To Perform At Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

*

Tuesday

Kiersey, NH

 Technically, the official start of Quinn’s Thanksgiving break occurs at 1:15 on Tuesday, when his last class lets out. Walking across campus after he leaves the sciences building is, to be sure, a very freeing experience. But it’s not until he’s by the door at the house on Beech Street, with a packed bag over his shoulder and a train ticket in his pocket, that it truly feels like his break is beginning.

“I can’t believe you two are ditching out on Shaley Thanksgiving,” Ben tells him, shaking his head and mock-scowling, as he takes the keys to his Prius off a hook by the door. “After all I’ve done for you?”

Quinn smiles brightly, and offers Ben nothing but a shrug. “I’m sorry, Ben,” he hums, “but I’ll be thinking of you in spirit.”

“Wow, that’s so nice of you, Mini.” Ben puts a hand to his heart, with all the snark in the world still in his eyes. “It’s almost for a moment like you’re not ditching to go to the big city.”

Quinn hums contemplatively, then glances at the time on his phone. “Sebastián,” he calls, and hopes his voice travels up the stairs. “We’ve got to go! The train’s in twenty minutes!”

“Twenty-four,” corrects Remy, as he walks to the door to join them with his own bag in tow. “You’ve got time, Q.”

Quinn knows he does have time, but as they say in the theater, on time is ten minutes early. He smiles at Remy anyway, and sighs. “I suppose we do, don’t we?”

Remy shrugs. “The train station is, like, two seconds away.”

This is also true.

“You’ll have to forgive me, Ben,” he adds, while they’re waiting. “Goodness knows I’m grateful for your mother’s hospitality.”

“It’s okay.” Ben smirks. “On the bright side, this year you won’t have to deal with her being weird.”

Mrs. Shaley does say odd things, most of them thinly veiled discomfort about his existence as an openly gay man (Quinn, you are just so stylish! It must just be natural for you people), but Quinn is still grateful that she had him to her house last year all the same.

Remy, who is going home with Ben again this year for the brief break, looks to him now, and asks, “Will we see you on TV?”

Quinn smiles— he can’t help it— and dusts off his knit scarf where it’s wound around his neck. “I certainly hope you will,” he replies. “So long as the parade is on, I don’t see why you wouldn’t.”

“That’s awesome,” Remy says, with a smile of his own, and Ben adds, “I can’t wait to live-Tweet it and say I know you.”

He sighs into his hand. “Oh, Benjamin.” He’s about to call for Sebastián again— he did have the class that released the latest of all of them, so it makes sense he’s the last to be ready, but then again, he should have just packed last night— but before he can call him, the floor shakes with the unmistakable rhythm of him bounding down the stairs, and in another second, he’s joined them by the door.

“Sorry, baby.” With his backpack over his shoulder, Sebastián looks handsome enough that Quinn is willing to forget his previous punctuality stress. “I’m ready now.” He’s in his nice winter jacket, with the red scarf and matching hat, and he looks every bit prepared for the November streets of New York.

“Good,” Quinn says, simply, and fixes the way his scarf tucks into his jacket before he turns to nod at Ben. “We’re ready when you are, mister taxi service.”

“You’re an asshole,” Ben replies, “and let’s get outta here.”

The train station is only a three-minute drive from campus, and Ben and Remy drop them off there, with their own long drive to Providence awaiting them as they pull out of sight. Quinn feels as if he’s buzzing with adrenaline, with the excitement of the five days that lie ahead of them. Thanksgiving break may not be long, and in past years, it hasn’t been very eventful for him— freshman year, he stayed on campus, and last year at Ben’s house was nice but not particularly crazy— but this year is a whole new story.

This year, he gets a Thanksgiving break straight out of his wildest, most wonderful daydreams.

“Are you excited, cariño?” Sebastián asks him, as they’re waiting on the platform for the train, bundled up with their bags in the cold. Quinn feels like they’re at the start of a wonderful holiday movie.

“Of course I am.” He winds his arm up in his and remarks, “In fact, I can’t remember the last time I was quite this excited.”

Sebastián smiles. Under his knit cap, his curls are just a little windblown. Quinn has never seen a more handsome sight. “I’m excited for you,” he says, and kisses his forehead, and this is going to be the greatest school break ever.

*

Wednesday

New York, NY

 On their first full day in New York, Quinn has rehearsals. This makes sense, because the whole reason they’re in New York in the first place is so that Quinn can perform. Nando doesn’t even have enough words for how proud he is of him, and the performance hasn’t even happened yet.

Quinn is up bright and early Wednesday morning. He’s headed to the hotel convention center downstairs, where he’s meeting up with his castmates from over the summer for the first time since he left tour in August. Nando rolls over in bed— it’s still dark out— and smiles when he feels him a kiss to his cheek on his way out. He reaches out of the covers and feels around until he can grab Quinn’s hand in the dark.

He squeezes it, three times— their wordless way to say I love you. Quinn returns the three squeezes, kisses the back of his hand, and then turns to go, a silhouette in rehearsal clothes as he leaves.

The bed feels empty without him afterwards, but it’s still dark outside the windows of the room, so Nando falls asleep for another little while and dreams of 

When he wakes again, he has an interesting situation on his hands: time to himself, in the middle of New York City. He’s never been here before, but he’s fully prepared to become a huge tourist so he can visit some of the food spots he follows on Instagram.

At a respectable hour, he gets up, gets dressed, and does just that in Quinn’s absence. A few very successful dessert-for-breakfast experiences later, he heads back to the hotel to FaceTime Mama and his sisters.

“Can we watch him on TV?” Gabi asks.

“Is he gonna be on one of the floats?” adds Rosa.

“Well, not exactly on a float,” Nando tells them, “but yeah, you can watch him on TV! I don’t know when he’s on, but he’ll know, so I’ll text you guys later.”

“Wish him luck for us,” Mama says, with a warm smile, and Nando smiles, too. It’s not that often you spend Thanksgiving in New York, when your family is thousands of miles away and your friends hundreds, but it’s also not often that your boyfriend, the love of your life, your favorite person in the entire world, is performing at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, so. Y’know.

Nando didn’t know it was possible to be this cheeky with pride.

At noon, he goes downstairs to pick Quinn up from rehearsal. He’ll have a busy Thursday, what with the parade and everything, but for the rest of the day, their time is entirely theirs.

It’s kind of easy to tell where the cast people are coming from, because one of Nando’s various acquired skills from the course the two years so far of this relationship is being able to spot Deaf people in public. It’s really not hard. Just watch for flying hands!

That’s how he spots Quinn— leaving the convention area, among his fellow Deaf West people, or— Kyra, actually, to be more specific. Nando hasn’t seen Kyra in months, since July, actually, when he met her on their Phoenix Spring Awakening tour stop. Her hair is different— in space buns instead of her afro— and she’s wearing a bright orange sweater, which, if her Instagram is accurate, is right in line with her sunshine aesthetic. She was amazing on tour; she’s such a talented person.

She walks side by side with Quinn, and they’re moving kind of slowly because they’re turned halfway toward each other to talk. Their hands move a mile a minute, and Nando knows a good amount of sign, but can’t keep up with this rapid conversation.

Lucky for him, he doesn’t have to. Quinn and Kyra seem to see him at the same time— and Kyra signs something he does understand, with this huge, bright smile. Literally, her sign means cactus and S, but Nando knows that’s just his sign name.

He waves across the lobby, then signs back to her— sunshine and K, for Kyra, and she lights up even more. She runs the rest of the way over, and Quinn goes after her.

How are you? he asks, and Kyra looks so excited that she almost jumps up and down.

They get to hold a small conversation in sign, and Nando loves catching up with Kyra but sort of loves even more how Quinn smiles as he watches them talk, like he’s glad they’re interacting, and it’s just— it’s wholesome. It’s great. Kyra is great, and he’s just so happy for Quinn that he gets to see her and all his tour friends again. He was sad to part with them at the end of the summer.

Kyra’s mom is in the city with her, so they part ways when she arrives; Quinn has another brief and very fast sign conversation with her as she’s leaving. Nando figures it’s probably just ‘see you tomorrow,’ but you never know.

“Baby,” he whispers, leaning down to him as they start side-by-side toward the elevator, “you have to hear about the churro I found this morning.”

Quinn laughs, and looks up to him, winding his arm in his elbow. Nando thinks they were meant to fit together this way. It’s so natural, and so easy. “I would love to hear about that.”

“I took pictures and everything,” he says, then pauses to press the button and hail the elevator. He looks to him again to add, “But also, how was rehearsal? Can I take you out to lunch?”

“Out to lunch?” Quinn swoons. “You must be trying to get in my good graces.”

He pretends to pout. “Am I not already in your good graces?”

Quinn swats at his chest. “Oh, don’t be a drama queen.”

He kind of wants to point out that Quinn, rather than he, is the one who just got out of several hours of pro theatre rehearsal— but he guesses that would be telling him what he already knows. Instead, he grins and shrugs, then kisses his forehead. The elevator dings upon arrival. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he says, and they have a very good afternoon.

*

Thursday

 It’s absolutely frigid outside, and it’s six in the morning, and Quinn is having the time of his life.

He’s huddled on a couch with his castmates, in a trailer, waiting for the day to begin— though he supposes it’s already started, given his five o’clock wake-up call. He thought the tour was exciting, and truly, it was, but this is a whole other excitement entirely— being in New York, with so many performers all in one small place, knowing what lies in store for his day.

Life, he thinks, is maybe a dream come true right now. From coming here with Sebastián to getting to perform, there are so many things he’s grateful for, so many experiences he feels so lucky to have. This is no exception, as he sits in the trailer, with space heaters warming his feet and cast friends on either side. It’s like being back on tour, except this time, it’s one time only. He has to make it count.

And… yes. Quinn is decided. He is going to be completely obnoxious on Instagram today. To start it out, he nudges Kyra, who sits directly next to him, and opens the front camera on his phone.

Kyra lights up for the camera— she truly is the human embodiment of the sun, and Quinn is honestly a little jealous of how good and put-together she already looks at six in the morning. She’s wearing yellow earmuffs that sort of match the gold rims on her glasses, and she hooks an arm around his neck to lean into the picture. Her cheek is warm against his, and he laughs. On his other side, their friend Minji pushes into the camera, too, and flashes a heart at the camera with her thumb and pointer picture together.

Are you posting that? Minji asks, once he’s snapped the selfie.

He puts his phone down and grins. Obviously, I’m posting it.

He’s hunting for stickers to put it on his story when it becomes something of a ‘thing’— the various other friends and castmates around him realize he’s taking pictures, and then, right as he gets the selfie up on his story with a little turkey sticker, everyone is clustering for another.

Group shot!

Let us be on your Instagram!

Yeah, we need a reunion picture.

Hang on, he tells them, and laughs, then climbs up onto the edge of the couch. He faces them to add, I’m not tall enough for that, and while they laugh at his height’s expense, he rolls his eyes and opens his camera again.

Smile! he signs into the camera, and then clicks the button a few times so he’ll have options to choose from. This one should be a post, not a story, he decides. He thinks there are enough cast members in it to maybe send it to production staff. Not to pat himself on the back or anything. Really, he just wants to document these moments with his friends, while they’re all still in one place again.

Oh, you know what we should do? he says to Kyra, as he’s sitting down on the arm of the couch. A before and after picture, with costumes.

Kyra grins, and she nods. They did posts like that several times, over tour— a picture before you get costumed, and then the same picture but after you’re ready to go onstage. We should make a TikTok, Kyra says.

He laughs. Oh, goodness, he says, but he knows he’ll probably wind up doing just that. He has a feeling his social media will be quite alive and well by the end of the day today.

He wants to hold every part of this day in his memory, so he’ll never forget what this feels like.

*

It’s been three months since Quinn got to be Moritz Stiefel.

Though it took a lot out of him this summer, it’s a role he’s missed sorely, and he doesn’t usually get to go back to playing characters whose shows have come to a close for him. He supposes today is a bit of an exception, and, to be sure, he’s been excited for today since the very moment he learned this performance would be happening— but it’s not real, exactly, until he sees himself in a mirror, in costume.

He knows this version of himself, though he hasn’t seen it in awhile. His hair is mussed up, and the school uniform costume fits just as it’s supposed to, with a crooked tie and a tall pair of socks. He isn’t mic’d yet— that’s a step they’ll reach later this morning, with the sound technicians at the parade, and his hearing aids have been out for several hours; they’re tucked into his jacket pocket right now.

The mirror in the trailer is small, and he smiles at himself in it. He always likes this part, performing— when he gets to see himself as the character he’s going to be. Today, it’ll only be for five minutes— but five minutes of glory, on television, with his friends from the summer, and so they’re bound to be some of the most exhilarating five minutes of his life.

He doesn’t want to get a big head, but the fact that so many people will be watching… that’s a lot to take in. On the street, in person, Sebastián will be watching, too, and that’s something he’s very mindful of.

Kyra is putting flowers into her hair, at the small mirror next to him. He grabs his phone to wave it at her, and she grins, then signs for him to wait one second, so he does.

Just like old times, she says, when she’s done, and then lets him take their picture in the mirror. He sends it off to Sebastián first, then puts it on his steadily growing Instagram story.

It is just like old times. Quinn doesn’t want the day to be over, and it’s barely begun.

*

Of all the places he’s performed, Quinn has to say that the streets of New York City rank high.

The morning is a blur— move from place to place, let people tell you where to be, get briefed by tech people who know a lot more about what’s going on than he does. Comply, because that’s what you do. Warm up your voice. Take so many pictures that your phone starts to yell at you that it’s running out of storage.

From a distance, spot someone who looks an awful lot like your boyfriend on the side of the street. You can tell it’s him, because you knit that red scarf for him two Christmases ago. It’s his color, undoubtedly. Kyra signs his name at him from afar, but he doesn’t see either of you. Until you go on.

You get a little nervous, but you don’t have time to be nervous, because you’re on the move and you’re waiting to perform, and then— you blink, a rush of adrenaline, and it’s over.

And you just did what actors all over the country dream of doing.

There aren’t words for that in English or in sign.

*

Friday

 On Friday morning, when Quinn wakes up, it’s snowing.

He doesn’t realize it at first. He’s tucked beneath Sebastián in their hotel bed, waking from a sleep so deep and welcome it felt truly heavenly, buried between covers and warm weight. He opens his eyes to gentle, natural light in the room, a sure sign they slept in, and he blinks a few times before he realizes what he’s seeing in the nearby window.

Snow. So much snow, and falling fast. Goodness, it’s beautiful. The view isn’t bad, either; Manhattan is a sea of buildings, and this snapshot of glass is only a glance. The snow is so peaceful, coupled with the thought that they have nowhere to go, nowhere to be. After the dream come true that was yesterday— the parade, the performance, getting dinner with Sebastián and Kyra at some diner with no other patrons in the middle of the Thanksgiving afternoon— he could use to rest and reflect.

Quinn knows it’s cliché, but he truly does love this city.

He threads his fingers into Sebastián’s curls, and pulls his head close to his chest, and rests in bed while he watches the snow come down.

Some time later, when Sebastián has woken, he gets to spend a lazy, snowy morning in bed, and between gentle kisses, he tells him there’s nowhere else he would rather be.

*

Saturday

 “Can you keep up, baby?”

Nando knows a retort is coming before it even does, but he still grins when Quinn pipes up, from a few feet behind him, “Oh, you just mind your business, Sebastián; I am fine.”

As if to prove it, he closes the small space between them and skates up by his side. Nando knows that getting out on the ice and immediately taunting him was not practical, but it was entertaining, and he likes that Quinn’s cheeks are flushing now. He holds out his elbow, like a peace offering, and Quinn wraps his gloved hand up in it.

“You wanna take a winter stroll?” Nando asks him, with a wink down in his direction.

“This is hardly a stroll,” Quinn replies, in that know-it-all voice that drives Nando crazy in the best way possible. “It’s more of a glide,” he adds, and with that, they start skating along.

“That’s fair,” Nando replies, and tips his head up to take in the view.

He couldn’t spend any weekend even slightly related to the holiday season in New York City without going ice skating under the huge tree. Because first of all, it’s in every New York Christmas movie ever, and second, one of his and Quinn’s first dates was skating, and third, he fricking loves to skate, and fourth, this is his life, so there.

“This is breathtaking,” Quinn remarks, and that’s an understatement. There are enough lights on the tree to probably show up from space, and Nando has learned over the past few days how huge this city actually is, but being right here in the middle of everything just reinforces that truth. They skate along in the throngs of other people, which is part of the tourist experience, and honestly just makes it even better. Nando has seen this on TV so many times. He can’t believe he’s actually here. Pretty much everything about this weekend has been like some kind of dream situation where crazy things you imagine actually come true.

And speaking of dreams. He looks down to Quinn, and it’s, like, okay— cheesy, but the lights are all reflecting in his eyes, and he’s bundled in his scarf and peacoat, and he’s the prettiest thing Nando has ever seen. Including the giant tree. Including everything.

Quinn catches him looking. Of course he does. He smiles, rosy-cheeked and windblown, and hums, “What?”

“I love you,” Nando replies, and kisses him right in the middle of everything.

Quinn laughs out of the kiss. He stays tight on his arm, and somehow, they keep skating without falling. Nando thanks his hockey side for that.

“I love you, too,” Quinn replies, and his voice could block out all the noise of the whole city.

They’re the center of the world.

*

Sunday

Kiersey, NH

 The whole way home to Kiersey, Quinn sleeps on Sebastián’s shoulder.

It’s unintentional, but peaceful all the same, dreams full of memories of the weekend. He gets into his seat at Grand Central Station, slumps against him, and wakes to his gentle nudging hours later, so they can change trains in Boston. The next ride is shorter, but he rests again anyways, and the gray November day is dimming outside the train windows when he opens his eyes at the Kiersey station.

They walk back to campus— it isn’t far. Sebastián is holding both of their bags, and Quinn is holding nothing but his arm. It’s chilly, but bundled up, it isn’t so bad. With this boy, Quinn is so very warm. By the time they round the corner onto Beech Street, lines of student houses with warm windows stretching down either side of the familiar road, the sun has gone down.

On the front steps, Quinn pulls his hands out and looks up to him. He hasn’t had his hearing aids on in over twenty-four hours, and it’s been the most liberating and lovely experience. Before they re-enter the chaos of the hockey house and he’ll have to put them in again, he wants to sign him one last thing.

Thank you for joining me, he says, once he has his gaze. I love you so much.

Sebastián smiles. He puts the bags down by the door, rests both hands on his shoulders, and kisses him gently. No wintry breeze could stop the warmth in Quinn’s chest.

When he’s pulled back, Sebastián replies, I’d join you anywhere. I love you, too.

Quinn beams at him, and with one more shared, quiet moment, Sebastián picks up the bags, and Quinn leans into the front door and pushes it open. Hey, people! he reads on Sebastián’s lips, no doubt a loud exclamation, as they cross the threshold together. We’re home!

Home, indeed. Quinn closes the door behind them, and the warm, familiar, slightly chaotic embrace of Beech Street welcomes them back.

[wigwurq]

WIG REVIEW: THE PROM

You guys. Remember when just last week week I LOLed at my mom when I told her I had finally watched the lesbian holiday movie (The Happiest Season) and she thought I meant The Prom and I told her (and then you, dear readers!) that it would take me forever to hate watch that. WELL I JUST HATE WATCHED THAT. There is a lot to discuss, you guys. ALSO WIGS.

We begin in “New York City” or the CGI hellscape replication of it. Nothing about this movie is authentic except for maybe NY1′s theater reporter, Frank Dilella at the opening of a fake musical called “Eleanor! The Eleanor Roosevelt Musical!” which is meant to be a hilarious joke (it is not) starring Meryl Streep as Eleanor and James Corden as FDR and JOKE IS ON THEM AND US because why are they in this terrible movie and why the hell am I watching it? Oh right: THE WIGS. YOU GUYS THE WIGS. Meryl, who is truly slumming more in this than any other actor in this garbage also has to endure the very worst wig. SHE DID HAVE AN EVEN WORSE WIG IN MARY POPPINS RETURNS. But here this wig is so very much a bad wig that I struggled for a while wondering if this was going to be a wig within the narrative but no. Sadly, it looks like a castoff from some QVC Liza Minnelli wig collection.

AND EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE DRESSED IN A QVC LIZA MINNELLI NON-HALSTON SEQUIN COLLECTION GHOSTMARE (Liza should probably trademark that tho). I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY SEQUINS OUTSIDE OF DAVID GEST’S GUEST HOUSE. Also, after the fake Eleanor musical opens, Meryl and James retire to “Sardis” or the CGI version of it where they discover that their show got (gasp!) bad reviews. EVERYONE LEAVES IMMEDIATELY except Meryl, James, Andrew Rannells who is another actor/bartender and NICOLE KIDMAN.

SHE IS ALSO WEARING SEQUINS AND HAS A BAD WIG. But we are talking about Nicole Kidman, so the chances of her wearing a bad wig are 110%. I couldn’t honestly tell you what her role is in this other than “another Broadway actress”(?) Her wig is likely the same one that Joanna Lumley wore for 10 seasons as Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous which has in the last decade or so been slowly decaying in a crawlspace somewhere only to reappear on the head of Nicole Kidman in the role of “another Broadway actress” in this movie. Anyway, all these washed up randos decide they need to stop acting and start activist-ing and pin all their hopes on a lesbian in Indiana who wanted to go to the prom and got the whole prom shut down due to smallmindedness. They travel to Indiana in a non-equity Godspell touring bus during which time my husband asked me who designs bus seats and truly: that is a question more profound and interesting than anything you will find in this “film.” But I do have many questions! If these actors have all been on Broadway and Meryl’s character has a few Tonys even, why do they need to bus it to Indiana?!?!

Anyway, over in “Indiana” (all places are actually LA or a set or a CGI hellscape), there is a big community meeting or something which is still all about not having a prom, because the only damn thing that matters in this community is THE PROM. The NYC actors show up and turn the meeting into a musical extravaganza with Meryl and her tragic wig center stage. More questions!! As a theater piece, it would make sense for this whole meeting to suddenly become a musical performance complete with spotlight entrances and sparkle curtains because it is already all fantasy. Ryan Murphy has no interest in creating a more realistic presentation in this new medium and just lets that happen here too? Sure - I guess the actors could have just arrived with all stage cues and crews to make this happen (LOLOL NO THEY COULDN’T) and this is honestly exactly why most stage to screen adaptations rarely work (though to be very fair - I had just about as much interest in seeing this on stage as on TV - negative 1000%). All realism, logic, quality, are not at all what this “movie” is aiming for. JUST SEQUINS! CONSTANT GODDAMNED SEQUINS! 

It should be noted that Kerry Washington plays the conservative PTA mom at the center of canceling prom and bitch got away with the very best wig! Also the big spoiler here is that her daughter is the secret lesbian love of the lesbian she is trying to stop from going to the prom! GASP! Kerry also made really terrible career choices this year between this and Little Fires Everywhere which also involves secret lesbians. 

Also those lesbians have a love song that looks like this - aka that one scene in the loathsome La La Land which was itself completely derivative. There are many (many!) derivative scenes in this movie - a later one on a staircase with Nicole Kidman is a clear nod to that one staircase scene in All That Jazz (RIP ANN REINKING!) This was all done intentionally for us theater nerds but also all the movies it ripped off I also hated so? NO THANK YOU THE PROM. ALSO THE MAIN LESBIAN’S GRANDMOTHER IS PLAYED BY MARY KAY PLACE AND I LOVE MARY KAY PLACE FYI. 

Anyway! The NYC actors start their very ill-advised get-back-the-Prom campaign at......CGI monster truck rally wherein Andrew Rannells wears THIS GODDAMNED COAT. Trying to find any logic or realism in this movie is about as foolhardy as being Andrew Rannells wearing this coat and singing a musical theater song at a CGI monster truck rally in “Indiana.” 

Also! Keegan Michael Key is in this (WHO I LOVE ALWAYS) as the liberal principal who is trying to make prom happen. He also is a HUGE MUSICAL THEATER FAN though that doesn’t actually translate to being gay - it translates to him being obsessed with Meryl Streep who is his favorite stage actress. Sure! It all turns into Keegan Michael Key being a love interest with Meryl Streep which I DID NOT SEE COMING but I would love to watch an actual rom com with the two of them and not whatever this is? THEY HAVE A DATE AT AN APPLEBEES YOU GUYS HOW DID THIS HAPPEN.

At said Applebees (or “Applebees” more accurately because I’ve never seen one that sparkles like this), Keegan has a nice ballad which I couldn’t possibly hum for you now where he sings about the escapism of THEATRE and there is a flashback to him seeing Meryl in a musical called “Swallow the Moon” which is a pretty hilarious title and the whole thing looks exactly like another Liza Minnelli fashion show - this time with maybe a circus theme? At any rate, Meryl’s flashback wig is longer and more of a fashion bob but is still very fretful. 

I would like to take this opportunity to say that although I never saw The Prom musical on Broadway, from the pictures I have seen, Beth Leavel’s wig (in the same role as Meryl) is vastly superior in every way, despite the fact that stage wigs are allowed to be different/inferior as they are viewed from further away and not in bitter bitter closeup. 

Meryl looks great in close-up by the way BUT THAT WIG!!! I couldn’t find a good picture of it, but the hair part (if you can call it that?) is a dangerous ravine of mysteries none of which have anything to do with looking like real hair. MERYL HAS MORE OSCARS THAN ANYONE HOW WAS SHE GIVEN THIS WIG?! HOW!!!!!

Anyway, back to the “plot” of this movie, the PTA somehow agree to having a prom and all the kids go around prom-posaling (which is an awful horrible thing that I’m glad I was never part of) and which truly begs the question: if the kids hadn’t prom-posaled (UGH) to begin with, how did word get out that two lesbians were going and how did this prom get derailed in the first place? WHY AM I ASKING ABOUT PLOT HOLES WHEN THIS ENTIRE THING IS A PLOT HOLE?!?!?! So they have the prom, but it’s all an elaborate and cruel ruse and the real prom is at some hotel and the fake prom only for this one sad lesbian is a really depressing affair in the school gym (THIS PART OF THE MOVIE IS LEGIT HORRIBLE AND SAD). So Nicole Kidman, in the very important role of “another Broadway actress” that definitely needed to exist, decides to tell her to just “razzle dazzle ‘em” (WHICH ABSOLUTELY MEANS NOTHING IN THIS CONTEXT) in a very Fosse inspired (AND INCREDIBLY NIGHTMARE INDUCING) and also very confusing number. Also Andrew Rannells convinces a bunch of teenagers in a mall to like gay people! Mazel!

ALSO TRACEY ULLMAN IS IN THIS MOVIE AND NO ONE TOLD ME AND SHE HAS AN AWFUL WIG! So ok - James Corden, who I normally adore, plays a gay character with an American accent and in conclusion, is very miscast in this role. One of the few things Ryan Murphy has done which I actually liked was the revival of Boys in the Band (the play - I have yet to watch the movie!) And the entire cast was gay men playing gay men. Not sure why he then cast James Corden in this role because it’s not like we’re having a shortage of gay men who can sing? A friend of mine rightly pointed out that this character should have been played by Titus Burgess and VERY YES. Anyway, that’s not what happened and anyway, Tracey Ullman plays his mother who he reconnects with and I’m pretty sure the wig she wears was from her own collection from one of her past sketch shows and though I applaud wig recycling, bitch deserved better.

So yes - all these Broadway actor characters inexplicably are still in Indiana just TRYING TO MAKE THE PROM HAPPEN and Meryl, who somehow has both a celebrity ex husband and a Hamptons house (AGAIN WHY DID SHE TAKE A BUS TO INDIANA) uses both to get the main lesbian a forum on TV but she doesn’t take it and instead makes a singer-songwriter YouTube video which everyone on earth simultaneously watched!!! We are supposed to believe that this random video got 8 million views and she decides to use that leverage to make her own inclusive prom. This is a very lovely idea but again: not based in reality so Keegan is all: girl we need $$ to have a prom and somehow she doesn’t immediately make a go-fund me from all those YouTube views she got and instead all these actors throw down their credit cards to fund The Prom which is really horrifying knowing about real events which will totally make all those actors very unemployed (#2020) and YES I KNOW THIS MOVIE IS THE OPPOSITE OF REALITY BUT STILL.

In the end, ALL OF LIZA MINNELLI’S NON-HALSTON SEQUIN COLLECTION QVC FASHIONS get their own damn prom and even Kerry Washington shows up in the most outrageous sequined number after her daughter finally comes out to her and everyone dances it out and life is reaffirmed and Meryl’s wig IS STILL A PILE OF GARBAGE AS IS THIS MOVIE.

VERDICT: DOESN’T WURQ

[breanime]

Semper Fi

Requested by anon: (with Billy Russo) the reader is super duper adorable and seems so innocent but she’s former marine and Billy doesn’t even know and they get into a sticky situation where they have to fight and he’s like

This ended up being short and sweet, I hope you like it! 

*gif not mine*

How Billy Russo, ex-Scout Sniper, accomplished security contractor, CEO of a business that dealt exclusively in violent situations, and former Marine with 134 confirmed kills ended up with the human embodiment of sunshine was beyond him.

Yet here he was.

He watched you from his crow’s nest above the main floor of Anvil, hands in his pockets. You didn’t walk so much as bounce, your body too full of sunshine and butterflies and whatever the fuck else to walk straight. He couldn’t help but smile as he saw you…you just made him happy. Your happiness was contagious. You were holding a big pink box that Billy knew contained his lunch, and he watched you chat with his secretary. Ever the beacon of friendliness, your presence soon attracted Curtis, two trainers, and three of his regular staff, and four trainees. Billy watched you talk, eyes following every turn of your head and drinking in your bright smile. He had no idea how he got a woman like you, but he was damn glad he had you.

“When’d the Princess get here?” Frank asked, coming to stand beside Billy.

Billy chuckled. Frank started calling you ‘Princess’ the day he’d met you. You’d been wearing a pink dress and a tiara because you’d just come from reading to your nephew’s 3rd grade class, and you practically floated when you walked. You had greeted Frank—who’d had his hand out to say hello—with a warm hug, and subsequently won his affection and admiration. He called you Princess ever since. “Just now,” Billy answered, “We have a lunch date.”

“You guys are doing a lot of lunch dates these days,” Frank grinned, “Things are getting pretty serious between the two of you, huh?”

“Yeah, they are.” Billy couldn’t take his eyes off you. You were such a source of warmth, people who Billy had worked with for years and barely ever spoke to made it a point to stop what they were doing and say hello to you. You made everyone feel welcome and appreciated, it was effortless—you were just like that, just so…lovable.

Billy went down and took you away from your adoring crowd, needing some alone time with his girl. He watched you bounce up the stairs and into his office, kissing you once the door was closed and he had you all to himself.

“I think half my office is in love with you,” he said against your lips.

He felt your smile against his mouth. “Not the half that matters,” you said back.

Billy wanted to ask what you meant by that, but you started taking out the homemade lunch you’d made him, and he got distracted. After you had eaten, you somehow ended up on Billy’s lap. He, of course, just couldn’t resist how cute you were, and the next thing he knew, he had you bent over his desk and had his pants around his ankles. He decided he’d ask you about that comment you’d made later.

Five days later, Billy had a night off and decided to take his girl on a date. Nothing fancy; he picked you up and took you to dinner and a Broadway show. He was able to get backstage passes (he’d done some security work for the lead actress and the director before), so you spent the rest of the evening talking with the cast. They were all so enamored with you that they ended up inviting you both to their exclusive one-night performance where they’d do songs that had originally been cut, and Billy was sure you’d float into the night sky with how happy that had made you. He held your hand, so small and warm in his own, as you walked back to his car. You were talking a mile a minute, going over your favorite parts of the show and gushing over the performances, and Billy listened intently. He was so interested in what you were saying, that he almost missed the five men approaching.

Almost.

Billy didn’t even have a second to speak before he saw one of the men take out a crowbar and raise it in the air. He pushed you out of the way and sidestepped the blow, punching the man in the stomach as he did so. “Y/N,” he called out, trying to keep an eye on the other four assailants, “Get to the car!” He blocked a blow from another one of the guys, grabbing his wrist and taking his weapon from him. Billy used the stolen weapon to hit the first guy again, making sure he stayed down. He glanced back up, expecting to see your back as you ran—or bounced—to the car, but instead what he saw was his girlfriend, his sweet, bubbly ray of sunshine, flip a man half her size and punch another man square in the jaw with so much force, he knocked out cold. “Oh,” Billy said, stopping in his tracks, “shit.”

You spun around, as graceful as a dancer, and slammed your elbow into one of the men’s faces, breaking his nose without a second’s pause. The three remaining man all turned towards you, and Billy stepped back and watched. You clearly knew what you were doing. You kicked the first one, making him fall to his knees, and stepped over him. Billy watched, appreciating your form, instinct, and quick reflexes, as you took the other two men down, keeping the first one on the ground and unable to interject. He recognized your moves; they were the same moves he’d learned in basic training. You were a fucking Marine.

You were fucking incredible.

Billy leaned against the wall and put his hands in his pockets, completely at ease as his girlfriend beat four (the one Billy had knocked out was still unconscious on the ground) grown men up. You straightened up as the last one hit the floor, breathing heavily, and turned to Billy. Your bright eyes were wild, and he could practically hear your heart pounding, that’s how loud it was. The adrenaline was coursing through your body—Billy’s too—and you stared over at him.

“I… I was going to tell you,” you said, your voice nervous, “I just didn’t know how. I, um, I’m a former Marine, Private First Class. Spent most of my time on ships, but I did a tour in Iraq, I…” You looked down at the bodies surrounding you before looking back at Billy. Your pretty eyes were wide and sorrowful, and you shook your head, sure that you’d lost Billy forever. No man liked to be emasculated like that, and even more so, no man wanted to find out his girlfriend was a trained fighter by seeing her fight. You should have told him. You should have been honest with him and accepted whatever his reaction was. You stared over at Billy, watching him watch you, and had only one last thing to say. “I’m sorry.”

Billy had something to say, too. “I love you.”

Your mouth fell open. Of all the things you thought Billy might say, that was not it. But you always spoke from the heart, and now was no exception. “I love you, too, Billy.”

Grinning, he walked over to you, stepping over the unconscious bodies without even sparing them a second glance. He put his hands on either side of your face and pulled you in for a kiss. He was still smiling when he pulled back. “Watching you beat those guys’ asses was hot as hell. Let’s go home and show each other how much we love each other, huh?”

You smiled back, nodding excitedly. “That sounds good.”

“I’ve never slept with a Marine before,” Billy said, hands on your waist, “Looking forward to it.”

You laughed, that loud, full, happy laugh that warmed Billy to the core, and kissed him again. You spoke against his lips. “Semper fi,” you said, kissing him one more time.

He grinned. “Semper fi.”

*******************************************************************************************

Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know what you think, please!

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Billy Russo Taglist: @honeyydippaa  @thebabblingbookworm @khuangpu13 @ladyblablabla 

[glassprism]

Is there anyone who you initially didn’t care for as the Phantom or Christine (or any role!) who you eventually warned up to? I’m finding myself going down that path with Ben Crawford and Mary Michael Patterson atm, and we’re wondering if you felt the same! (And while MMP is in the equation, realizing just how lovely she was in the role makes it extra annoying that, with all due redirect toward Sierra, she was constantly thrown aside in the name of stung casting)

Before I get into some names, let me just say that I’m glad you’re loving Mary Michael Patterson. She was a pretty reserved Christine and I can certainly understand why it might take a while to warm up to her, but once you do you’ll start to notice some pretty lovely, if subtle, acting going on there. (And while I don’t think Sierra Boggess’s second Broadway run was stunt casting - she is a talented, experienced musical theatre actress in her own right - the constant focus on her by the official Phantom social media pages was over-the-top. Not her fault, but it was annoying.)

Anyway, here are some names where it took a while for me to warm up to them, but now I enjoy them, or at least don’t dislike them as much in one case.

Sarah Brightman - I vaulted back and forth over Sarah Brightman a lot. Unlike many others, her voice never annoyed me, perhaps because I grew up listening to it and was used to it. But I did find her acting very unrealistic, all big eyes and weird arm movements. It wasn’t until I read a review extolling some of her finer moments and more historical interpretation, and watched a video of her in the actual production (my opinions before were based on the promotional Phantom videos) that I grew to love her take on Christine.

Hugh Panaro - Shocker, right? I heard a lot about Hugh Panaro’s Phantom as I entered the phandom, so I was pretty eager to watch a video of him. And when I did, all I could think was, “Um, why is this guy so popular?” He just seemed so mean as the Phantom, so sarcastic towards everyone, that I felt not an ounce of sympathy. It took me a couple of years, reading several reviews of his Phantom, and a bit of a shift in my opinions, to change my mind, and then he became a favorite.

Sierra Boggess - I wouldn’t say she’s anywhere near the top of my list, but I like her better nowadays than I did before. Part of that was me being a bit of a “she’s popular, now she sucks!” sort of jerk, but I did legitimately not like several aspects of her voice and acting. But on balance, she was my favorite of the trio in the 25th anniversary production and she brings some cool ideas and a sympathetic touch to Christine.

Tabitha Webb - There was a period when Tabitha Webb was ranked one of the worst Christines by some phans, mainly based on this video, which is, er, not her best singing (did she have a massive cold in this performance?). But when I listened to her several years later and in the actual show, like this video (which I’m listening to now to scrub my ears), she blew me away. Much stronger vocals, more passion, a very interesting Christine.

Anna O'Byrne - Based on her performance in Love Never Dies and the World Tour, I thought Anna O’Byrne was a bit of a wallflower Christine with a weak voice. I still think her vocals are a bit strained, but I really appreciated her acting once she had a full(-ish) run in London as the alternate. Very Leroux-accurate, nervous, dramatic.

Jeremy Stolle - Another surprising one, I’d wager. My first breeze-through of a Stolle boot led me to conclude that he was a stiff, lumbering Phantom with no grace and too thick of a voice. Boy did that opinion change once I actually watched him. Might be the best example of how restraint can actually benefit a performance.

Olivia Brereton - I really did not think much of Olivia Brereton when I first heard or saw her. Squeaky voice, not too memorable of a performance, and it probably didn’t help that she was in the restaged UK tour, which I disliked. But after comparing her to other Christines, and watching her more, I grew to like her more distraught, hysterical performance.

[seeinganewlight]

☕️ + deh winning a heck ton of Tony’s?

i have a love-hate relationship with deh. do i enjoy the show? yes. am i glad that i got to see the obc? yes. do i listen to the cast recording quite a bit? yes. do i think at all that it is a good representation of mental illness? absolutely not. do i think it’s a bit overrated? yes. 

i know that, that wasn’t specifically what you asked, but i felt like it needed to be said. i definitely understand why audiences, especially young audiences gravitate toward the show. it is easily accessible to them, in the sense that i think the characters are easy to relate to. it’s easy to find someone that you know in the characters or to find similarities to yourself in them. and i think that’s why it’s such a commercial success, and let’s be real, commercial successes tend to sweep the tony’s. but they don’t always deserve (imo) all the tony’s that they win. 

the only other show that i saw that was nominated for best musical was come from away. i didn’t see it on broadway, i saw the tour, and i would say that come from away is an overall better show than deh. i will say that i listen to deh more, but objectively speaking come from away is better (i also don’t listen to cfa as much because most of it makes me cry). it’s also interesting to me that cfa won for best director but not best musical. while the show that wins for best direction doesn’t always have to win best musical, in fact, in the history of the tony awards there have been 22 instances where the winner for best direction was not the same show that won best musical, most recently that was in 2013 with kinky boots winning best musical, and diane paulus winning best direction for pippin, i do find it a bit odd. 

 i was lucky enough to see both ben and rachel as evan and heidi, and yes, in my opinion, they did both deserve those tonys. though it is important to note that in those categories the only other performer that i saw was mary beth in anastasia, so i’m not able to speak about their performances versus all of the other nominees, additionally, i think there were performers who deserved to be nominated and weren’t. i do feel that both ben and rachel gave beautifully heartfelt performances and it was very clear to me that they were deeply connected to what they were performing, which for me is essential to any good performance.  

i do not think that pasek & paul should’ve won for best original score. in my opinion oberacker and taylor deserved a nomination and win for bandstand. bandstand is a show that is entirely about music. there are more songs in that score, better-written lyrics and the music does a better job of telling a story. i could get into that more, but that’s another story, never mind anyway. basically, i do not think that they deserved the best original score win, or the best orchestrations win. 

overall, there are some instances where i think that one show sweeping is deserving (the band’s visit for instance) and other times i do not. in the case of deh, i do not think it should’ve won all of the tonys that it did.

send me ☕️ + [topic] and i’ll tell you my opinion on it!

[brideofedoras]

The Loft: Redemption

Disclaimer: the usual.  

Word count: 2600+

Warnings: Mentions of sex dreams, masturbation, naughty thoughts and implied naked Vincent Stevens.  

Rating: 18+

Chapter 5

Vincent groaned into his pillow after glancing at the alarm clock.  Three twenty-six in the morning and he was wide awake.

He blamed the dream.  Jesus Christ, did he blame the dream.

The same dream he’d had every night since he’d nearly kissed Sam in the conference room.  When she had straightened his tie and told him she didn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression because he was a rumpled mess.

He rolled onto his back and tossed the covers off.  “She’s off-limits, Stevens,” he muttered as he scrubbed his hands over his face.  “Too good for an asshole like you, you’d only ruin her.”

He slipped out of bed and stalked across the loft to the bathroom.  He screwed his eyes shut when he flipped on the light, the sudden brightness burning.  “She deserves better.”

Deserves better than a man pushing forty with a history of womanizing and cheating.  A man who had been arrested for murder.  A man paying dearly in alimony and child support with strict and limited visitation with his children.  A man who had fought and struggled and clawed his way back from rock bottom to keep his company afloat.

He squinted his eyes as he opened them, locking onto the shadowed eyes in the mirror.  “She’s too young for me anyway,” he sighed heavily before turning toward the shower and turning it on.  He adjusted it to the coldest temperature he could stand and stripped out of his blue and grey plaid pajama bottoms.  His erection, brought on by the damned erotic dream, throbbed against his abdomen.  He glared at it.  "Cold showers at three thirty in the god damned morning are not my idea of fun,“ he muttered before stepping into the shower.  He bit back a yelp as the stream of cold water hit his skin. 

Vincent ducked his head under the icy spray, welcoming the shock and hoping it would kill his raging desire so he would not have to deal with it himself.  In the past it never bothered him to jack off in the shower.  Back then he hadn’t given a damn.  But now?

Now he felt dirty.  He felt disgusted any time he had to bring himself to completion after dreaming about making love (not fucking, not screwing, not banging, making slow, sweet love) to Sam in his office or on the damned conference table.  But the cold shower was not helping kill the lust.  With a growl he soaped up his hands before curling his fingers around his aching manhood and thinking of anyone but Sam. But all he could see was his beautiful, efficient, brilliant assistant reaching up to straighten his damned tie.  One hand curling around the tie at his chest, the other sliding up to the knot, her brow furrowed in concentration, full bottom lip trapped in her teeth, big grey eyes shyly meeting his.

Fuck.

Vincent leaned back against the cold ceramic tiles of the shower, swearing a blue streak as he struggled to regain his breath.  He reached over and turned the shower off.  He stood there a few minutes more before stepping out onto the plush bath mat and grabbing a towel to dry off with.  He tossed it angrily toward the hamper as he stalked out of the bathroom.

He grabbed his bottle of bourbon and a tumbler.  The drink he poured he knocked back quickly.  "Dammit,” he muttered.  He poured another drink.  With a frown he filled the tumbler nearly to the brim.

Vincent knew bourbon was not the answer to his problem.  But he drank it anyway.  He chugged the generous glass and poured another to take to bed.  As he set the tumbler on the nightstand he glanced at the alarm clock.  3:42.  "Hell,“ he muttered.  His alarm was set for six, and he was wide awake.

And hungry. 

Most men would fall asleep after a damned good orgasm, whether resulting from sex or masturbation.  He never did.  Maybe it was years of cheating on Barb and not wanting to risk falling asleep and wind up getting busted, maybe he was wired different.  But he always wound up hungry.

He made his way back to the kitchen to scope out the contents of the refrigerator and grinned when he saw the takeout container from yesterday’s, no, the day before’s, lunch.  Sam had ordered extra Chinese when he’d commented about possibly working late to work on that damned park design he’d been struggling with.  "Still struggling with the damned thing, too,” he grabbed the container and popped it in the microwave. 

He scrubbed his right hand over his face as he waited for the food to heat up.  But he could not get the images from that dream out of his head.  Wide grey eyes behind those glasses she always wore.  Soft pink blush on her cheeks.  Plump kissable lips.  Silky dark hair he longed to tunnel his fingers into as he kissed her senseless or marked up her neck.  Elegant fingers he wanted to entwine with his as he made slow, sweet love to her.  Long legs he wanted wrapped around his hips as he drove into her over and over again.

The tattoo on her shoulder he’d caught a glimpse of months ago.  The memory of the sudden desire to touch, to taste washed over him.  He knew about the feather tattooed on the inside of her left wrist and the flower tattooed just behind her right ear on her neck.  She had told him it was simblemyne from Lord of the Rings when he had asked about it. 

“God dammit,” he sighed heavily.  He had never had a thing for tattoos on a woman before, hadn’t cared one way or another.  But on Sam… Jesus Christ did he want to trace his tongue and fingers over each one.  And he wondered if she had more.

He closed his eyes.  “Get a grip, Stevens,” he growled.  “It’s been a long week already, don’t make it any more difficult.”

He was a tired, cranky mess when he made it to the office a few hours later.  Sleep had evaded him when he’d crawled back into bed, even with a full belly and a fourth glass of bourbon.  How he wasn’t drunk before eight in the morning was a mystery to him, one he hoped to never have to repeat.

Thank god it was Friday.

Vincent damn near dropped his coffee when he opened the door to the office and spotted his assistant at the window with her back to the door wearing something she had never worn before.

She was dressed in a soft dove grey sweater dress, loose-fitting and hitting at mid-thigh, paired with black tights and knee-high grey boots.  Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the crown of her head, exposing that damned delectable simblemyne tattoo.  He was accustomed to leggings paired with tee-shirts and flowy cardigans or sweaters, or fitted slacks and button-down blouses.  But a dress?  When he’d overheard her tell Linda she hated dresses?

She turned to face him when he pushed the door shut.  “You’re…”  She trailed off when she took in the bags under his eyes.  “Vincent, are you okay?”

“My turn for a sleepless night,” he gave her a tired grin.  “Don’t even think about sending me home, I’ve got to knuckle down on that damned park design if I’m going to present it next week to the city.”

“The one you’ve been struggling with?”

He snorted as he made his way to his office.  “Landscaping is not my forte, Sam,” he admitted.  “I wanted to branch out and now I’m sorely regretting it.”

“Maybe I could help?”

He stopped in the doorway separating the offices.  Did I hear her correctly?

“Or not, don’t listen to me.”

He frowned when he caught the defeated tone in her voice.  That’s not the Sam Monroe I know, he thought.  “You want to do what I do,” he turned to face her.  “You want to become an architect.”

She nodded.  “It’s been a longtime dream of mine.”

“You know anything about landscaping?”

“A little,” she shrugged.  “I designed a butterfly garden for Mom’s office building and worked with a group on a class project to design a memorial park at the university I attended.”

Vincent walked over to stand beside her.  He took her shoulder in his free hand and turned her back to the window.  “Remember the city block you pointed out the day I interviewed you?”  He dropped his hand when he felt her shudder.  Don’t overstep your boundaries, Stevens.

She looked up at him.  “Yes.”

“This is no small butterfly garden or memorial park, Sam.  This is something for families to enjoy together.  Think Central Park, but smaller.”

“I’ve never been to New York,” she admitted quietly. 

He gave her an incredulous look.  “Next conference I go to in New York, you’re going with me.”

“That’s not necessary,” she shook her head, tearing her eyes from his.  “What would I do in New York while you’re attending the conference?”

“Suffer through the boring crap with me, tour the architectural wonders, stroll through Central Park, eat at a five star restaurant and take in a show on Broadway.”

“If the conferences are boring, why bother going?" 

"It’s good exposure,” Vincent shrugged.  “You learn about new things, new areas of study and certification, new technology for designing blueprints.”

“I don’t see you using computer programs to design buildings,” she wrinkled her nose. 

“There’s something magical about drawing up the designs by hand,” he tipped his head toward her.  “Computers take the fun out of it.  They make the mind weak by taking out all the guesswork and calculating everything for you.  Don’t ever rely on those programs, Sam.”

She nodded. 

“What’s my schedule like today?"  He asked as he headed to his office.

"Site visit after lunch, Jennings Street apartment complex.”

“You ever visit a project site before?”

“No, sir.”

His coffee cup thunked onto his desk.

Sir. 

She just had to call him “sir”.

He fumbled to keep the to-go cup from tipping over, inwardly cursing himself at the mental images popping into his head unbidden. 

“Vincent?”

“You want to come with me this afternoon?”

He screwed his eyes shut and grimaced at his ill-worded question and husky tone, glad he still had his back to the door. 

“I’m hardly dressed for a visit to a construction site.”

“What you’ve got on is fine, Monroe.”

More than fine, his brain added quite unhelpfully.  Sexy.  Gorgeous.  Breathtaking.

“It’s fodder for construction workers,” there was that hesitation in her voice, a tone of self-doubt he’d never heard before.

“You’ll be with me the entire time, Sam, if anyone says anything out of line or looks at you wrong I will take care of it,” he turned to face her.  “I won’t tolerate anyone crossing any lines with you.”

Her grey eyes widened behind her glasses.  “I could always run home and change during my lunch break…”

“Sweetheart, it won’t matter,” he shook his head.  “They’ll stare, they’ll say something, and I promise you they’ll get their asses handed to them.”

“I don’t want to cause any issues–”

He chuckled.  “Oh, you will,” he hung up his jacket and dropped into his chair behind the desk.  “Woman on a construction site usually does.  Don’t let them get to you.  Don’t pay them any mind, but if they say something put them in their place and tell me.”

Her brow furrowed.  “Okay, but I’d feel more comfortable if I can go home to change.”

He could not argue with her point.  “All right.  I’m going to start working on that damned design in about fifteen minutes if you want to help.”

Sam smiled, “Thank you, Vincent.”

“I should be thanking you, Sam,” he smiled back.

Vincent looked up from noting a playground on the paper in front of him.  “Koi pond?”

She nodded.  “Kids love watching koi fish,” she frowned thoughtfully.  “The nursing home where my grandpa was has a koi pond in front of the Hollywood wing.  When they remodeled the vestibule they put in a section of ‘glass’ floor to watch the fish swim under it,” she hooked her fingers in air quotes.  “It’s pretty neat, but they scare the hell out of me.  Kenna still teases me about refusing to use the main entrance.  Any time I went to see Grampa I had to be buzzed in from the patio.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from chuckling and to refrain from reassuring her those floors, if installed correctly, were perfectly safe.  “You mentioned designing a butterfly garden earlier.  What if we included one in the design?”  He studied the rough layout he’d mocked up before sliding his hand along the paper to tap a blank area.  “Maybe over here away from the playground.”

Sam caught her bottom lip between her teeth and nibbled on it as she swiveled on the stool, angling her body toward him.  “I was thinking of a pavilion around here, for outdoor weddings,” she murmured before immediately flinching.  "If…  If that’s okay with you?“

He frowned at the way she flinched like she was expecting to be slapped.  "Jot it down,” he slowly reached across her to pick up her discarded pencil.  “Sam, your ideas for this park are brilliant.  I’ve been procrastinating on this for weeks, and here you’ve bounced several excellent suggestions off of me in…” he glanced at his watch as he straightened from his slouch over the drawing table, “three hours.  Let’s take a break for lunch and come back to this after the site visit.  How’s that sound?”

She looked up at him.  “You really think my ideas are brilliant?”

Oh damn.

That shy smile bowing her lips tugged at his heart. 

“No,” he shook his head.  “I know they’re brilliant."  He tapped the paper.  "Make note of the other ideas you mentioned off to the side until we can figure out where to work them in.  And for future reference, keep a notebook available to write down any ideas you might get at random times.  Trust me, I’ve been in the damned grocery store more than once when a thought would pop into my head.  You wouldn’t think a package of chicken breasts would inspire an arched entryway.”

Sam giggled at that as she jotted her ideas down.  “And just how did they inspire it?”

He chuckled.  “My kids were going to spend the weekend with me.  Figured I’d get the ingredients for a couple of their favorite meals.  Kinzie, my little girl, likes this chicken breast and asparagus dish.  I was standing there, trying to remember what else I needed when it just popped into my head how she’d told me one time she wished her school had arched doorways like a castle does, and I realized that would be better for the preschool design I’d bid on.”

Sam twisted the stool to face Vincent, her eyes wide behind her black-framed glasses.  “Please tell me you included a moat and a tower in the design.”

He laughed.  “No, I didn’t,  If Kinzie had her way it would’ve been an actual castle.”

“She sounds like she takes after you,” she tipped her head toward his Castle Grayskull blueprint on the wall. 

“God, I hope she doesn’t,” he sighed heavily. 

The last thing he needed was for either of his kids to follow in his damned footsteps.

He shook off that frightening thought before pasting on a tired smile for Sam’s benefit.  “I’ll grab us some lunch so you don’t have to rush.  Romeo’s sound good?”

“I’ve been wanting to try their cauliflower risotto and parmesan crusted chicken breast,” she nodded.  “Would it be too much to ask for cheesecake?  Their blackberry swirl cheesecake looks amazing.”

He smiled at the hopeful look in her grey eyes.  “Anything else?”

She shook her head.  “No, that’ll do me, Vin, thank you.”

His heart stuttered in his chest at that shortened version of his name.  He watched her walk out of his office.

I’m in trouble.