#also i cut out the part where oliver says now joy is his middle name but that was cute bc..... well (gestures to da'vine)

[lesbiancolumbo]

[amphii-writes]

Hi! I would like to request an angst fic where the reader gets into a fight with any of the karasuno boys and ends up in an accident after running away. You can choose anyone who you like! Thanks

So, because of how much creative liberty you gave me I’m gonna make the accident less of a “your hurt” accident but an accidental meeting if you catch my drift! Okay, on that note here are the three boys I thought would work the best with this idea:

Asahi

Tsukishima

Ennoshita

surprising, right? people seem to forget that Asahi quit the club and ennoshita almost quit like 5 times, and Tsukishima is self-explanatory.

Part two -->here<--

Thank you so much for requesting! It means a lot to me!

synopsis: Tsukishima snapped at you after you asked him to support your friendship, doing so, you ran away and met a tall man with red hair and a strange smile. genre: ANGST, slight fluff in the memories and end! warnings: Swearing, toxic friendships, heartbreak, etc. pairing: Platonic?Tsukishima & Yamaguchi x F!Reader x Platonic?Tendou word count: 1.7k

After a long day of doing club activities and homework, you were thoroughly beat. Who could blame you, staying up late nights for some free time and to get your homework done. But you always made sure to check in on your closest friends: Yamaguchi and Tsukishima.

You three had met at the beginning of middle school, as you were getting made fun of by some kids and Tsukishima stepped in and helped you. Since then you’d always wanted to repay him with your time and effort in the friendship. He was often cold to you though, leaving you to believe that nothing would ever happen in the friendship and that he’d leave you high and dry.

You and Yamaguchi often discussed Tsukishima’s personality and actions to try to attest to his actions, which at some points was hard due to his slightly sadistic nature. After long nights of ranting to each other about your frustrations, you two became closer.

Long sleepless nights filled with laughter and music often warmed your heart, especially when Tsukishima joined. He had made both you and Yamaguchi playlists- full of songs that reminded him of you guys and a small description in the bio. It was the sweetest thing he’d ever done for a long time, but then he started getting colder to you, distant. He would push you away and use words sharper than knives to cut open your heart and let it bleed a little. You had asked Yamaguchi to talk to him about it but he just said that Tsuki told him not to bring you up anymore. 

You had no idea what to do, why he exiled you, and why you never saw this coming in all honesty. You wondered if he saw you checking up on him as clingy, or how you’d make treats for him and Yamaguchi and see it as annoying or too doting. You thought of everything you could until you decided to talk with him face-to-face, which you knew would be hard, but you knew you had to try.

Armed with some baked goods and a dinosaur plushie in your already weighted backpack make your eyes droop with exhaustion. But, you were determined to go and ask him what was up. You couldn’t let such a meaningful relationship go to waste.

As you approached the gym, the sound of volleyballs bouncing around the floor filled your ears, a faint yet somewhat comforting sound. You were proud of Tadashi and Kei for doing a sport, you knew it would exhaust them, but you believed it was exactly what they needed. the feeling of light dread and the beating of your heartbeat the sound of the slams of the balls, now a faint memory in your ears.

“NOYA, LOOK OVER HERE!” you heard a male voice yell, it was coming closer to the door. “RYUU, WHAT DO YOU MEAN- OH!” a short guy with a blonde streak of hair made eye contact with you, his eyes full of energy. He ran to the door and opened it completely for you. by this time, the whole gym is now aware of your existence.

“So, what’s a cute girl doing here? Waiting for someone-” The boy named “Noya” was then promptly picked up along with his friend, “Ryuu” by a tall boy with brown hair and kind chestnut eyes. “My apologies, what do you need?” he asked with a smile. You then saw a boy with orange hair jumping up and down.

“Kageyama, look how pretty she is! Is she gonna be a manager? Hey! Are you gonna be a manager? Your very pretty!” his sweet attitude and words reminded you of what you were there for, who you were there for. You chuckled, rubbing your hand on the back of your neck.

“Thank you for your compliments but I’m just here to walk home with my friends after they’re both done with practice, I don’t mean to be a bother. To apologize, would you like some brownies? I think I brought enough for everyone here-” you were cut off by the two boys who first greeted you praying and crying out of joy. 

“Well, if you don’t mind then we’d love some! I’m Daichi Sawamura, the captain of the volleyball team” He shook your hand, his grip was just tight enough and his hands where calloused and warm, you were then met with a boy with long hair and some stubble hunching over, his hand rubbing his neck as he flashed a shy smile and bowed and thanked you. You saw so many different looking people, the skinhead and blonde streak boy seeming to be the most energetic out of the team. You finally were met with Yamaguchi jogging over to you after seemingly talking to Tsukishima. 

“Hey, Y/N! Thank you for coming, I appreciate it!” Tadashi smiled brightly. “Oh yeah- I, um... this is me and Tsuki’s friend: Y/N!” he stumbled on his words because of how many eyes were onto him.

“Y/N? Why are you here?” Tsukishima sounded frustrated “Tsuki, let her explain! Please?” only to be answered with a “Shut up, Yamaguchi.” in an icy cold tone, icier than usual. “Well, I just wanted to see if you were okay, and in all honesty, I wanted to talk to you privately-” you said, trying to calm the thumping of your heart.

“Y/N, if I was avoiding you, it was for a reason, now leave.” He snapped, the whole gym was quiet, no sound of balls, just everyone holding their breath. “Tsukishima, please hear me out-” you were once again cut off by the harsh words of one of your closest friends.

“Y/N. I don’t care about what you want to say to me, shut up and leave.” his words made you hold your breath, choking back the salty tears with a warm smile and a bow and you reached into your bag to grab a small dinosaur plushie. You handed it to him without a word, left the bag of sweets with the boys, said goodbye, and then ran out the door. you heard the faint yell of Yamaguchi and Daichi saying something. 

You could only imagine how awkward the team felt, you felt bad for coming, felt horrible for bothering him so much. You knew deep down that you did nothing wrong, that he just had to learn how to cope with his emotions, but that didn’t change the ache in your heart as your feet carried you to the street. You were aimlessly running until you were met with a stop sign, the red lights from the stoplights illuminating your skin with the bright blue.

You just aimlessly walked around the streets, not caring where you’re heading, where you are. Your tear-stained cheeks being wiped away by your sweater sleeves. The moving of cars and the small amount of business on the streets welcoming your bad mood. A tune of humming met your ears as you looked around yourself. You had somehow managed to run yourself to Shiratorizawa Academy. Honestly, now that you think about it, your feet do feel sore after walking for so long.

"Hey! Whatchu doin' here? That uniform means your from Karasuno, right?" only to be met with a perky male voice, he sounded mischievous. you turned around to see a tall boy with sanpaku eyes and a mischievous smile. His hair was a medium red and his eyes were sunken in, but not dull. But as soon as he saw your tired eyes and your tear-stained cheeks his demeanor changed. “Hey, are you okay? Can I do anything to help?” by this time you had already cried all your tears, so you just simply asked him to listen, and listen he did.

He never interjected, but he was paying attention, nodding with you while walking into Shiratorizawa. You two were met by three boys, one with black hair and a bowl-cut, one with peach hair and slanted bangs that you giggled at, and a very tall man with broad shoulders and olive hair. Tendou had asked you if he could explain what happened and the team let you in with open arms.

“So, I know what I’m about to say doesn’t justify his actions at all! I’m not that stupid!” you giggled at his lightheartedness “But, ya know how parents often tell girls ‘If he hits ya, he likes ya?’ yeah, that’s the vibe I’m getting off of Mr. Four-eyes here.” he sighed “Still doesn’t mean much when he treats ya like garbage- I’m so sorry by the way- oh wait! I haven’t even introduced myself; I’m Tendou Satori! I’m a middle blocker for Shiratorizawa’s volleyball team. I guess not all volleyball boys are bad, huh?” he stuck his tongue out at you playfully and smiled.

He was so nice to you, hell, the whole team was so nice to you! but little did you know that your phone was blowing up with messages from Yamaguchi. He wasn’t going to forgive Tsukishima that easily after what he had done.

And Tendou said that if they ever played Karasuno, he wouldn’t go hard on him, but he knew he was lying, just a little bit. Hey, it isn’t cool to leave a girl crying in the middle of the street ya know?

Thank you so much for reading and requesting again, it means so much to me!

this is also my first fic that i wrote for someone who isn’t a close friend, so thank you so much!

-Amphii

[tytodreams]

space to wonder, part one

summary: Hal Jordan comes to while drifting out in space in the middle of nowhere, and even though he’s accompanied by his fellow Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, things aren’t exactly looking good for either of them.  

author’s note: this is part one of a two part (or maybe three part?) fanfic set in my DC headcanon verse. It’s from Hal’s perspective for a change. And yes, all of the unfamiliar space location names were pulled directly from my ass.

you can find part two here

The world is upside down.

Everything is a lazy swirl of shadow and his fingertips are so numb that he can scarcely even feel them. Hal isn’t sure if he knows where he is anymore. Space is black and endless and empty. And everything is so, so cold.  

“......big bad dino......big bad dino ahead.......”

That’s Guy’s voice. He recognizes it immediately ― that’s Guy’s voice. That’s Guy’s nonsensical mutterings and that’s Guy’s limp body floating nearby. Hal blinks and tries to chase away the blurred pictures in his mind; the strange haze of light and color and darkness.

“......big bad di-no-saur ahead, yeeup. Big baddie dino with big bad teeth,” Guy’s head is tipped forward, chin resting against his chest as he blabbers on. Hal can see him properly now ― just a few feet away and outlined faintly in green.  

“Di-no-saur! Yeeup, yeeup!” the ginger slurs again to no one in particular. His words are the only noise in the silent vacuum of space.

Big bad dinosaur.......big bad dinosaur? Hal can’t make sense of it. All he knows is that his head hurts and that it hurts bad. He winces, teeth grinding together, trying to bite down against the pain. It feels like there’s an iron spike being driven into the left side of his skull, over and over and over.......

Weakly, Hal lifts his fingers to his temple. Wet. There’s something wet against his skin. He pulls his hand away, narrows his eyes, and tries to get a better look at it. The more accustomed he becomes to being awake, the sharper his surroundings appear. They’re all beginning to look real now; like proper images instead of smears of color and light.

There’s blood on his fingers. He’s bleeding. Hal chokes slightly, takes a deep breath and pulls in air from nothing. There’s no oxygen in outer space. But somehow, he can take it from his shield ― from the green light surrounding him.  

Hal groans and touches his head again. It’s still wet, but the bleeding has begun to slow down and the blood itself has started to harden around the edges of the wound. He guesses it to be some sort of cut across the left temple.

“.......di-no-saur......di-no-saur......di-no-saur.......” Guy remains close by, still lolling around on his back. But something doesn’t seem right when Hal looks at him this time around. Because this time his eyes are swollen shut by bruises; and his whole lower face and jaw is stained with blood. His neck is red and covered in marks. His limbs twitch.

It takes Hal a few moments, but finally the image registers and he jolts forward in surprise. Muscles tensed and eyes widening, he’s hit with a sudden wave of panic. Guy is injured. Oh fuck, Guy is injured, and he’s injured bad.

Despite the shooting pain in his temple, Hal starts glancing frantically about himself. Where are they? Where are they and how did they get here? What happened? His heart rate picks up. Hal’s body trembles and he parts his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.  He searches the empty star fields in vain. It feels like his mind is going at a million miles an hour. What’s happening? What’s happening? What’s happening?

Hal squeezes his eyes shut. No, stop. He clutches his head in his hands and barks angrily to himself, don’t panic. Don’t be afraid. You’re in space and you’re with Guy, and you’re both in bad shape but he’s worse off. But you’ll be okay ― you’ll both be okay. Call John. Call Kilowog.  

He pulls his bloodied hands away and breathes in. The ring on his finger is burning cold. It reminds him of stepping into the shower when his feet are numb; the way that hot water feels as it washes over chilled skin. Hal’s whole body is tingling.  

If he’s going to call for help, he’s going to have to tell the ring who to call. So, he focuses on John’s face. He tries to imagine the way his nose slopes and the exact hue of his irises. It’s a face that Hal knows well, so it shouldn’t be hard, now should it?

But when he thinks, he can’t think of John. And when he reaches out for a face and for a name, it isn’t John’s. It’s someone else’s. It’s someone the ring can’t call.

Barry. It’s Barry’s face. It’s his square jaw and round cheeks, and his short, golden hair. And when Hal tries to push the face and name away for Kilowog’s instead, it doesn’t go. He wants to show the ring a fellow Lantern he can call, but his mind isn’t listening. He can’t see John’s face and he can’t see Kilowog’s. The only name is Barry’s name. The only face is Barry’s face. His snub nose and big blue eyes. His easy, all-American smile.

There’s a stab of wistfulness in Hal’s chest. Something that he can’t really describe, some sort of sorrowful feeling that fills him with inexplicable joy. He’s seeing Barry’s face and he’s remembering something. A recent memory, but nothing all that important in the grand scheme of things. A memory.......

He was sitting in a red leather booth in some cheap diner in Missouri. It was a Saturday or maybe a Sunday; a day when Barry could get off work early if convinced. And Barry was sitting across from him, dressed in a blue argyle sweater vest and pleated long sleeves and khakis. And Barry was smiling too. And he was digging into his meal, and pensively tapping his foot against the tiled linoleum floors. He looked so handsome in those clothes. They fit him so well and the blue of the sweater brought out his eyes.

So naturally, Hal made a remark about him looking like a nerd. Barry rolled his eyes and ate a French fry. Then he pointed out a bruise on Hal’s cheek and started scolding him over it. And Hal tried to wave him off ― told him it was from a skirmish with Black Hand or some other earthbound baddie. But Barry knew better. He always seems to know better. And Barry stared at him for a moment, almost unnervingly serious, and then finally his face broke out into a wide grin.  

“Liar!” he exposed Hal right away, “You and Oliver were being stupid and messing around again, weren’t you?” And Hal tried to act offended, tried to hide his embarrassment at Barry having so easily realized the truth. He’d been sparring with Ollie in the boxing ring at the Arrow hideout when Dinah had stopped by to watch. And when she’d leaned against the rails, the boys had started yapping their big mouths off; started teasing her as they mock-fought.    

Not a good idea, naturally. Because then she’d jumped into the ring and kicked them both hard in their sorry rears. “And a kiss on the cheek each didn’t exactly make it any less painful, Di,” they’d have liked to say. And when Superman asked Ollie how he’d gotten a black eye, he’d panicked and claimed he’d walked into a door. He’d started blushing like a madman when Hal laughed, and Hal was the lucky one because he didn’t need an excuse. No matter what, it seemed like there was always some sort of scrape on him, so people had eventually just stopped asking. Except for Barry, of course.

And in that little Missouri diner, Hal had finally surrendered to Barry. He admitted that Dinah had “whooped his ass” and that “if we’re being honest, Ollie got it worse ‘cause he called her a ‘wannabe Joan Jett’ and that was just rude.” Still smiling, Barry shook his head and muttered a “knew it”, continued emptying another carton of fries. And Hal shrugged and leaned back in his seat. He knocked his knee against Barry’s, heard the speedster hum approvingly, and smiled back at him. Smiled when he sighed and said, “What am I going to do with you?”  

But he’d also kept an eye on the other patrons too. Because as much as he hates to admit it, deep down, he’s always been rather self-conscious. And he didn’t exactly want to deal with anyone going on about stupid stuff then either. Not then, when Barry was sitting across from him, smiling like the sun and telling him all about his day. And he’d had a really good day, so Hal had wanted to hear all of it. The fingerprint analysis that Barry and his colleagues worked on that had helped solve a case down at the station. The two friendly border collies he’d met in the park during his morning run. The little girl he’d helped get her kite out of a tree and who’d given him a hug in thanks. And Hal sipped the strawberry milkshake he’d weaseled away from Barry and listened to him rave about the new materials the lab would be getting next week.    

“And this microscope is so much more powerful than the one we have now. It has twenty different lenses, and you won’t believe how sleek it looked in the catalogue......”

“Hey! Di-no-saur! Di-no-saur! Bad, bad, bad!”

Hal tumbles back into the present. His eyes widen when Guy yells and the hairs on the back of his neck raise. He’s weightless. There’s nothing solid beneath him, no leather booth in Missouri or concrete sidewalk under his feet, only empty space, only distant lights scattered across eternal blackness. Only nothing.

The cut on his head doesn’t hurt anymore. When he touches it, the wound throbs gently, but any pain it gives off is so minor that he can barely feel it. Hal lurches forward and the blood drains from his face. Guy is unnaturally pale.

He’s still muttering nonsense and floating too far away from him for comfort. Hal settles his quaking limbs and looks his comrade over, trying to gauge the exact distance between them. Five and a half, six......? He propels himself forward a few feet and maneuvers around Guy as carefully as he can. He slips his hands under Guy’s arms and pulls him up against himself. Guy’s head is tilted back, chin pointed upwards and jaw twitching slightly as he rambles on. The faint green aura from his ring appears to be the only thing keeping him afloat.

Hal curses under his breath and tries to adjust his hold on the other Lantern. Guy may be a thousand times lighter in space, but whatever beating Hal received earlier isn’t exactly helping his arms stay steady. The wound on his head doesn’t hurt anymore, but the rest of his body sure aches like a son of a bitch.

What happened? He’s racking his brain, struggling to remember. Where are they? How the hell did this happen? How the hell did they end up here? How......?

“Dino......dino......” Guy sputters childishly, his shoulders knocking into Hal’s chest. The other man winces but doesn’t let go. His ribs must be bruised ― that would explain the tugging in his chest whenever he breathes. “Dino......dino......dino.......”

Then it hits him. Dinosaur. Hal remembers now, oh goddamn, he remembers now. Dinosaur. Atrocitus. The Red Lantern’s hulking form looms over Hal’s memory and he clutches onto Guy a little too tightly in response. He knows where they are, why they’re here, what happened, and everything else in between.  

The Corps had gained intel on some recent Red Lantern sightings out in sector 2075 in the Oberix and Talmayn systems. The more the number of sightings increased, the more uneasy the Guardians became about the possibility of a reformation of the Red Lantern Corps ― a not at all unfounded concern. Especially considering the jailbreak incident roughly one Earth year back, and the fact that former Red Lantern general, Atrocitus, happened to be one of the escapees.  

Salaak had sent Guy and Hal, by order of the Guardians, to do recon out in sector 2075. After all, word-of-mouth rumors don’t guarantee reality. In order to act, there needs to be confirmation. And it was their duty to deny or to confirm.  

Well, Hal thinks to himself as he floats aimlessly about, Guy dangling in his arms, at least our suspicions have been confirmed. Joy.

Perhaps they shouldn’t have sent Hal Jordan on a Red Lantern reconnaissance mission, knowing that Atrocitus would almost certainly be involved. General Atrocitus, who happens to have a vendetta against plucky Green Lantern “captain” Hal Jordan. Because Hal Jordan was the one that foiled his grand invasion of Oa. He was the one that defeated him in battle in front of his own men and then imprisoned him in a science cell to rot for (hopefully) the rest of his life. Yes, that Hal Jordan.

If one thinks about it rationally, they might come to the conclusion that a mission tends to become a bit more dangerous when the enemy in question would like nothing more than to flay you alive. It’s just common sense, really.

Hal struggles to hold back his laughter. He’d rather not test the pain receptors in those bruised ribs of his with a verbal expression of self-loathing.  

He and Guy had scoured the entire Oberix system without any luck, and by the time they’d reached the Talmayn and it’s yellow dwarf sun, they’d gotten a bit lazy. Instead of giving straight-backed salutes to the occupants of the mining operations and refueling stations they’d swung by, the two had plowed in with informal bursts of sardonic humor and good-natured jabs. Guy had accepted free drinks at a rest stop bar almost took quickly, and Hal had wowed a company of Yulqazz miners by breaking his record of consecutive backflips in space.

Thirty-seven, to be exact. The trick is to breathe deeply and consistently, and to focus on your core so you don’t get dizzy.  

None of the locals in either solar system had much of anything to say about the supposed Red Lantern sightings. Most of them denied seeing anything at all, while the few that did couldn’t seem to place any specifics. As far as Guy and Hal were aware, there really wasn’t anything substantial this side of sector 2075. Maybe the Uhbeld system would’ve been a better place to check.

Whatever the answer was, the two of them had conceded that there was no point in staying there anymore. So, Hal recalls himself and Guy taking off from the docks of a refueling station, headed for the nearest long-jump portal back to Oa. They’d started talking ― of course, talking with Guy had always been a trip, and it is even more so now after his onslaught of head-related injuries.

Guy’s brain damage certainly causes him some issues. His memory, his speech patterns, and his ability to compartmentalize things are all pretty muddled. The past couple of years have been quite rough for him and he’s had to relearn a surprising amount of basic tasks. But, luckily for him, the medical expertise offered by the Green Lantern Corps is far more advanced than that on Earth. And even though Guy has never exactly been one to trust doctors or hospitals ― and Hal can’t blame him for that, seeing that he’s very much the same ― Guy has been remarkably lenient with what the Corps have provided.  

That makes sense to Hal though. The Corps may not always know what they’re doing, but if he were given a chance to significantly fix the damage done to his brain, he would jump on it immediately as well. Thinking about that, Hal winces at all the brain cells that he’s probably lost to concussions and alcohol. It certainly isn’t a small amount.

Guy still sounds rather childish when he speaks sometimes. Not that he ever had a very sophisticated manner of speaking before, but Hal finds there’s still something notably immature in the way he talks. Maybe it’s how he sounds things out or the words he chooses to use ― again, Hal isn’t sure ― but there is a distinct difference in how he communicated before and how he communicates now.

He was calling Atrocitus a “big bad red dinosaur with a face full of warts” when they got ambushed. Ah, yes. They’d been ambushed. Hal remembers now, how they’d been joking amongst themselves when at least twenty Red Lanterns had shot out from behind a cluster of asteroids and taken them by surprise. And Atrocitus had happened to be one of them.

It was a miracle that Guy had managed to finish his sentence at all.

“......Hal? .......Hal?” speaking of the ginger brickhouse, he appears to have opened his eyes ― or at least tried to. With those nasty yellow-green bruises, it’s hard to tell.

Hal’s heart leaps in his chest at the sound of his own name, and he turns around to grab his comrade by the shoulders, “Guy! Oh god, Guy, you’re awake! Stay awake, okay?” He knows from experience that drifting off after a bad beating or a blow to the head is far from a good thing.

Guy tilts his head slightly, a look of confusion crossing his face. But he doesn’t say anything in return. He just blinks his eyes and then starts looking around slowly, as if he’s just woken up from a long nap. Hal isn’t sure if he can see out of such bloated eyes, but at least he can still feel things, because when Guy flexes his fingers, he winces and holds them still. He must have broken something or hurt the joints while throwing a punch.

Hal moves around him and tries to get a better view of his head. There doesn’t appear to be any serious damage to Guy’s cranium, which is good. He’s already gone through enough; another round of brain damage issues would just be cruel by this point. They’d probably make his current mood swings even worse.  

After examining the other man’s head, Hal swings back around to face Guy and puts his hands firmly on his shoulders. They’re roughly an arm’s length apart and floating somewhere in the Talmayn solar system, in a sector that Hal knows fairly well. If he’s being honest with himself, it could be worse, and Hal is glad that it isn’t.

He draws one hand away from a still woozy guy and brings it up to his face, eyeing the green light. He needs to call for help and this time he can’t get distracted. There are Red Lanterns in sector 2075 and they are undeniably dangerous. They’re also still out here somewhere, and that doesn’t ease Hal’s nerves in the slightest.

Especially seeing that he and Guy are still alive. That’s the part that really worries him.  

Why would Atrocitus and his men ambush him and another Green Lantern only to let them live? It would have made more sense to kill them for vengeance or to capture and imprison them to hold for ransom or to torture for information. So why beat them senseless and then leave them alive? Atrocitus was no idiot ― he wouldn’t have just assumed they were dead, he would have made sure. So why just leave them where he found them instead of taking them as prisoners if killing wasn’t his intent?

Hal doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like this one bit. He has to call John and he has to call him now. Hal closes his eyes and conjures up the name and face he needs ― needs not wants ― he reminds himself bitterly. He needs someone like John, someone that can help him. He wanted Barry. But Barry can’t help him. Barry’s lightyears and lightyears away and even the fastest man alive can’t run across the stars.

Besides, it would be cruel to ask him to. Hal’s chest clenches at the thought of everything that Barry might do for him. Because Barry’s a good man, and even though it seems cliché to say it, Hal really can’t think of another way to explain it. He’s just a good man. And he believes that Hal is too. That Hal deserves to have someone who would leave the Milky Way for him. Who would leap over Orion’s Shield and dart across the Pillars of Creation.  

Who would come to him galaxies away from Earth with hope in their eyes and tell him that everything will be alright.

And that thought is just too much. It makes Hal’s limbs weak again and it makes his grip on Guy’s shoulder go slack. Hopefully the other man is conscious enough to stay in the same orbit as him, because Hal really doesn’t know if he has the strength to pull him back in right now. He needs Barry to leave his mind. He needs to think with his head and not his heart.

John’s face comes into view of his mind’s eye. Strong cheekbones and broad nose, tight mouth and curious eyes. He’s as quiet and contemplative-looking as always and Hal can’t help but snicker a little. People always seem to imagine John as some sort of “deep-thinker” ― after all, he always looks so lost in thought, like one of those ancient Greek philosophers.

People always assume things.  

Just last week, during the Justice League’s most recent meeting, John had given everyone in the room that deep-eyed look. He’d nodded thoughtfully and tilted his head in consideration each time someone spoke. And then, roughly half an hour in to yet another one of Batman’s monotonous and excruciatingly boring speeches, he’d leaned over in his seat and whispered to Hal, “I had to wake up real early on Oa, so I could get here on time and I’m damn sure that I accidentally put Katma’s ear lotion on my toothbrush. I can still taste it. Can you make some sort of distraction, so I can grab a cup of water? It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past six hours.”

A real deep-thinker, alright. The next Socrates, for sure. Hal stops himself from trying to laugh at the memory ― his chest still hurts when he exerts it too much.

Instead he focuses on his ring. It’s begun to glow more brightly than before, as he draws in all the willpower he can. The low hum it gives off is reassuring, and if you listen closely enough, the ring sounds like it’s singing. Hal told Ollie about it once before, but he didn’t believe him. Even when Hal had put it up close to Ollie’s ear and let the ring settle into a harmony, Ollie said he still couldn’t hear a thing.  

But Hal knows he can hear the ring. It sings to him because that’s how it communicates. He made Dinah and Barry listen to it too, and even Tom when he first realized that it could. Yet none of them heard it. So, he was anxious when he asked John if his ring sang to him too ― he hadn’t wanted to look stupid by asking Kilowog or Sinestro at the time when he was younger. He’d asked John if the ring sang to him and John looked at him as though the answer was obvious.  

“Of course, it does.”

So, he asked Kilowog and Katma and Tomar Re too, and all their answers were the same: “What kind of question is that? Of course, the ring sings.” And that settled it then. Only ring-bearers can hear the ring. No one else can make sense of it ― all those melodies are just distant hums to them. They can’t hear the songs and they can’t feel the words that the songs embed into the ring-bearers’ minds. A shame, really......there’s nothing else in the universe like it.

“This is Green Lantern, John Stewart. Who is this?”

Hal hears that familiar voice and he feels like he could fly to the moon and back. Finally, John. Good old John. He tries to cry out the other man’s name in excitement, but he finds himself breathless and croaking out a weak, “Jo-hn” instead. Hal winces at the sound of it, yet still, he continues, “It’s Hal. I’m with Guy and we’re fucked, dude. We’re fucked up.”

“Hal?” John’s voice is warbled slightly by the ring, “......do you and Guy still have all your limbs?”  

It’s a slightly ridiculous but understandable question. In fact, Hal takes a moment to glance over himself and then Guy again just in case, before replying, “Yeah. Everything’s still there. We got ambushed, John. There were Red Lanterns, ‘bout nineteen or twenty of them. And Atrocitus ― Atrocitus was there........”

He can hear a muffled, “shit......” from John’s end. “Where are you two?”

Floating around aimlessly, Hal struggles to gain his bearings. He searches the open space around them, the asteroid fields, the distant stars, the occasional planet as it falls into view. “We’re still in sector 2075,” he rasps, “somewhere near the Kylaaq Belt.........Talmayn System.......I, I think we might be near the planet......Givnuer? Terrestrial, no native life......yellow dwarf star. Talmayn’s the one with the yellow dwarf, Oberix is red.......”

Guy has started babbling incoherently again, his head lolling against Hal’s shoulder. He looks as if he may start drifting off into unconsciousness and that isn’t a good sign at all. Hal grunts and carefully pushes Guy about arm’s-length away from him. He shakes his shoulders a little, trying to keep him awake. The murmuring ceases and Guy blinks drowsily.

“How far?” John asks, and Hal thinks he can hear concern.  

“Huh?” Hal looks back to his ring. He’s still in a bit of a daze himself.  

“How far from Givnuer?”

Keeping his hold on Guy, Hal twists his head around as best he can and attempts to judge their distance from the planet. “Four......four AU.......maybe three?” He gives the area a quick scan with his ring and waits for the responding hum, “......yeah. Yeah, about four.”

“Okay,” John sounds relieved despite the vocal distortion the rings tend to cause, “If your rings are looking low on power, jettison over there immediately. Try to conserve energy. We’ll be there as quickly as we can.”

“Thanks, John,” Hal sighs, his shoulders sagging and his free hand dropping away from Guy’s arm.

John exhales, “Of course,” and then ends the call, already heading off to go fetch a proper rescue team. In the meantime, Hal turns his attention back to his less stable teammate. Guy is wobbling back and forth, still gazing blankly at the empty space around himself. The dried blood from his nose and jaw cover the entire lower half of his face, and it almost looks like some sort of patchy reddish-brown beard; not entirely unbelievable for the ginger to have.

“Hal.......” he murmurs, “Hal, I heard Johnny.......”

Hal steadies him with both hands again, “That was Johnny. I called him, he’s gonna come get us.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

Guy hums in consideration before slumping forward, resting his head against Hal’s shoulder, “Don’t feel good. Hope Johnny comes soon.”

“He will,” Hal accepts the weight and cocks his head to the left. He narrows his eyes in the direction of Givnuer. Would it be best for them to go there and rest like John suggested, or can they just wait it out......?

“Hal?”

He tears his eyes away from the distant planet and says to Guy, “Yeah? What is it?”

The concussed Green Lantern screws up his battered face, looking more like a curious child than a six foot four Baltimorean, “Were you scared?”

“......what?”

“Were you scared? When the dino showed up?”

“...........”

Hal doesn’t blink. He isn’t looking at Guy anymore though — his gaze is fixed on Givnuer again. It looks pale and reddish from a distance, reminding him vaguely of Mars. Mars; J’onn’s home planet, less than one Solar AU from Earth. And Earth, so far away from here........  

“I was,” Guy says nonchalantly and (Hal wonders if even he knows it) with incredible irony, “I thought I wasn’t gonna make it back home. Were you thinkin’ ‘bout home, Hally?”

“......no.”

“Hhm......I was thinkin’ ‘bout home......I was thinkin’ ‘bout my Tora an’ ‘bout Bea too. An’ stupid Ted an’ Booster even......an’ I was thinkin’ ‘bout my old students......hell, my old woman an’ her husband too — even if they’re awful.......I was scared I wouldn’t see any of ‘em again......”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.......” it’s strange to hear Guy speak so softly; speak so calmly and in little more than a whisper, “......Hal? Were you thinkin’ ‘bout anyone?”

Hal throws Guy’s arm over his shoulder. He shifts around a bit, trying to support him in a half-carry before finally setting course for Givnuer, “I guess I was.”

Guy’s cheek is pressed against Hal’s shoulder. His swollen eyelids droop and he doesn’t look at the other man when he speaks. Like Hal’s are, Guy’s eyes are focused only on the approaching planet, “......your Barry?”

Though every nerve in his body is immediately struck with the desire to freeze, Hal presses onward instead. His skin is riddled with pinpricks and the green blaze of light around him takes on a wavering image. There’s something heavy stuck in his throat. Something heavy sliding slowly — so painfully slowly — and dropping down into his chest. There’s something heavy settling between his ribs. Something heavy trying to smother the delicate façade onto which his heart so desperately clings.    

His Barry.........his Barry.

The two Lanterns fly on in silence. Hal gives no response and Guy doesn’t push him to. At one point, Hal worries that Guy has fallen asleep; but fortunately, the other man blinks through his bruises and manages to keep his chin up. He even musters enough strength to straighten out his back, easing some of the pressure off Hal. Roughly halfway to Givnuer, they both get a twenty percent warning from their rings and Hal speeds up a fraction or two.

Guy starts humming something under his breath. It’s some sort of song, maybe even a lullaby, but Hal doesn’t recognize it. Despite his exhaustion, the inky void of space still makes for a surprising comfort. The shivering stars and roving meteors seem to urge him forward as he pulls his comrade to safety. Hal tries not to think about Atrocitus or the Red Lanterns. He tries not to think about Earth and certainly not anyone on it. He tries not to think about.......Barry.

Guy stops humming as they reach the edges of Givnuer’s outer atmosphere. He gives a little burst from his own ring to aide Hal as the two of them prepare for entry. The world around them turns starkly rose-colored, and the burning green light of their shields become tipped with fuchsia. Guy and Hal descend softly into the afternoon sky, streaks of color trailing behind. Both men are as silent as the barren world below them.

They remain silent all the way there.

[milady-milord-lj]

Community Re-Watch Season 1: Advanced Criminal Law and Social Psychology

Community Re-Watch:  Season 1 Hello everyone! Once again, watching in intended order. Which means this week we've got "Advanced Criminal Law" and "Social Psychology" (yes in that order). Advanced Criminal Law

Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, and Andrew Guest (co-writer with Dan)

Dan says the script for this episode was pretty much written on-set. Andrew confirms that the script went through a lot of changes. There was originally a secondary story involving Professor Duncan. According to Dan, Duncan just had a paper published called “Born to Leave,” which was about why women always leave men. Andrew clarifies that the comedy about the paper was that it was clearly Duncan publicly grinding an axe.

Dan says that a lot of people didn’t get the exchange between Jeff and Duncan where they talk “in code” using sitcom titles. Joel is kind of shocked by that statement.

Dan admits that Abed is loosely based on a friend of his (side note:  original Abed did make an appearance as one of the custodians during S5 in “Analysis of Cork-based Networking). He said Original Abed (the guy’s name is actually Abed) is incredulous. That was the basis of the Abed-Troy storyline in this episode. Joel points out that Original Abed actually read for the part of Fictional Abed.

Starburns’s first line in the entire series is said in Spanish class. It’s, “My name is Alex, dude.” According to Dan, this exchange was originally longer and descended into a huge argument between Chan and Starburns. Unfortunately, NBC hated the argument and it got cut as a result.

Gillian said during the day they were shooting in the Spanish class, Ken Jeong was doing a lot of Andrew Dice Clay impressions.

Joel actually doesn’t remember which episode he’s commenting on. He sheepishly admits that during the break when no one is talking he was quickly looking up on his phone to see which episode it was.

Dan once again repeats that this is one of the episodes where Jeff gets his one-on-one with each character in the study group. This episode is meant to be Jeff’s one-on-one with Britta. This is the episode where we discover that Britta is a character who cuts and runs “because she’s a skank.” Gillian cheerfully agrees that Britta is a skank-y, cheating, ‘ho, “which is what the people want.” Dan assures Gillian that she is selling herself short, and that he is in negotiations about that stuff with “the people.”

Dan says there were multiple re-shot scenes between Pierce and Annie at the piano while Pierce is trying to write a school song for Greendale. He mentions that some of the scenes will be included in the DVD extras. The point was to say something about Pierce (not Annie, apparently). Dan repeats that Pierce is Dan’s avatar representing him as an artist. Namely, that he’ll shut himself up in a room and procrastinate, then go around and lie about what a genius he is.

Joel notes that Alison’s neck is bright red in the scene where Chang threatens to flunk the class unless the cheater comes forward. Gillian points out that it’s because Alison just screamed. Joel asks Gillian if the same thing happens to her, and Gillian confirms that it does. She adds that she bruises very easily.

Gillian says that during the scene where the class throws balled up paper at her, some of the extras in the scene whipped the balls at her pretty hard. Dan admits that he ended up debating the scene with Joe Russo during editing. Joe wanted a beat before people starting flinging paper at her, and Dan wanted it to happen right away. Dan won.

Joel calls the scene where Jeff approaches Britta in the Cafetorium as “the battle of the awesome coats.”

Dan asks if Joel was the one who ad-libbed the line that a dirty bum is higher on the totem pole than Britta. Joel and Gillian say that the line was actually in the script.

Dan says that Jeff is based on a combination of his friends. In addition, Jeff Winger is both the voice of “the dorky writer who created him” and Joel McHale. He credits McHale with really highlighting Jeff’s “pomposity, narcissism, and shallowness.” (Umm, compliment? I guess?)

Dan says the dirty bum line to Britta was the point at which he realized that they had managed to successfully create a very flawed character as their Jeff protagonist and they had to commit to it.

Andrew says that there are a couple of different versions of the Jeff-Britta conversation that were put into the script, but that writer Neil Goldman was the one who locked it down to its current form.

Andrew also says that writer Hillary Winston came up with Britta storyline, and that she came into the writers’ room with the plot almost fully formed before they even wrote the script. Dan confirmed the storyline was Hillary’s. Although he adds that he always had the idea in his head that he wanted to do a trial storyline where the trial takes place next to a swimming pool. He notes that if the idea had come from Joe Russo, it might get shot down as being too expensive. But because Dan wanted to do it, people were willing to make it happen.

The pool-side trial was apparently a long day of filming. Gillian points out that on that day, Alison was on-set for 16 hours, and only worked for a half-hour. Turns out, Alison had a scene as a witness at the trial, and she ended up being cut from the final version of the script/episode.

Dan says that part of it was that when he went down to the set, he thought the pool-side trial scenes weren’t working. So he and Andrew basically sat on the bleachers and re-wrote the trial scenes. Then they were printing out the re-written pages to give to the actors, while they were still shooting the original script. Andrew jokes, “It’s really not the way you want to work.”

Gillian points out the guy diving into the pool in the background at the end of the first pool-trial scene made that dive 30 times.

Dan says the scenes between Annie and Pierce were originally much darker in tone. All of the scenes had to be reshot because NBC because they felt the scenes were too dark. Dan admits that NBC may have had a valid point. However, he says that the whole point of the Annie-Pierce storyline was to “find the Pierce character” that both Dan and Chevy would be happy with.

Dan goes off on a tangent and says that Chevy basically wanted to be Fletch. Dan’s argument was that Pierce wasn’t Fletch, he was meant to be a buffoon and that Chevy had been warned that Pierce was the target of jokes. But Chevy insisted that he wanted to be “Fletch-y and sexy.” So the Pierce-Annie storyline was Dan’s attempt at finding a happy medium. Pierce was written to be an angry character because he’s not getting what he wants in life.

Dan says in the original scenes between Pierce and Annie, Pierce is very abusive towards Annie throughout their storyline. In the final piano room scene between the two of them, Annie snaps and dresses down Pierce. Actual Dan quote describing the original scene where Annie finally confronts Pierce:  “You know why you have seven wives? Because everyone who gets close to you, you shit on them. Now I’m one of one of those people, and I accidentally thought you were a decent guy. Now I’m out of here too, and that’s just the way it is.” As Dan put it, Annie was supposed to be Pierce’s first real friend. Dan admits that the storyline was inspired by Malcolm in the Middle.

Back at poolside again, Gillian says she got great joy out of the seeing posters of the Human Being in his swimming form. Andrew adds that the art department did an amazing job on the set. Both Joel and Gillian pipe up and say that the set was infested by very large cockroaches.

Gillian says that it was her idea to crawl up onto the platform to give Britta’s testimony. Joel says he thought it was kind of adorable.

Dan says that he had a real problem with Gillian’s boots. Gillian adds that he seemed upset that she was wearing heels. Dan counters that he has a problem with dishonesty, and it seems to him that if someone is short they should own it. He had a hard time wrapping his head around why someone like Britta would wear high-heeled boots, because Britta was supposed to be a character that represented practicality and honesty. So, why is Britta stumbling around on stilts? Gillian interrupts and says it’s because she’s not very good at walking in heels.

Andrew points out that this is the first episode where the writers actually address Britta’s character. Gillian agrees that this is the first episode where you see Britta is flawed (Ummm, did we forget Britta admitting to being a hypocrite in “Spanish 101?”).

Dan says that this episode is one of his favorite episodes, however, it’s also an episode that had a huge number of problems during production and post-production. There was “political” pressure on him, plus a lot of second-guessing and over-correction. For example, a lot of the act breaks got shuffled around in the edit bay to improve the flow of the episode, so as a result none of the act breaks we see are the original act breaks in the script, which seems to drive him crazy. In short, filming and putting this episode was, in Dan’s word, “a mess.” Plus he was in the middle of the learning curve of learning to work with his team and the network. There was not enough confidence on his part.

Gillian says that both she and Joel got to really enjoy watching Jim Rash, John Oliver, and Ken do improve during the poolside-trial scenes. She says that it was like being at a comedy show that never ended.

Joel says the shower scene between Chang and Duncan and Jeff and Britta was shot about 20 minutes before they were about to be thrown out of the pool. Gillian says that both scenes were shot very quickly, with only two takes for each scene.

Dan calls Gillian’s acting in the scene between her and Jeff “brilliant.”Dan thinks that looking back at the Jeff-Britta scene after 25 episodes of pounding on Britta by pointing out that she’s humorless and joyless, you realize in this scene that Britta is “a crazy person.” He says that Gillian’s performance informs that realization, because it’s “so real.” Britta is the character on Gilligan’s Island who sticks out because she’s different from “all these sitcom characters.”

Andrew says that the Jeff-Britta scene was shot at the end of a 16-hour day and Joe basically had to tell Gillian, “Okay, this is your big scene!” Gillian repeats that they had to do the scene in two takes.

Dan’s still complaining about act breaks.

First appearance of Leonard (By the fabulous Richard Erdman! I recommend you see him in one of his most famous roles in Stalag 17. Great movie! Somehow it served as the inspiration of Hogan’s Heroes. If you squint, you can kind of see it.).

Everyone talks about how Dan almost drowned Richard. Gillian says it was fascinating to see two people swim out with Richard to guide him to his mark and then he’d sink about five inches down the second they let him go. Dan says “the legend” is that Richard had to do 20 takes of his “Busted!” line, but the thing is, he nailed it on his first take while Dan was in the bathroom. And then when Dan came back, he kept asking for more takes. Eventually, the first assistant director took Dan aside and said, “He’s going to drown!” Dan admits that the ended up using his first take. Gillian starts laughing that Richard is basically “eating water” during his scene.

Dan starts singing Richard’s praises and urges people to look him up on IMDb to see what he’s acted in and what he’s directed. He’s basically a museum of early television and a living legend. Gillian says that Richard was Marlon Brando’s roommate at one point when they were both starting out in Hollywood. Dan says everyone on the set should salute Richard when he comes on set. Gillian says he’s always in a good mood, and is always happy to be there.

Gillian says that she loved watching Danny shoot his scene where he’s pretending to be an alien communicating with his home world. She says that for the “alien twin,” Danny insisted that make-up draw in his eyebrows really heavy so he’d have a more alien look.

Dan says the scene between where Troy confronts Abed about trying to fool him into thinking he is an alien was re-shot as well. Originally Troy bought it, but Dan thought it was too implausible that Troy would think Abed was an alien. Andrew jokes that now the writers know Troy well enough that they’d probably go for the original storyline.

Dan says that in the first season of any freshman show, everyone involved has the correct feeling that it’s their job to save the show. This sometimes leads to the equivalent of a car crash at a four-waystop. But the thing is, everyone is right because it is everyone’s job to save the show. So everyone has to learn to work together. Eventually people learn over time. But early on “you think you’re writing the Constitution and everyone if Thomas Jefferson.”

Gillian says that Chevy loves playing the piano. Joel adds that he’s actually very good at it.

Dan clearly isn’t feeling the scenes between Annie and Pierce and calls them “watered-down.” However, he adds that writer Liz Cackowski did a good job re-writing the scenes between the two characters. Turns out that Annie’s final speech to Pierce about being a cheerleader is actually taken from a combination of Hillary’s and Liz’s real lives.

Dan says he actually loves Annie’s cheerleader story because it’s so specific of a backstory and it allowed them to learn stuff.

Andrew says adapting the Bruce Hornsby song “The Way It Is,” came about because someone in the writers’ room thought the name of the song was “That’s the Way It Goes.” And they got to talking about what if Pierce thought that was the name of the song.

Dan says they tried to get Bruce Hornsby and The Range to play the closing song of the episode, but was turned down. Dan adds that he hopes to get Bruce on the show at some point.

Gillian says that Luis Guzman posed for the Luis Guzman statue.

Dan thanks Luis. He adds that he originally asked Mark Hamill to pose for it. Although Mark said no, Dan still got an awesome letter in response to his request. Dan said it actually made him love Mark, because he he’s one of the few people who can say “no” without coming off like a dick. He said Mark came across as fairly reasonable in his rejection.

Social Psychology

Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Anthony Russo. Danny Pudi watched them do commentary from outside the recording booth.

Anthony states that the episode was aired out of order. It was moved up, which resulted in a rushed post-production.

Dan says that Liz Cackowski wrote the draft. It was apparently a big milestone for Dan. He felt that this was the first script that was just “ready to go” and he felt from the start that they could actually do this story.

First appearance of Vaughn (Erik Christian Olsen). Yvette notes that he’s (as of when they were recording the commentaries) a full-time cast member of one of the NCIS shows. Yvette says he was a great guy.

Anthony says that commentaries were recorded out of order from when the episodes aired. Apparently they had just finished commenting on later episodes and this was a return to the earlier episodes for them. Antony says that part of the fun of the early episodes is that you’re getting to know the characters, and in this case, exploring the relationship between Jeff and Shirley. He adds that another part of the fun is finding characters outside your core cast. Some of those characters wound up having “lives” in the first season, despite the fact they were originally cast as a one-shot guest.

Everyone loved the character of Vaughn, and they’re kind of sorry they didn’t get to explore him more. Dan mentions about making Vaughn a musical rival to Pierce (which only sort of happened).

Yvette says the nice thing about this episode is that she got to spend time with Joel. She says that just as Shirley and Jeff were getting to know each other, she and Joel were getting to know each other at the same time.

Dan credits Liz for coming up with the idea that the basis of the friendship between Jeff and Shirley is their mutual love of gossip, specifically talking smack behind people's backs.

Dan repeats that this is part of the series where “in the first six episodes” (umm, it took longer than six episodes for Annie,just sayin’), where Jeff would interact with each member of the study group and become inextricably tangled in each character’s life. This was the Jeff-Shirley episode. The problem they were trying to overcome was how to make that happen with Jeff and Shirley. That’s why they leaned into the whole thing where Jeff says at the open of the episode that he hates walking with Shirley and making small talk with her. However, he likes the fact that Shirley is the first to really bond with Jeff.

Yvette points out that Jeff and Shirley are really toxic together, so does that mean that they shouldn’t be together in future episodes? Dan disagrees, since the whole point is for “the family” to grow together so much that, if they want, Shirley moves up from being Jeff’s “least favorite family member” to someone he likes more.

Joel points out that the name of the coffee shop is Hot and Brown. Dan says it was tough coming up with a new coffee shop name after going through 15 names of coffee shops used on other sitcoms. Yvette jokes that she thought it was in homage to her. Dan points out that it’s racist. Yvette asks how it’s racist. Dan says, “It’s not racist if you say it.”

Yvette says that John Oliver has the cutest dimples ever. Joel adds that comedy just flows out of John and Jim Rash like a broken Roman fountain. Dan says that both John and Jim are amazing in different ways. He calls Jim “a machine” who hits every mark in exactly the same way if you want him to, which makes it easy to edit his scenes. John does a different thing every time and it’s amazing every single time.

According to Dan, there were a lot of shots (that were cut) where Duncan was leering at Annie, and it just made him feel very uncomfortable. He is very protective of the idea that Annie was an innocent little girl.

Yvette says that during this episode, a writer from Entertainment Weekly was on the set.

During S1, the exterior shots were shot at LA Community College. They also did outdoor shots on the Paramount lot. The Paramount lot was dressed to mimic the exterior of LA Community College. In this episode, they were shooting on the Paramount lot.

Joel points out that during his and Yvette’s first walk-and-talk scene, they were walking across the street from the office of the President of Paramount.

First official onscreen appearance of Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen) is in Duncan’s group of lab rats for the Duncan Principle! (Although, he does also appear in “Advanced Criminal Law,” but from an airing order perspective, this episode is his first appearance.) Dan admits that in this episode, Garrett didn’t have a name. He was just a background character in the scene. Dan says Erik is “a darling of the underground stand-up comedy scene in LA.”

Troy’s meltdown was completely improvised by Donald Glover, to the point that the script only said "Troy melts down." Everyone on the commentary track just bursts into laughter. Yvette says that Troy's meltdown just makes her happy.

Dan notes that this episode runs longer than all the other episodes in S1, because NBC let them “super-size” the episode. Anthony says that even with the super-sizing, this episode was eight minutes too long. NBC waived the length requirements on the episode because this episode got moved up in the airing order, which meant they had a very short post-production window. So NBC took pity on them. Anthony says the version on the DVD is the as-aired longer NBC version. However, on streaming sites, they use the chopped-down syndicated version that’s only 22 minutes.

Yvette is convinced that Jeff is in love with Britta.

Dan feels this episode has a weird effect. He notes that the critics had a weird reaction as well, because they commented that suddenly Jeff Winger is Jim Halpert from The Office, and it’s now a rom-com and Jeff is so devastated because some girl he likes is making out with another guy.

Dan feels that Jeff is very, very inexperienced when it comes to feeling anything genuine about women. He’s had a crass, collector mentality when it comes to women. That as soon as he gets what he wants from them (he calls it “validation”), they become disgusting to him and he moves on. However, Britta, for whatever reason is different. He’s got a big crush on Britta, he likes her, he’s attracted to her “dirtiness,” and the eclecticness of her. In short, (and this is Dan’s actual words) Jeff “believes Britta is the girl he’s supposed to be with.”

Joel asks Dan if he thinks Jeff leaning his forehead against the vending machine was over the top. Dan admits they cut it down, but that he likes the fact that privately, Jeff is bummed out that Britta is “the one that got away.”

Joel says that when he read the script he was heartbroken in a “how could she” kind of way.

Dan says that Britta reminds him of so many of his ex-girlfriends. That one of things he finds attractive is that Britta is that tough girl you can throw into a suitcase and bring with you around the world. Then she turns out to be a mattress full of bed bugs and gives you ringworm. (This is greeted by groans and admonishment from Yvette.)

Dan admits that Duncan’s breakdown is him doing a "take that" against doctors and therapists because he hates people in white coats.

Yvette said she was very nervous about making Shirley making fun of Vaughn because she’s not really a physical comedian and she had to physically make fun of him.

Erik (Vaughn) was wearing tiny fake nipples. Anthony said that they weren’t actually prosthetic nipples. It was actually a trick of the make-up because they couldn't really afford the prosthetics.

Dan really likes the scene of Jeff and Britta sitting on the couch together. Dan mentions that the focus groups had a really simplistic view of Britta and the Jeff-Britta relationship. Focus groups felt that Britta was “the normal one” in the ensemble. Also, they really weren’t on board with the will-the-won’t-they between Jeff and Britta, but they liked the sibling vibe when they hatched schemes together and hung out as friends.

(Dan is obviously unhappy with that feedback as he stumbles a little bit over his explanation over whether or not to pay attention to the feedback. On whether or not Dan really wanted to know what the focus groups said, and he admits that early on he did. He kind of closes the discussion with “to me, you could get good feedback form a fire hydrant.” Anthony adds that NBC never “misused” the focus group information. They only shared the feedback.)

In the scene where the study group reassembles in the study room and the shit hits the fan, Joel jokes about Alison’s costuming by saying that she walked onto the set directly from her audition for Dukes of Hazard II. Dan adds that it’s subtitled, The Prep-ening.

Dan says that the study room scene is the first time they had a “shit hit the fan” scenario, and he now considers it a Community staple. Dan and Yvette said they both felt bad during this scene. Dan points out that in this scene, Vaughn becomes the most likeable character. Dan says it was also part of his “beating up on Britta to make her more likeable” campaign so she'd become the group Charlie Brown. It’s also the point where you realize the Study Group is made up of bad people.

Yvette says the scene following the Britta-Vaughn break-up scene was hard to do with Joel. However, it was due to behind-the-scenes reasons. Joel was being a sarcastic ass, and Yvette thought he was being mean to her. (She stresses that at this point they didn’t know each other very well.) Joel admits that he makes jokes and is sarcastic with people he doesn’t know people all that well. Dan points out that Joel just admitted that his defense mechanism is to be an ass.

Dan comments that Joel and Yvette have good chemistry. Yvette jokes with Joel and asks when she’s going to be getting a kiss.

Dan says that the scene between Annie and Abed where she gives him the apology DVD set was longer. In the cut scene, Duncan comes back and tells Annie that she’s brilliant and wants her to come with him to help him continue his work. Annie turns him down because she decides that she’d rather watch the DVDs with Abed. Anthony says that the point of the scene was to show that Duncan realized his meltdown actually confirmed the Duncan Principle. By cutting it, the storyline didn’t get paid off. Plus, Anthony adds, it was one of the funniest scenes that John Oliver had ever done. Dan says that this was part of the learning curve of learning how long a script needed to be to essentially make a 20-minute movie. The tragedy was they had to “kill their children” early on, the children in this case being scenes and jokes.

Dan says that a lot of the cool songs in the show comes from Joe Russo’s Ipod.

The tag between Troy and Abed was shot at 4 a.m. Joel says he had to leave directly from the shoot to catch a flight to New York.

Anthony said the episode needed to be locked two days later on a Saturday at 9 p.m., so he was up for 36 hours straight in editing to make the deadline.

[the-ink-knight]

Chapter 2/3# TOM

Tom’s hands already full of callus began to hurt, like they were being crossed by lead bisonts when the night arrIved. His arms were made of pudin, always shaking for no reason. His cousin Rorge of the same age was in the same condicion. Only Oz and Balt were fine, they left the room in the middle of the day like everyone to lounch, than they disapeard like every single day in history. The knight did'nt want to wait so the heirs restarted the trainement. Tom as the heir to those prosperous lands, had the best teachers his father could give or trust. He learned how to fight, how to shot, how to run, how to throw sprears, how to swim, how to use a sheild and how to climb with the man he was with: the Iron ox. Usualy on the open yard, not at the horn room. However Tom’d rather use the closed room than that training yard. It was warmer. The floor was padded and had a leather coat. They wouldn’t use shoes on that. The room was in the top of the newest tower of the castle, made by his grandfather when the rebelion ended, his father told that a foreign arquitect from Loxer came and got lunatic with the city, beagging to be the one to constroy the new tower. When finished it looked like every other. With limitless windows And no regular shape.But inside the room the walls were made of green marbel and had a fire place as wide as a tall laid man, in the sides had exposed all kinds of weapons, from long swords to daggers, from spears to arrows alongside bows with a lot of shapes. It had all tipes of weapons, some that he had never saw outside that room. He would also learn all the Onteigonew history, all the wars, all the noble houses and their castles, islands, lands, forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, seas, bays�� with the old sir Patrok Ungle Koik. His father always called him when some vassal came to the capital, usualy asking for some thing… or when a smaller lord was juged. From time to time he would call Tom and Rorge to play a war game in a massive map on the internal garden. They chosed wich land they would be the prime lord, excepte the Golden Lands where the king were. All them had indiferent advantages, some had more man to fight, or better castles, or better weapons, or fertil lands to grow crops sell it and buy more man. A maid wich Tom did'nt know the name said the dinner was ready in order of his mother. The knight canceled the train. Tom had to bathe first his body was as wet as a lamprey. The old intirior halls were so bright at night that Tom nedded a lamp to see the paintings of former lords and battles with forgoten names of forgoten wars. He was lucky he knew the castle. At night some young maids or stews ards could get lost, shouting was useless. The intirior walls were thick and a lot of chambers had a cork coat. Tom arrived to is bedroom like a hound after hunt a eagle for a mouth, rewardless. A hot water tube was ready to a bath. And the fireplace warmed the room like it should be warmed. He dressed a light beje tunic, green wool pants and brown sandals. And returned to the dark halls. Closer he got the the Diner room louther he heard is father telling a war storie. -He was right there. Up that bloody hill with is crown.-said Harkash Darlane with a turkey leg on his fist dropping sause to the table.- a big part of his army was with him. The blue man were a very big army with good weapons. “Lockily I had more. Me and your uncle were there. Do you reamember?” -How could I forget the day i lost my eye? When you tell me every mounth?- the lord laughed -It’s easy! The only thing you need is a barril of strong wine!- his father wasn’t fat or skiny, he had a small beard around his mouth and a big mostache, long and brown of hair, fern green of eyes. - Even with that most be hard to forget the day you got you title. And mostly the day the war ended.- saied Rorge. -Ay- anued the uncle. - Why is always the last day the most unforgetuble?- asked Vern, is sister under the cornflower dress near the big fire.- I’m sure there were a more important day in the war!- His sister Vernedys was three years younger than Tom, she had curly olive wood skirt of hair to his shoulders, two dark emerals above her tiny nose and two fin lines of cerise pink beanith. Her small hands, delicate and fine were holding a chiken leng. - There were! - said the uncle.- At the western White Lands. In a castle called the Porjuls Fort. Unfortunaly for the Daylon House. Sir Ulid Poliwood one of the high generals of the Blue King Tolman Morzan comanded a big army of twelve thousand man. They siege the castle in one second, the only thing the Daylons could do was to hide. In the end of the winter they had no reservations of any thing but wine. Hundreds of archerts surrunded the castle to put down any dove, raven or falcon. “In the 3 day of siege the Poliwood shouted to the guards and the maids of Porjuls to throw every Daylon of the fort’s walls.”- Varla Colte, his mother, drunk the last sip of wine she left in the cup. She turned even whiter when sir Marke stoped to bite a leg of turkey. -I reamenber how my father heard about it.- Barla his younger sister weren’t dinning with them. But sleeping with her poopy, Paunchy, so the Lady Colte could speack freely, fearless of toutching Barla’s inosence.- a raven of the Blue King.- she talked slownely and sadely, like she stiled in mourning.- it told us that they cut their throats and throwed them from the top of the walls, the first one was Lord Hilon Daylon, than Lady Katerine, than…- she hiccuped- Isabel and…- a lonly tear came down and left a wet road from the eye to the chin.- Leon , a baby if mouths….- her sadness screamed from her whiteness like the snow in the roofs of The Godsfeet Palace, she had very bright blond hair, two blue topaz lakes with a jet island. She was small, unlike the big mounteins she grow up but strong as their rocks.- My father after reading it shouted so loud every dove near the windows flew away. His precious lands were bieng destroyed. Tolman Morzan declaired war to all Oteigon. And killed his littel sister and his nefews - He was smart to wait. That year a very big drought hited the Green Lands , Meralyn Royte barely could afourd the hunger of her people. While the Blue Lands all keap to be wet. In droughts they would become a lot more fertil.- said the the old knight. - But why did they killed all the Daylons?- asked Oz. - They were the ones that guarded the passegue to the White Lands. With out them Tolman’s armys could go on. - ansered the Lord Harkash.- Are you fine dear? - I’m good, I just felt very bad. She has my aunt and they were my cousins, I played with Isabel so many times, in Godsfeet and at the Porjuls Fort. I loved her like she was my sister… But that was a long time ago. Isabel and Leon are with the gods now… Some umforgetable moments aren’t allways good ones… thought Tom. Some steward knooked the the ancient door of the room full of iron black bulls and beech leafs of jade and emerals, greener than the stones of that small hall, with only three windows, like the big window of Tom’s room, made of grey, green and normal glass, at the walls were exposed trophies of hunte and war, like stags,lions, bulls, bears… and the blue crown of Tolman Morzan. The fireplace and the moon were the only ones that lighted to dinner. The table they dinned with was to big for them, there were Tom, Vernedys, his mother Lady Margot Colte, his father, the twins Oz and Balt, his uncle and the old knight sir Patrok Ungle Koik. Barla was sleeping like his grandmother, Lady Elenor Summerbee. - My Lord…- saied the steward- Saon Gail wanted to know if we could start to decorate the city. For the graeps-harvest festival. - Sure.- said his father with out looking to the steward’s sowl.- one more thing. -Yes my Lord? -Tell Saon the next time he orders some one to ask me for meanless things like that, while i’m eating, I will wrip off his tongue my self. - Yes my Lord… - Ugrh! I hate that festival!-said the uncle, his mother looked better, she wipped her tears and continued to eat.- All those stupid songs, it’s just a who can shout louther conpeticion.- the Harvest Festival of Wine was full of joy, hapiness and well bieng to the Grey Grass people. Everyone drinked at the same time. And the women and children throwed florwers from her windows. -Well that also means I leaving.-said Rorge. He had a fire-head, was almost as white as his mother, tall and muscled, he was all Royte like his mother Lady Meralyn Royte of the Red Lands. The only Darlane image in him was the strong green big eyes with a basil tone. He was the same age of Tom. - Right! I can’t belive 15 years has passed!. - Shouted the long browned hair Lord. - I can’t belive it began.- his cousin looked so happy. He would finaly become the Prime-Lord of the Red Lands.