#also s5 table read soon (presumably)

[chirpsythismorning]

I’m just gonna say this (in case) to save us from possible embarrassment, but I’m pretty sure the only people that have spoken publicly about when filming starts, was first David who said summer, then reiterated June. Followed by Noah who said May. And more recently Finn who has also said May. This means all it would take is another actor or multiple to come forward and essentially debunk the theory that only Finn and Noah start in May, by saying they too start in May…

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not trying to rule this out as being a possibility at all, nor am I trying to bring people’s hopes down! I just wanted to provide some context before this gets spread like it’s official, only for it to be debunked and for everyone on here to be bummed.

When David first mentioned when he’d start filming, it was in the middle of a question about him juggling another film he would be working on at the same time during summer 2023. So, it’s possible that he’s just waiting until June to start filming because it works better with scheduling alongside his other production.

When Noah first mentioned when he’d start filming, he talked about how he would start in May and how that worked out perfectly for him because his first year attending Penn will be complete in May (May 9th).

When Finn first mentioned when he’d start filming, there honestly wasn’t much he mentioned beyond the month filming would start. Though, I will say that Finn is currently filming the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife until May. And so understandably he could very well have easily been in the same position as David, waiting until June, though apparently that’s not the plan at this time.

Tbh I think it’s very likely that filming will start in May for anyone/everyone in the cast that is available at that time (prioritizing filming for 5x01/5x02 most likely).

With s5, they’re going back to standard practice for filming tv shows, which means starting filming a new season while still in the process of writing the final episodes of that same season. Though it’s very possible (and likely) they could film some scenes out of order, it would be in their best interest, and especially with the younger cast-members in mind, to go in order by episode as much as they can.

But still, when you’re working with over a dozen A & B list actors, it’s hard to get everyone’s schedules to overlap. They’re obviously going to do their best to make each of the cast-members schedules work best for them and their other obligations, while also working each of their availability around each other so that they can film together.

At the very least it’s still good to know that Noah and Finn start filming around the same time bc it does presumably mean that they are trying to make at least those twos scheduling overlap from the start, meaning that they are likely to have scenes together in early s5.

But still, I wouldn’t be surprised if and when other cast-members join the mix and inform fans that they also start in May.

[harryspaceshipmchale]

hey there, Pidge. jeff x annie: 58, 61, 90, (and 94 unless you have a limit) heh ;)

Send a number and I’ll write an angsty fic.

Hey! Did you enjoy your movie?

So turns out my ficlet for #58 ended up being 1.5k words so… have this instead of all of them. Although you can also have a fic you’ve already read for #90 (if you’re reading this and you’re not Janine, then it’s new to you! Come read!), even if it’s not an exact prompt fill - it’s on a similar vein and I may as well make use of it.

I’ll put these on AO3 soon.

S5 AU

58. “What I feel for you terrifies me.” 

Annie’s not sure how it happens exactly, emphasis on exactly. One minute they’re reminiscing over Troy because it’s officially been a month since he’s been sailing the seven seas and the next they’re going back down memory lane just for old times’ sake, just for the five of them. 

They’re all outside Jeff’s apartment after having dinner when the topic of Troy arises and because it’s a fairly warm night out for the time of year, they end up sitting on the steps outside of his block, with Shirley stood up on the bottom step, leaning against the railing because she doesn’t want to ‘dirty her skirt’. 

Slowly but surely Shirley becomes tired of standing and it triggers a chain reaction of everyone wanting to leave one by one. Britta says she has a shift at her new bar to get to and Abed has to study for a quiz in the morning so they all leave with their genuine excuses but for some reason, she just shrugs at Abed when he asks if she’s coming and stays put. 

She and Jeff haven’t spent much time alone together since, well, she’s not entirely sure when so, later on, she wonders if that’s the reason she stayed behind; some part of her subconsciously wanting to know if they ever even can again.

Jeff doesn’t stand when everyone else goes to leave so they’re sat side-by-side when they’re left alone. He’s pouting in thought, his hands clasped between his bent legs as he hunches over and she wants to know what he’s thinking; maybe he’s wondering why she’s still there or maybe he’s just letting all of the emotions of the night set in - they’d had fun over dinner, all laughter and playful bickering as usual but it was inevitable that one of them (Shirley) would get teary eyed when the Troy-shaped gap was highlighted. She doesn’t have to ask though because he breaks the silence for the both of them.

“Do you remember Troy and Abed’s moving in party?”

She raises an eyebrow at him whilst he’s not looking, presuming he’s just carrying on with the evening of reminiscence.

“It’s hard to forget.”

“I hit my head on the ceiling fan before I was about to go home.”

Annie lets herself smile at that because she sees him squint in amusement.

“Oh yeah… and I was worried you wouldn’t be able to drive home because I thought you might be concussed.”

He smirks and shakes his head before smiling back at her goofily.

“How would I get a concussion from hitting my head on a ceiling fan?”

“I don’t know… I thought you hit it badly. Or maybe you just acted like you did to get my attention.”

As she soon as she says it she scrunches up her shoulders as if a stiff breeze has passed them even though the leaves on the trees around them are barely moving. She’s so used to him responding badly or taking things the wrong way or too far that she has to prepare herself for brushing it all off and forgetting, especially these days when he barely talks to her at all.

“And why would I do that?” He asks, looking over his shoulder as he continues to sit forward from her. She shrugs, attempting to move the conversation swiftly onwards. Again, he’s one step ahead of her, already on to the next memory that comes to mind.

“I remember your moving in party. Well, I remember making it into one, by bringing beer.”

“Yeah, thanks so much for the help.”

He grimaces and looks jokingly ashamed for a moment or two.

“I never saw your first place, did I?”

She sighs, realising she hasn’t thought about her cramped little two room apartment in a while.

“I should have moved out long before then.”

He sits back, his hands going behind them on to the cold expanse of the top step, not bothering to care if anyone decides to leave and walk out whilst they’re sat there.

“You were going to though, right? With Vaughn?”

She hasn’t thought about him in a while, either; there’s been no need to. She let him go from her life years ago, all the way back on that fateful night when she’d kissed the man sitting beside her.

“I guess.”

She can hear Jeff swallow even as a car drives past so she knows what he’s about to say has some thought behind it. They’re tiptoeing around a rather touchy time in both of their lives, one that crosses and intertwines like how their bodies pressed together when Jeff stood forward and responded to her kiss. It scares her a little and it makes her regret not just getting up to go with Abed in the first place.

“Why did you only tell me?”

She knows what he’s referring to of course and luckily the answer isn’t too hard to admit. It doesn’t give much away.

“I knew you wouldn’t judge me.”

He watches her and then lowers his head as if he’s questioning if that assumption is true or not. She wonders what it would feel like to push it further, see how far they can go before he washes it all away; stands up and tells her he isn’t feeling too good or that he’s just remembered he has to call his mom for the first time in a while because otherwise, she’ll be asleep.

“Maybe you would now, though.”

It’s not hard to believe he would, truthfully. It’s not hard to imagine him telling her she’s throwing something away to chase someone who doesn’t love her. It’s not hard to imagine him telling her she should wait until someone better comes around. It’s not hard to imagine him telling her a hundred and one things that are wrong with the person she’s following and how he won’t treat her the right way as if he knows it all. It’s not hard to imagine him thinking he’s well-intentioned, either. It is, however, hard to imagine him asking the next question until he does.

“Why did you kiss me?”

Whilst she’s still lingering onto how he might respond to her moving on from Greendale now, he’s still holding onto that moment and for a second she wants to laugh. She wants to laugh but she ends up biting her lip and scrunching up her face as tears threaten to form on her waterline. She shrugs a couple of times and goes over different answers in her head, her lips quivering not because of the emotions welling up inside of her but because she’s rehearsing what to say before it escapes her aloud.

“Because…” Her voice is a whisper and he lowers his head, feeling guilty, “…I thought we were on the same page.”

She shrugs again, hopelessly.

“Because… I wanted to.”

She doesn’t want to know what he’s thinking now. She honestly just wants to be free of it all.

“You hurt me. You kissed me back and you acted like it was nothing and maybe it was to you but you knew it wasn’t for me.” She’s crying now and she doesn’t care. “You never said sorry. You knew I was hurting and you never said sorry. After all this time, you never said sorry.” She takes a shaky breath and whimpers as he tilts his head back, looking up to the sky and his building towering up behind him.

After a while, Jeff mumbles, “I know” and it makes Annie turn away and hold her hand to her face to avoid breaking out into an embarrassing sob. She wipes under her nose before turning back because she’s gone this far; she has to know.

“Can I ask you one question?” He has to say yes, so he nods and lets her ask it, “Did you really regret it? I don’t need you to say sorry now, it won’t fix anything, I just need to know if you really did.”

He’s pouting again but this time it’s different because he’s moving his lips around and chewing on the insides of his cheeks. She’s not sure why she needs to know but she knows one thing for certain; she won’t be able to hold it together whether he says yes or -

“No.”

She closes her eyes again, tight and shut so she can’t let herself cry again.

“What I feel for you terrifies me, Annie,” Jeff admits, his breath shaky. She can’t see it in the dark light but his eyes are glossing over too. She might have questioned what he’s saying if she’d been more composed but instead, she lets herself understand it, if only to a certain degree.

“I just want us to be normal again.” She breathes out, letting herself fall and lean on his shoulder. He doesn’t hold her close, just rests the side of his chin on her hair.

“Me too.”

And maybe it doesn’t fix anything. But also, maybe it fixes everything.

Post-S6

90. “You think I’m better than you? You’re better than me!”

(A variation of)

When he realises she’s been gone too long for her to have just popped to the bathroom, he excuses himself from the table and scours the rooms and hallways of the bar, his phone in hand just in case, before swinging the back door open to see if she slipped out instead. His instincts are correct but there’s no relief to it because nobody goes to the bathroom and ends up outside for a good reason and usually said person never went to the aforementioned bathroom in the first place.

“Annie?” Jeff calls out, his hand still on the door just in case she’s on the phone or is heading back inside any second. She just hums in response though and wipes a hand across her cheek. He frowns, confused, before joining her, the door clicking shut behind them, the low buzz and mumbles from inside disappearing.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He stands to her side, a little puzzled by the expression on her face; he can only describe it as sad and upset. His hand jumps to her arm, smoothing down it comfortingly like he always does now.

She waves a hand and shrugs his hand off a little, trying to force a smile to break through.

“Nothing, I just came out for some air. It’s stuffy in there.” She nods her head back towards the bar where Britta, Frankie, Craig and Chang are to be found inside. And Bob too because he’s friends with Jeff now. That’s what happens when other people leave; they’re not necessarily replaced, it’s just that other people find their ways to fill in the gaping hole.

“Don’t lie to me.” He says softly, shaking his head, trying to get a real answer.

“It’s nothing.” She drops her chin, looking over to a puddle in the tarmac in front of her, the muddy water mixed with oil leaking from a car, swirling into a strangely pretty pattern of purples and blues. “I’m fine.”

Jeff lets his shoulders fall with a sigh, glancing at the dark sky before stepping forward and placing both of his hands on her this time. He cranes his neck so there’s less distance between them.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you… get some bad news or something? Tell me.”

“Jeff, I’m fine, okay?”

His grip tightens around the tops of her arms, over the top of her navy sweater that matches with his shirt.

“No, you’re not. You’re stood in the parking lot whilst we’re all waiting for you back there.” He laughs a little, still trying to work out what went wrong, “I’m celebrating. I thought we were having fun?”

“Yeah, I know, you’re celebrating.”

Jeff tilts his head and squints, making her close her eyes as his tightened grip loosens, realising she might have let it slip.

“Annie?”

She smiles but it’s only told hold it in as folds in her lips and bites down before letting a breath go as she exhales shakily.

“I’m,” Her voice breaks and Jeff’s eyes widen, a comical casino game spinning through his mind, waiting for her words to align the ending of her sentence which could have endless outcomes, “jealous.” Tears prick her eyes as she avoids his own as much as she can, “I’m jealous, okay? I’m jealous.”

Jeff’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, confusion still running right through him.

“You're… jealous? Of…? A party? Because, I can throw you one any day, just give me an occasion. I’ll get banners and balloons or whatev-.”

“It’s not that.” She cuts him off, making it clear that she’s not about to explain what it is, however.

“You’re jealous… of…?” He huffs out and steps back and tries to rack his brain, “You’re jealous of the fact I got my first real job at age forty-three?”

When she doesn’t say anything he rubs a hand across his jaw.

“Wow. I was… not expecting that. It’s funny because I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. I wouldn’t have gone to all of those interviews. I went to them because I thought, you know what? If I can get just one, I know it will make Annie happy. She’ll be proud of me and I want that. And I thought you were but it turns out… you're… jealous? Annie, what have I got that would make you think that? We literally share the same apartment. We live together. I’m not hiding anything else. I love you.”

In the blurry corner of his eye, he can see Britta open the back door and watch them for a second before walking back in again, letting them be.

“It’s not that,” Annie says, succumbing to having to explain in greater detail. “I just… I guess I realised that I’m not over it. I thought that I was over not having what I wanted. I thought I’d grown, you know? I thought I knew that I was okay with what I have but now I just feel like… that maybe I’ve failed myself or something. And now, you have what you want but… I don’t know if I do. And I am proud of you. I’m so proud of you and I’m so happy for you. I feel awful that I’m out here crying about nothing.”

“Annie, come on, what more could you want? You’re twenty-six, you’re gradu-.”

“I know I am. But you’re not.” She raises her voice a little, trying to argue her point.

“Uh, yeah, I know, I don’t need reminding.”

“That’s not what I mean. You don’t get it. All of my friends, they’re out there getting full-time jobs and starting their careers and starting to think about buying a house and having kids and starting a family and I just feel like I’m not going anywhere. I know things have changed but I still feel like I haven’t followed any of the dreams I used to have.”

Jeff almost wants to rewind then, stop her in her tracks.

“No, no, you’re mistaken. I do get it, trust me. I’ve been twenty-six for almost two decades. It’s taken me until this week to get a real job that I didn’t lie my way into because when I was your age, I really screwed up. And yeah, maybe this is where it gets a little awkward between us because… I’ve been there, Annie. But, there’s also a positive to that. You’ve got me. I can help you through it. It sucks knowing there are always going to people out there who seem to have it better than you or who seem to have it all figured out but Annie, from the day I met you, I’ve always thought, wow, this woman has figured out more than I ever will. She knows what she wants and she’s gonna’ get it.”

“And I really hate to say this and I’m so glad it doesn’t affect us in any other way because I love you but… when you get to forty, you’re gonna look back and realise how young you were. If I could go back and start over when I was your age, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But you’re not gonna have to do that because you’re not going to regret anything and if you do, well, I’m not doing a good enough job. Also, if you ever want to change your mind on things then it’s fine to do that. I wish I’d realised that sooner, too.”

She’s listening intently, nodding when necessary, rolling her eyes and holding back more tears.

“Look, if we cut it even tighter than we are, with this new job, we can get a house in the next two years. It might be small but we could do it. And if you want kids earlier than you thought, then, we can go home now and try. I’ll get my car.”

She rolls her eyes again and he smiles, getting through to her.

“Seriously, you have nothing to worry about. I do get it but it’s just… life. You’re gonna’ graduate with your Masters and within a month you’ll be making me pack up my stuff to ship it across the country because you’ve got a job for some fancy forensics organisation.”

She laughs a little sadly as he steps into her space again now that he knows he’s making himself clear and understood.

“You may laugh but guess who was laughing when you said I’d actually get an offer? I couldn’t have done it without you and I’m gonna’ make sure you won’t be able to do it without me either. Although, that’s practically impossible because you could do everything on your own.” Her hands find his but he lets go to lift her chin up with the tip of a finger, “See? Look how good I am at pep talks.”

“I’m sorry.” She whispers, sniffling simultaneously.

“Don’t be. You have nothing to apologise for.”

“I ruined your evening and made it about me.”

“You didn’t ruin anything and it’s not my evening. Nothing’s just about me anymore. It’s about us.” He kisses her forehead whilst leaning forward, letting her fall and press her cheek into his chest. “Speaking of which, can we go and have a drink together with the others?” She nods before rising up and hugging him firmly around the neck. He swallows by her ear and closes his eyes over her shoulder before speaking again, low and quiet.

“You have nothing to worry about. You’re always going to outshine everyone, especially me.” He kisses her shoulder as she leans into him even further.

“You know people are going to think I’m only with you for your money now, right?”

He chuckles against the nape of her neck.

“You know you’ve been with me too long when that’s your way of lightening the mood now, right?”

“I’ll never be with you for too long.” Annie breathes out before shaking any other thoughts away by stepping back and straightening herself out.

“Has my makeup run?” Jeff squints to see in the light but just smooths the pad of one of his thumbs under her eye before shaking his head.

“No, you just look beautiful.”

She takes his hand so they can walk back inside to re-join the table. Jeff sits down beside her and swings his arm over the back of her chair and the conversation between the group starts flowing again. Bob flicks up his chin from the opposite side of the booth.

“You guys pop out for a quickie?”

“Nah, I’m a classy lawyer now.” Jeff wriggles his eyebrows as Annie frowns in disgust.

“Pfft, you’re barely a lawyer now, you’re only a consultant.” Britta spits out.

He shrugs confidently and leans his head against the top of Annie’s as she talks to Frankie to her side.

“Better than nothing.”