#editing memes actually hurts me so bad and feels so unnatural

[magnetengineer]

[artificialqueens]

summer lovin' (happened so fast) (Branjie) - ohhthereuare

AN: “Yeah, I think Vanjie’s trade. I think she’s very handsome”

This confession, for once, was not forced.

***

This is a very cliche thing to do, to write canon down through my own interpretation and additions but I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

((yes I’m pretty obsessed with the idea of Vanessa leaving glitter everywhere she goes and it’s probably gonna be a reoccurring theme that’s my aesthetic™ forgive me))

AO3

She had a hard time filming these confessions. There was something very unnatural for someone to sit with a camera so close to your face and just talk, mostly talk shit about other people. Brooke was not that kind of person. She was also well aware of how your words could be easily taken out of context to make an entertaining edit so she watched herself. She didn’t want to get into any drama, just focus on the challenges and do her best. She still believed, maybe somehow naively so, that getting screen time and providing interesting content behind the scenes didn’t get you to the top. What you showed on the runway did.

Brooke had met some of the queens before they started filming the show, or at least has heard about them and knew them from social media. She was close with Nina West and has talked to some of the other contestants so it was hard to comment on them in terms of first impressions. The Canadian queen already had a vague idea of who she wanted to spend her time with during the show and who she didn’t want to end up working with during group challenges.

“Who do you think is trade?”

“You mean like ‘hot’? Who do I find hot?”

She thought of it for a second and went back to her first moments in the werkroom. There were many queens she would call attractive out of drag, more or less her type. But to Brooke it was never about just somebody’s face or body; it was about the way they held themselves in relation to how they looked and there was one person that captured her attention in particular. She wasn’t sure if she’s heard her first or caught a glimpse of red across the room but Vanessa Vanjie Mateo was not someone who went unnoticed in a crowd. It already was a gag of the season that she came back and she served it from the start with her entrance look. Brooke thought she looked beautiful, so different from the trainwreck of a look that she was last seen in on the show. And then the infamous moment of untucking came. All the queens taking their faces off and keeping their eyes wide open, scanning the room, giving out scores on their own. Brooke was not too self-conscious; many years of dance training shaped her body nicely so when she walked around in an undone khaki shirt she felt some eyes on her. And then when she looked across the room she caught sight of Vanessa standing shirtless, wig off and makeup partly removed with a towel, sparkling all over from the insane amount of glitter she liked to put on herself. She was pretty tiny and toned, which somehow made the Canadian queen smile to herself. With how loud and charismatic she was it was easy to forget she was not the tallest; she didn’t take a lot of space physically, but she claimed it by spirit. The remaining gold glitter contrasted nicely with her cinnamon-colored, smooth skin. Brooke looked away before she got caught staring.

“Yeah, I think Vanjie’s trade. I think she’s very handsome”

This confession, for once, was not forced.

It still hasn’t settled in. The fact that she won the first challenge. Not only the first Canadian queen on the show but also the first winner of season 11. It was all a blur of voices, happiness bubbling up her throat, the deep blue bodysuit clinging to her body in all the right places, that she desperately wanted to climb out of. The queens said their goodbyes and wrote their notes to Soju and before they knew it, they were out of drag and dragging their tired bodies to the van that would take them to the hotel. Brooke took a seat by the window and closed her eyes, listening to the other contestants chatting excitedly, expecting Nina to sit by her side. A loud, rough voice startled her from her quick nap; one that was unexpected but definitely not unwelcome.

“Congrats on your win, girl!” Vanessa’s smile was so broad it must have hurt her face. She looked so carefree and happy, like a child that just got their first puppy as a birthday gift.

“Congrats on making it through the first challenge.” It might have sounded meanspirited said by anyone else to any other queen, probably taken as shade but Brooke was smiling and she knew Vanessa wouldn’t take it as an insult. Instead, she seemed so excited to have survived the first episode she was almost bouncing off of walls, or at least the inside of the car.

“Thanks. I won’t let them send my ass packing so easily this season. Imma show these hoes that I’m more than just a meme. Especially when the competition is a fierce ass one. Your ass included.”

“Didn’t think you’d pay this much attention to my ass.”

“Mhm, you’d be surprised.”

Brooke opened her eyes in a flash and looked at Vanessa. She was sitting on her bent leg, the other one dangling from the seat, her body twisted towards Brooke’s. Their knees were so close they would brush against each other if the driver hit a bump on the road. There was a mischievous glint in her tired eyes and a daring promise hidden in the corner of her smirking lips. A few silver specks of glitter hid in the dips and planes of her collarbones and they shined whenever they drove by a streetlight. It looked like a never-before-seen constellation, one Brooke suddenly wanted to be the first one to discover.

She has heard stories about fooling around with your fellow queens or rather what bad of an idea that was. On the other hand, the lack of physical contact during the weeks of filming was a running joke between all the contestants and what a pain in the ass it was to all the men in wigs, pun intended. Having someone to flirt with, to let off some steam during the scarce unsupervised moments sounded inviting. The fact that they had actual chemistry was not bad either. The only thing Brooke couldn’t let happen was getting too much in her head and letting emotions take charge of her course to victory. But that she could do. Or so she thought.

They could call it off before anything even happened, blame it on shameless, innocent flirting and never go back to it again. Vanessa could touch her arm, get up and leave the van, they would smile at each other over breakfast and remain friendly during the challenges. Remain friends, no benefits added. Vanjie had already asked the question, now it was all up to Brooke to give an answer.

The van suddenly came to a halt. She didn’t even realize they had already arrived at the hotel’s parking lot. The rest of the queens started standing up, still loud, still laughing, very much oblivious to the exchange that still hung in the air and a sinking feeling sat low in Brooke Lynn’s stomach that meant a missed opportunity. Silky was making her deafening way to the front doors and tugged Vanessa with her before she had a chance to add anything else. Brooke sighed and got out of the car as well, the warm Californian air enveloping her skin like a mist. It was only their first week, much could still happen. Given that both of them stayed on the show, that it. There was a specific scent that Brooke always associated with the summertime, of concrete pavement at night cooling down after a whole day of soaking in scorching sunrays. She couldn’t wait to stand on the balcony adjacent to her room, damp skin drying from the shower and a calming cigarette between her lips, winding down after the day and mentally preparing herself for the hardships of the next one.

Most of the queens were already stepping into the lobby, Brooke being the last one to reach the building when she heard Vanessa yelling and already walking fast back outside.

“Go ahead, Mary. I left something in the van. Don’t wait up.”

She grabbed the taller queen by the hand, their fingers intertwining automatically, and Brooke only had a moment to notice how small and smooth her palm actually was, before she was being led behind the corner and backed up against the rough wall of the hotel. Vanessa pulled her down by the shirt and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. Brooke wasn’t sure whether it was the element of surprise or just the tension building between them the whole day but it felt different from any kiss she has ever shared with anyone before. Like an electrifying spark that made her heart beat so fast, she was sure Vanjie could feel it, with how she was pressed against her chest.

It ended almost as fast as it started and Brooke tried to follow Vanessa’s lips, to steal one more kiss for later, to imprint the feel of the other one’s touch into her body and carry it like a honey-sweet ghost of a memory tucked in her ribcage, just under her heart. Vanessa smiled, so proud of herself, gently rocking at the heels of her feet, looking up at Brooke with something akin to wonder in her own eyes. Like she just got something she wasn’t prepared for but was pleasantly surprised. Brooke just noticed another glistening dot of glitter rested on her cupid bow. She wanted to kiss it off. Every single one adoring her collarbones, shoulders and the rest of her body.

“We better get going. Before we get busted for, y’know.” Vanessa’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet and hoarse. It made something hot twist in Brooke’s stomach.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

They started at each other, savoring the moment, not knowing when they would have another chance to be this close and this alone. Despite silently agreeing on this thing being purely physical, something shifted in the air between them, in the breath they kept sharing. That overwhelming need that would sometimes come after the bodies and senses were already satisfied, that need for a different kind of closeness. Vanessa let go of Brooke’s shirt and slid her hands down the taller queen’s arms, leaving goosebumps in her wake, before stopping to lace their fingers together one more time. It somehow felt more meaningful than the heated exchange. Brooke ushered that thought to the back of her mind before she could start second-guessing and panicking over those weird feelings.

“I guess I’ll see you later, Miss Brooke Lynn.”

“I hope so, Miss Vanjie.”

She waited a minute before she followed the other queen, not wanting to expose them to any unwanted attention and suspicious questions. It was way too soon to tell what this thing between them would turn into. Maybe there wouldn’t be anything to even talk about. For all she knew they could get each other off a couple of times before calling it quits. Brooke has never been in a relationship but she was familiar with the ins and outs of an arrangement based on sexual appeasement. Then why was she suddenly feeling like she has never done anything like this before?

Back in her room, she stood on her balcony, a towel wrapped loosely around her waist, droplets of water dripping down her toned body, falling silently into the ground. The bitter smoke from the cigarette escaped her lips like fog coming from the wings onto a stage, clouding the Los Angeles dimmed view in front of her. An unexpected shine caught her attention and she brought her hand up to her eyes to observe a lost bit of glitter clinging to her skin.

She ducked her head, smiling, thinking where it came from and how it got there. A suffocating feeling squeezed her chest and it had nothing to do with her smoking.

[ohhthereuare]

summer lovin’ (happened so fast) (branjie)

“Yeah, I think Vanjie’s trade. I think she’s very handsome”

This confession, for once, was not forced.

A/N: This is a very cliche thing to do, to write canon down through my own interpretation and additions but I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Leave a comment what you think about it <3 ((yes I'm pretty obsessed with the idea of Vanessa leaving glitter everywhere she goes and it's probably gonna be a reoccurring theme that's my aesthetic™ forgive me))

AO3

She had a hard time filming these confessions. There was something very unnatural for someone to sit with a camera so close to your face and just talk, mostly talk shit about other people. Brooke was not that kind of person. She was also well aware of how your words could be easily taken out of context to make an entertaining edit so she watched herself. She didn’t want to get into any drama, just focus on the challenges and do her best. She still believed, maybe somehow naively so, that getting screen time and providing interesting content behind the scenes didn’t get you to the top. What you showed on the runway did.

Brooke had met some of the queens before they started filming the show, or at least has heard about them and knew them from social media. She was close with Nina West and has talked to some of the other contestants so it was hard to comment on them in terms of first impressions. The Canadian queen already had a vague idea of who she wanted to spend her time with during the show and who she didn’t want to end up working with during group challenges.

“Who do you think is trade?”

“You mean like ‘hot’? Who do I find hot?”

She thought of it for a second and went back to her first moments in the werkroom. There were many queens she would call attractive out of drag, more or less her type. But to Brooke it was never about just somebody’s face or body; it was about the way they held themselves in relation to how they looked and there was one person that captured her attention in particular. She wasn’t sure if she’s heard her first or caught a glimpse of red across the room but Vanessa Vanjie Mateo was not someone who went unnoticed in a crowd. It already was a gag of the season that she came back and she served it from the start with her entrance look. Brooke thought she looked beautiful, so different from the trainwreck of a look that she was last seen in on the show. And then the infamous moment of untucking came. All the queens taking their faces off and keeping their eyes wide open, scanning the room, giving out scores on their own. Brooke was not too self-conscious; many years of dance training shaped her body nicely so when she walked around in an undone khaki shirt she felt some eyes on her. And then when she looked across the room she caught sight of Vanessa standing shirtless, wig off and makeup partly removed with a towel, sparkling all over from the insane amount of glitter she liked to put on herself. She was pretty tiny and toned, which somehow made the Canadian queen smile to herself. With how loud and charismatic she was it was easy to forget she was not the tallest; she didn’t take a lot of space physically, but she claimed it by spirit. The remaining gold glitter contrasted nicely with her cinnamon-colored, smooth skin. Brooke looked away before she got caught staring.

“Yeah, I think Vanjie’s trade. I think she’s very handsome”

This confession, for once, was not forced.

It still hasn’t settled in. The fact that she won the first challenge. Not only the first Canadian queen on the show but also the first winner of season 11. It was all a blur of voices, happiness bubbling up her throat, the deep blue bodysuit clinging to her body in all the right places, that she desperately wanted to climb out of. The queens said their goodbyes and wrote their notes to Soju and before they knew it, they were out of drag and dragging their tired bodies to the van that would take them to the hotel. Brooke took a seat by the window and closed her eyes, listening to the other contestants chatting excitedly, expecting Nina to sit by her side. A loud, rough voice startled her from her quick nap; one that was unexpected but definitely not unwelcome.

“Congrats on your win, girl!” Vanessa’s smile was so broad it must have hurt her face. She looked so carefree and happy, like a child that just got their first puppy as a birthday gift.

“Congrats on making it through the first challenge.” It might have sounded meanspirited said by anyone else to any other queen, probably taken as shade but Brooke was smiling and she knew Vanessa wouldn’t take it as an insult. Instead, she seemed so excited to have survived the first episode she was almost bouncing off of walls, or at least the inside of the car.

“Thanks. I won’t let them send my ass packing so easily this season. Imma show these hoes that I’m more than just a meme. Especially when the competition is a fierce ass one. Your ass included.”

“Didn’t think you’d pay this much attention to my ass.”

“Mhm, you’d be surprised.”

Brooke opened her eyes in a flash and looked at Vanessa. She was sitting on her bent leg, the other one dangling from the seat, her body twisted towards Brooke’s. Their knees were so close they would brush against each other if the driver hit a bump on the road. There was a mischievous glint in her tired eyes and a daring promise hidden in the corner of her smirking lips. A few silver specks of glitter hid in the dips and planes of her collarbones and they shined whenever they drove by a streetlight. It looked like a never-before-seen constellation, one Brooke suddenly wanted to be the first one to discover.

She has heard stories about fooling around with your fellow queens or rather what bad of an idea that was. On the other hand, the lack of physical contact during the weeks of filming was a running joke between all the contestants and what a pain in the ass it was to all the men in wigs, pun intended. Having someone to flirt with, to let off some steam during the scarce unsupervised moments sounded inviting. The fact that they had actual chemistry was not bad either. The only thing Brooke couldn’t let happen was getting too much in her head and letting emotions take charge of her course to victory. But that she could do. Or so she thought.

They could call it off before anything even happened, blame it on shameless, innocent flirting and never go back to it again. Vanessa could touch her arm, get up and leave the van, they would smile at each other over breakfast and remain friendly during the challenges. Remain friends, no benefits added. Vanjie had already asked the question, now it was all up to Brooke to give the answer.

The van suddenly came to a halt. She didn’t even realize they had already arrived at the hotel’s parking lot. The rest of the queens started standing up, still loud, still laughing, very much oblivious to the exchange that still hung in the air and a sinking feeling sat low in Brooke Lynn’s stomach that meant a missed opportunity. Silky was making her deafening way to the front doors and tugged Vanessa with her before she had a chance to add anything else. Brooke sighed and got out of the car as well, the warm Californian air enveloping her skin like a mist. It was only their first week, much could still happen. Given that both of them stayed on the show, that it. There was a specific scent that Brooke always associated with the summertime, of concrete pavement at night cooling down after a whole day of soaking in scorching sunrays. She couldn’t wait to stand on the balcony adjacent to her room, damp skin drying from the shower and a calming cigarette between her lips, winding down after the day and mentally preparing herself for the hardships of the next one.

Most of the queens were already stepping into the lobby, Brooke being the last one to reach the building when she heard Vanessa yelling and already walking fast back outside.

“Go ahead, Mary. I left something in the van. Don’t wait up.”

She grabbed the taller queen by the hand, their fingers intertwining automatically, and Brooke only had a moment to notice how small and smooth her palm actually was, before she was being led behind the corner and backed up against the rough wall of the hotel. Vanessa pulled her down by the shirt and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. Brooke wasn’t sure whether it was the element of surprise or just the tension building between them the whole day but it felt different from any kiss she has ever shared with anyone before. Like an electrifying spark that made her heart beat so fast, she was sure Vanjie could feel it, with how she was pressed against her chest.

It ended almost as fast as it started and Brooke tried to follow Vanessa’s lips, to steal one more kiss for later, to imprint the feel of the other one’s touch into her body and carry it like a honey-sweet ghost of a memory tucked in her ribcage, just under her heart. Vanessa smiled, so proud of herself, gently rocking at the heels of her feet, looking up at Brooke with something akin to wonder in her own eyes. Like she just got something she wasn’t prepared for but was pleasantly surprised. Brooke just noticed another glistening dot of glitter rested on her cupid bow. She wanted to kiss it off. Every single one adoring her collarbones, shoulders and the rest of her body.

“We better get going. Before we get busted for, y’know.” Vanessa’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet and hoarse. It made something hot twist in Brooke’s stomach.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

They started at each other, savoring the moment, not knowing when they would have another chance to be this close and this alone. Despite silently agreeing on this thing being purely physical, something shifted in the air between them, in the breath they kept sharing. That overwhelming need that would sometimes come after the bodies and senses were already satisfied, that need for a different kind of closeness. Vanessa let go of Brooke’s shirt and slid her hands down the taller queen’s arms, leaving goosebumps in her wake, before stopping to lace their fingers together one more time. It somehow felt more meaningful than the heated exchange. Brooke ushered that thought to the back of her mind before she could start second-guessing and panicking over those weird feelings.

“I guess I’ll see you later, Miss Brooke Lynn.”

“I hope so, Miss Vanjie.”

She waited a minute before she followed the other queen, not wanting to expose them to any unwanted attention and suspicious questions. It was way too soon to tell what this thing between them would turn into. Maybe there wouldn’t be anything to even talk about. For all she knew they could get each other off a couple of times before calling it quits. Brooke has never been in a relationship but she was familiar with the ins and outs of an arrangement based on sexual appeasement. Then why was she suddenly feeling like she has never done anything like this before?

Back in her room, she stood on her balcony, a towel wrapped loosely around her waist, droplets of water dripping down her toned body, falling silently into the ground. The bitter smoke from the cigarette escaped her lips like fog coming from the wings onto a stage, clouding the Los Angeles dimmed view in front of her. An unexpected shine caught her attention and she brought her hand up to her eyes to observe a lost bit of glitter clinging to her skin.

She ducked her head, smiling, thinking where it came from and how it got there. A suffocating feeling squeezed her chest and it had nothing to do with her smoking.