#i love yapping about detail stuff or behind-the-scenes | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

siddyyyyyyyy · 2 months ago

Text

Pretty Saviour

Dick Grayson x Metalhead!Reader

wc: 1.2 K summary: You save Nightwing and Batman one night in a close call, being stuck with Dick forever warnings: fluff, none, no y/n used a/n: (divider), i know that pic is probably overused but i'm still weak for it.

Ever since you‘ve spontaniously patrolled a new route in your neighbourhood and miraciously saved Nightwing and Batman, that blue bird has been attached by your hip. It‘s not like he annoys you, but sometimes you start to prefer the black bat rather than the overly happy-sunshine vigilante.

Like now, talking your ears off about his favourite band he used to listen to in his angsty teenage years. You don‘t interrupt him, not wanting to make him feel bad about getting some small facts wrong since that band is the most mainstream rock band you have ever seen and heard.

To avoid his constant yapping, you‘ve tried to change your patrol route completely, but it‘s no use. He always finds you and claims it‘s just ‚a lucky coincidence‘.

In reality, Dick has been completely smitten over you from the moment he saw you effortlessly take down several men in front of him who were about to kick his ass. You saved Batman‘s ass too, but he refuses to acknowledge either that fact or you.

Eventually, he continues to talk on and on about that super-cool and ultra-heavy band, really just making you smirk in amusement. There is no need for music at work when you have a walking podcast following you around and helping you take down muggers together with insanely impressive acrobatic skills. You still wonder how his bones move like that, because there‘s no way a normal human being is capable of the same things he does.

But he is just as amazed by you at the same time, always staring as subtly as he can, wanting to take in every detail of your unique suit and accessories you wear with it. Yes, he never saw your face before, but he is in love. It‘s gotten to that point where even Alfred awaits you for dinner any day.

At the moment, he is crouching down beside you at the edge of the rooftop, keeping watch over a troublesome area in this part of the neighbourhood. He glances at you every so often, finally catching a glimpse of your ear under your shagged hair. Dick keeps his eyes on the shiny piercings, eyes widening once he spots the stretched earlobe. It‘s not much, but adds an even extremer look to everything else.

»Woah, you have stretched ears?«

You share a glance at him, tucking some hair behind your ear for him to see better.

»Just noticed?«

He gives you a goofy smile in return and reaches up to lightly touch it, admiring the plug you have in it. It‘s shiny in the moonlight, seeing the spiral design on it. Dick smiles softly at it, keeping his eyes on you while poking it gently.

»Cool.«

He sounds like an amazed child who sees the ninja turtles for the first time. It‘s amusing and also flattering to know that someone as big and strong thinks you are cool.

The patrols always have some kind of routine between the two of you. You both take a break at some point, making him discover another small detail about you and asking questions for the rest of the few hours. He has also learnt about the bands you listen to from your various pins and patches on your vest, listening to some of their songs once he gets back home. Just to expand his music taste and playlist, of course.

But he won‘t lie; he loves every single detail and fact about you, likes how casual you are when explaining new stuff to him, or gets into your element if he luckily asks you about an interesting topic. Like, the evolution of the emo and metal scene throughout the years. It‘s as if you get even more passionate talking about those than beating and locking up criminals.

Dick has learned a lot from you already, considering himself an expert at this point because of how detailed you explain certain topics and bands to him. Even his brothers know some stuff about certain bands because he can‘t stop talking about you around them. Every time you aren‘t around, he misses you a lot more than he‘d like. It‘s a shame you haven‘t exchanged any kind of socials or numbers because of your safety. This is one thing he is starting to hate every day more and more about you. The fact that he can‘t contact you in any way is humiliatingly sad.

And every once in a while, he gets you small gifts. Such as new pins of that one band you once mentioned to him, new ear plugs with a cool design, and silly stickers he knows you‘ll like.

You have a total of fifteen pins, four pairs of new gauges for your ears, and an endless amount of stickers because they‘re too easy to find. All from Dick, from the past month.

These gifts and the way he always listens and remembers details about your interests make you fall harder and harder for him. At first, you didn‘t really see the appeal of him. But now, hanging out with him unwillingly, has shown you just how cute and attentive he really is. You even got him a shirt of his own favourite band one day, and it seemed like he would drop down to one knee and propose at any moment. But he held himself back, he still has some self-control after all.

Once he noticed the new style in your hair, he really tried to think of ways on how to impress you in more ways than knowledge. He tried to convince Alfred to dye his hair blue, or at least get some stripes into it, but he refused, saying he shouldn‘t make impulsive decisions like that. But once Dick mentioned it‘s because you got these silly stripes and racoon tails in your hair, he teased him for the rest of the evening of his painfully obvious crush.

»I just like their style!«

»That‘s what you have been telling us for the past three months.«

And it went on with Dick showing you endless tricks and athletics, explaining the theory of each move and how to not break your neck while doing so. You are impressed by his skills, it feels like being children again, showing each other what cool stuff you know and are able to do, getting still impressed by the easiest and normal stuff.

You both go on bike rides together from time to time, competing sometimes as well. He is able to do wheelies, but that‘s a little too dangerous for you to copy.

Eventually, your friendship got really close after those three months of patrolling together and sharing knowledge with each other, of Dick making a fool of himself just to impress you in some way, and endless small gifts.

Despite everything, you‘re trying to keep it professional with him some way. But it doesn‘t help when he is using every single opportunity to touch or stay close to you. It‘s not like you are complaining, you secretly enjoy him being more touchy and sweet to you. You mostly mask it with being playful and pretending to not get the subtle hints he is dropping at you.

There‘s still some sort of trust you have to gain from him in order for you to reveal your identity to him, even when he is smart enough to find it out himself. But he won‘t do it, both in respect towards you and in hopes you will actually trust him enough some time to reveal yourself.

←MASTERLIST

a/n: an open ending, how original. anyway, hope you enjoyed it!!

220 notes · View notes

suffarustuffaru · 2 months ago

Text

interesting details about otto + a few other miscellaneous stuff in season 3’s op and ed (may have vague spoilers)

hello :3 i love yapping so real quick im gonna talk abt some fun stuff i noticed in the op and ed in regards to otto (+ a few other things) under the cut :3 i wont be explicitly mentioning spoilers but i will be alluding to spoilers so read at your own risk!

woo so lets start with these shots from the op!! these are subaru and otto's introduction shots (at least, the first shots focusing solely on them) in the opening - these show off more of the background work in priestella (with the intriguing detail of putting subaru beatrice and garfiel otto in pretty specific places...) but also they do pair subaru and otto off with beatrice and garfiel often in the ed and op.

which makes sense - those are their respective emotional and fighting support blondes with pinkish red outfits!! theyre both pairs who've become closer throughout post arc 4 (and they are paired together often in canon, such as when roswaal in ep1 notes to emisuba to bring ottogarf along with them), though its interesting to note how much these shots of subaru and otto parallel each other. backs turned to the audience - and then they turn around to look at you for a moment with soft, neutral expressions... though while subaru and beatrice hold hands as they usually do, otto stands behind garf.

beatrice and subaru are of course paired again in this shot of the entire emilia camp together, and its fun to note that emisuba and ottogarf are put in paralleling positions here too!! (also i always forget how tall otto is especially with that damn hat until you put him next to his camp members lajdfls) (and, of course, in true rezero fashion both the op and ed loop right around back to the beginning! its seriously so cool to me that they keep doing that.)

speaking of the ed, these shots actually completely slipped my mind the first several times ive watched it - it took me seeing a screenshot of this to finally notice that otto is actually right there, sitting near anajuli. and thats because the ed does a lot to hide otto.

in general, the op and ed both have otto facing his back to the audience a good amount, and hes also the main arc 5 emilia camp member with the least eye catching screentime in the op and ed. which makes sense both bc he doesnt need more screentime than he warrants and also bc he is very much a side character thats well aware that he is a side character. hes the supporting role, the quiet support, and it shows very cleverly in both his writing and screentime. if youre a novel reader youve probably noticed this; the anime does a very interesting job of handling his screentime this season.

so in the ed, the ana camp and emilia camp are paired together, most likely bc of their growing relations and their intertwined interactions from here on out (such as garf and mimi getting paired together, hence extra triplet action in this shot). theres a lot of light and dark interplay in the ed (more on that in a second) and the light catches our eye here, especially with the triplets being the most active players in this scene - emilia sitting outside, the triplets running around which makes you more likely to look at them and less at the right side of the shot.

it's interesting how ana, julius, and otto are put together at the same table here. ana, partially in the light, but ana, julius, and otto are in the shadows here. julius, partially obscured by otto, then otto, partially obscured by plants thatre suspiciously the color of his cloak, along with flowers thatre purple and blue....

then subaru walks on screen, drawing our eye more to the right side, but subaru also overrides otto and julius in the process.....

the ana and emilia camp shots also echo the other camp intro shots in the ed - the priscilla camp + liliana on a boat going underneath a bridge, the shot cutting right to felt and crusch camp right as the shadow passes over pris camp + liliana... and then the crusch camp in shadow, their faces purposefully obscured as felt and reinhard walk towards them, into shadow... and of course, the group pairings here are done very purposefully.

in general like i said earlier, theres a lot of interplay between dark and light in this ed. the establishing shots of priestella, for example, make the contrast stark.

the archbishop shots in the ed go from light to dark, at different points in the day - we see sirius and regulus in daylight (as they made their first appearances in broad daylight), capella at dusk, gluttony at night, and of course, regulus at night again as reinhard and subaru rise up to fight him. sirius and regulus in their daytime shots are purposefully in shadow as well - and the bright white light comes back with subaru's final portion of the ed (calling back to stuff like rezero s1 op and ed 1!).

the ed is also called "nox lux". which...

anyway - emilia and beatrice right next to subaru, ottogarf being put near each other again - its a cute little detail :D !! i love garf's big grin pfft.

and lastly....... of course, we can't forget this blink and you miss it shot from the op.........

#rezero #re:zero #rezero spoilers #rezero season 3 #i may make a more detailed post on ottos screentime this season once more episodes are out!!#but anyway i enjoyed the op and ed so so very much :3

30 notes · View notes

that-one-enby-ranger · 3 months ago

Text

Time to celebrate Freddie by yapping about him. Fuck this going to take a long time.

Alright, first off, amazing fucking singer, I have not heard a person who has a more amazing voice then Freddie fucking Mercury. He was the best at singing, he could play piano, he could play a bit of guitar. He wrote amazing songs a lot of which became massive hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, Save Me, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, Somebody to Love, Killer Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and many other ones that I will cry if I hear them start playing in public. And speaking of Crazy Little Thing Called Love, he wrote that in ten minutes in the fucking bathtub, AND I'M PISSED OFF THAT THAT SCENE DIDN'T GET INTO THE MOVIE.

And performing live he was the best. I normally can't sit down and focus on watching one thing for a long time, I usually have to be on my phone at the same time, but when I'm watching Queen concerts I can watch the full thing without needing to look at my phone and without getting distracted because it's just so fucking beautiful. The only times I would want to go on my phone while watching them is to yap about how amazing it is on Tumblr. He was a fucking god when he performed live, and I could enjoy any song if he was singing it, because his voice was purely majestic and amazing. It has been said by multiple people that Queen stole the show, and that is definetely true. Freddie had such a big presence on stage when performed and he could get anyone to sing along with him which is proven by the ay-oh segments and how people sing and dance along to the songs.

And he has other talents outside of singing and piano and all that. He also earned a degree in graphic art and design and can draw really good. He designed the Queen logo himself and it is one of the prettiest logos I have seen, and it has meanings behind it. The fairies is to represent Freddie being a virgo, the lions are Roger and John being Leos and Brian is the crab for Cancer. There's the Q and the crown in the middle for Queen, the pheonix in the back pulling everything together, making it look cool and making them seem as strong as they are, and the crab is on fire to represent Brian being hot as hell (jk. although that should be true). The logo is so fucking pretty and detailed and I am proud to say I have a giant one of it hanging from my wall.

Freddie was really outgoing and exotic on stage and it was amazing, and even though he was still kind of like that offstage, it's known that he was also pretty shy and sweet and I fucking love that. He was unique and strong and headstrong and everything but he was also sweet and kind and shy and insercure about things and I love that because it shows that hes human which he is and sometimes people don't remember that because of how incredible on stage he was. It's something people forget about a lot of celebrities. I don't like that he was insecure about things that I honestly love about him, like his teeth because his smile is so pretty, but I love how it shows that he's just some normal guy with so much talent.

He was so sweet. I heard somewhere that apparently that sometimes he would see on the tv that people were struggling financially he would anounmosulflglyy send them $10'000 or something to help them out. I'm saying apparently because I haven't fact checked it or anything but I choose to believe that because it's really cute and sweet. There was also a story where he got introduced to someone who was with their mum and he was kind of shy and stuff and later he went to a vending machine thing where you can get trinkets and he got one that matches with another one. Then he went back to the mum and gave her one and asked her to give it to her daughter and that IS SO FUCKING CUTEEEE. The girl was so lucky to have a lucky trinket from Freddie Mercury and then had one that matches?! AAAAAA.

He could stand up for himself really well as well despite the fact that he was kind of shy. There was a time when Queen was recording in a recording studio and the Sex Pistols were recording near them. Sid Vicious randomly came into their recording studio and started being a dick and annoying them and all that shit and Freddie went up to him called him Simon Ferocious which Sid didn't like and then pushed him out the door which was amazing. There was another time with a fan when he was eating dinner and a fan came up to him with a piece of paper to sign and a pen and pretty much shoved in his face. Freddie told him to leave him alone because he was eating. When he finished he went up to the fans table and lectured him on not being rude and having manners and then signed the paper for him. Good on him. In my opinion that was the right thing to do. I know other celebrities have done this before but one time there was a fight happening at one of the concerts and he stopped the entire concert to break it up and told them they were ruining the show for everyone.

He is also one of the most determined, strong and headstrong people I have ever heard of as well. Towards the end when he was really sick he told the band to write songs for him to record because he just wanted to keep singing until he died. One of my favourite stories of him is when he was recording The Show Must Go On he was so sick he could barely stand and Brian didn't think he could do it. Freddie told Brian "I'll fucking do it darling," then he had some vodka and finished the song in one go. In my opinion that is one of the best performances he has done just fucking listen to it and you'll see. There's a reason that's one of my fav songs.

He also apparently never complained about being sick and eventually went off of his aids meds because he already knew he was going to die and just accepted it.

He loved cats as well and that's super sweet to me. He had ten cats, Tiffany, Delilah, Miko, Romeo, Tom, Jerry, Dorothy, Goliath, Lily and Oscar. Delilah was Freddie's favourite and he made a song for her. Tiffany's my favourite. He also dedicated his solo album "Mr Bad Guy" to all the cats and cat lovers of the world.

HE LOVES HIS HUSBAND AND IT FUCKING SHOWS. Freddie and Jim got each other rings and called each other husband even though they weren't legally married, and Jim said that one day they got into a fight because Freddie wasn't wearing his ring, and after that day Freddie always wore it and never took it off. One time Freddie was having a party and Jim had work the next day so he went to bed and he was almost asleep when he heard Freddie come in with a group of people he was showing around he heard Freddie say to them, "everyone be quiet, my husband's asleep." Jim also did some woodwork stuff and Freddie would ask Jim to make lots of things, and one time he asked him to make some wooden box thing and he gave it to Jim and in the box was some of the original lyrics from some songs.

He was a really good friend as well. He had some friends that would all call each other drag names and one of those friends was Elton John. Elton's drag name was Sharon and Freddie's was Melina. One time Elton saw a piece of artwork that he liked and after Freddie died he got a package that was the artwork and it was from Freddie. On it is said, "To Sharon from Melina" There might have been more on it but I can't remember. Elton cried.

I was reading and watching some things on Freddie yesterday and there were a lot of people who knew him or met him personally talking about him, and when asked what he was really like, they would all say he was a wonderful, kind, sweet guy.

I love him so fucking much you don't even understand he was one of the most gorgeous human beings to have ever existed. I know I have some irl friends on here but they prob won't read this so I'm just gonna say I love him more than some of my irl friends. Not saying more than the ones on here, but some of them.

Love ya Freddie ❤️

#queen #queen band #freddie mercury #freddie #freddie queen #queen freddie #farrokh bulsara #happy birthday #happy birthday freddie #appreciation post

22 notes · View notes

fushitoru · 9 days ago

Note

miss aashi (i hope i can call u that 🤭🫡) i can only pen this letter in hopes that it reaches u and i can shower you with infinite compliment for spiderman gojo fic. shit was soo good its 9am in the morning for me and yet here i was tuning in like clockwork to tumblr.com to read the entire fic in its glory....characterisation and all the little details abt both gojo and reader as students was SO fun (and also as someone who has had a crush on a physics guy before i was lowkey tucking my hair behind my ear even tho i could not tell u a thing abt the theoretical parts of the subject)

loved!!! all the side characters and cameos from everyone and i really truly enjoyed suguru's advice to gojo about him having nothing to lose and everything to gain 😁 during the halloween party scene i was wishing that utahime would give ME a chance instead...

sooo loveable and charming and such a gorgeous read <3 10/10 i will be coming back to this fic a LOT.

OH MY GOD ILY LOLOL

but yes daphne u can call me that HAHA !! thank youuu omg im a physics girlie so i wrote that stuff based off the research i do rn. it was soo self indulgent. i would never be able to stop yapping about quantum physics.

but crushing on a physics guy is sooo real. only when they shower tho

yes, i had to think hard to write that scene, lol. it was a culmination of insightful things i had to read from a self-help book. and REAAL utahime bad asf

THANKANKANK YOU for giving it a chance. i fuckin love this meme omg LOLLL

#aashi answers #curtins

7 notes · View notes

letterboxd · 4 years ago

Photo

Exorcism.

Film-obsessive documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe tells Aaron Yap about watching The Exorcist for 30 days straight, mining William Friedkin’s personality for his absorbing new documentary, and the films that floor him.

“Sometimes you can be watching a romantic comedy but what you’re really craving is a film noir.” —Alexandre O. Philippe

William Friedkin loves to talk. A consummate storyteller off and on screen, the director is known for recounting wild tales of his storied life and career as the charismatic wunderkind who ascended to New Hollywood’s elite with 1971’s Oscar-showered cop procedural The French Connection. A couple of years later his reputation would grow two-fold, adapting a novel by William Peter Blatty called The Exorcist and unleashing what is still perhaps the most revered and discussed horror film of all time.

To this day, the film, which broke new ground for its grounded, rigorously methodical interrogation of demonic possession and faith-in-crisis, continues to terrify and haunt our imagination. But as Alexandre O. Philippe reveals in his Shudder documentary Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist, it’s in ways that are more intangible and unfathomable than we imagine.

From the William Friedkin papers of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. / Photo courtesy William Friedkin

Throughout the intimate one-on-one session, it’s clear that the 85-year-old’s gift of gab has not diminished. As ChainsawMasacre writes on Letterboxd, “his mind and memory is still like a steel trap”. Philippe, a Swiss-born cinephile-centric doco filmmaker who’s covered everything from zombie movies to George Lucas, captures Friedkin’s contagious ranconteuring in all its prickly, contradictory, exuberant bluster. It’s so absorbing that from the moment he opens his mouth, you’ll be hooked in and suddenly an hour has vanished without you even realizing.

It’s true that considerable swathes of Leap of Faith may feel like old news to Friedkin/Exorcist obsessives—anyone who’s listened to the DVD audio commentary, read The Friedkin Connection, or watched Francesco Zippel’s Friedkin Uncut will be familiar with some of these stories. But Philippe’s incisive, thoughtful, highly accessible approach, excavating deeper than anecdotal interest but eschewing academic stuffiness, makes the documentary as much of value to newcomers as to seasoned fans. “The intersection of influences between music, film, fine art and personal travesty made me admire Friedkin on a whole new level”, writes Databaseanimal.

How many times have you seen The Exorcist, and on average how often would you need to rewatch a film in prep? Alexandre O. Philippe: You have to watch a film over and over and over again. I can’t tell you generally how many times I’ve watched The Exorcist but I can tell you when I was preparing for my interviews with Bill, I watched it every day for 30 days straight. That’s part of the process.

Leap of Faith is a bit of a departure from your previous two deep-dives—Memory: The Origins of Alien and 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene—in that you’re only talking to one interviewee, and that interviewee happens to be William Friedkin. What was that experience like? It’s wonderful. It’s really hard to put into words how incredible it’s been to spend that amount of time with him. Getting my own personal masterclass with him is invaluable. There’s no film school in the world that can give you that experience. It’s been really something.

Did spending that extended time reveal something about Friedkin that you weren’t aware of prior to shooting? Oh sure, that’s the beauty of that extensive of an interview—six days—and multiple conversations in between. Without giving it away, in the final sequence when he’s talking about Kyoto Zen Gardens… this is the stuff you can only get from someone like Friedkin once the comfort level is there, once you’re in the groove of conversation. It’s an aspect of his personality we’ve never seen before.

We all know him as a storyteller and a showman but he’s probably been very guarded in the past. There’s a certain amount of vulnerability even when he talks about the climax of The Exorcist, and how much to this day he’s not sure he understands some of the choices he made shooting that scene. That’s a remarkable thing to say about one of the most iconic scenes in the history of movies.

William Friedkin in ‘Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist’. / Photo by Robert Muratore, courtesy Exhibit A Pictures

I could listen to him speak for hours. Did you challenge him at any point? I definitely pushed him as far as I could. The whole sequence around the climax of The Exorcist that I was just talking about. There’s only about three minutes of that in the film but we talked about that scene for an hour and a half. I kept pushing and pushing him because I didn’t understand where he was coming from. I feel as a film fan that I understand that scene. For me, Father Karras sacrifices himself. It’s an act of complete selflessness. But he kept going back to the idea of suicide and that suicide in the Catholic Church is a sin and how he didn’t understand it. And that’s why you see him a little on edge during that scene. It was very important to go there.

I love the obsessive detail that goes into your examination of the creative process. Was there any detail—something that is interesting in and of itself—that you left out? We had a really great conversation around Carlos Kleiber, one of the conductors he admires the most, who essentially taught him to direct in metaphors. It’s a fascinating conversation. We actually built a scene around that and it just didn’t work with the film. There’s a point in any film where it becomes autonomous and its own entity in a way and you have to listen and pay attention to what the film tells you it wants to be.

We also had a great conversation around his first documentary The People vs. Paul Crump, and the technique which he used of slapping him in his cell on death row, which is the same technique he used for Bill O’Malley in The Exorcist. I had a long conversation with [executive producer] Karyn Kusama about this and we felt it was a little too over-the-top to go there and it wasn’t necessary to take the film to that level so we eventually left it out.

Friedkin talks about The Brink’s Job at one point, which is great to hear as it’s probably my favorite underrated Friedkin film. What’s yours? [Laughs] If you’re talking underrated or one that’s not much talked about, for me it’s Bug. Bug is ummm… [pauses]

What can you say about Bug? I mean honestly, truly, have you ever seen performances that pushed to the very edge of what’s even reasonable to expect or see from actors? It’s mind-blowing stuff. How does he even get performances like these? I mean they are wonderful actors but Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd, like, really… Like, really? You know what I mean? That’s Billy.

To me, you’re talking about Billy when he was in his early 70s when he made that film, a filmmaker who’s still really interested in pushing the envelope and going as far as he possibly can. It’s absolutely remarkable and I wish we talked more about that film.

Tell us about one ‘holy grail’ film or filmmaker you’d like to cover. The one I really want most to make a film about, and I will, is Vertigo. To go back to Hitchcock. I definitely have a healthy obsession with that film—have had since I was a kid. I love melodrama, and it’s the greatest melodrama ever made. I can’t think of a better film for my money from anywhere. It’s a glorious, glorious piece of filmmaking, but it’s also a very complex, tortured, complicated film that alienates some people.

I was on TCM a couple years ago as Ben Mankiewicz’s co-host on “50 Years of Alfred Hitchcock”. We did 24 movies together and when it came to Vertigo we had a fun conversation because he’s not a fan. He’s basically like “what’s the big deal about that film?” That really fascinates me. That’s a really amazing thing and he’s not the only person I highly respect who said that to me. I’d love to not only do a deep dive into Vertigo but also what’s so polarizing about it. That’d be fun to do that.

In Leap of Faith, Friedkin talks a lot about non-horror-specific aspects, such as grace notes, and the mysterious, magical aspects of filmmaking that can’t be easily explained. What movies are you drawn to but can’t explain completely through the technique and science of filmmaking? Any great work of art, not just film, that has a lasting impact on us and on society, works in ways that are much more mysterious than not. You can explain away the many different tangible reasons why Psycho, Alien and The Exorcist continue to have an impact, and had a massive impact on audiences when they came out. But for every tangible reason or every fact that you can provide, there are a million mysteries as well.

I’m much more interested in the mysteries of the creative process than I’m interested in the behind-the-scenes anecdotes or little tidbits of movie history. Because you will never get to the bottom of it and that’s the real beauty of it. And the lesson to learn from that is there’s nothing to do beyond just being in awe of it.

Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe / Photo by Bas Bogaerts

What’s a documentary that uses the form in a way that’s inspiring to you, or one that made you want to pursue this form? I don’t watch a ton of documentaries. I don’t like the term ‘documentary’. With that asterisk out of the way, there are a number of documentaries I absolutely adore and filmmakers that are pushing the form that are remarkable. I think of Allan King, one of the great documentarians.

There is one that, formally speaking, absolutely blew me away and is very hard to watch. It’s called Caniba. It’s a documentary about this French-Japanese man who killed and ate one of his classmates. He did a whole comic book on it, and his brother is equally disturbed. It’s one of the few films, along with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, where I had to literally stop halfway through ’cos I just couldn’t handle it. The remarkable thing about this film is that the entire film is extreme close-ups. You’re watching basically his face and his brother’s face in extreme close-up the entire film and it makes you absolutely nauseous.

The formal choice that was made, in committing to that, it’s so much more horrendous and horrible than what’s on the periphery of the frame. You’re trapped in the geography of that face and you can’t get out. I’m not sure if ‘exciting’ is the best word I can use here, but to say this kind of approach excites me when I see a documentary filmmaker doing this, is accurate.

How do you spell that? I’m going to put it on my watchlist. C-A-N-I-B-A. Good luck watching it my friend [laughs]. Don’t eat while you’re watching it.

What films have you caught during the pandemic and completely loved, old or new? I watch almost exclusively the Criterion Channel. They’re the gold standard. I don’t even know where to begin. Recently I just watched the three Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter collaborations: The Servant, Accident and The Go-Between. I’ve always been a huge fan of Harold Pinter but what Joseph Losey has done with those three films is astonishing. The Go-Between, especially. Wow. That film just floored me.

They had a whole sidebar on Western noir films, and I discovered a bunch of incredible titles like Station West and Blood on the Moon with Robert Mitchum, which is an absolutely magnificent film. Some of the early Douglas Sirk movies. I can watch that stuff all day.

Oh there’s another one I would like to recommend as it is a criminally not just underrated, but completely under-the-radar film: Sun Don’t Shine.

Kate Lyn Sheil’s performance is amazing in it. Oh my god. Why didn’t she run away with the Screen Actors Guild Award, Oscars, Golden Globes? Like seriously. Some of the recent nominations Meryl Streep has been getting, like give me a break. It’s not even close. It’s not even in the same ballpark [laughs]. It’s really one of those rare performances that I think about, like Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher. Once in a generation you see something like this and you go “Holy cow, what a performance”. It does not exist on DVD or Blu-ray and it kills me. I want that film in my collection so badly.

Kate Lyn Sheil in Amy Seimetz’s ‘Sun Don’t Shine’ (2012).

Maybe this will be the thing that will get them to push it out on physical media. I’m trying, I’m working with them, and I’ve done some with them. I need to send them an email and say “Can you please do something about this?”.

What’s a film that you were cold on first viewing but has grown on you with repeat viewings? The first one that comes to mind is Donnie Darko. I really hated the film the first time around, and it’s weird because there was always this voice at the back of my head that kept saying “watch it again”. I did and it completely blew me away the second time around. Often I will give a film a second chance. Especially when I know the film is well-respected. There are films where you can intellectually understand why the film is respected, but you don’t connect with the film.

I’ll tell you one that I’m really looking forward to giving a second chance. Not because I hated it but it left me really underwhelmed. A film that everybody loves: Moonlight. I also do remember when I was watching it, actively thinking I was not in the right frame of mind for that film. Sometimes you just have to recognize that. Sometimes you can be watching a romantic comedy but what you’re really craving is a film noir. That’s really not going to work.

So we’ll see, we’ll talk about it after I’ve watched it a second time. And hopefully it will be a revelation. There’s nothing better for me than these moments when you watch something the second time that didn’t work and you go “Holy cow this is great”. That’s an awesome thing to experience.

Related content

The Films of Alexandre O. Philippe

Follow William Friedkin on Twitter

Aaron’s list of documentaries on filmmaking and Hollywood

Vince’s list of narrative films about filmmaking

Follow Aaron on Letterboxd

‘Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist’ is streaming now on Shudder.

#william friedkin #billy friedkin #the exorcist #horror film #alexandre o phillippe #documentary #documentary making #filmmaking #filmmaking process #life in film #filmmaker #director

5 notes · View notes

lizzybeth1986 · 5 years ago

Text

Quick Thoughts on The Royal Fast-Track Pregnancy, Book 1 Chapter 15

• A friend of mine just called me Cassandra recently coz when I predict things, not a lot of people take what I say seriously, and by the time they find out I'm right it's too late.

• I have just one thing to say there:

• If you don't want to see these posts on your dash, here are the tags to block: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs, #long post.

• Title: Apple in the Oven

Alternative Title: ...Will Be Burned to A Crisp From The Speed At Which You're Trying to Bake It!

• Screenshots:

Hana: The Abhirio YouTube channel and the Universal Studio 77 YouTube channel.

Maxwell: @itsbrindleybinch and the rash rec YouTube channel

Drake: @thefirstcourtesan and the HIMEME YouTube channel.

• I liked parts of this chapter - the MC definitely seems to show a bit of the concern and caring towards her certain LIs that has been missing for a while now. I liked that she could try to talk to Liam about how he's feeling as his wife + friend, and that as Hana's wife she could encourage Hana to take a step back and bask in the attention for once. But I'm wary too. Like, is this just a small carrot they're dangling in front of us, before returning to the status quo and continuing to perpetuate the same problems in their writing?? It certainly wouldn't be the first time I've seen tiny glimpses of progress before the team took 50 steps backwards in their storytelling for some of these characters.

• How the heck did Edenbrook get a branch in Cordonia? 🤭

• Also...it's plausible that Brad/Thad/Chad may have reached there and settled in before we made it to the hospital...but still, Olivia didn't notice anything suspicious? Nothing at all? Why is it that the moment competent individuals (like Mara) become security detail, they become as stupid as the people they're protecting?

• So within our own playthroughs we have 3 people to choose from: our LIs, ourselves, or Olivia:

I like how this incorporates all their ways of thinking into how they fight.

Liam has the ability to fight a man but also the wisdom to know when delegating will make things more effective.

Hana's is reminiscient of her fight at the boutique (if she was part of your bridal party), where she had the forethought and flexibility to use anything that was at hand as a weapon (and here, she uses a potted plant).

Maxwell is someone who enjoys sliding down the stairs via the bannister (his last scene in Book 1 features him and the MC do this together), and he uses that to gain leverage over his opponent.

Drake opts for speed and aggression, since raw power is what he is most known for.

Olivia is a master of fighting skill and agility, which is obvious from her tackling of the man.

Of course...the "opponent" is really a dudebro reporter who was easy to catch so I doubt any of them saw him as that big of a challenge 🤣

• The MC then gets to choose how to tackle him - two of the options involve coming down heavily on him for invading their privacy, and one offers to provide him a picture that's taken with the consent of the MC and LI.

• Why do none of them even bother to grill this guy over where he came from? Who sent him? Who he was reporting to? Why is NO ONE asking these questions oh gosh why are you all so stupid.

• DIAMOND SCENE TIME. In some ways it could be a throwback to Liam giving you a massage in Book 1 Chapter 16 at Beaumont estate, but like all LI scenes, it plays out differently depending on who you're married to.

Liam: The MC is surprised that Liam managed to secretly set this (the arrangements for the massage) up, and Liam confesses to taking a course from a professional masseuse (wasn't he already very skilled in massage? I recall the MC saying so in TRR Book 1 Chapter 16. I mean it's likely he wanted to sharpen his skills etc but why no acknowledgement from the MCs who did the scene back at Beaumont House?). You get to choose between letting him focus on your upper body or lower body, and you can either flirt with or help Liam to set up.

The variations for the sex scene involve the MC telling him what she wants in terms of speed and tempo (slow, or "right now"), as well as positioning (under her, or on top of her). The couple then relax and speak of how moments like these will be few and far between once the child is born, and how they will make time for their children and each other regardless. If you're a Henney fan, you'll love this scene coz at some point the MC calls Liam "Mr Perfect".

Cmon PB tell me that wasn't done on purpose! 🤣🤣🤣

Hana: There's plenty of Hana's thoroughness in action here. The skill is something Hana has already learned and picked up from before, and it's something she is excellent at (for instance, there is a point where she tells the MC that she almost put her course instructor to sleep with her rendition of a Swedish massage). Hana's version of the scene is detailed in terms of the oils she uses and the names of the massage therapies she employs.

We get a choice between two oils - elderberry and rose, or sage and sandalwood - and two massage therapies: Swedish and Shiatsu. The first therapy is meant to soothe and relax, the second is meant to invigorate and awaken. The MC can either respond by talking about how much she needed this, or jokingly offer to be "Hana's personal genie".

The MC also gets to set the pace for sex - either hard and fast or slow and tender - and the scene shortly after involves the women engaging in playful banter about how there will be less time for private moments like these after they have children, but how it will all be worth it for the joy those very children bring.

(Also the one time I went to France I saw the sun set at 9 PM or something to my utter surprise 😲)

Maxwell: The tone of this - including the MC's as well as Maxwell's dialogues - sound a lot like the fun couple they're expected to be, and have a different vibe. I liked this scene particularly because the MC gets to show her mood swings here, and Maxwell has a story similar as Liam's about taking a course on massage ("with a complimentary chakra kit"). Additionally he also provides his own recorded music.

The MC gets to choose how they'll do foreplay ("my mouth on you" or "your mouth on me"), and how they'll have sex (behind or under). Once that is done, they speak about their wishes and dreams for the child. Maxwell mentions needing to lock the door so the kids won't hear them during moments like these, and contemplating on their growing years (he mentions "preschool" then jumps straight to "first car"). They do, however, agree to relax and take each moment as it comes. Which is a theme with Maxwell even in the buildup of the scene where he talks about living in the here and now.

Drake: More attempts to make Drake more flexible and open, and less "manly man" stuff. He gives the MC the opportunity to choose who should "order around" even though he isn't used to it (at least they acknowledged that). He doesn't say a lot about his massaging skill - and he shouldn't considering the writers already write enough about it in their Chapter 13 scene where he talks about his dad playing masseuse for his mother.

The MC gets to decide whether Drake can watch or touch, and positions (on top, or under). Afterwards, Drake gets to talk about how far they have come as a couple - how the MC didn't imagine how her life in NY led her to this charmed one, and how Drake could hardly imagine until she chose him that he was the one she wanted. While all the others speak about the changes that having children will bring into their lives, Drake gets to also talk about how unbelievably good their present life is.

• The next few weeks pass in a blur. Another couple of days pass in a blur. A whole six months is reduced to a montage wowwww. Amazing. What was the premise of this book again?? Family, right? And surprisingly, we spent AGES on only one LI's family, so much so that the rest of us have to be satisfied with just 5 chapters of the theme for our own LIs!

• Your free dress is basically a peach monstrosity (sorry guys I can't stand the colour peach 😅😅), and the diamond option is a floral blue short dress, which is fitting considering our next diamond option involves an actual flower garden. It would go with the theme.

• Our second trimester montage includes the following:

- Maxwell googling pregnancy-friendly yoga poses and learning them so he can practice them with us. For solidarity awww (which could be either as a friend, or as the father. Both are adorable). He teaches us the downward dog pose (we call it adho mukha svanasana I think. It's supposed to have many benefits, though I hear that earlier, pregnant people used to be advised against doing this asana during late term).

- Drake making something that was supposed to be a rocking horse but that looks either like a footstool or abstract art, further reiterating that if he has so few skills maybe he shouldn't be yapping about how nobles swan around doing nothing of importance.

- Liam doing the rounds of our estate with us, and proposing the lakeside be converted into a garden with a gazebo...kiiinda similar to Applewood's? The narrative promises that paying for this background art will unlock scenes not only in this book but in other books in the series as well.

- Hana suggesting names for our kid - either Oswald, Valentina or as our namesake. Valentina is the popular option, obviously, because Hana then gets to give us a callback to TCaTF where she can speak of the "great warrior" who was close to Cordonia's greatest warrior queen. This comes MUCH later in the scheme of these scenes, and if you're a Hana fan who doesn't romance Hana...it'll definitely feel like you spent a huge chunk of the chapter not even catching a glimpse of her.

- In addition, you get two scenes exclusively with our LIs - one where we're dancing with our partners and experience the baby's kick together for the first time (it's cute because the sprite wiggle and shake a couple times from surprise and joy in this scene 🤭), and this adorable af dream section:

Now this scene takes place while the MC worries over the number of kicks in two hours that her character should be doing, and the LI is in the middle of a dream when she wakes them up. It's followed by the LIs calming her down and attempting to communicate with the child before they eventually kick. The dreams are cute, but I couldn't help but notice how all of them are in some way connected to themes of family (and perhaps responsibility? IDK this is just a wild guess):

* King Liam and the Baklava Arm: Liam's dream involves him and Leo (they remember Liam's brother exists! Hallelujah!) eating baklava, before Liam turns into this sweet and gets eaten by his older brother. Which I take to mean that sometimes, it really does feel like the responsibilities Leo - and why just Leo! I would include Liam's father in this as well - has left behind for him may swallow Liam whole. After all, Liam is in many ways, spending his time as king constantly fixing his family's messes.

* Hana Lee and the Tea Party: Hana's dream focuses on enjoying a tea party with the MC and her future child, to the point where she is reluctant to shake herself out of the dream. As a child Hana was deprived of this experience - forever keeping a place for her mother that her mother never bothered to fill - that she now views the same thing as an opportunity to NOT be that person towards her own child. In a lot of ways she may view this as "I will not make the mistakes my mother made, and make my child suffer believing I don't care for them". Why is why, when the MC wakes her up she shows such a reluctance to leave. In a lot of ways her view of parenting rn is largely coloured by her desire to be the exact opposite of her mother.

* Maxwell Beaumont and The Shrimp Buffet: Maxwell's recurring dream involves him being in a shrimp buffet, being fed shrimp till he wants no more. This is a little tougher to decipher, but I'm guessing that since their house sigil is nautical and shrimps are a delicacy of the waters, the shrimp buffet mayyyybe represents his House and family, and the responsibilities and complications that will eventually pile up from them. Remember, he enjoys his father's respect and regard now, but perhaps there may come a time where being a Beaumont will feel like being in a carousel that refuses to stop.

* Drake Walker and the Giant Marshmallow: Drake's dream involves being smushed by a giant marshmallow that he seems to be fighting. Now most of us usually associate the marshmallow with Drake only, but in a lot of ways the treat has its roots in his memories of his father. In fact, that's the earliest actual memory we get of Jackson. So the dream could either mean he fears he may not live up to Jackson's example, or foreshadowing that Jackson's secret may blindside and engulf him.

• One thing I really don't get about the TRR/H team re: Hana is...why do they sometimes spend chapters and chapters repeating the same things like a broken tape recorder? In the early chapters she wound up making constant mentions of embroidery, even when it wasn't needed. When it was pointed out that they forgot she was skilled at horseriding then they kept beating that reference to death. Now it's tea parties. Hana is a layered character, PB! Start treating her like one!!

• It's nice that the MC has that rare moment of checking in on Liam and asking him how he's taking the news that his mother was pregnant when she died. That doesn't happen much in the books - she can ask a ten-second question about how Liam is holding up after his father died but somehow never tries to check up on how he's down again, even when she's his wife. It would be nice to see more of that...but I don't have any hope left of that happening.

• Hallelujah! The members of the Council speak about something other than balls and parties!! There's a brief mention about "transportation reforms" which gets knocked over by the press in favour of more pregnancy speculations. Which is on par for pregnant celebs - in that once you're pregnant, everything else seems frustratingly unimportant in comparison in the eyes of other people. You begin to feel less like a person and more like a vessel (and if you don't have the right support, those feelings will keep gnawing at you even after childbirth).

• I wanted to hear more about those transportation reforms! Dammit PB!!

• The MC and LI eventually celebrate the point where her morning sickness is out of the way in a short scene.

• Man I miss seeing the palace. It felt almost like the team had forgotten that some of our MCs might actually live there.

• Callback to Book 1! We get a scene where the friends are having dinner, but the MC now has a craving for cronuts so they go to the same bakery they visited when she was still new to Cordonia.

- Jumping out the window was Liam's thing in Book 1 (and he almost fell on the rose bushes), but this time it's the MC who is doing it

- Maxwell speaks about how fun rule breaking is, leading to an interesting observation from Hana (the last time they went to a cronut shop she sidestepped this question and merely commented on how much more fun it was that their destination was "something delicious"). This time around, Hana actually focuses on the "rule breaking part", where she speaks about what it feels like to break a rule for her:

I've mentioned in my QT for Chapter 9 how Hana often speaks of her parents "as if they are still there, still controlling her choices, as if she cannot remove herself from her fears concerning them even if they're physically away from her. In her head, she still has a lot of difficult getting out of the obedience mindset (particularly towards her parents) built in her.

I can connect to this personally. As a teenager and a young adult, I wasn't allowed to go out too often, and the few times I did go out to meet friends I was given deadlines that left me with very little time to actually have much fun. (yknow, like 6 pm, or 7.30 if I was lucky...even if I'd gone out at 4 or 5). My college days were mostly spent in convent-run hostels with strict curfews (like 6 pm), and you had to repeatedly hit at a locked gate if you were even a minute late.

Now I'm married, to a man who understands if I run late...and even now I think in terms of timing and curfews. I still get a tiny chill down my spine when it's 10 pm and I'm not home yet - for no other reason than "I'm late". It's just the way my brain's been wired from years of that routine and it will probably take a lot of unlearning to grow out of it.

Hana's guilt about rule-breaking is kind of like that. She knows it's unreasonable, she knows theoretically that she is safe from harm, she knows logically that she's free to do what she wants, but her brain has been wired to certain routines that will take her maybe years to grow out of.

...and this fandom acts as if she's just a weak, passive, one-dimensional character who is nothing next to the Almighty Olivia Nevrakis. LMAO.

- A lot of the callbacks are in the shop scene, such as the way Maxwell shouts for the cronuts as soon as they enter, the way Maxwell finishes his cronut before the other LIs finish their countdowns, and the compliments they deliver for the treat hold a few similarities too.

- There is also a tiny callback when Maxwell recalls Liam and Drake "stealing a boat" - something Liam talked to us about at the Regatta.

- If there is anything different, it's the messages the LIs now deliver to the child:

The friendly version includes all their plans for this child they have already begun to love and consider as their family, and involves what is important to all of them. Hana simply lets the child know there is an amazing support system that will shower them with love, Maxwell playfully asks the child about what flavour of cronuts they would prefer, Drake promises them fishing and trekking trips just like the ones he had as a child, and Liam assures them that even though their future lies in the throne, they are not entirely bound by it (why couldn't the writers have made the heir an "heir presumptive" then? Rather than make this a permanent arrangement! Oh, I know. Coz the MC has to be the front and center of everything).

• Slight variations if the LI is married to you:

Le Moi:

• It's now time for our baby shower, which means we're now in our third trimester. So much for a book about having a child 🙄

• One of my favourite variations in this chapter happens around here. If she is your friend, Hana is organizing the baby shower along with the other women in court, and the MC tells her she should enjoy it with her and she doesn't need to fuss so much, and Hana responds that the MC is her best friend so it's important for her to be involved.

Fortunately, in Hana's playthrough, the MC ensures (and insists, actually) Hana enjoys the function alongside her, rather than playing second-fiddle:

It's a lovely scene. It's all I could want. The MC shows that she cares about Hana, follows up on the "I won't let you play second fiddle when you're my wife" promise from last chapter, and generally includes rather than excludes Hana. It's heartwarming and shows some effort from the side of the writers.

But...at this point it's been FOUR BOOKS. Four books of seeing the MC simply use Hana when convenient and discard her when convenient. Four books of seeing the MC not bother to even ask Hana how she is when she is affected by terrible things, while showering attention and advice on people like Olivia and Penelope and Madeleine. Just a book ago, the MC marrying her was treating Hana like a bridesmaid on what should have been a memorable wedding day for Hana.

It's great that this mistake is not repeated now, but this is one tiny spark in a long, long line of lackadaisical writing. It shouldn't take you four fucking books to come to the conclusion that, hey, maybe we're treating our lone female LI like garbage and we should do better.

So...yeah, I love this scene. But I have no idea whether PB will continue doing better in terms of their treatment of Hana, or whether this and the previous scene are just brief flashes in a pan. I probably never will trust them on this, but honestly the team has only themselves to blame for that 🤷🏽‍♀

• I'm tempted to say "too little too late", but (foolishly) I'm still holding on to a sliver of hope.

• Hallelujah! The writers also remember that Kiara exists outside of being Penelope's bestie! And she comes to us and the LI, delivering the news that Auvernese and Monterisso royalty have decided to come to the baby shower to find out who Cordonia will make an alliance with. Jesus Christ. Stop.

• In my playthrough, Kiara interacts with Liam and Esther (but more to Esther than Liam - and I saw similar interactions on the plane trip back to Cordonia) which felt...different because up until now the narrative never allowed the two to even speak to each other (she's the only suitor in Book 1 who never gets to even talk to Liam, and in Book 3, they went as far as to replace her with Hakim in the armoury scene at Lythikos). To me it simply goes to show how deep the rot goes with regards to Kiara's treatment in this series (as well as the fact that they make Kiara interact just as normally with Drake in his playthrough, yknow, that asshole who treated her like shit last series. Oh what I wouldn't give for Kiara to rake that man through the coals for his treatment of her, if only just once).

• We're also told that our in-laws will be in attendance, which means we will have different playthroughs featuring different characters visiting or gaining additional dialogue. Regina and Leo for Liam's playthrough, Leona, Bianca and BertVannah for Drake's, Barthelemy and BertVannah for Maxwell's, and Xinghai and Lorelai for Hana. I think Hana's family is the only one so far who have NOT made an appearance...and will for the first since Book 3 this week. They'd better treat her well this time around!

• I'm wondering - with the arrival of the other royals - whether another flashback scene will be shown. Or perhaps it will be reserved for Chapter 17 since we'll be traveling to Lythikos.

• I wonder if one of the gifts will include something for the nursery. I think it might.

• Another visit to Lythikos. This has to be the third time I'm seeing this place. It was the only duchy besides Beaumont Estate we were allowed to see in Book 1 and one of the major turning points in the plot in Book 3. We haven't seen any duchy (besides our own) as extensively as we have seen this one, and I know it will involve more opportunities for Olivia to gobble up space.

• Like at this point why the hell am I being regarded as an honorary Beaumont when the only time I bothered to visit Ramsford was in Book 1, and I have never, ever visited Hana's Cordonian side of the family even once - not even aware of anything besides their sigil being flowers and her great-grandmother teaching her a Cordonian tradition featuring three coins in a fountain (and don't even get me started on Shanghai!!!)

• In an ideal version of this story, where the writers made a damn effort on all the LIs...I'd be really happy about the writing for Olivia. I'd be fine with it. But now I'm sick and tired. Sick and tired of her concerns, her issues, her pain getting more attention than Hana's ever has, or ever will. Sick and tired of how often I see both the writing and people in the fandom (yes Olivia stans who downplay Hana just to make your fave look good, I'm looking at you) act like Hana's story has zero value, every time the narrative gives Olivia attention. At this point the narrative is giving a secondary character the space and attention that they should have been giving the female LI. And not because Hana's story is not equally compelling - but because the writers didn't want to put in the effort. Why the hell do I have to wait four goddamn books to see even a tenth of this much effort put into Hana, huh?

I'm fed up at this point. I like Olivia but can't even enjoy her scenes nowadays without thinking of how much the same amount of space could have benefited Hana, or wondering how and when the fandom will use this opportunity to shit on Hana just because she's not their preferred female LI or BFF.

• Chapter 16 has always been the kind of chapter where the nobility have an excuse to go wild and party a lot (except in Book 2, where Chapter 16 was set aside for Liam's proposal and the MC finally choosing her endgame). In Book 1 it was the Beaumont Bash. In Book 3, it was the MC's bachelorette in Vegas. Now in Book 4, it's the baby shower (maybe less wild...but still partylike). It's kind of a pattern at this point.

• Liam's suggestion of a flower garden + gazebo at Valtoria brought me back to that Book 1 Chapter 4 scene, where he spoke about the palace gardens and hedge maze being his mother's vision. But it also reminds me of that gazebo with cherry blossoms, and that flower conservatory, in Applewood.

There is a statue of a woman with a crown on her head and a specter in her hands, at the back of the garden, and I wonder who that is supposed to represent.

• That's it for this week! Until Chapter 16, guys! (gosh how did I survive 15 chapters worth of meta with this).

#long post #trh quick thoughts #trh qts #the royal heir #king liam #hana lee #maxwell beaumont #drake walker

61 notes · View notes

boofphil · 7 years ago

Text

this isn’t you - 1

summary: phil just wants to know who dan really is. he isn't like the rest of the football team, who bully people and harass girls. he's hiding something from everyone, something that maybe isn't as bad as he thinks it is.but dan doesn't know how to stand up for himself and the memory of how painfully lonely he was keeps him on the team.a series of unfortunate events (that slowly turn into fortunate ones) may change that, however.

genre: angst with a happy ending, slow burn

word count: ~4000

chapters: 1/19

warnings: bullying, homophobic/transphobic slurs

a/n: this fic is a gift to @dreamdilddy ! merry christmas c: i hope you enjoy this! the idea came to me in a strangely detailed dream.

fic updates every sunday

prompt: I'm really into like slowburn/friends to lovers type stuff. it's my absolute favorite and I'm not very picky when it comes to it!

ao3 link

Dan should have been more careful when spying on the theatre club.

It wasn’t that he was doing it with malicious intentions, he simply couldn’t afford to be caught. He had many reasons to hide. For starters, he was supposed to be at football practice. It was unbearably cold outside, however, and the coach insisted on them still practicing two hours three days a week no matter the temperature. Dan wasn’t in the mood in the mood for freezing to death.

Secondly, if the football team knew where he had gone, the humiliation and bullying he would have to endure would be unbearable. He still remembered the bruising he received when he had mentioned going to the school play at the beginning of the season.

The team was, essentially, a bunch of bigoted boys who thought they were cooler than everyone else.

Which brings up the third point. It would seem suspicious that he was only there to watch the rehearsals. The football team was notorious for playing pranks on the theatre club (when Dan asked why, they had explained that it was their punishment for being “a club of fags”).

The thing is, he loved theatre and wished he could be apart of it. But pressure from his parents to join something sporty and the overwhelming loneliness lead Dan to joining the football team instead. Dan was mediocre at the sport and figured he wouldn’t be picked at tryouts. Apparently he had underestimated himself, as he’d been one of the first people chosen to be on the team.

He had been distracted by the singing of the lead actor of the play when everything went to hell. He was too focused on the melodramatic song to realize that someone was approaching his hiding area. It was only when that person began moving the boxes that Dan began to panic. There wasn’t any other place he could escape to; he hadn’t thought out his hiding place very well. It was either he be discovered by whoever was moving the boxes or run out from behind and cause a scene.

Dan was trapped.

He squeezed his eyes shut, accepting fate. Hopefully it’d be somebody who didn’t hate the football team, though his brain quickly reasoned that there was not one person in the theatre club who didn’t hate the football team’s guts.

“What the hell are you doing here?” a voice hissed, making Dan flinch. “Don’t you have football practice?”

Dan opened his eyes, keeping them on the floor. “I-I was leaving right now, sorry-”

“Trying to play another prank on us?”

Dan finally looked up and was met with the face of Phil Lester. He didn’t know much about Phil, other than some kids on the team liked to beat him up every now and then.

“No, I swear, I wasn’t-”

Phil scoffed and grabbed Dan’s arm. “Save it, Howell. We all know the football team wants to humiliate us again, don’t try to play innocent.”

Dan felt curls of panic forming in his stomach. They increased as Phil dragged him out of his hiding space, trying to bring him into the stage.

“Please, no, I promise I was only watching,” Dan begged, heartbeat increasing as he fought against Phil’s grip.

“You’re such a terrible liar.” He overpowered Dan’s panicking struggles and brought him onstage, disrupting the scene that had been going on.

Dan stared at the ground, trying to will away the red shame on his cheeks. He listened in horror as people reacted to his presence.

“Phil? What’s going on?”

“Why is he here?”

“Is that Dan Howell?”

Dan could hardly breath. There were so many eyes on him, all of them tearing him apart and judging him based on his association with the football team. He felt sick and dizzy from the amount of anxiety Dan had rushing through him.

“I found him hiding behind some prop boxes. Looks like the football team is trying to prank us again,” Phil loudly announced, his voice echoing through the auditorium.

Dan didn’t need to look up to know that everyone was scowling at him. He needed to play it cool, as it was expected of him. Be mean and arrogant like the rest of the team. Have no respect, just like the captain told him.

“The only people you respect is the football team,” the captain had jeered, “and girls with big boobs.”

The team had erupted into laughter at that, Dan nervously joining in.

He kept his eyes trained to the ground, waiting for someone to act.

“Well, if they were going to prank us, they should have sent a better person.” Dan knew that voice; it was Maria, the director of the play. Her slight accent and loud voice made her very recognizable even without looking up.

“Everybody knows Dan is the clumsiest person on the team. I’m surprised they even keep him with how much he messes up.”

Dan clenched his hands together, fighting off the urge to recoil or run off. He needed to be strong. “There was no prank.”

Maria snorted. “Oh really? Then tell me, why were you hiding back there?”

Dan couldn’t tell her the truth, that he longed to be apart of the play, that he knew every line of his favorite character. Word would spread like wildfire and Dan would have to face the football team.

“That’s what I thought.”

Dan listened to her heavy footsteps as they approached him. He stiffened up and finally dragged his eyes off the ground, facing Maria head on.

Maria stopped in front of him, her eyes icy daggers that looked over him and made him feel insecure. Dan didn’t know alot about Maria, but he did know that she was very intimidating and not somebody to cross.

Maria smirked. “I have an idea.” The way she said it let Dan know that he was not going to like this idea. “Why don’t you pay us back for all the times your team has pranked us?”

Murmurs of agreement rose around him. Dan’s heart pounded nervously and his palms were becoming sweaty, though he tried to ignore it.

“And what makes you think I’ll do that?”

Maria’s smirk didn’t even twitch. Dan had to admire her confidence and ability to face Dan head on. “Because if you don’t, we’ll make sure that the football team hears about you being here, listening intently to the play, reciting every word to yourself, and pretending that you were the star of the show, that you were doing this instead of football practice.”

She nailed the point right on. He knew that there was no point in telling the truth; Maria wouldn’t believe him and it’d only humiliate him more.

Dan crossed his arms both trying to look intimidating and to hide the shakiness of his hands. “What do you want from me then?” he snapped.

Maria grinned, knowing she had won. “That’s up to the rest of the crew. Everyone here wants some sort of revenge; the football team made sure to make everyone’s job much more difficult You’ll do whatever is asked by whoever. If you complain or cause any trouble, there will be consequences.”

The crew cheered in approval. The cheers filled Dan with dread, his stomach knotting up. Someone even called dibs on him.

Maria smiled at everyone, bathing in the approval of her crewmates. “You come and do what they want for two times a week and we’ll all pretend that we never saw you here. But if you dare make any slip up, we can’t promise that our mouths will remain shut. It’s all up to you what you choose to do. Got it?”

Dan could only nod slowly, fearing that any words would reveal how terrified he really was.

“Good.” Maria patted his shoulder, then pushed him over to the crowd of crew members. They all glared at him, each one holding some sort of grudge. “Now, what shall be our first job for our friend Dan?”

Dan watched in horror as people began shouting out, trying to claim him to work on their part of the play. He let his eyes fall back to the ground, his shoulders slumping with it, and his tough facade melted away. Maria went through each request loudly, but her voice sounded like white noise compared to the anxiety that was coursing through Dan’s veins.

“I’ve called dibs already!” someone yelled, pushing through the crowd.

“Eloise,” Maria greeted.

“The football pulled a prank on the makeup crew last week. Thought it would be funny to cover all our makeup in powder. We can hardly get to it without sneezing or having some kind of allergic reaction.”

Maria nodded sympathetically. Then, she turned to Dan. “Looks like you got yourself a job, Danny boy.” She shoved him forward towards Eloise. “Go on, Eloise will show you where it’s at.”

Dan sighed, trudging slowly after Eloise. She began yapping away about how awful the football team was, but Dan didn’t say anything. She was right about everything and he didn’t want to try to argue that he wasn’t like the rest of them.

The whole cleaning process left him with a raw throat and watery eyes. The entire time, the makeup crew had mocked him and laughed at him, making him feel worse. By the end of the practice, Dan wanted nothing more than to curl up in his bed and cry.

He headed out without a coat (one of the theatre members had stolen it) and made the long journey home, having missed the bus. He shivered as he walked, his eyes watery and making it hard to see. Home seemed so far away and he couldn’t get there fast enough.

When he did get home, he collapsed on the couch inside, curling up with some blankets to stop the shivering. He needed water to soothe his throat and clothes that weren’t his scratchy uniform. He waited until his shivering was relatively under control before finally getting up.

After changing into clothes, he went to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water. As he gulped down the water, trying to clear his throat, Dan couldn’t help but feel bitterness towards the theatre club. They’d essentially turned him into a puppet, obeying them out of fear of being blackmailed.

Phil could have easily left him alone or simply thrown him out, but instead he had to embarrass him in front of the whole club and ruin any opportunities Dan had at redeeming himself and joining the club. He cursed his asshole teammates for tormenting the theatre club and for inadvertently getting him in the situation he was in.

Dan knew it was partially his fault too; no one was supposed to be in the theatre during rehearsals and he had been skipping football practice. He’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was paying for it now.

Dan sighed, putting the now empty water glass down. He could kiss his dream of being the lead role in a play goodbye.

Dan’s stomach growled once again. Dan paused from putting away a costume, pressing a hand against his stomach. One of the theatre students had taken to stealing Dan’s snacks that he packed for after school. Usually, it was an annoyance at most, but Dan hadn’t had any money for lunch. The most he had eaten was two pieces of toast for breakfast.

“Get back to work, Howell,” the costume manager, Ty, yelled. Dan turned to see him glaring at Dan, watching his every move and waiting to lash out.

Dan hated the costume manager and wasn’t surprised to hear that everyone else working costumes hated him too. Ty was cold and unlikeable and very disorganized. He was supposed to have organized the pile Dan was currently going through, but Ty had instead waited until he had Dan under his control to do it. He’d been watching Dan like a hawk the entire time, not letting him take a moment’s break.

Dan was starting to feel nauseous and dizzy from both the hunger and from being on his feet for too long. He knew he was going to pass out soon if he didn’t take a break or get some food in his system.

That’s why the moment Ty looked away, Dan took off running towards the dressing rooms. Most people were near the stage wings, focusing on perfecting the cues, allowing him to slip through the door that lead to the dressing rooms without any trouble. He was distantly aware of yelling coming from behind him, but he didn’t care; he’d rather not pass out and embarrass himself even further. He could risk getting in trouble with Maria. She seemed too focused on the play anyway to notice any commotion backstage.

He found himself heading towards the lounge area where a fridge was at. He remembered overhearing people talking about putting their food in there to save for breaks during rehearsal. Dan didn’t hesitate to make a beeline for it once he entered the lounge, stomach demanding food.

Dan figured a little bit of food wouldn’t hurt. Nobody would miss it.

Inside the fridge, people’s food sat, unknowingly being scanned over by a hungry teenage boy. His eyes landed on a rather large sandwich and his hands grabbed it without giving Dan time to think.

Dan sat down at the table set up in the middle of the lounge, unwrapping the sandwich. He felt slightly bad for whoever’s sandwich he was about to eat, but the growling in his stomach was enough to overpower any guilt he had.

He had taken a few bites of the sandwich when Phil burst through the door, scanning the room with wild eyes. They froze when they say Dan and the sandwich.

Dan felt his cheeks start to burn, the tell tale sign that he was blushing. He ignored them and instead took another bite of the sandwich, albeit much slower than he had been earlier.

“That’s my sandwich,” Phil said, glaring at Dan.

Guilt pooled in Dan’s stomach. Already he looked bad in Phil’s perspective, this merely made him look much worse. He continued eating the sandwich, however. He was hungry. “Not anymore, I guess.”

Phil stormed over, barely letting Dan have another bite before snatching it away. Dan looked towards the tabletop, not wanting to make eye contact in fear that he’d feel even more guilty. He felt awful and not tough or cool at all. Wasn’t he supposed to feel that way? His teammates always did after they stole someone’s lunch.

All he felt was guilt.

“What’s your problem? All you ever do is act like you’re some entitled brat who can humiliate others that you deem lower than yourself and take whatever or whoever you want.”

Dan didn’t say anything. The part of the sandwich that he did manage to eat was now aching in his stomach.

“I have no respect for someone like you. Nobody does.”

Dan felt his eyes water, the hunger making him more sensitive than he usually was. No, this couldn’t happen. Not here, not now. He wasn’t going to let Phil see him cry over something as silly as getting yelled at. Dan quickly rubbed at his eyes, hoping to hide the tears that had began to form in them.

“I didn’t have lunch,” Dan finally snapped, sounding much more pathetic than he had intended to. “And one of your theatre friends keeps stealing the food I do save.”

It was Phil’s turn to be silent.

Dan looked up at Phil and before he could stop himself, words were tumbling out of his mouth that were never meant to be said.”I didn’t ask for all this, you know. I never wanted to join the football team and become somebody who treats everyone else like shit. I know that I’m some God-awful person that nobody can stand, okay? And I’m sorry for it, I never wanted to be that kind of person.” Dan sighed and turned away, feeling tears in his eyes again. “I’m sorry. You’re right; it’s your sandwich, and I have no right stealing it.”

Phil stared at Dan, shocked from his outburst. The way he looked now, unable to make eye contact and cheeks red from shame, was foreign to what Phil expected of him. He was expecting a fight, physical or verbal, and for Dan to insult him back. He didn’t expect Dan to agree with him and apologize.

Before he could think properly, Phil slid the sandwich back over to Dan. “H-here, you can have this.”

Dan stared at him, confused. He wanted it badly, but only a moment earlier Phil had been yelling at him for taking it. Now he wanted Dan to have it? “Are you sure?”

Phil nodded. “You’re obviously hungry; I can hear your stomach growling from over here. I don’t need the sandwich anyway, I had a pretty big lunch.”

Dan hesitated, then snatched up the sandwich and began to devour it. Phil stayed silent as Dan ate, mulling over Dan’s words. Dan had basically told him he didn’t want to be on the football team and that he knew they treated everyone like shit.

The more he thought about it, the more Phil realized that Dan didn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the players. Dan always went along with anything the theatre club had him do without complaining or putting up a fight. He’d been respectful of everyone, even when Maria was gone. And when Phil had originally found him hiding behind the boxes, he had almost looked scared.

Dan was more aloof than rude, unlike the other football players. It didn’t make any sense; why was Dan on the football team if he knew they were awful?

“Why’d you apologize?”

Dan looked up briefly from eating his sandwich before looking away. “Like I said, it wasn’t right of me to steal your sandwich, even if I was starving. It’s common sense.”

This only made Phil more intrigued about the mystery that Dan was slowly becoming. “Why are you on the football team?” Phil blurted out.

Dan shrugged. “I like football.” He’d dealt with this question long enough to know how to respond.

Phil shook his head in disbelief. “There’s plenty of people here who love football but refuse to join because of the team. And you obviously don’t like the football team; so why are you on it?”

Dan shifted uncomfortably. He’d finished the sandwich, leaving him no excuse to stay silent. He’d already told Phil too much; he barely knew Phil. For all he knew, Phil could be secretly plotting another way to embarrass him in front of the theatre club. Dan stood up, preparing to leave.

“Dan-”

“It’s none of your business,” Dan said, “I like football so I joined the team. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

Phil watched wordlessly as Dan slipped out, heading back to do who-knows-what. Phil frowned after him.

Dan didn’t join the football team because he liked football, that much was obvious to Phil. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Maybe some things were better left alone.

Dan didn’t see Phil for a long time after that, thankfully. He didn’t want to risk more interrogation or spilling more of his secrets. He didn’t need to deal with a too curious boy pestering him about a decision he’d made long ago.

Phil had already told the whole theatre club he had been spying on them for a “prank”. What would stop him from telling everyone about Dan’s true distaste for the football team?

Dan felt like he was walking on eggshells around the theatre club. He constantly panicked whenever he heard his name being whispered or saw someone looking his way for too long. He tried to keep himself distracted with chores, but the theatre club was being oddly nice and giving him only easy tasks that took ten minutes at most.

Dan had a feeling it was because the football team had been leaving them alone. Dan was kind of glad for it; the team had been focusing their efforts more on preparing for a tournament than beating up fellow classmates. Unfortunately, that didn’t last for long.

It was lunch break and the team had agreed to have some fun (Dan having said nothing, knowing what this “fun” would be). Dan trailed along behind them, occasionally adding in the appropriate statement or laugh.

It made him feel guilty, allowing these people to get beat up while he stood back and pretended to be the bully, all because he didn’t want to be the on being bullied. He refused to look at the person that was chosen to be the victim, fearing that the guilt would overwhelm him.

He followed them miserably as they moved down the halls, looking for the next victim. Dan wasn’t paying attention to what was happening, instead mentally battling his consciousness like he always did when this happened.

What he wasn’t expecting, however, was for the team to go after Phil.

Dan watched helplessly, nausea pooling in his stomach, as the team captain, Luke, shoved Phil up against the locker. Dan knew what was going to happen next.

Luke threw a punch while Dan watched cowardly. He couldn’t find any malice or ill feelings towards Phil that he had earlier that would make the experience easier on Dan. It only made him feel more guilty; why couldn’t he stand up for Phil?

His teammates were laughing, Luke kicking Phil’s side as he laid curled up on the floor. Dan felt dizzy as Luke hit Phil’s face, Phil wincing with pain and protecting his face with his hands. Dan swore years passed before they were finally done with Phil.

Dan was grateful when the team began to leave, forgetting about Dan’s existence in favor of finding a suitable target to harass. Dan didn’t bother following after them; if he saw one more person being bullied, he knew he’d throw up out of guilt.

Phil’s lip was bleeding and he was clutching his stomach, trying to sit up.

“A-are you okay?” Dan whispered, frozen still in his spot.

Phil glared at him and tried to get up, but his limbs were still shaking from the whole ordeal. Dan finally moved, coming over to help Phil stand up. At first, Phil tried to fight him, but gave in and let Dan pull him up. Dan winced as he heard Phil groan in pain, his body sensitive to any contact.

“I’m sorry,” Dan whispered, staring at the ground.

Phil sighed. “It’s fine, it happens all the time.”

That only proved to make Dan feel worse. “You shouldn’t have to,” he muttered.

Phil looked at Dan in surprise. The silence stretched on, until Phil finally spoke again.

“You really don’t belong with them.”

Dan bit his lip, fearing what would come next. He couldn’t risk it.

Phil didn’t expect an answer for Dan. “Thanks for uh-helping me I guess.”

“I didn’t really do anything, I’m sorry.”

Phil smiled softly at Dan. “It’s alright, being here is enough.”

Dan returned the smile, albeit smaller. “I-uh have to go. But, thank you.”

Phil nodded, letting Dan dash off to catch up with the team of assholes. Phil could feel the bruise forming on his belly and knew he needed to stop the bleeding soon, however he couldn’t help but stare after Dan.

Dan was a boy full of secrets, that was for sure.

#this isn't you #phanfiction #phanfic #phan fluff #dan and phil #phandom #phan #phan angst #jock!dan

72 notes · View notes

a-writing-bear · 7 years ago

Text

[PruCan] Chapter 2: Soft-Spoken Calling, They Want Their Shyness Back

Ao3 Link:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11159997/chapters/24905436

This Has been cross-posted onto FF & Ao3 under Aliases: BearBooper

You can read this Fic on tumblr under ‘Keep Reading’

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Fandom: Hetalia Axis Powers

Main Pairing: Gilbert Beilschmidt & Matthew Williams (Prussia & Canada)

AU: College AU - Art Student Matthew and Media/Film Student Gilbert

Age Rating/Mature: Teen And Up Audiences (12+ due to mentions of mature themes as well as swearing)

Trigger Warnings: None in this chapter (Future addiction to mention themes such as addiction, rape etc.)

Finding a hook-up was never hard. Gilbert knew how to wave and woo any guy and gal (granted he needed to actually try). Night after night, a beautiful girl, a dashing lad – it didn’t matter. Putting it simply, the way the white-haired devil seduced people was effective and singular. It was not a ‘series’ of escapades; the word ‘series’ describe the concept of continuation...what Gilbert did was not continuations, not one after another (Oh he most definitely did NOT share his lays). They were separate events to him. After a tom-foolery of sorts, it would be a good morning and goodbye; a prompt push out of the door to say the least.

It was ‘fuck’ then ‘wish them luck.’

He would carry on the next day, carrying himself in such a prideful manner one could wonder how so many looked forward to being in bed with someone like that. If anyone asked Gilbert if the evenings of a stranger after stranger got boring, he would confidently shrug the question aside with ‘the philosophy of a player’. The thought of falling in love, further than a silly high school crush, was absurd. Devotion to another human being? A sudden feeling of glee towards another human being? A day when he would experience all that seemed too far to even acknowledge.

And yet here he was, locked in staring into purple irises from a boy he had only just met. Heart panging and brain whizzing without reason or sense. Breathe. Think. Breathe, why is it so hard to breathe? Think? What order was it again? It felt breathlessly confusing.

“G-Gilbert could you like let go?” a heat rose to his face and he backed away quickly and let go of a sprig of strawberry blonde hair. A soundless sigh of relief was released by Matthew, and a flustered motion of twiddling fingers accompanied the timid look the shorter boy wore. Bathing in the seemingly, weird comfortable silence that engulfed the room the taller of the two proposed to get to know each other:

“Would you like to chill here? - I mean- like if you have nothing to do. I see you like my posters and stuff.”

Gilbert watched the reaction carefully, searching for any hatred or disgust to appear, he was aware of what reputation he had.

“eh? I’ve got art coursework and I’m sorta- I’m behind on it.”

Art coursework? Considering Matthew’s brother was a mathematical prodigy and science ‘fanatic’ (Gilbert really meant ‘geek’ but that sounded rude) he found it slightly alarming to hear that the student here was in the art stream…’although that does explain his slightly dishevelled look in that paint-covered shirt’. Gilbert found himself wanting to learn more and before he could stop himself he let it slip,

“Do you want to paint in here?”

In reality, Gilbert didn’t like studying alone. As much as he enjoyed his editing and planning scenes for his media course, it was draining sitting in a room cooped up alone. Hence why he relied on loud music to occupy his fleeting thoughts. The study hall and common room had been crowded with the varsity sports teams who were watching the campus’ big play-offs this week and the noise had been maliciously distracting. The study hall bred conversations too inane for his liking; snippets of people’s personal lives too irrelevant for Gilbert to sit through. On top of that, if needing a good environment meant travelling into the student-habitat known as the library (a place of late night coffee addicts struggling to complete 4 months of work) then he would rather fail the semester.

He had noticed the unsure reaction of the artist and gulped as the boy opened his mouth to reply:

“Well- My art stuff is already setup and messy in my room…I can’t really bring it here. Would- would you like to sit in my room? I…don’t mind.”

Gilbert’s face light up with happiness (relief as well- though he wouldn’t admit to it.), he took his laptop and charger along with a portfolio that he swore weighed more than Ludwig when he was a child and followed Matthew into the neighbours’ room. Most of the people here were the first-years, a close-knit community that, 4 out of 5 times, respected and trusted each other’s personal space so they both waltzed in carelessly not looking to shut out anyone and left the door gaping out open.

Matthew motioned for Gilbert to sit down in front of his desk. Gingerly he place his laptop down and ducked down to plug in his worn out charger. As he reclined in the Canadian’s chair he witnessed a genius in the works of what Gilbert could only describe as pure emotion splayed out on a too-small-for-it’s-worth canvas.

For a few moments, the artist had pondered whether he had made another wrongful decision inviting the albino into his safe space – thinking about it more ‘I don’t usually do this huh.’ One step within his room the thoughts seemed to melt away as he looked longingly to his painting, engrossed in the pursuit to add more paint onto the canvas Matthew didn’t notice the audience-like attention his guest was giving him. Beautiful hues of red a green were doused carefully onto the illustration of springtime bliss. “eh- I would prefer something more autumn-y or…winter.” He mused to himself and mulled over the idea of painting something for his dorm after this fairly boring assignment is finished.

“Why autumn or winter?”

He was jolted out of his caged thoughts from that question, did he say that out loud?

“I-err I don’t particularly like this piece, it’s not the best. I personally like winter landscapes mor-“

A loud gasp hit Matthew’s ears and the Albino had screeched out as if utterly bewildered by the earlier comment,

“You don’t like it?! It’s really... really good- Better than what I could ever do! I’ve been trying to find someone who could draw a scene like that for ages!” The artist’s cheeks had flamed up in such overwhelming embarrassment (and a tiny smidge of smug pride) that he almost lost the latter of what Gilbert had blurted out.

Scene? Oh. Gilbert must be a media student….-actually no wonder he seems familiar...was he that guy that sometimes appeared mysteriously near Feli and his Ludwig? – On the odd chance the departments had overlapping projects it wasn’t uncommon to find media students mingling with his fellow artists. Incidentally, he recalled about a month ago, he was commissioned by that smaller Finnish fellow (“O-Oh No I’m not Swedish, Berwald just hangs around a lot.”) to help apply face paint for a strange music video in a probably-Nordic language (I wonder if Tino did get an A for that project).

“Scene for what?”

He had obviously caught those red eyes off guard, then as if a light switch had been flicked the boy’s grin grew wide.

“An Animation! Wanna see the storyboard? I’ve been looking for an animator, seeing as my drawing skills can be described as the equivalent of a…What was that saying…um...? A fish trying to climb a tree…”

It wasn’t like Matthew was trying to be rude, however, he had tuned out Gilbert after the silver haired student had turned his heavy overloaded binder of paper for show. The page was full. It looked overly detailed, annotated words scribbled over the crudely but clearly illustrated panels of what seemed to be a short story of a young boy? As he leant down closer to investigate the piece he noticed the smaller details scrawled in between the panels like ‘Screen transition – autumn’ or ‘Redo panel, reframe’. With such a thorough and comprehensive plan, any animator would know exactly what the director would want from them. ‘Honestly, if only the people who commissioned him would give him details like that – I’m looking at you Tino’

“…Actually just realised what that fish quote meant...man that’s really smart I guess, can’t believe I…”

Oh. Gilbert was still yapping. His lavender eyes scoped up and down the page and he hummed in approval of the chatterbox’s work. He was staring so close to the page that the Canadian could feel his glasses slipping off…

“…..Hey! I should hire you to be my animator!”

Matthew had glanced so quickly at Gilbert in that moment that his glasses had slanted in the movement. This is going to be a long semester.

#prucan #aph canada #aph prussia #SoftSpokenCalling #prussia x canada #hetalia #hetalia axis powers #Hetalia Fanfiction #fanfic #multific #college au #alternate universe

1 note · View note