#it's been so fucking delightful to finally get to the hot springs episode after talking about it for SO LONG
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Note
đ, đ, đ€, đ!
Thanks for the ask crow!
đwhat's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language
I mean yes these are all very important elements I am completely normal about at all times, but I think when it comes to it, the thing I value most is the thread tying everything together to create a balanced end product and satisfying journey rather than... a cake that's straight up gonna give you vanilla extract poisoning.
đwhat is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?
Technically all of them, but I have been shocked, shocked to see Primordial Awakenings do as well has it's done. It's currently my most kudos'd fic I've ever written and so goshdarn close to breeching 1000 hits.
đ€what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"?
Uhl fic, I think. đ€ Perhaps I shot myself in the foot with this one but I think that most people don't realise that it's less about fleshing out An Single Character and more about fleshing out the entire setting and exploring the internal logic using Uhl as an entry point, Sam (the OC) as the narrative wire cutters to break my way in, and sitcom tropes as the lens of choice.
It's fine if people don't like it, I know it's an extremely niche concept and your mileage may very on my execution, but I feel like people probably have given up on it before I really hit my stride.
đshare something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!
I'm afraid, as I got precious little done in ToA land in February, this will have to be from Web of Starlight.
This is from the first draft of Chapter 19: Hot Springs Eternal; (CW: nudity, bathing, comparing scars and past injuries)
The little gate closed behind them and Web was alone with Bariz. To the nearest wall was a basin of running water atop polished stone, and a tiny garden surrounding a constructed pool, steam rising gently to meet the foliage of the singular tree that bathed the area with soft shadows.
Bariz took no time at all to remove his clothes, and sat on rock smoothed with centuries of use with his eyes closed, contentedly listening to the bird peeping above them in the foliage.
Web felt his cheeks burn, backed into a situational corner, frozen with his hands on his shirt. He undressed with the hesitant efficiency of a prisoner and carefully folded his clothes, placing ear pieces atop. He stood awkwardly, staring at Barizâs clothes, wondering if itâd be a transgression to do the same to his.
There was a wet sloshing as Bariz dunked his feet into the constructed pool, and he winced audibly as he slowly slipped in.
âCome on in,â Bariz said. âItâll feel good to wash our horrible journey from your skin.â
Web approached him, sitting across from him on the walkway, legs clamped together and arms crossed over his chest. He eyed the water nervously, not trusting the way the whole place smelled, too much like deep underground places devoid of breathable air at all. At least he was in the shade.
âLook we can compare scars!â Bariz grinned, gesturing at a slash on his arm. âI got this one when I fell out of a tree. Itâs a funny story really, I didnât know dogs could even get that high!â
Web smiled awkwardly, deigning a single laugh, and then in a gesture of good will, pointed at what remained of ear. âI slipped when I was scaling a cavern wall, tumbled like a pebble on the sharp rocks before I could find my footing again.â
Bariz whistled. âImpressive!â
#ask meme#dash games#long post#it's been so fucking delightful to finally get to the hot springs episode after talking about it for SO LONG
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Guys Iâm having another Bakugo brainrot
Tw: bullying, noncon, nonconsensual peeping, manipulation
Remember that one episode of MHA where the class goes to the sauna and M*neta tries to check da girls out over the wall?
Imagine the same scenario, but years later when theyâre all older
The class wanted a reunion, just to relax and blow off some steam
Youâre with the girls, and you all lay back in the hot water reminiscing about the older days when everyone was still getting the hang of their own quirks
Mina brings up this exact same scene but years ago.
âOhmigosh, do you guys remember the last time we came in our first year here and Mineta totally tried to get a peek at us?â
âUgh, I hope Iida is keeping a good hold on him right now,â Ochacko giggles, kicking her feet up to rest on a rock
You hum in agreement, tilting your head back to rest against the wooden wall separating you and the boys.
As it was, Uraraka was almost spot on with her hopes. Except, Iida and Tokoyami were out getting refreshments for the rest of the boys, leaving the remaining group to their own plot.
Which was lead by Mineta, of course, who had the brilliant idea to spy on the girls, just like they almost did years back.
âGuys, come on, please theyâre right there!â He practically salivates, wildly gesturing to the tall wooden wall in front of them.
Most of them shift uncomfortably and groan about him being a creep as usual, but the rest stay silent.
Mineta takes their lack of outright refusal as fuel to keep blabbering.
âLook, we almost got away with it back then-â
â-You mean you got away with it, we didnât do shit. And you didnât exactly get off scot-free, Kota completely demolished your attempts and you landed ass down on Four-Eyesâ face,â Bakugo drawls, leaning his head backwards and looking up at the obsidian sky. The boys laugh, remembering the ridiculous event.
The night is cool, the stars littering the inky atmosphere take the pressure off of Bakugoâs lungs. For weeks now theyâve been training like dogs, battling each other and even minor villains for extra practice of their quirks. This trip was supposed to be a leisure getaway, not a free porno.
But the grape-headed perv is insistent, scoffing and waving the blondâs quip off like some annoying fly.
âYou know, thereâs something in it for you too, Bakugo. Iâve seen the way you look at Y/N.â
This causes a murmur and a couple of light beers towards the blond, who in turn snarls and ignites his hand to quell the commotion. All of them had an inkling that Katsuki Bakugo had finally set his sights on some poor girl, and that was you. It was such a rare sight to see his face flush slightly when you walked past him, the way he stuttered over his words a bit when you two would be conversing amongst the same group, and best of all, when they would see how he would excuse himself to the bathroom or locker room occasionally when your hero suit would tear in certain places after battles.
âShut the fuck up 3â2, unlike you I donât need to ogle at those brain dead bimbos.â
âOh? I didnât realize you thought of Y/N as a âbrain dead bimboâ, Bakugo, Iâll be sure to let her know how you feelâ Mineta grinned maliciously, and the boys âooooâed at the jab.
Bakugoâs voice caught in his throat.
âYou wouldnât,â he growled, rising slightly out of the water.
âI already know youâll kill me afterwards, but Iâm prepared for the repercussions if you donât help...cooperate here,â Grapehead inspected a cuticle and feigned a yawn.
âCome on Bakugo, itâs not like itâs gonna hurt anyone! Well keep this to ourselves,â Denki chimed in a little too eagerly.
âYeah, I mean, weâre only asking for your and everyoneâs support so that we can focus better on training yâknow? A little fun never killed anyone.â Sero threw his arm over Kirishimaâs shoulder, who blushed at the whole ordeal but kept silent all the while.
Katsuki looked around. Slowly, others were starting to really listen in and look interested at the outcome of Minetaâs plan. Surely a little peeping wouldnât be too bad would it? And plus, it was only a one time thing.
Shoto was faring the same way as Kirishima, quiet and maybe embarrassed at what they were planning on doing, but no outright refusal. Even Deku had a weird longing glint in his eye, the same kind he would get when he used to fawn over All Might.
He thought about it for a minute more, a chance to see you, naked, honest, and pure, splashing around with your friends as you let your femininity dangle as it pleased.
âDo whatever the hell you want. Iâm not taking blame if the bird and glasses come back, though.â
Hushed cheers and excited murmurs erupt from around the spring, and they huddle together to form a plan.
A couple minutes later, the boys were grouping around the wooden panels. Todoroki had burned a hole into the soft wood, and sero had used his transparent tape to cover it up so that the girls couldnât see it from their side.
And there they were, completely bare, hair flowing, curves showing, voices mature and high pitched giggles emanating from around the water and bank.
Bakugo seeks you out immediately after the hole is made, shoving his way through the crowded bodies much to the amusement of others. But he doesnât care, all he wants at the moment is to see you in your most honest element.
He doesnât have to look long, because youâre right there, youâre right in front of them, only a few meters away. Your back is facing them, but the sight of your smooth, naked back and the round curve of your ass squishing against the rocks underneath you is enough to make Bakugoâs cock bob painfully above the water. Itâs not too hard to hide his erection since the boysâs attention is elsewhere at the moment.
Your hair is open, and he wants nothing more than to feel it in his hands, run his fingers though your scalp and pull so hard that your neck is snapped back, he wants to know what kind of noises youâll make for him, would you sound shrill and high pitched or would you wail and bellow for him to let go?
They can hear the girls talking amongst themselves, the hole in the wall makes their voices more audible and clear.
âQuit playing coy, Jirou, we know youâve got your eye on someone,â Hagakureâs body is nowhere to be found as usual, but her chipper voice rings out from the middle of the hot spring.
Jirou is a few feet away from where you sit, her body also being shown for everyone to see. Bakugo glances at Kaminari to confirm his suspicion, but gags and quickly looks away when he gets an eyeful of his friendsâ erect cock.
Not that Bakugo himself has room to talk, though.
âI mean, not really, itâs not a big deal.â The ravenette shifts and hides her head from the rest of girlsâ cooing.
âUh huh, sure. Youâre not fooling anyone Kiyoka, Iâve seen the way you look at Denki. You two canât keep your eyes off each other, itâs cute,â you purr, and Bakugo holds himself back from shoving the other guys out of the way just so that he can hear your voice the best.
Squeals and sounds of splashing fill the air, and Sero and Kirishima whisper excitedly and clap their red-faced friend on the back. Denki canât keep the 50K watt smile off his face, and even Bakugo grunts and knocks shoulders with him, letting him know that he was happy for the human charger.
But then Jirou claps back with her own snarky observation, and the boys fall hush at the new revelation.
âAlright, you wanna talk about ogling Y/N? Then tell me, howâs Deku doing?â
âOr Bakugo, too,â Mina adds slyly, and now all the girlsâ attention, as well as the boysâ, is on you.
Bakugo felt like he had whiplash. He wouldâve been elated, on Cloud 9 even to hear that maybe you had something for him too, had shitty Dekuâs name not have been thrown in there too.
And he looks around wildly for the green haired freak, the freckles dusted across the expanse of his face even more prominent from the deep blush quickly forming, his scarred hands holding the sides of his face shaking in awe and gleeful shock.
But the rest of the boys arenât as oblivious to how Bakugo seethes at his rivalâs joy, from the way the water gets hotter from his quirk sparking underneath the rippling waves. Kirishima scoots closer to his friend and gently lays a hand on his shoulder as if to say, calm down, man. Not right now.
And so the hothead leaves it for the time being, opting to hear your response.
âI-itâs really nothing, theyâre both just good classmates like the rest of the guys,â and although your back is turned to them, it doesnât take a genius to know that youâre embarrassed too, your leg skittishly bouncing in front of you is making your ass jiggle from the back, much to the delight of the salivating boys.
Bakugo wants to spill blood when he suddenly realizes your body is being shown for the rest of these dogs to see
The girls start teasing you, your splutters being drowned out by their playful accusations.
âCome on L/N, whose cuter?â
âDont act all coy now, I know how nervous you get when youâre all close to Bakugo. I mean I donât blame you, have you seen his muscles? He could crush someoneâs head with those things!â
âYeah, but have you seen the way she giggles when Deku starts his mumbling tangents? Thatâs a classic crush right there.â
Bakugo is getting desperate to hear your answer now, some of the boys have left, feeling like they had their full of excitement for the night. They saw some tits and ass, heard some gossip, end of story.
The only ones remaining were Bakugo and his gang, as well as IcyHot and Shitty Deku.
Shitty Deku, who seemed equally eager to hear your response.
It pissed him off that he wasnât getting the message to fuck off, even after all the growling and death stares he was receiving from his childhood friend.
But he guesses after a lifetime of dealing with it, it doesnât scare Deku as much as it does anymore.
Maybe heâll have to amp it up, later
âW-well I mean both of them have their own respective...flaws and strengths I guess..sometimes Deku can be kinda hard to talk to âcuz heâs so shy, but Bakugo can be a real jerk at times, too.â
You trail off, and Bakugo scoffs to himself. Him? Flaws? Those two words didnât go well in one sentence together, but nonetheless he continues to listen. He wouldnât refute the notion of him being an asshole, he wasnt that delusional.
âAnd yeah, I mean Bakugo definitely intimidates me sometimes with how aggressive he can be, but Deku is definitely getting up there in terms of physical prowess. But in terms of who I like, Iâd have to say-â
âMidoriya! Bakugo! What are you two doing over there?â
Iidas voice booms across the water, and all 6 of the boys jump back, startled at the intrusion.
âNo, wait-â Bakugo hisses, clawing his way towards the hole to hear the rest of what you had to say, but Sero and Todoroki shove him back and patch the hole up with fire and tape, shutting off your confession.
Deku waves his arms around wildly, stammering some excuse of dropping his towel in the spot where they all were sheepishly gathered. They eventually waded their way over to where Tokoyami had set the drinks down, but the blond was shaking with hot rage despite the cool refreshment that was shoved into his hand by a wary Kirishima.
âDonât sweat it dude, itâs not like her and Midoriya are gonna da-â
âFinish that sentence and Iâll blast both your and his head off,â he glowers at the redhead, shorting a dark look to where an all-too-happy Deku was chatting with Todoroki, as if they hadnât been drooling over their naked classmates merely a couple minutes ago.
Kirishima backs off with raised hands in surrender, leaving Katsuki to mull over the situation by himself.
You couldnât seriously be interested in that green haired freak, right? I mean he could barely talk to a girl without tripping over his own damn tongue, for fucks sake.
Not that he was any better himself. He failed to acknowledge the times where you had merely asked him for an extra pencil, when he snapped at you for being such a fuckinâ dumbass that you couldnât even remember to bring your own shit. He had done that out of pure impulse, but he regretted it the moment he saw your face fall, his heart clenching at the sight
Heâd have to show you that he was the better option, regardless of if you wanted it or not.
And so when they had all gotten out of the water and gotten ready for food, Bakugo already knew what he had to do.
You were all eating outside in the camp pavilion, each at their own separate tables. He was sitting with the boys, all of them joking around and throwing food at each other while he was staring you down.
He couldnât keep his eyes off you. How could you expect him to, after he had seen half of you bare already? It was sinful almost, the way you were completely in the dark about what he had seen and heard, while he himself was fantasizing about what you looked like and felt like on the front.
So when Deku came by your table, no doubt also having the same conversation of the springs in mind, wanting to get closer to you, Bakugo felt his sanity snap.
The fork he held in his hand started melting in his ignited hand, steam curling from his palm. He watched as the green-eyed fuck made successful shitty attempts to make you laugh, his eyes trained on where you gently laid a hand on his shoulder after something he said that made you throw your head back and howl with glee.
âHey man, your fork-!â Kaminari yelped, pointing at the disfigured mess of metal in his friendâs steaming hand.
âHuh?â Bakugo was pulled out of his irate daze, and he quickly dropped the fork when he saw what he unconsciously did.
They all looked at him for an uneasy minute after noticing the expression on his face, no doubt understanding he was furious about being compared to Deku once again in front of you.
âLook, Bakugo, donât really take what Y/N said to heart. We donât know who she actually likes, and Midoriyaâs just her friend...â but Sero trails off hesitantly after glancing in your direction, seeing Dekuâs dreamy expression as your hand still continues to rest on his shoulder.
âJust let her come to you, yeah? You donât wanna force anything on her, thatâll make her really uncomfortable-â
-âShut the fuck up Shitty Hair, and mind your own damn business,â Bakugo interjects, abruptly unscrewing his drink and standing up, unable to lose you to some broccoli- headed bug-eyed fuck.
He stiffly walks across the pavilion to where you two sit, and feigns a swig from his bottle. Your focus is still on Deku, so you donât notice him approach until he comes up behind you two and âtripâs, falling forward and strategically spilling the liquid all over Dekuâs back and your front.
You squeal as your blouse is drenched, and Deku shoots up from his seat to grab some napkins while searching for the perpetrator.
âWhat the- Kacchan?â
âOops.â
Bewildered, you look at the two while dabbing the wet splotches on your shirt, Mina and Tsu jumping into action to help you.
The boys exchange a weird look, and although Bakugo gave his version of an apology, he doesnât look very sorry. In fact, if you saw it right he looked almost...smug? With a bit of anger?
Deku wasnât any easier to understand either. His voice was lilted as usual while he grabbed napkins, but his gaze never left his childhood friendsâ and his eyes werenât exactly the big doe-eyes you had grown fond of.
They were darkened, and narrowed as they bored into Bakugoâs eyes. Neither one of them was looking away from each other, and there was a weird tension in the air that everyone could sense.
But you couldnât focus on that right now, you had to go and wash up.
âI gotta change and maybe take a shower, I can feel it sticking to my skin,â you scrunch your nose in disgust and tell Mina as you stand to leave. Deku offers to walk you, but you wave him off kindly.
As you pass by Bakugo, you can feel his eyes rove up and down your body, very obviously staring at the way your white shirt clings to your chest from the liquid, sending chills up your spine.
But he doesnât come after you, not yet.
Itâs only after everyone has finished up from their dinner and headed off to bed almost 20 minutes later that the showers finally, finally warm up enough for you to dip a hesitant toe in.
Curse the old pipes.
*******
He watches you from the dark, the only light youâre provided with is the dim emergency light from the rusty bulb, the camp counselors having been shut the facilityâs lights off merely a half hour ago. But you were stubborn in waiting for the water to warm up so you were left alone in the showers, shifting uncomfortably in your sticky wet clothes.
And then miraculously you get up for the umpteenth time to check the temperature of the water, and itâs finally deemed appropriate for you when you sigh in relief and start taking your shoes off.
He hides in the door partition, his cock hardening slowly as he thinks of you alone with just him and his mercy. You were going to pay for almost breaking his heart and prancing around with stupid fucking Deku instead.
But asides from his rage, he still liked you, a lot. He wanted you to want him as much as he wanted you, so he decided to try and attempt to make your first time with him as gentle and as special as he could in the dirty cabin showers.
Bakugo waits with bated breath for the right moment, and the second your hands grip the end of your shirt to pull it up, he slowly emerges from the dark.
âYou know, Iâm glad you came here alone, at night. Itâs almost like you wanted this.â
You jump violently at the low voice coming from seemingly nowhere, and you wildly look around for the source until you see him...coming at you slow from the inky abyss of the room, like a predator stalking his prey.
His figure seems to loom even larger than he actually is, the shadows of his tall body bouncing off the walls and grazing over the top of your head. He seems to be in no rush, taking his time with his hands in his pockets, eyes flashing dangerously at you as he stalks forward until heâs backed you up against the deteriorating wall, chest to chest with you.
âW-what the hell, Bakugo,â you stammer nervously. âThis is the girls room, you canât be here-â
And the hand you raise to push him away is caught in his calloused ones, your other wrist is quickly seized as well and slammed above your head. You cry out in pain and try kicking out, but he wedges a bulky knee in between your thigh and shoves his face mere millimeters away from yours, a mean leer adorning his normally-attractive face.
âWhat, I canât be here? And here I was thinking that you almost liked me. But oh, I forgot, Dekuâs your favorite, right?â The grip on your wrist tigthens and his leg flexes from in between your thighs.
You squirm and sob, about to ask what the hell he was talking about-
Oh.
Oh no.
He sees the understanding pass over your face, and he laughs cruelly at the horror that comes with it.
âYou heard me? How?â
âNot just heard. I saw you, too.â
He lets his eyes drop from your neck, to your chest, and then to the juncture between your legs which was being massaged by his knee.
Tears well up in your eyes as you realize he was watching you this entire evening in the springs. How he got away with it, you didnât want to even know.
âI saw your hair open for the first time, and not in that stupid hairdo you always do for school.â
He trails his hand softly up the sides of your body and up your neck until he reaches his big hand into your scalp. You whimper and gasp as he laces his fingers through your locks, seeming to caress you but then harshly yanking your head back so you had no choice but to look at him head on.
âI saw your ass pressed up against the rocks, and I wished it was up against my cock instead.â
He removes his hand from your hair and snakes it down to your bottom, kneading and slapping it lightly. You writhe even harder now, too scared to make a noise in case he hurts you even worse, just wanting him to get the hell off of you.
âBut I didnât see the front of you. I imagined what you would look like with tears streaming down your face while I was stuffing you full of meâ
He plays with the edge of your shirt, a dark look in his eye as he plays with you. You try to budge your hands but to now avail, only serving in annoying him and shoving his knee up further into your crotch. The pressure on your clit is immense, and your legs start shaking as youâre forced to be suspended almost midair on his knee.
âTake this off,â he says softly, the rasp catching in his voice.
âBakugo, please. You donât have to do this, I swear I wonât tell anyone-â
âYou think Iâm worried about if youâll tell anyone? Hah! I already know you wonât, wanna know why?â
He leans in, inhaling the scent of your hair and grazing his nose along the side of your neck. You force yourself to breath in and out, feeling an impending heart attack.
ââCause if you do, Iâll make sure to fuck you in front of everyone, especially on Dekuâs broken body.â
And then you canât stop them, the tears fall from your body shaking in pure fear at his threat.
You knew he wouldnât actually do something like that, but hearing it snarled in your ear so softly made you believe it all the same, the power he held while you were fucked, literally and metaphorically.
âNow Iâm not gonna ask you again. Take this shit off before I burn it, bitch.â
You donât want to piss him off further, so with trembling hands you lift the edge of your sticky uniform and start to pull it off, but he stops you with a frustrated grunt.
âSlowly. I wanna savor this while no ones here.â
You bite your lip and suppress a scream as you do what he says.
And oh, does he ever savor it. The shirt clings deliciously to your breasts, and he licks his lips as it ruffles up and over your head. Your skin is perspiring from the humid air, a sheen of sweat lightly decorating your collarbones. Bakugo canât hold himself back any longer, and you yelp when he comes at you suddenly.
He lunges at your face and pins your arms down by your side again as his lips mesh against yours, his kiss filled with clacking teeth and a thrashing tongue against your lips. The knee youâre straddling is bouncing lightly up and down, jostling you on it and causing your cunt to pulsate with heat.
You let out a distressed moan, and he swallows it greedily, using the advantage of your open mouth to delve deeper into your wet cavern. You open bleary eyes and flinch when you find his already wide open, staring back into unforgiving vermillion orbs.
He pulls back slightly, panting. âI bet Deku didnât get this kind of treatment, huh? Itâs all for me right?â
You donât know if heâs genuinely asking you or just being insane, so you donât answer him. Fortunately and unfortunately for you, he doesnât care for your response, rather more focusing on dragging you by your neck towards the hot showers.
You slip and stumble as he shoves you in a stall, gaining your balance only too late when he turns and locks the door.
âLook, Iâm sorry okay? Iâm sorry if I hurt your feelings, just forget you saw or heard anything at the springs, it was just girl talk, stupid stuff that didnât mean anything-â
â-even if it didnât mean anything to you Iâll make sure you believe what youâll feel after I fuck you senseless.â
And with that, he tugs off his clothes and licks his lips at the sight of you cowering against the wall, naked and oh so vulnerable.
He slowly shifts towards you, pressing his body flush against your trembling one. You can feel the outline of his erection on your thigh, and you swallow at how big it is.
âI donât wanna have to close your mouth or restrain you when Iâm balls deep in that tight cunt. So donât do anything stupid and thisâll be a whole lot easier for you.â
He reaches a hand down and lightly strokes your labia, relishing in how you whimper and jerk against him, but donât dare try to stop his hand.
Smart girl
Another hand finds its way to your tits, tugging and pulling at your hardened nipples. You gasp and arch into his touch, slowly coming undone from his ministrations. He humps against your leg like a teenage kid, grunting while he does so.
His mouth is attacking yours once again, but now youâre too tired from the constant surge of adrenaline coursing through your veins to even move your head. You just let him play with your body, your heart, your soul.
âI think the princess is wet enough for me now,â he leers at you when he pulls his fingers away, scissoring his digits to show the strings of wetness he pulled from your pussy.
You squeal and grab onto his chiseled arms as he suddenly hikes his hands underneath your upper thighs and picks you up, forcing your legs to wrap around his middle for support.
He slams you against the wall, the water cascading down your head is making your hair stick to your face, and in a strange and sudden show of intimacy Bakugo softly moves your locks away from your eyes. Your gazes lock, yours desperate and tear filled while his scarlet hues show no signs of mercy, but rather a strange predatory hunger.
Your arms scrabble behind his head and on his shoulders for balance as he slowly sinks you down on his length. You hiss and throw your head back at the sensation of being filled, and he eats it up.
He watches the way your mouth opens, your eyes widen, as every sinful sound your body can make escapes you.
As if he needed more of an ego boost
You wail as the last inches are sucked into your dripping hole, and he lets out a mean breathy laugh.
âFuck, you really were ready huh? I shouldâve taken you weeks ago, little slut.â
Your brows furrow and you try to turn your face away but he snatches your chin in a hardened grip.
âUh-uh, none of that shit. You were doing so well, donât turn away from me now.â
He slowly starts to roll his hips minutely into yours, not exactly thrusting but enough movement to make your cunt flutter and throb.
âWhat do you want me to say? You got what you wanted!â You whisper to him, more tears falling down freely down your cheeks.
He canât help himself, he groans and surges forward to lick the salty rivers up, gripping your ass tightly when you flinch.
âTell me you love me. Tell me how much you want me, how much better I am than that green-haired bastard and I wonât shove it up your ass.â
You can feel his abdomen clench and shake from the effort heâs making not to completely batter your cervix so you give in quickly, afraid of what heâs like when his thin strands of self restraint snap.
âI...I love you Bakugo. I really want y-ooh!â
The last bit of your sentence is choked off as he lifts you up all the way to his tip and slams your hips down his length. You gasp and weave your hands through his hair for support, your legs violently shaking at the pain.
He grunts and starts really giving it to you, setting a fast pace as he bounces you on his cock. Your head is bobbing around, youâre fairly certain thereâs drool coming down your lips but you canât find it in you to care as he fucks you into oblivion.
After a couple of more painful thrusts he pushes you against the wall and removes your hands from his hair, holding them above your head against the wall. Youâre trapped with your upper half plastered against the dingy tile while your lower half is wrapped his dick.
Your cunt swallowing him down is the only leverage you have, so your whole body weight presses down on his shaft. He moans loudly at the pressure on his tip, your gooey hot walls clamping around him from every angle and you yourself canât help it when your eyes roll back at the sensation.
He rocks his hips up, and up you go as well, whining and clawing at the wall behind you, desperately grappling onto your sanity as well. Your tits bounce with each thrust, and his glinting eyes take perverse joy in their obscene movements.
Bakugo starts moving in earnst now, deeming the slow strokes enough prep for you. He batters your womb, reaching places not even your fingers could access, making you go cross eyed.
He sees this and snickers at your pathetic state.
âFuck yeah you little whore. Youâre gonna learn no one else can satisfy this slutty pussy like I can.â
You give him nothing but a choked gasp in response. You head moves like a bobblehead, you canât even see clearly from the water cascading into your eyes. Heâs just a towering blob of ashy blond hair and large muscles.
His hips start stuttering in their rhythm, drawing to a close from his contrasting pounding minutes earlier. Your nails rake over his forearms, holding on for dear life as he pants and groans into your ear like an animal. His dick spasms inside you for a second or two, and then Bakugo suddenly holds you tight against him, wet bodies pressed against each other as he cums.
He lets out a loud moan as you whine into his shoulder at the sensation of his hot seed filling you up. Youâre held against his heaving chest for a moment of two, the both of you catching your breath until he slowly backs up and lets you slip to the ground.
Itâs suddenly very quiet, the sound of the shower is drowned out by the ringing in your head. Youâre shaking, shock overcoming your abused body as you refuse to look at him.
But he wonât have any of that. He steps forward, and you flinch yet again, scrambling backwards to put very necessary space between him and you.
âYou got what you wanted. Please leave, I wonât say anything to anyone.â You breath out shakily.
Heâs silent for a moment before you hear him chuckle. His low chuckles grow louder and more derisive, heâs booming with sinister laughter and you snap your head up in horror at him.
âYou think this is done?â
He crouches to your level suddenly, elbows on his knees as he cocks his head at you, eyeing your naked body that he so recently claimed as his. His gaze travels down to where his cum seeps from between your legs, and you quickly cross your limbs over to prevent him from seeing the lewd sight.
âYouâre mine now, Y/N. I already told you, youâre not gonna be talking to Deku, or any other guy apart from me. You think theyâll even want you when they find out how you loved being fucked in the dirty showers? Everyoneâs gonna call you a slut, nothing else.â
âNo, thatâs not true you-â
He crawls to you, and itâs so mesmerizingly terrifying to see a man of his build crawl to you like some deranged humanoid that you shut up, words caught in your throat.
âShut the fuck up.â He says softly. âYouâre my bitch now, and youâll do whatever the fuck I say, when I say it.â
Bakugo mightâve felt a little bad to see the girl he liked so scared of him all because of his doing, but the way you trembled and crossed your legs like the stupid, helpless little girl that you were erased every hesitancy from his mind.
He grabbed your cheeks and smushed them together, paying no mind to the pleas and whimpers you let out in retaliation.
Licking a long stripe up your neck, you shivered when he growled, ânow clean up and be outside in 10 minutes, youâre sleeping in my bunk tonight. The guys are all asleep so weâll just take an empty room in the cabin.â
He released you and stood back up, grabbing a towel for himself along the way. Drying his hair off, his back was turned to you as he started picking his clothes up too.
You just sat there in a daze, wondering what the hell just happened.
âOh, and Y/N?â He was dressed, and he was at the door now.
âIf you think about doing anything stupid or take longer than 10 minutes, Iâll come back in and get you personally. And Iâll make sure that we stay here for the rest of the night, just in case you like your little time alone that Iâm giving you too much.â
#tw: noncon#bakugo smut#yandere bakugo katsuki#bakugo x you#bakugo mha#bakugo bnha#yandere bakugo x reader#bakugo katsuki x reader#mha yandere#yandere Bakugo#bnha yandere#bnha smut#mha smut
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Kinktober Day Twelve | Costumes | hands made of plastic; touch me in a drastic way | Bellamy x Raven | The 100
Words: 2558
Tags: Costumes, College AU, Theater AU, Pre-established relationship, Frottage, Teasing, Orgasm Denial
Note that this is a kinktober prompt fill. It will be explicit smut, and quite likely, kinky. Mind the tags.
ao3
Bellamy is so, so lucky that Raven loves him. Raven reminds herself how much she loves him as she barely stops yet another little freshman without half a brain in his head from ruining the tech panel. She would rather be almost anywhere other than helping out behind the scenes of some random historical play, but Bellamy had asked her so nicely, and heâd stroked her ego when heâd done it, too. How was Raven supposed to say no to that?
âNo, no, just stop,â Raven grabs a cable from Myles, who doesnât even have the excuse of being a freshman for why he was trying to route the audio lines into the wrong pickup ports. âIâll do it.â
âWhat should I do, then?â Myles asks, dopey grin on his face like he doesnât know heâs completely useless. Raven sighs, looking around for any task he can do and not screw up. She spies Bellamy in the corner, looking over his costume, and decides to get a little revenge on him.
âGo help Bellamy, it looks like he could use a hand,â Raven lies with a smile.
Myles hops to it, and Raven chuckles to herself as she finishes the wiring and sets up last minute adjustments. Sound and lighting check is in about five minutes, and thankfully that signals the end of Ravenâs involvement. Theyâd only needed her help with setup, not running the actual play, which is a blessing because although she can work the tech, she doesnât know a damn thing about the show. She definitely could have paid more attention to Bellamy when he was practicing, but somehow she always gets distracted. Probably because history is boring, and Bellamy dramatically flourishing around their living room in his underwear is all kinds of interesting.
Her conscripted tasks for the evening done, Raven wanders around the chaos of pre show, debating sneaking out while Bellamyâs occupied with Myles. Not that she doesnât want to watch his play and support him, but she also really wants to watch the new episode of Ghost Adventures and be curled up on the couch. Sheâd been in the shop all day fixing things, and it had tired her out entirely.
Well⊠Raven thinks of Bellamyâs topless rehearsals at their apartment. Maybe not entirely. Honestly, it would be fun to see him perform for real, and being a good girlfriend and sticking around is bound to win her some major points. Hopefully that means mind blowing sex tonight. She could really use it, what with the stress of her job on top of encroaching exam season.
âRaven.â
Raven almost jumps as Bellamy speaks behind her. She turns to face him, and her train of thought crashes dramatically. Because okay, Bellamy in his underwear is one thing, but Bellamy in a Spartan outfit? God, if Raven believed in luck, sheâd consider herself extremely lucky. She shamelessly ogles him; the sculpted chest, red cape, leather skirt, muscular thighs⊠They even mussed his hair up artfully for this role, hot damn, he looks incredible.
âHey, stop staring so I can be mad at you,â Bellamy chides, and Raven drags her attention away from his shoulders to his face.
âMad? For what?â She asks, the perfect picture of innocence. Bellamy shakes his head, but he doesnât hide his small smile.
âYou send Myles to me again and youâre sleeping on the couch for a week,â Bellamy threatens half-heartedly, and Raven scoffs.
âOh please, I pass out there every night during exams anyway. Come up with a better threat or Iâll give him your number and tell him you really, really want to be friends with him.â
âNo sex for a week,â Bellamy says flatly, crossing his arms over his chest. Raven gasps dramatically.
âYou wouldnât.â
âHe tried to take my pants off for me, Ray,â Bellamy grumbles, glaring over his shoulder at Myles, who seems perfectly happy over in his corner messing up the scenery.
Raven barely smothers her outright laughter, âWell, I mean, I canât exactly blame him-â
âNo, no flirting, Iâm scolding you right now,â Bellamy cuts her off, only managing to look half serious. Raven chuckles, sliding her hands up his chest to rest on his shoulders. Yeah, Spartan is definitely a good look for him, it lets Raven get her hands on his skin so easily.
âIf I say Iâm sorry will you forgive me?â Raven asks, still grinning. Bellamy shakes his head again, looking over her shoulder.
âYou know that usually not how apologies work, right? You canât ask if the person will forgive you before apologizing-â
âOh hush,â Raven takes her turn at cutting him off, stretching up to press a kiss to his lips. Bellamy resists for a moment, but it doesnât take long before he relents, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him.
âBlake, stage in 90 seconds,â some stagehand interrupts their kiss without any hesitation, and Bellamy breaks away from Raven with a sigh. She steps out of his embrace, giving his shoulders one last squeeze before he turns to take the stage.
âKnock âem dead,â Raven encourages, giving him a firm slap on the ass right as he gets his cue to go on.
Okay, yeah, heâs definitely going to kill her later. But he deserves a little bit of light tormenting for making her come out here when her plans had been to binge watch Ghost Adventures all evening. Raven peers out onto the stage from the wings and settles for watching Bellamyâs abs as he swings around a foam sword and makes inspirational speeches that sheâs heard a million times before.
When the final scene ends and everyone takes their bows to roaring applause, Raven still couldnât summarize the play if someone were holding a gun to her head. Itâs not her fault, okay, Bellamy just looks really, incredibly good in that outfit. Like, good enough to distract her from all the work she has to do and all the studying she hasnât done, which is saying something.
When Bellamy comes backstage, grinning widely, she practically flings herself at him. He catches her, of course, and this time he doesnât resist in the slightest when she kisses him. He makes a vague noise of surprise when she fists her hands in his cape and bites his lower lip, but he doesnât push her away. He presses down into her, letting Raven deepen the kiss, and she sighs happily.
After a moment, Raven breaks away, dragging her gaze over all of Bellamyâs muscled glory once more. She has to admit, even the fake blood and dirt of the final scenes is sort of doing it for her.
âYeah, weâre so borrowing this,â Raven states, and Bellamy chuckles.
âI donât think we can just borrow costumes-â He starts, before the costume lead, Harper, interrupts him.
âPay to replace it and itâs yours, as long as we donât have to work around you two making out anymore.â
Bellamy looks mildly sheepish at that, but Raven doesnât care at all. She weighs the options as she toys with the edges of Bellamyâs cape. âYou take IOUs?â
Harper sighs, shaking her head, âIf it gets you to stop eye-fucking him in front of us, yes.â
âSold,â Raven agrees with a devilish grin, âNow letâs get out of here, Mr. 300.â
âThatâs not what this was even about, and besides-â
âDo I have to listen to you talk about history in order to get you to keep the costume on?â Raven teases as she grabs Bellamyâs hand, dragging him out of the building. He takes a few large steps to catch up with her and throw his arm around her shoulder.
âYes,â Bellamy states soundly, âNow, this play was aboutâŠâ
Raven hears about thirty percent of what he says, which is pretty impressive considering he idly plays his fingers along her shoulder as they walk back to their apartment, and she can smell his bare skin and sweat so close to her. With any other partner, thatâs always been a turn off, but Bellamyâs different. Especially now, somehow it just feeds into that image of strong warrior which is doing all sort of nice things in Ravenâs pants.
Somehow, she manages to make it back to their apartment without pouncing on him. Probably the fact that listening to Bellamy talk about his passions is distractingly endearing helps; she may not understand or care about the subject matter, but she does care about him and loves seeing him excited.
As soon as the door is locked behind them, Raven fully intends to spring herself on Bellamy. But before she can do that, Ravenâs back hits the wall and the air leaves her lungs in a soft puff. She grins eagerly as Bellamy crowds against her, all bare chest and fake leather. He crushes his lips into hers, heavy and hungry, and Raven presses back in kind. As their lips drag together, she slides her palms over his pecs, delighting in the firm play of his muscles underneath her touch.
With a grunt, Bellamy grabs Ravenâs wrists and pins them to the wall above her head, touch more firm than usual. Ravenâs breath catches in her throat at it, heat flooding between her legs, and she barely chokes down a whimper. Okay, normally sheâs the more aggressive one, turning things around so sheâs on top, but this is totally fine with her.
Bellamy holds both of her wrists in one hand, running his free one up under her shirt. His calloused hands drag over the sensitive skin of her stomach, mapping the skin there before shifting upward. Bellamy breaks his mouth from hers, and Raven chases his lips with a small moan. But then he slips his hand under her sports bra, palming her breast and roughly squeezing, and Ravenâs head falls back against the wall. She bites her lower lip, trying to hold back as Bellamy continues handling her with such a callous touch.
On any other night, by now Raven would have walked them to the bed, or spun them so Bellamyâs pinned to the wall. But something about the image of him, dressed like an ancient warrior, makes this sort of domineering contact more desirable. Her eyes fixates on the blood red of his cape, the faux leather straps holding it in place, and Raven whimpers as he harshly pinches a nipple.
âYou really like this outfit, huh?â Bellamy rumbles in his deep sex voice, and a deep shudder runs through Raven as the tone of it sends need coursing through her.
âNot my fault you're too sexy for your own good,â Raven retorts, entirely fairly. Bellamy chuckles, a low, sensual sound than wreaks just as much havoc on her as his voice.
Bellamy presses a kiss to Ravenâs temple, a surprisingly sweet gesture that confuses her, but all that confusion flies right from her mind as Bellamy rolls his hips against hers. Ravenâs breath stutters as he does it again, friction burning through her jeans and pressing against where sheâs burning for him. It feels impossibly good, and although Raven definitely wants more to ease the deep ache within herself, sheâs quite sure she could lose herself in the feeling.
Bellamy sets an infuriatingly slow pace, but each filthy roll of his hips is hard enough that Raven could swear heâs almost fucking her through her jeans. She tries to rock back against him, to take some control of the pace and make him move it along a bit quicker, but Bellamy grabs her hip. He stops his motions for a moment, simply holding her in place, wrists and waist.
Raven feels a needy little whine creep from her; sheâd just been starting to feel incredible, the loss of friction is killing her. Luckily, Bellamy takes mercy on her, grinding against her once more. Ravenâs eyes flutter shut as pleasure pulses in her core once more, and this time she doesnât try to chase it. She lets Bellamy lead the way, motions heavy and intense, simply gives herself over to it.
Raven breathes heavy, dragging her eyes over everything she can look at, but canât touch. Her gaze settles between them, watching Bellamyâs abs flex with every roll of his hips.The power there, being set to the purpose of her pleasure, is intoxicating. He looks incredible, the dark brown leather bringing out the warmer tones in his skin. And of course, the sprays of stage dirt highlighting the valleys of his muscles don't hurt either.
Bellamy jerks his hips more abruptly against Ravenâs, almost a thrust rather than a grind. It startles a gasp out of Raven and sends a bolt of pure desire racing right to her cunt. God, at this rate sheâs going to cream her jeans, and she wouldnât even be that made about. Sheâs pretty sure she's already making good inroads on soaking through them, anyway.
Raven has a hard time thinking straight as her pleasure begins building to a peak, harsh friction and confinining heat of her pants overwhelming her. Her heart races, breath shaking, and if Bellamy only keeps it up for another few moments, sheâll come undone just like this. Which she wants, oh yes, she wants it so bad...
âAre you close?â Bellamy rumbles the question in her ear, and Raven nods, panting heavily. She can feel his smile, in how his cheek creases against hers. âGood.â
With that, Bellamy steps away, holding her in place against the wall and leaving her aching. Raven canât even think straight for the moment, orgasm so close and then ruthlessly ripped away. She glares up at Bellamy, still panting.
âNo fair!â Raven protests, and Bellamy just smirks.
âI believe I did say no sex for a week unless you promised to never set Myles on me again. Which you still havenât promised,â Bellamy gloats. How the hell can he look so composed, when she knows he must be in absolute agony inside the fake leather codpiece? And how can he still be so hot, when heâs just lady blue balled her?
A part of Raven really wants to take the high ground, brush him off, and go finish herself off in the bathroom. But most of her is desperate for him to touch her again, and sheâs really not bound to the idea of using Myles as a form of torment for any reason other than stubbornness.
âWell?â Bellamy asks, still smiling. He leans down and kisses her shoulder, which is honestly cheating. Raven gives up with a sharp sigh.
âThis is madness,â Raven gives up with a sharp sigh, âFine, I promise, I promise. Just, Bellamy, please-â
She doesnât get any further before Bellamy returns his hips to hers, rutting against her once more. Within seconds of frantic friction, Raven drops her head to Bellamyâs chest, hands clenching into fists in his grasp. She gasps Bellamyâs name, and vaguely feels him kiss the top of her head as she shivers against him. As the pleasure ebbs, Bellamy releases her. Raven presses her lips to his pec, running her hands into his hair.
âWeâd better have incredible sex this week, since you won that bargain,â Raven demands. Bellamy chuckles, scooping her up bodily and carrying her over to the bed.
âAs my lady commands.â
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Finding Kurt Hummel: Love, Love, Love
Masterpost
5x01: Love, Love, Love
Hello season 5! Itâs so lovely to see you. Â I love this episode - itâs the Beatles, and itâs the Klaine proposal, and it kicks off my personal favorite season of the show (oops did I say that out loud?). Funny enough, Kurtâs not in this episode a whole lot - but! Thereâs so much Kurt in this season itâs crazy, so letâs dig in!Â
This episode is so my happy place.Â
Got to Get You (Back) Into My Life
Iâm so glad that Ryan Murphy decided to let this season be bright and colorful - comparatively to a drabber and somewhat more serious season 4. Â Itâs funny - because this entire season will be haunted by the the tragedy that happened bts. But thereâs also a lot of joy and happiness and downright crackiness that defines the season, too. Â Itâs such an interesting mix of things.Â
So, anyway, despite this being a huge episode for Kurt - heâs only in a few scenes, his first one here with Blaine some ten minutes into the episode. Â
When last we saw Kurt, he was getting much more comfortable with Blaine again, even if he claimed he wasnât going to hook up with him, and he told some lesbians they werenât a couple. Â But I do believe the end of last season, even if we didnât get much in the way of Kurt explicitly stating so, heâs entertaining the idea of getting back with Blaine. Â Heâs healed quite a bit in the six months theyâve been apart (Yeah - itâs supposed to be March here, lol). Â And Blaineâs relentless showering of love and affection only bolsters his own feelings. Â
His dadâs fine, school is fine, New York is fine, maybe, just maybe he and Blaine can be fine, too.Â
We open up with this picnic. Â And as a time reference, I believe this is during Kurtâs spring break - because Blaineâs mentions Kurt finally going back to school. Â And you know - thereâs such an ease between these two. Â This conversation is light and playful and a little desperate on Blaineâs side, but Kurt knows exactly where this conversation is going, and heâs delighted by it - enough to taunt Blaine a little by holding back purposely.
Okay before I go too much further though, letâs talk about the dialogue they cut from the opening of this scene:
Kurt: This farewell picnic is the perfect send off, though. Blaine: One might even call it romantic. Kurt: One might. Blaine: So, what are we doing here? Kurt: I thought we were swearing off labels. Blaine: I love you, Kurt. Iâm sorry if that freaks you out, but this part, the romance and love part, Iâm good, Iâm done, I want you. Kurt: It doesnât freak me out -- not in a bad way.
Oy this show - sometimes cutting things I really like (most of the time no, but this episode, yeah). Â Also - this all happens before Blaine inquires about New York guy.
Anyway, the reason Iâm including it here is that I like the insinuation that Kurt and Blaine had talked about what the status of their relationship was - and puts Blaineâs actions in a little more context. Â There could have been a conversation way back in I Do - where they continued to sleep together that weekend but Kurt insisted it wasnât called anything but friends with benefits. Â They could have done things over Skype - and hence had a âletâs not label thisâ conversation. Â I do think, despite Kurt claiming they wouldnât, before this picnic, they fell into bed together again. Â
And I do think that had this stayed in, Kurt would have played the moment playfully. Â Because he knows exactly where this is headed. Â He knows he wants Blaine just as much. Â
So about that New York guy. Â Ha.Â
Okay - so yeah, I wish that the Adam part of the story would have been more complete - that we would have seen Kurt try to date him but ultimately realize, yeah, no, I want Blaine. Â I mean - while we were all pretty sure where the story was going, it never really got a proper resolution after 4x15. Â And this is almost like tying up a loose end.Â
But I like what Kurt says here, and how he says it.  He liked Adam fine, but it wasnât serious.  I mean in the middle of âdatingâ Adam - he slept with Blaine, câmon.  But Kurt is so dismissive of the whole thing.  It wasnât about whether or not he liked Adam. It was about if he could forgive Blaine for cheating on him.  And thatâs one of the things I find so fascinating about this story - itâs always about the conflict within themselves and between each other. Third parties are always arbitrary and inconsequential.  And merely placeholders (or plot devices) while one of them deals with their shit. Â
(As an aside - the comment about people like them together is completely a fourth wall break. Â The writers knew there were non-Klaine fans out there, and this is them saying, yeah, we hear you, donât really care though.) Â
The real point here is that last time they tried long distance, Blaine cheated on him. Â But Blaineâs grown and healed a lot, too, since the beginning. Â Even amidst the playfulness, Kurt is slightly hesitant. Â He knows he loves Blaine. Â He knows theyâre going to be together. Â But he also doesnât want to ever be hurt like that again. Â
But letâs talk about Kurtâs playfulness in the scene. Â When was the last time we saw Kurt this open with Blaine? This relaxed and having fun? He knows exactly what Blaine wants, and he continues to deflect at every turn - sign a no-cheating contract, do relationships really work?, werenât Bethany and Jason supposed to be forever? Â Heâs totally stringing Blaine along. Â
Labels or no. Theyâre already back together. Â Itâs just a matter of saying it out loud.Â
I love that when Kurt finally stops screwing around and says theyâre going try a relationship again - heâs so damn giddy and excited about it. Â They get to be Kurt and Blaine again. Â And Kurt can follow his heart openly again. Â Oh, kiddo.Â
Also, cut from the script - another moment where Blaine leans in and kisses him. Â **shakes-fist**
So - I want to take a sec and talk about the costuming. Â Gleeâs costume department has always been one of the most competent things on the show. Â And Klaine has always had a way of matching. Â But I think they begin to out do themselves this season. Â Kurt and Blaineâs outfits here not only look fantastic on them - but they are complimentary colors to each other - and it makes this already gorgeous scene look brilliant. Â And -- these are almost toned down versions of the colors theyâll be wearing for the proposal. Â It love it. Â Brilliant work costume guys. Â ;)Â
Anyway, Blaine says he has something planned and Kurt shuts that down pretty quickly. Â And I think itâs interesting - not just because Kurt has his own serenade ready and waiting, but because itâs not about Blaine serenading Kurt anymore. Â Itâs about them being in an equal relationship, and doing things for each other. Â
But also - I spoke of this pattern back during Itâs Time - it does seem right that this is the last time they sing in the courtyard, because look at the pattern:Â
S2 Somewhere Only We Know - Kurt is coming back to McKinley, and leaving Blaine at Dalton.Â
S3 Itâs Not Unusual - Blaine is coming to be with Kurt at McKinley
S4 Itâs Time - Kurt is leaving McKinley to go to New York
S5 Got to Get You Into My Life - Blaine will be leaving McKinley to be with Kurt in New York.Â
Thereâs a lot of coming and going, but ultimately, theyâll both be leaving McKinley together, as a couple, for New York, which is where theyâre supposed to be - so on another level beyond these two are adorable singing to each other - itâs incredibly fitting that theyâre singing this together. Â
Trying to still this song was a miserable experience, so Iâm going with a BTS shot instead - thank you, greatly, to those of you who sent me this pic <3 Â This is a gorgeous shot of Chris/Kurt, and here we can see the whole outfit in all its glory. Â Also, anyone else notice the huge number of butt shots during this performance? I wonder if that was intentional, huh.Â
Kurt says that he has this planned - which means he had already decided to get back together with Blaine before this conversation took place. Â But it makes me wonder, did he decided to do this on his own? Or had he found out Blaineâs plans and took control of it for himself? Idk - interesting.... Â
youtube
So - you guys know that this song is about doing drugs, right? This is a love song to pot - or whatever they were on at the time, lol. Â
But I mean, love is a drug, too. Â
I feel like this song is pretty self-explanatory, and incredibly fitting for a couple of codependent little lovestuck goobers.Â
Ooh, then I suddenly see you Ooh, did I tell you I need you Every single day of my life You didn't run, you didn't lie You knew I wanted just to hold you And had you gone you knew in time we'd meet again For I had told you Ooh, you were meant to be near me Ooh, and I want you hear me Say we'll be together every day Got to get you into my life
I love this performance. Â While not my favorite Beatles song, itâs just such a fun number. Â Theyâre playful and incredibly flirty, and very themselves, and that ending kiss. Â Damn. Â Itâs not just that itâs hot - cause, yeah. Â But because itâs a declaration of their love in a very, very public space. Â Remember when Blaine once just tapped Kurt on the shoulder because they were on the stairs outside?Â
Season 5 Glee, and season 5 Klaine, do not give a fuck. Â
Iâm rounding this out with the Sueâs first line in the next scene
Sue: America, your prayers have been answered.Â
Getting Better
So, I want to take a second to talk about the one big Kurt scene they cut from the script. Â Originally, and it was filmed because we have bts stills, there was a scene involving Kurt and the girls sleeping over at the school (Why the school, god who knows.) Â
Deleted Kurt/Ladies Scene from Love Love Love**
(**Note - this isnât the full cut scene, Iâll explain in a minute.)Â
The reason I bring it up, since Iâm normally a huge advocate of ignoring whatâs in the script, is because it has some interesting tidbits in it. Â
First of all - itâs a scene with all the girls and Kurt. Â Even in the New York arc - WE NEVER GET THIS! This is kind of like Kurtâs bachelor(ette?) party and it is one aspect of the wedding stuff we donât get at all - even with Brittana. Â I realize that stuff is kind of TV cliche but dammit - theyâre also usually really fun, too. Â So Iâm sad to lose this scene for that.Â
It also shows that Kurtâs very in the know about Blaineâs proposal plans (I mean, god, Blaine is the least subtle goober on the planet) and that Kurtâs initial reaction is, god yeah sign me up for this.Â
Also - this bit of dialogue:Â
Kurt: [...] Iâve dreamt about marrying Prince Charming ever since I saw my first Disney movie -- I just never thought it would be possible. But the worldâs changed and more than anything...I want Blaine and me to be apart of that change.Â
Aw, Kurt, you little goober. Â That would have been so sweet to hear you actually say. Â **shakes-fist again**
They also cut a song - Getting Better that Kurt and the girls would have sang. (This, btw, was already omitted by the time the script I have was produced.)  On the surface - this sounded like a good idea, especially when Kurt singing would be great over a second Artie/Kitty duet. Â
Here are some of the lyrics:Â
I've got to admit it's getting better (Better) A little better all the time (It can't get more worse) I have to admit it's getting better (Better) It's getting better since you've been mine
Itâs a nice little sentiment for Kurt to sing, right?Â
Well - hereâs later on:Â
I used to be cruel to my woman I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene And I'm doing the best that I can (Ooh)
**scrunches nose** Yeah, maybe it was best they cut this.Â
Meanwhile, the one reason Iâm glad this scene was cut? At the very end (apparently not in that link I gave you) - Santana gives this whole speech painting marriage as the worst thing two people can do, and it makes Kurt doubt the idea of getting married. Â Because, according to the script, he never really thought about the future. Â And I really call BS on this. Â Because we have seen that Kurt is an incredible planner, has already thought about he and Blaine getting old, and part of the whole break up stuff was Kurt living in the future instead of living in the past. Â So it just doesnât add up.Â
Plus - I think leaving Kurtâs insecurities with just the Burt/Kurt scene works a whole lot better than what this scene does. Â
Fatherly Advice
You know - you canât go wrong with a Kurt/Burt scene. Â And this is one of my favorites.Â
Kurtâs, understandably, nervous about this whole proposal business. Â Itâs not the proposal itself, itâs not because he doesnât love Blaine - and I love, LOVE that he explicitly states here what Blaine means to him, that he feels safe and connected and loved with Blaine -- itâs because they are young, and because they just got back together, and no I donât think Kurt is fully healed from that break up yet. Â (I donât think he will be until the second one - when he screws up the relationship** and learns that relationships donât have to to be perfect.)Â
**Iâm saying this as a blanket statement - obviously the situation is far more complicated, but Iâll save that discussion when I get to season 6.Â
Kurtâs perfect relationship broke once, and there is a part of him that doesnât entirely trust that it can work again. Â Itâs not so much Blaine as it is Kurtâs not really ready to be put in this position yet. Â (And - interestingly, Blaineâs pushing Kurt is part of the reason the season 6 break up happens -- though most of itâs really about Kurt being dumb, but anyway....)Â
Itâs funny that Burt tells Blaine that he should marry a person and not an idea, which is what Blaineâs doing a little bit. Â But also that Kurtâs scared of the idea more than the person, and thatâs a problem, too. Â
Anyway, I love Burtâs speech during this scene. Â We learn more about Kurtâs mom - and how Burt knew almost immediately that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Â Iâd go out on a limb and say Hummels know how to commit. Â ;) Â Burt talks about being young, and the fantasies about what being together would be like (which involved dancing in their underwear, sex, and pasta, lol), but he also gets real and says itâs also about fighting over bills and spoiled milk. Â But when you get down to it, you have a short time on this planet - and you hold the people you love dearly closely to you. Â
And, interestingly, Kurtâs somewhat living in the future again. Â What if I get hurt badly again? What if we ruin this good thing Iâve just let back into my life? What if, what if, what if? Â Kurt wants more time -- but Burt says - hey, you get to make your own choices now, so make one. Â Oh Burt, youâre so wise.Â
But also, what Burt says here is going to linger over the rest of the Kurt and Klaine story. Â Weâre going to see Klaine have good times and rocky times. Â Burtâs warning about it being a hard thing is something Kurtâs going to not be able to deal with come season 6. Â But also Burtâs words are why it makes complete sense to me that Kurt will later get married on a whim when he and Blaine get back together a second time.Â
Itâs funny that these two have a habit of - theyâll break up, and then when they get back together commit even more to each other. Â (Though, no, I donât believe theyâll break up after they get married.) Â Burtâs words last us through the end of the series - only Burt speaks of experience, and Kurt still has to learn that. Â
And Kurt takes the first step as he heads towards Dalton to make his decision.Â
All You Need is Love
Kurtâs look of wonder as he heads up to Dalton. Â I donât know what Kurt was thinking he was getting - but I donât think he realized that his proposal would be ripped straight out of one of those Disney movies -- all beauty and music and extravagance and love and Blaine being that incredible Disney Prince that he had always dreamed of. Â And, oh hey, there are all his friends, and the people he knows and yes, of course Kurt knows the significance of coming back to this place - the place where their story began.Â
Kurt - as he wanders through Dalton, amazed and amused by the theatrical display going on around him. Â He was unsure until he saw Blaine - but once he saw Blaine, and let Blaine take him on this magical, romantic tour, Kurt was reminded of one aspect that really is a part of their love story. Â The fairy tale romance. Â And it still is, even as many times as this show is going to show us a more realistic side. Â Here is the grand musical-esque gesture that, letâs be honest, Kurt has loved all his life. Â It probably is one of those out of reality moments - itâs just that crazy.Â
Itâs funny - because the song is All You Need is Love. Â And anyone who has been in a long term relationship will tell you that the song is idealistic at best. Â Love isnât all that you need - as Burt explained to us somewhat in the speech coming over. Â But it is a foundation for something great to be built. Â And their romance is that something great.Â
Kurt is so overwhelmed, but in a very, very good way. Â I mean - thereâs freakinâ rose petals coming from the ceiling. Â Damn, Blaine. Â
And man - does this scene push all the right nostalgia buttons as Kurt comes down that staircase like the day they met. Â Kurt gets that - and I think the reality that this is really happening - this fantasy that he really dreamed over - that this sweet, wonderful man will ask him for forever.Â
Blaine:Â We met right here. I took this man's hand and we ran down that hallway. And for those that know me, I'm not in the habit of taking people's hands I've never met before but I think that my soul knew something that my mind and body didn't know yet. It knew that our hands were meant to hold each others, fearlessly and forever, which is why it's never really felt like I've been getting to know you, it's always felt like I was remembering you from something. As if every lifetime you and I have lived, we've chosen to come back and find each other and fall in love all over again, over and over for all eternity. And I just feel so lucky that I found you so soon in this lifetime because all I want to do, all I've ever wanted to do is spend my life loving you. So Kurt Hummel, my amazing friend, my one true love, will you marry me?
Kurt: Yeah. Yes.
This speech is one of the most beautiful things the show ever wrote. Â And watching Kurtâs face during all of this? Heâs so moved. Â He loves this man, so, so much. Â He doesnât say a word during this, he doesnât have to. Â His face says it all as all the emotions come rushing forward. Â
I love that, despite the public setting, despite everyone being around them, itâs a very intimate and personal moment. Â (Um, maybe because the cameraâs so close, lol.) Â Kidding aside - this moment, where Blaine asks Kurt to marry him is not about the spectacle (though these goobers do get off on the spectacle), itâs about declaring their love for another - itâs about committing full-heartedly. Â
And I kind of love that Kurtâs so emotional that it takes him a second to respond - a breathy âyeahâ cause thatâs all he can manage.  Blaineâs once again taken his breath away.Â
Kurt went in not knowing what to expect, but by the end - itâs yes -- yes this is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. Â His heart takes over for his brain for once, and heâs all in, wherever that might take them. Â Â
(And I mean - Kudos to both Chris and Darren on their acting here - they sell this couple so damn well, I canât even. Â Just, yeah.)Â
Alright, so Iâm probably cheating using another BTS shot - but I love the full body shot of the kiss. Â I mean look at these goobers putting the puzzle back together with a kiss. Â And those suits are just so gorgeous - I cannot compliment the costume department enough.Â
Now - for opinion time -- for me, I see this as more than a proposal - I see this more as their spiritual marriage. Â Itâs designed to look like a wedding in its scope, with Kurt walking down an aisle and his dad taking him up there and the bridesmaids waiting at his side and the groom ready for him. Â (God - does that mean Will is the priest?) But for me - this is their wedding, and everything after this (because dreams come true, not free) is learning to navigate that kind of committed relationship. Â But season 6!! Yeah - but season 6. Â Theyâre going to fuck up again - because of all the reasons Burt says here - theyâre young, and dumb, and have never done this before. Â
But yeah, their wedding doesnât really compare to it (even if the writing of that episode was pitch perfect, idk if they could have topped this). Â Itâs more a technical, yes theyâre legally married now. Â But here - here starts that second half of the journey, the -- what comes after happily ever after -- stuff that I find so fun and interesting. Â Most stories stop at happily ever after. Â Iâm grateful that we get to see that itâs not all perfect beyond. Â
I mean - we are still in the middle of this story, not at the end ;)Â
But yeah - I love this moment so, so much. Â And I love that Kurt gets to have this happy moment, big and romantic and ending with a kiss and a promise of forever with the man he loves. Â :)Â
youtube
Iâm including the whole thing here - because itâs such a thing of beauty. Â The boys look gorgeous in their suits, Dalton is beautifully lit, Blaineâs speech is really just pitch perfect. Â Everything about this scene is amazing and wonderful and romantic and I encourage you to watch it again. Â It may be my favorite moment in the entire series. Â
Oh season 5 - how I do adore you. Â :)Â
45 notes
·
View notes
Text
How Gordon Ramsay's "MasterChef Junior" Became The Cutest Cooking Show On TV
New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/how-gordon-ramsays-masterchef-junior-became-the-cutest-cooking-show-on-tv/
How Gordon Ramsay's "MasterChef Junior" Became The Cutest Cooking Show On TV
Mix precocious 10-year-olds with a famously volatile host and add large knives and open flames. How MasterChef Juniorâs recipe for trainwreck TV instead became a heartwarming twist on the cooking competition show.
The 12-year-old boy standing in front of Gordon Ramsay has just started to cry. Heâs wearing a floral bow tie, a plaid collared shirt tucked neatly into slim black jeans, and a bright white apron tied at the waist with his name embroidered on it in all caps, âLOGAN,â along with the logo of the show on which he is one of the final eight contestants, MasterChef Junior. His two front teeth are gapped, and his sandy blond hair is parted way over on one side. When he grows up, Logan wants to be an oceanographer, an astronaut, a chef, and a garbageman. The restaurant he plans to open someday will be called âOâs Underwater Bistroâ and it will have special bubbles, some âexecutive bubblesâ and some âromantic bubbles,â where customers will dine floating around underwater separate from the main restaurant, like in submarines.
But today, Logan has overcooked and underseasoned the rice in what he says would be the signature dish at his underwater bistro. The 82-pound, 4-foot-11-inch boy from Memphis, who, unlike some of the other contestants, can actually see over the cooking counters on the MasterChef set, has had one hour to create this dish, presumably without any adult assistance. And though his perfectly seared steak has ânice char and color,â the plate overall is too simple â lackluster, Ramsay says. As the British celebrity chef tells Logan that âthe judges have come to expect more from you, young man,â a tear so giant that even I can see it from behind the cameras 30 feet away drops off Loganâs cheek and hits the floor. The boyâs shoulders curve forward, his head drops, and heâs sobbing.
View this image âș
Ramsay comforts Logan after critiquing his dish. Greg Gayne / FOX
Producers backstage stop whispering into their mics. The cameramen are still and tense. No one likes to see a child cry. But then Ramsay, who has seven Michelin stars, 25 restaurants, and a reputation for calling the cooks on his TV shows things like âmiserable wee bitchâ and âyou fucking donkeyâ does something unexpected: He steps forward, hugs the child, and tells him itâs going to be OK, that he did his best. When Logan returns to his station, no longer crying, the other children comfort him and tell him heâs a great cook.
In spring 2013, when Fox announced it was going to air a kid-centric spin-off of its amateur cooking competition MasterChef with 8- to 13-year-olds, it sounded horribly annoying â like a desperate attempt to revive a played-out format. The built-in precociousness of the concept was off-putting: 12-year-olds talking about Sriracha foam. And who wants to watch kids being mean to one another or judges hurting their feelings? âFoxâs Junior MasterChef to find newer, younger chefs to disappoint Gordon Ramsay,â wrote the AV Club.
But when the show debuted last fall, it was absolutely delightful. Now, three episodes into its second season, itâs still so good. MasterChef Juniorâs first season was the highest-rated broadcast show in its Friday evening time slot among adults 18 to 49. It performed especially well in DVR and got good reviews. This season it is upgraded to a coveted Tuesday evening spot and averages a solid 5.3 million total viewers.
Seeing Ramsayâs gentler, helpful side is reason alone to watch. But the kids are the real stars because they (and the producers in the control room) turn the reality cooking show on its head by making it more heartwarming than cutthroat â they actually are here to make friends. They are more than happy to lend one another ingredients and help during the challenges. They often cry when anyone is sent home because they are sad for their friend. They release piercing screams of delight when a food for the next challenge is revealed (âYaaaay! Pancakes!â), and collapse on the floor with relief when they arenât sent home. And there is a visual spectacle: They have to jump to reach ingredients in the pantry and stand on boxes to cook at the counters; the scale is off. Meanwhile, the dishes they make are very impressive and just messy enough to be believable. Basically, everything they do and say is ridiculous, and yet it makes so much more sense than what adults do on television.
While we may know better than to believe everything we see on reality TV, the question remains: Are these kids as good as they seem? And if not, would that make the show any less fun?
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
Like many of our reality shows, MasterChef is a European export. The adult version is based on a BBC show that initially ran from 1990 to 2001, and the brand was exported globally. More than 40 countries have adapted the show â thereâs a MasterChef Italia, MasterChef Pakistan, MasterChef China, and more. The kid spin-off was first introduced in 1994 in the U.K. and has been produced in 15 different countries.
Even so, the American showâs executive producers Robin Ashbrook and Adeline Ramage Rooney, who also produce on the adult version, say they had a hard time getting Fox to sign on for Junior.
View this image âș
Kid Nation Monty Brinton / CBS
The not-distant memory of CBSâs failure with Kid Nation must have been a consideration. The 2007 show put 40 children ages 8 to 15 in a New Mexico ghost town and asked them to create a viable society without adult supervision, then was canceled amid allegations of child abuse, child labor law disputes, and a New York Times article about the insane contracts the parents signed. That same year, Bravo ordered eight episodes of Top Chef Junior with 13- to 16-year-olds, which never aired. (Bravo did not respond to a request for an explanation why.)
âYou could go to anybody in the world and go, âRight, so weâve got Gordon Ramsay,â and theyâd go, âBut he shouts at people,ââ Ashbrook says. âAnd youâd say, âAnd weâve got this show with ovens and knives and hot dishes â and then weâre going to do it with kids.â So on that pitch youâd be like, âYouâre fucking out of your mind.ââ
In 2012, while taping the third season of adult MasterChef, Ashbrook and Rooney taped a mystery box challenge with a group of kids â each got a box with the same surprise ingredients and had to create a dish. They sent the tape to Fox. It worked.
When the casting call went out, the press was especially critical that the kids would be as young as 8. But Rooney says having younger kids for MasterChef Junior was essential.
âOnce you get to 14 to 17, they might be more skilled, but theyâve also kind of shut down a lot more,â she says. âSo theyâre not as good for TV, frankly.â
The rest of the show is almost identical to the adult version of MasterChef, which just aired its fifth season. The other two judges are New York restaurateur and winemaker Joe Bastianich and Chicago chef Graham Elliot. The setâs the same, the formatâs the same, and the production, editing, and culinary team are almost exactly the same.
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
âWe want it to be a show that is co-viewed with parents and that our Hellâs Kitchen fans would watch, so we didnât want to neuter Gordon,â Rooney says, referring to one of Ramsayâs other four shows currently on Fox in which he verbally abuses aspiring chefs cooking in competition for a job at one of his restaurants.
The Gordon Ramsay who appears on MasterChef Junior is a completely different judge â helpful, goofy, and sweet â so that you start to understand why some of the people who work for him show an irrational-seeming loyalty in the face of his insulting tirades and long list of scandals.
âFirm but fair. I liken it to a soccer coach,â Ramsay says of his attitude toward the kids on the show. âIf you want your child to succeed â a ballerina, become the next basketball superstar, or play for the Dodgers â then you will push them.â
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
The eight kids who remain in the competition on Episode 4 in Season 2 stand in a row in front of a stage where the three judges are also standing in a row. Theyâre on a set on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles where theyâve been staying at a nearby hotel with their parents for the first two weeks of the three-and-a-half-week production. Theyâre ready to find out what the first challenge of the episode will be.
Ramsayâs voice has more bravado and is much louder than the other judgesâ. He wanders around set with an enormous, devious presence that makes even off-camera moments feel like reality TV.
A production guy coming from the behind-the-scenes kitchen rolls a cart near the set and tells me to be careful, please donât put your coffee on this. Covered by a cloche, this plate is handed to the judges a minute later when they announce the challenge.
âThere is one ingredient that every chef relies on,â Ramsay says. His voice rises with booming excitement to build the moment where he lifts the cloche: âItâs simple. Itâs glorious. And delicious! It is anâŠegg.â
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
âDuuuuuuuh,â says Oona, an extremely bright 9-year-old with big eyes and dark hair pulled into messy pigtails. Oonaâs favorite TV show of all time is Alton Brownâs Good Eats; sheâs seen every single episode and most of them several times over. Oonaâs dad, a Yale Law School professor, says he wasnât inclined to let her watch MasterChef Junior when the show first came out: âMy picture of reality TV was snarky adults saying mean things to each other,â he says. âWe didnât want her to see that.â But the show wasnât that, so he and his wife agreed to let her watch it.
Bastianich, the third judge, begins to describe the sunny-side-up hero egg: âNotice there are no brown edges, there are no wobbly whites,â he says. âTheyâre not snotty or runny.â The words âsnottyâ and ârunnyâ are too much for some of the kids, and they burst into giggles.
Then there is a confusing silence for a minute or two. The judges have earpieces to receive stage directions during taping from producers in the control room who tell them what to redo. By now, the kids are used to these awkward pauses, but they are kids: They have a hard time standing still. Actually, so does Gordon Ramsay. Similarities between the celeb chef and the children are shockingly clear in person: They love to make trouble, they have scary amounts of energy, they get bored easily, and they throw temper tantrums.
All of a sudden the judges are alert again and Elliot starts talking: âYou will have 10 minutes to make us as many perfect, sunny-side-up eggs as you can,â he says. âAt your stations you will find everything you need: oil, butter, and a whole lot of eggs. Youâll have eight pans, which I highly recommend you use simultaneously. Every perfectly fried sunny-side-up egg that we decide is good enough will give you a huge advantage in the upcoming challenge.â
Then, it seems like itâs go time: The cameras start moving and the kids begin to run to their stations. But the producers yell, âCan I have the kids back up at the front?â and the judges take a break. What the kids will do between finding out the details of their challenge and 20 minutes later when they start cooking eggs I donât know, because Ramsay wants to chat backstage in another room and ushers me away.
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
Gordon Ramsay is worth $47 million, according to Forbes. In addition to owning restaurants all over the world, heâs produced and starred in 23 television shows since 1999. Heâs published 27 books, has a line of tableware with WWRD (Waterford, Wedgewood, Royal Doulton), and has so much energy that you feel rushed to keep up with the cadence of his speech and under pressure to keep his attention. His attention is actually impossible for anyone to keep most of the time. Even his own thoughts donât keep his attention long enough for him to properly finish them.
âI absolutely 100% categorically submerge myself in the, you know, I donât give a shit whatâs going on outside, there could be a crisis â last week we got a stupid lawsuit issued over a total ridiculous, ridiculous place, thereâs a big conference call tonight where we are putting the defense together. Itâs just if thereâs one thing that always puts me off about working over here [in the U.S.] itâs that the more popular and the more famous you become then the more litigious and the more small excuse people take as advantage to sueâŠâ
The way Ramsay talks is part of his manic power. He has the same force to his speech as on television, but without an editor to cut it and make it coherent. He spits out raw quotes that apart might be worth something, but together become extremely confusing.
ââŠso thatâs one thing Iâve learned over the last decade. In terms of everyone says hey and of course the British press âheâs been sued again, thatâs 14 times in 7 different countries!â Itâs a joke. Whatever crapâs going on there, when I walk in here and Iâm with these guys, theyâve got me 100% because it is so important; look at the sort of rip-offs already in terms of Food Network and Bravo now, and the amount of people that try to imitate, and youâve got that sugarcoating ass-kissy, letâs get all gooey and this is real â this is seriously real.â
He says he is involved in every aspect of the show, including casting, to identify the kids coming from desperate stage moms who arenât really passionate about cooking. He was not fazed by initial skepticism about his working with children. âIâm a father of four and thereâs no script for being a parent.â He talks about his own children a lot; they are between the ages of 12 and 16 and they are all over his Instagram feed amid pictures of him getting in race cars, getting on helicopters, and training for the Ironman.
View this image âș
Sam Greg Gayne / FOX
The kid contestants idolize Ramsay. Logan, for example, says Ramsayâs opinion is the only one that matters during judging. Loganâs mom tells him to try to not look so pitiful during taping that he gives her a heart attack every time he looks at the camera. Logan says heâs probably just bored because judging takes so long.
âHeâs the best chef out of all three of them,â says Sam, a blond 9-year-old contestant from Reseda, California, who has a Skrillex-like hairstyle. Sam says he knows Ramsayâs the best chef because âheâs done so many TV shows and so many things like that, and you can see he looks so good as a chef.â
âBless him,â Ramsay says about Sam when tell I him this later on. âI mean, thatâs a bit of a wrong interpretation. There needs to be an actual passion there, and thatâs what we weed out very quickly.â
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
After this quick break, 10 minutes are set on the MasterChef clock, which hangs high in the middle of the room. The kids run to their stations and begin furiously cracking eggs into pans.
Ramsay, Bastianich, and Elliot stand on the stage, still being filmed, talking about the best techniques for making eggs. Bastianich suggests frying two eggs in one pan; Ramsay is horrified and pokes fun at him. Ramsay explains that the most important element here is actually the butter: You have to baste the eggs, spoon hot butter over the whites to cook the tops faster. Crack the egg low near the pan so the yolk doesnât break; bring the plate close to the pan so you donât have to walk around with an egg on your spatula.
âFour minutes gone!â yells Ramsay toward the kids. âSix minutes remaining! Speed up, guys, multitask.â
Iâm standing near supervising culinary producer Sandee Birdsong, who is watching the kids closely and also has an earpiece and microphone to communicate with producers during taping. A former contestant on Top Chef, Birdsong is now also that showâs supervising culinary producer, and her job is to oversee all the food on the show â order equipment and ingredients, create and test challenges, and train the kids. After a minute or two she says quietly into the microphone, âTurn the heat down, all the kids are burning the eggsâ edges.â
A minute later, Elliot says to the kids from the judges podium, âGuys, make sure you donât get your heat too high, we donât want any brown edges, control that pan.â
Birdsong and her culinary team of as many as 26 people teach the kids cooking classes in between episodes, walking them through the techniques they need to succeed and giving them safety training. The MasterChef classroom is identical to the set â same ovens, same food processors â so the contestants can get familiar with the equipment. The culinary team squeezes in as many classes for the kids as they can given the short amount of time children are legally allowed to be on the Paramount lot every day. âThe kids are here to learn as much as they can the whole time,â she says.
Birdsong says she doesnât teach the kids exactly what to do for a challenge, but rather shows them a basic and (most importantly) the fastest way to accomplish things like make a sauce or filet a fish. There are lots of different ways to make a piecrust, for example, but one way is probably best when youâre racing the clock. The kids have the option of writing down and memorizing anything from class.
âWe teach a very basic application that works in our environment and thatâs what they tend to stay with, and itâs their choice if they go off that mark [during a challenge],â she says, adding that the adults who receive the same classes are more likely to revert to their personal cooking methods.
View this image âș
Abby Greg Gayne / FOX
Halfway through the egg challenge, Ramsay takes an interest in Abby, the youngest contestant at 8, whoâs got her pan too hot and is still struggling to get a single egg fried and on a plate. Abby, whoâs from Winchester, Virginia, still has a sweet baby-talk quality to her voice and is impossibly adorable. In Episode 2, while watching the other kids race to cook pancakes, she screamed nearly every time a pancake was flipped over and at one point nearly collapsed from excitement. âTake the pan to the plate, young lady,â Ramsay tells her.
She yells back, clearly stressed: âITâS NOT READY.â
When timeâs up, the judges all count down the last 10 seconds together.
The kids raise their hands in surrender and stop cooking.
âWhoâs feeling good, guys?â Ramsay asks, cheerfully. No one raises a hand. The kidsâ mood is total frustration. âAw, come on, no one?â
A producer hollers from the side, âLetâs do the last five seconds again, guys,â and on cue the kids pretend to plate eggs and run around while someone counts, âFive, four, three, two, one.â
Then the kid chefs are shuffled out of the room for a break. Instead of the judges going to inspect the eggs, Rooney emerges from the greenroom and walks station to station to see who cooked the most eggs.
After the numbers are calculated, Birdsong, Elliot, Bastianich, and Rooney sit at a table offset discussing how to make the next challenge work. As it turns out, the number of eggs each kid cooked in this first challenge will determine the number of ingredients he or she will be allowed to use to cook a signature dish. Little Abby, sure to be an audience favorite, has successfully fried only two eggs in 10 minutes.
The lights on the set go dim; the pans and eggs and dishes are being cleared away. Out of the blue, Gordon Ramsay makes an announcement:
âThe lady from BuzzFeed is going to do the egg challenge.â The cameramen, producers, and crew are as surprised as I am. âLights up, please, thank you,â he hollers at no one in particular.
The kids arenât present and the cameras arenât rolling. And though Iâve been hanging around the set of his show for two days, I donât think Iâve done anything to make him want to actively embarrass me. We had so far spoken innocuously about this show and his own children. I had not even asked him about the time he fat-shamed a contestant on Hellâs Kitchen, nor the time he tricked vegetarians into eating meat, nor about his allegedly showing up with a camera crew without permission at the wedding of his now-estranged mentor Marco Pierre White. I did not ask if he actually hired someone to film his father-in-law (and former business partner) having an affair, or if any of those things make him feel any doubt that he should be a role model for children.
But Ramsayâs probably just bored; he doesnât want me or anyone getting too comfortable, and he knows this will be fun. And he does not know, thank god, that I attended culinary school. In theory I should be decent at this. But Iâm not. I canât be relied on to do anything quickly â not cooking, writing, thinking, or any kind of thing. I accidentally set my course book on fire more than once.
Ramsay abruptly starts singing âIf I Could Turn Back Timeâ and rushing the producers to bring over the pans, oil, eggs, and butter. âGet the clock ready. You have five minutes. Are you ready? Five minutes, I want to see how many you can do. Your time starts now.â
âIâm shaking,â I say.
âAnd begin!â
I start cracking eggs into the pans without remembering to turn on the heat under any of the pans.
âTurn the gas on first, young lady! Fifteen seconds gone! Letâs go, letâs go, letâs go! Thirty seconds gone.â
âShit!â
âPlease no cursing, Emily. Forty seconds gone.â
âOK, OK.â
âDarling, you gotta go faster, I am starving. Coming up to one minute gone. If an 8-year-old can do it, Iâm sure a 22-year-old can do it.â
I am 31.
But there is a crowd of about 20 people from the crew watching, taking photos with their phones, and laughing.
âEmily, Iâm begging you, turn the fucking gas on.â
âNo cursing, Chef,â I say.
âComing up to two minutes gone. EMILY, PLEASE,â he yells. I am still not even finished cracking all eight eggs into all eight pans because I have apparently forgotten how to crack eggs, what to do with the shells, how to pan, what are eggs.
âWhat if I just throw one of these raw eggs at you,â is for some reason my response.
âPlease, Emily, donât waste time. Iâve got your editor on the phone, heâs live and heâs not impressed.â
I consider telling him that my editor is a woman. I donât really want to embarrass him and make him yell even more. Or do I?
âMy editor is a woman,â I say, cringing.
âWell, sheâs not very happy. Weâre Skyping her straight after this. I BEG YOU, GET ONE FUCKING EGG ON THE PLATE, PLEASE.â
I remember I should throw some butter in there and baste.
âNice, thatâs lovely. Butter, butter, butter,â he says three times rhythmically. Iâm reminded of the way he also offhandedly said, âTo the bar. The bar, the bar, the bar,â three times earlier in the day.
âSeventy-five seconds to go!â he yells.
This is the part where, if youâre a real cook, your brain turns off and your muscles remember and everythingâs familiar so you can work like a machine. You can rhythmically baste, tilt, scoop, and plate along a row over and over with movements so efficient that 75 seconds is the perfect amount of time to plate eight sunny-side-up eggs. But the kids donât have that muscle memory, how could they, and neither do I. No one is magically a master chef. It takes practice.
Ramsay, Iâve realized by now, needs to yell the whole time and doesnât like silence, so he says, âComing up to 60 seconds to go! EMILY, PLEASE.â
I get an egg on the plate.
âONE EGG, YAY!!!!!!â he says sarcastically. âLast minute!â
The rest of the eggs just havenât finished cooking. I have spent most of my five minutes fumbling with the heat and running back and forth between my two ranges of four eggs each.
The entire production crew of MasterChef Junior counts down my last 10 seconds.
âOne egg. You are as good as Abby,â he says.
Abby, he reminds me, is 8 years old.
View this image ïżœïżœïżœ
Greg Gayne / FOX
âI snuck some of your frosting one time,â Abby says to Samuel, a jaunty 12-year-old who talks like heâs doing an impression of an adult on a cooking show. To me, she adds, âI wanted to see if it was good because he wasnât called for the top three in the cupcake challenge.â She is wearing tiny glasses, head-to-toe pink and purple with ruffles, polka dots, and tiny sparkly shoes.
The kids are sitting (sort of â Oona is bad at sitting) at a table in a break room in a building separate from the set. This is where their parents hang out during episode tapings.
View this image âș
Sean Greg Gayne / FOX
Noticeably quiet during breaks is Sean, an Asian-American 12-year-old from Santa Ana, California, with thick glasses, braces, and a big smile when he lets it show. Sean has won the most challenges, and the other kids think heâs the best cook because, as one of them says, âHeâs been cooking every night for two years.â Sean is quick to correct him: He cooks only three times a week. His dream is to be a restaurant owner and an interior designer because he âspends half his time on Pinterest looking at home decor.â
The kids are, in fact, really sweet to each other. And the adults encourage that.
âWe really try to stay away from that side of the reality world of, like, âCome on, really tell us who you donât like,ââ says Elliot the next day. ââThis one said this about you, you should really sayâŠâ Thereâs nothing like that. You ask, âWho do you think is the best? Who do you not want in here?â And almost 90% of the time itâs, âI like everybody, theyâre all good.ââ
Ten-year-old Josh, who has long hair and a crackly voice that sounds a little like Jonathan Taylor Thomas, offers a story about how Ramsay helped him roll out a piecrust because he couldnât do it fast enough. While Ramsayâs helping him didnât appear in the final episode, the producers did include another special moment: Josh, seeming very, very concerned, says he really hoped he wouldnât get sent home for his Key lime pie because that would ruin his feelings about Key lime pie.
Oona hollers loudly so she can be heard over the other kids who have all started talking vaguely about piecrust at once: âHalf a cup of butter and 2Âœ cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of sour cream.â She is the only one who offers specifics, and that ratio would probably work. Oona had never made a pie before she got to MasterChef; she learned in Birdsongâs classes.
When I ask about burns, almost all of the kids eagerly and immediately shove their forearms toward me to show off burn marks. Some got these during the show; some were earned while cooking at home. Like line cooks, the kids are very proud of their burns.
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
âIn this next challenge we want all of you to dream big and imagine owning and running your own restaurant,â says Ramsay to the kids, now back on camera. âExcited?â
âYes, Chef!â The kids know to yell in response.
Oonaâs signature dish at her someday restaurant (which will only serve âwell-to-do peopleâ) will be scallops two ways: scallop crudo with a yuzu ponzu sauce and crispy wontons, plus seared scallops with a soy foam and a ginger scallion oil.
But Oonaâs only fried four eggs, the judges point out, so now what?
âIâm just going to do the seared scallops because that shows more skillâŠor Iâll⊠I donât know,â Oona says, smiling without a trace of the worry an adult in her position would show.
Later, Ramsay tells me that he helps them before they kick off the pantry run and cooking, âjust to stop them from panicking.â
View this image âș
Oona and her blender. Greg Gaynes / BuzzFeed
âShe needs to understand that you got four ingredients, so itâs scallops, cauliflower, grapefruit, and I think orange segments,â Ramsay says. âSo the cauliflower puree, Oona wants cream in there. Thereâs no greater way to do a cauliflower puree than to take the florets, blanch them in rapidly boiling water, get them just cooked, take them out, blend them, and add the water they were cooked in back to it. So those kind of techniques is what I need to step in and say, âGet concerned but donât get upset.ââ
Before they film the pantry run, thereâs an off-camera ïżœïżœculinary pauseâ and Birdsong goes from kid to kid asking them exactly what ingredients they are going to get and what they will plate. Sheâs writing it down and either giving them advice or just flat-out telling them what to do. The producers are getting impatient â they need to make this quick â but Birdsong is determined to make sure the kids know what they are doing.
âWhatâs your starch going to be?â she asks one of them.
âDo I have to have a starch?â he says.
Sean, who has successfully fried the most eggs with his 10, is playing the hand-slap game with Logan while Birdsong tries to get them to focus.
The PR person trailing me is looking around for a senior production person to say if itâs OK that I am watching this happen.
Once the clock starts, the kids have an hour to cook. Bastianich immediately goes over to Abby, who has only two ingredients: salmon and asparagus.
âWe never cook for them,â Gordon says later, adding that there was a moment in another challenge when he helped Abby cut butternut squash because he felt she was about to slice her hand open. âWe help, we advise ⊠my job is to protect them, health and safety.â
While most of the kids specified that their restaurants would be expensive and serve ârich people,â âfancy people,â or âinvestment bankers,â Abby wants her ârestaurant-slash-vetâs clinic to be a good restaurant and serve healthy food.â And it will be called Horses and Courses.
âUm, how about getting a pan out so we can start thinking about this?â Bastianich says to Abby, who, if she wins, says she will give the $100,000 prize money to charity after she buys a horse. âHow are you going to do the asparagus?â
âIâm gonna sautĂ© and boil them,â she says.
âThatâs a good idea, boil them first so you know theyâre cooked then sautĂ© them with oil and salt and pepper to give them a little flavor ⊠Oops, theyâre too long to fit in that panâŠâ
One of the kids cuts herself and two medics rush in with Band-Aids and antiseptic.
Birdsong and the other producers say they take every precaution to keep the kids safe and reassure the parents with fully trained medics always on site, knife and open-flame safety classes, and judges who will step in to help. But at the same time, the episodes definitely play with the peril of kids fumbling with giant food processors stored on high-up shelves and handling knives as big as their arms. Because thatâs the rule: Treat them the same as the adults.
âI mean, obviously we all cringe every once in a while when theyâre holding the knife wrong or they grab something and itâs hot or theyâre fixing to do something and itâs scary,â she says, âbut weâre there, and [the parents] know weâre there.â The judges will intervene and help, Ramsay says, if they see a child doing something that seems too dangerous.
The most common injuries, Birdsong says, are small burns, because the kids often forget when they pull something out of their oven and put it on the counter that itâs still hot and touch it later. She trains them to put a towel on any hot pans as a reminder.
View this image âș
Mitchell and Sam in the pantry. Greg Gayne / FOX
Adaiah hollers that she needs an adult to open a jar for her. Thatâs allowed, and a culinary producer steps in. But when Samuel asks if he can go back in the pantry because he got a wrong ingredient or something, itâs not.
âThey try to break the rules when they can,â Birdsong says. She is always impressed with how much they are capable of in technical classes and during taping. âItâs easy because theyâre kids, so they learn quick. They respond, too, if I told them to do something right â now theyâll remember that forever.â
Oona is blending her cauliflower puree nearby and Birdsong silently motions to her, mock-sprinkling her hand, giving her the universal symbol for âdonât forget to salt.â
âShe had extra time, so she did make her scallops two ways,â whispers a producer into her earpiece microphone, talking about Oona. âShe just didnât make the foam.â
Thereâs not really a sense of last-minute panic that the TV show conveys as the kids begin to plate. Theyâve been able to finish. This, too, is part of Birdsongâs job: The producers rely on her to design challenges that are as short and as hard as possible so that âthe hands-up moment is really a hands-up moment,â she says. And she tests the timed challenges before each taping the exact same way for the kids and the adult contestants âbecause the kids are just as good as the adults.â
The kids finish cooking and the PR person who trailed me while I was there asks me to step out of the building with him. This was quite obviously a pivotal moment and I wanted to see how the judging went down, so I asked why I had to leave, and he said that they didnât want the show âto get overexposed.â
Optimistically, what was happening was that the judges and producers were looking at the kidsâ plates and figuring out who would win and who would go home, and maybe cleaning them upâŠa little.
After about 25 minutes Iâm let back inside; the judging portion has started.
Birdsong is now holding a piece of paper with quickly sketched drawings of all eight kidsâ plates on it, and as one of the kids places his plate in front of the judges, I hear Birdsong say into her mic, âThat plate needs a spin.â
Seeing those sketches, I think of the extra kitchen I had seen backstage, the one where a small staff of busy adults was talking about tempura batter recipes from various L.A. restaurants. Could they possibly cook all the food after Birdsong talks to the kids before the pantry run, just in case?
âOh, no way, we wouldnât be able to do that,â says Birdsong. âWe have someone from legal at every single production day and they would not allow something like that to happen. Weâre governed by that.â Birdsong says the parents are also introduced to the legal team and can at any point during taping ask to speak to them.
Even so, I wanted to go and look in that kitchen, see how busy they had been while the kids had been cooking, and what was in their trash. But I couldnât: The PR person babysitting me was going to shepherd me to the next interview then directly to my car in the parking lot.
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
After the judging, little Logan in his bow tie with his underseasoned rice is safe. But two other contestants are sent home. The producers intentionally send kids home in pairs to make it easier on them.
In one episode, a girl who was sobbing when sheâs told sheâs being eliminated is five minutes later smiling and says, âI am sad I have to leave but Iâm excited to go home and see my dad and my dog.â
I sit down with Elliot and Bastianich on some couches near the set. Taping is done for the day. They look exhausted. Elliot wipes his face, forces a cheerful mood, and tries to be friendly. Bastianich doesnât look up from his cell phone.
âWhat you just saw was challenging, goddamnit,â says Bastianich. âSending these kids home is horrible; itâs hard.â
I ask point-blank if anything is done to the food before the judges judge it.
âNo,â says Bastianich, still on his phone. âIt is what it is.â
He seems relieved for Abby, who was not sent home. âYou know, whether she cooked that salmon perfectly by accident or not, but she cooked it better than a 12-year-old boy did.â
I ask if they think all of the kids will really become chefs one day. They say no, of course not all of them, and theyâre not trying to push restaurant work on them. This gets Bastianichâs attention.
âI think the more relevant question is the 6 million kids and adults who are watching,â he says, seizing an opportunity to give a positive spin and talk about something heâs proud of. âWhat message does that send to them, because thatâs the greater impact, right? I think itâs a very positive one. We think that this is the cure, not the problem, for food-related issues in our society â whether itâs childhood obesity, whatever â knowing about the food, how to cook it, how to source it, how to manage it, is a very positive message that these kids launch for everyone else.â
View this image âș
Greg Gayne / FOX
A few months later I reach out to Jack, a contestant from Season 1, and ask his mom if I could visit them at home. I want to see how well he can actually cook.
A 12-year-old seventh-grader now, Jack was 10 when he taped the show in 2013 and ended up an audience favorite because of his New York accent, the colorful Hawaiian shirts he wore on every episode, and his maniac chopping skills.
At his neighborâs beautiful, two-story home in Far Rockaway, New York (their house is under construction, his mom says), Jack is going to sear a thick steak with a coffee and cacao powder rub and roast some butternut squash.
View this image âș
Jack Photograph by Lauren Zaser for BuzzFeed
âIâm going to try to cook it medium rare, so itâs a nice brown on the outside but pink to red color in the middle, because I feel like it allows the beefâs natural flavors to shine through,â he says.
Will he use a thermometer?
âI just go by touch,â he says, pointing out the ânice brown colorâ thatâs developing as he sears not just two sides but every surface of the steak, standing it up vertically and letting it rest on the side of the pan, which most adults would not think to do.
âI actually prefer it on the pan than cooked on the grill,â he says. âIt tastes more elegant.â
Itâs been two and a half years since Jack taped MasterChef Junior and heâs still obsessed with cooking, though he also plays tennis, the trombone, and the piano, and says heâs into wrestling. He still has his adorable smile but is in the middle of a preteen growth spurt; something about the ratio of his calves to his feet gives away that he might be a lot taller very soon.
Jack holds the knife properly; heâs stacking parsley leaves one on top of the other, rolling them into a cigar shape then slicing through the roll for a proper chiffonade. This technique is something I couldnât tell if the kids I saw during the taping were doing because I couldnât get close enough. Unlike Alexander, the 13-year-old who won the first season, Jack has not been staging at restaurants like Del Posto and Lure Fishbar.
My paranoia about the realness of the show is fading. This child is a very good cook.
The major thing he learned on MasterChef, he says, was time management. âI learned that you should always heat up your pan before you heat up the oil, because if you donât then the oil can burn on you. That was big.â
Jack starts to loosen up, talking about cooking with a lot of authority, and I realize he narrates each step like a TV personality. âSo weâre just going to let this [steak] sit here for a little longer, to let it cook a little bit, and then weâll put it on here [a cutting board] to restâŠâ
Then all of a sudden heâs a kid again: ââŠUmm, so, because if you didnât let it rest once you put it on the plate it just sort of, like, all the blood just, like, squirts out and it looks all red on your plate and everything is ruined and itâs horrible and youâre like, âNo!â But when you cut the filet mignon on the board, all the blood comes out on the plate so when you put it on your real plate, then it looks perfect.â
He, like Oona, learned most of what he knows about cooking from television. âOne day I just turned on the TV and Chopped happened to be on there and I didnât feel like getting the remote and changing it to cartoons, so I just kept watching Chopped.â So basically, food TV is responsible not only for breeding the next stars of food TV, but also, maybe, causing children who might otherwise beg for processed fast food to want to help cook dinner from scratch.
After carefully examining his steak to find the grain, Jack slices it to reveal a perfect medium-rare. He plates slices artfully next to his cubed butternut squash then wipes the sides of the plate like a cook at the pass.
View this image âș
Photograph by Lauren Zaser for BuzzFeed
Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for our Sunday features newsletter, and weâll send you a curated list of great things to read every week!
View this embed âș
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/behind-the-scenes-of-the-cutest-cooking-show-on-television
0 notes