#jacket; payday verse

[xbloodygasmzx]

omg i didnt think i'd find someone who does jacket x oc

seeing your Paprika doodles, I went 'f this I need to doodle out my HLM Self Insert despite how horrible it may look'

My Hotline Miami verse is kinda different since this happens in current time (HLM, Payday, Watch Dogs, Need for speed because I am really unoriginal smh)

honestly her outfit is based on a cosplay I did,thus photos were used as reference

I'm currently doing chapter 1 of this AU thats titled Watchline Miami, just need to hang on a bit more on finals week

As thanks for inspiring me to doodle out this, heres the info! Meet Monarch. Shes a long way from home (by long i mean across the globe) as she transferred to Miami as a Crime Scene Investigator when Pardo was recommended on her by her police uncle to get an 'internship' somesort. Shes the one who tracked down Jacket when he was on that murder spree against the Russian mob. But even after his arrest, she wouldnt stop there. She felt something was off upon discovering Jacket being shot when he was the prime suspect. After some digging, she vowed to track down 50 Blessings and unveil the truth to prove Jacket's statement of his innocence being right. There you go, summary on Monarch! Shes starting to become one of my fave characters to draw because ive watched a litle too much CSI miami as a kid (whoops thanks Mom). And TBH, I've only recently gotten into HLM because Bf sent me a fanart on jacket unmasked and I went 'why he hot tho' and he said 'WHAT YOU MEAN HES ALWAYS BEEN HOT' and the rest history. Once again thanks for inspiring me to do this! Bonus: Monarch is 4'9

I HAVENT LOOKED THRU MY QUESTIONS FOR A WHILE..!! THIS IS SO CUTENESS IM SO GLAD I WAS ABLE TO INSPIRE YOU TO MAKE UR OWN STORY FOR UR OC...that makes me so happy this is awesome :'))

[warfared]

STARTER! — mmmmm radio's payday verse, please!

now, radio usually preferred riding along with jimmy on jobs. jacket, jimmy, and sydney was his usual crew, but really only for the jobs that needed a lot of brute force and little to no stealth. sure, radio could be stealthy if he wanted to be, but it wasn’t his preference.

working with other heisters was always a bit of a wild card. he’d met the majority of them already but he’d describe them more as acquaintances rather than friends. coworkers, even.

so houston was someone new, technically.

radio’s mask lazily sits atop his head as he steps into the briefing room, hands shoved into his pockets. the other two heisters hadn’t arrived yet, so it was just him and who he could only assume was his coworker.

“ hey. ” he hoists himself on top of the nearest flat surface to give himself some leverage, resting his hands on the table under him. “ y’re houston, right? name’s radio. ”

[playedbetter]

Jacket really was trying to ignore Sokol and his stupid taunts. He restarted the level, moving through it like it was second nature and dispatching the first two mobsters.

He could hear Sokol grabbing one of his other masks. The ones he only used as decoration. That was... fine.

Hearing one of his voices behind him, his stomach dropped and before he even knew it all he was seeing was red. He whipped around and tackled Sokol onto the floor, murder in his eyes as he brought down a fist to Sokol's face as his other hand tried to pin the arm holding something in its hand.

"HOOHOOOHOHO! Am I looming?! Am I looming?! Hey Jacket look at me, I’m looming right now! " -Sokol, trying to make fun of Jacket for looming

Meme / Accepting!

Jacket slowly blinked, very pointedly not turning around from the arcade machine to look at Sokol. He wasn't this annoying, was he? At least he had the decency to shut the hell up.

The screen flicked to a death screen as a virtual mobster shot the little digital Jacket on screen. Usually this level was child's play, something he did to warm up. Sokol was succeeding in distracting him.

[gcnedark]

This is, the longest drabble I've ever written. It's not even a drabble anymore this bitch is a whole one-shot. Uhh there is usage of drugs ig?? It's just adrenaline and morphine so if that bothers you 🤷‍♂️ shoo ig I've been working on this for 3 hours enjoy

4 pages worth of writing, Jesus christ save me.

The ashes fell from the sky like snow while 3 of the heisters fought their way through the city, Vlad always had crazy jobs. But this shit was something they had never seen, although they had heard of others being put through weirder things. Something with goats?

“Eat shit, punkass taser!” Rust shouted out, pressing himself against the back of a stopped train for cover, the safes having been placed next to him as the other two went back. He occasionally leaned out to take shots at the police with his shotgun, allowing Jacket and Tony to run up with the cover fire he provided. Albeit slowly, as Scarface was carrying the last safe that they were told to get before they tried to make their escape. The trio were now simply waiting on Sydney, who had run up ahead to go get the truck while the police drew back their assault to plan their next move to attack the crew.

“Where the hell is ‘dat fuckin’ girl?!” Tony shouted over the gunfire, taking out the magazine of his rifle to check how many bullets he had left. Not many was the answer, he frowned under his mask upon seeing the lack of remaining ammo. “UNSURE.” Jackets tape spat out, the biker mumbled under his breath as he got back into cover and began to load his now empty 12 gauge, each one went silent as honking and cheers were let out into the air, the voice being recognized immediately among the crew, Sydney had finally arrived, and it seemed she was having more fun than she should while doing it.

They got their eyes on the truck and the body that rammed into it, though they couldnt see her face, they could tell there was a large grin on it. “GET THOSE FUCKING SAFES IN AND LETS GO!” She shouted out, opening the door and jumping onto the ground, her AK17 already in hand as she ran around the front and over to where they stood. Tony began moving to go put the safe on his back into the back of the truck, the others following behind him as they each grabbed one. He stayed out in the open, one hand pressing the stock of the gun to his shoulder as he fired. He reached into his suits jacket with the other and took out his shot of adrenaline, jamming it straight into his chest and injecting.

That oh so familiar rush of life bursted in him once more, he stashed it back in his suit and gripped the rifle with both hands. Stepping forward and practically eating each bullet that was fired at him, keeping the attention off of his allies as they moved the safes from the train to the truck. His hands were shaky as he shot back, which had obviously messed with his aim- but aiming well wasnt really the point of his adrenaline, so he had gotten used to missing a majority of his shots.

“TONY!” Rust called out from the front of the truck, already nearly in the passenger side. “GET THE FUCK IN!” He shouted, proceeding to get in the seat and slamming the door shut. Tony wasted zero time to spin around and damn near diving into the back of it. Crawling forward and taking a hold of his little friend once more, flipping himself over onto his back and attempting to fire upon the police once more, only to hear the click of his gun “SON OF A FUCK!” He screamed out, putting it to the side he grabbed onto the uzi that he had on a strap, hanging around his neck. As he did, Jacket also got into the back with him. Hitting his fist against the side of it to signal Sydney to start driving, which she did. Starting to drive off, going around the underpass to get back through.

Tony pressed his elbows down as he kept his finger away from the trigger. Pushing himself up to sit upright, he leaned against one of the safes inside as he looked up at Jacket. “‘Dis Russian puto better be paying us in strippers and fuckin’ diamonds for what we’re doing out here!” He commented, standing up and keeping one hand on the side of the truck to stop himself from falling. Static came from one of Jackets tape recorders before it spoke, “AGREED.”

They stood there in silence for a moment, any police that were attacking, seeming to have been run over or gunned down by one (or both) of the two in the front, giving them a moment of peace in an otherwise hectic hellhole. They accepted the small breather with open arms, Tony was still trying to come down from the adrenaline rush. Practically shaking like a leaf with heavy breathing, he felt like he was going to puke. The pain from the bullets that slammed against his armor also began to set in, but he couldn’t think about it for long. They had work to do.

The truck came to a stop and they looked out, seeing a blown up wall to the left. This must've been where the truck originally was, as they noticed it, Vlad came onto the comms. Catching the attention of everyone, “It’s too slow to unload them, take the whole fucking truck!” He ordered, Scarface grabbed onto his gun before he and Jacket got out of the truck, taking in the surrounding area while Bain followed up. “I’m sending in Bile to pick you guys up! Just hold out until he shows up!” He told them, Sydney and Rust running into the small structure, Rust going to the doorway and staying next to it against the wall.

Tony felt a hand grip his wrist which pulled him away quickly, over to some pile of bricks. Tony sat down and leaned against it, Jacket setting up against a porta-potty. “Ey, Jacket. Jou got an ammo bag?” He asked, tapping his rifle with the uzi. Jacket grabbed the bag that hung around his side and opened it, taking out a pouch of ammunition and tossing it at Tonys feet. He immediately reached forward and took out a few magazines, dropping the current one from the gun and letting it fall onto the ground before sliding in the new one. “I owe you one!” He nodded, turning his head to look at the blown open wall and aim his gun in anticipation. “Get ready, my friends!”

It was almost as soon as he said that that the police began to move in on them once more, jumping over the fences that surrounded their holdout position, others going through the open wall. They looked confused for a second, seemingly not knowing where the crew had gone. They very soon did however as one dropped, courtesy of a bullet from Sydney putting one to the ground. Immediately it became a shootout, bullets flying through the air and both at the clowns and back at the swat team.

These gunfights always filled the crew with a burst of life that of which was something they wished to continue to get, it left people like Tony craving more and others like Jacket being bored out of his mind. But these were the times where being a heister was the greatest thing to them, although it was only temporary- they wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I see you guys, descending now.” Bile spoke through the comms, Jacket looked up to see Biles helicopter above them, he was honestly surprised he wasn't immediately shot at or shot down by the police. But he wasn’t complaining, now that he thought about it he might’ve jinxed them later on. 

He stopped thinking about it for now, instead opting to step out of cover and unload with his LMG. Spraying into the crowd of police for a moment, but much to his dismay and the others surprise- he was quickly shot down, bullets piercing through him rapidly made him fall down and crawl back into cover, bleeding through his shirt and letterman jacket.

He looked down at himself, no one seemed to notice what had just happened to him. Tony being too distracted with a medic to the left, and Rust and Sydney handling a swarm of officers that were rushing the small shack they had set themselves up in. He could barely move right now, it was as if he had been back in that fucking power plant in Hawaii… oh no.

That thought sent fear through him as he lay there, bleeding. It was like he was right back there, that elevator having torn Barnes in half and killed him and Daniels, he could practically feel it all over again. This was.. So similar, that frightened him more than he’d like to admit, and without thinking- words from his mind left his lips through shallow breaths.

“Oh, god.. I’m gonna die…”

The words would be surprising enough to hear from any of the other heisters, but when it was Jacket- Tony full on stopped in his tracks, even with the bullets being shot at him he changed his attention to the sociopath. Jacket was laid down behind cover, his lmg loosely hanging out of one hand as the other gripped onto the letterman jacket, the kingpin could only stare in absolute shock that he had spoken before the realization of what was actually happening hit him, along with a stray bullet going into his vest. It might’ve not allowed it to penetrate his flesh, but it still hurt enough for him to shout out and retaliate with a hail of bullets from his rifle.

Scarface ducked down and moved towards the injured male, catching Rust out of the corner of his eye moving forward from cover to open fire on the police. Seemingly having also seen Jackets roughed up appearance, Tony didn’t bother with the typical “are you okay” shit, it was pretty damn obvious the guy wasn’t. With that thought, he got into cover with him. Setting his gun down on the ground, giving him free use of both hands. “Dios mio.. ‘Dey fucked jou up good..” He mumbled, taking note of the several bullet holes that littered the jacket. It hurt him just to look at, almost being able to feel the wounds himself.

“But jou’re not dead yet, my frien’.” Montana continued, patting around his side until he felt the doctor bag that hung loosely off of him. He gripped it and pulled it forward, opening it and looking around inside of it. He just needed to get Jacket up right now, up and back into the fight. They were so close to being done here, Bile was right above them. He couldn’t be lost like this, fuck that!

He reached into the bag and grabbed hold of the morphine, he could try to patch him up when they were in the truck. For now he just needed to get him moving and in not so much pain, he pressed the tip of it against Jackets arm. “We need you, amigo..” He mumbled, injecting Jacket with the morphine. It didn’t stop the pain, but it allowed him to move once more. He grabbed onto Tony immediately, “COVER ME, PENDEJOS! I'M GETTING JACKET INTO THE TRUCK!” He shouted out to the others, wrapping one arm around him and taking a hold of the hand that hung over his shoulder.

With Jacket being able to move a little on his own, it made the process of getting Jacket up on his feet a little easier. The two moved as fast as Jacket could, he leaned heavily on the smaller male which was to be expected. “C’mon, mang- we’re almost there.. Stick with us, alright?” He told Jacket as they rounded the back of the truck. With Montanas help, Jacket got onto the back and laid down. “Here, if jou think you can do anythin’-” Tony said, throwing the doctor bag around him into the truck and to Jacket. 

The loud whirring of the helicopter blades caught his and the others' attention, before the static of Bain coming through the comms followed it up. “Get in the truck and you’ll be outta here!” He told them, no one objected or waited a moment longer. Tony quickly entered, with Sydney and Rust rushing to the front of it and entering. Scarface got down next to Jacket, shaking as the truck did while being lifted off of the ground and beginning to go into the sky. “That’s how you get a fuckin’ Payday!” Rust cheered from the front with a laugh from Sydney, Tony chuckling before looking back down at Jacket. 

“Jou’re gonna be okay..” He told him, taking a deep breath before grabbing onto the doctor bag he had thrown in. “I’ll make damn sure of it.”

[playedvillain]

To Jacket, “You’re surprisingly strong for how slender you appear.” Was Sokol checking him out? Did he just compliment him? The world will never know.

Random Asks / Always Accepting!

He looked over to Sokol away from the furniture that he was just helping move. At the edges of his lips was the tug of a smirk. It was a trait of his that had surprised people before, pretty much since teenage hood his body had done a bad job reflecting his actual strength. Skinny arms mixed with a complete aversion to showing off his chest and wearing purposefully baggy clothes had that sort of effect.

All of that in mind it surprised him to hear Sokol remark upon it. There was only clear reasonable explanations for it and he couldn't say which he'd prefer. Mostly because of just how under wraps he kept his feelings on anything.

"Regular activity is key to a healthy body." Usually a line he used in an ironic sense during heists but in this insistence it was an actually relevant explanation. Since taking up the mask he had recovered the strength he lost in the down time between leaving the military and putting on the mask.

"You are also doing a good job." He gestured towards Sokol. Falcon was no slouch when it came to activity. Whether or not he was returning the compliment or checking him out in return was unclear.

[unnperson]

thinking   about   jacket   n   PUPPY   in   the   safehouse   “hanging   out”   and   it’s   just   them   S...   Sitting   there.   saying   Nothing.   maybe   a   cassette   tape   playing   every   now   and   then...   thumbs   up   /   nod   /   shrug   in   response   from   PUPPY.   they’re   just   chillin!   :)

[playedbetter]

@ko3ak​

can we get sokol and jacket playing videogames?

Tournament nights get competitive in the safehouse basement.

[eterniivexx]

Finally remaking my pinned posts, as I've got a lot more characters to add and I'd like things to show up in the tags for once.

Howdy! Names Michael/Dean/Vincent (take your fucking pick I don't care), welcome to my x reader blog. Not sure what these are officially called but that name seems close enough.

I'm 15 years old and I write for a lot of characters. The rules and characters I do write for will be under a read more, I got a lot more canon characters to write for than ocs. The ocs are basically just there for my friends.

(again, characters + rules under the cut!)

Rules, first off.

Obviously, no nsfw. That should be obvious but it's Tumblr and people can be weird, so, feels safer to say it.

I won't take on new characters to write just bc you asked me to! Seriously, what the fuck!

I have the right to deny any request I want, it's rare for me to do so but that is still there.

No, I refuse to write any yandere shit. If you even ask for it I'll block you immediately.

Now, onto the characters I write for.

Canon Characters

Ash Williams

Arthur Morgan

John Marston

Trevor Phillips

Postal Dude

Johnny Gat

Jacket (Both the Hotline Miami + Payday verse)

Wolf (Payday)

Vinnie Cannoli

J.D (Heathers)

Tony Montana

John Wick

Nick (Left 4 Dead 2)

Frank West

Chuck Greene

OCs

Rusty Caldwell

Jack Cliff

Aaron Trouble

Axel Wright

Shane Galaxy

Reilly North

Mac Limit

Miles Ive

Sev Voorhees

Ash Dovahkiin

Maverick

Vulture

Verge

[playedbetter]

Jacket Verses

This will be updated as verses are added or developed.

Main Verse (Formerly, Payday Verse)

Following the plot of Payday 2 & 3 among with the time between games. The conspiracy side of the plot may come up or not depending on the preference of the other mun.

Jacket has unique ties to the conspiracy to unravel if it's present in the plot.

Misc Verse

For any thread where the verse is unclear or non-developed or one off AUs.

[the-devils-toybox]

Okay, so normally I wouldn’t ask people about adding characters before I do, but I want to get opinions;

I’m a decently big Hotline Miami fan, and since I’ve been playing as Jacket more in Payday 2, I’ve been considering maybe taking him on in here... problem is, given the series, I know Hotline Miami might be a bit of a hard sell for some due to its more graphic nature.

Now, yes, I do have Alucard on this blog, but I feel there’s a bit of a difference between the king of vampires being gory, and some dude in a mask with some serious issues upstairs to the point of beating in faces with a baseball bat(not that it’d be his entire character on this blog or anything, I do wanna try to flesh him out a bit more). So, I guess what I’m asking here is...

If I added Jacket, would anyone mind? 

(Real quick thing I wanna mention; if I do a Payday 2 verse, he’s a completely separate person, especially given the finality of Hotline Miami 2, and the possibility that Hotline Miami is just a game in Payday 2. Jacket is confirmed canon to Payday, but no matter how you look at it, the chances of him being the Jacket are slim.)

[gunmetalgrey-trashpile]

00? . H E A D C A N O N | presents and more things alex is emotionally attached to (all verses)

gold hoops formerly mummy moran’s, given to alex when she’s around 14. one of the few things mummy moran has left of her family, these are incredibly sentimental to her, not that she has ever explained that to alex. heaven knows i’m miserable shirt from jasper for the last christmas they spent together. she can’t bring herself to wear it anymore. gun necklace a gift to herself after her first payday, to replace her dog tags which she can’t wear on jobs anymore as they could give her away. it’s about the same weight, sometimes she’ll put her black ring on this when she is working. smiths ‘86 tour shirt from @epiitaphs after they reconnect. possibly her favourite shirt ever? black coat a christmas present from severin, the only coat she will wear other than the leather jacket. pretty much reserved exclusively for black tie events or when it is snowing out. smiths meat is murder shirt formerly severin’s, was donated to alex when it went missing in the wash. it still has his initials on the wash tag so it didn’t get lost at school. black ring a gift on the anniversary of loosing will to herself. see the necklace above, as this isn’t always on her hands. WATCH alex was given this for her 21st birthday from the moran parents, she doesn’t wear it often but she does hang onto it. she changes the strap to black leather when she’s around 27-28. throwing knives a gift from @epiitaphs once they start working together, some beautiful black throwing knives. probably more of a gift to himself given how often she has used them whilst working.

[triblu]

Lil bit more fun ideas that i felt like thinking while cooking mac and cheese:

The payday gang's hideout turned into a safehouse for survivors a perfect spot for some unprepared survivors to bust in and find a squad of heisters well versed in defending their home

The unhinged heisters (i.e wolf, Jacket, and Jimmy) all completely scaring the shit out of the survivors with how much enjoyment they get out of mowwing through hordes of zombies

Maybe the heisters end up stealing CEDA for a less than reputable source and end up getting stuck after a double cross

Maybe some more locations pre-green flu like Nick getting caught up in the golden grin heist

Francis losing his bike to chains afterthe biker heist?

Also

✨✨Cloaker hunter ✨✨

Where the hell is all the payday 2 x left for dead 2 fanfiction

There was only like one i saw one from 13 years ago and the writing aged prettyy bad

BUT LIKE ITS SO PERFECT

4 heisters dealing with an apocalypse of their own making and swapping from robbing banks to scavenging from the most dangerous zombie ridden locations

Or imagine the interactions between the survivors and heisters now on equal footing

Nick happy to meet fellow criminals

Bill easily recognizing them from the elevator of mercy hospital

The rest knowing full well the infamy of the clown masked heisters

Maybe they have to track down some more team members

Jacket on a zombie killing spree

Jimmy coked out of his mind in a safe house

Hoxton breakout but with zombiesss baybee

And likely the majority of them arent immune, and maybe we'll see some turned heisters

OR TURNED POLICE OHOHOHOHOHOHO

Just musing and hoping someone writes this

[gcnedark]

So my Payday server is filled with A) Active Payday rpers and B) Funny motherfuckers

[playedvillain]

Given the things they go through on the daily, fps-gaming must be the last thing on Sokol’s mind. Like real life Counterstrike! he found himself thinking one time with particular relish as he beat back the onslaught of cops. Sure, the adrenaline and the payout after was nice, but even you could get tired of doing the things you liked so many times. As of late, he often toyed with the idea of retreating back into his life before Payday. Back to a time where he could play computer games all day and live life without worry.

The communal computer terminal in the safe house always called out to him. Unsure of who it belonged to, so it's only this time of the night where he switches it on for some very indulgent gaming. Tonight, he dusts the cobwebs off his steam account (he's surprised the password still works), and re-downloads STALKER.

The opening credits of the game cuts into the middle of an elaborate fight sequence with some wasteland baddie-- someplace he must've left off, which Sokol clumsily navigates. But after a few minutes, the muscle memory kicks in and so does the unexpected surge of nostalgia. A pang of longing as he looks at the modded rifles in his inventory; his 16 year-old self, schoolboy staying up too late on a Monday night, poring over weapon mods to figure out the best piece of metal to take into battle. Things may have changed, but The Zone hasn't-- it's still as foreboding as before and brimming with peculiarities to explore.

He only notices the reflection when the dark loading screen comes on: a shock of blonde against the backdrop of dust. Jacket. Jacket, who scares him more than the eldritch horrors present in-game. Sokol tabs out of the game rapidly like he's been caught watching something he shouldn't have.

“ What the fuck...? ” It comes out sounding more annoyed than surprised-- which totally isn't his intention, by the way. Without the harsh contours of the chicken mask, Jacket looks softer beneath the dimmed lighting. Gentler, like a young boy roused from sleep. Has Jacket always looked this good-looking? A thought Sokol immediately strangles until it dies out into a smear of shame. “ You-- why are you not asleep? ”

He has plenty of gaming apparatus in his room; a NS64; an arcade cabinet of his game of choice, Hotline Miami. Ever since his teenage years gaming has been his biggest hobby (he's not sure what he'd be doing without it) and has seen him through a lot. Out of the members of the gang he thinks the only one who could rival his love of them is Joy, which makes him wonder who put out the computer as she had her set up in the van outside. Really though, it didn’t matter to him.

Still when he hears somebody moving around it in the middle of the night, from his comfortable place on his couch sorting through some records gifted to him. He perks his head up as he tries to figure out whose footsteps and movements he’s hearing. He can only cross off Houston and Joy, they’re both too light-footed to be it.

Giving up on that method he quietly pokes his head out of his room and then moves to where the communal computer lives. It looks like it’s Falcon who’s using it tonight. Playing a shooter game that’s familiar, although he hasn’t played it himself. Probably saw ADs for it.

He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even really move from the spot his found with a decent enough view to have identified Sokol. By all rights now that his curiosity has been stated he should go, before Sokol notices him. His legs don’t move despite that. Some part of him wonders why Sokol is even up so late.

Before he can get his legs to move or decide to ask, he gets noticed. While nothing on his face betrays it he laughs a little on the inside at the sight of Sokol jumping in his own skin. It then occurs to him that he did not grab his tape player, oh well, thankfully he also carries a notepad and pen, both items that never leave the pockets of his varsity Jacket.

Approaching the desk and Sokol he writes his response which he shows once in the light of the monitor. “Could ask the same question.” He then quickly adds, scrawled in readable but not pretty handwriting. “Didn’t get to sleep; was sorting through some stuff.”

[kxllerblond]

PAYDAY VERSE

I RP with my Jacket/ @notanicepcrson​ and kind of have a verse built up at this point so I might as well jot it down now that it might come up with other mutuals and I’ve got some established stuff with other canons aaaaa.

- Clark is essentially just an informant. He’s got ears and eyes everywhere in his main verse so I figured it’s not much of a stretch to state he’d be a decent asset to the Payday gang.

- He’s not a member though, just someone that pops by every now and again to talk to Dallas or to Bain through on-location, secure calls. 

- By default, he’s not romantically involved with Jacket. Y’know multi-ship and multi-verse.

- Still a cambion in this verse and no one knows (yet). 

- Has a vague professional history with Wick as in they probably ran into each other at some point before Payday. Neither acknowledge any familiarity though.

- Clark gets along best with Chains and Dallas. Chains mainly because I used to RP him and because I sAID SO. Dallas because heist dad and because he seems like he has his shit together the most and obvs because he deals with Dallas the most when he drops by for briefings and stuff.

- If Clark doesn’t like something in the safehouse common rooms, he just replaces it. For example, the coffee maker. 

- Clark does not like 99% of the cast by default and prefers to not run into them when he stops by for his meetings with Dallas/etc.

[hoynovoy]

'Younger's Best Author Parodies, From Quinn Tyler To Edward L.L. Moore

New York media has been the backdrop for what feels like millions of TV shows about women chasing their dreams. But so few get it right. (I’ll never forget the series in which a magazine editor berates a writer, “You didn’t even leave space in this story for ads!” Which, for the uninitiated, is something an editor would never be concerned with.) But despite Younger’s outlandish premise — a rom-com about a 40-year-old woman passing for 26 — it’s become perhaps the most authentic show ever about the world of book publishing. Through seven seasons, it’s delivered plots that lived and died by the peculiar inner workings of publishing — and managed to make dishy twists out of inside-baseball stuff like bulk sales and imprint/parent company dynamics. Don’t tell anyone who worked on my own novel, but the jargon I tossed off in conversation? Hilary Duff taught me all of it.

The best part of Younger’s evolution into an industry love letter is its prescient author characters, who always feel ripped from the splashiest book world conversations. See: this season’s Greta Thunberg dupe, played to yellow-slickered perfection by Nadia Alexander. “She has our favorite name from Season 7,” writer and executive producer Dottie Zicklin tells Bustle. “Füpa Grünhoff. Her name wouldn’t clear [with the show’s lawyers] until the umlauts were added!”

Füpa is just the latest in the show’s list of standout faux scribes, whose spot-on plotlines were in part the work of the show’s anonymous publishing consultant, who helped guide the staff on the industry’s trends and conversations. We still can’t reveal his or her identity, but we did get to talk to the consultant — along with Younger creator Darren Star, Dottie Zicklin, and fellow executive producer and writer Eric Zicklin — to get the stories behind how the show’s most iconic fake authors came to life.

Season 1: Jane Krakowski as Annabelle Bancroft

Bancroft, played with nightmare-diva energy by the 30 Rock star, was based on Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell. Star famously made the series based on that book, so an homage to Bushnell — in the form of Bancroft’s iconic scenester who spends her book launch party smoking indoors and fixating on the size of the crowd — felt like a safe place to start testing author parodies. “I thought Jane was hilarious playing [a version] of my friend Candace,” Star says. “She really made me laugh.” Writer and executive producer Eric Zicklin adds: “We loved her double-bounce off the glass door most of all.” (Bancroft runs into the door while chasing her coke dealer. Twice.)

Season 2: Kobi Libii as Rob Olive

This caricature of John Green — complete with a soulful leather necklace — hit just as I realized I was reading books about dying teen lovers almost exclusively. Libii is perfectly troubled and self-serious as the bestseller workshopping a Fault in Our Stars-style YA romance with Hilary Duff’s Kelsey at lunch. (Ever the brilliant brainstormer, it’s Kelsey who comes up with the idea for a hospice prom.) “We learned the term ‘sick lit,’ and the genre seemed natural for Millennial Press’ readers,” Dottie Zicklin says. “Trying to say John Green” — aka the author of Fault — “without using the words ‘John’ or ‘Green’ led to a great name.” Long live Rob Olive.

Season 2: Justine Lupe as Jade Winslow

With Lupe’s flaky influencer character, Younger dipped into the hazards of traditional publishing chasing Instagram sensations — Winslow gets a huge memoir advance, then fails to deliver a single page of work. (Liza has to cobble together a draft from the girl’s Instagram captions.) “The younger Younger writers brought up Cat Marnell as inspiration,” Eric Zicklin says. Marnell, a former beauty editor and socialite, wrote the smash 2017 memoir How to Murder Your Lifeabout her drug addiction and magazine-world adventures. “That story led Kelsey and Liza into learning about the balance between hype and substance.”

Season 2: Richard Masur as Edward L.L. Moore

Between his aggressive rascalling around the office and his misogyny, the show’s George R.R. Martin homage became its best work in terms of authentic publishing tension holding up plotlines. Martin’s Crown of Kings fantasy series is key to Empirical staying afloat, so he gets away with — well, not murder, but making Liza wear a fur bikini in Times Square might actually be worse? It takes Empirical far too long to do the right thing and drop the author. (Right around the time Moore debuted on the show, publishing was scrambling to reckon with its own legacy of harassment.) And when they do, Moore strikes back, outing Liza as the 40-something she is. The writers didn’t know when they started writing the character’s arc that he would unpin the show’s central secret. “We had no idea how instrumental he would become in exposing Liza,” Star says. “But Richard Masur was so hilarious that I wanted to bring him back and back and back.”

Season 3: Jay Wilkison as Colin McNichol

Remember the guy who asked Kelsey at the end of their first date to take a look at his novel? Or did you try to forget you ever heard the chilling invitation, “Come on in, I’ll print you out a copy”? Ah, the perils of being a single girl presiding over New York’s hottest imprint. Kelsey actually dates Colin for a while anyway — his 600-page epic turns out to be good, by her measure — but it doesn’t stop the character from feeling It-Boy insufferable all the way through his arc. (Which includes Netflix jumping on the option for his book, naturally.) As for the trend that inspired Colin? The big-money debut epic that seemed to dominate publishing years ago — see books that scored massive paydays like The Art of Fielding or City on Fire — has subsided somewhat. But Younger’s publishing consultant says it’s never really gone. “I think there was a moment where books like that were happening more often, but it could still happen,” the consultant says. “Everyone knows attention spans are shrinking, but people still want to find that ‘It Book’ of the year.”

Season 4: Kristin Chenoweth as Marylynne Keller

Younger’s first episode in the post-Trump era featured Chenoweth as a Kellyanne Conway sendup who declares the world post-facts and claims that “Truth is a four-letter word.” (When Charles corrects her math, saying truth has five letters, she purrs: “Not the way I spell it.”) One trillion bonus points to costume design for the jacket that mirrors Conway’s inauguration outfit. “Not to say the show was ahead of the culture,” Dottie Zicklin jokes, “but when the national conversation became about Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer cajoling the truth, we felt like we were already on that topic. Liza was living it from episode one.”

Season 5: Gina Gershon as Chrissie Hart

If you had Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Chrissie Hynde’s Reckless on your rockstar memoir shelf, you were so ready for this plotline starring Gershon in heavy bangs and week-old eyeliner. She plays Chrissie Hart, a famous singer whose memoir Charles and Liza chase to Shelter Island. (Obviously, Chrissie Hart doesn’t email drafts, because the internet is suspect.) The head of a major publisher personally retrieving a manuscript, messenger-style? Zany but plausible, the show’s consultant confirms. “If anyone’s ever worked on celebrity books, they are their own beasts — totally fun and awful and amazing,” the consultant says. “You know what you’re in for, and yet we can’t help ourselves because they sell and they’re glamorous to work on.”

Season 6: Willa Fitzgerald as Audrey Colbert

Fitzgerald, um, kills it in this tribute to wink-wink-did-I-murder-someone-or-not books. Her character goes around shopping a memoir meant to refute her villain status on a Serial-like podcast; she’s chaperoned by Michael Urie’s Redmond. (The only lit agent in New York, according to Younger, but would I want Urie sharing screen time? I would not.) Fitzgerald’s dead-eyed smize is what gives this character her hall of fame status. As Dottie Zicklin says, “Willa was able to give that staredown that says ‘beware’ and ‘I might have sex with you right now.’” Eventually, though, a press outcry kills the project — totally realistic, according to the show’s consultant. “If you are dealing with someone who the public believes to be guilty, or unworthy of a book deal, that can bring a major backlash,” the consultant says. “See Jonathan Mattingly or Josh Hawley — and, years ago, O.J. Simpson.” Yeah, remember If I Did It? Unlike Beaufort Books, the shop behind that one, Empirical eventually declined to publish Colbert’s book.

Season 6-7: Laura Benanti as Quinn Tyler

Quinn is the one Younger author who’s transcended cameo status. Once a Sheryl Sandberg parody in a wiggle dress, she’s become a prolonged meditation on the subject of women doing it all. “To us, the key to Quinn was understanding that she’s just as smart and successful and impulsive, and just as tone-deaf, as any male billionaire,” Eric Zicklin says. This season, Quinn becomes much more than a villain with an endless font of ice-queen comebacks — proof that Younger is well versed in publishing’s golden rule: Never judge a book by its cover.

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