#ok its almost 4 am rn i'm gonna schedule it for the Day

[uncleshits]

I WLD LIKE TO HEAR ABT UR MUSICIAN NURSEY PLS

OH BOY ANON WOULD I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(first off tho I gotta give MASSIVE props to my beloved AU co-creator @dexnursey who actually had the og idea for this AU and is the real mastermind)

(also this au is my BABY and I’d love to talk about it all day, especially the meanings behind each of the songs if anyone would want to hear about it!! (Butterflies alone has its own essay waiting, trust me))

so basic premise is that Nursey’s senior year he takes a music composition and songwriting class as a way to explore creatively with his poetry and also to just get back into music (lots of rich parents make their kids learn at least the basics of a lot of instruments growing up so he actually has some pretty solid musical skill! (in my head he plays piano, guitar and both forms of bass)).

Dex and him have had an on-again-off-again friends-with-benefits situation since Junior year, so inevitably Nursey is Nursey and gets Feelings! Yikes! and writes a few love songs. BUT unfortunately they never actually established if their FWB relationship was exclusive, and towards the end of senior year Dex hooks up with a guy at a kegster, as a way to try to get over his OWN feeling for Nursey. (and texts Nursey about it at 3:07am).

Nursey (feeling especially betrayed because he was about to give Dex the song “Pancakes for Dinner” as a way to reveal his feelings) breaks off the FWB in a pretty nasty fight, and after graduation him and Dex lose touch completely.

he moves to NYC and continues writing songs (now more sad ballads about being heartbroken and lonely and losing soulmates) and a few months after graduation he releases….

“chill.”, an EP full of sad songs with good lyrics with themes of heartbreak and loneliness, but less polished instrumentals and recording, it has a very “made at home” vibe, but it's good enough that it picks up steam and he actually gains a pretty sizable following in the indie music scene! he’s pretty secretive about the inspiration for his songs, but it's pretty obvious to anyone who’s listened to even one of the songs that he fell pretty hard out of love :(( he also doesn’t share his music with anyone but Chowder and Lardo (who he commissioned to make the art for the cover). he swears them both to secrecy, and releases it all under the name “d.m.n.” to avoid Dex finding out about his music and heartbreak. he abandons all of the love songs he wrote before him and Dex ‘broke up’ and none of them make it onto the EP.

but in the year that follows he works through a lot of his own feelings, and he finishes kinda ‘mourning’ his relationship and friendship with Dex. he writes more songs during this time, and eventually digs up some of his old songs from senior year and reworks them until they end up on his new album...

“freckled” has more themes of missed opportunities and almost mourning, but it also has his love songs for Dex, full of wistfulness, longing and overall excitement and giddiness at being in love.

lyrically, it’s just as good as “chill.”, but the instrumentals are all a lot stronger, with full bands or even orchestras for most of the songs. he records and mixes some of the songs from senior year completely on his own, though, which he says in interviews is to “preserve the unpracticed artist” that he was when he wrote them. (one night, drunk, he tells Chowder that it’s actually because he didn’t want the band to see him cry while he made them).

there's no one real ending, as this is where the AU splits off, with some versions having Dex stumble onto Nursey’s live-stream where he plays the songs and talks about his “unrequited love from college”, some versions where Dex’s sister unknowingly drags him to one of Nursey’s concerts, and so on and so on.

my personal favorite is one where Dex is a fan of d.m.n. (not knowing it’s actually Nursey) because so many of the songs just resonate with him. he ends up going to one of his concerts in NYC and once Nursey comes on stage he gets hit with “holy shit these are all Nursey’s holy shit Nursey was in love with someone holy shit holy shit holy shit” and again it splits into several different endings after that (all of which I’d be DELIGHTED to talk about)

(There’s also eventually a third album I’d love to make if anyone would be interested 👀👀👀)

seriously tho i barely even scratched the surface of this au but its just..... So Good and i could think about it all day