#pre-season 03 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sl-ut · 2 years ago

Text

you should probably leave

pairing: pre-outbreak!joel miller x fem!reader

description: joel is enamoured by his new neighbour, but old patterns will always be his downfall.

warnings: UNEDITED, slight age gap, slight smut, implied unprotected piv, protected piv, swearing, alcohol consumption, insecurity, angst, reader is given a birthday (she's a sag like me)

words: 10.8K (my longest fic to date)

date posted: 14/03/23

part two

(inspired by you should probably leave by chris stapleton)

OCTOBER 12, 1998

The weather was something that she was unsure if she could ever get used to. For her entire life, she had spent the entirety of the late autumn months dreading the first snowfall of the season before lugging out her extensive collection of knitted sweaters and fur-lined boots. Instead, her little archive of winter clothing was left in a cardboard box in her childhood bedroom, along with the majority of her other belongings that she had not brought with her on her grand adventure–if you could even call it that.

The University of Texas at Austin had not been her first choice of school, or her second, or third; she actually had never even imagined going to school any further than a few hours from her hometown in Pennsylvania, and yet there she was, standing in front of her brand-new home, sweltering under the harsh Texan sun as she struggled to unload her packed car all on her own. Well, to call it her home would be a pretty tight stretch, as well as to label it as “brand-new.”

The small bungalow-style house had caught her eye on a flyer in the grocery store, a listing for one female roommate in a cul-de-sac not too far from the city. It wasn’t exactly her dream home by any means, with an ugly yellow exterior and a kitchen that could certainly use an updating, but it she had recently been forced out of her own apartment due to her previous roommate preferring her boyfriend to live their with her instead and it was the nicest of the few places within her price range that would also accommodate the mutt she’d rescued during her first year. All things considered, it was quite literally perfect for her situation–plus her new roommate seemed to have been at least more considerate of her boundaries than the last, which gave her some hope that things might actually work out.

Y/n grunted at the weight of the box, cursing herself internally for enrolling in school and owning so many textbooks as she lugged it up the front steps, dropping it just inside the door. She couldn’t help but grimace as she glanced up, meeting the watchful gaze of Manny, his furry little head tilting curiously–likely wondering why she was making so much ruckus and interrupting his nap.

“Lazy ass,” she muttered under her breath at him, kicking the box to the side before trudging back out the door.

The next few boxes were filled with clothes and shoes, fortunately for her spine. She hauled several out, dropping each of them to the pavement of the driveway carelessly as she wiped at her sweaty forehead, apparently too enthralled in the work to notice the beat up truck as it turned into the neighbouring driveway.

“Hey there,” she turned to find a young man, his hair combed back to expose his effortlessly charming face to her, “You need a hand?”

She glanced down at the boxes at her feet, “I wouldn’t wanna bother you.”

A young girl appeared at his side, wide eyes peering over at the older female curiously. The man shrugged, puffing out his broad chest as he moved. Y/n almost laughed at how obvious he was being, only seconds after meeting her. The man gave off the impression that he had always thought fairly highly of himself, probably the quarterback of the high school football team, maybe even involved in the armed forces–the navy, she was betting. He crossed the barrier between the two driveways in two long strides, extending his hand out to her as he came closer.

“I’m Tommy,” he flashed her a grin, his accent coming out thicker than it probably would have normally. He glanced over his shoulder, motioning for the young girl to follow him into the neighbouring yard, “This is my niece Sarah.”

Y/n smiled politely, shaking his hand lightly, “Hi, I’m Y/n. I guess it’s nice to meet some of my new neighbours.”

“Well, Sarah, here, is your neighbour. Me, I live–”

“What happened to Stephanie?” Sarah interrupted, “I didn’t know she was moving.”

Y/n turned her attention to the young girl, “She isn’t, we’re just living together now.”

Sarah’s mouth formed an ‘o’, the gears visibly turning in her head as she formulated her next question, “Are you guys dating?”

“Sarah!” Tommy choked on his spit, “I’m sorry–”

“It’s okay,” Y/n chuckled at his response before turning back to the young girl, “No, we’re not. I guess she just didn’t wanna be living here all on her own anymore.”

Tommy’s shoulders relaxed, the mortified expression leaving his features in favour of one that she might have even considered relief. He shook his head at his niece, giving her a hard stare, “I’m sorry about her. I figured that she would have some better manners by now–my mistake.”

Sarah swatted at him, a pout appearing on her lips as her brows furrowed. The girl didn’t quite understand how the question may have been taken with offence by some, and was quite miffed by her uncle’s insult.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Y/n affirmed, “I think it’s actually a good thing that she knows about that kinda stuff.”

Tommy glanced down at the boxes, clear discomfort appearing on his features, “Alrighty then, how about these boxes?”

Y/n gave in, offering Tommy one of the heavier of the three boxes, while shifting the smallest and lightest to the young girl, who had been adamant in helping out. She instructed them to just drop the boxes to the floor by the door, not looking to take up much more of their time.

A loud gasp escaped Sarah, her wide eyes falling on the mutt, who had appeared to have been equally as excited to see her as he rushed over, tongue lolling out of his mouth and tail flapping wildly. Sarah squealed when he barrelled into her, a fit of giggles leaving her mouth as he brought her to the ground and began to cover her face in slobbery kisses.

“Manny!” Y/n groaned, grasping the dog’s collar and pulling away enough for Sarah to sit up off of the floor, “Sorry, he’s just convinced that everyone wants to be his friend.”

“I’ll be his friend!” Sarah beamed, reaching out and squishing the dog’s face in between her palms, “I mean… Can I?”

Y/n shrugged, “As long as it’s okay with your…” She glanced at Tommy for help, unsure about Sarah’s parentage situation. He’d already made it clear that he did not live next door, but had never explicitly stated who did.

“You’ll have to ask your dad, Sarah,” He chastised her, “Anyway, we should get out of your hair now, let you settle in.”

Y/n nodded, “Yeah, thank you for the help, though.”

“No problem, ma’am,” He winked, southern charm on full display as he stepped out onto the front step, “Anytime for a pretty girl like you. C’mon, Sar.”

Sarah begrudgingly offered the needy pup one more affectionate squeeze before following after her uncle, leaping off of the step and bounding across to her own front yard. Tommy paused, hand resting on the railing of the step and giving it a firm shake. His lips pursed into a line as he let out a small huh as the bannister shifted out of its place, then back in under the pressure.

“Yeah, Steph said there were all kinds of little things wrong with the place,” Y/n noted, “But hey, if it’s got four walls and a roof, it’s good enough for me.”

He chuckled at her, shaking his head, “You know, my brother and I are contractors, we could come over and help you fix things up if you guys wanted.”

She hummed, “I’ll mention it to Steph. Wouldn’t wanna just start making changes to her house while she’s not here, would I?”

Tommy hummed, “‘Spose that’s true. Anyway, I should go see where she ran off to, but I sure hope I’ll be seeing you around.” He shot her a cheeky wink before jogging back over to the neighbouring yard, leaving her and Manny among the mess of boxes in the entryway.

Y/n huffed, glancing around at the mess, then at the furry little beast at her feet, who waited patiently for her to begin offering him her love and attention. She rested her hands on her hips, shaking her head softly, “Well, let’s just get this done, boy.”

– – –

Joel grunted as he clambered in through the side door of his home, sighing in relief as he slipped out of his heavy work boots and dropped the armload of groceries onto the kitchen counter. He could hear the TV on in the living room, drowned out by Sarah’s yell of a greeting. He rushed to put away the groceries, sticking the brown paper bags in the recycling before stepping into the dimly lit sitting area.

Tommy was reclined on the couch, slumped into the worn leather like a pile of mashed potatoes as he balanced his can of Budweiser on his bent knee. He nodded to his brother briefly as he lifted the beer to his lips, hardly taking his eyes off of the football game on the screen as Joel plopped down next to him. The older brother leaned forward, pressing a small kiss to Sarah’s head so as to not disturb her as she worked on her homework on the coffee table in front of the couch before finally copying his brother’s position.

“The hell took you so long? You left the site the same time I did, and I had to go pick this shithead up from school,” he playfully kicked at Sarah’s leg, “plus I helped your new neighbour move in.”

“Supermarket was a zoo,” Joel moaned as he ran his palm flat over his face, then furrowed his brow, “What new neighbour?”

Tommy nodded his head back in the direction of the mustard yellow house, “Chick next door got a new roommate.”

“Uncle Tommy was flirting with her,” Sarah chimed in, not taking her eyes off of the math textbook in front of her.

Joel rolled his eyes, “Now tell me why I’m not surprised.”

Tommy shook his head, taking another large gulp of beer, “I know what you’re thinking, but this girl’s different. She’s not from ‘round here. Not sure where, but she’s got an accent. Canada, maybe.”

“You know what a Canadian accent sounds like?” Joel scoffed, knowing that his brother was prone to drawing his own conclusions.

“Well, no,” Tommy frowned, “But I imagine it might sound like that. Doesn’t matter, I think I’m gonna ask her out.”

Joel grunted in response, turning his eyes to the game on the screen.

“She wasn’t flirting back,” Sarah grinned up at the two men, her eyes lighting up at the sight of her father’s growing smirk and giggling as his own laughter came tumbling out. Tommy kicked her again, only this time with a little more force, “What? You invited yourself over there and were all,” She puffed her chest out and deepened her voice, “Anything for a pretty girl like you.”

Joel rested a palm on his belly as he shook with laughter, his other hand landing on the top of his daughter’s head affectionately as Tommy crossed his arms, sulking.

“I think she was flirting back,” he argued.

“She wasn’t,” Sarah reaffirmed.

Tommy leaned forward, “Now how the hell would you know anything about flirting, huh? You been doin’ a lot of it at school?”

Her face burned in embarrassment, sputtering for a response, “No, that’s gross!”

Joel frowned at her, shaking his head in feign sternness, “You better not be. Otherwise I might need to break out grandpa’s old hunting rifle.”

She didn’t utter another word, simply gathering her things in her arms and rushing off to her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her as the laughter of her father and uncle followed her every step.

OCTOBER 17, 1998

Just under a week had passed since he’d first caught wind of his new neighbour, and Joel had yet to even see this woman. He’d noticed the new car in the driveway, and he’d picked up on the presence of the dog fairly quickly, especially after he’d caught Sarah tossing some of the vegetables from her dinner over the fence for him. Joel hadn’t paid it much mind, he was far too busy to be concerned with some young girl who didn’t seem to be causing much issues.

He’d had words with Stephanie several times in the past; once for blatantly smoking pot on

her front step when they were heading out for the day, then for leaving her garbage bin too close to his driveway, causing him to back into it and scratch the paint on his truck, and then once more when she’d had a little get together that ended up lasting until 4am, when the police arrived. He would normally have called himself a narc for having the party shut down, but it was keeping Sarah awake and the door had been shut in his face when he went over to ask politely.

The day had been long, and normally he would have refused Tommy’s invitation to head over to one of the local dive bars, but after dealing with the shit-show that had gone on at the job site that day, he really needed a drink. Sarah was out of the house, anyway, having slept over at a friend’s house, so there was quite literally nothing keeping him away.

“Brother’s night, my ass,” Joel grumbled into his glass, glancing over to the corner booth, where his brother had joined a pretty brunette, leaving Joel to himself at the barside. He waved at the bartender, motioning for another top-up of his whiskey.

A figure appeared at his side, leaning onto the bartop to call out to the bartender. Joel glanced over, his eyes raking over her radiant side profile in awe. He shot his gaze back to the glass of amber liquid in front of him, then briefly over to the girl once more. His eyes narrowed in on her pursed lips, noting how her brows furrowed in frustration as the bartender migrated to the other side of the bar. She turned to him suddenly, and Joel whipped his head back around to ensure that he wouldn’t appear to be some creep–though he was positive he certainly had been.

“Is it always like this here?” She asked him, tilting her head. “I swear, I’ve gone to three different spots along this bar, and buddy keeps looking in the other direction.”

He cleared his throat, “You not from around here?”

She smiled sheepishly, “Is it that obvious?”

Joel chuckled, “Just a little. You gotta get his attention, be firm. Here,” he tucked his index finger and thumb into his mouth and let out a loud whistle, nodding at the bartender as he rushed over.

“Two vodka crans, please,” The girl smiled prettily at the bartender, then scoffed as he turned to begin pouring the drinks, “Shit, I guess I could stand to learn a thing or two.”

“It comes with time,” He frowned, realising that he may have implied that he was at the bar every other night, “I mean, not that I’m–”

She touched his arm softly, electricity running through her fingertips and into his bicep, “Hey, I’m not here to judge you if you’re not here to judge me, heh?”

He nodded, opening his mouth to speak once more when another figure appeared at her side. His smile dropped, taking in the sight of his next door neighbour, probably one of the last people he wanted to see on his night off.

“What the fuck is taking you so long–oh,” Stephanie narrowed her eyes at the older man, who simply turned and took another long swig of his whiskey, “Hello, Joel.”

“Stephanie,” he drawled, “How you doin’ tonight?”

She smirked at him maliciously, “Fine. Y/n, this is the guy I was telling you about.”

Oh, this is Y/n, he thought to himself, suddenly understanding Tommy’s instant interest in the girl.

“All good things, I hope,” he sighed into his glass.

She shook her head, “Oh, just that you’re the neighbour from hell, and that you’re a narc.”

Y/n tucked her bottom lip in between her teeth, visibly uncomfortable at the confrontation. His eyes fell to her mouth at the movement, wondering what it might feel like to take that same lip in between his own teeth.

“You keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night, Steph,” he huffed, praying to any god that would listen that she hadn’t completely turned Y/n against him.

Stephanie sneered at him, grasping one of the drinks from the bartop and stomping off, leaving a thick tension over the remaining two. Joel met Y/n’s gaze once again, noting the visible embarrassment on her face as she began to laugh slowly.

“Sorry about her,” She laughed nervously, “For the record, I know that she’s a little dramatic.”

“‘T’s fine,” Joel grumbled, swallowing the last gulp of whiskey, “You ain’t gotta apologise for her, she can feel however she wants about me.”

Y/n chuckled, a genuine one this time and Joel couldn’t help but carve the melodious sound into his memory, “I’m Y/n, by the way.”

He nodded, accepting the soft handshake that she offered, “So I’ve heard.” He noticed the slight furrow of her brow before he clarified, “I’m Sarah’s dad.”

Realisation crossed her face, “Oh, Sarah! She’s a real sweetheart.”

“Yeah, she is,” he smiled softly at the complement, “She sure likes you, and I’m assuming that it’s your pup that I’ve caught her feeding her broccoli to?”

Y/n giggled at him, “Huh, I’d noticed that he was especially gassy lately. Here I was thinking it was something in the water.”

Joel let out a loud laugh, then realised that he had not actually introduced himself, “Shit. Sorry, I just–” he coughed, “I’m Joel.”

“So I’ve heard.” She repeated to him, clearing her throat before turning to gaze at him through her lashes with a soft smile, “So Joel, is this seat taken?”

– – –

Y/n had not expected to have enjoyed herself quite so much when Stephanie forced her to go to the grubby little saloon, feeling incredibly out of place among all of the southerners. She had been hesitant to leave Manny on his own so soon after moving in, but the last thing that she had wanted to do was get on Stephanie’s bad side so early on. Then, she’d stumbled upon the devastatingly handsome man sitting all on his own at the bar, and her tune changed drastically.

She sat on that stool for the better part of two hours after Stephanie had fucked off, leaving them to become acquainted with one another. Joel had offered her another drink, which she accepted under the terms that she would buy the next round, and against his better judgement, he found himself doing a shot of tequila with her as well. She smirked to herself when she took note of the flush that had crawled into his cheeks, and how cheerful his dark chocolate eyes looked under the dim lighting of the bar.

Y/n had noticed Tommy in the corner booth, and how he had been blatantly pressing his southern charm onto the brunette under his arm in the very same way that he had to her, which made her feel much better knowing that he couldn’t possibly be that upset about her doing the exact same to his brother.

Her hand had come to rest on his knee, leaning across to invade his personal space animatedly as she spoke, her own cheeks flushing each time that he grinned or laughed at her words, and she had lost count of the amount of times that she had rubbed her thighs together or considered smashing her lips to his.

Tommy appeared at his side, clutching his shoulder in his firm grasp, “Hey Joel, you think you’re ready–oh, hey, Y/n.” His cheeks had turned red, one hand self-consciously rising to rub at his cheek, where the stark red lipstick stain had once acted as a trophy and was now an admission of guilt. Tommy pursed his lips, “Wasn’t expecting to see you here tonight.”

She shrugged, “Steph forced me out.”

He nodded awkwardly, unsure of how to save himself in this situation.

Y/n turned her head, catching sight of her roommate’s drunken attempt to seduce the bouncer before turning her attention back to the older of the two brothers, squeezing his knee once before sliding off of the stool, “Speaking of, I should probably leave, she’s gonna get us banned from here any minute now. It’s been nice, talking to you, Joel. See you, Tommy.”

Both men watched as she disappeared into the crowd, eyes trailing after her figure longingly.

Tommy huffed, “You think I still got a chance?”

Joel’s shoulders shook in a drunken fit of giggles, lifting his own hand to proudly show off the nine digits that had been marked into his skin, “Nope.”

Tommy’s jaw dropped, clear disappointment on his features before it was quickly replaced by pride, “Well fuck, brother. Didn’t think you had it in you.”

OCTOBER 31, 1998

Y/n wiped at the sweat on her brow, breathing picking up in delight as she turned the corner and the blinding yellow house came into sight. The sun had already begun to set by the time that she and Manny had set out on their evening walk, now settling low on the horizon and casting a golden hue to the world below it as Manny tugged on his leash, obviously also desperate to escape the heat.

A loud honk sounded from behind her, muffled slightly by the music playing over her bulky headphones, drawing her attention to the dark pickup truck as it sped past, Sarah hanging out the back window with a grin on her face as she waved dramatically. Y/n chuckled at the young girl, allowing Manny to lead her into a faster pace as they grew closer to their house.

She slid the headphones down to rest around her neck, pressing pause on her walkman as Sarah rushed towards them. The girl paid very little mind to the woman holding the leash, instead dropping to her knees and reaching out for the excited dog’s face, laughing as he began to lick enthusiastically at her cheek.

“Hi,” her gaze rose to find Joel as he rounded the bed of the truck, hand resting on the top of the tailgate as he tried his best to look casual, “sorry, this one never shuts up about that dog.”

Y/n smiled at him, warmth flooding through her cheeks. She’d only actually spoken to Joel a handful of times since that night at the bar, mostly simple greetings while Sarah occupied herself with Manny. Joel was too awkward of a person to try anything with Sarah present, and Y/n was too compassionate to question him about why he hadn’t bothered to call yet in front of his daughter.

Y/n shrugged, “To be fair, he never shuts up about her, either.”

“Oh did he tell you that?” The man asked, brows raised playfully, “I didn’t know you spoke dog.”

“There are many things you don’t know about me yet, Joel,” She smirked at him, “Oh, happy Halloween, by the way.”

“Right,” Joel raised one hand to stroke his hairy chin, “Yeah, you too.”

Sarah glanced up from Manny’s pleading brown eyes, “Dad forgot.

Joel sent a sharp glare to his daughter, then smiled sheepishly at her, “Not too concerned about a holiday that’s got nothing to do with me, anyway–this one decided she’s too cool for trick-or-treating with dad this year.”

“Oh don’t feel too discouraged, I gave my dad the boot when I was even younger.”

“See?” Sarah pressed, glancing back at her father, “You don’t even like Halloween, I don’t get why you’re mad.”

Y/n widened her eyes and clutched her chest dramatically, “What do you mean, you don’t like Halloween? It’s like, one of the best holidays!”

Joel rolled his eyes, “Oh don’t tell me you’re one of those people.”

She pursed her lips, “And just when I was starting to like you, Miller.”

His eyes met hers, curiosity pooling into the dark mocha irises as he considered her words. He almost appeared apologetic; could he feel guilty about not calling her? Y/n did her best to not appear too shaken by his lack of contact–she hadn’t expected anything from him the next day, but after two weeks and still no call? She’d taken that as a sign that he’d been a tad too drunk when he had been so shamelessly flirting with her, and that he had no intentions of ever pursuing anything.

Y/n was thankful when Sarah interrupted the pair, preventing her from spiralling into a nervous breakdown from her own inner monologue, “What are you dressing up as?”

The woman shook her head with a mischievous smirk on her lips, “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see when you come knocking at my door, huh?”

“No big plans?” Joel tilted his head, “I figured that roommate of yours would have you out on the town.”

She shrugged, “Steph’s out of town. Something about the drinks and the guys being stronger. Looks like it’s just gonna be me and my little guy here,” she gently clapped a hand against Manny’s side, “Well, us and a selection of horror movies.”

Sarah stood up, leaning into her dad’s side with her elbow, “How convenient, my dad will also be home alone tonight.”

Joel dropped his head in embarrassment–just leave it to Sarah to blatantly play the role of her father’s wingwoman. He refused to meet Y/n’s amused gaze, ears burning as Sarah continued.

“And he totally loves horror movies. He watches them all the time.”

“Oh really?” Y/n did her best not to burst out laughing, enjoying the sight of both Joel’s embarrassment and how confidently Sarah was trying to talk up her own father. She crossed her arms over her chest, doing her best to not make it too obvious how much she actually wanted to invite him to join her, but she didn’t want to display too much interest in him if he genuinely had none in her, “Well then maybe he should head to Blockbuster before all of the good ones are rented.”

She raised her brow at him, signalling to him that it was his turn to make a move, as she would not be making any more. He nodded at her, red flooding his cheeks as he tried to muster up the courage to discuss the clear tension between them.

Y/n smiled politely at them both, then glanced down at the heavily panting dog at her feet, “Well, I better get this guy out of this heat. See you guys in a bit, then?” She led the dog past them, glancing back over her shoulder, her lips pursed as she watched Sarah poke at her father’s side sharply.

The young girl smirked at her dad knowingly, remaining silent, though the expression on her face made her thoughts very clear to the man. She scowled at him, crossing her arms over her chest, “Christina’s sister is so right; all boys are stupid.”

The man scowled at his daughter, watching in silence as she moved around him without another word, disappearing through the front door without so much as another glance. Joel scoffed, shaking his head at her, and wondering how the hell his nine year old could be so goddamn right about the situation.

– – –

Joel wiped his hands anxiously across the expanse of his thighs, attempting to rid himself of the nervous sweat that had collected in his palms as he stood on Y/n’s front step, mustering up the courage to finally knock.

“The fuck am I doing,” He cursed to himself, shaking his head as he ran a hand over his face.

Y/n was younger than him; not by a lot, but they were still in very different stages of their lives. He wasn’t willing to admit that he genuinely did like her, and considering that she was still a young woman and still in college, he wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking for with him. Was it just some quick fuck that she wanted? Joel wouldn’t be opposed–hell, he was ashamed that he’d imagined such a thing more than a few times since meeting her–but he wasn’t sure if he could jump into bed with her and then move on with his life, nor could he expect her to be willing to just pick up the role of step-mother to his little girl.

Joel had woken up on October 17, hungover as hell and struggling to recall any of his memories from the night before. He’d forced himself out of bed much earlier than he would have liked, needing to pick Sarah up before her soccer game. The man had stumbled his way into the shower, blindly going through the motions of bathing himself as the warm water slowly began to remove the fog from his mind. It was then, as he had reached out for his bottle of body wash that he noticed the smudge of blue ink on his skin, and then jumping in surprise at the memory of the beautiful woman who had given him her phone number–the woman who had him laughing like he hadn’t in so long and blushing harder than he thought possible–the woman who he hoped was now lying peacefully in her bed next door, preferably all on her own.

The few times that he had seen her since then, he had thought about apologising for not calling and telling her the truth of what had happened, despite his embarrassment. He wanted to ask for it again, but every time, Sarah was there, making a fuss over the little pooch that never seemed to leave Y/n’s side. He wished that he were more confident in himself, more willing to speak to other women even if his daughter was there, but he simply would never be able to look at the young girl again if Y/n were to reject him.

“Shit,” He swore loudly as he turned to rush off of the step, instead booting one of the carefully carved jack-o-lanterns onto the pavement of the driveway and watching in horror as it shattered on impact.

“Joel?” He froze at the sound of the door creaking open behind him, smiling bashfully at the young woman as he did his best to not appear too guilty. Her eyes fell from his flushed face to the mess of orange at his feet, a surprised chuckle leaving her lips, “Damn, you really do hate Halloween, huh? Enough to come over here and start destroying my decorations, anyway.”

He sputtered for an answer, “I–it was an accident, I just knocked it off by accident on my way out–”

“Your way out?” She questioned, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the doorframe, “So what, you were just loitering on my front step?”

He scoffed at her, “I was actually on my way to apologise, but if you’d rather I just get lost…”

Y/n raised a brow inquisitively, “I’m listening.”

“I just–I’m sorry for not calling,” Joel admitted with a sigh, debating whether or not it would be best to explain exactly why, “For what it’s worth, I would have if I hadn’t washed it off by accident.”

An amused expression crossed her features as she mulled over his explanation, “You…washed it off?”

He shrugged and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, “I did.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, as if she were trying to decipher whether or not he was being truthful, “Okay.”

His gaze shifted from side to side, uncertain as to what she meant, “Okay?”

“Okay,” She affirmed, “So what time did you wanna come over tonight?”

Joel swallowed the lump in his throat, “Tonight?”

Y/n shrugged nonchalantly, ignoring the butterflies that slammed at the lining of her stomach and threatened to erupt, “Tonight. You said it yourself, Sarah’s gonna be gone all night, so would you rather be home alone or come over? Otherwise, I’ll just be here by myself, scared and in need of a devastatingly handsome cowboy to protect me from Michael Myers.”

Blush spread across his cheeks, his hands coming up to rest on his hips, “I don’t know about ‘devastatingly handsome’, but I think I could handle some asshole in a mask.”

She grinned at him wickedly, “That’s what everyone thinks, but I guess we’ll see tonight, around eight?”

“Eight.” He confirmed, then glanced down at the mess at his feet, “And sorry about your pumpkin.”

“It’s alright,” Y/n smirked, “You’ll just have to work extra hard to make it up to me.”

– – –

Joel anxiously adjusted his shirt, frowning at himself in the window of her front door. Despite dismissing Sarah’s teasing by claiming that this was in fact, not a date, he’d taken her advice in showering the moment that he had gotten into the house.

He was aware that she was flirting with him, but until he had gotten out of the shower, towel sitting low around his waist as he wiped the steam away from the mirror and took in his shaggy appearance, he had not been at all concerned about what activities the night might lead to. Staring at his own reflection, nervousness quickly began to settle into his bones.

He had made quick work with the clipper, shortening the length of his facial hair after several weeks of negligence and leaving his lower face to be covered by a light stubble. He put a little more effort into his hair than usual, running a thin layer of gel through it while noting to himself that it was probably time for a haircut. He even took things a step further, dabbing a few drops of some woodsy cologne onto his skin; the bottle had gone untouched for two years, having been a Christmas present from his mother.

“Are you wearing cologne?” Sarah asked as she appeared at his side, face painted to resemble a circus clown, “I knew this was a date.”

“It’s not a date,” He argued, doing his best not to jump in fright at her appearance, “Shouldn’t you be out on the town by now, Ronald McDonald?”

“You showered, put on cologne, and you’re bringing candy? It’s a date.” Sarah listed, “And I’m Pennywise, by the way. Christina’s sister is coming to pick me up soon. She says that guys always dress up when she goes out with them because they want her–”

Joel grunted, glaring at his daughter, “I want you to stop hanging around Christina’s sister.”

Sarah ignored his comment, “Is that what you’re wearing?”

Joel glanced down at his outfit–a clean pair of jeans and an old t-shirt that he’d probably gotten out of a beer box or something, “What’s wrong with this?”

“What’s right with it?”

Joel considered his parenting style for a moment, wondering if he would be free of this headache if he had spanked his daughter once or twice in her life. Sometimes he forgot that the girl was only nine years old with how intelligent she was and how much more mature she seemed in comparison to other kids her age.

“It’s not a date, Sarah.”

She rolled her eyes, “It could be. Come on.”

Sarah rushed past him, leading him into his own bedroom as she began to dig through his closet. She frowned with almost every piece that she picked out, tossing them behind her recklessly and ignoring her father’s scolding for the mess that she had quickly created.

“Hah!” The girl pulled out an egg-plant button down and shoved it into his grasp, “I knew you had to have something that wasn’t that ugly.”

He grunted at her, but didn’t reply out of respect for her brutal honesty as he quickly shed himself of the worn t-shirt he’d previously been wearing in favour of the one that Sarah had chosen. Now, as he stood at her front door and internally decided for himself that this was a date, he couldn’t help but thank God for his daughter’s awareness.

Finally, after tugging at the hem of his shirt, he raised a fist and knocked heavily on the door. Joel choked on his own saliva when she appeared in the window, smiling sweetly at him when she pulled the door open. She had already changed into a pair of black yoga pants and a sky blue shirt that exposed just a tasteful amount of her midriff.

“Hi, again,” she breathed, a smile forming on her face, “You look nice, purple is definitely your colour.”

Joel burned, “I–thank you. Sarah picked it out.”

Y/n turned to the girl, who had already ushered the dog up onto the sofa with her, “Well she has a clear eye for style.”

“She definitely thinks so, that girl damn near harrasses me about my clothes everyday.” Y/n laughed out loud, Joel’s ears tingling at the melodious sound, “You look great, too.”

Y/n beamed down at her outfit, shrugging to herself, “Thanks, I thought about keeping my costume on but I wasn’t entirely sure how much you would be into Strawberry Shortcake.”

Joel chuckled at her, glancing down at the object in his hand, “I brought beer, by the way. Wasn’t sure if I should bring anything, or if you even like–”

Y/n reached out, snatching the six pack from his grasp, “Ever the gentleman, cowboy. So, you coming in?”

– – –

The house was filled with laughter, both having nearly finished their first beer as they shared stories freely. Halloween played quietly in the background, though neither of them paid too much attention. Y/n did her best not to physically melt when she felt Joel’s arm drape across the back of the sofa behind her, resisting the urge to tease him for attempting to cover it up by faking a dramatic yawn.

She brushed her fingers along the top of his thigh, smirking to herself as she watched his leg slowly shift closer to her, though he didn’t address the affectionate touch. He spoke to her softly, and made an effort to hold eye contact with her as he did to–she was starting to feel some guilt about the conclusion that he’d drawn about him after he’d failed to call her. Her own gaze continuously fell to his lips as he spoke, and she was sure that he had noticed by the way that his lips began to curl confidently. Her heart hammered in her chest, wondering how much longer she would need to wait before he finally made a move.

Joel, however, was wondering exactly how he possibly could make a move. While feeling confident around her, there was no way to escape the fact that he hadn’t been on a date in at least a year, and he could count the amount of women he’d slept with since Sarah’s mother on one hand. At various points throughout the night, he had considered leaning in to kiss her, but had successfully siked himself out each time. The first time, he’d been interrupted by the pooch who had been jealous of his owner’s attention being focused elsewhere, though he could only blame every other time on his own insecurity.

“Do you want another beer?” Y/n asked as he swallowed the last gulp out of his can, “Or I have wine and pop?”

“Pop,” he scoffed, chest rumbling with quiet laughter.

She raised her hand and slapped his pec as she stood up from the couch, “Fine, you don’t get anything.”

He laughed, watching as she disappeared into the kitchen and shamelessly admiring the shape of her backside in the darkness of the dimly lit living room. He sat there for a few moments, staring at the movie in discontent, sighing as he ran his hand over his face and murmured a nearly silent fuck it, and following after her.

“Is it too late to apologise and get that beer?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him, smirking as she shrugged coyly as she turned and leaned her back against the front of the refrigerator and holding the perspiring can out in front of her, “You’ll have to come get it yourself.”

Joel crossed the small room in two long strides, stopping as the can met his chest, though he paid it little mind as she stepped away from the fridge, pressing a fleeting kiss to his lips. He froze for a second, stomach clenching at the soft touch.

“Sorry,” Y/n whispered, though her tone betrayed how unapologetic she truly was, “Was that okay?”

He didn’t respond, quickly taking the beer out of her grasp and tossing it onto the counter as he cupped her face, capturing her lips with his and pressing her back against the fridge once more. She smiled against his lips, fingers bunching in the material of his plum coloured shirt and tugging him even closer.

His lips were chapped against her own, the telltale sign of a busy man who hadn’t been too concerned with his physical appearance up until now, though she could not picture another kiss that she had received in the last several years that would even compare to Joel’s.

One of his hands fell, fingers splaying around her waist as he pressed even closer, parting his lips as he felt the tip of her tongue prod at the seam and allowing her to seek out his own. He moaned at her taste, fingers wandering to her hip and hesitating, almost as if he had been asking for her permission to move even lower. She grasped his hand, guiding it around to cup her bottom.

Pulling away for air, she giggled softly and fluttered her eyelids open to find him already staring at her with blown pupils. One of her hands slid up his chest, tugging at the collar of his shirt before her fingers trailed over his patchy beard affectionately, “I don’t know if this is too soon, but do you wanna move to my bedroom?”

Joel chuckled at her, squeezing her cheek through her yoga pants, “Lead the way.”

– – –

Joel worried that he might have gone into cardiac arrest as he struggled to catch his breath, back slouched against the headboard as Y/n slumped flush against his chest. The cotton sheets pooled around her hips as she continued to move softly, working them both through the aftershocks of their climaxes. The man sighed in appreciation as her lips continued to slide against his jawline and leave gentle kisses in their wake, her fingers still lost in his dark curls.

Joel’s own hands squeezed her hips as she finally slowed to a stop, helping her slide off of him and smirking to himself at the whine she let out at the loss of contact. She shifted, moving out of his lap and curling into the cool sheets on the bed next to him.

“How was that?” He panted, “Have I done enough to make up for lost time?”

She grinned at him, her own chest rising and falling with her slowing breaths, “I think I recall doing most of the work, actually.”

“Bein’ on top doesn’t mean you were doing any work, sweetheart, I think we both know that.” His eyes fell on the digital alarm clock on her bedside table, grunting to himself as he took note of the late hour, “Shit–how the hell is it ten-thirty already?”

She glanced over to the clock briefly, then back at him, “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Staring down at her nude form, guilt began to eat away at him as he began to slide off of the mattress and begin gathering his clothes that had been scattered around the room.

“Are you leaving?” His back was turned to her as he pulled on his jeans, though he could only imagine the look on her face from the emotion that dripped from her voice; she was disappointed, facing the reality that she would be abandoned after doing something so intimate.

“I mean…” Joel coughed, “Yeah, I should probably leave. Gotta work early tomorrow, and Sarah’s got soccer practice, and–”

“You don’t have to explain yourself,” She sat up, hugging her knees to her chest in an attempt to regain her modesty, “I get it.”

Joel couldn’t help but wonder how many times she’d done this. She seemed disheartened, but not entirely surprised at his decision to head out, as if she was expecting this time to be different from the others–as if she was expecting Joel to be any different from the other shitty guys she’d met since moving to Austin.

“Darlin’,” Joel cooed, coming to sit at the edge of the mattress and cupping her face in his large palms, “It’s not like that. I want nothing more than to stay the night, but I know that I won’t sleep a wink tonight if I do.” His thumb stroked her bottom lip as her mouth slanted into a small, saddened smile. He leaned in, pressing three kisses to her lips, each one longer than the last before pulling back, “Can I get your number? I promise I won’t ask for a third time.”

Y/n smiled at him, kissing him once more before snatching a pen off of the bedside table and scribbling on his hand, “You won’t get it if you ask for a third time, Miller.”

MARCH 12, 1999

Y/n sighed blissfully, gnawing at her lip to prevent any moans of pleasure as Joel worked himself into her over and over, his hips meeting hers with slow, meaningful movements as he did his best to keep both of them quiet. Joel wasn’t normally one for booty calls, though he had hardly seen her in the past few days and couldn’t resist when his mind had wandered while in the shower–and for the first time in what felt like decades, he could rely on the help of soft, feminine touches rather than his own fast and rough tugs.

Her thighs shook, teeth biting into the pillow beneath her face as she pressed her hips back against him and arched her spine in pleasure. She met his thrusts enthusiastically, fingers winding into the sheets tightly.

“Shit,” She gasped, “Joel, I’m gonna–”

“I know,” He rasped, “Shhh baby. Let go, I’ve got you.”

She didn’t hold back, allowing the white hot pleasure to run through her veins, muffling her cries in the plushness of the pillow. Her walls clenched around him, gripping him for everything that she could manage as he fucked her through it, head rolled back in pleasure as his own orgasm teetered over the edge. His fingers tightened around her hips, hauling her back against him a few more times before his seed painted the inside of the condom.

His hands slid up from her hips, one pressing on her back to force her to lay flat against the mattress while the other cupped the soft flesh of her belly to roll her over. Joel took in her figure, eyes scanning her face for any signs of discomfort before dropping to her breasts; the man was absolutely entranced by the shape of her breasts, eagerly pawing at them during makeout sessions and suckling at them with the utmost love and desire as he fucked her. She smiled at him tiredly, hooded eyes admiring his own figure as he slipped out of her, sliding off of the bed and disappearing into the ensuite.

When he returned, he wore a pair of black boxers and carried a maroon washcloth in his hand, carefully parting her legs and sliding the cloth through her folds, puffy and sore from his touch. He whispered an entirely disingenuous apology as he pressed lightly against her abused clit, chuckling to himself as she jumped. Tossing the cloth aside, he settled into the mattress next to her, sliding an arm around her waist and tugging her into his side, sighing in relief at the physical contact.

The rising sun had slowly begun to peek through the blinds, filling the room with a soft glow in the aftermath of the third round. Y/n glanced at the clock on the far wall, sighing to herself as reality settled into her bones. She hadn’t intended on staying so long, especially after how eagerly the both of them had initiated the first round, having allowed herself to remain at his side until she felt his member begin to grow against her thigh once more. Now, after taking him inside of her three times over the past six hours, she knew that she would eventually need to get up and leave–a habit that they both had and hated when they were finished.

She pressed careful kisses into his flesh, lips moulding to the sweaty skin of his shoulder and neck affectionately while her palm rubbed circles into his firm chest. Joel nuzzled his head into her hair, his own lips pressing to the crown of her head as he, too, appreciated the afterglow.

Y/n’s body and heart screamed at her as she finally pulled herself away from him, hopping out of the bed and collecting her clothing from the floor. Joel watched her with sunken eyes, his attempt to remain stoic as he easily recognised what she was doing proving fruitless.

“You don’t–you don’t gotta go just yet,” he called to her, desperation lacing his voice, “Don’t gotta be at the site till eleven tomorrow–”

“Today,” she corrected, “And that’s in seven hours. Besides, I don’t wanna fall asleep and risk having to run into Sarah. I should probably leave.”

He nodded slowly, continuing to watch her as she dressed and fixed her appearance, preparing herself mentally and physically for her four A.M. walk of shame. Joel wanted to call her back to bed again, to convince her to stay with him and promise breakfast in the morning, but instead watched helplessly as she disappeared into the dark hallway, and closed his eyes disappointedly at the sound of the front door closing behind her.

JUNE 2, 1999

Golden rays of sun peeked through the blinds, trailing up the length of the bed with each passing moment before finally gracing over the soft skin of the woman next to him. Joel laid in his bed as still as possible, one arm around her shoulders to keep her flush against his chest, savouring the intimate, domestic moment before it would eventually come to an end–it always did.

The alarm clock flashed the time tauntingly at him, as if mocking him for wanting to keep her there for much longer than he knew he could. This was undoubtedly the latest she had stayed in his bed; it was nearing six A.M. and she had yet to stir from her deep slumber.

His eyes trailed the length of her bare back, his fingers pressing gently at the indent of her spine as he pushed her body impossibly closer to her and bathing himself in the feeling of her nude body against his own. Joel resisted the urge to shake the growing ache out of his leg as pins and needles crawled up the length of his limb, too afraid to move and wake her–he knew what would come once her eyes had opened, as she had done it countless times now.

It was the twitch of her fingers against the soft flesh of his belly that alerted him to her growing consciousness, nails following the pattern of hair that covered his abdomen softly, drawing a quiet moan of delight from the man beneath her. He felt the curve of her lips against his shoulder, turning his head to meet her eyes as they fluttered open.

“Morning, cowboy,” Her throat was dry and her voice was scratchy, but her words still held the power of causing an eruption of butterflies in his gut.

“Morning,” He leaned closer, the tips of his nose brushing her own before she swatted him away, covering her mouth self-consciously and mumbling something about morning breath. Joel chuckled at her, moving her hand away and planting a soft, closed-mouth kiss against her lips.

Her smile grew, hazy vision flickering around the sun-lit bedroom as realisation dawned on her, “What time is it?”

Joel’s own smile faltered as he cleared his throat, glancing over at the alarm clock again, “Five-to-six.”

“Shit,” She groaned, a hand settling on her forehead, “I should probably leave. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

Joel shook his head at her, “You ain’t got nothing to apologise for. I like having you here.”

She pecked his lips again, fondness creeping through her at the man’s admission, “I like being here. But I should go before Sarah wakes up.”

Joel caught her arm as she moved to crawl out of the bed, “Stay.”

“What?”

“Sarah knows you’ve been coming around and leaving early in the morning.” He told her, thumb smoothing circles against her wrist, “She says she’s happy for me, but she said that she won’t approve until you start bringing that damn dog of yours over here when you come.”

Y/n chuckled, her eyes growing a thin red rim along her waterline, “What are you saying?”

“I’m asking you to stay. Every damn night you spend here, you go rushing out like this is just a quick fuck, but I think we both know that it’s a lot more than that. Just come back to bed, please.”

Y/n shook her head at him, glancing over at the rising sun through the blinds in contemplation before she finally shrugged, crawling back into the bed and settling against his naked form with a sigh, her hand resting on his chest as she massaged small circles into his sweaty flesh. Both of them relaxed into one another, enjoying the silence of the early morning and dreading the unavoidable fate of the alarm going off in the coming hour.

NOVEMBER 27, 1999

Y/n tapped her nails against the hardwood of the tabletop rhythmically, doing her best not to make her dissociation too clear as her friends and family chattered back and forth. Her mother was busy on her left hand side, sharing dozens of her favourite childhood photographs to Y/n’s friends with a fondness that only a mother could have, while the seat to her left was empty. The watch that she’d received as a gift from her parents sat on her wrist, the time ticking away as grief settled in her stomach, the realisation that he simply wasn’t coming eating away at her pride.

Her birthday was not something that she generally liked to celebrate, but knowing that her parents, siblings, and a few members of her extended family had orchestrated a trip to visit and celebrate with her had her counting down the days, especially after she had convinced her unofficial boyfriend to join them for dinner at one of the nicest wallet-friendly restaurants in Austin. Now, as she sat silently and watched as her friends laughed and cooed over possibly the most embarrassing photos of her while picking at their slices of birthday cake, her mind only wandered to where exactly he was, and how much more fun she would be having if she were warding him off of any of those photographs–especially all of the ones from her junior high years.

She hadn’t had the chance to speak to him at all that day, having woken up after he had already left for work and dropped Sarah off at school. At the time, Y/n had smiled to herself, thanking him mentally for allowing her to sleep in on her birthday, though she was beginning to wonder if she should have taken the lack of birthday wishes as a sign.

She actively avoided Stephanie’s gaze, wanting to escape the oncoming I told you so, and made as little eye contact as possible with her mother, who watched her sympathetically, and her father, who silently raged over the presence of the empty chair. Y/n now felt embarrassed over how much she’d actually gushed over the man to her family before dinner, wondering if maybe she was more invested in him than he was in her. After all, he had yet to officially ask her to be his girlfriend, despite the fact that she and Manny had taken up residence in his home at least four nights a week and that she had been included in more recent movie nights with him and Sarah.

Maybe she was reading into it too much–something must have happened. Something happened to Sarah, or maybe Tommy had been locked up again. There was no way that Joel had forgotten her birthday, there was simply no way.

– – –

Joel’s feet ached, crying out in pain with every step and sighing in relief as he finally kicked off his heavy boots. The crew that he’d brought on for his most recent and highest paying job to date had given him hell that day, leaving him aching for nothing more than a hot shower and a peaceful night at home with his best girls. He hated having to tack on extra hours to his day, but not arriving home until after ten was something that he would have to deal with in order to finish the job, and he was hoping to save up to take Y/n and Sarah on a little getaway for a weekend in the near future.

The kitchen was dim when he stepped in, and he was somewhat surprised when he discovered no plate of food left for him in the microwave, nor was there a pan of leftovers in the fridge. Instead, there was a single empty carton of a microwavable dinner on the counter along with an empty can of Pepsi. Not wanting to seem ungrateful, he shrugged it off, though he had grown accustomed to Y/n bringing dinner over and making sure that it was ready for him on days that he worked late.

Soft footsteps rushed down the stairs, Sarah rounding the corner with a wide grin on her face as she held a small piece of paper in her hands.

“Hey babygirl,” Joel kissed her head softly as he moved into the living room, even more confused when he did not find Y/n curled up on the couch with a stack of her textbooks, as she so often did while waiting for him to return.

“Hi dad,” Sarah’s smile dropped, glancing back into the entryway in confusion, “Where’s Y/n? I made this card at school today but I figured I’d wait until after you guys came back to give it to her.”

The blood in Joel’s veins ran cold, his heart skipping a beat at the sudden realisation of why his house appeared to be so void of his girlfriend, “Fuck.”

“Dad?” Sarah’s wide eyes narrowed, all too used to her father’s undiagnosed case of short-term memory loss, though he had never ever forgotten something like this before.

“Shit,” He swore again, snatching his keys off of the counter and rushing to jam his feet back into his uncomfortable boots, “Sarah, go to bed. I’ll be back later tonight.”

The girl watched helplessly as her father raced out the door, tears welling in her eyes as she stared down at the happy picture she had pasted into the card and frowning as she feared the worst.

– – –

Joel arrived at the restaurant just before eleven. He knew it was a long shot, as the reservation was for seven-thirty, which he had purposefully written down and stuck to the fridge so that he would not forget. The few remaining staff inside shook their heads in pity at the man, quickly coming to understand his situation as he rushed inside, asking about the reservation with a bouquet of flowers in his grasp.

His shoulders slumped as he parked in his driveway, trudging across the lawn into the neighbouring yard and knocking firmly on the door. He waited a few moments, cursing quietly as he got no response and knocking again.

His frown deepened when the door swung open, a fuming Stephanie standing in his way. Her face burned scarlet, fists clenched at her side as she took in Joel’s pitiful appearance. She took a step forward, joining Joel on the front step and closing the door behind her.

“The fuck do you want?”

“Where’s Y/n?” He asked, ignoring her bluntness.

“She doesn’t wanna talk to you,” the girl sneered at him. “It’s one thing to stand someone up, even to forget their birthday, but to embarrass her like that in front of her family?” She scoffed, “you know, I warned her about you, but I took no pleasure in being right. You should have seen her tonight, barely spoke at all.”

The metaphorical knife in Joel’s gut twisted at her words, the fist clenching the bouquet tightening even further around the stems. He could picture her; all dolled up, chatting with her family as she eagerly awaited his arrival, her pretty smile dampening as time passed and eventual tears in her eyes as she realised the truth–he had forgotten about her.

“Just let me talk to her,” he begged, “Please.”

Stephanie shook her head, “I think it’s best if you never show your face on my property again, Miller.”

“Joel?” Both of their eyes turned at the sound of Y/n’s voice, finding her peeking around the door curiously. “Steph, can you give us a minute?”

The woman sent Joel one final glare, patting her roommate on the shoulder before slipping back into the house.

If the knowledge of what he’d done hadn’t been enough, Y/n’s appearance was the final blow to his gut. Her eyes were bloodshot, cheeks swollen and marked with visible remnants of tears. She wrung her fingers together anxiously, keeping her gaze lowered in shame as she closed the door behind her and turned to face him.

“Baby–”

“Don’t.” Y/n interrupted, “Just explain.”

He sniffled, “I can’t explain it, or excuse it. We got held up at work, and I really need this job to be done and over with already. I’m so sorry, baby.”

She shook her head, lifting her sleeve to wipe at the underside of her nose, “You didn’t even say goodbye before you left this morning. Did you even remember at all?”

Joel bit his lip, “I’m sorry. Let me–”

“Joel,” Her voice cracked, “I love you.” His heart soared as she spoke those words for the first time, then shattered as she continued, “I understand that I’m not your first priority–that’ll always be Sarah and I can’t blame you for that. But, fuck, you suggested the restaurant, Joel. You spoke to my mom over the phone and promised her the best steak in town, and she sure seemed to like it, but you weren’t even there. I won’t ever be your first priority, but I can’t be your last, either.”

“Y/n–”

“I think my cousins liked it, you know.” She continued, wiping at her cheeks, “They’re the type to pray for your downfall, and I’m sure they were loving every second of the dinner once everyone realised that you weren’t coming. Hell, all I did all night was talk about how amazing you were, and then–” Y/n cut herself off with a quiet sob. “You should probably leave.”

“Don’t do this,” Joel cupped her face, dropping the flowers to the deck recklessly as he wiped the tears away from her cheeks with his thumbs, “Tell me what to do. Hit me, yell at me, do something, but don’t ask me to walk away.”

She looked into his eyes, and for a moment, Joel felt hopeful that she might actually listen to him, though all hope was quickly diminished as he removed herself from his grasp, reaffirming her statement as she stepped back into the house.

“You should probably leave.”

#joel miller x you #joel miller fanfiction #joel the last of us #joel miller imagine #joel miller x reader #joel miller #joel miller smut #joel miller one shot #joel miller fic #the last of us #tlou #hbo the last of us #Spotify

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37sommz · 3 months ago

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✼. THRU SPACE 'N TIME | MLIST.

MASTERLIST & UPCOMING WORKS⠀⠀. . .⠀⠀ last updated 04 oct 2024

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001.⠀⠀MEET MICHAELA SOMMERS⠀⠀. . .⠀⠀

✼.⠀about michaela. ✼.⠀social media profiles. ✼.⠀meet the team. ✼.⠀grid dynamics. ✼.⠀meet the family. ✼.⠀more grid dynamics.

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ave-on-main · 1 year ago

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“Pre-boot Roy's dynamic with Slade is what fanon wishes Dick's relationship with Slade would be” is a bad faith fanon myth.

I’ve seen this statement go around since Dark Crisis ended last year and wittnessed people actually believe it, so here we go: It’s not true.

First of, lets talk about what allegedly makes pre-boot Roy the person that fanon thinks Dick is to Slade:

One panel that gets taken out of context to prove the statement above is Slade talking about Roy as his “ace in the hole” in Titans (2008) which gets equated to Slade calling Dick a “trophy” in Dark Crisis (2022). In context, these two instances are not the same. Comparing them makes no sense. More on why in the Roy section of this little essay.

Another point of contention is that Rebirth Dick secretly works together with Slade to protect the Titans (2016). People claim that is a rehash of what happened when Roy worked together with Slade while Roy was the leader of the Outsiders (2003), but the premises are entirely different. In Titans Dick works with Slade to protect the other team members. In Outsiders Roy uses Slade’s intel and funding without knowing he’s speaking to Slade. He thinks Slade is Batman.

It is also worth noting that the Rebirth version has more in common with the Apprentice arc of Teen Titans Animated 2003. TT 03 came out at the same time Outsiders did. Slade was revealed to be Roy’s contact in Outsiders #21 (February 2005). The first time Slade appears as Batman is Outsiders #4 (September 2003), but it is not known to readers or characters that Batman is not Bruce. The Apprentice arc of TT 03 started in Season 1 Episode 11 (October 2003). The show didn’t copy the comics, nor assumably did the comics copy the show. It could be a weird attempt at synergy to reveal Slade in 2005 but it is unlikely because DC cared very little about synergy at the time. Worth noting though is, that Slade’s role in Outsiders is extremely limited. Once his identity is revealed, he is no longer part of the plot.

Now, in fanon, the Rebirth version of events is largely ignored. If anyone in fandom wants to talk about Dick working with Slade, they’ll mostly use the more thought out version of the show as a blueprint or the Renegade arc of Nightwing (1996). Both comic and show are also actually written by writers who like Dick unlike Deathstroke 2016.

That Roy is important to Rose’s developement isn’t true. She babysits Lian but she barely talks to Roy or any of the adult Titans while she appears in Titans (1999). Nightwing: Renegade retcons that Dick was there while she babysitted Lian, but all Roy does is villify Rose, not once implying that he had anything to do with getting her on the Titans.

Equally as untrue is that Slade is actually obsessed with Roy over Dick. It’s a purely fanon take.

There’s also this conspiracy going around that Slade & Dick stans working at DC are retconning things to make Dick look better, which is, I can’t say it differently, an insane statement to make. Dan Didio erased the Slade-Dick rivalry from existance, so much so that Higgins could not use them in the same story even though he was writing both New 52 books. Seeley & King could merely put Deathstroke into Grayson (2014) as a papershield target practice. Christopher Priest dislikes Dick, which he not only states on his blog but is also obvious in his writing (Deathstroke #4). Interestingly, the people screaming about retcons ruining everything had nothing to say about Rebirth Roy being part of the NTT roaster while Grant attacks the team (Lazarus Contract).

Infinite Frontier ties Dick and Slade together once more, but it is almost all talk and no show. It’s a distant echo of their pre-boot relationship. There was zero build up to their reconnection. Frankly, a Dick & Slade stan would put a lot more effort into it. The only reason DC brought a semblance of their rivalry back was because of Red X nostalgia and it shows. Dick only dons the Deathstroke mask in Future State: Teen Titans to complement Red X and his hunt for Deathstroke in Teen Titans Academy is mention but never shown, not even as a one panel flashback.

Meanwhile Green Arrow is now the first hero Deathstroke fought (Deathstroke Inc. Year One) and Slade encounters Roy soon after (Infinite Frontier: Secret Files #2). DC is still trying to tie Slade to the JL rather than to the Titans.

But what are their actual Pre-Boot relationships?

Vastly different, that’s for sure.

At first, Dick is largely tied to Slade because of Joey and the similarities (skill-wise) Slade sees in Dick. Later Dick’s ties to Slade’s children and what that causes makes respect turn into hate.

Slade gets involved with Roy because of Cheshire and to manipulate the Outsiders by orders of Dr. Sivana.

Roy Harper and Slade Wilson

Roy in Deathstroke (1991)

The first time Slade and Roy properly meet (aka actually share a word) is in Deathstroke The Terminator (1991) #18. They are both undercover and pretend to work with Cheshire.

Jade introduces Roy to Slade, and Jade “asks” for Slade’s help by using what amounts to a slave ring she can reactivate any time to control him. Together with her other underlings they set out to steal nuclear warheads.

Not knowing they could be on the same side, Roy betrays the team by going after Slade. Slade defeats him, and Roy is left in enemy territory.

Roy makes his way back after Cheshire has already nuked Qurac. The destruction makes Slade and Roy temporarly work together to apprehend Jade and reveal their allegiances to each other (#20).

While Roy is on the Titans when Rose joins the team in the following crossover event, she doesn’t interact one-on-one with him. All he does is give Impulse relationship advice because Bart is crushing on Rose (The New Titans #126).

Titans (1999)

Roy and Slade meet when Tartarus attacks H.I.V.E. which at that point is lead by an incognito Adeline Kane but don’t have a one-on-one interaction in thie story.

Their first true confrontation takes place later. Slade’s been contracted to kill Cheshire due to her nuking Qurac. As Slade and Roy fight, Slade mentions Nightwing as a comparison between the two, and even though Roy temporarly gains the upperhand, Slade escapes to go after Jade. (#22)

Rose starts to babysit Lian after the Deathstroke & Qurac incident, but weirdly enough, she barely shares a word with any of the adult Titans. She’s really just kind of there.

Outsiders (2003)

Roy believes Batman is giving him intel and is funding the Outsiders (#6, #11) . In truth, the Batman who he’s been talking to is Slade.

It's when Dick learns that Roy hasn't been talking to the real Bruce, that Slade reveals himself. Slade fights Roy, taunting him about killing him and adopting Lian to make her an assassin. Slade realizes Roy isn't on top of his game and sees the five direct bullet wounds he's received on an earlier Outsiders mission. Taking pity, Slade decides to leave him alive (#21).

In #43 the Outsiders learn that Slade was hired by Dr. Sivana. The mad scientist saw potential in manipulating the team. It was not Slade’s idea to go after the Outsiders.

Titans (2008)

When Slade creates his own Titans team, Cheshire convinces Arsenal to join the team with her. She wants to use the opportunity to kill Slade. Roy pretends to have switched allegiances and joins the team.

Slade knows not to trust them. He uses Roy’s drug addiction against him by switching out Roy’s “regular” drugs with a substance called “Bliss”. (#27)

Later Slade uses Roy as his “ace in the hole” when the Justice League confronts them. He threatens to blow up his ship with a warhead. The League, lead by Dick as Batman, retreats as not to harm Roy. In this case, “always his ace” means the reason Roy is on the team is to be used as a human meat shield because other heroes still care for him (Annual #1).

At the end of this arc, Roy betrays the team and decides against resurrecting Lian and with that stops Slade from resurrecting Grant. Slade swears revenge on him because Roy literally did what the New Teen Titans did. “Killing Grant.” The Titans comic and the entire Pre-New 52 universe end with Roy and Joey deciding to reform the Titans because Dick still believed in the teams value.

Apart from the initial Qurac storyline, there’s no canon Slade and Roy story in which Dick doesn’t at least get mentioned.

Pre-New 52 Dick Grayson and Slade Wilson

New (Teen) Titans

Dick belongs to the six New Teen Titans that Slade originally takes on a contract against (New Teen Titans (1980) #02). Slade contacts the team soon after their first meeting to take them out. Dick plays the voice of reason during that second encounter and makes the Titans listen to Slade’s plan. Slade fails to kill them (#10).

During the Judas Contract, Slade learns Robin’s secret identity through Tara’s spying on the Titans (Tales of the Teen Titans #42). Slade attacks Dick in his office, telling him he won’t kill him if Dick doesn’t resist because H.I.V.E. wants the Titans dead or alive. Dick knows he can’t win a hand-to-hand fight against Slade and manages to trick him. Slade admires how Dick escapes, ascertaining that Dick is the leader for a reason. He’s the hardest to catch because powers don’t make a man. Just like Dick, Slade was the best even before he got augmented. It’s a first for Slade to loose his target. He blames it on being worried about the contract.

While Adeline and Joey get in contact with Dick, Slade delivers the Titans sans-Dick to H.I.V.E. (#43). Adeline proceeds to tell Dick how Slade became Deathstroke the Terminator. Afterward Joey and Dick team up to save the Titans (#44).

After Tara loses herself in her rage and dies, Dick concludes Slade and she were manipulating each other (Annual #3).

Dick remains in contact with the D.A. office to ensure the Titans are still going to testify against Slade but a Deathstroke imposter attacks Lilith. Slade’s attorney spins a defense out of the imposter (#53). Gar has his own plans for Slade while Dick and the Titans want to focus on aprehending the imposter. Dick gets sworn in as an expert witness on matters of identity, and he tries to use what Adeline told him about Slade in court, but Slade’s attorney uses Dick’s words against the Titans. Slade doesn’t go on further trial but will remain detained in prison and has a small confrontation with Dick. (#54)

Wildbeests are hunting the Titans and Slade gets hired by Dayton to save Gar and the others. He would have gone after them regardless to save Joey. He ends up searching out Dick’s apartment first, probably in hopes he hasn’t been captured yet (#71). Slade doesn’t realize that Dick is one of the Wildbeests he encounters, and the one who helpes Slade escape from the second Wildbeest.

The Wildbeests realize they have a spy and overpower Dick. Slade catches Pantha just as she finds pieces of Dick’s costume (#74). Slade invades the Wildbeest base, and Joey reveals himself to Dick and him (#75). The two end up fighting Joey, but can’t get through to him. Dick implores Slade to calm down and focus as they escape to Titans Tower. There, Slade stops Pantha when she attacks Dick shortly before the Wildbeests attack the base. Slade and Dick escape together. While Slade can’t believe Joey is doing this, Dick is the more realistic of the two.

Later, Slade gets them out of a tough situation by morally questionably methods. Slade expects a response from Dick but gets a proverbial shrug (#76).

Shortly before their final confrontation with Joey, Slade decides he has no other choice than to kill Joey, which Dick is against. Slade kills his son because he knows the real Joey regarded the Titans as friends (#84).

Slade and Dick meet on the Titans Tower island afterward. Dick notices him, which according to Slade not many are able to do. Dick asks why he couldn’t be bothered to show up at the funeral of the son he killed.

Dick attacks Slade in his grief over Joey, telling him to fight back. Slade does if only to tell him he lost someone too. Their fight ends when Dick admits he doesn’t get how Slade and Bruce can just keep bottling their anger up, he’d explode. Slade tells him that losing control hasn’t done him anything good and that he has to believe he freed Joey. He then shows concern for having injured Dick, but Dick denies his help, and they part ways without anything truly resolved (#86).

Dick in Deathstroke, The Terminator (1991)

Bruce calls Dick to get intel on Slade. While Dick knows how dangerous Slade is, he calls him a good man, to which Slade later responds by saying Dick’s wide-eyed and idealistic. (#7)

When Deathstroke gets into crosshairs with the Justice League and has lost much of his powers, the Titans set out to confront him. He encounters Dick and Koriand’r while he tries to escape. Dick tries to stop him and explains to him that if he’s an innocent man, he’ll stand by his side and help him get free of the charges (#14). In fact, the Titans saw what was happening to him on TV and Dick made the decision to help him or take him down depending on whether Joey dying pushed him over the edge (New Titans #89).

Dick and Slade end up working together when Eclipso tries to take over Earth’s heroes. Slade heads to Salvagion to get information about his current situation where he meets Nightwing, who’s been caught spying. Salvagion isn’t the enemy, though, Nightwing is there to retrieve information about Cyborg’s files to heal his friend. The files were lost when Titans Tower got destroyed.

Dick and Slade fight against enemy mercenaries, who are attacking Salvagion, and figure something is wrong. Dick then hires Slade and Pat to save the Titans.

By 1993 Dick’s appearances in Deathstroke and The New Titans apruptly ends because he had been taken back by the Bat Office. Editorial was quite strict at the time, demanding him to be written out of New Titans.

Slade in Nightwing (1996)

As Dick tries to apprehend an out of control Man-Bat, Slade shows up to do just that with tranquil darts, shooting Dick too in the process (#17). Dick learns that Slade has been contracted to capture Man-Bat alive and knows Slade doesn’t work cheap, so he and Barbara figure out who Slade has been hired by.

Dick ends up fighting Slade on a boat, treading barbs throughout, and ultimately taking Slade out long enough to escape with Man-Bat (#18).

While Dick’s working at the BPD, Dick one day comes home to find Slade in his apartment (#79). Slade reveals that he’s searched him out because he has a contract in town. Dick and Joey were such good friends, Slade feels it’s fair to tell him. Dick asks for the name of Slade’s target, but Slade hasn’t come to betray all of his cards, he’s simply trying to make a deal, so Dick stays out of his way. Dick considers calling for backup, but there’s no one he wants to put in Slade’s path.

During his police work, Dick sees Slade again and goes after him. They have a short confrontation in which Slade reiterates for him to stay out of the way, but Blüdhaven is Dick’s city, he’ll protect everyone in it. Slade threatens Dick and shoots when Gannon Malloy, Dick’s partner at the BPD, draws a gun at him. Dick saves him but gets shot in the arm (#80).

The Batfamily visits him at the hospital, and Dick asks Cass for help with Deathstroke. She fights Deathstroke and retrieves a disc from him that reveals who the target is (#81).

Dick succeeds to save Amy from Slade’s first attack, fighting Slade until he takes advantage of his injury. Dick tells Amy to run, stating Slade won’t hurt him. Even though Slade implies that he will, Slade doesn’t further fight Dick, going after his target instead. Dick ignores his own safety to attack Slade in close proximity again. It allows Amy to get far enough away for Slade to temporarly stop his hunt and punch Dick unconscious.

Dick remains by Amy’s side as much as he can, stopping Slade from shooting her by dropping bills on him and fighting him long enough to tell him that Dick s overbidding the contract put on Amy.

Slade responds by saying that he always knew that Dick had a heart (#82).

When Blockbuster dies some time later, new villains want to take his spot and as Dick learns Deathstroke will be the hired help, he considers how he can stop them while Slade knows his secret idenity (#110). Dick hunts down Westbrook to get into contact with Slade. By the time Dick returns home, Slade has received his message (which leads to the famous shower panel) and Slade witnesses how Dick has gotten involved with the Blüdhaven mob (#111). Dick tries to convince Slade that he is one of the bad guys now, but Slade claims he doesn’t have an interest in seeing Dick be a “selfloathing mercenary” now that he has to take care of Rose.

Dick wishes Rose good luck after both Grant’s and Joey’s deaths, and Slade ultimately decides through Rose’s input to let Dick train her. Rose tells Dick she was a nanny to Lian (paradoxially because he knows. He was there in Titans (1999)). They save Sophia Tevis and Rose tells her father, asking him if Dick gets to have a private life from them, which Slade replies to with “obviously not” (#112).

While Rose and Dick investigate another crime, Slade seeks out Amy Rohrbach, telling her he won’t hurt her because she is permanently off his hitlist. He can still kill her family, though. He is searching for Sophia Tevis behind Dick’s back and confronts Dick with her existence and proof that Dick in fact remains a hero (#113). Rose’s training continues, and while Slade does not trust in Dick’s loyalty, he lets him investigate the villains Slade is currently working with (#114). Slade decides to monitor Dick as he sends out Rose and Dick to hunt Superman. Dick has been given a glove through which Slade can monitor and change his heartbeat as well as hear what is going on. Dick uses the fight to show Rose that the ideology of her father is wrong.

When Dick is later confronted by Slade, who is threatening to kill him, Dick reveals that Slade cannot kill him for two reasons: 1. Slade killing Dick would cause Rose to betray him and 2. that Slade has always failed to kill him and that it never fails to make him mad. Slade lets Dick go, but knows Dick is messing with something too big for him (#115).

After Slade betrays Dick, Dick plants geiger counters in Slade’s house and makes sure Rose learns that her father has been poisioning her with the Kryptonite in her eye. Slade and Dick are fighting during the conversation. Slade tries to stay in control of the situation, but Rose ultimately believes Dick, especially when Slade tries to silence him even though Rose wishes to hear what Dick has to tell. Dick makes sure Slade knows he’ll get back at him someday for what he did to Blüdhaven (#117).

Titans (1999)

This Titans story takes place before their fallout. Deathstroke is fataly wounded by Tartarus and goes to the Titans for help. Dick reluctantly offers him a temporary place on the team, but not without putting a tracker on him (#10) and reminding Slade continuously that if he fights with the Titans, he must follow their rules (#12).

Deathstroke brings Dick up while fighting Roy, claiming Arsenal is no Nightwing (#22) and Rose later becomes the carekater of Lian but hardly talks with the Titans on panel.

Teen Titans (2003)

When Slade defeats the Teen Titans by manipulating several young heroes, the original Titans aren’t happy about it. Dick tells Slade to leave (#45). When he doesn’t, Dick and he fight while the other Titans take on his crew. During the confrontation, Slade taunts Dick, but Dick still stops Cass from trying to kill him.

When Slade tells the Titans they’ll never be able to trust Rose and Joey, Dick replies that they have proven themselves and will always have a place on the team. Slade gets away, revealing it was all a test to see if his children will have a good life with the Titans (#46).

Infinite Crisis (2005)

After everything that has happened with Grant, Joey and finally Rose, Slade blames Dick for his misfortune (#7). (The page this panel is from was apparently accidentally erased in the digital version of this issue. It can only be found in the digital collected edition and the print editions.)

Batman & Robin (2009)

Talia hires Deathstroke to kill Dick by letting him take control of Damian’s body. She states that Slade has a “long and eventful history” with the “foolish young Batman pretender”. Slade has waited a long time to get rid of Dick per his own words (#11). Slade wants Dick to know who is going to cripple him, so Talia intensifies the neural bond for Slade to be able to speak through Damian. They are working together because they have both lost their children to the hero community because of Dick.

Damian is resisting the control, which makes Slade unable to do much more than to reiterate his desire to kill Dick. Dick electroshocks Damian, knowing Damian can handle it, but Slade likely can’t because of his enhanced senses making him more vulnerable while connected through the neural link. Slade goes into shock, and Dick later searches him out after infiltrating Talia’s base to give him payback.

Titans (2008)

Deathstroke makes a deal with Mad Hatter, which causes his group of Titans to cause havoc in Arkham Asylum. Dick, then Batman, stops him from taking an inmate with him (#28). Slade calculates whether fighting Dick is worth it and decides to do so. Dick is still furious at Slade for what he did to Damian.

Dick is forced to let Slade get away to save two Arkham guards but pursues him, getting confronted by the new Titans team Deathstroke is leading (#29). Dick and Roy shortly work together. Dick tries to convince him that he is not a villain, but Slade tells Dick Roy is now on his side.

Slade and his Titans are able to leave while Dick deals with the freed inmates off-panel (#30). Ray Palmer point out to Dick that he is taking the confrontation badly, initially only blaming it on the appearance of Slade, who Dick has fought “more times than any [hero]” (#34). Slade reveals to Roy that he chose him for the team to ensure the League could not act in fear of putting him in mortal danger. Dick gives the order for the JLA to fall back but both Slade and Roy know they’ll still be pursued.

As usual, Dick and Slade share a snarky exchange before the serious fight begins. Dick leaves Slade to Ray while he engages with Roy. The hero Isis stops the fight because they are in her land. Dick makes it known that they should have killed Slade long ago but retreats with the League, giving Roy hope in the process to stand against Slade’s goal (Titans Annual #1).

Conclusion

Fans who enjoy the Dick-Slade dynamic whether at DC or in fandom aren’t erasing Roy to slot in Dick. Slade obsessing over Dick isn’t a new concept. He grew obsessed because their paths crossed many times over the years, and Dick has ties to all three of his children. Slade never felt obsession toward Roy.

If you want your fanon Slade to be obsessed with fanon Roy, and you want to transform canon moments, go ahead, nobody is stopping you, but don’t pretend it’s canon simply to erase Dick.

And before you all come with the Gar argument: Simply because the Gar-Slade and Dick-Slade dynamics came up around the same time does not mean they are the same. Gar and Roy are mostly tied to Slade through one person (Tara and Cheshire). Dick was initially tied to Slade through Grant (as were the other NTT) and then Joey, but their dynamic transcended that to something much more personal and the groundwork was laid by Wolfman himself when he made Slade point out how much Dick's capabilities remind him of his younger self.

The Slade-Dick dynamic is unique because it was allowed to transform and build-upon with each appearance (except for Dixon's). Enemies turning to frenemies then bitter enemies is not a story usually experienced like this in comics. It happens, but it happens as a backstory or under the same writer, not in real time.

#roy harper #dick grayson #slade wilson #arsenal #nightwing #deathstroke #fanon #fanon vs canon #fanon myths #robin #new teen titans #titans #joey wilson #rose wilson #grant wilson #ramblings

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embracing-the-ineffable · 1 year ago

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The Ineffable Detective Agency presents: Hidden Audio in Gabriel's Returning Memory

Ok everyone, I found a big mystery and I need your help! Are there any sound engineers in the Good Omens fandom? Please spread our search for them by reblogging this!

Remember when I posted the slowed-down video of Gabriel's memory returning and we all analyzed the scenes as they flashed by?

Well.

Eventually I realized that if you play the "memory tunnels" at different speeds, there's hidden audio. Mostly it's people talking, heavily masked by lots of extra sound effects which I've done my best to minimize unless they seemed meaningful, but realistically there are probably multiple layers of meaningful audio to decode, because that seems to be how things are with Good Omens!

There are also parts of the audio I can't decipher, and I'm hoping a skilled sound engineer will be able to do a better job manipulating this than I was able to do. (Plus, if you'd like to help, there's more hidden audio in other places, but that'll be the subject of another post 👀)

And … we're all Ineffable Detectives in this fandom, right?! The audio clips aren't anything we recognize from either season of Good Omens so far. Maybe some part of this will be familiar to you, from somewhere?? Sit down someplace quiet, pop in headphones if you have them, and listen to this (the first few seconds are silent):

Before we've influenced you, what do YOU hear??

I know a lot of people just hear noise at first, so if that's what you heard, you aren't alone! Now, here it is a second time, with captions for what we THINK we're hearing, and with gratitude for input from the @ineffable-detective-agency featuring @noneorother, @thebluestgreen and @eybefioro:

And here are the video captions again, with their timestamps: 0:03 oops... oops 0:05 you say you're a musician 0:08 it helps a lot as well 0:14 pssst, musician 0:16 crying or gasping 0:17, 0:19 musician 0:23 {music} 0:27 {singing} how good it feels (to pray?) 0:33 ? 0:41 ? 0:49 …what do you think… 0:50 glass crashing 1:03 ? 1:10 things look... things look super… 1:14 you say that the musician is negotiating his business …?… 1:24 things look super… super...

Do you recognize any of these clips from any other media? If not, my assumption is it's audio that was pre recorded for season 3, and left here as a hint about SOMETHING. But what?? As always, we'd love to hear your ideas!

Also, please reblog!

And if you have the skill/knowledge/interest to make this easier to understand, please let me know. We can collaborate, or you can just run with it, whatever suits you.

See more of our posts plus a link to a Google doc with metas and clues from all over the fandom, here!

#What was IN that fly #ineffable mystery #good omens clues #Ineffable Detective Agency #Good Omens analysis #Gabriel's memory #Hidden Audio #good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens 2 #good omens meta

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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 8 months ago

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03/06/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast & Crew Sightings; David Jenkins; Kristian Nairn; Ruibo Qian; Fuckeries; Watch Party Polls; Watch Party Reminders; Fan Spotlight; Cast Cards; Pink News; Q+ Magazine; Stats; #ReleaseTheJenkinsCut; Love Notes/Morale; Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

== David Jenkins ==

David popped his head out today with all the Jenkins Cut talk going around. @bbviago thank you for bringing Dad out of hiding!

Our friends at @adoptourcrew captured the fandom reaction pretty well me thinks:

Also too, @skrifores had a really excellent point about how different the interpretations of this were. Which way were you all thinking? Any thoughts?

== Kristian Nairn ==

Remember the book Kristian kept hinting about? It's up for preorder! It comes out Sept 24! Wanna pre-order it? Visit Kristian's Linktr.ee

Src: Kristian Nairn's Instagram

== Ruibo Qian ==

Our pirate queen singing and playing the guitar for us. In addition... there's some clown/honking going on because of the note she added to her Instagram. *Resurrection* with 3 tiny stars, anyone? 👀

Ruibo Qian's Instagram

== Fuckeries ==

Save OFMD Crew is calling out for some help! Please reach uot to businesses, streamers, personalities, etc today to bring in more engagement if you have a few spare minutes!

== More Watch Party Voting! ==

We need you!

Our crew-mate @iamadequate1 implores you to come vote for the final version of the watch party hashtags! They're neck and neck!

Final Short Poppies Watch Party Hashtag Poll

Flight of the Conchords Watch Party Hashtag Poll

== Watch Party Reminders ==

= A League Of Their Own =

Tomorrow the 7th is ALOTO Episodes 6-7, and then OFMD 6-7 Time: 1-4PM EST/6-9PM GMT Where: You can watch ALOTO on Amazon Prime

Watch Party Hashtags:

OurFlagMeansBaseball

ALeagueOfTheirOwn

SaveOFMD

= Mar 4 - Mar 8: Wrecked Season 1 =

Don't have access? DM @iamadequate1 on Twitter or Tumblr

Season 1 watch from March 4th to March 8th.

Times will be 10pm GMT / 5pm EST / 4pm CST / 2pm PST.

Saturday there will be a re-watch for those who need to catch up (time TBD) .

Hashtags:

#WreckedPirates

#SaveOFMD

#RhysDarbyFaction

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards! =

Thank you thank you @melvisik for recognising our dear Gabriel, Nick Kroll! So glad to see some of the actors from just one episode getting some love! Another card to add to the collection!

= Pink News =

I realise that Pink News is an actual news site, but they are joining under the fan spotlight tonight for their continued dedication to #OFMD and quality content/memes.

= Q+ Magazine =

Our friend @spanishjenkies caught Q+ sending some incentive over to Chaos Dad 😉. Just more reasons to love Q+ for their continued support!

== STATS STATS STATS ==

Great News Everyone Looks like Season 1 and 2 are ranking in the top 20 Comedy shows in Germany! WAY TO GO DEUTSCH CREW! Thank you @quirkysubject for the update!!

= @AdoptOurCrew Data Updates! =

== #ReleaseTheJenkinsCut ==

Thank you to @sweet-little-goldfish-stede (@Rowan_ofmd on twitter) for bringing this new hashtag to our attention! #ReleaseTheJenkinsCut is being used not only for fun, but to encourage streamers to #AdoptOurCrew! Please feel free to use it liberally, especially with your favorite BTS scenes! Also, kind thanks are in order for catching Jenkins trending!

== Love Notes / Morale ==

Hey there lovelies! Today had some pretty great excitement going on! Chaos Dad popped his head out, Kristian's book got announced, our Ruibo put out a lovely song for us. All good news! Even though a lot of folks had peaks today, I know some of our crew is still having some troughs, so I wanted to send out a little reminder that it's okay to have bad days. It's okay to not be as excited as everyone else. It's also okay to be excited when others are feeling down. We are all individuals and we all have our unique experiences and struggles we deal with every day.

You don't need to compare your experience to others-- you're allowed to be exactly how you are right now. If you feel down, give yourself a hug, you don't have to come out of it right now if you're not ready, but if you are, there are plenty of things happening to give you some joy.

I was going to save this song for when I wanted to talk a bit about mistakes and dealing with them, but I think it's pretty applicable to any situation where we're feeling down. It helps keep me grounded sometimes when I'm not feeling up for things. Here's just a couple lyrics from: "It's Alright - by Mother Mother"

"It's alright, It's okay, it's alright, it's okay You're not a demon, there's a reason You behaved in that way It's alright, it's okay, it's alright, it's okay And I believe, yes I believe that you will see a better day It's alright"

Another lovely note from @spanishjenkies I thought was really important to include tonight-- Jen is right, David didn't say stop :) Remember that whenever you're feeling like the gravy basket is feeling too deep. Chaos Dad is still fighting the good fight in the background and he hasn't told us to throw in the towel.

Goodnight/G'day Lovelies, hope you all get some rest and have a wonderful day tomorrow!

==Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika==

You can blame thank @celluloidbroomcloset for the inability to think after that Darby gif. @ofmd-ann thank you for the reaction gif for all of our brain cells in the form of Taika.

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steddieunderdogfics · 11 hours ago

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Do You Have a Mirror in Your Pocket? by blipblot

@blipblot

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

4,779 words, 1/1 chapters

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Tags: One Shot, Pre-Season/Series 03, Fluff, Eddie Munson is a Sweetheart, Protective Eddie Munson, Bullying, Flirting, Terrible pick up lines, Steve getting humbled by his own past actions yet again

Summary:

Eddie listens closely as a disbelieving scoff echoes across the bathroom and then more wet footsteps in the opposite direction as if the person is searching for something. “Fantastic,” the voice says bluntly. “Great. Just what I fucking needed.” Eddie’s eyebrows shoot up as he recognizes the voice as none other than the recently dethroned Steve Harrington. “Alright, ha ha, very funny you guys,” he calls out. “Give me back my fucking towel now, please.” Eddie hesitates for a moment, looking quickly around the locker room and seeing no other person or a spare towel in sight.

Thanks for the rec! This recommendation is apart of our Writer's Wednesday! All of the recs today are written by @blipblot. Want to nominate an author? Fill out this form!

You can submit fic recs to our asks or the submission box!

#writer's spotlight #steddie #steddie fic recs #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #stranger things #flirting #bullying #pre season 3 #rated t

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ms-m-astrologer · 2 months ago

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Cosmic Events: October 2024

Executive summary: eclipse season ends; stagnation.

Lunar Phases

Wednesday, October 2, 18:49 UT - New Moon/Solar Eclipse, 10°04’ Libra

A balancing act, trying to find the middle path - between wanting to defend ourselves and our loved ones; and wanting to establish ourselves for a long time. The nature of this eclipse family is on the valedictory side. Look for ideas and situations whose time has come and gone.

Sunday, October 6, 21:50 UT - Crescent Moon, 29°07’ Scorpio

Thursday, October 10, 18:55 UT - First Quarter Moon, 17°58’ Capricorn

Monday, October 14, 06:30 UT - Gibbous Moon, 6°25’ Pisces

Thursday, October 17, 11:26 UT - Full Moon, 24°35’ Aries

An angry Full Moon, bursting with ancient grievances. Women are especially enraged, and I think women’s issues (and our governments’ lack of interest in same) are going to be impossible to ignore.

Sunday, October 20, 17:21 UT - Disseminating Moon, 12°48’ Gemini

Thursday, October 24, 08:03 UT - Last Quarter Moon, 1°24’ Leo

Monday, October 28, 09:00 UT - Balsamic Moon, 20°25’ Virgo

Void of Course Moon

Tuesday, October 1, 21:39 UT (Virgo) - 22:20 UT (Libra)

Friday, October 4, 10:40 UT (Libra) - 11:22 UT (Scorpio)

Sunday, October 6, 22:52 UT (Scorpio) - 21:34 UT (Sagittarius)

Wednesday, October 9, 05:54 UT (Sagittarius) - 09:38 UT (Capricorn)

Friday, October 11, 15:53 UT (Capricorn) - 16:31 UT (Aquarius)

Sunday, October 13, 14:11 UT (Aquarius) - 19:55 UT (Pisces)

Tuesday, October 15, 20:00 UT (Pisces) - 20:34 UT (Aries)

Thursday, October 17, 19:26 UT (Aries) - 20:00 UT (Taurus)

Saturday, October 19, 19:33 UT (Taurus) - 20:07 UT (Gemini)

Monday, October 21, 21:00 UT (Gemini) - 22:50 UT (Cancer)

Thursday, October 24, 04:47 UT (Cancer) - 05:24 UT (Leo)

Saturday, October 26, 08:04 UT (Leo) - 15:47 UT (Virgo)

At 7 hours 43 minutes, this is the longest October void Moon.

Tuesday, October 29, 03:54 UT (Virgo) - 04:30 UT (Libra)

Thursday, October 31, 16:57 UT (Libra) - 17:29 UT (Scorpio)

At 32 minutes, this is the shortest October void Moon. (But notice how many are under 40 minutes!)

Retrograde/Direct/Etc.

Transiting Mars enters its pre-retrograde shadow on Thursday, October 3.

Transiting Ceres is in her post-retrograde shadow all month.

Transiting Pallas begins October in her post-retrograde shadow, and exits that on Friday, October 4.

Transiting Jupiter starts October in its pre-retrograde shadow, and stations retrograde on Wednesday, October 9.

Transiting Saturn is retrograde all month.

Transiting Chiron is retrograde all month.

Transiting Uranus is retrograde all month.

Transiting Neptune is retrograde all month.

Transiting Pluto begins the month retrograde, and stations direct on Friday, October 11.

Transiting Eris is retrograde all month.

Ingresses

Transiting Mercury enters Scorpio on Sunday, October 13.

Transiting Venus enters Sagittarius on Thursday, October 17.

Transiting Sun enters Scorpio on Tuesday, October 22.

Transiting Vesta enters Libra on Sunday, October 27.

(If that doesn’t seem like a lot to you, I agree. Stagnant.)

Opportunity Periods

Sunday, October 6, 17:09 UT - 22:52 UT. “Take advantage of the only Opportunity Period for weeks.” (No kidding.) “Good for everything from deep romance to hard work.”

Tuesday, October 15, 06:38 UT - 20:34 UT. “Great for artistic activities, romance, or anything you want to see grow.”

Saturday, October 19, 14:11 UT - 20:07 UT. “Good weekend hours for either work or play; especially good for innovative artistic endeavors.”

Monday, October 21, 20:50 UT - 21:00 UT. “Use this short period to do the right thing; especially positive for networking and communication.”

Monday, October 28, 21:31 UT - Tuesday, October 29, 03:54 UT. “Excellent for cleaning up and getting organized during the Last Quarter Moon.”

Et Cetera

We emerge from the shadow of the eclipse on Saturday, October 5 - at 18:49 UT to be precise.

Libra season is going to be very feisty, let’s say. Once Scorpio season begins on October 22, tempers should slowly begin to calm down.

———————————

Venmo Mary_Brack

PayPal MaryVBrack

Thank you!

#Astrology #Cosmic Events October 2024 #Ms M astrologer

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butchsophiewalten · 8 months ago

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03/09/24 Twitter Space Recap

Quick recap of the twitter space from yesterday. Another one with Martin, Kyle, Coral, and eventually Eva. They tried to make this another Q&A but they mostly just talked and joked between themselves. Here's a rough recap of what they talked about:

-Martin talks about how it's always difficult for him to answer questions like, "Can I get a fun fact about [Character]?", because he doesn't just have a bunch of information pre-prepared about every character in his webseries. He specifies that it's not bad to ask those questions, just that he has a hard time answering them.

-Martin tells Kyle to give his idea for what each of the Showstoppers would dress up as for Halloween, and he says, "Boozoo is a lion, Sha is a sunflower, Banny is a horse, and Bon doesn't dress up." Martin says he agrees, but that he thinks Banny could also be a pirate.

-Someone asks for confirmation on whether Chris' last name is 'Easterday' or 'Easteryear', and Martin says that it was always supposed to be Easteryear, but after the fandom caught in calling him Easterday, some of the crew caught on to calling him that, too. But "Easteryear" is what his name is supposed to be.

-Martin mentions that just the other day he was talking about Chris with the rest of the crew, and how they've worked on polishing his character arc into something they all think is much more cool.

-Martin says that they explained some lore stuff to Coral, about something that happens "very, very later," in the series, and how they were extremely upset and heartbroken over it. They mention a drawing they had posted to Twitter a few days before, of them hunting Martin down with a knife, and how that was the context for it.

-Eva talks about how Martin was explaining the series lore to Felix's new VA in the crew discord server, and how it apparently took him an hour and a half of explaining just to get to the point of explaining the car crash.

-Martin says, "Everything that happens after Brian's death, after BunnyFarm is so much! I don't know how I'm going to write all that down!"

-Kyle asks Martin how he comes up with last names for characters, because he knows that Martin never googles to find authentic or realistic American last names, and just makes them up. Kyle says that he knows "Walten" is a portmantaeu of "Walls" and "Martin", but wants to know what some other ones are.

Martin explains how he came up with 'Easteryear', saying "Back in 2020, when I was doing research for The Walten Files, I started looking for, like, show tapes of like, 70s animatronic bands. And I came up with Chuck E. Cheese show tapes, and there was this one that was called "Broadway Yesteryear", and I kept mispronouncing it with 'Easteryear, Easteryear', and I was like, 'That would be a fun last name,' and I kept it in my pocket until it was, like, useful. And then I started coming up with all the names, and shit like that. I think Easteryear and Letterson were like, the more creative ones i did."

Kyle asks him how he came up with 'Letterson', then, and Martin says, "Letterson- Letterson is like 'Letterman', but instead of Letterman, it's just 'Letterson.'

-Martin says that he's always trying to find ways to insert Brian Stells into The Walten Files, even though he's a character with absolutely no depth, and was never intended to do more than teach the audience that Bon is dangerous, but he appreciates Brian's place in the legacy of The Walten Files, with him being the first human character to speak and the first character to die, and he likes to kind of honor that by trying to find small ways to include him.

-Martin says something vaguely about Chris in season 2, which confuses Eva. She asks him if Chris appears in Season 2, because she doesn't think he does, and Martin responds, "Yeah. Yeah, he does."

-Coral is confused about how many seasons The Walten Files is supposed to have, because last they remember, it only had two. Martin explains, "There's three seasons. Season one is like, y'know. Season two is like, shorter, and it's about Sophie and Jenny, and Season three is how everything, like, ends. What happens after."

-Martin reads a question, "What character is the community's perception of most inaccurate?" and then says, "I think we can all agree that it's Jack." Kyle then says that he thinks another good candidate answer is Sophie, saying that he thinks people tend to characterize her as much more "bubbly" than she even remotely is.

-Martin takes the time to specify that there's nothing wrong with misinterpreting these characters, because we've seen so little of them in the series and it's been so long in between episodes that people are bound to come up with their own ideas of what characters are like, but that he wants everyone to keep an open mind when we start to see more of how those characters are actually depicted, because it may not line up with that people are imagining or hoping for, and how that's not necessarily a flaw with the series.

-Martin says, "The Walten Files, when we make the series, we don't create the characters and go, 'oh, he's a villain, he's that,' we create the actions they make, and we let the viewer decide whether or not this character is a good or bad guy. The characters make good and bad decisions."

-Eva says, in reference to "Bon", "You guys have not even scratched the surface. I'm so fucking excited for his character."

-Martin says, "Here's like, a message to the audience. Do you wanna know a word that can, like, fucking destroy the crew, but to you guys, has like no fucking meaning? Y'know what fucking word it is? 'Sayonara.'" The second he says this, everyone else in the space starts groaning in agony, or shouting at him.

-Eva reads a question, "If Sophie was a cat, what kind of cat would she be?" Martin does not answer, and instead posts this drawing to twitter:

-Martin talks about how, for the upcoming episodes, Kyle & Coral recorded their lines (as Charles and Susan) separately, but their dynamic is so good, that it sounds very authentically like they could've been recording in the same room. They say that they'd love to record some audio in a call together at some point, but that it'd be difficult to coordinate around Coral's timezone.

-Eva reads a question, "Would Jenny like My Little Pony, if so, what would her favorite pony be?" Martin answers, "Uh, she would definitely like Applejack, in my opinion."

-Martin reads a question, "Will any of the episodes take place past the Relocate Project?" and answers, "Not in season one, but in season two, I think all the episodes take place after BunnyFarm."

-Martin reads a question, "Will you guys get a new band for The Walten Files after Sweet Tuesday?" and answers, "Uh, No, I don't think so. We don't talk to Sweet Tuesday."

-Martin reads a question, "How would Rosemary's sister react to hearing about Rose going missing?", and answers, "They weren't close, but I think she would be very-" and then Coral interrupts him, going "Rosemary has a sister?" to which Martin responds, "Yeah, it isn't brought up in this season, but yeah, she does have a sister. But they're very- they're not close. They don't have a very good relationship, so. Uh, it's Laura Peony."

-Eva asks, if Susan would be like a cool aunt to the Walten kids, and Martin says, "Yeah, she would be."

-Martin reads a question, "Was "Bon" planned from the start, or did you come up with him later?" and answers, "This is really good! Okay, so, Bon was always a character, but, uh, the idea of "Bon" as a ghost, it was born after episode 3. But this character always existed, just not in this way.

-Martin says, "'We know Jack used to make sandwiches for his employees, who was the one that always got sandwiches, and someone who almost every time didn't get one?' Um, the one who almost every time didn't get one was probably Richie."

-"I like the idea of Richie just being a lazy piece of shit, and he would just like, hide in the bathrooms so he can just smoke and do shit, and Jack would just ominously stand next to him until he notices, for just minutes and minutes."

-Martin says Susan is 6'2, and that Jack is "a few inches" taller than her.

-Eva reads a question asking if Sophie & Jenny would keep their relationship a secret because of the time period. Martin says, "Okay, no, I don't think they would keep it an entire secret, I don't think they'd be like, 'oh, dude, we can't say it,' I feel like they would just be, like- I feel like they would just- they don't feel the need to like, tell it to people. They don't feel the need to be like, 'oh, we're girlfriends,' y'know?"

-Martin and Coral joke that Sophie wouldn't even know what homophobia is, growing up around so many other queer and accepting people. During this conversation, Coral says, "Charles is like, the ultimate lesbian." (I assume they meant 'lesbian ally'? but this is way funnier.)

-Martin has spent much of the space repeating a joke about Jack telling Rosemary to "make [him] a sandwich", stemming from a conversation about how funny it would be if Jack in the series was just this terrible person. He jokes now, approaching the idea a little more seriously, that Jack would say that to Rosemary as a joke, and she would give him an absolutely terrifying death glare.

He says it'd be funny if Jack made the same 'make me a sandwich' joke to Rose, and she went, 'oh okay!! ^_^', to Jack's surprise, and then came back with a sandwich that is just a "gallon of salt" in between two slices of bread, and she forces him to eat it.

-Coral tries to answer a question about whether or not Richie would sell weed, and Martin interrupts them to say that he thinks Richie would try to sell weed to the BSI crew, and they would be like, 'yeah, no thank you.'

-Someone asks if Susan would like the Showbiz Pizza animatronics, and Coral says they think she would like them from a technical standpoint.

-Coral reads a question, "How did Susan find out she was a lesbian?", and says, "I feel like she never 'figured out', it was more of a case that she always felt like that and didn't care what anyone else said," to which Martin agrees.

-Martin reads a question, "Does Sarah Evelyn have a favorite animal?" and says, "How the fuck do you remember Sarah Evelyn? She was just like, an animator on Bon's Burgers, that's it. I don't know." Coral corrects him, saying that she was a writer, but agrees that it's really funny for people to remember that character at all.

-Izzsplash, Jenny's VA, joins the space! She's recovering from Covid.

-Martin reads a question he really likes and seems excited for, "Will we ever see a clip of Jenny angry?", but answers it by quoting the same "Make me a sandwich!" joke he's been quoting for the entire space.

-Martin reads a question for Izzy, "How has your perception of the character of Jenny changed from the first time you voiced her to now?" Izzy answers, "That is a good question! I think, when I first met Jenny, I was like, 'that girl looks silly,' but now that I've talked to everyone and like, really, like- after BunnyFarm, I was like, 'this is not just a silly, that's- that's an actual, like, good friend, person. Like, she's a lot- there's a lot more to Jenny than people thing. I'll put it there. She's not just a silly- she is silly! She can be '/j', but she's also '/srs'.

#the walten files #twitter space recap

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super-weed-ninja · 4 months ago

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For a little over a year now I've been slowly amassing a collection of ninja turtle books and I wanna talk about some of them. Picture books, joke books, novelizations, coloring and activity books... For all different iterations and all different reading levels.

Well ok they are pretty much just kids books let's be real, but some of them are really great and it's nice to see some new adventures. I've loved ninja turtles for as long as I can remember. Watched the '80s cartoon when I was young, read the comics, caught '03 in it's first season and was hooked immediately, and have pretty well kept up with everything since, with the exception of IDW (SOON.) These books have given me a new appreciation to the TMNT.

At first I just wanted to get my hands on some '03 books, but I was at the same time falling back in love with the '87 show, and books related to that series ended up being a lot easier to find. There's new adventures, some adapted episodes of the cartoon, some from Archie comics...

A rap song to fight drugs, and a little book adapting the first live action film with the '87 boys (Raphael defenestration and all, LOOK AT MY BOY THEY KILLED HIM)

I wasn't really planning to get so many, but THESE 4 delightful books really had an effect on me.

I'll probably make another post just about these 4 books sometime because I have so much to say on them! There is such a charm about them and they've changed how I think about the '87 and Archie turtles. They also act as a prequel series to either! Each book focuses on a different turtle. You see them in some of their pre-series naivete, learning and exploring and joking around. It's really no surprise they're so good, given the author, Stephen Murphy, was a primary writer for TMNT Adventures (Archie) and Tales of the TMNT. '03 girlies, he co-authored "Sons of the Silent Age" in Mirage and was a writer for several '03 episodes!

Anyway, after reading these, I really started searching.

It's so interesting to me to read these characters in this form, from different authors with their own ideas about the turtles.

There's several unique stories in the '03 books, with wonderful illustrations. These goofballs just shine even in the silliest of the adventures. Stephen Murphy, again, shows up here as an author of '03 books. I really love how he writes the boys.

'12 tends to just be episode adaptations, although I haven't actually read the novels I have yet. '12 books have been pretty easy to find so they have not been high on my priority list, but I try to grab ones that look like unique tales!

Mikey's Nightwatcher Scrapbook was so adorable, one of my favorites! Newspaper clippings, date and time stamped sightings and attempts at catching/talking to the elusive Nightwatcher... It's very fun and endearing! The Rise novels are just retellings of episodes, but each story is told by a different character! It's not much, but it's a cute detail.

finding coloring books is HARD, and even harder is finding one that's not been used. The joke book is full of the most garbage jokes but I had some fun torturing friends with it. :3

The coloring books in particular I'd like to scan sometime to share. I remember seeing '03 coloring books around all the time while the show was running; now you're liable to find yourself in a bidding war for one! (against me)

These books have become so important to me and I wanna talk about them more so I might just start taking one every now and then and ranting about it in a post. I have about 80 various books now, and a decent list of more I'm on the hunt for.

#tmnt #tmnt books #book rant #thank you for reading me be excited about children's books #There was actually one book for '03 #whose synopsis sounded suspiciously like the plot of an '87 book #so I bought it and low and behold #Steven Murphy is the author of both #there were only some key similarities #not a wholesale copy of his own previous story #and natch both are good #anyway books are great kids #all kinds of books

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steddie-fanfic-recs · 10 months ago

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Eat Your Heart Out

by queerofthedagger

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Characters: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, The Party (Stranger Things) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Season/Series 03, Pre-Season/Series 04, Unresolved Sexual Tension, so much UST, Eventually Resolved Sexual Tension, Falling In Love, Mutual Pining, Bad Flirting, Idiots in Love, Bisexual Eddie Munson, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Once again this isn't plot relevant but relevant to me so, Explicit Sexual Content, Angry Kissing, Hand Jobs, First Time Blow Jobs, Light Angst, Fluff, Don't copy to another site Words: 10,500 Chapters: 1/1

Summary

And the thing is, Eddie knows that this is a one-time anomaly. That Harrington is going to get into his car and drive his gaggle of unlikely kids home, and somewhere along that trajectory, the world will stumble back on its axis, one where Steve Harrington does not flirt with Eddie Munson, creating inside jokes and smiling smiles edged with affection. The thing is, Eddie has never learned restraint when it comes to the things he’s greedy for. --- Eddie knows that Steve's into him. He knows that Steve knows that Eddie is into him, too. Now it's only a question of who will give in first. Fortunately, Eddie's the most stubborn bastard in Hawkins, so it's not going to be him. Unfortunately, it might not actually be that simple.

#steddie #steddie fic rec #oneshot #10-25k #mutual pining #fluff

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randomfoggytiger · 6 days ago

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Collector's Edition: Colleagues, and Agents, and A.D.s-- Oh My! (Part II)

For the anon who requested: do you have any fic recs with Mulder and Scully case filing with other law enforcement tasks forces? or general pov outsider?

Loose chronological order below~

@fbismostunwanted1158/ElizabethJaneway1158's The Fall, X-Files Style

“Scully—“

“That was my voice,” my strength returned, “And I did care.”

Warm calloused fingers brushed the top of my hand. Pleading.

No. This. This is my justification.

In a situation mirroring The Falls, Scully is cornered and beaten by a vengeful convict.

@suitablyaggrieved/ScullyLovesQueequeg's Unnamed

“I’ve been looking into different avenues, looking for something that maybe we missed. I haven’t given up on her yet. What about you?”

Post 3 Skinner is the only person keeping Mulder's head above water.

theramblinrose's The Holinshed Ghost

“You’re not seriously considering the possibility that a ghost might have murdered those people?” Scully asked from the backseat. She was sipping her drink since Bernie had insisted that he didn’t mind eating and drinking in his vehicle. The presence of a dropped and forgotten French fry near Mulder’s foot suggested that he was telling the truth.

AU-- Mulder and Scully have become more since her return in One Breath; and are gearing up to parenthood as Season 2 unfolds. That doesn't stop them, however, from investigating ghosts.

TCS1121's "Flash 01 - In a Flash", "Flash 02 - Flashing Lights", "Flash 03 - Reconstruction" , and "Flash 04 - Nightfall"

Scully must have been out of the room when he began dry heaving. He barely heard her enter the bedroom as he sat doubled over on the edge of the bed. Speaking softly yet firmly she said, "Mulder it's me. It's morning and it's okay. Remember what we discussed last night? Trust me, you're okay, we're both okay...Mulder."

AU-- Mulder is blinded and Scully disfigured in respective accidents. Although Skinner is able to keep them around, both must still battle their own severe traumas-- thankfully, together.

@baronessblixen's (Ao3) Rumor Has It

"Fine," Kim says, sighing, "but you have to keep it to yourself. It's juicy. You know Agents Mulder and Scully?"

In her stall, Scully gasps. It's about her. Not just her; her and Mulder. What was it this time, she wonders? What secrets does Kim think she knows about them?

AU-- Pre-Requiem Scully learns about her pregnancy from a rather dubious source: office gossip.

@rationalcashew/RationalCashew's Dark is the Way; Light is the Place (Ao3)

The chowed down in a comfortable silence. Mulder and Mike munching on burgers and fries while Scully ate something stereotypically healthier; although, it didn’t stop her from stealing Mulder’s fries or eyeing his burger.

He wondered if the baby had inherited his eating habits.

“What?” Mike asked. He must’ve noticed the grin on Mulder’s face.

AU-- Requiem Mulder returns, and is overjoyed at Scully's news. However, their happiness is (partially) tainted by a new, out-of-state serial killer case that tries their relationship (and their patience.)

@wtfmulder/@momdadimpoppunk's (Ao3) skinner and doggett AU where they become unwilling friends, doggett and skinner (the bro collection), Doggett and Skinner bro angst

“This kid,” Skinner shakes his head. The pair of them are standing in the hall, watching nurses quietly chat and people fret in and out of Dana Scully’s hospital room. “This kid is going to be so messed up.”

S8 forges a friendship between two unlikely kindred spirits.

kittenscully's home run

Months before, he’d wondered briefly if Mulder was some kind of a mind reader. There had even been a time that he’d figured he had to be, to get as close as he must’ve to a woman like Dana. She holds everything close to her chest like playing poker, doesn’t show her hand for anything except a bluff. Voices her thoughts as if placing bets, eyes shifty, ready to bolt or shut down quick if her luck turns bad, as it has tonight.

Clearly, Mulder isn’t a mind reader. Or, he might be, but John likes to give friends of friends the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t think Dana is the type to stake it all on a man who would leave her out alone in the cold, knowing full well what it’d do to her.

Post Three Words Doggett realizes there is something amiss between Mulder and Scully.

@naraht/Naraht/Sylvia's (dreamwidth) Four ways William Scully got picked up from daycare

When William cries, his mother always averts her gaze from him, embarrassed, unwilling to meet her son's eyes. She takes an indrawn breath and sets her lips into a line, looking anywhere but there. Once William is taken inside, she relaxes again. William's father puts his arm around his partner's shoulders and leads her away, down the road towards the Metro station, speaking to her as gently and reassuringly as he speaks to his son.

"It's all right, Scully. He'll be fine; you don't need to worry. You don't need to worry."

As if she is the one who was crying.

AU-- S9 daycare workers observe two FBI parents and their revolving door of motley helpers.

@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys's Three Part Harmony

When Agent Bryson walked in, Mulder pinched the bridge of his nose. He tried to recall if he’d ever seen an episode of Law & Order that took place entirely in an interrogation room. He would have turned it off.

AU-- OntheRun Mulder and Scully stumble across an assassination attempt on their son's life. With no other choice, the reunited family continue on, hoping to be always one step ahead of their pursuers.

@brenayla/@inactiveayla's (Ao3) midnight gold (Ao3)

Scully looks up at Mulder and smiles at something he’s said, and Julie feels cold. The energy of the party dims just for them, with their chameleon eyes and vacillating profiles.

AU-- Two partners in the FBI notice something... otherwordly about the Spookys.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

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mofffun · 2 months ago

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King-Ohger x Gotchard pre-Chou Eiyuu Sai talk show

Partial translation/summary

Pep talk before CEYS

Impressions of each other's series

I want to attend XX Academy!

I am King of XX!

Role reverse: What role do you want to play in the opposite series?

link to watch

1. Pep talk before CEYS (02:08 -

The teams haven't seen each other much save for shooting the SHT intersection. Six months have already passed between then and CEYS (Sep '23 - Feb '24)

Spanner vowed to deliver a passion not shy of KO team

Host joked KO team seemed passionate because of Kaku's physique

Taisei: I saw CEYS a year ago, seems just yesterday, looked forward to the event very much

Aoto: I hope it goes smoothly without trouble.

2. Impressions of each other's series (03:45 -

Rinne: most impressed by the body swap episode, particularly Himeno-san's kabuki pose.

Erica: Sorry for doing something the real Kaguragi never did. Gotchard is a very energetic show, compared to King-Oh's more serious tone, I feel recharged watching Gotchard.

Renge: KO cast are very good friends with each other. The Gotchard cast are friends too, but the kings' bond is something only forged by having worked together closely for an entire year.

Yzy: Not only is the show energetic, but the cast is too behind the scenes. I am the youngest in KO, but the main GT cast is even younger. They are very dependable. (Kaku: sorry for sounding condescending haha /j)

3. I want to attend XX Academy! (05:38 -

Rules: What skill do you want to master? It can be realistic or imaginary.

Matsumoto Hiroya: I want to type fast on a smartphone

Host 2 (Shinomiya Akira): Rita-sama's scream

❤️Cooking

💙Driving

💛Fine art

💜Dialect

🖤Muscle training

🕸️Drawing

___

🐻 Minato: Tonkatsu

Minato: Tonkatsu. I love fried pork chop. A school for tasting, making, and if possible, raising the pigs.

Host: What type of tonkatsu do you like?

Minato: そうっすね [sounds like Sauce-ne~, filler words meaning "yeah, right~"] Thick cuts and slightly rare on the inside.

where Aoto made a pun of そうっすね "Sauce" [for dipping tonkatsu]. Aoto murmured it to Matsumoto Hiroya instead of saying it out loud, and it hit Kaku-san's laughing point to others' confusion.

Minato: um... I prefer salt for seasoning to dipping sauce 😅

❤️ Taisei: Cooking academy

Taisei: Well, I can only depend on myself for cooking, so I kinda want to improve my skills. I even bought a set of knives.

Erica: What do you want to make?

Taisei: Garlic shrimp, maybe? French food seems to be on trend right now.

[Houtarou wrote 料理 (Cooking) too but in Kanji unlike Taisei in English]

Houtaro lives with his family and cooks with his mom on dayoffs.

Kaku/Masashi: That's just like in the show!

Host 2: Sakai-san, please visit [Houtaro's] mom.

Taisei: LIke a training camp.

Houtarou: Yes, please. Let's make Donburi together. I don't really know what "Garlic Shrimp" is but let's try it out!

[Garlic Shrimp is in Katakana/English, in Japanese it's ninniku & ebi.]

(everyone laughs)

Erica: That's just what it means literally! 😂

Houtarou: We have garlic at home, I just don't know what "shrimp" is... Is it some kind of mushroom?

Kaku: Tracks, they both have the "sh" sound.

Houtarou: "Sh" as in mush, and "rimp" sounds like little cut-up pieces?

Erica: Hint is, it's something from the sea.

Yzy: Then that can't possibly be mushrooms.

Houtarou: Some kind of seaweed?

Erica: It moves around a bit more than that.

Houtarou: Wakame!

Host: Not even close!/j Please do some research after the show.

💙 Aoto: Automobile Command academy.

Aoto: Yep, [just a regular] driving school. I haven't got a license yet but I love going on drives, so I could only ride shotgun because I can't drive myself. I want to pay back my drivers so far.

Erica: ah the rest of the king cast.

Aoto: (shy) What do you think?

Hiroya: You look like you ride a motorbike.

Aoto: No, I've never been on one.

Masashi (?): It suits you.

🔧Spanner: Tension Crank-up Academy

Spanner: I want everyone to catch up to my hype!

Host: but the Gotchard cast seems like they're all pretty easily hyped?

Spanner: No. (to Renge) I'm the only odd one, right? (Renge nods) Actually I should just go there and sit by myself right?

Kaku: Yeah, right!

(laughs)

Host 2: Totally wrong answer in a totally fitting tone!

Spanner: Hey, I'm compromising already!

Host 2: Ahhh this is getting out of hand XD

Kaku: "Tension Booming!" [Kibun Bunbun, boonboomger roll call]

(dead air)

Spanner: See? No one is doing tsukkomi [straight man, pointing out irrationalities for comedy].

Erica: Ah, so the reason is there's no tsukkomi character in your group. The others look like they are more comfortable playing boke [funny man]. Maybe that's why the cast seems so cheerful.

Spanner: Who's the tsukkomi in your group?

Erica: Over here. (gestures to Yuzuki and Masashi) Team West.*

*[t/n: 1. My best guess of Ni-Shi is "Western [Japan]" based on their hometowns being further west than the others. There's a stereotype that Kansai/western people are funny, although neither 💜 or 🕸️ is from Kansai to be exact. Taisei is from Fukuoka, the same region, Kyushu, as Yuzuki, but it's been established pretty early on he can't do tsukkomi. 2. Another guess of Ni-shi is "two colours" as in more-black-than-purle Yuzuki + white Masashi? 3. Or it could be "receive"??]

Kaku: So who will it be on your team?

Spanner: I choose... our best boke, Junsei.

Houtarou: Wahhhh don't sell me out!! ToT

Taisei: Someone else for the tsukkomi position?

Spanner: There's Minato-san, but when he's tsukkomi-ing, it's always under his breath. No one can hear him.

Minato: I'm not confident...

Spanner: When we were talking about tonkatsu just now, he kept leaning back... Sensei, can we get a tsukkomi out of you from now on?

Minato: *mutters* okay...

4. I am the king of XX! (13:56 -

Rules: Name yourself, or someone else in the room, as king of something.

Host 2: If anyone in the Gotcard is king of something, I suppose Motojima-san... is the king of shrimps.

Houtarou: Yeah, that's right! Please allow me the honor. No, for real, somebody tell me what "shrimp" is!?

Erica: Another hint, it has a lot of legs.

Houtarou: Octopus!

Kaku: Not even close!

❤️Masculinity

💙Masashi->White [fair skin]

💛Spontaneous trips

💜internal rhythm

🖤Muscle training

🕸️Aoto->Fried chicken (karage)

___

🕸️💙 Masashi: Aoto is the king of fried chicken.

Masashi revealed that Aoto brought fried chicken to work every morning and would generously share it. He also brought some today too. Aoto quickly took over the explanation and said Masashi is one to read between the lines, like Jeramie. Truth is, when Aoto brought the nuggets, Masashi would snoop, "Hey, what flavour did you get?" Aoto then (have to) say, "You want one?" and give him a piece. The next person would say the same thing and Aoto had to give him a piece too, that person is Taisei. And the worst of them chicken "sharers" is Yuzuki. To her complaint, Aoto mimicked her reaction when given a piece, "Ehh~~~ Really?!"

[t/n: lmao i could totally get why Aoto would be annoyed by Yuzuki because his imitation sounds absolutely like she's pretentious about it lol. but I could totally see Hirakawa Yuzuki doing that too lmao.]

📱Sabi named Spanner as king of long legs.

🖤 Kaku-san named himself as the king of muscle training. (Minato loves muscle training too) Kaku-san's weightlifting record is 130kg in barbell.

Rinne is king of video games and Renge plays a thief simulator game and got her into it too.

💛 Erica named herself as the king of spontaneous trips. She can go anywhere and by herself. Last year she went to Osaka and Kyoto for two days unplanned. After she finished work in Kyushu, she stopped by there before coming back to Tokyo. She loved both sightseeing and eating. She re-visited the temple from a family photo taken on a childhood trip.

💜 Yuzuki named herself as the king of internal rhythm. Because King-Oh nearly always films indoors, they can't see the sun and often wonder what time it is. At which they'd turn to Yuzuki for the answer. She estimated the current time to be 12:56, which is just 30 seconds faster. [t/n: She talked about this in tge cinematoday interview 06:13 before the series starts]

5. Reverse Offer (25:03 -

Rules: What role do you want to play in the opposite series? It can be a real or made-up character.

❤️manly man chemy

💙evil rider

💛mad scientist

💜a chemy that keeps screaming non-stop

🖤kind muscular older-brother type

🕸️a chemy that can grant any wish

[t/n: 🕸️a chemy that can grant any wish -> that's just Doraemon right.... re: relay interview]

🖤 Kaku: a kind muscular older-brother type

no alchemy, just a kind muscular older-brother type. I will be your personal trainer. You all look a bit slim, leave it to me :D

Minato: a monk, who'd fit in Toufu

💜 Renge: Moffun

Renge: It got a lot of cheers from the audience, so it must be very popular.

Yzy: It'd be interesting to see a Kansai-dialect Moffun.

Renge: [kansai dialect] "Why do you hide your eye? mofu~"

Yzy: Hired!

❤️ Taisei: a manly man chemy

Taisei: I want to become muscular too, after watching Kaku-san the past year. (straight face) Even his naked body, in the main series.

Kaku/Yzy: Hey!

Taisei: (straight face) I'm quite envious of his physique. I want to try working out in the future

Kaku: Okay, I can teach you...

Taisei: Thank you ^_^

(conversation starting to get lost...)

Kaku: Gotcha! [sharp cut keyword]

Spanner: What will your manly-man chemy sound like?

Taisei: ...

Taisei: Gotcha! \(^o^)/

🕸️Sabi: Pet (Jeramie's)

Masashi: So you want to be my pet?

Sabi: Woof!

Masashi: Hired!

💙 Aoto: Evil Rider [proceed to solo-act his oc's story]

Aoto: I want to henshin as a villain. At the very end, he redeemed himself and died protecting the hero, "Remember... something something..." and I die.

Hiroya: That'd be a challenging role.

Host 2: We've seen your Royal Arms, how will your evil rider henshin?

Erica: Don't you always talk about this😂? With the rain.

Aoto: ahhh. Yep, I've got the scene set. At first he was a good guy, then we flashback to his past, a rainy day, the old man who's been taking care of him died in his arms. "AHHHHH", I scream, and the belt materialises "churn churn churn". With blood all over my face, "HENSHIN!! ARGHHHHHH". Like this.

Host 2: A Henshin powered by screams, I see. Minato-sensei, you were an evil rider, what do you think?

Minato: That's more like the hero's backstory. A little like... Spider-man?

Kaku: It's too cool, isn't it?

Aoto: I will henshin with a fried pork chop chemy.

🕶️ Houtarou: King Gotchard

Houtarou: I want to go to King-Ohger's world just as I am, and see what kind of people will follow me if I become the king of gotcha

Host 2: You can take today as an opportunity to ask the kings for advice. What quality does a good king need?

Houtarou: Yes, please. Charisma for sure, what else?

Kaku: If I have to say... aura, perhaps.

Hiroya: You are not answering "muscles" for once?

Houtarou: Honshin? Honkaku? 本心？本格？Genuine? Authenticity?

Kaku: Honkakuha chuuka 本格派中華？Authentic Chinese restaurant?

*laughs* [t/n: treat it as a dad joke 😅...]

Houtarou: No no no, what's that word that means the very base of something.

Spanner: The core. (核心 kakushinn)

Houtarou: Yes, I meant to say "at the core".

Masashi: What kind of kingdom do you want to build?

Houtarou: A bright country! Where everyone can get creative and invent their own recipes like Houtarou.

Kaku: Just like Toufu!

___

The round up is just more pep talk. The talk show is filmed a few hours before CEYS.

___

t/n: I wrote this because of an request. At the very least I want to sub Aoto and Yuzuki's segments. The talk is too funny but quite long and no few jokes. If I end up getting around to it will def be November. Also the op of the video is absent for asking permission...

#kingohger #ohsama sentai king ohger #ceys #myts

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frogsinflannel · 6 months ago

Text

trying to stifle my sighs

1485 words // Teen & Up // No archive warnings apply

Bridgerton (TV)

Pairings: Eloise Bridgerton/Cressida Cowper

Tags: Pre-Relationship, Introspection, Yearning, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Romantic Friendship, you will want to smack your dolls together and say now kiss, getting feelings all over the tea table, Pre-Season/Series 03, No Plot/Plotless, hints at lady cowper's a+ parenting, tldr: cressida's queer awakening

Summary: Her mother always insisted that sugar aided the digestion, so perhaps having a bit more of the spread would aid her. And if Eloise was so enamored by it, then it must be delicious. Cressida imagined sinking her teeth into the soft center of her own piece of cake, fitting her mouth to the shape of Eloise’s bite.

#bridgerton #whomp whomp #eloise x cressida #Eloise bridgerton/Cressida Cowper #look I am at controlled by The Whims and they are strong today #my fic #my writing

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j2spntranscripts · 7 months ago

Text

★ 2006 Paley Television Fest

Official name: 23rd William S. Paley Television Festival Location: The Museum of Television & Radio (The Paley Media Center), John H. Mitchell Theatre, Los Angeles, California Time: Saturday, March 4, 2006, 7:00pm (GMT-7) Panelists: David Bushman, Peter Johnson, Kim Manners, John Shiban, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Robert Singer, Eric Kripke Last episode: 1x16 “Shadow”- 2/28/2006 Next episode: 1x17 “Hell House”- 3/30/2006

Question Index: 1- (10:37) SPN Origins (Kripke) 2- (12:28) Sam and Dean Motivation (Kripke) 3- (14:18) Firsts Impressions "J2," Auditioning Sam and Dean (Kripke) 4A- (16:11) Auditioning for Sam and Dean (Jared) 4Aa- (17:01) SPN Appeal (Jared) 4B- (19:24) Auditioning for Sam and Dean (Jensen) 5A- (22:13) SPN Start (Manners) 5B- (26:07) SPN Start (Shiban) 5C- (27:38) SPN Start (Singer) 6- (31:05) SPN Mythology/Formula (Shiban, Kripke) 7- (34:18) Pre-Finale Thoughts (Kripke) 8A- (35:38) Location Significance- John in Sacramento (Shiban) 8B- (36:13) Location Significance- Lawrence Kansas (Kripke) 9- (36:59) Fear "Paranormal"- (Manners, Shiban, J2, Kripke) 10- (38:55) Continuity Mistake "4 years vs 2 years at Standford" (Kripke) 11- (40:40) Network Censorship "Gore"- (J2, Kripke, Singer) 12- (43:57) Paranormal on Set (J2) 13- (46:10) Network Censorship “Sex” (Kripke) 14- (47:20) Pre-series Sam and Dean (Kripke) 15- (49:07) Samulet (Jensen, Kripke) 16- (49:55) Special effects, Gag Reels (Jensen, Jared, Manners) 17- (53:17) Religion “Jensen,” Dean Winchester cellphone # (Jared, Jensen) 18- (55:39) Impala 67 (Jensen, Manners) 19- (56:16) SPN Music (Kripke, Singer) 20A- (58:42) Acting Advice “Start” (Jared) 20B- (1:00:09) Acting Advice “Start” (Jensen) 21- (1:01:03) Props "Alcohol" (Jared, Jensen) 22A- (1:02:15) Favorite Scene (Manners) 22Aa- (1:04:13) Acting Challenges “Shadow” (Jensen) 22B- (1:05:01) Favorite Scene (Shiban) 22C- (1:06:15) Favorite Scene (Jensen) 22D- (1:07:35) Favorite Scene (Jared) 22E- (1:09:19) Favorite Scene (Singer) 22F- (1:10:19) Favorite Scene (Kripke)

(transcript below the cut)

(*if you notice any mistakes in the video transcripts please point them out thanks*👍)

◘Supernatural Season 1 - Museum of Television & Radio's Paley Television Festival Q&A by Supernatural Insider◘

(0:08)

David Bushman is standing alone on stage in front of a mic reading off a script.

Bushman: Um, hi, everyone. My name is David Bushman. I'm television curator at the Museum of Television and Radio. And I want to welcome all of you to the museum's 23rd am-annual William Paley television festival. (thumbs to his right)

That clip that you just saw is from “Route 66,” which is one of the shows that, um, the creator Eric Kripke of, um, of “Supernatural,” um, often cites is one of his influences and that explains why we picked it. (thumbs to his right) That's part of our collection. We have 120,000 television and radio, uh, programs in our collection. And I would encourage all of you to visit the Museum in Beverly Hills, and in New York w-when you're there.

Um, tonight we're really excited to be honoring “Supernatural” which was named one of the top five new series of 2005 by Entertainment Weekly. “Supernatural” is aaa- a vibrant fresh exciting show that combines all sorts of genre elements: family drama, comedy, suspense, and on top of that it just scares the hell out of you. (audience laughs) I really want to thank Warner Brothers for all they did in helping make this night happen, particularly the PR department Holly Ollis and Winson Seto. Thank- thank you very much.

Um, what we're gonna do tonight is we're gonna, um, introduce right up front the cast and the creative team, our panels for the evening. Introduce them very briefly. Um, Eric is going to say a few words about what you're going to see. Then we're gonna.. watch an episode of the program, which Eric will talk about. Then we'll bring the panelists back up. I'll ask some questions and then you guys are on. So, start thinking of questions now. Okay?

(1:42)- first introductions

Bushman: Um, so, let me start with the panelists’ intros. First, uh, one of the producers of “Supernatural,” please welcome Peter Johnson.

Audience claps and cheers. Bushman looks to his left. Johnson walks on to the stage. Bushman meets him and shakes his hand. Johnson waves then goes down the stages stairs to sit in the front row. Bushman returns to the mic.

Bushman: Uh, next we have co-executive producer and director Kim Manners.

Audience claps and cheers. Bushman walks away from the mic. Manners enters on stage with his hands fiddling with his pants’ pockets and walks off the stages stairs to sit in the front row.

Bushman: Next we have co-executive producer and writer John Shiban.

Audience claps. Shiban walks out on stage waves to the audience and goes down the stairs to sit on the front row.

Bushman: Next, he plays Dean Winchester. Please welcome Jensen Ackles.

Audience screams and claps. Jensen walks out on stage and waves. He then jogs down the stage stairs to sit in the front row.

Bushman: Next, Sam Winchester. Please welcome Jared Padalecki.

Audience screams and claps. Jared speed walks out on stage, but walks passed the stairs a bit. He grimaces then bends down to look for the stairs while laughing a little, and then jogs down the stairs to sit in the front row.

Bushman: Next, the executive producer and director, Robert Singer.

Audience claps. Singer comes out on stage and waves to Bushman. Then he walks down the stairs to sit in the front row.

Bushman: Finally, the man whose vision, uh, created “Supernatural,” is the creator, executive producer, and writer. Please welcome Eric Kripke.

Audience cheers and claps. Kripke walks out on stage. He waves to the audience then walks to Bushman and shakes his hand. Bushman walks off stage and Kripke takes over the mic.

Kripke: Hey everybody. (audience responds back) Thank you so much, uh, for coming. Uhhh, it's a little, uh, overwhelming and- and amazing, uh, quite frankly.

This is to my knowledge, I mean, the first gathering of any “Supernatural” fans anywhere. So, thank you to you and give yourself (audience cheers and claps) a round of applause.

Uhm, just quick story from the set of “Supernatural” ‘cause it just happened last night. Uh, which is they were, uh, they shoot up in Vancouver. And, uh, they were shooting up at Stanley Park or about to begin production which is a-a public park up in Vancouver. Um, and, uh- uh, we're about to start filming when they got a call that, uh, there was a man about 100-200 yards from the film company, uh, with a handgun and, uh, they called, you know, Jared and Jensen. Said, you know, “Don't come to set. There's a man with a handgun.” And- and they shut down the whole production for two hours. They called in the police. They called in the SWAT team. Uh, they stormed-

This is all true. (laughs) (audience laughs) Very true. This all just happened last night. Uh, they all stormed Stanley- you know, SWAT teams storm Stanley Park, uh, looking for this man with a gun. Uh, and it turned out to be a, uh, member of our special-effects crew. (audience laughs) (laughs) So, good times from the set of “Supernatural.”

Ehahm, anyway. So, uh, I'm supposed to introduce the episode. So, let me- let me do that. Uh, the episode we're showing tonight is, uh, “Scarecrow.” Uum. (audience claps) (nods) All right, “Scarecrow” fans in the house. Uh, “Scarecrow,” uh, was written by the, uh, very brilliant, uh, John Shiban. Uh, (audience claps) so, round of applause for John. And it was directed by the very brilliant Kim Manners. (audience claps) (clears throat) Um, and so the reason, uh, we chose “Scarecrow” is we sort of felt it was, uh, just a good mix of sort of everything that the show is about.

Um, you know we think there's really some good drama between the brothers. We think there's some good comedy. Uh, we think there's, you know, good mythology about Dad and this is the char- is the episode that introduces Meg which people online had problems with (audience laughs) I seem to remember.

Um.. and, uh- And it's, you know, just, we think a-a scary, uh, damn good episode and- and- and based on a-a good series of, uh, you know, very fun urban legends about scarecrows. And so, I'll stop rattling on. Enjoy “Scarecrow.” We'll talk after. Thank you (audience claps)

Kripke goes off stage. Video fads to black.

(6:05)- second introductions

Visual comes back. Audience is clapping while Bushman walks on a lit stage with seven empty chairs and three round coffee tables each with bottle waters on top.

Bushman: Um, are there any “X-File”fans out there in the audience right now? (audience cheers and claps) It’s, uh- Every time I see this episode I feel like shaking Dean and saying, “What are you doing trusting the cigarette-smoking manager.” (audience laughs) (looks down to read his script)

Um, I'm going to bring our panelists back up on stage. Um, our first panelist is co-executive producer and director on “Supernatural.” He's directed nearly 300 hours of television, including 53 episodes of the “X-Files” which he also produced. Please welcome Kim Manners. (audience claps and cheers)

Manners walks on stage from the front row. Bushman shakes his hand and directs him to “move all the way down, please.” Manners follows the direction and sits on the farthest chair from the stairs.

Bushman: Our next panelist is a co-executive producer and writer on “Supernatural.” He began his career as a staff writer on the “X-files,” writing or co-writing over 20 episodes, and eventually serving as executive producer. He was also co-creator and executive producer of the “Lone Gunman” and supervising producer of “Harsh Realm” and is written for and produced “Star Trek Enterprise,” “Threat Matrix,” and “USA Network's Frankenstein.” Please welcome John Shiban. (audience claps)

Shiban walks on stage from the front row. He nods at Bushman and briefly holds a hand out to the audience and then walks to sit beside Manners. A stage assistant stands behind his chair to help Shiban with his clip-on mic. The footage then switches goes back to Bushman reading his script.

Bushman: Our next panelist portrays Dean, (audience squeals and claps) (laughs) wisecracking older Winchester brother. Before “Supernatural” (laughs at audience still chuckling) (one audience member briefly screams) Before- (laughs) Before “Supernatural” he was familiar to WB viewers is Jason Teague on “Smallville.” (audience squeals and claps) I don't know if I'm going to get through these intros. (audience laughs) He had a recurring role on “Dawson's Creek” and was a regular on “Dark Angel.” He- (audience claps and cheers) (smiles and laughs) He received three Daytime Emmy nominations for his role on Days- (audience cheer) (briefly laughs, lowers his script and then looks audience) Pl-please welcome Jensen Ackles. (Audience screams, cheers, and claps.)

Jensen waves at the audience as he walks on stage. He shakes Bushman’s hand and then goes to sit beside Shiban. He shrugs at Shiban and Manners. Before he sits down he takes off his leather jacket and says, “For you Jared.” The audience laughs. Bushman laughs and then looks back down at his script.

Bushman: Um, our next panelist portrays Sam, the rebellious- (audience screams) (Bushman and the audience laugh) rebellious younger Winchester brother. Before “Supernatural” he was best known as Rory's boyfriend Dean on Gilmore Girls. (audience screams) His- (laughs) His- (laughs) (audience laughs) His film credits include-

Audience member: I love you! (audience laughs and Bushman smiles)

Jared: (from his seat) I love you!

Bushman: (increases dialogue speed) His film credits include: “House of Wax,” “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “Flight of the Phoenix.” Please welcome Jared Padalecki.

Jared walks on stage and shakes Bushman’s hand. And goes to sit beside Jensen. Jensen holds out his hand to Jared, which claps it before he sits down. The audience laughs. Jensen shakes his head and then thumbs at Jared, who’s scratching his head. The camera goes back to Bushman.

Bushman: Our next panelist executive produces “Supernatural” and directs episodes of this series. Formerly- (audience laughs) (glances at the panelists) Uh, formerly vice president of NBC drama development. He later teamed with Daniel Blatt to produce films and TV series including “V the final battle” (audience woo’s) and Stephen King's “Cujo”. On his own, he has executive produced “Midnight Caller,” Lois Clark- “Lois & Clark the new Adventures of Superman” (audience claps and cheers) and “Reasonable Doubts” which he also created. Please welcome Robert Singer.

Audience (or possibly J2 screaming) screams, claps, and cheers. Singer walks up the stairs and shakes Bushman’s hand while walking to his seat beside Jared. Singer mimics a repetitive smacking motion with both hands towards Jared and Jensen. The audience laughs. Singer and Jared shakes hands before he sits down. The stage assistant gets Singer’s attention. J2 are smirking. The camera goes back to Bushman.

Bushman: Um, our final panelist today is the creator of “Supernatural,” in addition to executive producing and writing for the series. His previous TV credits include the WB series “Tarzan.” He also wrote and co- (Jared? woo’s) -produced (audience and Bushman laugh. The audience claps and cheers.) He also wrote and co-produced the feature film “Boogeyman.” (audience starts cheering) Please welcome Eric Kripke.

Kripke walks up stage and shakes Bushman’s hand. Then he walks to his seat beside Singer. Bushman then goes to the last seat at the end and waits for Kripke’s mic to be clipped on his jacket by the stage assistant.

Bushman: Okay. I'll start with a few questions before (gestures at audience) we open it to you guys. Eric the first one would be for you.

•(10:37)- PaleyFest06;Q1 – SPN Origins (Kripke)

Bushman: I'm just kind of curious how- how this the idea for this series, um, the genesis of it. And-and how it evolved from concept to, uh, what we see on the screen.

Kripke: Um, I, eh- For a really long time I wanted to do a show about, uh, American folklore and urban legends. (Bushman nods) Sort of (gestures) kind of a subject that, you know, even back to elementary school I've been, you know, kind of obsessed with.

As a matter of fact the very (bounces his pointer finger out) my very, very first TV pitch when I first started in town when I was 23- (shrugs) 24 was a-a-a (gestures) urban legend show and I kept (gestures) trying different versions of it and kept getting Smackdown. (audience giggles and Jared smiles) Um, I tried to do it as an anthology (taps his pointer) and then I had this idea of like a (gestures) bunch of reporters in a van, like “Scooby Doo” style. (audience laughs) A-all these sort of terrible ideas.

And then, uh- And then I was, you know, working with Warner Brothers and- and- and just come off of, uh- uh, (fake coughs) ”Tarzan.” And- (audience laughs. Jared laughs.) (Kripke laughs) And, uh- and they said, you know, “What do you- What- What show would you want to do?” And I said (gestures), “Well, an urban legend show.” And they said, “Well, what- what's the concept?”

And I had this (gestures) really long elaborate storyline that I'd spent weeks and weeks on, uh, on about (gestures) a reporter. Um, and it was almost exactly (laughs and gestures) “Night Stalker.” (audience laughs) which was hilarious. Um, and, uh- and, uh, they- they (tilts his head) kind of looked at me and they were like, (shrugs) “Nah.” (audience giggles) There’re like, you know, (shrugs) “Any other, you know?” (shrugs) “What else?” and I said, “Well” (mimics writing) Because I-I'd literally scribbled it my notebook the day before, which was- I said, “Well, you know, it could be like Route 66. Like two guys on a road trip.” And they're like, (stop gesture) “We love that do that.” (Jared and audience laugh) And I-I- So, just kind of came out of nowhere, and just sort of, uh, developed from there.

And- and it turned out to be just the- the right, uhh- You know, the right way into this show. Because they can just drive it- You know, the boys can just drive in and out of a different horror movie every week, so. (audience chuckles)

•(12:28)- PaleyFest06;Q2- Sam and Dean family motivation (Kripke)

Bushman: Did you- Did you, um, at that point know w-in terms of characters who those two guys were? I mean, how did the whole this whole family element, which is so important to the show. I mean even, you know, um, you know, Jared says to-to the girl in this episode, uh, “I've got to go back because it's my family.” How did that whole family aspect-

Kripke: Um, just you know you- you write what you know. And- and I'm from a very, uh, close-knit, (Bushman clears his throat) uh, family and I have a (gestures) big brother. Um, and, uh you know, and I have, you know, a lot of, you know, really great friends and s- and just you know sort (gestures) of the way guys talk and the way they communicate without (gestures) ever really communicating anything. And.. (audience laughs) (smiles)

Um, and, uh- So, (gestures) it just kind of- It- it kind of grew- grew out of that. And, uh, so I knew I wanted to do, you know, uh- You know, in terms of characters, I knew I wanted you know the- the little brother to, you know, (gestures) be conflicted and have a lot of, you know, a lot of the angst and problems which I (gestured to Jared) threw right to Jared. (audience laughs) (J2 smile. Jared nods and clears his throat)

Um, and I wanted a- and-and- I wanted a big brother just be a total smartass. (audience laughs) I mean, that's how I started you know? (Jensen smiles, chuckles and turns to his right. Jared nods and then claps Jensen’s knees. The audience laughs.) Um, and— (Bushman: mm) and so you know and-and-and- it's- and it's, you know, w-w-with a show like this it’s, you know, the, eh, with the genre and it's sort of out there it's-it's- it really needs like a grounding influence. And so, to ground the show into family and elements of family. Um, and that (gestures), you know, that care that these brothers have for each other, uh, (Jared offers to pour Jensen water in his glass. Jensen gives him a go ahead gesture.) really helps us because these two guys. (audience giggles) (Kripke stops and looks at J2 and J2 are biting their lips)

Shiban: They hug. They hug.

Singer and Kripke look at Jared. Jared smiling makes to put the water bottle behind his chair, but then sets it on the table. The audience keeps giggling. Kripke: Oh. Bushman: He’s pouring him a glass of water. (Kripke looks at Bushman) (mimics pouring water) He’s pouring him a glass of water.

Kripke: Yeah. (gestures) Because these two guys, I mean, the- (J2 are silently laughing) the relationship they have. I mean sometimes we have, you know, (Jensen scratches behind his ear. Jared is biting his finger and silently laughing and then Jared slaps Singer’s thigh) good subject matter and sometimes, you know, we don't. Um, (laughs) (audience, J2, and Singer laugh) but the- but the- the relationship with the brothers- these two actors always sees us through, so.

•(14:18)- PaleyFest06;Q3 - first impressions “J2”, auditioning for Sam and Dean (Kripke)

Bushman: Did- Um, were you familiar with their work? Um, or did you just bring in a ton of actors to audition for the roles?

Kripke: Uh, we, uh, auditioned everybody in town. Um, as you always do kind of on these pilots. (Bushman: uh-huh) Um, my, uh, my wife was quite the “Gilmore Girls” fan. So, (audience laughs) (Kripke looks at Jared) I, uh, I knew, uh-

Jared looking around at the audience. Audience laughs and claps. Jared points around the audience. Then smiles and laughs.

Kripke: (laughs) So, uh, I knew, uh, I-I knew Jared's work. And Jensen, uh, our director David Nutter, (Bushman: uh-huh) who directed the pilot, um, knew Jensen from, uh, (looks over at Jensen) either- Was it “Dark Angel?” From.. (Jensen: mhm, yeah) And he knew him from “Dark Angel” and so, uh- (gestures to the audience) “Dark Angel!” (gestures to Jensen) Jensen in Dark Angel!

The audience claps and cheers. Jared woo’s and claps. Jensen gives the audience two thumbs up. Jared then goes to drink his water. Jensen looks down chuckling.

Kripke: And, uh- So, when we were, you know. (Jensen scratches his forehead. Audience member laughs.) When we were casting the characters it was- it was David Nutter who said, you know, “We have to- we have to fly down Jensen.” Who was up shooting “Smallville” at the time. So, he wasn't really in the- in the- in the pilot pool. And, you know, (shakes head) thank God we did. Because he walked- eh-uh (holds up his hands) Actually the story, which was funny, is Jensen walked in the room and-and met with us and-and-and David and Peter Johnson and I. And-and we talked to him and talked to him and we walked out the door and we looked at each other we were so exciting we're like we found and we found Sam.

Audience ohs and laughs. Jensen raises his eyebrows and nods. Kripke looks over at the boys.

Jared: I didn't get flown down. I had to ride myself (Kripke laughs: Yeah. Yeah.) Soo. (Kripke: And, uh-) I just wanted that to be known. (laughs) (Jensen is looking down smirking)

Kripke: And it- and it was- and so, you know, these things just kind of form as-as puzzle pieces come together. And it wasn't until we met Jared that we're like, “Well that's Sam!” And we're like, (Jared chuckles) “And then, you know, Jensen could be Dean!” And then, it all just kind of, you know, it all kind of came together from there.

Bushman: That’s real interesting. Well, how about you guys, Jared and Jensen? Can you tell the story of-

Jared: (thumbs to Jensen) I’ll let Jensen take that one.

Bushman: from your, um-

Jensen: Uh (points to Jared) you go ahead. (scratches the bridge of his nose)

Jared: (swipes hand in the air) Oh, Jensen (laughs) (Jensen: Oh no) that’s- that’s totally you. (pets his pants leg) What was the- (Jensen: honestly.) (looks at Bushman) What’s the- What’s the exact question?

Bushman: the question is-

The audience laughs. Jared rolls his tongue laughing and then turns his head down to scratch his hair. Jensen is smiling.

Jared: W (laughs to Jensen) I can-

Jensen: (to Jared) Is it a (briefly throws his hand up) spelling Bee? (Jared laughs and looks back at Bushman)

Bushman: Can you, uh, Can-

Jared: Can you use the word in a sentence?

Kripke: Spell. Spell leopard.

Jensen: Yeah, can you use that in a sentence? (straightens his shirt)

Jared: Leper?

Kripke: Leopard.

Jared: Leopard.

•(16:11)- PaleyFest06;Q4A- Auditioning for Sam and Dean (Jared)

Bushman: No, no, no. The question was, uh, Can you talk about the audition process from y-your perspective.

Jared: Well, it’s interesting, actually for me, hearing it from Eric's perspective. Um. I, uh, I’ve obviously been working with Warner Brothers for “Gilmore Girls.” And, um, the five years prior to doing the show I worked on Gilmore Girls to sort of developed a relationship with, um, some of the people at the Warner Brothers offices.

And I had kind of heard about a few of the pilots coming out. And I read this one in particular and I really enjoy the- the characters. And it really struck me as something that- I remembered hearin’ sort of (gestures) once in its breakdown of like it's (gestures) kind of a supernatural. It’s called “Supernatural” (Kripke laughs). And I was thinking like great (briefly throws up hand) “Charmed” or “Buffy,” (audience laughs) which are all great shows, but not the show I wanted to be a part of, you know? I didn't want to do “Roswell” or “Charmed” or “Buffy.” And then, when I read it I was like wow this is- this is very interesting and- and so much more than just like, “Ooo, scary show.” So-

•(17:01)- PaleyFest06;Q4Aa- SPN Appeal (Jared)

Bushman: what- what, uh, appealed to you about it?

Jared: Well, I sort of, uh, I grew up son of an English teacher. So, she was always big- and she would actually taught heroes myths and legends. So, I was familiar with mythology and sort of, uh, the Joseph Campbell taught, teachings. (turns to audience) The taught-teachings of Joseph Campbell. (audience laughs) And, uh, (Kripke chuckles) (scratches head)

Singer: Didn’t- didn't rub off that she was an English teacher. (Jensen mimics closing a film clapperboard)

Jared: It didn’t rub off. (looks down smiling and claps) (Kripke laughs)

Shiban: Yes. (Singer clears throat)

Jared: Uh, yeah. It didn't. It didn’t. I just work till 4:30 this morning in Vancouver. So, I’m a little worse for ware.

Bushman: It’s kind of interesting that you mentioned Joseph Campbell, cuz there's a little bit of “The Reluctant Hero” in your character.

Jared: Very much. I mean there's more than- there's so much more than just the Reluctant Hero. I mean, when you get into the archetypes they're sort of- each script is just bursting at the seams with archetypes and (briefly throws his hand up), you know, last thing I think these people want to hear is me going to a (Bushman chuckles) explanation of- (Audience laughs. Jensen fakes snoring) (briefly throws his hand up) I love the script. (turns to Jensen) I love the character. (shakes Jensen’s leg)

Bushman: Did, uh, so- (Jensen mimics waking up with a shout)

Jared: (leans towards Jensen rotating his pointer finger in the air) We're doing a- we're doing, um, a answer-

Jensen: (shrugs and frowns) I’m awake (reaches for the water)(audience laughs)

Jared: Okay. (turns back to Bushman, smiling and scratching his head)

Bushman: So, uh- Well, so your agent sent you script and you were- you were auditioning for Sam all along?

Jared: Uhh, right. (hits his knee) Right. I guess- I guess w-where the- where the process.. or how the process- where it was when it reached me was: read the script, see if you like the character, see if you like the script. (gestures) It was sort of like do you, you know, do you mesh with this- (gestures) Do you feel you could mesh with this script. And I felt I could and so I went in (thumbs towards Kripke) and I- and I met some of the guys, and I re-met Nutter and.. you know, sat in an office with- Who was it Kripke? (Jared leans forward than back to see Kirpke)

Kripke: (leans forward than back, in response Jared starts rapidly leaning back and forth) It was, uh, Me, Nutter, Peter Johnson we were at the-

The audience laughs. Kripke then notices the movement and starts mimicking Jared. Singer hunches down. Jensen starts laughing to himself while looking away.

Kripke: Wonderland. Offices. (Jared and Kripke stop. Audience laughs) And, uh.. Uh, yeah. And he- he came in and he had at such energy and- and just so, uh, (gestures) lived the character. (gestures) Just so was the guy. You know, it's a (gestures) cliche to say that but he really was. So, it was- it was an easy choice.

Bushman: (to Jared) And did you feel real good about it coming out?

Jared: Uvh, well (push his hair behind his ear) yeah. I-I-it was- it was b-by no means that short process, you know? I mean, that was sort of the beginning of a week or two week long (gestures) finding of scripts and characters. And I think the scripts are still being rewritten. I remember I'd seen a script and they’re like, (gestures) “This is changing. You know. Read the script, but (gestures) that's nothing to do with this.”

Kripke: (laughs) Right. Yeah. (audience laughs)

Jared: “It’s gonna change so much.” (gestures towards Jensen)

Kripke: (nods) This is true.

Jared: Which is much like it- it is nowadays. You know, (Kripke: Yeah) we get a script and they're like, “Okay, we're shooting this in a week, but it'll be a completely-“ You know? (audience giggles) (gestures) It’s just like- it-it can always can get better. And- and everybody's always working hard (flings his hand) up to the very last second, you know? Till they call action. (points up) People are working here. People are working in Canada. Just, you know, sprinting.

•(19:24)- PaleyFest06;Q4B- Auditioning for Sam and Dean (Jensen)

Bushman: Okay. (Jared nods) Jensen, what was your experience?

Jensen: (resting his head on his fist, briefly points to Jared) Pretty much the same.

Jared immediately fake sleep-snores and leans his head on Jensen’s shoulder. Kripke and the audience laugh. Jensen smirks. Jared sits up, laughing, and reaches for his water.

Jensen: Uhhh

Jared: Well said Jensen.

Jensen: (rubs his chin, laughs, sits up) Yeah. (rubs his hands) Uh, w-well, (thumbs to Kripke) like-like Eric said, they- they had originally brought me in for, uh, for the role of Sam. And, uhm, I- I knew David Nutter very well. Uh, I-I worked on, uh, testing for some- a number of pilots, um, before that. So, I-I felt very comfortable with him and with his recommendation to me coming in. And he feel good about it. (gestures) And I had a conversation with him on the phone before I come- before I came in and just he kind of gave me a spiel about Sam and, uh, (rubs his mouth) and what he thought. And- and then I read the script. And-and I was just like, “W-what about Dean?” (audience laughs.) “I liked Dean.” (audience laughs) “He's funny.” (audience laughs)

And-and, uh, it's- but (gestures) I, you know, I study for Sam. And-and I went in there and I actually kind of studied for (rubs his tear duct) Dean a little bit too just in case. And, um, I went in there and I read for Sam. And-and, uh, like Eric said. And they were like, you know. They were pleased with it. And then.. went home that evening and got a phone call and he said, “Well, uh- uh, there's this guy, Jared, uh, Pada- Pada- something-” (audience laughs)

Jared: I said Pada-something.

Jensen: (nods) Pada-something. (Smiles)

Jared: Pada-something

Jensen: and uh (grins)

Jared: Pada-some- (laughs)

Jensen: “And-and-and they really ar-are liking him” (gestures) “for-for one of the brothers.” And I'm like, “Okay.” So, of course I look him up online (audience laughs) and I'm like (throws up his hand) “He’s- he’s-“

Jared: (to the audience) He thought I was hot. (audience laughs and claps)

Jensen: He’s- (Jared laughs and scratches his head) “This guy's smoking hot.” (Jared leans back and laughs clapping his hands) “I can't play his brother and-“ Uuum, no. And-and-and- and then they said- (Jared facepalms) they'd said, “But would they like to bring you back in for Dean.” And, I of course was.. very excited about it and I came back in. (Jared clears his throat) And-and I was thrilled. So, uh, (gestures) that's kind of how it all. (gestures)

Bushman: Sut- So by the time you guys actually performed together you had already had the parts. They weren't auditioning-

Jensen: Well, no. We hadn't- we didn't have it- we didn't have it (gestures), uhh, officially.

Jared: (leans forward, to Kripke) Did we? (Jensen leans forward)

Kripke: No. We had-

Jensen: We had to do the-

Kripke: We were the on- (nods his head towards J2) they were the only actors we brought in to network. Because we- (gestures) You have to have a network audition.

Jensen: Formality of the network.

Jared: It’s usually a really terrifying process of (Jensen: Yea.) sort of (Jensen: Yeah.) these guys and gals at you audition with all year long. And it's five people that you're very, very afraid of, sitting in the room with you going for the same part. (Looks at Jensen) And when we got there it was like, “Hey.” “Hey.” “Where's everybody?” “Uh, there is nobody.”

Jensen: “Just you and me pal.” (audience laughs)

Kripke: Right. (briefly turns to Bushman) Yeah.

Jensen: And, uh-

Jared: We started (mimics writing) typing numbers down on a page- (shakes his head) I’m just kidding.

Jensen: Yeah, well (gestures) we went in and-and-and (scratches tear duct) that was yeah that was the first time we actually met. (gestures) And then we (gestures) (Jared: mhm) did a scene together, uh, for a- a-a roomful of executives and, uh, that was that.

Bushman: Okay.

Jensen: (points at Jared) and we’ve hated each other ever since. (reaches for his water) (audience laughs)

Jared: (nods) Yeah. (turns to Jensen) I poisoned your water, so.

The audience laughs. Jensen pauses and stares at his cup. Audience laughs. Jensen inspects his cup by slightly tilting it. He shrugs, takes a drink, and then sets his cup back down on the table.

Kripke: It’s a little unnerving. (Jared laughs)

•(22:13)- PaleyFest06;Q5A- SPN Start (Kim Manners)

Bushman: How about everyone on the panel? Kim, we could start with you and Ben. Talk about how you became involved with, uh, Supernatural.

Manners: I read for Sam. (most of the panelist and the audience laugh)

Jared: (throws his hands up) did everybody read for Sam or?

Manners: Well, David Nutter, who directed the pilot, is a good friend. He did season 1 of “X-files” And, uh, he called and asked if I would do a favor and, uh, come in and do one episode. Because I was kind of semi-retired after X Files. Uh, (nodding) very semi-retired. (audience laughs) And I, uh, came in did a show, uh, called “Dead in the Water,” uuh, enjoyed myself fell in love with, uh, (points to J2) Jan and Dean or is it Sam and Dean? (Jared and audience laugh. Singer pours himself some water.) Uhm, and I was driving home to my home in Missouri and they called me and said, uh, “We want you to come on as a part of the team.” And I turned around and here I am. So.

Jensen: Thank God.

Manners: And I’m having a good time.

Jared: (nods) Yeah. Thank God.

Manners: Yeah.

Kripke: Yeah, I don't know what we’d do without Kim up there. He's unbelievable.

Shiban: (nods) Yeah.

Bushman: Kim, uh, John.

Manners: I know whatchu do, you get another guy. (most of the panelist and the audience laugh)

Shiban: No, there is no other guy.

Jensen: No.

Kripke: Not true. No other guy.

Jared: There's no other guy.. named Kim.

Manners: (nods) Yep. (audience laughs) (points towards Jared and then clears throat) You know if this whole thing fails you guys can go right into stand-up. (audience laughs)

Jensen: Yea. (nods) (Jared claps his hands laughing) (points at Jared) I don't want to stand up to him another time. (audience laughs) I got to stand up on apple boxes all the time. (audience laughs)

Jared: (scratches ear) I'm pretty lazy. I’d rather sit. (Manners and audience laugh)

Bushman: John how did you-

Jared: (points to Jensen) Meanwhile! What-what (Shiban: Meanwhile?) what he- want he- what he doesn't know- what he didn't know about this whole process is that after we had him direct, uh, the- I guess it was our fourth episode we had: (counts his fingers) “the Pilot” (Jensen: yep.) with David Nutter, “Wendigo” with David Nutter, “Hookman” with David Jackson, (Manners: and then) and then (points at Manners) Kim came in.

And immediately I think from day one we were on the phone with everybody. (Manners takes a drink) (gestures) We were on the phone with (thumbs to his left) Peter and (points to Eric) with Erik and saying, “This guy is incredible.” (gestures) “Sw-Who is this guy?” (Manners sets his glass back down) And David Nutter had sort of given him this very.. sort of mysterious.. “You'll love Kim,” kind of sentence (audience giggles) at the very beginning.

Because we were going over this list of seven dir-

Jensen: Yes, the Jedi (waves his hand)

Jared: Very Jedi. (audience laughs) Yeah it was like-

Jensen: You’ll love him.

Jared: (mimics reading a script) “Who is Kim- Who is this guy?” “Oh, (waves hand) I knew him from this.” (mimics reading a script) “Who is Kim Manners?” (nods and waves hand) “You'll love Kim Manners.” (audience laughs) And sure enough, we were like, (double takes) “What?” And, um and he- and he- (his mic clip falls off) came on. And he was just incredible. (picks up mic by hand and talks directly into it.) And he was just incredible. (Jensen takes off his mic and hands it to Jared) And um, (nods to Singer) Can I- (reaches for Singer’s mic) Can I borrow? (audience laughs)

Singer: Sure. Yeah (But Jared doesn't take it and takes back his hand)

Shiban: Wow.

Jared: And, uh, (hands Jensen back his mic) And so we- w-we, uh, we basically begged and pleaded (J2 attach their mics back on to their shirts) to get him, um-

Manners: (fake mourning voice) A job! (throws his hands up) (Shiban pats his back) Just a job. (Jared: A job.) It’s all I wanted. (audience laughs)

Jared: He was hungry. (Manners laughs while rubbing his brow) He was, you know. He kept trying to bite my arm. (audience laughs) I was really worried about him (laughs).

Bushman: Yeah, I don't want to embarrass Kim, but what was so incredible about him?

Manners: about- (Bushman: about-) Who?

Jensen: Well, I-I think that- I think that, uh-uh, Jared and I just- w-we just responded well to him. I mean, he-he directed in a fashion that-that, uh, we really liked. And, uhm.. You know, it was kind of a set where guys could be guys. (thumbs at Manners) And he wasn't someone who-who directed, you know, behind a (throws hands up) screen with a (makes a phone hand gesture) telephone somewhere in LA, and was like, you know, (gestures and mimics a LA director) “Do it over and over. And then a closed up and a close up and let's get out of here and move on in the next set.” He was- (Singer reaches for his water) he was in there.

And-and you know a-a story about another, uh, episode that he directed, “Bugs,” uh, (Manners shakes his head) this was a-a scene where we had to get in (Manners mimics putting a gun in his mouth. the audience laughs) to a room with-

Manners: (turns to Jensen and waves) s-sorry.

Jensen: Yeah, no that’s-

Jared: It’s alright.

Jensen: I mean, ah, you know we get in this-this tiny little room with 65,000 bees and, uh, (Jared: ?Billions?) (gestures) the whole camera crew and (gestures) the sound crew (Manners laughs. Shiban smiles) and (gestures) then everybody's got (gestures) full bee outfits on. (audience chuckles) Then they're like, “Alright, Jared, Jensen, hop on in.” (audience laughs) And, uh-

Jared: And don't swat them, ‘cuz it makes them angry.

Jensen: And, Yeah. And I'll-and I’ll give it to Kim. He said, “You know what? If-if you guys don't have bee suits on. I'm not either.” And he went in there with, uh, (Jared: Right.) shorts and a t-shirt and a monitor.

Kripke?: Wow.

Jensen: And sat down on a box and directed us from inside the room (Manners silently laughs) with bees crawling all over our faces. (Manners and Shiban nod)

Kripke: Woah.

Jensen: It's just- it's-it that- it's that kind of relationship with Kim.

Bushman: Okay.

The audience cheers and then claps. Shiban and Jared clap. Manners briefly salutes two fingers to the audience.

•(26:07)-PaleyFest06;Q5B- SPN Start (John Shiban)

Bushman: John, how'd you get involved?

Shiban: Uh, I was going through the, uh, annual ritual of staffing season. Uh, I had a-a pilot that didn't go. So, I was available and reading all the pilots and taking meetings. And.. and read the script. Aaand loved it. Uh, and met Eric and loved him.

Kripke: Awww. (audience aw’s)

Shiban: Annnd- (smiles) I know. Aaand-

Kripke: John’s my guy. (audience laughs, Shiban, Jared and Manners smile)

Shiban: Yeah, it’s that. It’s true. Um, and, uh-uh, eh- there are a lot of- Uh, you know, I spent a long time on the “X-Files” and, uh, (gestures) I’m-I'm offered a lot of.. (gestures) scary television shows every year. It's like, (gestures) “Will you do this. Will you-“(Bushman: Yeah) And this one just struck me right away. Ehh, especially (gestures) when I finally saw the- the-the cut of the pilot.

Because it had those two things that I think (briefly pets his beard) you need to have a successful show like this. One is a great franchise, (gestures) which is the engine that runs the show. The idea that the two brothers on the road trip with a very personal agenda, eh-uh, is just great. And you can imagine- I can see instantly five years of suffering for these guys-

Jared nods. The audience chuckles. Jensen dramatically throws his head back. Jared smirks and nods. Kripke?, and audience laugh.

Shiban: And, uhhh, episode after episode. Uhh, and the second thing honestly is- is, uhh, is casting.. and chemistry. And chemistry is something you can't (rubs his hand) manufacture. And these guys have it. And they're so great to write for and they're so fun to write for.

Jensen slowly looks at Jared. Jared with a pressed smile, looks back. Audience woo’s and laughs. Shiban shrugs. Jared moves his face closer and puckers his lips. Audience laughs. Jensen shakes his head no and points to the audience. Jared stops halfway and looks down laughing to himself, and then looks up scratching his nose with a big smile. The audience laugh and clap. Shiban and Manners are smiling.

Jared: Worth a try. Worth a try.

Shiban: Yeah. (Jared chuckles) So, I said, “Yeah. I'm coming up.”

•(27:38)- PaleyFest06;Q5C- SPN Start (Bob Singer)

Bushman: Okay. Bob, how about you?

Singer: (Jared laughs) (gestures to J2) I-Can I just watch them, I don’t. (J2, Manners, and Audience laugh) Uubm, t-they had actually made this pilot. And, uh, I saw the pilot and, uh, really liked it a lot. And I think, uh, what the studio wanted was, um- (gestures) After they saw it and I got picked up, and the studio one point probably said to themselves-

Singer holds up his hands but then stops when audience starts laughing, raising an eyebrow.

Jared: (laughs) Just keep it (unintelligible)

Kripke: (opens his hands) You can't get anything done.

Jared: I can’t- (sets down his glass and then repositions himself)

Singer: (gestures to J2) This is what it's like to direct them too. (audience and Kripke laugh) Uhh- uh, the studio said, “Well, we-we-we can't give ff-40-plus million dollars to Eric Kripke.” And-(shrugs)

Kripke: (laughs) Yeah. (Jared laughs and claps his hands) Very true. (laughs)

Singer: And let him run wild. So, they said, “What we need i-is” (shrugs) “You know, some-”

Audience laughs. Singer stops and briefly looks to his right and up. Audience laughs. Singer rubs his chin and closes his eye laughing to himself. Kripke scratches his lip, looks at Singer, and laughs.

Singer: (shakes his head and then looks up at Kripke) This is so hard. (rubs his brow) (Kripke, audience, and Jared laugh)

Singer leans and reaches over and briefly covers Jared’s face, then returns to his original position. Jared laughs. Jensen is holding a glass of water and reaching for another.

Shiban: These people are very tired.

Jared: Yeah. (laughs)

Singer: Um. So, they thought they needed some, uh, you know, uh, a-a-an experienced hand to guide the young man through these rocky waters. (Jared laughs) The young- the young man of course felt what do I need this old fart for. (Jared and audience laughs)

Kripke: No way. (Singer laughs) He-

Singer: Um, anyway (gestures) we met and we met a number of times. And, um, finally our-got comfortable enough with me for, uh, for us to join up and, uh-uh, partner on this thing. And, um, (shrugs) it-it's interesting because I mean we are sort of from different generations. (gestures) And we approach, uhm, (gestures back and forth) drama in kind of a different way.

Um, but (gestures) as we sort of work together we found (gestures) that we always we really arrived (Kripke nods) at the same place even though kind of the methods (gestures) are a little different of how we get there. And it's a-

Bushman: Can you explain what you mean when you say that (Singer sits up) coming from different generations you approach drama in different ways?

Singer: Well, I don't know if that's a generational thing but I'm very, eh..

Kripke: Sober. (audience and Singer laugh) (Shiban?: And uh) compared to the drunk.

Singer: (nods) There's that, yeah.

Shiban?: (?low court?)

Singer: Um…eh- t-t-this is so boring, but, um, (audience giggles) for, um- I-I-I kind of come in (waves his hand) everything from a character standpoint of view. It’s-it's all about character to me. And I'll kind of (gestures) let the plot work itself out given (Kripke nods) what the characters are-are gonna do.

And what I'm interested in the scenes is how.. that, you know, it drives the plot. But I'm most interested in how the characters react to it. Umm (scratches brow) and-and-and so the (laughs) stories I do (wiggles his hands up in the air) to tend to get a little like-like this but (shrugs) the character stuff is probably interesting.

Eric really works very, very hard on the stories, um, and gets the plot down. And knows that once his plot is good the-the character stuff will come naturally to that. (Kripke nods) So, we sort of go-go like this (Kripke nods) when we're in the room together. And we’ll arrive at that place which both things are serviced. And-and-and I think you- we’re really sort of one voice now (Eric nodding: mhm) that we-we rarely disagree on stuff. And it's a- (shrugs) You know, I've worked alone for a long time, so it's kind of really cool to have a partner. (shrugs)

Eric: (looks at Bushman and nods) Yeah. And (points to Singer) tah-tah blow smoke up his ass for a minute. (audience laughs) He brings a depth, uh, and-and maturity of care- of character of just depth to the drama that I could not do, you know? It-Me on me alone like is “Boogieman.” (Bushman and audience laughs) And.. and.. and like all of a sudden with him like, you know, we have a-a show where you have these characters that are psychologically rich and true and-and-and- and Bob is-is behind huge amounts of that. So, uh, we- (shakes his head) this show would not succeed, uh, at all without him. So.

Singer: Aw.

Kripke: Aw.

Audience aw’s. Singer leans over and rests his head on Kripke’s chest. Kripke holds him for a sec.

Jared: Aw. (Audience claps)

Shiban: Come on give him a kiss, would yah?

Singer: (turns towards J2) You guys can do it. We can do it.

Jared: No, it’s alright like that.

Jensen: Hey. Hey.

Manners: You guys wanna mow the lawn?

Jensen: Yeah. Around the curtains?

•(31:05)- PaleyFest06;Q6- SPN Mythology + Formula (Shiban, Kirpke)

Bushman: Let me ask one more question before I- before I open this up. But this is for the writers mostly. Um, which I guess is Eric and John. But, um- you know, Eric, you've been quoted, um, as saying that, uh, you know this show differs from a lot of the other, uh, suspense or supernatural shows that you (Kripke nods) say there, because you don't want to get involved so much in those long drawn-out stories or-or the mythology so much as you just- I don't know whether these are accurate quotes but you want to, um, just focus on scaring people and on the- on the urban, uh, folklore and-and so on and just scaring people.

But, um, I think I-I- speaking for myself, and-and maybe some people out here too, I find the mythology, uh, with the-the kids with their mom.. (Kripke: mhm.) and their dad, and, uh- um, you know, one of the really compelling parts of this story. So, um, I'm wondering how you just- an-an-and, you know, you start to see even with the last episode that-that (Kripke nods) aired last Tuesday. You're starting to see you guys are coming back to that. (Kripke nods: mhm)

Um, and I'm wondering how do you decide when it's time to sort of veer away from what “X-Files” used to call the “monster of the week” story and come back to the.. mythology of the show. So it's really for John and Eric. How do you decide when it's time to do that or-

Kripke: John?

Shiban: Uh, two things I made a lot of painful, uh, hair-pulling discussions and arguments and when should we when shouldn't we. But part of it is driven to, by just the nature of television you want to save some of your big.. moments for sweeps. And so you kind of.. work the season around that. Works a actually a very nice five or six episodes that are.. (finger quotes) “non-mythology” and then you can- you can pull the Mythology back. And, uh, and, uhh, again do the nature television. You want to end the season with some- something astounding.

And, uh, (gestures to Singer) also going to back to what Bob was saying, eehh, the mythology is all about character. It's all about.. what the boys are going through and family. (shrugs) And, so that's where we are going to head when we want to do something spectacular. So. (Singer drinks his water)

Kripke: Yeah. we- we had a- we have. And surprisingly have stuck to it. We have a, uh, a-a m-mythology plan for season one. We also have, y-you know God willing a pickup, we have mythology plans for season two and season three. But.. we have this plan of where the story goes in-in- (audience starts cheering) Yeah!

Shiban: On the CW. (Jensen is holding out a hand)

Kripke: On the CW!

Jensen: (to Shiban) When do we get to see this? (Shiban whispers to Jensen)

Kripke: Um, and-and so, you know, it was sort of the plan, which is the first.. (Jensen elbows Shiban while laughing, then Shiban keeps whispering to Jensen) seven ur- sev- about, really, the first seven (Jensen throws his head back and softly laughs) episodes you wanted to be the self-enclosed stories so you could kind of pick up new viewers. And then you start threading in a little bit more mythology.

But I think it's a balance. Because, I mean, it's my own just, you know, kind of personal taste, which is- I mean, I like a- you know, I want a satisfying story every week too. And-and um, you know, I mean “Lost” is (waves hand) an untouchable show. I mean, it's an- it’s-it's a (waves hand) brilliant and unbelievable show, but I-I- I find the endless mystery, my own, taste frustrating.

Bushman: mhm

Kripke: And- and if you're going to give ongoing mystery- (audience claps) Alright, people who believe. And, if you're going to give ongoing mystery, at least give, like, a rollicking badass story… apart from it that can have a beginning middle and end. And you can be satisfied. And the good guys can win. And you and you can have the experience being told a story. (waves hand) And then, you know, thread in the ongoing mystery.

So, I think it's-it's-it's keeping a lot of different plates spinning. And it's not- it shouldn't be any one thing er-or another.

•(34:18)- PaleyFest06;Q7- SPN Ending, Pre-finale thoughts (Kripke)

Bushman: Do you know where the story ends?

Kripke: Um, I do actually. Yeeeah.

Bushman: Does anyone else on this panel know where the story ends?

Singer: Yeah, but we tell you, we have to kill you.

Kripke: Yeahh. Yeah. (Audience and Bushman laugh. Jared smiles) I mean, it's hard it- because you never know when you're gonna get cancelled or if you're gonna go, you know, 37 years like “Gun Smokers” (audience laughs) Or something. (Jensen chuckles)

Shiban: Oh, god. Please.

Kripke: But, uh.. Yeah.

Jared: Oh no.

Manners: The boys are in walkers. (mimics walking in a walker)

Jensen: (gruff voice) Sam! (audience laughs)

Kripke: Yeah. (nods) Right. (Kim laughs) (laughs) They’ll finish up the season and then they'll slowly die.

Jensen: Yeah. (laughs)

Audience laughs. Jensen is scratching his forehead smiling. Jared is drinking his water.

Kripke: And, uh.. So but-but yes we have, you know, really a-a-a fi- if-if I could somehow find out what the last season was going to be, or-or a five, six year plan, I mean, I sort of know that, you know, the-the final, you know, battle as it were t-that all shapes up. And, uh- But yeah, you know, it’s sort of-

Bushman: We’re gonna have to wait.

Kripke: Yeah.

Bushman: Okay. Let's take some questions from the audience. (holds hand over eyes and looks at the audience) Um, I'm gonna.. to call on two people, um, first question, a second question. Please wait for the mic, because this event is being taped, so we need to be able to hear you.

Uh, (points to the back of the audience) okay there's one all the way in the back over there, and (points his other hand towards the left of the audience) then there's one in a green shirt right down here.

(points to the green shirt again) We can start down here with the green shirt and then go to the back question.

•(35:38)- PaleyFest06;Q8A- Location Significance: John Winchester in Sacramento (Shiban)

Fan: Sorry, I had to take out my gum. Hi, um, I'm- Let me just say, I'm originally from Sacramento so I w-I wanted to know if there's any significance with their dad, John, being in Sacramento twice or just random or.. spoilery or.. Shh

Manners?: Joohn.

Kripke: You wrote it, John. Why did you use Sacramento? (audience laughs)

Fan: It’s-

Shiban: I don't want to give it away, yet. (Kripke? laughs)

Jensen: So, yes there is.

Kripke: No there’s-

Shiban: (points at Jensen) I'm gonna tell you either. (Jensen throws his hands up)

Jensen: I want to know.

Kripke: Yeah. Why?

Shiban: After. After.

Jensen: Ah, thanks a lot.

Singer: Tickets for a Sacramento Kings (Jensen: Yes.) game. Eh. (shrugs) (J2 laugh)

Bushman: So, their-their- the answer is that there is, but you're not gonna say what it is.

Shiban: Exactly.

•(36:13)- PaleyFest06;Q8B- Location Significance: Lawrence Kansas (Kripke)

Bushman: Okay. And speaking of location is there any significance to Lawrence Kansas? That it started in Lawrence Kansas?

Kripke: Um-

Shiban: (points to Kripke).. I’d have to give that to him.

Kripke: Uh, I would say, well, uh-uh i-if anyone does a, uh-uh, w-

Jared: In other words, yes.

Kripke: Yes. (audience laughs. Jared and Manners laugh.) There-there is and-and the-and the one thing I'd say is, because we tend to be really research oriented in our show (Bushman: uh-huh) and about American urban legends and there's a- there's a very famous, uh, urban legend, uh, near Lawrence Kansas. Um, that, uh-

Bushman: That somehow factors?

Kripke: Yeah. (to the audience) You know, if you guys go home and do Google searches on Lawrence (Bushman: Right) Kansas and stuff will come up. (nods)

Bushman: Okay. (points to J2) Do you guys know what it is.. Jared and Jensen?

Kripke: I don't think I've ever told you.

Jared: (looks at Jensen) Y-yeah.

Jensen: Uh, yeah.

Jared: Good gosh. (blows)

Jensen: Yeah. Yeah. Of course. (nods and leans back to rub his chin) (Bushman, Kripke, and audience laugh)

Jared: I haven’t decided when I'm gonna tell Kripke what it is.

Jensen: Yeah. (audience and Kripke laugh)

Jared: I’m mean, honestly. Tell him, “Hey, uh-

Bushman: (laughs) Okay. In the back all the way.

•(36:59)- PaleyFest06;Q9- Fear “Paranormal” (Manners, Shiban, Jensen, Jared, Kripke)

Fan: Hi. Uh, I just want to say I'm from Texas too. So.

Kripke: Wooo!

Jensen?: (J2 raise their hands) woo! (audience laughs)

Fan: Anyway I had a question, um, for everybody. What urban legend or folklore really does scare you guys?

Kripke: (points to Manners) (Manners shrugs) Kim?

Manners: Um, mm- nothing scares me. (audience and Shiban laughs)

Jared: That's true.

Manners: I direct television.

Jensen: Yeah, I believe it.

Manners: And I- so (shrugs) (audience laughs) You know, if-if you- if you can live through that nothing scares yah. (shrugs) Really.

Shiban: Good answer.

Manners: Yeah. Well, it’s true. (Shiban laughs) What scares you John? ..Late scripts? (laughs)

Shiban: You do- Yeah. (audience laughs) Yeah. You do. Yeah. When you call me and say, “Where's the damn script?” (audience chuckles) That's frightening. (audience chuckles. Shiban and Manners take a drink)

Bushman: Any-any urban-

Shiban: (bumps Jensen’s arm) What about you guys?

Jensen: (shrugs) I-d-I'm dealing with him all season man. (Kripke and audience laugh) I’m scared of them all. (Kripke: All of em.)

Shiban: What about those bees?

Jensen: Yeah, bees that’s what I’m s-

Jared: You know I have a c- I'll- I’ll say something. I- uh, my daddy used to make me watch a show called, “Shadow Man,” or something, when I was growing up. And it was about a shadow that lived under this kid's bed. And, uh, he was sort of- (audience giggles) What's that? (audience giggles) (Jared smiles) And anyways and, uh, (audience laughs) it was his buddy.

Shiban: And he’s here tonight.

Jared: he wasn’t very popular in school. And so the shadow man started kind of getting all the bullies for him. And then one day came another.. kid’s shadow man got- (sniffs) Yeah it’s probably not as scary as it seems. (laughs, ducks and scratches his head) (most of the panelist and the audience laugh) (hides face behind his jacket)

Kripke: (thumbs to Singer) You wanna? You?

Singer: (laughs) Go ahead. (audience aw’s)

Kripke: (gestures to the audience) Someone has to give her a straight answer. (Jared: Y-yeah.) Hook-Hookman freaked me out when I was a kid. The killer with the hook. All the different stories of the killer with the hook of, uh, you know, the-t-the “Aren't you glad-” “Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?” I thought was really cool. And there's, uh, (gestures) the licked hands. If you ever heard the licked hand, which is a really cool one. (briefly looks down) And um, so (gestures) like that- that was always, you know, really sort of- sort of freaky for me.

Bushman: Okay, let's take two more questions. (points to the audience) Um, we'll get this one down here and there's one all the way in the back. Right- right next to you. Right… (points) Go ahead.

•(38:55)- PaleyFest06;Q10- Continuity Mistake “4 years vs 2 years at Stanford”

Fan: Um, in the pilot we know that, uh, when Sam wanted to go to college John told him to get lost. And he's in as presumably his fourth year because he's interviewing for Law School. Um, but d-he says that he hasn't talked to Dean in two years. Is there an answer to what happened two years ago? (Kripke is smiling and looking down at the other panelists)

Jared: Uhhh, y-you mean does that-

Kripke: I-I actually-

Shiban: Eric.

Kripke: (looking down at his lap) I have an answer to that. (nods) (audience laughs)

Fan: Do we get to know?

Kripke: Well, I know you're supposed to.. You know, (gestures to Shiban) do what Shiban does (Shiban nods) which is kind of go, “you'll find out.” (audience laughs. Shiban smiles and nods) But, uh, fact of the matter was is, uh, it-ii- (gestures) you know, these things happen so fast and furious. (mimics writing) And you’re- and- and that it was actually a mistake. (audience giggles)

Shiban: Oh no. (Shiban whispers to Jensen and then Manners)

Kripke: We-we wanted it-d.. Jared is or Sam's character supposed to be a junior in college and starting the interviewing process for, uh, the interviewing process for law school. (Jensen whispers to Shiban) And, uh, so hasn't seen him since he left- So he spent his freshman year and his sophomore year away from Dean and hasn't seen Dean. Then this is beginning of junior year. (briefly looks at the panelists) This is.. fall of junior year.

So, it's been technically two years as he's beginning (gestures) th-the process. But, because, I think.. Because what happens, eh.. You know, you guys, you know, the-the you know- (gestures) I’m-I'm-I’m lying, (audience chuckles) like, sort of putting it all- Eh, because what happened 22 years ago he-he was slightly older than a junior should be. So, no one sort of bought that he was a junior and, uh, (Jared smiles. Audience giggles) so there's a (gestures) lot of discussion of these two “lost years.” And you’re just- and I just like, (hunches down covering his mouth) “he he.” (shrugs) “Like, just a mistake.” (panelists and audience laughs)

Jensen: (?Hey, uh, I really wanna back this.?)

Shiban: That’s right (unintelligible) (Jensen laughs)

Kripke: But hold on let me give the real answer. “You'll find ouut.” (Jared and audience laugh)

Shiban: (gives him a thumbs up) Now you're talking.

Bushman: Okay. In the back.

•(40:40)- PaleyFest06;Q11- Network Censorship “Gore” (J2, Kripke, Singer)

Fan: Are there any stories about, uh, t-the show being too scary. Like, do you do trade-offs with the network? Like, they say, “Well, you can have two seconds of this, you know, bloody face, if you do this or that.” (?Jared?:mhm)

Jared: Yeah.

Jensen: Yeah, we’ve run into a few-few times that season- this season. (looks at Kripke) Haven’t we?

Kripke: You talking about Night- The Night- the.. On Nightmare was the first time.

Singer: (looks at Kripke) Oh right. Yeah. Yeah, you get into strange dis-discussions of, um, “Can we not see the decapitated- decapitated head (rolling gesture) roll?” (audience and Kripke laugh) And then you start arguing about, “Well.. can it do a half a turn?” (audience and Kripke laugh) Then say, “Okay. You can do a half a turn but the blood gush can't be for two seconds. It has to be for once sec-” Uh- um, so those are ongoing discussions, but a-a-actually the network's been great. We really push the envelope (Kripke: Yeah) in-in every sense. And, uh, they let us get away with more than I thought they would.

Jensen: There was also the, uh, when-

Jared: The gun rig.

Jensen: Yeah, the gun rig with me when I- uh, when Dean was shot in the head.

Kripke: Yeah. The- Night-Nightmare- The episode “Nightmare” was the first and only time that we’ve ever had issues with standards and practices. And so, everything else they just were like, “Give us more.” And we- again we were shocked by that. But there-the-the- there's a scene where, it's a- it's a vision it doesn't really happen, but where Dean gets his brains blown out (gestures brain splat) (audience giggles) in “Nightmare” (audience laughs) and-and… (Kripke briefly looks to his left) And we actually rigged it. And we thought, like, you know- We rigged it so-

Jensen: Yeah, the rig was awesome.

Kripke: Yeah. You-you rigged it so (mimics the shot going through his forehead) the shot actually goes into his forehead and-and the blood explodes out the back (laughs) (audience laughs) on to the wall. And we're like, (makes an excited gesture) “Haha, this is our lead and we're just, you know.” But and-and-and- and network was like, “No way.”

Jensen: Yeah, this giant- this giant backpack filled with, like, grapes and-and corn syrup (audience ughs) and, uh, and- and it was this tube (partial turns and gestures at the curve of the back of his head) just kind of coming right- right out of the back and, uh, from the head on. And I had a little button in my hand. And they just yelled action. (mimics the scene) And, we timed it with a gunshot, and I hit the button, and gave reaction, and the whole wall went splatium.

Shiban: Yeah.

Kripke: Heheh

Singer: By the way-

Jensen: It was an awesome rig, but then they ended up having to cut to (box gesture) just the splat (Kripke nods) and then back to me with the hole in the head.

Singer: (point to his center forehead) Back to him with a hole. (Jensen: Yeah) But, the, uh, the director of that episode is here tonight, (pointing at the left side of the audience) sitting next to my wife as it is.

Jared: Where is he?

Kripke: Phil Sgriccia.

Singer: And- Phil Sgriccia.

Jared: Phil! (claps)

Kripke: Really good job. (audience claps)

Jared: Wooo!

Kripke: Stand up!

Singer: And, uh, when I looked at those dailies, uh, and I called Phil and I said- he said, “How are they? How are they? Is-” You know, because (swipes at Manners) Kim can tell you all us directors are.. so self-confident (Manners laughs) that we don't need constant approval or anything. (audience chuckles) Um- uh, he said- I said, “They're great, Phil. But what the hell are you doing?” (audience chuckles) And he said, “Well, you know, they look at that and they'll give me all the rest of the stuff.” So (gestures) (J2 and audience laugh)

Manners: We actually play a game with BSP broad-broadcast standards and practice where we cut the show and we cut it way too violent. (Kripke chuckles) So then they come in they go, “Well, you have to take out four frames of that shot.” And you go, “Oh god, not four frames.” “Yes, four frames.” So you take it out, but you always knew that you didn't need those four frames. (laughs) (audience laughs) So, we kind of stack the deck. (audience chuckles)

Bushman: (points) Okay, there's a question over there in the corner. (points) And there's one back there. Over there too.

•(43:57)- PaleyFest06;Q12- Paranormal on Set (J2)

Fan: Oh, okay. Um, well, we've had the question about what urban myths scare you. But for those of you who are actually on set regularly, has there ever been… you know, a blood splatter or that freaky scarecrow or anything that just really creeped you out just to be around on set even though you knew it was plastic or, you know, karo syrup or something?

Jared: I know one- and just one time randomly we're, uh, we're filming “Skin” the episode where (points at Jensen) he's a shapeshifter. (audience giggles) And we're inside this house- this brilliant house. (audience claps) Yeah. (Jared looks at Jensen and claps) It was a great episode. And, um, we were inside this house. And just this clock on the wall just up and leaned over and fell off. Just this round clock no one was near it. No one was (mimics hammer) hammering on the wall outside. It just kind of fell off and everybody sort of looked around. But instead of kind of going, “Who did that?” we're all just were like, (mimics scene) “Ignore it and go back doing business.” (audience laughs) Just tried- decided to not look into it any further. (audience chuckles) The way real brave people do it (audience laughs) this round.

Jensen: So, the, um, the show “Asylum,” uh, was.. (Jared: Oh, yeah.) Um. (Audience claps) (nods) Yeah. (claps) that was- that was shot in an actual abandoned, uh, mental institute and so.. Uh, the-the halls and the rooms and-and we're all very used at one point. (audience giggles) And-and, uh, you know, it said that-that-that- (gestures) the crew says not to go up to the fourth floor (?entrance?). (audience giggles) And, you know, don't-

And-and I remember we broke for lunch. And, uh, I thought I'd be (gestures), you know, clever and take a shortcut (nods then shakes his head) (audience laughs) I’d-I came down a stairwell and went into one door and it was just a (gestures) long dark hallway, because the-there's (Jared chuckles) no lights on. The only lights on it are what the-the film crew puts out. And, uh, that- I was like, (mimics looking back and forth in the hallway) “Well, it's not that long.” (audience laughs) “I can make it.” (audience laughs)

That freaked me out. (nods) (audience laughs)

Bushman: Okay.

Manners: (points at Jensen) Dean W-Winchester, ladies and gentleman.

Jensen: Yeah. Thank you. (Jared and Shiban clap. Audience claps and cheers)

Kripke: Goodnight. (Jensen bows) Afraid of nothing. (Shiban takes a drink. Jensen laughs)

Bushman: In the back over there. Yeah.

•(46:10)- PaleyFest06;Q13- Network Censorship “Sex” (Kripke)

Fan: Now that there's a new network that you're probably going to be moving to, the CW, are they gonna and loosen up and give us a little more NC-17 like we got the Jensen storyline the other week. (audience giggles and some woo)

Shiban: Bob? (Jared chuckles)

Jensen: I'm confused. (audience laughs)

Audience member: Next episode!

Fan: Sex.

Audience member: Sex.

Jensen: What?

Fan: Sex.

Audience member: The sex.

Jared: Oh right.

Jensen: Aaahh. (audience laughs) (adjusts his position, shrugs) How can I forget. (audience laughs) (leans forward to look at Kripke) Thank you for that, man. (audience laughs) (Jensen shakes his head, leans back and hides a laugh behind his hand)

Kripke: (briefly holds his hands up) Sure… Happy birthday Jensen.

Jensen: Yes. (nods)

Jared: (laughs) Happy birth-

Kripke: Um, yyou know, I mean, CW is huge on full frontal male nudity. (Jensen is looking down hiding his mouth behind his fist. Jared chuckles into a laugh and then claps and goes to take another drink. The audience screams and cheers.) Well, uh, I think there's a lot in store. (gestures) Stay tuned! (Jared laughs while drinking his water. Jensen laughs) (shrugs) You know, I mean, we'll give ‘em- you know, we'll give ‘em love interests and (Jared coughs) love stories as it's appropriate.

Jared curls up and coughs behind his arm. Jensen reaches over and pats Jared’s back. Audience laughs. Jared folds over and continues coughing. Jensen with his arm on Jared’s back, makes a “come here” motion towards the audience.

Jensen: We're gonna need it. (Kripke laughs)

Jensen continues to pat Jared’s back. Jared sits up, looks around and coughs one last time behind his fist.

Bushman: Um, okay. Uh, we’ll (points) take one there and one in the middle.

Jared: (wipes his eye and then his forehead) Oh jeez.

Bushman: (points) One down here and one in the middle. (nods) Yeah. Yeah. You just-

•(47:20)- PaleyFest06;Q14- Sam and Dean pre-series (Kripke)

Fan: Hi. Um, first of all thanks so much for being here. Um, if you guys are always like this, can I come work on your set? (laughs) (Manners laughs. Audience chuckles)

Jared: (throws his hands up) Yeah.

Fan: uh-

Jared: Thank y'all guys for being here. This is-

Jensen: Yeah. Thank you. (claps)

Jared: Yeah.

Manners: Thank you! (panelists clap)

Fan: No bother.

Jared: Honestly.

Fan: Um, so we came into this story, uh, when the boys are already adults. And I know there's a lot to explore in the future, but I was wondering about the past. Um, because I know that.. there's a lot of speculation about what their childhood (Jensen nods) was like growing up, (Jared nods) moving around. How much Miller time dad was doing. (Jensen nods: mhm) (Jared smiles. and audience chuckles) And how Sam and Jess met. Stuff like that. So, I was just wondering, um, if you were gonna explore that aspect of their lives?

Kripke: We just- Uh, it's funny you say that. We just yesterday, uhh.. Actually (points to the front row) I think, uh, I'm talking to Brad, who's at the network. I think you're getting a cut on Monday. (audience giggles) Um, of-of an episode that, uh, not only do the boys in-in present day, you know, deal with a creature, but, uh, (gestures) it's a creature they dealt with in the past. (gestures) And there's extensive flashbacks to, uh-uh, Sam and Dean. And John is there, you know, as the boys were children and dad and you get to see a, uh, an element of-of what their past was like or what their childhood was like. (Jensen nods)

Um, and it was- I really happy with how it turned out. And it- You know we won’t- We wanted to try it once. And I think it'll be happening a lot more. (gestures) Because there's this great (Manners and Jensen are leaning forward, looking at Kripke) 22 year window of-of what happened. And-and-and that's- there's a lot of story there that you can- you can flesh out. (nods then shakes his head) So, I think we're definitely to go there.

(nods and gestures) Because it's coming up in, uh, (briefly looks up) I think, uh, April, that episode. And it- I was really pleased with how it turned out. So, yeah. We’re really doing it-

Jared: Another positive is that if little Sam and little Dean filming, big Sam and big Dean are sleeping

Kripke: (laughs) Yeah. Right. (Jensen smirks. Audience laughs. Jensen holds up two thumbs.) (Jared: Soo-) So, there's that.

Jensen: This is good. This is good.

Jared: So, keep pushing yeah (rocks fist)

Jensen: Yeah, keep pushing.

Jared: Keep pushing.

Kripke: Yeah.

Jensen: (nods and raises eyebrows) Flashbacks.

Jared: Very important. (laughs and scratches back of his head) (audience chuckles)

Bushman: Okay. (points) There was a question there in the middle.

Fan: (off mic) Um, Dean always wears this like- (audience giggles)

Kripke: Aw.

Audience member: What?

•(49:07)- PaleyFest06;Q15- Samulet (Jensen, Kripke)

Fan: Oh, okay. (voice cracked giggle) (Manners laughs. Kripke smiles) Dean always (laughs)- Dean always wears a certain necklace does it mean anything?

Kripke looks down at Jensen. Jensen is leaning on his knees looking back.

Jensen: (to Kripke) You gonna hang me out to dry on this?

Singer: Oh yeah. (Jensen looks down. Jared laughs. Audience laughs.)

Kripke: I mean we can’t s- I mean it does but we can't…say.

Jensen: (looks at fan) Yeah. It-it-it does have significance and it- it’ll..(rubs his brow) it- but it we can't talk about it.

Kripke: Yeah. (laughs) (audience laughs) (Jensen rests his head on his hand)

Shiban: It's from Sacramento.

Jensen, Kripke, and the audience laugh. Jensen pats Shiban’s shoulder.

Bushman: That's a great question, though, that you picked up on that necklace. So. (Kripke: Yeah.) (Jensen nods. A few of the audience give woo’s.) Um-

Fan: (off mic) I always notice weird stuff. (audience giggles)

Bushman: Okay. I'm trying to spread ‘em out. Uhh. (points) You got somebody back there? Okay. (Points) And then this woman down here in the red shirt… (points) But go ahead in the back first.

•(49:55)- PaleyFest06;Q16- Special effects, Gag Reels (Jensen, Jared, Manners)

Fan: Um, I thought I heard you guys m-mention on a show one time you guys do green screen, blue screen, that kind of thing for special effects. Is that gotten a lot easier for you to do and kind of.. You know… fake it? (laughs) (audience laughs)

Jared: Yeah.

Fan: And, um, and the second part to the question was, uh, when the DVD set comes out are you guys gonna have a lot of.. behind the scenes jokes, cuz, yeah, this is funny. (audience laughs)

Jensen: We, uh, we-we actually just had a film crew on set with us, uh, this past week doing behind the scenes stuff for the DVD. (nods) So. (audience cheers and claps)

Um. (gestures) Going back to your first question the green screen and, uh, and stuff, we.. we do, do a lot of-

Jared: You-

Jensen: (leans back and looks at Jared) I said doo-doo. (Jared presses his lips. Audience laughs.)

Manners: He said doo-doo. (Jared smiles and shrugs)

Jared: He said doo-doo. (shrugs) (Jensen looks at the audience and briefly raises his eyebrows) (chuckles)

Jensen: (licks his lips and leans forward on his knees) Uumm.

Jared laughs. Manners laughs. Jared then throws his head back, laughing, and claps. Jensen closes his eyes and bits his lips. The audience laughs.

Jensen: We do (gestures) work a lot with- (Jared snorts)

Manners: Doo-doo. (Jensen looks over) (shrugs) (J2 laugh)

Jensen: (quickly sits back and points at Jared) Jared you can take this one. (Jensen stares at Jared with a smirk)

Jared: (laughing) Yeah. (sits up with his feet on the table) Uumm.. (claps his knee) as Kim and Jensen were saying, we doo-doo. (audience laughs) And, uh- No. We do- it was- it was- (puts his feet back on the floor) I guess it was a big learning process for everybody. Just- You know, it's-it’s a very interesting.. sort of task to be given to- Especially these kind of crazy either emotional sequences or these crazy physical sequences when they're like, “Alright. Now, um, you're in the woods.”(Jensen nods) “And, uh, you know, it's dark, and it's scary, and you're hearing things.”And then you look behind you and there's just this (gestures) big blue wall with (gestures) tape (audience chuckles) And, you know, a couple crew guys standing back there smoking cigarettes. (audience laughs) You know, cursing and.. showing off tattoos (audience giggles) And so it's-it's- it's, uh, I think I've- (briefly looks to his right, then gestures to the audience) speaking for myself, I-I hope I've gotten more of a hang of it.

Jensen: Aside from just the actual green-screen of it that w-we can just be in a normal set and-and they're going to, um- visual effects will-will then put in something (Jared: Right.) like, uh, “Phantom Traveler” with the, uh, (gestures) the smoke that would come out of the vents (Jared: Right.) and-and stuff like that. That's not something that we obviously see. Um.. so we have to pretend that it's there. And that there's no real green screen work going on there.

But, uh, there's also an episode coming up (thumbs to Manners) that Kim directed called, uh, “Shadows.” And we deal with, uh- (audience starts murmuring)

Kripke: Yeah, it just aired.

Shiban: It aired (?).

Jared: (leans over) It aired, Jensen.

Manners: (to the audience) Well, what happened in “Shadow-” Did you see-

Jensen: (adjusts his seating position) I haven’t seen it. (audience and Kripke laughs)

Manners: (points to Jensen) He loves my work.

Jensen: Yeah. That’s right. And we hadn’t- (nods)

Manners: Uhh, If you remember the shot wheree Meg did the high fall (gestures)… (audience’s says yes) (shakes his head) they hung her six feet off the ground. And she was.. (gestures to his belt. Clip on mic falls in his lap) picked- Wah- we call it picked, with two wires on her hips. And she was looking up at the cabin or doing this (looks up and clawing at the sky). (looks down and pats for his mic.) Hello. (audience chuckles) (picks up mic from his lap) She was looking up at the camera doing this. (claws at the air with one hand) (audience laughs) And she just laid back and (leans back) she just laid out and flattened out. And they dropped her visually w-, uh, with the computer seven stories. She never went anywhere. That was all just.. in one place, I guess. True story. (clips mic to his jacket)

Jensen: And then when we ran up to the window.. she wasn't even there and we were actually staring at a.. a big.. red X.

Manners: yeah. (audience laughs)

Kripke: So, Jensen, does that mean that you guys actually have to act? (audience gives mixed reaction)

Jared: No, no, no. No. I'm actually not here right now.

Kripke: (chuckles and then to the audience) Oh, I’m kidding.

Jared: We're actually in Canada. (Jensen: Yeah.) (gestures) This is- this is-

Jensen: These are our body doubles (Jared and Singer chuckle)

?Kripke?: yeah. (Jensen nods)

Bushman: Yeah, over here.

•(53:16)- PaleyFest06;Q17- Religion “Jensen,” Dean Winchester cellphone # (Jared, Jensen)

Fan: Um, actually I have two questions. The first one is, Jensen in a past interview he said you were a Christian. I was wondering is it hard to do this kind of show like.. having that background?

And the other question is in an episode, I don't remember which one it was, you gave the phone number what you're trying to reach your dad you're like, “Give me a call this is my number.” But whenever you call you can- you- y- it says, “This is Dean Winchester.” And it says, “Leave your coordinates.” Did you ever hear- like, you- Can you actually voice ‘em on there? Did you hear like- Did you have a lot of fans leaving messages at that number? (Jensen points to Kripke) Because it wasn't a five, five, five number.

It was very small to pick up on, because my sister and I we watch it- She watches it her place. I watch it at mine. (audience giggles. J2 smile.) And I was like “Did you see the number?” She's like, “Was it a real number?” And so anyway that was my question. (Jensen gives a one-handed shrug and then looks at Kripke. audience laughs)

Jared: If you want to actually call him it's 800-Wet-Legs. (Kripke laughs and audience laughs) So, that’s- this is- (Jensen leans over to talk in Jared’s ear)

Kripke: Don’t- don’t give out his number. (Manners laughs)

Jared: Oh, he changed- Oh, you changed it. (audience chuckles) Oh, scratch that. Scratch that. (scratches his head)

Jensen: Um, (readjusts his position) I’m lost.

Shiban: What was the question?

Jensen: What was the- what was the question? (picks up mic from lap) Wha?

Jared: Something about-

Manners: (leans over) You're a Christian!

Jared: (?subliminal worshiping?)

Jensen: (clips his mic back on his shirt) Uh, Yes. Okay. Uhhh, (gestures) Your first question. Uh, y-yes I-I was raised, uh-um, with a very religious family. (gesture) And-and in that, uh-um.. I mean, (open hands) what I do this is, you know.. W-we.. This is acting. (gestures) We're telling stories. I’m-I'm- I portray a character. Um, you know, does my grandmother cringe sometimes? (nods) Yeah. (smiles) (audience giggles) Um, but at the end of the day I'm-I'm, you know, it's- it's something that I'm cool with.

Uhh and, uh- and then as far as the- the-the phone numbers (gestures and looks at Kripke) and I think there’s even websites- there's a-a-

Kripke: Yeah. Yeah. When they called-

Jensen: (looks at fan) Email.

Kripke: Yeah, every so often.

Jensen: There’s actually been a (looks at Kripke) huge response to it.. from what I know.

Kripke: Yeah. Yeah. We got a couple. Wuh-uh- I listened- I mean we couldn't listen all of them, but there’s was a couple thousand voicemail messages. (audience chuckles) (Jensen: Yeah.) of people who called. And-and, uh, I mean I listen to you know maybe, you know, thirt- twenty or thirty of them.

Jared: (to Jensen) Two thousand (Jensen smiles)

Kripke: But some of our hilari- They're like, you know, (dramatic voice) “Sam and Dean! There- there's a ghost in my attic!” (audience and Jared laugh) “You have to come quick!” (Shiban coughs) Those are- those are my favorites.

Jared: (laughs) That’s funny.

Jensen: (scratches head) That's awesome. (audience giggles. Jared laughs)

Bushman: Alright, uh- (more hands in the audience are raised)

Jared: Woah.

Jensen: Woah.

Jared: Wow. (audience chuckles)

Jensen: Yes.

Jared: Can you do that again? (Jensen and audience laugh)

Bushman: Um, take one all the way in the back up there. And one right here in the front.

•(55:39)- PaleyFest06;Q18- Impala 67 (Jensen, Manners)

Fan: Hi. (Bushman: ?second?) My son and I are really big fans. And you guys are great. And I want to know what kind of car it is you drive. It's- it's great.

Jensen: It's a, uh, 67 (?Jared?: Impala) Chevy Impala. (J2 nod. Audience cheers and claps)

The audience starts yelling out, “Metallicar!” Jensen smiles. Kripke laughs. Jensen laughs. A few more Meallicar response are said.

Jensen: The Metallicar.

Manners: They’re gonna sell well.

Jensen: Yeah. (shrugs) There it is. And we've got about- (looks around)

Manners: We've just bought our fifth one.

Jensen: (nods) Fifth one. We got about five of them. Yeah.

Jared: that's why you can't find him on eBay. Cuz we’ve been buying- (audience laughs) (Jared takes a drink)

Jensen: Yeah. We have them all. (nods)

Jared: (while drinking) mhm (sets down glass)

Bushman: Right there.

•(56:16)- PaleyFest06;Q19- SPN Music (Kripke, Singer)

Fan: Okay so let's talk about the music.

Jensen: Yeeesss. (audience and Jared clap)

Fan: Yes. Yes. Alright, I grew up in the 70s. I grew up on the mullet rocks. So, yeah. Let's talk about where the inspiration.. came from with that.

Kripke: That.. That was something that was r-really important to me, uh, coming into the show, coming into the pilot. Um, you know, I'm from a small town in Ohio and (gestures) this is the music I listen to. And I was a huge, huge Zeppelin fan. And.. and-and so, ehhh- You know, and so, uh, (gestures) when it came time to write the pilot I-I- and-and produced it, it was- it was so important to me that it had that music. And- and not have, you know, (gestures) all-all due respect to my beloved Network, not half the music that's usually on that network. (audience chuckles)

Um, and-and it was so important to me. (gestures) I was so like rabid about it that in the original draft of the pilot I even wrote in the- in the script. (mimics writing) I wrote, “Cue music. And you can take your anemic alternative pop and shove it up your ass.” (audience laughs, claps and cheers. Manners and Shiban laugh)

And, uh.. and the r- and the reason I wrote the scene when they're in the-in the pilot

Jensen: (? It’s how I knew??) (Jared nods and laughs) (briefly raises his eyebrows)

Kripke: they have the scene where they're talking about tapes and he's like, you know; ac/dc, you know, uh, Motorhead, Metallica. And the reason I wrote that in is I said, “Well, if we shoot that and it gets from the pilot then we have to use my music.” (audience laughs) (frantically gestures) “Because it's already in the- it's already in the sh- it’s in the show and they can't, you know. They can't put in some, you know, Sarah McLaughlin in the- in the- in post.” (Manners laughs)

So, uh- So I- You know, this is- y-you know- (turns to Singer) And we’ve-we've had a great time I mean in-in- with, you know, Phil also in post-production and with Bob (gestures) of figuring out these songs. And coming in one morning and being like, “Oh! Billy Squier! What about Billy Squier?” (Singer chuckles. The audience laughs.)

And, uh- and I think it's like a real signature to the show. And-and is-is the real- (gestures) plus it's Midwestern. You know, it's like two guys in- (thumbs to J2) from Kansas in a muscle car. (shrugs) And this is the music they listen to. So, um, but it's- I- I mean I- I love it. There-there was- The other night was Joe Walsh “Rocky Mountain Way” (Jensen nods) and I'm just laughing my ass off. (audience laughs) “Yeah! I Rocky Mountain Way on The WB! It’s-“ (Jensen and audience laugh)

Singer: It also, uh- It also spreads. Because one of the editors, uh, said to me- And he's a very hip guy and really good musically. (laughs) He- I walk into his room. We were going through songs. I said, “Well, do this song. Do this song.” (unintelligible) Two days there I walk in, he goes, “Do you know Bad Company's really good.”

The audience cheers and claps. Kripke laughs. Jensen nods and smirks.

Bushman: Okay. Let's take two questions from the middle. One- (points) One over there and (points) one on the other side. (points) O-on this side and then (laughs) one on that side.

•(58:42)- PaleyFest06;Q20A- Acting Advice “Start” (Jared)

Fan: Mm, hi, I'm an inspiring actor. And (giggles) I wanted to know-

Singer: We’re sorry. (The audience laughs. Kripke laughs then aw’s)

Fan: I wanted to know, um, how hard was it for you two to get started acting? (Jared looks at Jensen)

Jensen: (gestures to Jared) Go ahead. (audience giggles)

Jared: Uuh. Alright, I'll feel this. I-It’s a it's not the first time I've actually heard that question and I'm- I'm so at a loss for what to tell you. (scratches knee) I have a very interesting story. When I was in high school I won a contest to being on the Teen Choice Awards. (some of the audience laughs) And hold trophies and give them to Freddie Prinze Jr. when he got (audience laughs) “Best Hottie of.. the World”

Jensen: Pretty much went downhill since then. (audience laughs)

Jared: It’s basically gone down, yeah. (Kripke laughs) Yeah, and I just- (laughs) I rode on Freddie Prinze's coattails. (audience giggles. Jensen smirks) No. Um, and I- and I met an agent at the, uh, at the show. I met a manager actually. And-and, Dan Spilo, I'm still with to this day, sitting with my girl Sandy over there. Um, he- we- (gestures) We started kind of talking over the phone with sides. And he had faith in me and I was going back to high school. And I've mommy that's a teacher and a daddy that was an accountant. (audience giggles) And they were like, “He's finishing high school. He's finishing high school.” And I was like, “Why can’t I go act? Why can’t I go act?”

And anyways, I flew out for about a week during pilot season. And I booked a pilot and then I used that money to go out during the summer. So, I had a really kind of crazy interesting story, but I have a lot of buddies who are, you know, much more talented and-and more committed than I am that are still struggling to make it. So, uh- It's a- It's a.. tough, tough industry but just, you know, keep working hard and keep making yourself better. (nods)

•(1:00:09)- PaleyFest06;Q20B- Acting Advice “Start” (Jensen)

Bushman: Jensen how did you get started?

Jensen: Um. Well, I mean like Jared said there's- there's really no set formula, uh, for- for.. how we, you know, we've gotten to where we've got. Um, mine was kind of a (throws up hand and shakes his head), um, sheer luck thing as-as well.

I was, uh, doing theater in Dallas and I happen to have a-a (throws up hand) talent agent from- from LA sitting in and came up to me afterwards and gave me his-his.. (throws up hand) pitch and I said, “Nah, you're full crap.” (Bushman and audience laugh. Jared smiles.) I told him to bugger off. (audience chuckles) And, uh, h- And then he went up to my-my folks and kind of gave him their pitch as well. And I guess they seemed a little bit more interested in a-

And so a few years later after his, um, persistence I-I finally said, “Ah, maybe I'll go out there for a couple of months and check it out. See if he's, uh- See if he'll talk the talk.” And, uh, I came out. And-and started working right away and that was about eight or nine years ago.

Bushman: Mm. Okay. So, question on that side.

•(1:01:03)- PaleyFest06;Q21- Props “Alcohol” (Jared, Jensen)

Fan: First of all, um, “Shadow” was a kick-ass episode. (audience claps followed by J2 and Shiban clapping) And I want to thank you all for that one, cuz it's awesome.

But let's get down to, like, what really matters. What alcohol do you guys like to drink? (audience laughs. Kripke and Singer look at J2.)

Jared: What alcohol do you got? (Kripke shakes his head with opens his hands at the audience, and then laughs with the audience)

Fan: Because I see a lot of beers and stuff in the episode. And it's always my thing to place what y'all are drinking. So, I was just wonderin,’ you hard guys? You light guys?

Jared: (laughs and then claps. Jensen smiles at Jared) Uh, my mom would kill me. (audience laughs) Umm-

Jensen: Yeah, can we cut the tape like right now? (audience laughs)

Jared: Yeah, could we? We were rolling. Check. Check. Actually (Jensen adjusts his position) one of the funny things about the, uh, about the beers is our-our prop master, Chris Cooper, um, he's.. some of the (gestures) (a clicking noise is made) beer labels they're always fake labels. (audience laughs) (Jared looks up) God?

Jensen: (?somebody get?) a staple gun. (audience laughs)

Shiban: (?Give me a minute.?)

Jared: And, uh, (chuckles) They're always fake labels and it usually have some do with the city that we're filming that episode in. You know like if we’re in Texas it'll be like, “Lone Star Logger,” or if we’re in.. (one person laughs) Minnesota it'll be like, “Timber Wolf Ale” or something (audience chuckles) like that.

But, you know, (looks at Jensen) we’re Texas boys. I- I think-

Jensen: Yeah, we, you know, would probably drink what you imagine a couple Texas boys drink. (J2 smirk. Audience giggles)

Jared: Put in a cup. (audience laughs. Jensen nods)

Jensen: That’s right. (Jared rubs his hand over his face and laughs. The Audience laughs)

•(1:02:15)- PaleyFest06;Q22A- Favorite SPN Scene (Manners)

Bushman: I have a question for you guys. (audience laughs. Jared nods while pressing his lips together. Jensen scratches his ear) Um, I'm curious if, ueh, this is possible to answer this question, if you could pick a scene that you either wrote or acted in or directed that's probably like your favorite scene that you've worked on since this show started and if you tell me why. Um, (Jared?: mm) anybody want to.. take. (Manners gestures at Bushman) Kim go ahead.

Manners: I'll take that, um. (rubs his tear duct) “Shadow,” where the boys finally f- saw their father. Uhh d- (audience claps and cheers) (shakes his head and clears throat) “Shadow” was- u-uh, I'm incredibly proud of because there were four great scenes. The scene where the boys were arming up and, uh, Dean blows at Sam and says, “Why do you think I-I got you out of Stanford in the first place?” “Why do you think I came to get you? Because I want us to be family again.”

And, uh, (Jensen dramatically wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. Audience laughs) I'll tell you Jensen had a tough time with that and we kind of arm wrestled over it. And he- and, uh- (Jensen nods) tooo get him there and, you know, because- because Dean is, uhh, you know, he's got his walls up. And-and to break down that wall for (gestures) just a minute to look in the Dean’s heart was- was magical for me.

And then when they met dad in the apartment, uh, and in the alley it was just- (nods) We worked very hard. (Jensen nods: mhm) (Jared nods) The boys- they- their game of tennis improves 2000% when they work with Jeffrey Dean or somebody like Niki.. (audience woo’s and claps. Jared claps) Aycox. (shakes head and then scratches nose)

You know, we find the nuances and, uh, it-it- in acting i-it becomes the crap that it is and it becomes real (Jensen nods), uh, life. And the words become (points at J2) their own and the emotions become their own and that's special, for me. (Jensen nods then looks at Manners. Manners looks back)

Jared: And not just to say this, but having a great director to.. tell you exactly what to do doesn't.. make it hard. (briefly looks at Manners) So you know (Manners: Thank you.) I think (tilts his head at Jensen) Jensen and I would tell you.. a thousand times every day like.. you know.. “Kim got it out in that episode.”

Jensen: (scratches head) (unintelligible) Yeah. (?That happened?)

•(1:04:13)- PaleyFest06;Q22Aa- Acting Challenges “Shadow” (Jensen)

Bushman: Hey, Jensen. Did you not want to do that scene because you thought that Dean wouldn't.. say that?

Jensen: Umm, yeah. Sometimes I-I- I guess I can be a little protective of just of-of Dean and-and him (open hands) showing emotions. And I, you know, I always, um… A-and as an actor as you grow with a character on the series you- you really- you really kind of become close to it. (gestures) And You- you protect it. (Bushman: mhm) Em, you protect that character.

And, um, I guess that, that was probably what-what- what that was. And, uh, I just didn't- I wasn't (gestures) real sure how.. uh, how much of the layers, uh, to peel away (gestures) in that scene. And I guess in that confusion I just- I-I kind of put up my own barrier. (Thumbs to Manners) But, uh, if there was anybody to get me through it, it was Kim. So, I'm glad he was there.

Bushman: Great.

Jensen: Yeah.

•(1:05:01)- PaleyFest06;Q22B- Favorite SPN Scene (Shiban)

Bushman: John you have a favorite scene?

Shiban: Uuuh, there was a moment in “Skin” that-that I'm.. proud of. And actually it- in the- it sort of says something about how we (sniffs) tell our stories because we're always saying, “Okay, we want to do this type of episode. We want to do this monster. But how would Supernatural do it? How is it special for our show?” And I rremember being in- in Kripke’s palatial office of Warner Bros. (audience and Manners? chuckle)

Kripke: Not so fam- fountains and- (Jared smiles)

Shiban: Yeah. And uh- uh- (The audience, Jensen, and Manners chuckle.) We're (gestures) talking through the story of “Skin,” and the shapeshifter and obviously, you know, there's all kinds of (gestures) shape-shifting that's been done on television and movies etc. And he said, “We got to find our own.” And, uh, we kicked it around and came up with that scene, uuh, where Shapeshifter Dean goes down in the sewer.

And.. and I remember reading a, um- uhh, some online posts some friends send me that someone else (mimics writing) -a fan was watching the show and giving her impressions as she watched it, (mimics typing) “Oh my god! Dean's taking his shirt off!” (audience laughs. Kripke smirks) and then followed immediately- followed immediately by, “Oh my god! He's taking his skin off.” (Jensen and the audience laugh) I knew then that we, you know, we had it. (Jensen takes a drink) And I was very- I was very pleased with that.

Jensen: (places his glass down on the table) Oh, the things we do.

•(1:06:15)- PaleyFest06;Q22C- Favorite SPN Scene (Jensen)

Bushman: Jensen, you have a scene?

Jensen: Uuum.. (smacks lips) Yeah. I-I- one of my favorite, uh- um, it's not really a-a- a full scene but it's-it’s more of a shot. Um, and it was in, uh, it was in “Dead in the Water” (scratches arm) with, um- (points at Manners) Kim directed. Um, where I-I saved the little boy out of the lake. (nods) Uuh (some of the audience aw’s and then giggling) and coming- coming up out of the water. Uhm, and that was- It was just- It was, you know, slow-motion shot. It was very emotional, coming out with water and it was- That was really neat, um, but the build-up to that shooting it was, uh, (Manners chuckles) was really- (chuckles) (audience chuckles)

Uhhh, I had this 10 year-old boy in my hand and I'm keeping both of us (mimics holding the boy while swimming with one arm) afloat with one- one arm, uum, (rubs his chin) because I came with my feet (mimics holding a foot) because I got two divers holding my feet below me who were about to pull me under. And-d (one hand shrug) , you know, I-I'm fine. I grew up swimming in lakes and j- and all my life. But tah.. to have that sensation of somebody pulling you under water, um, especially when you've got the life of a-a 10 year old, you know, little actor in your hand and-and you're trying to keep him afloat. And he's got to play dead it was just- (shakes his head and rubs forehead) (audience murmurs) It was, uh- (looks up at Bushman) it was a little overwhelming. And.. and it was definitely unforgettable.

But, uh, we got through it. (throws up hand) We get- and it turned out to be an awesome shot. (thumbs at Manners)

Bushman: That's a great story.

Jensen: Yeah.

•(1:07:35)- PaleyFest06;Q22D- Favorite SPN Scene (Jared)

Bushman: Jared?

Jared: uhh, you know what? I've had some time to think while.. (Kripke chuckles) (scratches head) (audience chuckles) they've answered their questions. And I'm gonna go back to, uh, a scene in “Wendigo” that we did at the very, you know, (throws hand up) second episode of the year and I member there was just such (gestures) a long period of time between the “Pilot” and “Wendigo.” It was.. What? From m-March-April till July. (Kripke: mhm)

And, uh, there were so many (gestures) questions in my head when I found that we were getting picked up. Like, what's gonna happen? Where are we gonna start? Like, how do we.. start? How do we finish? How do we continue this story that we started a pilot with so many things going down? How do we.. keep the momentum going?

And there was this one particular scene that, uh, (points at Jensen) Jensen and I did on stage where he's got (gestures) dad's journal he's saying this is what it's about (Kripke nods) and Sam is saying, “I got to find Dad.” And I remember we, uh- We had a huge day that day. We had like eight or nine (turns his head towards Jensen) pages of dialogue. (Jensen nods) And, uh, Jensen and I realized we had to do the scene. We're like, “Oh, crap.” (J2 turn towards each other) Like, (laughs) “W-what? Let’s go memorize this in my trailer.” (gestures) We sat down in my trailer. And there was an acting coach that I-I work with whenever I can, named Karen Thorpe, up there with us. (Kripke nods)

And, uh, you know he kind of pushed and prodded me a little bit. (throws up hand) And I don't know what he did to Jensen. (audience laughs) But, uh..

Jensen shakes his head. Jared makes a grimace. Kripke? Giggles. The audience laughs. Jensen smiles into his hands. Jared smiles and scratches his head.

Jensen: I don’t want to talk about it.

Jared: It was noisy.

Jared and the audience laugh. Kripke laughs. Jared claps and then looks down, hiding his face behind his arm and scratches and combs his hair.

Jensen: Never again.

Jared: That’s between y’all and the wall. (audience laugher and ughs?) But, anyways we ended up- we ended up kind of getting the scene and-and putting something there. (scratches leg) And I think, um, it was one of the first times I ever felt like (throws up hand)… um, I was- I was hopefully doing what Kripke wanted, you know? Like, I think, like, I felt like, “You know, I think this is what Eric was envisioning.” Like, I really felt, for some reason, there's one of those times when you finish a scene and you're like, “Wow. I don't know where that came from but.” (shrugs) “I don't know.” (Kripke nods) “Whatever.”

Kripke: I remember seeing the dailies on that too. Uh, we were just through the roof. It was incredible. (Jared pats his knees with his fingers)

•(1:09:19)- PaleyFest06;Q22E- Favorite SPN Scene (Singer)

Bushman: Bob?

Singer: Um, I think, um, my favorite scene is a really quiet scene. And It's at, um, is at the end of the “Faith” episode. And-and (gestures) that whole episode was really about (Kripke nods) (gestures) I think, very… topical for today about what's.. what's real faith. And, uh, Julie Benz comes in has a, uh, scene with Jensen. And, uh, Jensen says to her, um, “I-I'm not much for praying, but I-I'll pray for you.” (Jensen nodding: mhm) And (gestures) she said, “Well, that's a miracle right there.”

And, uh, (gestures) I-I thought that, that kind of- I-I thought that was really sweet. I thought it was incredibly well acted, um, with both Julie and Jensen. And-and I thought that, um, I probably.. If people were listening, I think that probably was our.. You know, our finest moment to, uh, say something semi political and-and be, um, on the right side of that. (shrugs) I just hope it affected people the way it affected me. (audience claps. J2 and Shiban clap.)

•(1:10:19)- PaleyFest06;Q22F- Favorite SPN Scene (Kripke)

Kripke: Um, I-I (slice gestures) agree with.. all of those. All those are incredible scenes I would also add, uh, the scene when, uh-uh, Dean first calls his father in “Home” and tells him that “Come to Lawrence” and just the way that Jensen was able to try (gestures) to put up those walls, but the walls kept breaking down and that was amazing. (gestures)

But all those amazing scenes aside, (gestures) everyone's given such classy answers. (audience giggles) I have to say that when the when the dude stuck his hand the disposal in-in “Home”. (j2 and audience laugh. Jensen claps) And-and then the monkey starts clapping and- and (mimics camera) we had that shot beneath the sink and you could actually see all the goo come out. (audience ew’s) And I said I- and we shot it in dailies. I said, “They'll never let us use that.” And we used it. And, uh, it's- it's more probably- than any other scare sequence in the show. (Manners laughs) It's the one that people watch (Jensen: Yeah) (mimics viewers cringing and blocking the scene from their eyes) And they just- they can't even, you know, keep their eyes on the screen. (gestures to himself) And, you know, to me that's sort of the fun at getting the effect out of the audience. (to Bushman) So, I'm going to say the (gestures) garbage disposal scene in the “Home.” (audience laughs and claps)

Bushman: It's great because that explains what Bob was talking about before with the two different approaches to dra-

Kripke: See. (gestures) There you go.

(1:11:24)- closing

Bushman: Alright. (to audience) Okay, I want to thank you guys. You guys have been a great audience. (audience, Manners, Singer, and J2 clap)

Kripke: Can I say-

Bushman: Uh, also, uh, Before you go! Before you go! Don't go yet. I also (two security personnel walk on stage) want to thank Er- First of all Erik's got something to say.

Kripke: (holds up hand) Well, I just wanted to say, uh, we have a lot of, uh, the people who work in- on “Supernatural” in the audience. And I want a round of applause for them for this unbelievable season. (audience and panelists cheer and clap) All of them have done such a- They’ve all.. (gestures) They’ve all murder themselves to-to (gestures) bring you this show. And-and we couldn't do it without any of them. So- so, thank you to them. We-(gestures) it's-

Audience member: Are we getting (?pics off?)

Bushman: I- I also want to thank (gestures to panelists)-

Kripke: Hope so.

Bushman: I want to thank you guys, all of you, for.. not just being here tonight, but also for the great work that you're doing.

Jensen: (bows head) Thank you. (audience claps and cheers)

Bushman: And you’re obviously touching our cords. Thank you very much.

Singer: (nods) Thank you.

Kripke: Thank you. (audio cuts)

Jared’s clapping. Jensen is taking off his mic. Shiban is clapping. Manners is sitting up. Four security personnel walk and stand in front of the panelists, along with a woman and two stage assistants. The panelists all take off their mics and stand and mingle with the people on stage. The audience is also standing and exiting. Video fades to black.

#spn #supernatural #paleyfest 2006 #spn transcript #jared padalecki #jensen ackles #eric kripke #robert singer #kim manners #john shiban #peter johnson #david bushman #2006 #Youtube

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