#said as That Kind of theater diva

[thedawningofthehour]

I just imagined Draxum reenacting - defying gravity - but instead of Leo singing "I hope you're happy" at the end he straigh up just shoots him.

My vision was more 'No One Mourns the Wicked' and 'Thank Goodness' as Leo in a universe where Draxum gets himself and Gale killed and Leo has to basically shove his emotions in a box because everyone considered his brother to be Draxum's just-as-evil lackey and is glad he's dead.

Draxum is basically the Wizard paralleled Donnie's longing for a true mentor and parental figure who understands him and Elphaba's desire for a father who loves her. I think the last chapter title was actually from 'Wonderful.' 'checks' Yep. "A man's called a traitor or liberator. A rich man's a thief or philanthropist. Is one a crusader or ruthless invader? It's all in which label is able to persist. There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities. So we act as though they don't exist!"

Donnie would perform 'Defying Gravity' and 'No Good Deed' on a daily basis, he's just That Kind of theater diva.

[hueseok]

( 01. ) GOOD GRACES.

kim seokjin doesn’t believe in luck. he’s someone who knows that in order to have good things coming your way, you have to work damn hard for it. however, that might not be the case when it comes to bad luck, because after a video of him goes viral wherein it looks like he’s screaming at someone’s grandma, he begins thinking maybe luck does exist—and it just so happens that he’s now being subjected to a lot of unluckiness.

he’s being cancelled. his career is getting destroyed. his manager is forcing him to take a hiatus. and on top of that, as if things could not get worse, the only hope he has on redeeming everything he worked hard on depends on you, the director’s daughter of the theater show that could propel him back to where he used to be.

that should have been a piece of cake. if only you weren’t his ex who he dumped via phone call and got threatened by to never show his face to ever again...

pairing: seokjin x reader

word count: 4.2k

rating: NC-17

content: fluff, light angst, humor, exes to enemies to friends to lovers au | ft. theater actor!seokjin + himbo energy!seokjin lmao, podcaster!reader + nepo baby!reader

warning/s: lots of swearing | lots of internal monologue by seokjin? lmao

[ chapter index. ]

EPISODE 01. there are worse things i could do !

seokjin never thought that the downfall of his career would happen because of a misconstrued video of him going viral where he was apparently yelling at a poor old lady in a grocery store.

but here he is, getting canceled on twitter and being informed by his manager that he was taken off the projects he was scheduled to do for the upcoming year, the brands who were once so keen on getting him on board suddenly backtracking and terminating the previously signed deals that were already discussed.

regardless of how he tried convincing yikyung, the said manager, that he wasn’t actually fighting the woman who was probably the same age as his grandmother on that short clip—and that all of this was just a stupid a misunderstanding, he’s told it’s too late. the public already made up their mind; they all hated him, and there were several gossip blogs publishing articles that had ‘receipts’ of his apparent bad and diva behavior over the span of his career.

“look, namjoon and I are working on it,” yikyung says, explaining that the PR and legal team are already in the midst of taking care of the whole problem. “but for the meantime, the best you can do is lay low for a while, buddy.”

“what?” seokjin exclaims. “are you saying—”

“you’ll be going on a hiatus.”

“hiatus,” he repeats, enunciating every syllable like he heard it wrong. he feels like he’s going to vomit, the whole room he’s in right now spinning before his eyes.

“yes. hiatus.”

god, seokjin hates that word. he’s been working his ass off since he knew how to act and sing and was the absolute fucking best at it. and now they’re putting him on a hiatus? it’s ridiculous. it’s unfair! he isn’t in some kind of boyband or anything, but he’s pretty sure that they use that term to sugarcoat the fact that the members are quitting the industry or going solo which doesn’t make sense for him so the former category is probably more applicable to his situation at the moment and—

“it’s temporary,” yikyung continues speaking, as if reading what’s going in his mind. “at most, it’ll be a year.”

that still doesn’t calm seokjin down. “you’re benching me for a year?”

“at most.”

“does it really have to be that long?”

“yeah, if we see that it’s necessary enough.”

“i don’t think a year is necessary.”

“we don’t know that yet.”

“but if you keep me away from the public that long… it's going to kill my career!”

yikyung gives him a pitiful look. “it's already dead, jin. let’s be real here.”

he gasps, genuinely offended that his manager would say such a thing. “take that back.”

“look, i’m not happy with this either,” yikyung says, “but the public needs to forget that video. It’s what everybody is talking about, it’s what every director or sponsor that’s asking us about too—nobody would want to associate themselves with your name anyway while the story’s fresh, so this hiatus won’t kill it. doing this hiatus will just induce your career into a coma. you’ll be like sleeping beauty.”

“then who’ll be the fucking prince?”

“a mindblowing project that’ll remind people that you’re the best leading man in the theater world.”

seokjin lets that sink in.

just days ago, he was being blasted with offers to do commercials and new productions due to the successful run of chicago where he portrayed billy flynn. A lot of columns praised his versatility, saying that despite reservations on how he was going to perform, he nailed the part and captured the audience’s hearts with how he made that character his own. it was the biggest ego boost he had in a while considering he was so passionate in bringing billy flynn to life and pulling off the long note he had in we both reached for the gun—now though? all the happiness that he felt before? all the acclaim he reckoned could last him a good few months to stay motivated in doing this? it’s being buried to the ground; he feels as if everything is crashing down and every good thing in his life is fading away.

guess it’s true that being too happy can cause too much sadness after.

“a year goes by so fast, you know,” yikyung tells him. “keep yourself busy. pursue other hobbies. the next time i’ll call you, i’ll make sure it’s about an offer that’ll jolt your career awake again.”

and so with no other choice, really… that’s what seokjin did.

he decides to follow yikyung’s advice and take a train back to his hometown with the plan to help his aunt run the small grocery business she had, residing there until circumstances appear better for him. he figures this break might be better than he thinks, taking into account the fact that he’s been working nonstop since he began landing solid roles years ago. maybe a restart is what he needs; maybe he can use this as an excuse to do other stuff and pursue other hobbies like he was suggested to do.

in the first month of his forced hiatus, he becomes some kind of apprentice at his aunt’s mentioned grocery store. he meets taehyung, a young man who looks way too handsome to be only arranging packed and canned goods in the aisles of the shop as another helper of his aunt; taehyung also apparently recognizes him, asking if he’s that “theater star harassing an old lady” he kept on seeing on tiktok which seokjin’s always quick to correct. taehyung never looks convinced though, regardless of how much seokjin explains, but he at least doesn’t treat him shit for some groundless scandal.

then in his second month, he begins to try pottery. there are classes for it in the same town, a 10-minute drive away and the instructor happens to be a family friend. however, after five sessions, he realizes that he’s horrible at the task and can’t produce anything that’s worth selling or admiring even. that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy it though, ‘cause he does, and he still attends each class or goes on his own for the following months to use this activity as catharsis.

for the third month, he starts painting; on the fourth, he volunteers to walk the golden retriever that an elderly couple neighbor has; when the fifth month comes, he begins jogging around the area, continuing that until the sixth and seventh as he progresses to running—and then on the eight month, while he’s tending to the crops he’s growing at his aunt’s backyard, he finally gets the call from yikyung that he always pretends not to care about.

hurriedly taking off his gloves that are covered with mud, he picks up his phone from the table and answers his agent’s call. “please tell me you have something,” is what he says, not even concealing the desperation in his voice.

“i have something,” yikyung confirms, sounding excited.

“holy fuck,” he whispers to himself. he’s pacing around now, thrilled and anxious, praying to the gods of every religion that this will be a good offer. “what is it? tell me quickly.”

“they’re doing grease,” he says and seokjin does an impromptu super mario impression, just jumping all over the place because of the mention of the famous musical, the kind of musical that he knows would definitely benefit him if he wants to be within everybody’s radar again. “they already have a sandy young—it’s the producer’s niece—so now all they’re looking for is the rest of the cast. I already got you an audition for danny zuko and it’s two weeks from now.”

“god, i fucking love you, yikyung.”

“i’m amazing, aren’t I?”

“the best. you’re a goddamn gift from above.”

“and it hasn’t even been a year,” yikyung proudly points out. “you’ll be absolutely back on your feet after this project. your scandal has died down, anyway. not a lot are talking about it, and some of your fans are getting better at defending you, sharing encounter stories of their own to support the claim that you aren’t a dick who has a fetish in getting into a bickering war with an old woman.”

seokjin rolls his eyes. “never describe it that way to me again.”

yikyung chuckles. “i’ll hire a cleaning lady to clean your apartment here in the city maybe this weekend. when do you think you’ll arrive?”

“some time after the weekend. i’ll have to take care of a few things before i go.”

“like what?”

“well, believe it or not, i actually made some friends here.”

“damn. i told you this hiatus was going to be good for you.”

“yeah, you are right about that. i think it was healing for some reason. aside from the first weeks of me being depressed as fuck.”

“so, what does that mean? does this mean that you think you’ll nail the audition?”

seokjin grins. he isn’t cocky for nothing. even though it was advised to him before to lower it down a bit so that he wouldn’t come across as a complete ass, he knows he’s great at this pursuit of his. he’s charming, he has an amazing voice, and he can pull off any choreography instructed to him regardless of his initial lack of dancing abilities. being a hard worker makes you that way, and it’s what seokjin thinks will always help him in every endeavor he runs after.

“you bet, i will.”

“how’s your voice? your joints? do you need to warm up?”

“i’ve been singing for the community here every tuesday and thursday. i also haven’t been physically inactive like you think i am. i’ve been exercising regularly, improving my stamina and all that shit.”

yikyung doesn’t answer for a few seconds, a silence that seokjin translates into his manager being impressed that he hasn’t let go of himself despite the circumstances.

after a few more clarifications and reminders, the call ends and seokjin flops down on the wooden chair close to him, this goofy and giddy smile erupting on his face. it doesn’t occur to him until this moment that he’s been wishing for a miracle like this to come along because he’s been missing performing on stage like he used to do during shows and even when he’s in dance studios for the rehearsals. yeah, having a reason to take a break was nice too as he expressed, but nothing beats doing what he loves to do.

and playing danny zuko? wow, talk about a huge upgrade from being mandated by his management to disappear from the public to potentially being cast as one of john travolta’s famous roles. of course, the challenge with this is that he has to make sure that he actually gets the role, which he’s optimistic that he’ll be fine with.

his reputation may be questionable once he comes back, but there’s no denying that if there’s anyone who can emanate an arrogant greaser who cares too much about his image—it’s him.

****

seokjin’s aunt was devastated when she discovered that he’s leaving. she tried to persuade him to stay longer (if not for her, for the plants and the grocery store—and maybe the crowd of people he would sing for whenever there was an occasion in the neighborhood). however, regardless of her insistence, seokjin cannot be budged; he’s been waiting far too long for this to have second thoughts about it, to be swayed from this provincial life he has come to love and genuinely enjoy.

“are you coming back?” taehyung asked him when the news of seokjin’s immediate departure got to him too. “because if you aren’t, can I have your bike?”

seokjin rolled his eyes. over the course of his stay, taehyung has become some sort of little brother he never had. “i’m coming back. just to visit though,” he said. “so you can have my bike.”

on the weekend before he left, he spent time with the people he befriended. he arranged a bingo session with the elderly; he ran laps with that golden retriever he took on walks every morning; he did his last piece of pottery with the instructor he also became friends with; then, on his very last night, he shared a few drinks with his aunt and taehyung, promising them that if he gets the part, they’ll have front row tickets to the show.

if not, he’ll jump off the bridge because he doesn’t think he has a face to show to anyone anymore. 

he earned a slap on the arm by his aunt with that one.

everything went smoothly when he came back to his old apartment the following morning, freshly cleaned like yikyung promised. nonetheless, seokjin felt it was necessary to check every nook and cranny of the place to verify that, even going as far as examining the decorations, memorabilia, and picture frames he had on display, his finger being swiped on the most random areas to make sure that every corner was polished. nobody lived here for eight months in his defense, and he really could catch a bad case of allergic rhinitis in the case yikyung was lying. he couldn’t have that. he had his voice to take care of; there shouldn’t be snot or phlegm getting in the way of the full prowess of his vocals.

for the next few days leading up to the audition, he did everything he can to assure that he’ll be in his best state when his time to shine comes. he practiced the song sandy, a solo piece sung by danny zuko, and rehearsed the lines for the scene where danny and sandy first meet again at rydell high.

in those hours he spent talking to himself, warming up his voice, making sure that he shaped his words right and exuded the energy of the greaser he’s aiming to play, he started thinking again that he seriously got a huge chance in landing this role. he’s superb at acting; he’s certain that he has the voice needed for this part; and not to mention that he’s got the looks for it, alright. his handsomeness is certainly one of the aspects that makes him so marketable as an actor.

plus, he manages to get a positive outlook regarding this because yikyung has been great in encouraging him, sending him inspirational quotes that sometimes were borderline annoying because it had nothing to do with his situation but still touching in a way.

like right now, as seokjin waits in the holding room of the theater for the audition, he receives a message from his manager with a GIF of a maneki-neko with an oversized arm and the quote by dr. seuss saying, “you have brains in your head. you have feet in your shoes. you can steer yourself any direction you choose. you're on your own. and you know what you know. and you are the guy who'll decide where to go”.

it is a little aligned to what he’s going through right now but seokjin can’t help but still grimace in distaste.

“kim seokjin?” the casting assistant calls, and he snaps his head up from the screen of his phone to peer at the person who called him.

he stands, gaining the attention of the casting assistant. “here.”

“great. follow me please.” she smiles and begins walking to where the stage is without checking whether seokjin followed her or not. 

he does, as quickly as possible, thankful because he can finally get away from that enclosed space with fellow auditionees who were either gaping at him or chatting him up, asking about the hiatus he did. he’s smart enough not to give any specific details, instead saying the standard “mental health break” or “sabbatical leave” that they seemed to buy.

walking across the stage, his eyes squint a bit at the spotlight directed to him. then, stopping at the center, he averts his gaze to the two people who are sitting on the front row seats. hyunbin park the director and seungjoon ahn the producer. they both appear serious, like they’re bored, or like they’ve been unimpressed by the roster of auditionees they’ve been having so far.

it creates a spark of hope for seokjin who’s confident that he might just be the person that’ll blow their minds for today. even though this is his first time performing in front of a professional again, he’s learned over the years to trust his skills more, and he knows that he’s definitely adept for the tryout happening at the moment.

“kim seokjin, isn’t it?” mr. Park says. he’s the more intimidating one out of the pair. he’s famous for having directed a lot of shows that got to win several trophies in every award giving body that catered to the theater industry. aside from this production being an anticipated project of his, he’s scheduled to direct a movie with a star-studded cast.

seokjin nods. “yes, that’s me.”

“wait a minute, i know you,” says mr. ahn, an index finger pointed towards him. this man doesn’t look that much older than seokjin. give or take about only five years his senior. “i’ve seen you somewhere. where have i seen you?”

seokjin swallows hard. fuck, fuck, fuck. kill me now. bury me in the ground. shit. i hope he doesn’t realize that i'm—

“ah! i remember.” mr. ahn laughs, turning to mr. park. “isn’t he the guy who played corny collins three years ago or something?”

a huge breath of relief escapes seokjin.

mr. park nods unsurely. “yeah, I think so. did you play corny collins, son?” he asks.

“i did.”

their faces significantly brightened.

“well, i’m looking forward to your audition, seokjin,” mr. ahn says. “i watched the media preview of hairspray back then. i was a great friend of jiyong.”

jiyong was the director of the said show.

“you may begin,” mr. park adds, gesturing for him to go ahead before readjusting the glasses he’s wearing. “break a leg.”

seokjin flashes a dazzling smile and begins.

****

yikyung: how was it? yikyung: the audition should be over by now. yikyung: tell me how you did! yikyung: i’ll be like this for the whole day until you reply. yikyung:

seokjin: do you think sending gifs is cool? seokjin: bc it’s not

yikyung: you didn’t answer my question?

seokjin can’t stop grinning. he’s had this grin since he finished the audition and walked out to the lobby, his mind replaying the events that took place during his performance and the reactions of the director and producer after he was done.

even though the two didn’t make their verdict apparent, seokjin had a feeling that he was going to get cast in this show for the reason that as soon as he finished belting the last line of the song sandy, mr. park and mr. ahn shared a look with one another, their eyebrows raising in what comes across like understanding.

now, quick disclaimer, seokjin doesn’t read minds, but he’s pretty sure that that’s a good sign. he’s done his fair share of auditions and seeing an interaction like that from people who are in charge of casting always raises the chances that he’ll end up in the project. it’s a really big tell from what he thinks—and it’s what’s prompting him to almost skip like a little girl while walking to the café nearby where he’s planning to treat himself with the mouthwatering strawberry cream croissant he saw on their display earlier, nothing in his mind other than fantasies of receiving a call as soon as he gets home confirming he got the part.

maybe i should start incorporating black leather jackets into my wardrobe more… it is what danny zuko wears half of the time in the film and since i’ll be danny zuko, it can be some kind of way i’ll be able to internalize the character and be fucking amazing in this…

clearly, doing an inner monologue isn’t advisable when you’re walking along a busy street filled with people who are obviously in a rush to get to where they’re going.

because as he continues marching forward, taking a quick turn to the café he’s aiming to go to, his thoughts everywhere aside from the path he’s strolling on—his arm bumps against someone’s shoulder, ceasing his daydreaming and causing him to glance back, about to utter a quick apology if it wasn’t for the sight that greets him when he does.

he wrinkles his forehead, gazing at you.

there’s no doubt in his mind that it really is you who he’s looking at, but due to the fact that it’s been approximately 9 years since you last saw each other, seokjin asks himself whether this is legit or is his imagination taking a sinister route and letting him imagine how it would be like to meet the person he doesn’t want to see on a perfect day.

“well, shit,” you say, staring at him with the same surprised yet puzzled expression. your features look more mature, your hair is styled in a different way, your choice of clothes is more sophisticated—yet despite the subtle changes, you’re still as attractive as you were when he last got to see you. he might even dare to think that your attractiveness leveled up as well. “i’ll be damned. it’s you.”

seokjin feels his throat closing up, reality sinking in that you’re really here in front of him. “____?”

“i’m flattered that you remember.” you chuckle. “or that you’re not pretending to have amnesia to escape this conversation at least.”

to be fair, if it registered to him a few seconds earlier on who you are, he might have done exactly that.

but of course he doesn’t admit it. his ears just turn red while he utters a lie. “that’d be silly. it’s not like you’d believe me if i said that.”

“touché. but i still reckon you’d do it. you are an actor.” a smirk makes its way to your lips. “how’s that going, by the way? last time i heard, you’re being murdered on twitter and being called a world class asshole.”

he winces slightly. “that’s an exaggeration.”

“i don’t think so. you are on hiatus because of it, aren’t you?”

“not anymore.”

“oh?”

“you seem disappointed,” he retorts. “then again, i wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been praying for my downfall ever since you-know-what happened.”

“you-know-what? do you mean when you dumped me?” you explicitly say, not even missing a beat after he was done speaking.

yes, you’re an ex-girlfriend. sadly, an ex-girlfriend he knows he didn’t treat well because of what you just reminded him of.

he presses his lips together, gathering all the confidence he has left. “yes. i do mean that. and i am sorry about it. truly.”

“you dumped me over the phone.”

“i’m aware of that too.”

“you didn’t explain why you wanted to break up.”

a pause. “yes, i didn’t.”

“and just because we coincidentally met again after so many years, you finally apologize?”

“that’s about right.”

“it doesn’t sound very sincere to me.”

he widens his eyes, surprised that you’re not letting this go as easily as he thought you would. from what he remembers, you’re the type of person who doesn’t hold grudges; you’re the type of person that everybody would say was genuinely good. in fact, it’s what he was mad about years back when you were still together—how you often let other people take advantage of your kindness, often putting you in a position of being a doormat or an emotional punching bag.

but that’s almost a decade ago. he feels bad that he’s not sure whether to be proud of you or to be a bit frustrated that he’s on the receiving end of this.

“anyways,” you add after the excruciating awkward silence, “as much as i want to give you a piece of my mind, i have to go. i’d say it was nice seeing you and that we should catch up sometime, jin, but that would be a lie.”

seokjin’s supposed to let you go despite his conscience eating him up. he’s not entirely stupid, it’s apparent that it’s better not to reopen healed wounds, and judging from the manner you spoke to him, you don’t want to give him an opening to enter your life again.

but then your phone rings, which you’re holding on one hand while the other holds a paper bag from the coffeeshop. And then, seokjin sees it—sees mr. park’s face on the screen with a caller ID named ‘dad’, that he can’t prevent himself from staying still and allowing you to leave without explaining what he’s witnessing right now.

“wait,” he holds your elbow as you’re trying to walk past him, “your dad isn’t mr. park, is he? i know your dad. He’s not hyunbin park.”

you blink at him, confused at the random question, however a wave of understanding swiftly washes over you. he watches you grin all of the sudden, eyes twinkling in amusement. he’s familiar with that expression, and it’s scaring him to death because he now has a pretty good idea on what your answer is going to be.

“you’re here in the city because of an audition,” you state, tone so sure that it makes him sweat. “don’t tell me… You’re auditioning for grease?”

he doesn’t tell you he’s auditioning for grease.

your grin widens even further, your next sentence inducing a sensation that might be a heart attack.

“then you’ve met dad. he is hyunbin park, the director.”

fuckity fuck fUCK FUCK!

note. AHHH first chapter is out! i hope y’all like this because i’m happy with how this turned out hehe. this drabble series will only have 10 episodes and i’m gonna pray that i get to finish this before the year 2024 ends 😭

gentle reminder: this author loves feedback! let her know your thoughts if you enjoyed reading this fic and you’ll add 100+ points in her writing motivation meter ♡

[tashaj4de]

A random ramble about Royal Scandal's Mermaid Theater

BEFORE READING FURTHER

If you're actually reading this- this is a comment I originally put on the official upload of Mermaid Theater on the Royal Scandal channel that I just wanted to put into my blog as well. This is more of the rambles of a fan who likes the series a lot, so I apologize to anyone reading this! You might get a little confused since I was typing off the top of my head.

Now for my ramble

Alright, time to type down the new MV impressions! First things first though, I said it in the song release but I love how Chima sounds here! Her voice really suits what I imagined Nina sounding like~ I wasn't sure it would since in her other covers, her voice felt too high, but here it sounds just right!

Now for the actual thoughts aaaaa the new story and MV were certainly worth the wait! I had a feeling the "Prince" for Nina would be Albert, and now that's confirmed… hooboi… her heartbreak… on to more of my long block of thoughts!

I was surprised to see Alam here! Which means this song takes place before Magic Ring Night, before he was taken over by the ring. And the latter half of the MV takes place during Bittersweet! So now we have a bit more of a timeline of when each song takes place in their world- or at least, the timeline we've been following so far? Which also means Beast in the Beauty takes place after Bittersweet! (And I'd say that since Bittersweet's story mentioned that Chelsea had already confessed to Lewis, thus her forlorn and "muddled" singing in the halls, I can assume Cherry Hunt is before Bittersweet! …assuming that's the song the confession is in, that is)

And since we're on the topic of characters! I already knew that Nina's story would be based on/referencing The Little Mermaid, so seeing it put out so nicely in the MV? Aaa…. but I wanted to talk about the crew aboard Albert's ship! We saw quite a few of them with visible faces/eyes this time around, so I wonder if we'll see them around again sometime? And I love how we can see how well-loved Albert is because of how his own guard outright cried with relief upon finally finding him in the village HAHAHA

Now, on to talking about the story! Since the story clarifies that Nina did not kiss the prince to resuscitate him, just sang to him instead- (Editing because maybe auto translation made me misread the story, but rereading it made me realize that she likely DID give Albert the "kiss of life" but she thought he wasn't waking up so she started singing) it makes me think… is this why Albert was attracted to Chelsea's singing? Because it reminded him of Nina's singing, which awoke him after being rescued by Nina? I'm a little sad that he didn't even catch sight of her within the village though… and I gotta love how supportive the village was of Nina ; v ; And Alam was the one who gave the dress? Honestly, it doesn't feel like Alam was a "poor" merchant at all if he was able to travel so far to a village that didn't allow anyone under 15 out of it! I love how much more this makes all the characters connected to each other though… and now, to talk about another aspect of the story!

Since Alam was specifically looking for "divas", could it be that this was Albert's way of searching for Nina, but he just ended up encountering Chelsea and heard her while searching? But for Nina's heart to be broken when she saw Albert staring at Chelsea when she was on stage… the poor girl… then she cried in the garden alone, only to encounter the same girl who attracted the one she herself loved… I don't blame her for running away, honestly. I can imagine the thoughts that ran through her head being something like "She's so pretty and kind, no wonder the prince fell for her" and being unable to stand the thought, she ran away- leaving a (broken) slipper behind. Which is interesting to me because it's just like a Cinderella reference- which again makes me think that the reason why Alam was sent out to invite Divas/Singers was to search for the one whose voice Albert heard (Nina's voice).

And with her heartbreak, seeing Albert's attraction to Chelsea and even briefly meeting the woman herself… falling into the ocean but not wanting to try to save herself despite it being an accident, wanting to just "become foam bubbles"? Definitely a Little Mermaid reference right there! After all, she must have thought that rather than see him be with anyone else, she'd rather not see it at all…

But then! Silence… and the moment where her eyes burst open and there's an intake of breath, seeing that someone was reaching out to her. And of all people it was, it was her Prince (Albert)! Could the reason she opened her eyes- and became startled- be because she heard him calling out to her, or was it instinct? Did she sense his presence and that's why she opened her eyes? She's a really good swimmer after all, and she's someone who even had dolphins help her bring Albert out of the water, so it wouldn't be surprising to me if she had that kind of senses while underwater.

Also I'd say that her being a good swimmer, someone who was able to rescue Albert amidst a storm, really emphasizes how not swimming out after she fell off the cliff really shows how much she was heartbroken and possibly wanted to die in that moment…

So! Since Albert was there to rescue her, I'd like to think that THIS moment is after Chelsea leaves with Lewis (since on Bittersweet, we also had a moment of "silence" before Lewis comes and declares he's there to pick her up). I can imagine he must have been walking around after Chelsea left with Lewis, and he saw Nina's fall- no idea if that would be within the palace, or on the beach, but either way we can see the results of that walk!

And since Albert rescued her… we see Nina, despite her heartbreak, falling in love with him all over again. So even if this is "her only chance", she took up the courage to confess to him--- and the MV ends. So we don't know how Albert responded! Whether he might've recognized her voice, or rejected her, or made her a singer in the concert halls of the palace… we won't know the answer until the next MV that continues the storyline comes out, I suppose!

And that's it for my blocks of text! Thank you Royal Scandal Team and Machita Chima for this lovely MV and song! I can't wait to see more of the Royal Scandal story, as well as what new things we might see in the Vocaloid version of the MV if/when it comes out!

Subtitles

I also would like to comment once again that I'm sad there's no English subtitles HAHAHA if only because I barely know any Japanese, though I can decipher some words (and I did see a translation of the song previously when it came out as part of one of the Royal Scandal Albums). I wonder if Royal Scandal would hire or find anyone to translate the song to add subtitles to not just this song but previous MVs (coughMagicRingNightcough) anytime soon? I'm mostly just thinking that because I like watching them on the Royal Scandal channel without trying to find other sources of translation…

[hyperfixationsporfavor]

The Dating Game

The Dating Game

Author’s Note: Hello everyone. This is a fic I’ve had written out for a while and I’ve finally gotten around to writing. I’m planning on turning this into a family drama series. Basically Reader is getting into this new relationship and her family has opinions. Enjoy!

Warnings: some mentions of smut, divorce

You never imagined yourself being a divorced single mom. An ex wife. You were a woman who had fallen out of love. So you forced yourself to make a logical step and end the suffering. But it was hard saying goodbye. Even if you barely recognized the person you were leaving. 

~

You first spotted Suguru Geto at a party in college. In the sea of drunken students sloppily grinding against one another, there he stood sipping on a beer. He had long dark hair pulled up into a messy bun, sharp eyes, and broad shoulders. Your friend Yuki took notice of your interest in the handsome stranger. 

“Go talk to him,” she urged.

“I can’t,” you whispered. “Look at him. He’s gorgeous.”

Yuki spotted the host of the party, Satoru Gojo, and flagged him over. 

“What’s up?” he asked. 

Yuki brazenly pointed directly to the person of interest. “That guy with the bun. What kind of girl is his type?”

“Suguru? I dunno. Why? Are you interested?”

“No (Name) is.”

Satoru grinned at you. “Really?”

You sighed in defeat. If they insisted on putting you on the spot you might as well get some more information about him.

“How do you know him?”

“We went to the same high school. He’s been my best friend ever since.”

“Okay, enough about your coming of age story. What’s his major? What does he want to do?”

“Theater. He wants to be an actor.”

“Really? Your friendship must be pretty crowded with two divas in the picture,” Yuki chortled. 

“Haha. So do you want me to introduce you or not?” 

You looked back over to Suguru. 

“Yes, please,” you decided. 

“Suguru,” Satoru shouted. “Someone wants to meet you.”

~

He was perfect. 

Handsome, charming, intelligent, and kind. 

Pure perfection. 

So at the end of the night when he asked for your number you happily obliged him. From then on the two of you spent an increasing amount of time together. Getting coffee, driving around in his run down car, making love in his cramped apartment. 

And you were happy. 

Happy within the relationship the two of you had crafted. 

~

“Suguru,” you giggled. “I’m going to be late.”

You had a meeting with your advisor in half an hour regarding your med school application. But your boyfriend held you hostage in his clutches. 

“So?” he murmured, kissing down your neck. 

“So, if I’m late, I’ll miss the meeting, I won’t get into med school, and you’ll be stuck hearing about it for the rest of your life. 

Suguru sighed in defeat and sat up, pulling you up with him. “Okay.”

He got up from the bed and collected your clothes for you.

He handed you the small pile he’d gathered, and before you could thank him he said something that made everything come to a grinding halt. 

“We should get married.”

You furrowed your brow in confusion. “What?”

“We should get married,” he repeated. 

“Suguru…no. We can’t.”

He was unfazed by your refusal. 

“Why can’t we?”

You set your clothes down next to you. 

“We’re too young. We’re still in school,” you argued.

“After we graduate. It’s only another year away,” he retorted. 

“I’m supposed to go to med school. You're supposed to be an actor.”

“We can do those things and be married.”

Before you could counter his point he got down on his knees and took your hand in his. 

“I’m crazy about you (Name). I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

You smirked. “Aren’t you supposed to put a diamond on my finger?”

He smirked right back at you. “Is that a yes?”

“That’s a maybe.”

The two of you were married at the end of the year. 

~

It started out sweet, with the two of you very much in love. 

Back when you were determined you could navigate a cramped apartment, studying, work, and all the other things that made your marriage. 

After two years your home grew a little smaller with the addition of your twin daughters, Mimiko and Nanako. 

~

You rocked Nanako in your arms while you attempted to continue reading from your textbook. 

She’d cry throughout the night, and would only cease when either you or Suguru held her. 

“Nanako, it’s alright angel. It’s alright,” you whispered through her wails. 

Fortunately Suguru came through the door just in time. 

“(Name),” he called out, quickly shutting the door behind him.

He approached you with a dumbstruck look on his face. 

“What happened?” you asked.

“I got it.”

You gasped and stood up. “You got the part!”

“The director hired me on the spot,” he admitted in disbelief. 

You would have screamed if you could, but Mimiko was still asleep in the twins' shared crib. So instead you kissed your husband in relief. 

“I’m so proud of you.”

He plucked Nanako out of your hands and kissed the top of her head. 

“So no more waiting tables,” you chuckled.

“I’m quitting tomorrow.”

You yawned. “In the meantime. I still need to study for my exam tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Study. I’ve got the twins.”

~

After Suguru got his first role, he went on to get his second, then third. All stand out performances that garnered the attention of directors and executives, both domestic and abroad. 

Meanwhile, you were making progress of your own. Graduating from med school and working your way up from a surgical intern to an attending. 

It should have been perfect. But the flaws were easier to spot as time went on.

~

Gradually you and Suguru grew distant, sleeping in different rooms and struggling to maintain a civil conversation. Tensions built up and the two of you began to bicker. Small spats morphed into egregious fits of rage. 

~

“(Name),” Suguru hissed.

You ignored him as you continued to chop carrots for the twins dinner. They were thirteen at that point, far grown from the babies you had held in your med school days. 

He groaned in frustration and raked a hand through his hair. 

“(Name) please,” he enunciated through his clenched jaw. 

You scraped the chopped carrots into the pot on the stove and stirred the contents with a wooden spoon.

He guffawed in disbelief. “So that’s it. You’re not going? I’m getting an award and you don’t care.”

“Not as much as you care about me embarrassing you.”

“Seriously?”

You slammed the wooden spoon onto the countertop with an excessive amount of force. 

“Sorry but I don’t feel like playing the doting wife tonight. My day was hard. I had back to back surgeries. At my real life job. I’m tired. So no Suguru, I have no interest in sipping champagne with your friends.”

“So my job isn’t a real job? Well it paid for your med school tuition. And it paid for this house where I come home and get no support from you!”

You practically shrieked at him. You marched over to the coffee table in the living room and scooped up the invite for the ceremony. 

“We cordially invite Suguru Geto and his wife Mrs. Geto.”

He stormed over to where you stood. “And?”

“What do you mean and? Mrs. Geto? I’m not Mrs. Geto. I’m Dr. (Last Name). I worked hard for that title, Suguru. You didn’t even bother coming to my white coat ceremony!”

“Because I was working! God! You’re being hysterical. I can’t talk to you when you're like this.”

“Fine. I’m sick of talking to you. Go to your stupid ceremony with Mei Mei. I’m sure she’d love to hear you talk.”

You shoved the invitation into his hand and he crumpled it in his fist. “We did a couple of press tours together. Nothing happened.”

You scoffed. “Well the articles all over my newsfeed say otherwise.”

“Can we go one day without an argument? I’m sick of it.”

“Just go,” you hissed.

He picked up his suit jacket and shrugged it on. “Fine. I’m going.”

“Fine.”

~

Mimiko backed away from the door to their apartment and looked over to her sister. 

“It sounds really bad this time Nana,” she whispered.

Nanako just wrapped her arm around her sister and steered her back towards the elevator. 

“It’ll be okay Mimi.”

~

A few days later Mimiko approached you at the breakfast table. 

“Mom,” she mumbled. 

You looked up from your morning paper with a smile. Not a real one, and while you found it convincing Mimiko could tell.

“Good morning angel, do you want me to make you some breakfast?”

She shook her head. 

“Well maybe we could go out for breakfast today?” you suggested. “Then afterwards we can do some shopping.”

She shook her head again. You set your paper down. “What’s wrong angel?”

She tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “Um…a few days ago. When we got home from school we could hear you yelling.”

Your smile faltered. “Oh, I see.”

“Nanako said it’ll be okay,” she mumbled. “But she’s been saying that for so long.”

She broke down and started to cry. You quickly got up to comfort your daughter, allowing her to soak your blouse with her tears.

~

When Suguru returned from his morning run he found you waiting for him on the edge of your bed. 

“We need to talk,” you stated.

He pulled his hair out of his bun and shook it out. “What did I do now?”

“I think we should divorce.”

He froze and looked up to meet your gaze. “What?”

“There’s no use putting off the inevitable.”

“No,” he muttered. “We’ve been going to counseling.”

“And we haven’t been making any progress.”

“(Name). (Name).”

He staggered over to where you sat and got down on his knees. 

“We’ve just been going through a rough patch. We’ve always been able to get out of those.”

Your throat began to close up as your eyes watered. “I know Suguru. But it’s become too much for any of us to deal with.”

“No,” he begged, taking your hands in his. “No. We can still make this work.”

You shut your eyes and shook your head. “The girls know Suguru. They heard us.”

He released your hands from his and slowly stood up. The gravity of the situation finally sinking in for the both of you. 

“We can’t stay married if it’s just going to make us miserable. Neither of us deserve that. The girls don’t deserve that.”

It kills you to say these things. To force yourself to give up like this. You hadn’t given up on anything. Med school. Your internship. Your children. The faith you held in your husband. 

How hadn’t you given up when it was harder? When you had less money. Less options? 

“You’re right,” Suguru croaked, choking over his words. “We can’t…keep forcing ourselves to pretend we still love each other.”

He didn’t say that out of cruelty or bitterness, only harsh acceptance. 

It was over. 

~

(3 years later)

“Nanako,” you called from the front door. “Hurry up.”

“I’m coming!” she called from the other room. “I can’t find my Tiffany charm bracelet.”

“Did you check your vanity?”

After a brief pause she yelled. “Found it!” 

“Mom?” Mimiko asked. “Can we stop for coffee on the way?”

“Only if we leave now.”

Nanako came sprinting down the hallway and made a beeline past you. 

“Hurry. Vanilla lattes with cinnamon are at stake!”

~

After the separation you and Suguru worked out a civil custody arrangement. You didn’t want to deal with lawyers, so it was decided that the twins would remain with you during the week and spend weekends with their father. 

You remained in the penthouse while he had moved to a place downtown. As time went on your daughters had settled into the arrangement and you found yourselves in a familiar rhythm. 

~

“There you guys are,” Suguru remarked as he opened the door. 

“Hey Dad,” Nanako greeted, handing him a coffee cup.

“Black with a splash of cream.”

“Thank you.”

He took the cup from her. “Put your stuff away. We need to get going.”

Once the twins filed inside he leaned in to kiss your cheek, with you following suit. “So what are you doing tonight after your interview?”

“We’ll probably just get dinner nearby. What about you?”

“I had plans to meet up with Yuki for drinks, but something happened with Choso’s brother so we took a raincheck.”

“You can come with us if you want,” he offered.

The twins reappeared at the door. 

“Yeah mom. Come with us,” Nanako insisted.

“Thank you for the offer but I’m really looking forward to a quiet night at home.”

You hugged your daughters and said your goodbyes. 

~

Shimizu packed the last of her things into her briefcase and turned off her desk light. She walked over to her associate's office and knocked on the open door. 

“I’m headed home for the night,” she informed him.

Hiromi looked up from the pile of documents he was hunched over. 

“Good work today.”

She turned to leave only to stop in her tracks. 

“Okay,” she sighed. “Look, I promised I wouldn’t say anything.”

“Here we go,” he mumbled under his breath. 

Shimizu marched into Hiromi’s office and set her briefcase down. 

“I’m seriously worried about you.”

“I think you should be more worried about our clients,” he stoically retorted. 

“I’m serious. There’s a workaholic and then there’s you. When’s the last time you had a proper meal?”

“Because I have so much free time to cook,” he retorted.

“Or been out on a date,” she softly added.

He groaned and slumped back in his chair. “Is this another long winded set up?”

“I have this friend.”

“I don’t like setups.”

“She’s an architect, she’s attractive, she can cook.”

“Shimizu. I’m not a cave man. I don’t need to be taken care of.”

“No, you need to take care of yourself. By eating right and having a life outside of this office.”

“Have you ever considered life coaching as a viable career option? Because it’s not too late for a change,” he sarcastically countered.

Shimizu snatched her briefcase off her desk in defeat. 

“Fine. Fine. You’ll never hear anything about it from me again.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes. I promise. I promise to not lift a finger to help you when you can’t get out of that chair because your back finally broke from sitting in it too long. I promise when you die to have a picture of the chair engraved on your tombstone. I promise,” she huffed. 

After a moment Hiromi raised his brows. “Done?”

Shimizu nodded. “Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here.”

~

Takaba Fumihiko was the host of one of the highest rated comedy late night shows on the air. And despite Suguru’s hatred of interviews he knew his agent would kill him if he didn’t use the platform to promote his new film. 

So he swallowed his contempt and agreed to the guest spot. 

The only thing comforting him in front of the blinding stage lights was his daughters in the front row. Mimiko gave him a small wave which he subtly returned as the production assistant started counting down.

“Alright everyone. Cameras are rolling. 3, 2, 1.”

He pointed at Takaba and with a nod he started. 

“Welcome back everyone. I’m joined here by the incredibly talented Suguru Geto. Award winning actor, producer, and overall stud.”

The audience chuckled. “And I hear there’s talk of a potential Oscar nomination in your future.”

Suguru skillfully maneuvered around the speculation. “Well I wouldn’t know about that.”

“If you're nominated will you be taking someone special to the ceremony?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What about your co-star Manami Suda? There’s been a few sighting of the two of you together in public.”

“No, she’s just a friend. That’s all.”

Takaba turned to the audience and made air quotes. “Just a friend folks.”

The crowd laughed again with a couple of hoots from the rafters.

Nanako rolled her eyes and turned to her sister. 

“Comedian,” she quietly mimicked, air quotes included. 

Mimiko playfully shushed her, resisting the urge to laugh. 

“Anyway,” Takaba continued. “Let’s talk about this new film you star in.”

~

You had only realized when you got home your house was devoid of any type of food. So you ordered Thai and flipped through the channels trying to find something to watch. You coincidentally landed on Suguru’s interview. 

“Well folks we’re just about out of time here. I want to thank Suguru for making the time to join me in the studio and for sharing his beauty with us mere mortals. Everytime I see you, you get more handsome. I hate you.”

The audience laughed and hooted a final time for him. Despite his clear distaste for the situation your ex flashed a smile and gave the people exactly what they wanted. 

“The new film is out in theaters, Suguru Geto everybody.”

The band played them out and the screen faded to black. You were all of a sudden increasingly aware of how quiet the penthouse was. Before you could get down on yourself your phone buzzed. 

You checked the caller id and answered it. “Hey Yuki.”

“Hey (Name) I just wanted to apologize again for canceling.”

“Don’t worry about it. What’s up?”

“The doctor just came back with the x-rays. It looks like a fractured wrist.”

“That’s terrible. How’s Yuji?”

“Surprisingly fine for a dumbass that skateboarded off a roof.”

“It was worth it,” Yuji called out in the background. 

“And Choso?”

“Incredibly stressed thanks to his stupid brother. He tried to steal a pillow from another patient because it looked softer.”

“I didn’t steal it. I asked for it,” you heard Choso argue.

“Well it sounds like you have your hands full.”

“We saw Suguru’s interview on the tv in the waiting room. I hate that he hasn’t gone bald yet.”

You chuckled. “I caught the end of it.”

“Oh no. You’re home alone.”

“So?”

“No! I feel awful. We were supposed to spend the night luring men in with your feminine wiles.”

“Excuse me? I agreed to drinks. Not to picking up depressed divorcees.”

“You are a depressed divorcee.”

“I am not depressed. I promise. It’s just a night at home. I’m hardly a hermit.”

“What about Shoko and Utahime?”

“Both working late tonight.”

“Kusakabe?” 

“That would make me depressed. Look, seriously, I’m fine Yuki.”

“I still hate him,” she muttered. 

“Well I don’t, honestly. We’re in a pretty good place, all things considered. It’s been three years already. You don’t have to hate him for me.”

“Fine. I’ll try to stop imagining him in pain.”

“Thank you.” 

Your phone beeped with another incoming call. 

“I’ve got to go. That’s my food on the other line.”

“Okay. And drinks next week for sure.”

You smiled. 

“Sounds good.”

You hung up and picked up the other call.

“Hello?”

~

“So how bad was I up there?” Suguru asked from across the table.

He’d taken the twins out to a nearby ramen shop.

“You were great Dad,” Mimiko commended.

“What did your agent say?” Nanako asked.

“She said I wasn’t terrible. Which is good enough for the producers.”

“When do you leave for New York again?” Mimiko asked. 

“The end of the month. Then I can do the late night schtick all over again.”

Nanako batted her lashes. “And we still get to go right?”

“Of course. We’re going to the Met for Mimiko and Tiffany’s for you. 

“Can I get new earrings to go with my charm bracelet?” Nanako squealed. 

“Whatever you want, angel.”

“Thanks for taking us,” Mimiko chimed.

“You two deserve it with how hard you’ve been working in school.”

He had attended both his daughter's parent teacher conferences with you a few weeks prior, and was met with positive feedback both academically and socially. After the divorce he worried that the two of them would fall behind and withdraw, but they both seemed happy. And that was all that mattered to him. 

After the waiter delivered their food Nanako inquired about something. 

“Dad? You know how Takaba asked about Manami earlier? You aren’t actually dating right?”

“Of course not. Some paparazzi took a picture of us reading lines at a cafe. That’s it.”

She smiled and nodded in relief. “Okay.”

~

Hiromi made his final note on the last document in the pile on his desk. 

With a sigh he dropped his pen and leaned back in his chair. 

He was exhausted. 

Maybe Shimizu had a point, but he was tired of hearing about it. 

From her, Takagi, his parents. 

He knew he needed to slow down, but something in him always nagged. He’d been like that ever since he was a child, not being able to rest until everything was done. And as defense attorney things were never done. 

Maybe if someone waved a wand and made all the crime in Tokyo disappear he’d be able to have a life. Use the kitchen he’s never cooked in, sleep past 5:30, and maybe even see someone. 

Yes, he despised setups but it was embarrassing how long it had been since he’d been out with someone. His schedule wouldn’t permit a relationship and while he’d never say it out loud he needed more than his right hand at three in the morning. 

Hiromi shook his head and stood up. 

He was spiraling and he wouldn’t allow that. He’d just keep doing what he was doing.

~

The restaurant called to inform you your order would take another two hours to be delivered with how backed up they were, given it was a Friday night. 

You couldn’t wait another two hours for food, your stomach felt as empty as Capone's vaults. 

So you opted to walk the six blocks to the restaurant and pick up your order yourself. 

On the way home you remembered Nanako saying she wanted more hershey kisses for the candy bowl on the coffee table, the kind with white creme. 

Since you were out you popped into the convenience store to retrieve a small bag. You greeted the cashier and retreated to the candy aisle. Once you found the kisses you turned to leave, accidentally slamming into someone.

~

Hiromi stared at the contents of his shopping basket. A cup of noodles, a pack of razor blades, and an RC Cola. 

He didn’t even know they still sold RC Cola. 

Maybe they didn’t and he was about to end up in the ER getting his stomach pumped, but he was too exhausted to care. He just wanted to pay for his stuff and leave. He scooted down the aisle, abruptly halting when he saw a box of fig newtons and picking it up. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he had a cookie. 

Hiromi failed to notice you hunched down retrieving the candy, and you hadn’t heard him approach. So you accidentally walked into him, causing him to drop the box in his hand.

~

You looked up to meet the eyes of the stranger you bumped into, the box they held now laying at your feet. 

“I’m so sorry.”

You cursed yourself for being such a klutz. Of course this would happen to you today. 

He shook his head and picked them up. “It’s fine.”

“Are they alright?” you asked. “Not broken?”

He turned the box over. “It wouldn’t matter. They expired a month ago.”

You chuckled despite yourself. “But I really am sorry. I should have watched where I was going.”

He placed the cookies back on the shelf. “Consider it forgotten.”

You glanced down at the contents of his basket. “I didn’t even know they still sold RC Cola.”

“If the cookies are anything to go off of they probably don’t.”

You gave him a friendly smile. “Well I should be going. Good night.”

You walked towards the cashier with your candy.

Hiromi felt something unfamiliar tug at his chest. Something that urged him to walk up to you and ask you who you were. But he did no such thing. 

He just thought about it. 

He thought about it after you left the store and when he laid in his bed later that night. 

Your pretty face and kind smile.

~ 

You contemplated turning around when you exited the store and introducing yourself to the handsome stranger you had bumped into. But you decided against it, after getting cold feet, and just walked home.

~

You and Shoko managed to get away for lunch at a small cafe not too far from the hospital, your usual spot. You took the opportunity to fill her in on the mystery man from the convenience store. 

“Why didn’t you ask him out?” Ieiri asked.

You set your coffee down with a sigh. “I couldn’t have done that.”

“Because,” she prodded.

“I don’t even know if he was interested.”

“You’re pathetic,” she mumbled.

“Excuse me?” you gasped.

“(Name) it’s been three years since your divorce. Suguru’s been dating. So why can’t you? Just something casual.”

“Because Ieiri. I’m not interested in dating,” you painfully admitted. “I want a relationship. I don’t want something casual.”

You kissed your teeth at your confession. “God I’m pathetic.”

“No,” Ieiri assured you, reaching out across the table to take your hand. “You’re not.”

“I’m just…so scared of starting over again.”

The subject was dropped and the two of you resumed eating. 

~

Shimizu practically had to drag Hiromi to Takagi’s cafe. 

“We still have a ton of work to do,” he argued.

“Well we have to eat.”

So the two of them walked inside and sat down. Takagi gave them a wave and headed over. 

Despite being a lawyer she had to run this business to live comfortably. The field of law the three of them were in was far from lucrative. Hiromi’s cramped apartment was reflective of that.

 He glanced around and froze in surprise. 

It was you. 

The woman from the convenience store. 

Here. 

Shimizu noticed her associate staring at something. 

She followed his train of vision and spotted you. “Do you know her?”

He quickly peeled his eyes off of you, not wanting to appear like a stalker. 

“No,” he smoothly delivered. 

Takagi approached them with their usual orders. Black coffee for Hiromi and a vanilla latte for Shimizu. 

“What’s going on?” she asked. 

“Hiromi’s ogling that woman,” Shimizu informed her.

“I wasn’t ogling anyone.”

“Who?” Takagi asked. 

“No one,” Hiromi enunciated. 

“Wait. The one with the birthmark or the other one?”

He sighed. “The other one okay?” I met her in the convenience store a few days ago and I recognized her.”

Shimizu smirked. 

“Why do you have that goofy look on your face?” 

“I don’t have a look.”

Takagi took the spare seat next to Hiromi and filled in Shimizu. “That’s (Name)(l/n). She’s a surgeon at the hospital down the street.”

Takagi was the kind of business owner that took the time to get to know her regulars. It made for good gossip after hours.

Shimizu leaned forward. “How have we never seen her before?”

“They usually come in earlier and get their stuff to go. I guess she must not be as busy today.”

“So is she…involved?” Shimizu prodded.

“Shimizu,” Hiromi warned.

“Well listen to this,” Takagi interjected. “She’s divorced. You know Suguru Geto?”

Shimizu held back a scream. “The movie star? That’s his ex?”

“They split three years ago.”

Shimizu turned to her associate. “Hiromi, Suguru Geto’s this big actor-”

“I know,” he interjected. “I’ve been to the movies. I don’t live under a rock.”

“It’s all so perfect. You have to ask her out.”

“What? How do you figure that?”

“She’s gorgeous, smart, and you were definitely ogling her earlier.”

“You should Hiromi,” Takagi encouraged. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Are you kidding me? Her ex is on the cover of every magazine and last night for dinner I had an expired can of RC Cola.”

“They still make RC Cola?” Takagi asked. 

“C’mon Hiromi,” Shimizu insisted. “You have to admit she’s attractive.”

“Well yeah but-”

“And it’s been a long time since you’ve dated anyone,” Takagi chimed in. 

Hiromi looked back at you. You were undeniably as beautiful in the daylight as you were in the dull hue of the convenience store. He turned back to Takagi and Shimizu, both with hopeful expressions. 

~

After retrieving something from the bar, Takagi approached your table. 

“How was everything ladies?”

“Delicious as usual Takagi,” you commended. “Before we leave, can I get two pieces of the chocolate cake to go? The girls will kill me if I don’t bring something home for them.”

“Of course.”

She placed a coffee cup in front of you.

Ieiri furrowed her brow in confusion. “I don’t think we ordered that Takagi.”

“Actually,” she explained. “This is compliments of the gentleman sitting over there.”

She gestured to the corner of the room and you looked over to find none other than the handsome stranger from the convenience store. 

You gasped in surprise. “That’s the guy I was telling you about.”

Your friend just smirked. “He seems pretty interested to me (Name).

She looked over to Takagi who resisted the urge to share a thumbs up with Shimizu.

“I’ll take care of the bill. The cake too.” 

Ieiri reached out to pat your hand. “I’ve got to head back to the hospital.”

“Ieiri-,” you started. 

“Call me later.”

~

Hiromi was going to throw up. 

You were coming towards him, with the coffee cup he paid for. Most likely to throw it in his face. 

You probably thought he was a stalker or some asshole that felt entitled to your time because he bought you coffee. 

But you didn’t look mad. 

You looked nervous, slightly more than he did. 

“Hello stranger,” you greeted with a smile.

He let out something between a cough and a laugh. “I’m not sure if you remember me but-”

You nodded. “I remember you…”

“Hiromi,” he quickly filled you in. “Hiromi Higuruma.”

“I’m (f/n)(l/n).”

Shimizu cleared her throat. 

“And this is Shimizu, my legal associate.”

You shook her hand. “Lovely to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

She retracted her hand and collected her purse. 

“I’m just going to slip into the powder room, excuse me.”

After she left you pointed to the empty chair. 

“May I?”

“Please,” he insisted. 

You sat down and gave him a warm smile. “I’m sorry about this. Takagi pointed you out and-”

“It’s fine,” you assured him. “I just can’t believe what a coincidence this all is.”

“I got you a latte with cinnamon. I hope that’s okay.”

“That’s perfect. So you’re a lawyer?”

He nodded. “Public defender. And Takagi told me you’re a surgeon.”

“I am, a neurosurgeon more specifically.”

“So you’d like to be referred to as Dr. (l/n)?”

You shook your head. “(Name) is perfectly fine.”

In better lighting you could more easily admire his handsome features, sunken eyes and prominent nose. He was certainly attractive. 

“So,” he continued. “I hope I’m not being too forward. But I- I was wondering if maybe-”

“Hiromi,” you interjected. “Would you like to get dinner sometime?”

 He looked as surprised as you felt. Why did you say that? You were attracted to him. Maybe this was the push you needed to dive into the dating pool.

He quickly recovered and nodded. 

“Yes, I’d love to. But please don’t feel pressured.”

“It’ll be fun. Unless you feel pressured.

“Definitely not.”

“After all I could be a serial killer luring you into my trap.”

He smirked. “Well my job makes me pretty good at detecting those.”

You plucked a business card out of your purse. 

“Call me, Mr. Higuruma.”

“Hiromi,” he said. “Just Hiromi.”

“Hiromi.”

~

The End. 

[obigem]

30 minutes earlier....

Matthew Landgraab entered his walk-in closet following an hour of boxing in the workout room and another hour soaking in the bath and doing his full hair regimen. Some people might think that kind of Friday night routine wasn't very manly.

But Matthew Reginald Landgraab wasn't just "some person."

He took his personal care very seriously. One doesn't just wake up with 10% body fat and rock hard abs. One cannot just roll out of bed with luminous hair. These things took work. And work at it, he did. Very hard.

While his peers were spending their Friday night gorging themselves on movie theater popcorn and chocolate covered numnums, he was pampering himself so that come Monday, he'd look like a million bucks. It was important that he always looked expensive and aspirational.

It wasn't so much to prove anything to his peers. He already knew he was better than them. It was for his own sake. As a Landgraab, you're always to present yourself as the prize, and among the greater family there was always the air that he was something of a redheaded stepchild.

Lingering resentment that tended to waft around the room at family gatherings from such varying directions he could never quite place or understand the reason for it. But he wouldn't be looked down on. He is a Landgraab too. And he'd be shown the respect of one no matter what.

"Matthew?!"

Matthew's mirror time was interrupted by his mother's nagging yell. He tried to ignore her, but then she started again.

"Matthew! Where are you? You're not in your room. Are you primping in your closet again?"

He let out a groan. "What do you want, Mother?"

"Matthew? Are you in there? I'm serious, just tell me where you are."

He then let out a sigh. "Yes, just come in already instead of yelling all over like we're in some sort of stadium."

"Alright already," Diana said exasperated. "Such a diva."

"That's very pot calling the kettle black, Mother. Also, men don't primp." Matthew said pointedly.

"Call it what you want, but spending hours in the mirror is diva-like in my book."

"Are you here to critique or is there a reason for this disturbance?" Matthew's patience waned.

"As a matter of fact, there is. I need you to take out the garbage."

"Don't we have 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 for that?"

"Helga is on holiday till Monday, and I refuse to have the garbage pile up till she returns. We're not animals after all."

"So, what? Now, 𝘐'𝘮 the help?"

"Listen, young man. Most normal teenagers do little errands like these as a means to make pocket money."

"I have a trust fund. Why would I do chores, for what, §500?"

"Try 5 bucks."

"5?! How do poor people live?"

"Just do it! And put on a coat. It's a bit nippy out."

[27emailsicantsend]

So do you think we’ll end up getting secret dating Rina or is that off the table? Regardless they look so happy in the teaser I can’t wait to have them back!!

So I think I’m one of the only people who still could see secret dating Rina happening! I think people saw them dancing publicly so it was a jump that everyone knows they are dating.

Here’s why:

I think Gina is going to have her rep on the line because the documentary kind of airs her as a cheater. They make ricky look completely oblivious to her “prying her way to him”. There is probably going to be some nasty things being rumored about her and obviously ricky won’t stand for this so they are secret dating.

In episode one, Gina is nowhere in the outside scene and when she and Ricky are in the theater, they’re not sitting by each other. I know they don’t HAVE to be, but in previous seasons whether happy or upset with each other they were almost always by each other. Red’s basement, Ashlyn’s Thanksgiving party, the snowed in episode, Ashlyn’s NYE party (not on the same couch, but by each other)… I could go on. I’ve said this a lot before, shows are VERY intentional about every movement a character makes. Where they sit, what they do, etc. especially because scenes are usually filmed multiple times so they need continuity. Ricky and Gina sitting apart does not feel coincidental.

My theory is that the director does not know Ricky and Gina are dating (no one does). Ricky is upset the show is happening, so he tries to mess up his audition so he doesn’t have to be in the show.

But Gina and Mack audition and because they’re both dancers…

They get cast as leads.

But because of Ricky’s luck/charm/ongoing joke he gets every lead role without trying (BATB still baffles me… mans was struggling and got the lead), he gets casted as the alternate to Sharpay. (They needed an alternate for Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay since Zac Vanessa and Ashley aren’t there). But the director has a quirky idea to make Ricky a nerd instead of a diva.

In HSM, Sharpay has Zeke, but don’t forget she fawns over Troy. A lot. So maybe the director makes some love triangle where Ricky is just supposed to “fawn” over Gabriella but she is supposed to be with Troy in the end. But she notices the chemistry between Ricky and Gina and they end up falling in love in the movie (a direct call out to Tim changing his mind in 1x5 from R*ni to Rina).

Meanwhile, Rina are trying really hard not to show they are dating. I imagine the scene of them dancing (4x2 probably) as Miss Jenn having them casted as Troyella at the table read. She is like “so I was thinking for one of the songs…” and Gina interrupts excitedly and is like “oh Ricky and I have been practicing a routine! We already have one” and they get up and dance at the literal table read (nothing is prepped yet). You can tell they are not slick at hiding their flirting and that’s why everyone in the room is smiling… because they’re like 🤨🤨 that was a little flirty?? They sus out rina big time because Ricky and Gina are supposed to be “just friends” to protect Gina’s image.

But, if you remember at the end of S3 Corbin “said” he turned off the camera and they were still mic’d. It’s not great, but it would be a BIG plot twist if Corbin pretended to be a good guy end of s3 to get the kids on his good side and trusting him, so he could turn around and reveal more secrets once he got their trust. OR even though Channing isn’t in the season, they could say that Channing released the hidden footage/conversation to get more people watching the doc.

Either way, Rina is going to get caught… but literally no one will be that surprised 😂

**this is all completely speculation but oh it would be so cute**

[jovenshires]

I know you’re on a break but after that last incorrect quotes I would love it if you could give your thoughts on which glee characters everyone else would get, cuz you were so right with Sam for Spencer

My thoughts are; Blaine for Angela, Quinn for Courtney, Brittany for Olivia, Sebastian for Tommy, Santana for Chanse, and Marley for Kimmy

DLNAFLKNFKLNFKLNRKL this is so funny bc i debated on who to make him for forever and i was worried that sam was my fave so i was just being biased but im glad it went over well xxx i did check in with my bestie before drafting it and she confirmed sam made most sense.

hmmmm excellent q!! i am putting all these thoughts under the cut just so im not raw glee posting on the dash LNSDKNFKLN

this was. SO MUCH harder than i thought it was gonna be okay LKNDNAKFNKL this may be nonsensical and for some of them i simply don't give a concrete answer bc ykw. idk!

olivia is SOOOOO brittany-coded oh my GOD. marley for kimmy just smacked me in the face with how real that is. and quinn-courtney......... yEAH you're so correct. i gotta text my bestie shes gonna freak. her favorite Blonde Girlies. i do love all of these though!! i might personally make some tweaks but i TOTALLY see where you're coming from on all of them

i do like chanse as santana.... but i might switch arasha to santana instead?? just makes sense for the queen of lies imo. the medical examiner feels so santana-coded especially. might shift chanse to kurt bc he can also be a bitch but he's so much more ambitious than that. although it's a Tough call bc i feel like chanse fits both BUT who else would arasha be...

on blaine (and im talking seasons 2-3 blaine bc thats my baby and they cant take him away from me) i do like angela but i am caught between her and damien. it's the Most theater-kid energy of all the glee characters and they are the Most theater-kid energy of all the smosh members. yeah im not 100p sure what Else to do with either of them so that's just a sub note. unsure on that one !

anyway additional thoughts: jackie might be tina-coded?? hopeless romantic, extremely emotional, low-key diva when she wants to be, incredibly talented and they didn't deserve her. again im talking 1-3 tina. they hated her after that for some fucking reason. and on that note shayne is mike im taking no questions at this time. level-headed, smart, not a singer, just here to be a lil guy. yeah.

i think im gonna go with amanda as rachel. lovingly. SO lovingly. all the silliest rachel moments. i could see a couple different people as her (i think angela is also good here but she's too okay with being wrong/the butt of the joke, and then i think my second choice is tommy) but yeah i think amanda is my top pick. and then i might be so controversial as to say ian is finn-coded. just some guy. team leader. everyone's dad. just seems like he would have things to say about grilled cheesus. and anthony is jesse st. james. goodbye. that's all. these three are THE love triangle moment.

kiana is mercedes. why? because i said so. above it all, incredibly talented but underrated. (also im not thinking too hard ab the relationship implications but that does make the samcedes dynamic SO fucking funny.) and keith is artie. it's the 'wheres my hug at' guy of it all. its okay i like artie im allowed to bully him and i Love keith so

i do like sebastian for tommy and ya know what. im tempted to agree and leave it there bc i feel like thats as kind to him as i can possibly be KLNFFKLN but i struggled with placing him anywhere else... he could be rachel i think (and then amanda would move the whole paradigm. i would make her sue for funsies.) but i think that's All i can see him as. and then trevor is. rory. bc i have a hyperfixation on rory and trevor Is the rory in my head. so there.

aaaaand garrett IS mr. schuester. that's all goodbye

[gible-love-nibles-archive]

Eternal Diva Fic (Part 3)

This part's kinda of a downtime part before all the puzzles and action 'n' stuff. Still, things certainly do happen here. ...I don't know how to write descriptions at this point. Still, enjoy!

Nothing to warn for here, I think

Word Count: 1.1k / Previous / Next

Giant lurches accompanied our host’s words, and I was nearly thrown off the balcony.  If there was any time to leave, it was now.  I just had to hope the professor and Luke would be alright.

I threw open the balcony’s exit and rushed through the main hall, thankfully not spotting any masked men.  But exiting the opera house quickly sobered me to why.

The Crown Patone was shifting parts all around, transforming itself into something else: a ship.  And we were already heading out to sea.

My feet moved me out to the deck without me realizing.  I struggled to come up with words. “What-- How--”

“The theater…”

“It’s really a huge ship!”

Those two familiar voices made me turn and gave me a little relief.  Finally seeing Layton and Luke was a comfort; if anyone could solve what was going on, it would be those two.

“Professor Layton!  Luke!” I rushed over to greet them.  

The professor turned his head and watched my approach.  He quickly smiled and tipped his hat my way.  “Well, this is a pleasant surprise.  I’m afraid I almost didn’t recognize you in that outfit, Miss Clare.”

“Clare!” Luke had a big bright grin on his face.  I didn’t realize until now how much I missed the enthusiastic boy.

“Is it just me, or have you gotten taller Luke?” I joked, ruffling his cap.

“I certainly hope so!” We both laughed a bit.  The professor’s grin seemed to widen.

“Unfortunately, it seems we only meet during the most dire of circumstances,” Layton pulled me back to the situation at hand.

I sighed. “Yeah, you’ve got that right.  And after I got dressed so nicely.”

“On the positive Clare, I’m sure you will be a great ally to this mystery.”

“I was thinking just the same thing, Professor.”

We were interrupted by one of the patrons of the opera-- a red-haired man with an extremely long nose-- running past us and jumping onto the ship’s railing.

“What are you doing?  Do you see a way out?” A brown-haired woman in a dark blue dress asked him.

“I know what I’m doing.  I’m swimming back!” He said confidently.

“I’m not sure that’s altogether wise.” Layton stood by the railing and pointed down into the water.  

Looking down revealed a chilling sight: a large shiver of sharks was swimming around the boat with strange metal accessories attached firmly to their snouts.  

“Very strange,” said a man dressed like a sea captain. “You don’t often see sharks.  Well, not in these waters.”

“They’re being controlled.” My words slipped out in anger.  My hands gripped the railing tight. “Look at those weird things on their noses.  Sharks wouldn’t circle a boat like this.  Maybe a fishing boat, but definitely not something this big.”

“It must be some kind of precaution then,” Layton hypothesized. “One that makes sure we stay on the ship.” When I didn’t respond, the professor patted my shoulder sympathetically.

The sounds of a whole orchestra made everyone’s attention shoot squarely to the theater.  We all ran back to find that the opera writer Mr. Whistler was responsible for the music.  Needless to say, the thought of playing music at a time like this was in a bit of poor taste.  But the other passengers said it for me anyway.

“What are you doing?!  Someone threatens our lives and you play music!?” The red-haired man from earlier yelled.

“We’re sailing out to sea, and there are sharks all around us!” The brown-haired woman also from before pleaded, sounding on the brink of tears.

Mr. Whistler finally paused his playing, but otherwise refused to address the small crowd that had gathered around him.

“Mr. Whistler.” A man with dark hair and bright orange pants squinted hard at the opera writer. “You were the one behind this opera.  Tell me: did you also plan this deadly game?”

Oswald stood up and turned as he gave his vague answer: “I was asked to perform an opera.  That is all.”

The dark-haired man clearly wasn’t convinced.  The three of us shifted uncomfortably, but a voice calling out to the professor distracted us.  It was the opera singer Janice Quatlane.

As the professor and Janice chatted, Luke pulled on my sleeve. “Um, Clare?  Why are you… dressed like that?”

“Why am I wearing a suit, you mean?”

“Yeah.  I-I mean--!  I don’t mean you don’t look nice, I just-- Don’t boys usually wear suits?”

“Well, it’s real simple Luke: I wanted to look nice, but I also wanted to wear pants.”

“Oh… And you can just do that?”

“Sure.  Who’s gonna care?”

“Woah…”

“I don’t mean to interject…” Layton said politely. “But Clare, what are you doing here?  As I understand, the tickets for this opera were extremely expensive.”

“Well, here’s the thing Professor: You sent me a ticket to come here.  You invited me.  Supposedly.”

“Wot?!” Luke interjected. “That can’t be right!  Me and the professor got our tickets sent to us by Janice.  We didn’t buy any!”

“But I have a letter that says you wanted me to come.  Right here.” I quickly pulled it out of my bag and handed it to Layton.

Upon reading it, the professor’s face grew more serious. “This is not my handwriting.  Close to it, but a forgery nonetheless.”

A pit started to form in my stomach.  I was liking this less and less. “Then… is this ticket not real?” I pulled that out of my bag.

“No, that is genuine,” Janice perked up. “You can tell by the golden edges and the special ink.”

Layton gripped his hat brim and his face was grim. “I hate to say it Clare, but it seems someone lured you here to the opera tonight.  Someone wanted you to play this game.”

I felt a slight chill go down my back. “But who?  I don’t want eternal life!  I don’t have money to throw around.  Why me?”

“That, I’m not sure of.”

We didn’t have much to dwell on that unnerving revelation.  The game master’s voice on the speakers returned.

“Ladies and gentlemen.  Now we are all passengers together on the Crown Patone.  It is time for our little puzzle-solving game to begin.  The rules are very simple.  The winner-- meaning the last player left-- receives eternal life.”

“Professor…?” Luke asked Layton worriedly.

“I don’t see that any of us have a choice but to play the game Luke.”

He was right.  When you’re stuck on a ship sailing shark-infested waters, what else can you do but comply?

…I was getting a very bad feeling, and it had to do with the game master’s voice.

I felt like I had heard it somewhere before.

[garudabluffs]

Posthumous memoir by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be published Oct. 22

Apr 11, 2024 "A memoir Alexei Navalny began working on in 2020 will be published this fall. “Patriot,” which publisher Alfred A. Knopf is calling the late Russian opposition leader’s “final letter to the world,” will come out Oct. 22."

READ MORE https://www.wwlp.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-posthumous-memoir-by-russian-opposition-leader-alexei-navalny-to-be-published-oct-22/

Before He Died in Prison, Aleksei Navalny Wrote a Memoir. It’s Coming This Fall.

In the book, Navalny tells his story in his own words, chronicling his life, his rise as an opposition leader, and the attempts on his life.

"Navalny, who rose to global prominence as a fierce critic of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, resisted the Kremlin’s repeated attempts to silence him through physical harm, arrests and imprisonment in a remote Arctic penal colony, where he died in February, at age 47."

"Navalny maintained a presence on social media even behind bars, and remained a ferocious critic of Putin. His team, which was living and working in exile, continued to release exposés on corruption in Russia. He also kept working on the book, which includes never-before-seen correspondence from prison, according to the publisher."

+ "Even after his death, those who seek to carry on Navalny’s work and extend his legacy face threats and attacks. Last month, Leonid Volkov, who served as one of Navalny’s top organizers, was attacked with a hammer and tear gas outside his home in Lithuania’s capital.

Navalny was well aware that his activism put him at risk, but remained cheerfully defiant, with a wry, prankster-like persona that helped drive some of his viral online activism.

“I’m trying not to think about it a lot,” he said in an interview with CBS News in 2017. “If you start to think about what kind of risks I have, you cannot do anything.”

READ MORE https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/books/booksupdate/aleksei-navalny-memoir.html

Comments 273

April 11

"Most people have never heard the name, Galina Vishnevskaya. She was THE opera prima donna of the Bolshoi theater. And the wife of the famed cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich. They both tried to protect the Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who alerted the world to Soviet oppression. For their efforts, they were kicked out of the Soviet Union. But not before they lost their jobs, and were erased from Soviet history. Vishnevskaya wrote her memoirs, far from the usual celebrity tell-alls about fame, money, and drugs. She goes into detail about Russian culture, including their collaboration with the famed composer, Shostakovich, and even Prokofiev. And her dealings with Stalin. Far more than a diva rehash, she describes her life through the sweep of history. The highest recommendation. And I look forward to reading Navalny, although I know it will be partly gruesome. Heroes are very rare. Autocrats are very common."

In 1984, Vishnevskaya published a memoir, Galina: A Russian Story (ISBN 0-15-134250-4)

[multifandomlvr]

Chapter 1

“I don’t like this one bit!” Kai exclaimed, slamming his fists on the table. David sat there unfazed. Lewis was sitting across from David munching on some chips and Julia to David’s right.

“Kai, for the last time. You have no say so in this decision. It’s up to Joel and the red shield. They tell us what to do and we follow. We plan on moving at the end of the week whether you are with us or not.” David explained once again. Not understanding what Kai wasn’t getting.

“That’s not my issue and you know it! My problem is with Saya sharing a room grown man. How is that appropriate!” Kai thundered. Julia was the one to speak up.

“Saya and Diva are over five hundred years old. Haji is her chevalier. He has been by her side for many years. Their relationship and what they do. Is none of our business. Saya woke up early and we’re trying to figure out why. She isn’t back to her normal self. She needs rest.” Julia said.

“So that means stay away from her for now. She does not need you bothering her.” David grunted. He said it in a tone that what he said was final and there would be no more talk about it.

Kai scoffed and stormed off. He re-routed his way to his room so he would pass by Saya’s room. The door was open and Saya was sleeping on the bed. Haji was no where to be found. He contemplated going in there, but he definitely didn’t want to get scolded by David. Didn’t want to hear his voice. So, he walked away and went to his room.

Once kai got to his room, he threw open the door and slammed it. He threw himself on the bed and just laid there. Everything that was happening was bogus. He wasn’t comfortable with Saya sharing a room with Haji. No matter how long they’ve been together.

He was caught up in thoughts that he didn’t hear a knock at the door.

“Kai? Are you in there?” A vice called out on the other side of the door.

It was then Kai heard it. The voice belonged to Mao. The last person he wanted to deal with.

He stayed quiet, maybe she would go away. Of course, she didn’t and then the door opened and shut.

“I knew you were in here, what the hell are you doing just laying around?” Mao sneered. Kai rolled his eyes and sat up facing her.

“What do you want Mao?” Kai asked in a bored tone.

“Lewis gave me a shopping list and I want you to come with me to hold the bags.” Mao demanded; it wasn’t a question. She was telling him what to do.

He sat there and thought for a second before he gave her an answer. Maybe it would do him some good to get out of the house. Clear his mind and such.

“Alright, lets go.” Kai said. Standing up walking towards the door. Once again he walked past Saya’s room. She was still in bed sleeping. Still no sign of Haji.

Where the hell is he? Shouldn’t he be by her side all the time? What if something were to happen to her?

He shook those angry thoughts out of his mind.

“What’s on the list?” Kai asked, taking it from Mao’s hand.

It was ingredients for some kind of soup. He handed it back.

“Let’s hurry and get this over with.” Kai huffed out.

Saya tried her hardest to wake up, to open her eyes. But she was just so tired, her body felt heavy. Although she was awake just early this morning with Julia in the make-shift office of hers until they move later in the week. She could sense someone around her. She was sure it was Haji. At times she would feel a hand caress her forehead, or her hair being moved from her eyes.

She wished with everything she had to look at him. To be awake when he did these things.

Saya and Haji expressed their feelings for one another and even shared a kiss. She wanted to talk about their feelings some more, to know what Haji wanted, not what she wanted him to do.

Soon she was slipping back into that inky darkness.

She was just so tired…

Haji had just come back after going out and getting a single rose for Saya. He had a little garden, nothing too big, just a few flowers and such. He needed to do something to keep him occupied.

After the theater and Saya went to sleep, he changed. He worked on being a little more assertive and expressive. Although when it comes to his queen, he was afraid she wouldn’t like him that way. So, he waited on her hand and foot. But how he would love to show her what he had been doing.

Would she like it? A thought that came to his mind numerous times a day.

Haji knew that they were moving to a bigger place soon so he had been repotting everything he could to take with them. He had already packed most of his and Saya’s belongings so it was easier when the day would come.

When he walked into the room he and Saya shared, he seen she was still sleeping, well he could sense it as long as he was close enough to her. He placed the rose on the table inside of a little vase.

He walked over to Saya and moved her hair. It had grown so long in the past few years.

It was unexplainable as to why Saya had woken up as early as she did. Julia was watching over Saya and doing tests. Nothing abnormal about what she’s found so far. But Saya did still get blood transfusions as she didn’t want to take any blood from Haji.

She said it was something they needed to talk about, she often blushed when Julia would bring it up. Julia laughed every time. Haji sat in the chair across from the bed, watching her. He still didn’t need to sleep, it wasn’t often he did this. He would leave in the middle of the night and just wander around to pass the time until the early morning in case Saya woke up. He was elated to have his queen back.

Mao and Kai came back from the store after being gone for some time. They brought everything in and went straight to the kitchen. Lewis was already in the kitchen setting everything up.

“OH! Thank goodness you’re back. You two can help me cook. Let’s go.” Lewis said. Mao was excited and Kai groaned. He just wanted to lay in his bed until dinner time.

Kai actually enjoyed cooking, not that he would tell anyone. But dinner was done. It was creamy chicken soup with vegetables and rolls. They had water and some kind of juice and wine of course. Everything was set up on the table.

“Alright! Let’s sit and eat!” Lewis announced. David, Julia, Kai, Mao, and Akihiro came out of whatever shadow he slithered from.

“Wow, it looks so good Lewis!” Mao exclaimed. Everyone started eating and making conversation between themselves.

Saya was coming again. She was able to move her hand then her arm, she rubbed her eyes trying to adjust to the light coming from the corner of the room. Suddenly it was turned off.

She let a sigh of relief out and tried to sit up. She felt as though her was full of lead, how long was she asleep for? She wondered.

Haji was right by her side helping her sit up.

“Thank you, Haji.” Saya said softly. He nodded his head.

“Where is everyone?” Saya asked. Haji looked towards the door.

“They seem to be all downstairs. Would you care to join them?” Haji asked. Saya smiled and nodded. Haji helped her out of bed and decided to give Saya some privacy to get changed.

Saya was feeling ok, she still felt a little tired, but she was done sleeping. She wanted to interact with everyone and get her life back to the way it was. She then started to think about her dad… and Riku… and even Diva. Oh, how things could have been different.

She shook those thoughts. She knew that both her dad and Riku would have wanted her to be happy.

So Saya opened her closet and looked through some clothes that Mao had got her. Some of them weren’t her style but she would try, nonetheless.

She grabbed a crème-colored sweater dress with matching thigh high socks with some slippers. When she was done, she opened the door and called haji in.

Would you mind helping me with my hair?” She asked. Haji often did this back in the day.

“Anything for you.” Haji said.

Saya looked through all the accessories that Mao insisted Saya purchase. Saya tried to tell her no, but Mao wasn’t taking that for an answer.

Saya found a crème colored ribbon and handed it to Haji. He tied it perfectly and made a little bow at the top.

“Wow… It looks so good. Thank you, Haji.” Saya beamed. Haji gave a small smile. He held out his hand so he could help her downstairs. Saya took it gracefully.

Everyone was laughing and joking and talking about random things. Many things, the new place came up a few times.

Then everyone stopped when Saya and Haji entered the dining room. They just stared at her.

“Um… Hello.” Saya said after a bit of silence.

Julia was the first one to say something.

“It’s good to see you up and walking around. How are you feeling?” She asked.

Haji pulled out a chair for Saya and sat in the one next to her.

“I feel a little tired, but I feel good. I don’t want to sleep anymore right now. I feel good.” Saya explained.

“Wow Saya! You look amazing. I’m so glad you agreed to let me go shopping with you.” Mao commented.

“Yes, thank you.” Saya said. Just then a bowl was set in front of her. She looked up and it was Lewis. She gave him a smile and thanked him before digging in.

Saya thought the soup tasted so good. Nice and warm and just what she needed.

She finished her bowl and helped herself to another one. Meanwhile Haji got up and poured her a small glass of wine and a glass of water.

The whole time Haji was waiting on Saya, Kai couldn’t help but look away. He was blatantly staring at Saya not trying to hide it in the slightest. David seemed to be the only one who noticed. He cleared his throat and Kai looked at him before he went back to eating.

He didn’t care what David thought.

“Saya, if you’re feeling up to it, would you mind coming to see me when you’re done eating?” Julia asked.

Saya replied with a mouth full of soup.

“Yes, I’m feeling ok.” Saya replied with a mouth full of soup.

“Good.” She said before going back to her food.

Saya finished her wine. She only drank it because Julia insisted. But she hated the taste of it, so she always drank a whole glass of water.

She wanted another bowl but her stomach was full already. She couldn’t eat like she used to anymore, maybe her apatite would change as time went on.

Kai quietly finished his dinner before excusing himself from the table and went straight to his room. He was so done and wanted this week to be over so they could be at the new place.

Saya watched as Kai walked away but didn’t think much of it. When everyone was done, Saya decided she wanted to move around a little bit before having to lie down. She helped Lewis clear the table and wash the dishes.

When she was done, she went to the little space that was Julia’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Julia announced.

Saya walked in and sat down at the table.

“Is Haji not joining this time?” Julia asked and she started to prep the transfusion for Saya.

“No, he said he had something to show me and was going to set it up. So, it’s just me.” Saya explained.

“Ahh, I see. So how are you two getting along?” Julia asked, as she poked Saya with the needle and the transfusion started. Saya’s face suddenly felt hot. She was blushing.

“Um… I think we’re doing ok. We didn’t have much time to talk anymore, but he did my hair. I liked that. It was something he did a long time ago.” Saya explained. Julia smiled and nodded.

The two of them talked some more until Saya was finished. She was unhooked and Julia did a quick check up and she sent Saya on her way.

Julia wasn’t exactly sure what it was she was looking for; everything had been normal. Maybe she would find something soon.

Haji was excited to show Saya the garden he had made of his own. He was hoping she would like it. He wasn’t sure what he would do if she didn’t.

Haji heard the door open and close, and he knew it was his queen.

“Haji?” Saya called out. He moved a little so she could see him. Saya gave him a smile and walked over to him.

“What was it you wanted to show me? She asked when she was close enough. Haji was a little nervous to show Saya. She made him nervous quite a bit lately.

“I made this garden.” Haji said, straight to the point. There was no beating around the bush when it came to Haji. He was so straightforward, but that was one of the many things she loved about him.

Saya peaked around him and seen a few plants in big boxes and then she saw the roses. They were beautiful.

“You planted all of these?” Saya asked. Haji nodded.

“They’re beautiful! You made all of this? That’s amazing Haji.” Saya complimented.

“I wonder if next time you need help, if you wouldn’t mind that I join you?” Saya asked.

Haji was too stunned to speak, all he could do was nod his head. He would love to teach Saya all about his garden. Maybe she could find a flower and she could take care of it. He wondered if she would like that.

“Thank you for showing me this Haji, it makes me happy that you found something to occupy your time, while I’ve been sleeping. Thank you for taking good care of me.” Saya added that last little bit. Haji nodded.

Saya looked up at the sky and it was clear.

“Would you like to look at the stars with me?” Saya asked. Haji gave a small smile and walked over to Saya holding her by the waist before jumping in the air to the roof, where the two of them sat comfortably and looked at the stars.

The two of them stayed out there until Saya fell asleep with her head on Haji’s shoulder.

He carefully picked her up and jumped down, going back inside to the bedroom.

Kai was fuming, his whole body was shaking and he couldn’t explain why. He walked out of his bedroom; he needed some fresh air.

When he walked out. He saw Haji carrying a sleeping Saya to what he knew was their bedroom. He didn’t even look at them as he stormed down the stairs and out the door.

He needed to stay out for a while. If he stayed in that house any longer, he was going to explode.

[orchidsangel]

Don’t worry that was me not too long ago (do you also have church trauma/forbidden to listen to beyonce and them growing up?) I definitely say listen to all of Coachella, or watch it on Netflix if you have it. I haven’t SEEN anything for lemonade, just listened to it but I def say listen to it when you got some time because the way I would just sit with certain songs after or would keep some on repeat before moving on is kind of crazy.

My favorites: pray you catch me (sick album opener what was her problem actually), don’t hurt yourself, 6 inch, daddy lessons (I’ve been ready for cowboy carter), and shit prob love drought but I’d put that one interchangeable with sorry I just really enjoy the shit that lady was saying in there lol. CanNOT wait for you to get to lemonade omg.- 💌

i've been thinking about this ask all week but i? kept forgetting to answer it??

i don't have church trauma nor was i forbidden from listening to beyonce growing up. my stepmom was, and still is, a huge member of the beyhive. and my mom played the first half of 'i am sashs fierce' RELIGIOUSLY. when i was really getting into beyonce last year i listened to the album and all of these memories came rushing back bc i had heard it so. much. as a kid and it was my first time playing it in years.

i will say tho, my mom didn't let me listen to the second half of 'i am sasha fierce' especially diva which coincidentally was my fave beyonce song at the time. i would literally beg her to play it.

like i said, my stepmom was a big beyonce fan so i was actually forced to watch lemonade the night it came out. i was 10 and i remember not understanding anything at all but she was gagged. she also forced me to watch the coachella movie on netflix. which. *sigh* my initial experience with that wasn't the greatest...but i have seen clips of it in recent months and it was amazing so i will rewatch it soon. also i still have to see the renaissance movie bc i never saw it in theaters.

i should've listened to lemonade earlier this week tho, bc i fear nothing besides cowboy carter is getting played for a while fr...

[quickdeaths]

Anzu Tachibana was not, in fact, nervous. A natural thespian who loved the spotlight, she'd never let something as insignificant as nerves get to her, even if this was her first screen role. While it was true that she was no second-fiddle and that getting cast as in the 'best friend role' wasn't exactly her idea of proper recognition of her talent, Anzu could play the game and understand the position she was in. Unlike the complicated gender politics that were, seemingly, inextricably tied to traditional theater, television was clear and unambiguous. Casting a trans woman actress in such a visible role was already something of a gamble, with the positive press that would come from her casting in some circles balanced out by the negative press from others - negative press that would only be exacerbated if Anzu failed to deliver.

That being the case, and with her lack of screen credentials, it was hard to be too disappointed at being relegated (for now) to a supporting role. No, that wasn't what ailed her. Rather, it was the question of what role to play off-screen that was troubling. In the wings and dressing rooms of her theater, she was the elegant lady of the stage, poised, graceful, and generous with the maturity of an actor twice her age. Here though, with so many other teenage actors, that seemed... not appropriate. Without an established reputation on the silver screen, the diva act wouldn't be welcome, either. To be too honest would invite criticism and skepticism, and to be too cunning would only lead to her being disliked and, eventually, cut loose. Without Shinobu-chan here to protect her, or lightning rod any criticism, even her playful prankster act risked pissing people off.

In her mind, Anzu envisioned it as rifling through a costume trunk, trying to find what mask and accompanying outfit best suited the task at hand, and as the lead actress, the other girl was rather important. How she interacted with her would likely set the tone for everything else. Although her instinct was to be jealous of Akane Kurokawa - a stage actress like herself who had been given a bigger platform entirely through circumstance that Anzu couldn't emulate - it would be beneficial to get along with her. Even if, as a fellow stage actress, it stung that Akane seemed not to know who she was. Were more western-style actors really so ignorant of traditional work these days?

"Ah, Kurokawa-san," Anzu said in a soft voice, clasping her hands together and fixing the other girl with a gentle, pleasant smile. "It's so nice to meet you. I wish we could have screen-tested together during casting, but schedules can be so busy sometimes." Yes, this would work. A soft-hearted, serene, kind girl with nothing bad to say about anyone, and no edges in need of sanding down. In this arena, to develop a reputation as easy to work with would help counteract her natural disadvantages. "I'm Kohaku Goto." She laughed. "A lot of people have already been calling me Goto-san, but since our characters are so close, I'd be happy if you could just call me Kohaku-chan."

But as to the question at hand... How to answer it in a way that didn't seem too arrogant or bold, but neither lent the impression that she was unreliably nervous? "Ah... Well, it's my first time on television, so a bit of nerves are normal, right? It's been my dream to make it on TV after all." Lie. All things considered, Anzu preferred to stay with her theater and her troupe, but her agent was convinced that diversifying her work would strengthen her marketability as a stage star. "I've been working in kabuki for a while, but a television show is such a jump." Again, Anzu smiled, closing her eyes for the maximum effect of someone without any guile or cunning, simply the kind of sunny, uncomplicated person without any additional facets. "I wasn't sure I had a chance at the part, but I guess the producers saw something in my audition?"

@quickdeaths 💙 for a starter / ft. Akane

"You look nervous."

Finding the girl being sort of stand off-ish from the rest of the cast, Akane finds herself gravitating towards her in order to perhaps help her integrate with the rest of them. After all, being cast as the secondary protagonist, and the lead's (her) best friend, its in good standing they should perhaps get to know each other on and off the camera. It will make things much easier.

"Is this your first acting job? I don't recall seeing you before, but it's amazing you get such a huge role."

[luciferpanini]

Yo I fucking love your swap AU the mental image of Mafuyu who tries to make ppl happy but just Does Not Understand Humor is cracking me up also do you have like, backstories and stuff for how Tsukasa and Nene ended up The Way They Did?

Tsukasa fell down seven flights of stairs and was never the same afterward. /j /j /j

I do!!! But I also,, kind of don't,, :')

As in like!! I have vague ideas in my head but it's rlly hard to put them into words. They're often unsteady too so most of the time I'm not too too sure about what comes out of my mouth.

ramble under the cut yeah.

To keep it short and simple.

Nene:

After quitting her old theater troupe, Nene started her activity as an utaite under the name "Deep Sea Diva" (深海の歌姫). Despite giving up on becoming a musical actress, she still wished to continue singing, and not having to show her face or stand in front of an audience meant her stage fright would be less of a problem. Kanade invited her to join Niigo after listening to her cover of one of their songs. So she became their main vocalist and mixer.

She honestly tries really hard to convince herself that things are fine the way they are and she's satisfied with her situation, that she has no reasons to want more. Her whole character arc would be accepting that she still wants to become an actress and finding the courage to pursue her dreams again. Because as of now Nene thinks of herself as selfish and not knowing her limits every time the slight thought of her past aspirations cross her mind. jfsdkjf It's rlly straightforward for a Nene story!

Her Nightcord username is NenengaV!!

Tsukasa:

He's perfectly fucked up just the way he is, he just needs a wee little nudge. (⌒‿⌒)

He started thinking for 5 seconds and it ruined his life. /j

"Why am I doing this... why do I not remember????"

Anyway, his SEKAI for him is basically "a place where I'm needed" and judging by how it's completely desolated with only Miku, you can kinda tell how he perceives his own self-worth.

In the AU, Saki actually got transferred to the same hospital Kanade's father stays at, so that's how they met!! Idk how to explain this but he pretty much Tenma'd Kanade into tolerating his class clown behaviors.

Saki said "I think I want to become an idol when I'm healthy" once and he internalised it to hell and back as something completely different.

Even though he did help Kanade with making music, he effectively functioned as an assistant ghostwriter to K until Ena and Nene joined.

"who the fuck is that?" "that's tsukasa, he helps with the lyrics and instrumentals sometimes." "who????"

His Nightcord username is literally just "Tsukasa", he's going to get doxxed one day.

His spine is constantly hurting from sleeping on the SEKAI's floor and his energy level is at a constant low. People say he has a habit of "disappearing" because he would be weaseling his way into the SEKAI any chance he gets.

She'll wake up any time now...

[spaceorphan18]

have you ever read a detailed post about the glee cast’s singing voices? like all about their technique and stuff? reading your reaction to the ‘vocal coach reacts to glee’ video makes me want to know more!

Hmmmm, not really! Not from a professional vocalist POV, I don’t think.  (That I’m aware of.  This does remind me there was one vocal coach in fandom, and she hated Blaine, and I wasn’t too fond of her, or her analysis, so I won’t point you in that direction.) 

My background is in music, but not in vocal performance.  But I can give you a quick rundown of cast’s musical abilities if you like, though they won’t be huge on the technical side of it.  

ETA: I started this a while ago before I started doing the music retrospective - I’ll probably try to explore a little more as I do those.   If you guys want more conversation about one person in particular, let me know! 

But for now... 

*

Matthew Morrison: Is a classically trained musician with a very good voice.  It’s a shame Will was such a tool, because Matthew Morrison was very talented, had the ability to do a lot of great things with his voice.  People joke about his rapping -- but I think this stemmed from the issue that his background is in musical theater -- which teaches you a cleaner and more traditional way of singing -- opposed to a pop or rap style.  He doesn’t have the grit that rap often has, which makes it a little too much like a Kid’s Bop version of something.  When singing musical theater, though, he really shined. 

A number that showcases ability: Make ‘Um Laugh

A number that isn’t so great: Ice Ice Baby

*

Lea Michele: Lea does have a very good and solid voice.  She’s also been classically trained.  The one drawback is that it hinders her a bit on pop music, she lacks some of the grittiness often needed on a lot of the pop songs.  She also starts to lose some of her classic training as the show goes on (which I think is a shame) so that she can get some of the shine off her voice to make a transition to pop music.  

She has one vocal tick that drives me crazy, though -- she has a tendency to slide into her notes instead of hitting them dead on, which gets worse as the show goes on, and it makes her sound a little screech-y at times.  But for the most part -- she is really good. 

A number that showcases ability: Don’t Rain on My Parade

A number that isn’t so great: Ooops...I Did It Again

*

Amber Riley: The cool thing about Amber is that you get to hear her grow as a musician as the show goes on.  She had already started to get vocal lessons before the show started, but at the beginning, she was still a bit raw and unrefined in her technique.  But you can tell she did practice, and her voice is developed beautifully as the show goes on.  She was one of the best, well rounded vocalists on the show.  She had a good handle on pop and R&B music, but she could sing musical theater rather clearly, too.  She has great breath support - and can belt numbers out while still retaining the quality.  Can’t say enough good thing about Amber’s voice. 

A number that showcases ability: Someday We’ll Be Together

A number that isn’t so great: Sweet Transvestite (It’s not bad - but it’s my least favorite Mercedes solo.) 

*

Cory Monteith: Cory wasn’t a vocalist.  And, to be completely honest, I thought it was some kind of joke when they introduced him as some kind of hidden musical gem when Will hears him singing the showers.  He did really well with classic rock that’s allows not only for a weaker voice - but is often not as technically hard.  And I have to wonder if Cory got lessons, because he did get a lot better as the show went on, and I think his season 4 work is great! 

I will say that sometimes they pushed his voice a little too far.  A lot of times songs were either too high for his range and he often sounded like he was straining.  (The most notable of which is A House is Not a Home - which is far too high for him.)  That said - I think he did reasonably well along side Lea - mostly because often sang pop duets.  

A number that showcases ability: I’ve Gotta Be Me

A number that isn’t so great: Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore

*

Chris Colfer: Chris is such an interesting study due to the uniqueness of his voice.  He’s got a huge range both in terms of genre and literal range of voice.  He can sing quite a few octaves.  He’s got a great, clear sound, too, which is why he’s great with theater numbers.  Interestingly, Chris’s voice did drop over the years, and while I know people love his higher range, he has a gorgeous lower range that wasn’t used as often (and is often my favorite.) 

The one (nitpicky) issue was that Chris’s voice ended up getting pigeon-holed.  I know singing Diva-Broadway songs was his schtick - but it would have been nice to hear him sing a bigger variety of songs.  He wasn’t the strongest on non-ballad pop music, but they also didn’t give him that very often.  

There’s also the fascinating unusualness in that, Chris could really sing duets very well with people -- but in group numbers, his voice sticks out like a sore thumb, and he was often left out of some of the more general songs because of it.  His voice just doesn’t texture very well - which is why I get why they did what they did.  

A number that showcases ability: Being Alive

A number that isn’t so great: I’ll Remember

*

Kevin McHale: I feel like people are often surprised when they sit down and think about it, but Kevin has a great voice.  He has a solid range, and he’s able to do pop music very well (I believe it helps that he was in a professional boy band for years.)  Not sure if people noticed - but he’s often the lead on group numbers that don’t need to be related to specific story or character points.  Which is a bummer for Artie’s story - but if you’re a fan of Kevin’s voice, you get a lot to choose from.  

Kevin was also able to handle a lot of the musical demands that I think some of the other males weren’t? He’s a much better singer than Cory - and could handle leading a full number.  His voice isn’t as unique as Chris’s and can texture really well.  In addition he was fairly versatile.  He might have been the best rapper the show had, lol. 

A number that showcases ability: For Once In My Life

A number that isn’t so great: Addicted to Love (personal taste choice - I just don’t like the song.) 

*

Jenna Ushkowitz: Jenna is another one who is classically trained.  She has a strong, solid voice, which was unfortunately not showcased all that well on the show, and because of that, I’m not sure how she does on a wide variety of music.  I do think she sounds a little generic - but not helping is lack of being featured.  

A number that showcases ability: I Don’t Know How To Love Him

A number that isn’t so great: Gangum Style (She does fine - but the fact that they made her do it in the first place...) 

*

Dianna Agron: The interesting thing about Dianna is that she has a really nice low female voice.  The fact that they never gave her any punk or harder rock was really a shame, because I think she would have done really well with that.  The funny thing is that, more so in the beginning, they show tried to make her sing songs that fit her character - but weren’t necessarily great for her voice.  I feel like it wasn’t until late season 2 did they start really using her voice for the better.  

A number that showcases ability: Never Can Say Goodbye

A number that isn’t so great: It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World

*

Mark Salling: Mark had a really solid voice - that often lent itself well to folk and acoustic really well.  He was good with softer pop and classic rock, and the show showcased that pretty well.  I think, in general, Mark was a much better vocalist than actor, and the show often picked good music for him to sing - which helped with his character.  I don’t have a whole lot to say, only that I think he was underrated as a vocalist, but I get it - with all the other baggage that comes with talking about Mark. 

A number that showcases ability: No Surrender 

A number that isn’t so great: Fight For Your Right (to Party) (I don’t think it’s bad - I just hate this song.) 

*

Naya Rivera: Naya is a little tricky.  I think she has a good, smoky sound to her voice that makes her excellent at things like pop and R and B.  (Shame she didn’t have a good jazz number to do on the show - she would have been great at that.)  I think she was really versatile, though, and handled her Broadway numbers really well.  I do think she was somewhat pinched and nasal at times - and while I do think this was a stylistic choice, to me it’s not my favorite type of vocal sound.  But I do think she was really good at the numbers she was given, and was one of the most talented female vocalists on the show. 

A number that showcases ability: Back to Black

A number that isn’t so great: Alfie (I think I may dislike the song more than her singing on it.) 

*

Heather Morris: Heather wasn’t a singer, and I do think it showed at times.  She often had to have her voice autotuned more than anyone else on the show.  That said - she did do Britney Spears really well, and I think she deserves credit for that.  

A number that showcases ability: I’m a Slave 4 U

A number that isn’t so great: Dinosaur

*

Chord Overstreet: Chord’s background is in country - and that shows a bit through his singing - he’s got a bit of twang in his voice, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.  He’s a fun singer.  I don’t think the show knew exactly what to do with him (voice or character) but there’s a lightness to his singing that makes him easily adaptable to pretty much anything you throw at him. 

A number that showcases ability: Red Solo Cup (You think I’m joking - but I think this is the most fun Chord has singing a song.) 

A number that isn’t so great: Girls on Film (I think just by default of me liking everything else better.) 

*

Darren Criss: Ah, Darren, where to even start.  The thing about Darren is that he may not be the strongest singer, his voice is a little wobbly at times, and his range is somewhat limited, but his showmanship is just completely beyond nearly everyone else.  Darren has the unique ability to draw you in with his singing and hold you captive.  There are technically better singers on the show - but Darren just has this amazing ability to really sell a performance.  And I do love his voice, even if there are some limitations to it.  I really could gush about Darren’s performance abilities, but I’ll refrain... 

A number that showcases ability: Teenage Dream (Both Versions) 

A number that isn’t so great: Piano Man (Which isn’t bad - I just think the show had done it better, and it’s a rare time that felt like Darren was kind of phoning it in.) 

*

A quick run down of others, but first a quick aside - as they started adding people in, vocal ability starts being a factor.  I think a lot of the newer characters could sing better than they could act, which was both helpful and a hinderance.  I think we began to get more solid musical numbers as the show went on, but sometimes acting wasn’t always top notch - and across the board, old and new, hitting a combo of acting and singing ability didn’t always happen.  

Harry Shum Jr.: Not really a singer - but the show often played to his strengths, and his few songs played off the fact that he wasn’t a great singer to great aplomb.  

Jane Lynch: Can hold a tune, even if her voice isn’t the best - is really great at musical comedy. 

Jayma Mays: She has more singing ability than the show allowed to showcase, however, she’s another one whose voice was really unique, and doesn’t texture very well.  

Damien McGinty: Is actually a very good singer.  However, he’s very generic, too - which makes him a little on the bland side. 

Sam Larsen: I think he was fine - I don’t think he sang enough on the show for me to make much of an impression one way or the other. 

Alex Newel: Fucking Fantastic! Alex might be one of the strongest vocalists on the show - has great range, energy, and vocal control.  

Melissa Benoist: Her voice tends to lean on the pop-ier side, but it’s a solid voice, and her work on the show was pretty good.  

Jacob Artist: Has a strong voice, and could sing genres that weren’t often featured on the show (like hip-hop and R&B).  

Blake Jenner: His voice is fine, but like Damien McGinty, it’s generic and a little bland. 

Becca Tobin: She has a very quirky voice that brings in a different and unique sound.  They didn’t use her much, though, so it’s hard to comment. 

Noah Guthrie: An amazing singer, has a really unique sound, but is able to do blend in well with others.  

Samantha Ware: Another amazing singer.  She’s in full control and can do really great things with it. 

Billy Lewis Jr: Has a good, solid voice.  Not as strong as Guthrie, or some of the other guys, but he’s a lot of fun to watch. 

Laura Dreyfuss: Like Becca Tobin - has a uniqueness to her vocal quality that makes it stand out a little, but she’s still a solid singer. 

Marshall Williams: His vocal ability is okay.  It’s better than his acting ability.  I’m slightly confused how this dude got cast, tbh.  

[queenofcats17]

The Ink Demonth 10

Today is Star

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Susie Campbell had the same dream that all young actors did.

She wanted to be a star.

She’d left her little town in Indiana for this exact purpose. To make it as an actor. To prove she was worth something. It was a common story, she knew that perfectly well. She’d heard similar stories to her own parroted back at her wherever she went in the theater world.

As such, she didn’t think wanting to be a star was an unreasonable goal to have.

All actors wanted to be stars. All actors wanted their talents to be recognized and applauded.

It didn’t stop them from being perfectly awful to her sometimes, though. She’d been called a fame-hungry diva behind her back more times than she could count by people who she’d either beat out for a part or hadn’t tolerated some kind of harassment from.

“Watch out for that one,” she heard them whispering when they thought she couldn’t hear. “She’d happily cut your throat just for a second of fame.”

“She’s impossible to work with.”

“She’s a diva.”

There was always a double standard. A fellow could be ruthless and driven, but god forbid a lady does the same.

It hurt, but Susie tried not to let it get to her. If she wanted to make it in this business, she had to have a thick skin. She couldn’t let cruel words get in her way.

She’d thought Joey Drew Studios would be different.

In the beginning, everyone had been so lovely. She’d loved working there. Especially once she’d started voicing Alice. Alice was the first character she’d felt such a connection to. She’d enjoyed playing her more than any other role. And people liked Alice! They’d really liked her! It wasn’t long before her popularity was rivaling Bendy’s!

Susie was getting exactly what she wanted. She was a star. People loved her. People respected her talent.

Maybe that was why Joey had had her replaced. He couldn’t have Bendy being eclipsed in popularity.

She should have known her days at the studio were numbered once she started hearing Allison Pendle’s name come up.

Susie knew who Allison was. Of course she did. Everyone in the theater scene knew Allison. Susie had seen at least one of the productions Allison had been in, and she had to admit, the woman had some talent.

Allison Pendle had everything Susie had ever wanted as a child. She was on Broadway, her name up in lights, dressing in glamorous clothes and going to fancy parties.

Susie would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t the slightest bit jealous of Allison. But she was happy where she was. She didn’t need to be jealous. Allison’s stardom didn’t affect her.

Until it did.

She should have blamed Joey for Allison replacing her. But in her emotionally vulnerable state, Joey had talked circles around her, convincing her that Allison and Sammy were to blame.

And just like that, Susie’s respect had turned to hatred.

She wouldn’t let herself be replaced.

She was Alice Angel, and no one was going to take that from her.

She was going to be a star again.

One way or another.

[unpopularwiththepopulace]

Michael Riedel vs Bernadette Peters – the Broadway Battle of 2003 and beyond

My previous piece gives a fairly comprehensive look at Bernadette and Gypsy through the ages; though there is at least one aspect of the 2003 revival that warrants further discussion:

Namely, Michael Riedel.

Today’s essay question then: “Riedel – gossip columnist extraordinaire, the “Butcher of Broadway”, spited male vindictive over not getting a lunch date with Bernadette Peters, or puppet-like mouthpiece of theatre’s shadowed elite? Discuss.”

It’s matter retrievable in print, or even kept alive in apocryphal memory throughout the theatre community to this day that Riedel was responsible for a campaign of unrelenting and caustic defamation against Bernadette as Rose in Gypsy around the 2003 season.

While “tabloids may [have been] sniping and the Internet chat rooms chirping”, when looking back at the minutiae, none were more vocal, prolific or influential in colouring early judgment than the “chief vulture [of] Mr. Riedel, who had written a string of vitriolic columns in which he said from the start that Ms. Peters was miscast”.

He continued to find other complaints and regularly attack her in print over an extended period of time.

Why? We’ll get there. There are a few theories to suggest. Firstly, how and what.

Primary to establish is that it perhaps would be foolish to expect anything else of Riedel.

Also an author and radio and TV show host, Riedel is best known as the “vituperative and compulsively readable” theatre columnist at The New York Post.

He’s a man who thrives on controversy, decrying: “Gossip is life!”

The man who says, “I’m a wimp when it comes to physical violence, but give me a keyboard and I’ll kill ya.”

“Inflicting pain, for him, is a jokey thing. ‘Michael has this cruel streak and a lack of empathy,’ says Susan Haskins, his close friend and co-host.”

And inflicting pain is what he did with Bernadette, in a saga that has become one of the most talked about and enduring moments of his career.

From the beginning, then.

Riedel started work at The Post in 1998.

His first words on Bernadette? “Oddly miscast in the Ethel Merman role,” in August of that year on Annie Get Your Gun. It was a sentiment he would carry across to his second mention six months later (“a seemingly odd choice to play the robust Annie Oakley”), and also across to the heart of his vitriolic coverage on her next Merman role in Gypsy.

 Negative coverage on Bernadette in Gypsy started in August 2002 when Riedel discussed the search for trying to find a new American producer for the show. It had initially been reported in late 2000 that a Gypsy revival with Bernadette was planned for London, before it was to transfer to Broadway. To begin with, Arthur Laurents was “eager to do Gypsy in London because it hadn't been seen in the West End since 1973”, and he “wanted to repeat [the] dreamlike triumph” he said Angela Lansbury’s production had been. But economic matters prevented this original plan, leaving the team looking for new producers in the US. Riedel suggested that Fran and Barry Wiessler step up as, “after all, they managed to sell the hell out of "Annie Get Your Gun," in which Peters…was also woefully miscast.”

He also quipped: “Industry joke: "Bernadette Peters in 'Gypsy'? Isn't she a little old to be playing Baby June?”, calling her “cutesy Peters” and again a “kewpie doll”.

Bernadette here seen side by side with the actual Baby June of the 2003 production – Kate Reinders.

Other publications to this point had discussed her “unusual” casting. Which was fairly self-evident. In contrast to being a surprising revelation that Bernadette Peters was not, in fact, Ethel Merman, this had been the intention from the start. Librettist Arthur “Laurents – whose idea it was to hire her – [said] going against type is exactly the point,” and Sam Mendes, as director, qualified “the tradition of battle axes in that role has been explored”.

It was Riedel who was the first to shift the focus from the obvious point that she was ‘differently cast’, to instead attach the negative prefix and intone that she was actually ‘MIS’ cast. According to him then, she was unsuitable, and would be unable to “carry the show, dramatically or vocally”. All before she had so much as sung a note or donned a stitch of her costume.

So no, it wasn’t then “the perception, widely held within the theater industry,” as he presented it, “that Peters is woefully miscast as Mama Rose”.

It was Riedel’s perception. And he took it, and ran with it, along with whatever else he could throw into the mix to drag both her and the show down for the next two years.

 As to another indication of how one single columnist can influence opinion and warp wider perception, just look to Riedel’s assessment of the show’s first preview. It is typically known as Riedel’s forte to “[break] with Broadway convention, [where] he attends the first night of previews, and reports on the problems…before the critics have their say”. This gives him “clout” by way of mining “terrain that goes relatively uncovered elsewhere”, and it means subsequent journals are frequently looking to him from whom to take their lead – and quotes.

At Gypsy’s opening preview then, he reported visions of “Arthur Laurents [charging] up the aisle…on fire”, loudly and vocally expressing his dissatisfaction with the show as he then “read Fox [a producer] the riot act”. Despite the fact that this was “not true, according to Laurents,” the damage was already done, with the sentiment of trouble and tension being subsequently reprinted and distributed out to the public across many a regional paper.

News travels fast, bad news travels faster.

 And news can be created at an ample rate, when in possession of one’s own regular periodical column. This recurring domain allowed plentiful opportunity for attack on Bernadette and Gypsy, and Riedel “began devoting nearly every column to the subject,” which amounted to weekly or even more frequent references.

As the show progressed beyond its first preview, Riedel brought in the next aspects of his smear-campaign – assailing Bernadette for missing performances through illness and accusing Ben Brantley, who reviewed the show positively in The New York Times, of unfair favouritism and “hyperbolic spin”.

The issue is not that Bernadette was not in fact ill or missing performances. She was. She had a diagnosis at first of “a cold and vocal strain”, that then progressed more seriously to a “respiratory infection” the following week, and was “told by her doctors that she needs to rest”. So rest she did.

The issue is the way in which Riedel depicted the situation and her absences via hyperbole and “insinuating she was shirking” responsibility. He went further than continual, repeated mentions and cruel article titles like “wilted Rose”, or “sick Rose losing bloom”, or “beloved but - ahem-cough-cough-ahem - vocally challenged and miscast star”. He went as far as the sensationalist and degrading action of putting “Peters' face on the side of a milk carton, the kind of advertisement typically used to recover lost children,” and asking readers to look out for “bee-stung lips, [a] high-pitched voice, [and a] kewpie doll figure”, who “may be clutching a box of tissues and a love letter from Ben Brantley”.

It was quantified in May of 2003 after the show had officially opened, that “out of the 39 performances "Gypsy" has played so far, [Bernadette] has missed six – an absence rate of 15 percent.”

As an interesting comparison, it was reported in The Times in February 2002 that “‘The Producers' stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick have performed together only eight times in last 43 performances due to scheduling problems and health concerns,” – an absence rate of 81%.

Did Riedel have anything nearly as ardent to say about the main male stars of the previous season’s hit missing such a rate of performances? Of course not.

 Riedel arguably has a disproportionate rate for criticising female divas.

One need only heed his recommendations that certain women check into his illuminatingly named “Rosie's Rest Home for Broadway Divas.” Divos need not apply.

Not that he was unaware of this.

In 2004, Riedel would jovially lay out that “Liz Smith and I have developed a nice tag-team act: I bash fragile Broadway leading ladies who miss performances, and she rides to their rescue.”

Donna Murphy was the recipient of what he that year dubbed his “BERNADETTE PETERS ATTENDANCE AWARD”, when she began missing performances in “Wonderful Town”, due to “severe back and neck injuries and a series of colds and sinus infections”.

This speaks to his remarkably cavalier and joyful attitude with which he tears down shows and performers. “The more Mr. Riedel's work upsets people, the more he enjoys it.”

He knows he yields influence – it was recognised he had “eclipsed Ben Brantley as the single most discussed element in marketing meetings for Broadway shows” – and he delights in his capacity to lead shows to premature demises through his poison-tipped quill yielding.

When it was reported Gypsy would be closing earlier than had been planned, he made mention of “hop[ping] around on [its] grave” and debonairly applauding himself, “I suppose I can take some credit for bringing it down”.

 His premonition from the previous year’s Tony’s ceremony was both ominous and prescient, when he predicted the show’s failure to win any awards “could spell trouble at the box office”. He was right. It did. The 8.5 million dollar revival closed months before anticipated and failed to return a profit.

Multiple factors can be attributed to Gypsy’s poor success at the Tony’s, but it’s clear to say Riedel’s continual bashing leading up to the fated night throughout the voting period certainly didn’t help matters.

His suggestions to do with Bernadette’s performances were not helpful either.

After alleging Laurents as the director of the 1991 revival “practically beat a performance out of” Tyne Daly when she was struggling with the role, he proffers that to improve Bernadette’s success, “it may be time for [Laurents] to take up the switch and thrash one out of Peters”.

Great.

It was irresponsible and unrelenting commentary that did not go unnoticed.

His “ruthless heckling of beloved Broadway star Ms. Peters” was deemed in print “his most egregious stunt so far”.

Vividly, in person, Riedel was accosted at a party one night by Floria Lasky, the venerable showbiz lawyer, who “grab[bed] Riedel’s tie and jerk[ed] it, nooselike, scolding, ‘It was unfair, what you did to Bernadette’”.

Moreover, the wide-reaching influential hold Riedel occupied over the environment surrounding Gypsy was tangible in the fact his words spread beyond just average readers, and even unusually “started seeping into the reviews of New York's top critics”. Riedel himself, as the “chief vulture”, was indeed what Ben Brantley was referring to in his own New York Times review by stating how the production was “shadowed by vultures predicting disaster”.

Even more substantially, the “whole Peters-Riedel-Brantley episode” became its own enduring cultural reference – being converted into its very own “satiric cabaret piece, ‘Bernadette and the Butcher of Broadway’”. All three parties were featured, with Riedel characterised as the butcher, and it played Off-Broadway later in 2003 “to positive notices”.

 But penitent for his sins and begging for absolution Riedel was not. “Riedel saw nothing but a great story and a great time,” and for many years after, he would continue to hark back to the matter in self-referential (almost reverential) and flippant ways.

In 2008 as Patti LuPone won her Tony for her turn as Rose in the subsequent revival, Riedel couldn’t help but jibe, “Not to rip open an old wound, but I'd love to know if Bernadette Peters was watching”. (He neglects also to mention that “Mendes’s Gypsy was seen by 100,000 more people than saw Laurents’s and grossed $6 million more”.)

More jibes are to be found in 2012 as he reported on the auction after Arthur Laurents’ funeral, or even as recently in 2019, as he asked, “Remember the outcry that greeted Sam Mendes’ Brechtian “Gypsy,” with Bernadette Peters, in 2003?”

As with in 2004 where he points to the “pack of jackals who have been snarling” about Bernadette’s failures, this brings up the canny knack Riedel has of offloading his views to bigger and detached third party sources – thus absolving himself of personal centrality, and thus culpability.

If there was an outcry, HE was its loudest contributor. If there were snarling jackals, HE was their leader.

Maybe Riedel’s third person detached approach to referencing matters was intended to be a humorous stylistic quirk for those in the know. Or maybe it was his way of expressing some inner turmoil over the event.

In some rare display of morality and emotional authenticity, Riedel would at one point admit “I find it kind of sad and pathetic that the high point of my life supposedly has been about beating up on Bernadette Peters”.

Fortunately for him then, a degree of absolution was eventually achieved in 2018, where Riedel visited Bernadette at her opening night in Hello Dolly in 2018, with the intention of ending their “15-year feud”. He “got down on one knee at Sardi’s and extended his hand,” with Bernadette reportedly yelling “Take a picture!” while he held his deferential and obsequious position on the floor.

So if eventually this “feud” has some kind of circular resolution and Riedel was glad it was over, why on earth did it begin in the first place?

One notion is that it was simply another day on the job. Riedel is a man who sees Broadway as “a game for rich people”. Positioned as an “an industry that brought in $720.9 million in the 2002-2003 season”, it is “not a fragile business”, he remarked. As such, he “[could not] fathom the point of donning kid gloves” in covering it, and reasoned the business as a whole was robust enough to weather a few hard knocks. “Thus, Riedel can coolly view Bernadette Peters as fair game, as opposed to, say, a national treasure”.

More to the point, he was a man in search of words. During the season in question, Riedel was “one of just three New York newspaper columnists covering the stage” – a “throwback to a bygone era when…Broadway gossipmeisters…such as Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen ruled”. Now at the time, as the “last of a great tabloid tradition”, Riedel presided over not just one but two columns a week at The Post. As a result, he was in need of content. “One of the reasons I've become more opinionated is I just have more space to fill,” he admitted. Robert Simonson hypothesises in his book ‘On Broadway Men, Still Wear Hats’ that Riedel may have consequently picked “the thrashing of Bernadette” as his main target simply because “it was a slow news cycle”. Options for ‘titillating’ and durable content were scarce elsewhere that season.

And after all, if Riedel would later cite Bernadette in an article concerning the Top 10 Powerhouses of Broadway in 2004, saying even despite a few knocks or bad shows, “she’ll bounce back” – surely there was no real damage done.

If her career wouldn’t be toppled by his continual public defamation and haranguing, what was the harm?

Feelings? Who cares about feelings or Bernadette’s extremely complex and personal history with the show stretching back to when she was a teenager.

It was just part of the territory, there was nothing personal in it.

 Or was there?

Maybe there was something personal in Riedel’s campaign after all.

He makes a curious comment while discussing ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in 2004. The then incoming star of the show, rapper P. Diddy, had invited Riedel to dinner, and he makes judgement that this was “a smart p.r. move”. Then he ponders, “you do have to wonder: If Bernadette Peters had broken bread with me this time last year, would her chorus boys have to be out there now working the TKTS line to keep "Gypsy" afloat?”

Might he be going as far to suggest that if Bernadette had indulged him in a meal, her show might not have suffered so, by way of him being more inclined to cover it with greater lenience?

It may seem that way, at least in considering how Riedel reviewed P. Diddy’s performance thus after their dinner: “Riedel pronounced himself impressed. ‘He could have forgotten his lines or had to be carried offstage. He didn’t do anything terrible, he didn’t do anything astonishing.’”

Seemingly all the rapper had to do was remember some words and remain physically onstage, and he sails through scot-free. That’s a rather different outcome, one could say, to being absolutely eviscerated for what became a Tony nominated effort at one of the appreciably hardest and most demanding musical theatre roles in existence.

Though perhaps it’s hard to tell if that was really his insinuation from just one isolated comment pertaining to lunch.

This argument might be fine, if it WAS the only isolated comment pertaining to wanting Bernadette to have lunch with him. But it isn’t. Riedel continues to make a further two references over protracted periods of time to the fact Bernadette hasn’t dined with him.

One begins to get the sense of him feeling desiring of or somewhat entitled to such a private lunch with the lady he’s verbally decimated for years, and a sense of bitter rejection that he hasn’t been granted one.

“If Tonya Pinkins doesn't win the Tony Award this year, I'll buy Bernadette Peters lunch,” he simpered, and later, “I invite Bernadette to be my guest for lunch at a restaurant of her choosing. She can reach me at The Post anytime she's hungry”.

The embittered columnist in this light takes on now the marred tinge of a small boy in the playground who doesn’t get to hold the hand of the girl he wants in front of his friends, so spends the next three years pushing her over in the sandpit in revenge.

Moreover, the last statement makes undeniable comment on Bernadette’s troubled relationship with food, body image and public eating.

So now not only so far has he insulted and mocked her physical appearance and played into all the usual trite shots calling her a “kewpie doll”; suggested Arthur Laurents violently hit her in order to elicit a better performance; continually publicly harassed her regarding a show that strikes close to the nerve with deep personal and psychological resonances due to her mother and childhood; but now he’s going for the low-blows of ridiculing her over her eating habits.

Flawless behaviour.

 Maybe it’s far-fetched to suggest a man would have such a fragile ego to run a multi-year public defamation campaign after so little as not getting his hypothesised fantasy of a personal lunch date. But then again, this was the man who “left Johns Hopkins University after his first year because of a broken heart.” (“I was in love with her; she wasn't in love with me,” he said.)

And also the man described as “an insomniac who pops the occasional Ambien,” living in a “small one-bedroom” that is “single-guy sloppy”, who has “been living alone since a four-year romance ended in 1996”.

The man whose own best friend called “cruel” and with a “lack of empathy”.

The man whose own sister answered that “well, yes,” he’s always been mean; and after being picked on as a kid for “being the small guy and the intellectual”, he grew dependent on using “his verbal ability to beat someone” and put himself in positions of defensive impenetrability.

See, writing Riedel-esque, vindictive and provocative conjecture is no especially challenging or cerebral task.

Riedel may well see his approach to ‘journalism’ or reporting as “all fun and games”.

But I for one am not laughing.

 One final aspect to address when considering Riedel’s reasoning for the depth of his coverage on Bernadette demands attention of how he gets his information. His own personal opinions and motivations aside, crucially he depends on insider providers for insider details. Perhaps somewhat alarmingly then, “leading Broadway producers themselves are among his sources”.

“Half of Broadway hates him. The other half leaks to him”, John Heilpern titled his 2012 Vanity Fair profile on Riedel.

As such, in frequently taking his lead from “theater folk, usually with an ax to grind”, Riedel acts as the mouthpiece to bring secretive backstage reports out front. High-up, influential characters are thus able to funnel their agendas into public view, while keeping their identities hidden.

Notably, it was raised in the above article that Riedel’s “merciless running story” regarding Bernadette in Gypsy “was fed by none other than its renowned librettist, Arthur Laurents—or, more precisely, by Laurents's lover”.

Contrary to the smiley picture below between members of the show’s creative team and it’s beloved star, it was no secret that Laurents did not like Mendes’ 2003 revival. Laurents told Riedel that “Sam did a terrible disservice to Bernadette and the play, and I wanted a Gypsy seen in New York that was good… You have to have musical theater in your bones, and Sam doesn't”. In fact, Laurents admitted the only reason his 2009 book ‘Mainly on Directing’ came into existence was because of how much he had to criticise about the show – it grew out of the extensive set of notes he gave Mendes.

Additionally, it was no secret that Laurents’ lover, Tom Hatcher, demonstrated both a desire and capacity to influence Arthur’s productions. As well as being the driving force for the 2009 Spanish-speaking reworking of West Side Story, Hatcher had intense investment in Gypsy specifically. Patti LuPone writes in her memoir, “From his deathbed, Tom had told Arthur, ‘You have to do Gypsy, and you have to do it with Patti’. It was one of his dying wishes”. Laurents himself, in corroboration of this, explained Tom’s reasoning – “he didn't want the Sam Mendes production to be New York's last memory of Gypsy”.

The allegation in Heilpern’s profile might be hard to prove from an outsider perspective. But given that neither were happy with Mendes’ production and both actively took steps to ensuring it would be superseded in memory, it is not completely implausible.

 Overarchingly, as much as Riedel’s writing may benefit FROM insider sources, it is said he does not write in benefit OF them. For instance, although friends with Scott Rudin in 2004, an animated (nay threatening) warning from Mr Rudin asking Riedel to “back off” from “slamming” his show, Caroline or Change, seemingly “had no impact”.

That’s not to cite total impartiality or exemption from personal connections and higher up influences colouring his reports of shows. Theatre publicist John Barlow would describe that sometimes “if you ask Michael to kill [one of his pieces], he will, if it’s someone with whom he does business”.

But it would be remiss not to mention that his influences and sources stretch beyond just the big wigs. Amongst his other informants too are the more lowly, overlooked folk like “the stagehands, the ushers, chorus kids, house managers, and press agents… the guys who build sets in the Bronx”. Basically, for anyone who’ll talk, Riedel will listen.

“Michael Riedel doesn't work for the producers or the publicists; he works for the reader,” one publicist said. “Sometimes we're glad of that, sometimes we're not-but at the end of the day, that's the reality.”

Sometimes he’s nice, sometimes he’s not – but the world goes round.

Through all that’s been explored, it should be stated how painful and injurious it must be for individual performers or shows to fall upon the unmitigated, maiming force of being on the wrong side of Riedel’s favour. The way he approached coverage on Bernadette is deplorable from an emotional and personal standpoint. Some would argue that it was too far and crossed a line and was most definitely unfair. Others would say it was justified. It’s hard not to sound petulant as the former, or heartless as the latter.

While his actions may indeed be abrasively wounding in isolated (often plentiful) cases, it’s unreasonable to say Riedel’s intentions would be to cripple the Broadway industry as a whole. There are those who purport that Riedel in fact “keeps Broadway alive with his controversies”. His words may not always be ‘nice’ but it’s difficult to argue they're not engaging.

Many are quick to criticize or react impassionedly to him and his columns; but few are quick to stop reading them. And Riedel “knows that the most important thing is being well read”.

Hence it is understandable why Riedel is appraised as “the columnist Broadway loves to hate”. Through his enthralling and stimulating bag of linguistic and dramatic tricks, Riedel knows how to keep the readers coming back. “He’s lively, and he makes the theater seem like an interesting place,” one producer did reason.

“There are times when no one's going to care about Broadway if you don't have a gossip angle that focuses on the backstage drama,” opined George Rush, the Daily News gossip columnist who was once Riedel's boss.

Perhaps it is logically and principally then, if somewhat cynically, a matter of believing “it's just business” and knowing how to “play the game”.

As Riedel himself would rationalise, “It’s all an act. You gotta have a gimmick, as they say in Gypsy.”

It may not be pleasant, but in a world increasingly dependent on sensationalistic and clickbait-driven engagement, it’s probably not going to change any time soon.

 Well then, if he can live with the toll of the position of moral tumult his column puts him in, so be it.

That he described his mind as being “constantly on the next deadline”, saying “I always think about the column”, and likening writing it to “standing under a windmill”, where “you dodge one blade, but there's always another one coming right behind it”, may be some indication that he can't. At least not wholly easily.

I’ll leave that to him to figure out. Off the record.