#theatre nerds assemble!

[elliegoestodownton]

You know when Linda Emond as Donna the producer (what a Broadway lady! what a performance!) describes Debbie from Duluth to Oliver? That's me, I'm Debbie from Duluth, spending all my money to see my faves from the worst seat in the balcony. Gosh this season is speaking to me so much!

[ender-of-the-sender]

Somone please help

What the hell is "What If Tomorrow Comes" about?

Every time I listen to it I'm like "What tf is this bitch on??" Its an amazing song, 10/10, love that she gets to sing, love the count down at the end. But what does it mean?

[unfortunate-beetle-and-friends]

Oh no... Kindle is waving limited time achievements in my face. Crazy over-achieving competitiveness activated, I guess...

[ineffablelunatic]

@oddsydviscous, @thattransboyaled and I have made a fabulous Ghosts highschool AU!

Thomas: Massive theatre kid, is a member of the drama club and is in every play, plays the acoustic guitar in a sappy band. He carries a satchel full of poetry and writes with an actual calligraphy pen. He has a new crush every week.

Kitty: Eats lunch in the art block every day, has had a long-term secret crush her entire time at the school. He's actually some hapless guy in one of the years above who's never spoken to her, but she's convinced herself that they're in love. Really she just wanted to have a crush, rather than actually liking him. She and Thomas are best friends.

Humphrey: Always hangs out in the library with his nose in a book, massive English nerd (the subject, not the nationality). He runs the school magazine and he's very, very shy.

Captain: Also a theatre kid, although less outrageously so, plays the trumpet in the marching band. He's the one who plays the song at the start of every Remembrance Day assembly. CCF Squadron leader. Good at languages. Also on the fencing team and joint head of the cricket team.

Mary: Hopelessly shy, almost never talks unless she's picked on by a teacher, everyone is shocked if she actually speaks. She runs the gardening club, which has a small but loyal group of members. Sometimes she bakes cookies for her close friend group.

Pat: Joint Head of the student council, also Head Boy. He runs a lot of clubs. Nobody is quite sure how he manages to attend all of them. He's not necessarily popular, but nobody actively dislikes him - after all, he's hard not to like. Except for the teachers, that is - no real reason, he gets good grades, but he talks to anyone who's next to him, no matter how many times they move him.

Julian: Typical bad boy. Poor attendance, throws parties every weekend, sticks gum under the desk, vapes in the Maths block toilets. He and Robin sell sweets behind the bike sheds. He has a lot of special offers on, but only if you're cool enough. He's also obscenely rich, but he just wants the money for extra pocket change.

Robin: Physics nerd, struggles with English. He does Julian's homework for him (he blackmails Julian into paying a fiver for each piece, or else he'll snitch). The two of them dominate the chess club. They essentially have an underground black market for contriband going. Somehow they haven't been caught yet.

Fanny: Head girl, Joint Head of the Student Council. Not very popular. She's the teacher's pet and enforces all the rules, even though it's not her job. Everyone hates her, but she gets good grades, especially in Maths. She doesn't really try in any other subject. Always telling people to tuck their shirts in and stop talking. All the Year 7s are scared of her. Her and Pat organise the discos, and she loves textiles class.

Alison: The beloved student counselor and head of Pastoral Care. The students always go to her for help, partially because she keeps a bowl of sweets on her desk. She also teaches PSHE, and she has a lot of pride flags on her wall. She's really into art, and she met Mike by sitting next to him on an art course. Lets kids do mindful colouring the day before their exams.

Mike: The PE teacher who's nice enough, but he's always on his phone and doesn't let you wear a jacket, even when it's freezing cold and he's wearing a scarf. Still, all the students like him. He'll let you sit off sport if you don't feel up to it.

Havers: Transferred mid-year, was very close with Captain before he left. Basically the only person Captain spoke to. He was one of those kids that everyone knows but nobody has a strong opinion on. He also hung out in the library a lot. He struggled with Maths, French and Spanish but was good at most other things. Very sporty - head of the cricket team alongside Captain, fastest runner, on the table tennis team. Captain is good at languages and liked to tease him about it.

Annie: A student from the Catholic school down the road who taught Mary to speak up for herself a little more. She bunks off school to hang out with Mary. She's in the year above, and so she goes off to university before Mary, but they still call each other a lot, and she comes back to visit.

Bonus info: Pat and Fanny became joint heads of the Council because it was a tie. Pat wanted to do Rock, Paper, Scissors but Fanny said it was undignified. Fanny is also somehow on the PTA, despite not being allowed.

Alison plays music in class and has fairy lights in her office. She takes her class outside for walks in the summertime - but only if they want to go, otherwise they can just sit outside. She passively talks about feminism when the class are doing something boring, punishes those straight boys for the smallest things because she knows how they act around other people. Gets kids to write other things they could say instead of swearing.

Alison's screensaver on her work computer is a wholesome meme. Julian regularly hacks into the school system, although he needs Robin's help to do it. Sometimes he changes his grades using that method. If he does too well in Drama or Art he lowers them so he looks cooler. If he has negative housepoints he removes them and replaces them with positive ones.

[jaggedwolf]

2. Share your thoughts about Beau

Beau thoughts! Always Beau thoughts hour over here. Can you believe there are still Beau thoughts I haven't yelled at you yet? What a gal.

Don't think Beau cares much for fiction. She's canonically not much of a reader before the campaign, and once she gets into it she cares way more about the world's secrets and connections than a story. An adept, instinctive liar, it's warped truths that are her jam. She would've cared even less than we did about that long-ass cat story Caleb told Jester, except maybe as a lens through which to psychoanalyze Caleb, and I doubt she's one to go see a theatre show of her own accord. She'll dramatically read out lines from Jester's smut books though, she finds that funny. Her accidental ownership of Courting of the Crick (Jester bought it for Caleb, who didn't want it and gave it to Beau) is 50% because it was banned in the Empire, 30% lol Kryn smut, and 20% burgeoning history nerd

Beau is deeply embarrassed by how much the single incident of the monk kidnapping got to her. While I'm sure part of its lasting impact is the final parental rejection it signifies, exacerbated by the later letter she gets about TJ, I think a lot of it is the sheer helplessness of it. She had that young person's confidence in her own immortality and ability to get out of any scraps on her own merit, and gets hit by the one-two punch of needing her dad to bail her out of jail and then experienced parent-endorsed monk kidnapping which she could not escape due to a combination of emotional shock and plain physical inability. This seems quite pathetic to her, and is one of the reasons for sharded backstory strategy she employs. A Beau who left her parents of her own accord, heck, a Beau who got plain kicked out of home, would be a significantly different Beau at the start of the campaign.

Related: It was really really good for both Beau and the Nein as a whole that Beau was one of the rescuers in the Iron Shepards arc and not one of the rescued. You know how Fjord took it badly, having to be rescued at such a risk? I think Beau at that stage of the campaign would have taken it worse, in a more volatile way. Subtract the confidence boost of defeating Lorenzo's crew, add in a sense of debt of not carrying her own weight, oof, messy AU there.

IMO, the only worlds in which Beau's mom leaves Beau's dad are worlds in which Thoreau is societally condemned, which means I don't think of Clara as sooo much better than Thoreau. Only a little. I do think Beau is willing to give her way more grace because Thoreau did do worse shit, Beau has more of a complex about Thoreau, and Beau also just tends to give women more grace. (I don't think I'm making up that last bit lmao) So yeah, I can see a post-campaign Beau rebuilding her relationship with her mom or whatever, but I will be eternally judgy-eyed about the woman who sent her monk-kidnapped daughter a letter saying the Lionetts had been "granted their greatest wish and had a son". It is not a Thoreau move to tell Clara to send that letter.

Scrolling through the wiki about post-campaign canon, and while I abstractly respect all this "the Mighty Nein see each other regularly!" and "Beau has a good work-life balance" stuff...my favorite take on a post-campaign Beau will always be one who dives in full speed with Caleb into taking down the Cerberus Assembly, each of them barely pulling the other back from burnout, literal or metaphorical. An obsession that leaves them neglecting the others and themselves, yes.

I still think it would so funny for Beau to have a one-night stand with Astrid after the campaign (only once Trent's trial is complete ofc, what a professional) and then go oh shit...bro code.. Visits Caleb and go yo I slept with Astrid sorry if that wasn't cool and Caleb's immediate reaction is "are you sorry because she's my ex or because she's part of the Cerberus Assembly??" And then he goes, actually no, we will never speak of this again, because he's scared Beau will go into detail. (Beau wouldn't, Beau would only go into detail about hypothetical sex acts in front of Caleb, because it would scandalize him without revealing anything about herself, the perfect Beau troll bit.)

[syntia13treeman]

Case files 09.01

what I think happened in:

Case 09.01, the case of "Dice of Fate" or "Mr. Die and a very bad, horrible, no good roll."

Well well well. If it isn't an honest, good old fashioned statement. Fancy seeing it here. Not much left to puzzle out, we have it all laid out very nicely. The Dice make a comeback. When we've seen them last in nineteenth century, they were sitting pretty in the sack of the Gentleman (the mystery man in the woods, quite preoccupied with luck).

By nineteen-nineties they somehow came to be in possession of a young man named Gary. (Double meaning intended). As is their nature, the dice brought Gary luck when rolled. Good luck with high rolls, bad luck with low rolls.

Gary eventually decided that bouts of good luck were not worth the inevitable dive into misfortunes, which varied from leaky pipes to broken legs. Finding himself incapable of simply NOT rolling, he fell back on time-honoured tradition of making his problem somebody else's problem.

Somebody else, we'll call him SG (short for Statement Giver), has recently been dumped by his boyfriend Carl (CaaAAAaaarl! That hurts people!) and really needed something to cheer him up. So when an old high-school friend called to invite him over for a game night, he made his way to Gary's place in West Didsbury, where he got tricked into taking over as the Dice Bearer. The dice changed hands and SG felt it as the ownership transferred to him.

SG was much smarter about rolling that Gary had been. Just like a certain violinist before him, he figured out that he needn't be the one to pay the price for the fortune his cursed object brought him. And he figured out the system (or so he thought. He should have remembered that the House always wins, in the end). He started passing the bad-luck-rolls to random strangers on the street.

After a time, he started to also let strangers roll high. And then… well, for someone who had the gall to talk shit about D&D, SG turned out to be SUCH a nerd himself. He assembled a whole-ass Grim Dicer costume, grew a goatee, he was even doing the voice! Go you, Mr. Totally-not-a-theatre-kid! Rock that Dice King persona!

He was well on his way to becoming a full blown urban cryptid, when alas, he went too far. By chance (chance?) he run into Gary and made him (made him?) roll one last time. It was the lowest roll yet. Snake eyes. 1+1. You couldn't go lower if you tried.

It seems that the Dice did not appreciate being disposed of, and they disposed of the previous Bearer in return, with extreme prejudice, via runaway truck to the face.

After that, SG lost his nerve and tried to get rid of the Dice which… Buddy. You've just seen how that ends. What did you think would happen?

SG thought he was being smart. He gave the Dice to Magnus Institute, who, as paranormal research facility (or whatever they were known as), were bound to accept them and presumably able to handle them safely.

Too bad he believed that rolling was a matter of choice*. Too bad the Dice were still within reach when the urge hit. Too bad he died right there, at the statement giving table. RIP, statement giver (????-14.10.1998). You could have been great.

So that's that. What more to say? Let's see.

I feel quite confident in saying that SG was actively becoming a supernatural creature. That feeling of increasing disconnect from the world was not just in his head. And the rolls that he took for himself, that kept getting more and more abstract, until he couldn't tell what changed, just that something did? It was you, SG. You were changing. Such a damn shame your rise to power was cut short by your own folly.

I'm equally confident that he was unwittingly creating a brand new urban legend. I bet that at the time there were people in Manchester who'd talk in hushed whisper (or at high volume in a crowded bar) about the Grim Gambler, the Dice Devil, the Lord Luck, the Horrid Hatman. (Coincidentally, for no reason whatsoever I need somebody to draw SG in full Mr. Die costume with Alex J. Newall's face). Some would warn against touching his dice, others would swear up and down that he'd bring luck and prosperity. (Imagine the discourse at cryptid message boards!). I wonder if the legend still lives, even if SG doesn't.

*About rolling the dice, even knowing the odds… It sure as hell wasn't free choice, no sir. What was it then, compulsion, or addiction? Was that need to see the dice clutter over one's future coming from without, or within? Both options are equally appealing to me, to be honest.

The statement and the Dice were given to MI in October 1998. This means two things: a) Arguably, events surrounding death of SG could have been one of the 'weird stuff' that Sam saw with no context as a child, and: b) The Institute burned down little over a year later. Do you think somebody was rolling the Dice bit too much?

'Recommend referral to Catalytics for Enrichment Applicability Assessment'. To me it sounds like: "hey, Catalytics, check if we can use this thing for enrichment." And I'm having a bad thought. They were studying kids, Sam among them, for some purpose, almost certainly related to supernatural stuff. Did they give the kids cursed artefacts to play with, to boost development of their otherworldly skills/trait/whatever? Because if so, so help me… 🔪🔪🔪🔥🔥🔥

Lastly, for completion's sake: viability as subject (none), agent (low), catalyst (medium). I've no idea nor theories what these are about, I'm just leaving them here for future reference.

[dalkyeom]

(part 2) of my spiderman!vernon thoughts ft. his friends.

2/3 of BooSeokSoon adopts Vernon as an honorary member of the radio gang since he and Seungkwan come as a package deal at this point

Vernon feels kind of bad just being a member in name so he’s listed as a photographer together with Wonwoo

Unfortunately, his pictures always come out blurry. He’s not exactly fit for this role but they keep it as keepsakes. Seokmin decorates their prompt board with the pictures.

The only pictures he takes that are of decent quality are those that feature Dokyeom the pigeon

He got his first suit upgrade indirectly through Seokmin. The latter being part of the theatre org.

They kind of plan their halloween outfits in advance and that set off the lightbulb in his brain. Vernon’s known as kind of a nerd, so claiming a superhero costume wasn’t unexpected. (Cheol helped him with the electrical parts; Joshua and Jihoon helped with assembling the cool parts bc of their cosplay experience)

Sobs bc BSS ft. Vernon and Wonu halloween cosplays

Vernon made 2 costumes btw! He dressed up as a jaeger pilot for halloween.

They can’t hang out at the radio booth all the time so their 2nd hang out base are the dorms (and eventually the apartment)

That’s how they meet Lee Chan, Seungkwan’s dorm mate. He’s the unfortunate victim to his midnight theories of who and what Spiderman is.

He’s very observant though. Most likely the first one to put two and two together and uncovers Vernon secret to being the masked spider slinger.

[gorbalsvampire]

About fifteen years ago I wrote a short form game based on this exact idea. It amounted to "extremely basic card based resolution system that, because it uses playing cards, you can play in public with less fear of being nerd shamed and no need to waste money on rules you don't need anyway." This was during the peak of my disintegration GM "games don't need all these rules god damn you" phase…

So yeah, I think you're right. Legitimising a process of playing "let's pretend" for grown-ups? I'll take "what is a TTRPG?" for fifty Euros, Miss Vixen.

I do think theatre-studies wank has a place in TTRPG scholarship (this is where my PhD was going), but that's more to do with textuality and finding "the game" in relation to the rulebooks (which describe the game but do not fully contain it) and the act of play (derived from the books but transformative in nature). Something used to identify the text under analysis and how it works: not something I'd put in my "how to pretend to be a vampire" advice video.

And me-from-fifteen-years-ago was huffing their own farts, by the way. These days the gays assembled before my lofty throne will roll their Hunger dice and like it. Tradgames usually have a bloat problem, but the core mechanical loops describe and define playing the game – and that's a good thing.

People have objected to the comparison between D&D fans and gaylors in terms of imagined gayness but like. I'm sorry babes, but the gayness of D&D literally is imagined.

D&D has queer representation in its art and fiction, this is true. Does that representation actually matter for the sake of the themes of the game and its gameplay, as presented in the game? No. You can decide that your elf is gay, and hey, who wouldn't, but the game will just stare at you blankly and not do anything with that information. It's literally fluff in the same sense that your character having blue eyes or being left-handed is. As written the game has nowhere to go with from that information.

But even more so, the thing that inspired that post was people insisting that D&D's gameplay and fiction does somehow interface with queer experiences and is, actually, meaningfully about the experiences of a queer found family and sorry I'm not going to mince words here but that part you straight up did hallucinate.

[thefakegeekg1rl]

In a world…

…where every movie starts to seem exactly the same… (SFX: BOWWMMM)

…where pop culture starts to feel like homework … (SFX: BOWWMMM)

…where we’re not even gonna mention real life, cause she is lookin’ rough … (SFX: BOWWMMM)

This world needs GEEKS’N’CHEEKS: A Nerdlesque Extravaganza!!!

Open Barre Burlesque breathes fresh air into tired tropes and brings joy to a weary world with a celebration of our favorite fandoms. Our cast will assemble their most epic and ethereal burlesque, variety, drag, & more to lift your spirits and tantalize your senses!

If you’re feeling down, get together with some nerds of a feather and let your imaginations soar! Join the flock at GEEKS’N’CHEEKS: A Nerdlesque Extravaganza!

GEEKS’N’CHEEKS: A Nerdlesque Extravaganza is a hybrid live AND virtual show, so you can stream our cabaret from home or hoot & holler LIVE AND IN PERSON!

Virtual viewers will receive a stream of the theatre for the live elements and full-screen videos for the virtual elements. The live show will take place at The Newport Theater in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood.

VIP tickets are for in-person attendees only. VIP Tickets Include:

guaranteed table seating;

a post-show photo with the cast (shared on our social media channels as patrons desire);

and a goody bag of nerdy treasures!

VIP+ tickets include all of the above PLUS:

reserved front row seating;

and a complimentary drink ticket redeemable at The Newport Theater bar.

COVID PRECAUTIONS: The Newport Theater encourages audience members to wear masks unless actively drinking. Open Barre Burlesque and the Newport Theater provide additional masks, hand sanitizer, and other types of PPE.

Please be advised: The Newport Theater is up a flight of stairs (no elevator). Email newporttheater@gmail.com for seating accommodations.

GEEKS’N’CHEEKS is a burlesque show and contains adult content. This show is 21+.

Follow us on social media for show info, sneak peeks, performer spotlights, and other sparkly surprises we share with our fans, and visit our website to sign up for our newsletter and never miss a show! IG: @openbarreburlesque www.minniebarre.com/open-barre-burlesque

[roaringwish]

Late night gaming session

Bonus process gif

[oldbaton]

Broadway Productions in Las Vegas

Ok I'm going to make a nerd post about Broadway shows in Las Vegas. In the first two decades of this century producers got it into their heads that Vegas should be ~the Broadway of the West~. So they opened a ton of sit down productions. (Sit down meaning a resident production of a Broadway staging versus a touring production which do also blow through Vegas). Almost all of these lost money. This is for a few reasons:

This is just not why people are in Vegas. They want a mindless cirque show.

Almost all of them were edited down to 90 mins to allow them to be intermissionless so people could go gamble. There are some notable exceptions like The Lion King. Other shows, like Avenue Q, started with both acts and later trimmed it down.

A casino is a much more complicated landlord than a traditional theatre owner like the Shuberts. I do not fully understand it, but from what I know the money is a lot more complicated and the flow of it is... weird. And it is more expensive.

Again, almost all of these lost money. The Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular is the only iteration of Phantom to lose money in The United States as of writing. I made a list of shows that did this with some notes. I cannot say it is complete but I think it is pretty exhaustive. Also please note that while Broadway shows did do Vegas sit downs in the past (Hello, Dolly! did a staggering 14 shows a week in Vegas with Ginger Rogers AND Dorothy Lamour but that's another post), I'm exploring a specific phenomenon that happened so these are from the first two decades of the 20th century:

Chicago at Mandalay Bay 1999-2000 (With Chita Rivera as Roxie, Ute Lemper as Velma, and Ben Vereen as Billy. Holy Shit).

Mamma Mia! at Mandalay Bay 2003-2009 with a quick return engagement in 2014 at Rio

Hairspray at The Luxor 2006 (With Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur reprising their Tony winning performances)

Avenue Q 2005-2006 at The Wynn (With John Tartaglia and Rick Lyon. This is also another post, but Wynn made a deal with the producers that he would have the exclusive rights to this show outside of New York. A touring production only opened after Las Vegas closed due to this reason).

Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular 2006-2012 at The Venetian (I saw this! Hal Prince actually directed this and helped trim it down. It was done in a custom built theatre with a six piece chandelier that assembled in midair. It was stunning. And because it is not a substantial show, it was its strongest when it was 90 minutes. Additionally, this is the first place where Sierra Boggess played Christine).

Spamalot 2007-2008 at The Wynn

The Producers 2007-2008 at Paris (With, stunningly, David Hasselhoff as Roger de Bris)

Jersey Boys 2008-2016 at The Palazzo and Paris (This is the longest running Vegas production ever. And, as far as I know, one of the very few to make back its money).

The Lion King 2009-2011 at Mandalay Bay (This is the other one I saw. Full show with an intermission. According to wikipedia, this is the longest running sit down production in the United States that The Lion King has had, surpassing its run in Los Angeles).

Rock of Ages 2012-2017 at The Venetian and Rio

Million Dollar Quartet 2013-2016 at Harrah's

As of this moment, I do not believe there are any others running. Nor will we see any soon. Occasionally, a show will do an extended tour stop to flirt with the idea (Priscilla Queen of the Desert did and decided to pass) but I do not think we will see any of them soon. The only shows I think may consider it would be Moulin Rogue! because of how well it goes with Vegas or Six since it already is a cheap 80 minute concert that could fit in a smaller casino hungry for a show. But what a wild and bonkers era of theatre right?

[nagitokomaeda-the69th]

Hello! I see request are open so may i request for headcannons for Felix with an artist!s/o or a oneshot where Felix becomes a muse (aka inspiration) for whatever they're drawing or painting no pressure!

dhfkdhkdhfghfgh I've been a wannabe artist for so long this is so cute akfhkehfksgjdfkhgkdgh

Also "or"? More like an "and" ill do both.

(Long post warning)

-C'mon felix is a nerd, a bookworm, and canonically a theatre kid what makes you think he isn't an art nerd

-Even if he doesn't have quite a art skills himself (the last time he touched a box of watercolors he painted his bedsheets more than he painted on the paper) he still has a deep appreciation for art and there's many expensive paintings hung around in their manor.

-You cannot tell me he doesn't have at least one goth painting hung as a display somewhere around his room

-If you're an art student, he's pretty interested in the things you have to tell about what you learned there. Art is a lot more than just drawing and painting, it's culture. It's history. He wants to know more about your culture.

-Teach him art! He'll be more than glad to finally improve his skills after perhaps having given up long ago.

-With every technique you're teaching him there's always some old fun memory that comes up to share. Laughing together. Felix talks about how Scylla wouldn't let him hear the end of it when he messed up his bedroom for an umpeenth time trying to 'perfect his skills in watercolor'. You watch him struggle with a particular technique and remember how long it took you to master it. You both realise that there's so many stories about each other that you don't know about yet and there's so much left to learn.

-Let me just imagine a picture of child felix sitting in a mess of watercolors with his hands the color of the rainbow. There's a little color mark on his nose and cheeks dhfkadshakha

-Has books about the history and culture in Astarea, tells you all about the famous era-defining paintings and artists.

-ART GALLERY DATE I REPEAT ART GALLERY DATE.

-If you've never gone to art school and self-taught yourself art, Felix is in awe.

-How. How are you so skilled?

-"It seems that I am not the only 'prodigy' in this room. You are a prodigy in art, just as much as I was in magic."

-He is a rich boy any art supply you want you'll get before you've finished asking for it.

-The way he looks at you when you're super concentrated on your current piece. He's paying full attention to every stroke you make. He's paying attention to the way you pause for a moment to brush back your hair. He's paying attention. He's paying attention and he's lovestruck.

-He will never tire of watching you work and do what you love.

-Make an art piece specially for him. Gift it to him. He will cry.

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

-"Woah, this is beautiful" Even if you wanted to say something humorous, or witty, or something that could just capture the pure awe you were feeling right now, you couldn't. Your breath was caught in your mouth.

Felix didn't even attempt to hide his smirk, satisfied that you loved this sight as much as he hoped you would. "I did tell you that this is one of those events I look forward to throughout the year. Papa is masterful at his gardening skills."

An assemble of flowers lay before you, in full bloom. They almost looked like tiny little lights sparkling in the sunset. The wind was cool, bright, making them sway only ever so slightly. You'd found a newfound appreciation for spring, right this moment.

"This is so peaceful."

Felix bent down only ever so slightly, moving his face closer to the bushes. "These are my personal favorites, they are called double-black hellebores." He looked up at you, expectant. "So, what do you think?"

But your priorities had changed, right this very moment. "Felix, don't move"

"Huh?"

"I need to paint this." You almost squealed with excitement. "You look absolutely ethereal."

"I'm glad you liked these flowers so much you want to paint the- Wait. Me? Did you just say you want to paint me?"

You rubbed your hands together, looking down nervously. "Umm, you don't mind right?"

"Mind? Me? WhywouldImindItotallydontmind" Felix glitched for a moment, realised he was tripping over his words so hard he might as well be speaking Vellan right now, and repeated in a coherent manner. "I was just surprised that you wanted to paint me of all things."

Clearly enjoying how flustered he got, you decided to take your chance. "Why? You're prettier than any flower over here."

-This man is redder than the sun rn fr. Make sure to have lots of red in your pallete to make a point of it.

-jk draw him pretty. And yes make a point of how pretty he is.

-Felix still decides that standing half-bent holding a flower in a bush isn't exactly the most comfortable position to pose in, so you still decide on a different pose. Now he's sitting on a bench nearby holding the black hellebore in his hand instead.

-This man doesn't move a muscle no matter how long you're taking fr. He wants you to do your absolute best and would feel guilty if you 'messed up because of him'

-It's especially hard too because the excitement of being painted by you is making him go jdbfkajsbsjvasvjbs internally. He is a mental mess rn he is the mascot of the screaming internally meme currently. He is my face when im reading fluff but my parents are in my room.

-The wind is just as cool and continues to blow just as lightly. His soft hair sways just as slightly as the other flowers in the garden. It the only thing of his that's moving right now.

-It's late in the evening and you can hear the sounds of all different kinds of birds chirping as they make their way home. It's getting dark so you decide to speed up a bit or you'll be having trouble completing it when the light's too dim.

-Felix doesn't know where to look so he just kind of decides to have a staring competition with the flower in his hand. He does that for quite a while until he finds himself wondering if you're done yet and shifts his gaze slightly to look at you.

-Unfortunately for him, your eyes meet.

-It's taking him everything to not get flustered and change his expression, posture, anything.

-You smile. "It's okay, you can relax. I'm done now."

-He does a little stretch of relief before getting up. "Boy, it was getting stiff."

-One look at your painting, and the past whatver-amount-of-hours he was sitting are suddenly worth it

-"This is so..." Felix was at a loss for words. "I've never had anyone paint me so.."

-"Handsome? Pretty? Cute? I worked hard to make it extra good. I really wanted to convey accurately how you look like, to me."

"Is... this how I look like, to you?"

"Well, I could work a bit on the angling, and i guess I messed the hair up a little and-"

"It's perfect." And he tackles you into a hug hkjfkjdfkjgbfdk

-That portrait will remain with him till the end of time i tell you.

-At some point when he's confident enough in his own art skills he'll offer to draw you too. He's probably going to take a lot of time 'because he really wants to convey how beautiful you look to him.' and he'll probably mess up because he was trying to be too perfectionistic BUT HES TRYING HIS BEST HES TRYING HIS BEST YOU HEAR ME? :(

DGUASKBKGJ THIS TURNED OUT LONG

[iisuya-simps]

Hello! May I please request headcanons with the buster bros (+Samatoki? If that’s okay!) with an S/O who is into anime + idol (rhythm) games? Thank you! Hope you’re having a good day/night 💙

A/N: *Rubs hands together* Buckle up yall, this is a long one. I may have had too much fun writing this... :p lol enjoy~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ichiro Yamada

Ichiro first saw you at a manga cafe rocking some merch from your favorite game franchise and had to go over and talk to you

he also found out that you're into anime too

he may try and quiz you to test how into games/anime you are

his eyes light up and his heart pounds but he plays it cool

after a long interrogation conversation, he asked if you would meet him back at the cafe next week

he lent you the latest issue of a light novel that you never got around to reading

now he would have an excuse to see you again

a few months later one of your favorite animes was being played in the theatre once so you both went on a date to see it

if its a sappy rom-com he will 100% deny that he cried and brush it off as an eyelash caught in his eye

but he totally did

to be fair you did too

though he may prefer light novels over anime most times

he will totally sit down at watch the new season of an anime you two enjoy together

prepare for a brain malfunction if you tell him you're into cosplaying

"oh yeah I cosplayed them a year ago"

"y-you wouldn't happen to have any pictures, w-would you?"👀"

*cue nosebleed*

"That's it, I've found my soulmate" he says he's kidding but actually means it

ANYWAY

him being a weeb

Ichiro is also well versed in rhythm games

he will tell you if your waifu/husbando is trash or not

you both have your own little superstitions and rituals you do before gacha pulls

you might use a certain finger to click the screen because that's the lucky one

Ichiro turns the volume up and closes his eyes before clicking

"What no way!! CLICK MY SCREEN! YOU'RE LUCKY TODAY!"

"AHHH thank you y/n! Look at them! They're so cute!"

you both marvel over the cute characters

he is totally impressed by the songs you can do on pro/master

"NO WAY A FULL COMBO?!?!! You're amazing!" 😍

he will totally challenge you to see who can get a better score

but you always win

he did come close a few times

but gets flustered and flubs it up at the end when you're watching over this shoulder

he finds it cute when you're humming along to the songs while DESTROYING the beat map

Bonus+

*you unbox a package left on the doorstep to find a scanty cosplay* "Ichiro, what is this?!?" "What? I thought you would look cute in it" ;p "I'm not dressing up as your favorite idol!" "wh- babe why not?!" :"( "ok maybe..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jiro Yamada

Like Ichiro, Jiro is a big nerd too

you two met in a soccer match of all places

you were taking a break during halftime when you quoted a line from some weird obscure anime

"No way you watch ___ too? I thought I was the only one!"

you haven't seen each other before because you're on different teams from rivalling schools

after the game he gives you his number then the rest is history

you two end up messaging each other all night talking about other animes and games you enjoy

he likes sports animes along with action and adventure

you also found out he plays rhythm games too

after a while, he'll invite you over to the Yamada household and show you his collection of light novels and games

"There's more where this came from, my big bro is a bigger nerd than I am."

you'll sit down on his bed and show each other your cards and play a few songs

"Jiro why is your tap sound louder than the music!?!?"

"I need to hear the beats or I'll fail the stage!!"

He might challenge you to see who can get a higher score

you both play on hard

but you're pretty evenly matched

"Haha! That's a point for me, y/n!"

"No fair! I don't know that song very well..."

If you don't have the best gacha luck Jiro will cry with you during your loss

he's not much better...

"NOOOO I PULLED THE WORST ONE"

and because of that, this boy spends all of his allowance on gacha...

"Jiro, don't tell me you actually bought a gacha pass..."

"I SPENT ALL OF MY GEMS TRYING TO GET THEM SO I HAD TO!"

"JIRO!!!"

"Y/N PLEASE, I NEEDED THEM!!" (╥_╥)

Bonus+

"Here Jiro I got you this." He excitedly opens the package. "No way! A ___ Figure??!" "They're your favorite right?" "YESS" He sets the figure down and bear hugs you. "Thank you y/n, I'll treasure this forever!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saburo Yamada

Saburo picked up anime from his brothers

they would all watch action animes together as kids

until Saburo started a fight with Jiro and they tried to one punch each other out of existence

"HEY GUYS CUT IT OUT YOU'RE NOT FRIKKIN SAITAMA"

ahem. moving on...

Saburo is a nerd too

but he may be a bit more casual (in his own way)

he spotted you playing a rhythm game in the corner of the hall during lunch break

"Is that _____? I play ______"

"Oh really? Whos your favorite?"

"What? you like them?!? You have no taste..."

"W-what?! Shut up! their cards always have good stats!"

"But look how pretty this one is!"

you two quickly become friends and meet up every lunch and discuss things like your methods to preserve gems

Saburo likes making charts and spreadsheets to predict what event will be next and what characters are featured

"Haha! look y/n I totally called it!"

He likes collecting cards and comparing the stats

cause that's fun too I guess :/

He must assemble the best possible unit

I can see you two having competitions to see who can get the best score

or who can rank higher in an event

Saburo is very good at analyzing the beat map at first glance

he will also point out patterns he sees to try and help you understand the rhythms

he usually plays on hard and pro

while you do pretty well on normal or hard

he likes a good action/fantasy anime

but he likes sci-fi too

maybe even mystery

he was nervous asking you over to his place to watch anime

because you suggested a slice of life rom-com

does this mean he makes a move or you just watch it together and that's it O_o

Bonus+

"Yes! New high score! Y/n, did you see that?" You giggle. Good job Saburo. You lean over to kiss his cheek then see the smoke coming out of his ears. "Y-y/n!" *blush blush* "Hehe, you're so cute when you're nerding out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Samatoki Aohitsugi

Rio invited Samatoki out to a neat cafe because they offered cool exotic blends

When they walked in Samatoki was intrigued spotting your crazy colored hair and tattoos from the corner of his eye

which was weird cause that's not his type

or maybe it was

After ordering the coffee and sitting down Rio noticed that he was distracted

"I see you staring, why don't you go over and talk to her?"

"I wasn't staring! But there's just something about her..."

you were sitting in the corner of the cafe reading manga when he approached you a few minutes later

"uh hey, I like your tattoos"

"Oh thanks! Do you watch___ too?"

*casual panic* "Oh yeah totally, what are you reading?"

You knew he was faking it but continued anyway

"Eh, what's the difference?" 😮 "The difference is--"

He didn't know much about what you were saying but he loved watching you talk about something you were obviously passionate for

through an hour or so of conversation, you realized you both had more in common than you thought

he asked if you would like to do something like this again and gave you his number

You were happy to explain plots of random animes and games to him

Samatoki may not get the appeal but he likes seeing you happy

You go on a few dates and make your relationship official

he's absolutely fascinated by you and your nerdiness

"BABE!!!" "What is it?! Are you ok!?" "I JUST GOT A SSR CARD OF (insert favorite character here)"

Tch, *rolls his eyes. "That's good, right?" "LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE!"

he may get a little jealous watching you fawn over you your fav

"Hmmph, why would you want a fictional character when you have a real man right here?"

*author sobs* :")

you let him try a song on normal difficulty

but it is still hard for him

"What the hell! Why are these notes coming at me so fast?!"

He doesn't pick up any manga or light novels

but he likes watching anime with you though

preferably a good action and or adventure one

he may become more interested when the female lead shows up on screen

hey, eyes up here buddy >:(

he won't say it but he secretly likes romcoms

maybe cause Nemu used to watch them growing up

I can see him getting so invested he'll yell at the characters

"Are you stupid?? She's trying to confess to you! Moron..." he huffs

(he does this with cooking shows too)

Bonus+

"Samatoki come on! The next episode of ___ is airing! You rush into the bedroom. "Hey, have you seen my pho-" "Shut up, I'm trying- to win." You laugh hysterically at him stealing your phone to get a full combo. "You got this babe, I believe in you!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading!

[anotherplaceintheuniverse]

risotto (portwell first date fic)

As requested by anon, a look at Portwell’s first date

read on A03 here or below the cut

“Ash?” Gina knocked on Ashlyn’s door nervously. Ashlyn knew something was up. Not only did Gina never knock, she always felt more than comfortable telling her absolutely anything and everything.

“What’s up?” Ashlyn placed her guitar down at the foot of her bed. “Are you okay?”

“Um...EJ kind of asked me out-”

“Oh my god! That’s so exciting!” Ashlyn noticed Gina’s long face. “That is exciting, right?”

“Yeah,” Gina sighed. “I just...I’ve never been on a real date before and...I don’t know what you wear to this sort of thing.”

“Say no more,” Ashlyn placed her hands on Gina’s shoulders. “I know exactly who we need to call.”

Before Gina knew what was happening, Kourtney and Nini were running around Gina’s room assembling the perfect look. “Where is he taking you?” Nini smiled as she perfected Gina’s eyeliner.

“Um...we’re getting risotto actually.”

“Risotto?” Kourtney laughed.

“What is with you two and risotto?” Ashlyn giggled.

“It’s a funny story actually.” Gina smiled just thinking about the memory. “Remember when we took our little field trip to North High?”

“Who could forget?” Kourtney grumbled as she held up a shirt before deciding against it.

“Well, when I was standing watch, this guy came up to me and I guess I kind of froze. I didn’t know what to say but EJ swooped in and called me babe and asked if we were getting risotto.” Gina trailed off; the story suddenly felt embarrassing as she shared it aloud.

“What did the guy say?” Nini laughed.

“He just left but EJ and I figured if we were going on a date we could actually get risotto.”

“Okay this might be stupid but what even is risotto?” Ashlyn questioned from her spot on the bed.

“I don’t really know,” Gina whispered which caused all the girls to burst into a fit of laughter.

“You really like him, huh?” Nini smiled at Gina in the mirror.

“Yeah, I do.” Gina nodded slowly. “Is that okay? Like...will that make things weird with us?”

“Don’t worry,” Nini shook her head. “I haven’t thought about EJ in that way in a long time. I’m happy for you.”

“Alright. Enough yapping.” Kourtney held a hanger out to Gina. “This. This is what you should wear.”

“Thank you.” Gina smiled. “All of you. For everything. You guys are the best friends a girl could ask for.”

“Anything for you,” Nini wrapped her arms around Gina’s shoulders from behind.

“Get changed!” Ashlyn squealed. “EJ will be here soon!”

Gina rushed to the bathroom and started to change her clothes. “Guys?” the others heard her call.

“Oh god, what’s wrong?” Kourtney rushed to the door.

“What do you talk about on...you know...on a date?”

“What do you and EJ normally talk about?”

“Everything,” Gina sighed. “He’s just so easy to talk to.”

“Then tonight won’t be any different.”

EJ arrived at Ashlyn and Gina’s house about fifteen minutes later giving Kourtney and Nini just enough time to add finishing touches before being rushed out by Ashlyn. Gina paced around the room until they both heard a knock on the front door. “You got this!” Ashlyn gave her a thumbs up.

Gina slowly made her way to the front of the house fidgeting with her hands all the while. She opened the door and the second she saw EJ’s gentle smile, all her nerves melted away. “Hey,” he bit his lip. “You look great.”

“Thanks,” Gina smiled. “You clean up nicely.”

“Only the best for you, Porter,” EJ chuckled. “Don’t tell anyone though. Don’t want anything to damage my reputation.”

“Of course.”

“Ready to go?” EJ offered his arm. Gina easily linked her arm in his. It was like they were made to be there Gina thought.

“Ash, I’ll have her home by midnight!” EJ called.

“You better!”

Like a true gentleman, EJ opened the passenger door for Gina and made sure she was comfortable before slamming it shut and rushing to the driver’s side. “Music?” EJ smiled at her handing her his phone.

Gina skimmed through his Spotify playlists which were as she had expected: one for studying, one for working out, one for driving. The one that surprised her, however, was his musical theatre playlist. “I didn’t realize you were such a theatre nerd,” she giggled. 

“Yeah, well,” EJ chuckled.

“Is it weird that I want to listen to Beauty and the Beast? I kind of miss it.”

“Haven’t you heard it a thousand times at this point?”

“Yeah but I guess it’s more about the memories. Like the first time you and Big Red performed ‘Gaston’ in your full costumes. I’ll never forget everyone’s reaction to your eyebrows.”

“Hey! You said they weren’t that bad!”

“They weren’t!” She squealed. “You can make anything look good, Caswell.”

“Thanks, G,” he smiled at her. “You’re an amazing dancer, you know?”

“So you’ve said-”

“I mean it. You have this passion and the way you smile like it’s the best performance you’ll ever have but you just keep topping yourself.” He glanced over at her. “You’re just full of surprises, Porter.”

Gina smiled nervously finally settling on “Something There.” EJ laughed when he realized what song was playing. He reached his hand over the center console interlacing his fingers with hers. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze as focused his eyes back on the road.

When they reached the restaurant, Gina was surprised by how fancy it was. She obviously knew what she wanted to order to eat but when the waiter came to ask what they wanted to drink, she had to think for a moment. “Would it be terrible of me to order punch?” She tried to stare at EJ seriously before breaking out in laughter.

“Only if you promise not to pour it all over me this time.”

“Oooh. I don’t know if I can do that. I might-”

“Your order?” The waiter was growing impatient which made Gina to want to laugh even more.

“Two fruit punches please,” EJ replied for the two of them. “Thanks.”

As the waiter walked away, Gina couldn’t hold back her giggles any longer causing her to snort. EJ cackled in response. The two knew that everyone was staring at them; this was no way to behave in an establishment like this. But Gina just couldn’t find it in her to care. Everything felt easy with EJ.

“If you two can’t pull yourselves together, we will have to ask you to leave,” the waiter snarled when he returned with their drinks.

“We’ll behave,” EJ nodded biting his lip to hold back his laughter.

When they finally calmed down, EJ shook his head. “You’re something else, Gina Porter.”

It was late when they finally stepped outside again. The restaurant had been packed and between all the talking and laughing, they were at the table for hours. Then, EJ had insisted they get the supreme brownie dessert which ended up being much larger than either had planned. EJ wrapped his arm around Gina’s shoulders as they made their way to his car. “This was fun,” Gina sighed when they finally got in the car. “You make everything fun.”

EJ smiled as he tried to find the perfect song to play. He laughed at himself as “Music in Me” from High School Musical 2 filled the speakers. “You were a good Troy, you know?” Gina said softly.

“Oh yeah for the five minutes I got to be him.”

“I’m serious,” Gina smacked his arm lightly. “You were so...vulnerable. It was kind of awesome.”

“Just wish the Wonderstudies got their show. The world deserved to see you as Gabriella.”

“I’m kind of happy with the way it all worked out as hectic as it was.”

“It wouldn’t be an East High production without a little chaos, right?”

“And it brought us here, didn’t it?”

They sat in a comfortable silence the rest of the way home. When they weren’t sneaking glances at each other, EJ was thinking about what Gina had said. Sure, High School Musical and Beauty and the Beast had their flaws but they were theirs. And no one could take those memories from them. 

When they finally got to the Caswell-Porter residence, EJ put the car in park and sat there for a moment. “I’m really glad you came back, G.”

“Me, too.” Gina went to open her door.

“Call me in the morning?” EJ asked grabbing her hand.

“Of course,” she nodded. “Thanks for tonight, Eej.”

EJ bit his lip contemplating whether or not it was appropriate for him to kiss her. Before he could think too hard though, Gina leaned over the center console and gave him a soft kiss.  “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Gina.”

Wanting to relish in the moment for as much as she could, Gina slowly exited the car and made her way inside the house. EJ made sure she was inside before he drove away. Ashlyn rushed to the living room the second she heard the front door open and close. “So? How was it?”

“It was...awesome,” Gina sighed.

“Yeah?” Ashlyn pulled Gina onto the couch. “Tell me everything.”

“I don’t even know where to begin.”

[self-insert-dynast]

List of Au’s I’m working on:

Historic Au:

AiB: 1872

Sweet Home: 1884

Mythology Au:

AiB:

Aguni: Tatsu

Niragi: Oni

Chishiya: Kitsune

Arisu: Kirin

Usagi: Kodama

Last Boss: Joroguma

Kuina: Yuki-Onna

Sweet Home:

Sang-Wook: Bul-Gae

Hyun-Su: Yong

Eun-Hyuk: Jeosung Saja

Eun-Yu: Gwisin

Ji-Soo: Gumiho

Jae-Heon: Samjoko

Me: Cù-sìth

Magic Au:

AiB:

Aguni: Super strength

Niragi: Demon like (horns and arrow tail)

Chishiya: Ice manipulation

Arisu: Invisibility

Usagi: Wall crawling

Last Boss: Fear projection

Kuina: Shapeshifing

Sweet Home:

Sang-Wook: Telekinesis

Hyun-Su: Superspeed

Eun-Hyuk: Future prediction

Eun-Yu: Phasing

Ji-Soo: Sonic scream

Jae-Heon: Force field

Me: Wing growths

Shop Au:

AiB:

-Aguni and militants run a tattoo/piercing shop

-Hatter and the executives run a hat shop

-Chishiya and Kuina run a coffee shop

-Arisu, Karube, and Chota run bar/arcade shop

Sweet Home:

-Sang-Wook, Eun-Hyuk, and Jae-Heon run a bookshop

-Ji-Soo, And Eun-Yu run a music shop

-Hyun-Su runs a flower shop

-I run a pet shop

Mafia Au:

The Beach is a mafia organisation which takes in those who are in poverty. They promise food and drink but in return they have to commit heinous acts.

Royalty Au:

Aguni is a retired crime boss who now works as a royal guard. His old crime organisation is The Beach, Aguni gave the top position to Hatter. Chishiya is the manager of Kuina, Arisu, and Usagi’s band. Kuina is the vocalist, Arisu is the guitarist and Usagi is the drummer. I’m apart of the royal family although pushed behind closed curtains due to being nonbinary, and gay. Kind of the family disappointment and they pretend I don’t exist due to having to go to a psych ward.

High School Au:

AiB:

Aguni: Star quarterback jock

Hatter: Weird theatre kid but doesn’t get picked on due to being friends with Aguni

Niragi: Was heavily bullied but then moved schools and became a bully, is in Aguni’s ‘group’ (kind of an eboy too)

Chishiya: Exceeds at school but doesn’t speak much, is a wallflower, only Kuina sits with him

Arisu: Gamer nerd (the kind to get beaten up in dodgeball)

Usagi: Constantly in the school gym, avoids others but does a lot of school sports

Last Boss: Is a goth kid but like a MEAN goth kid (once set the school on fire)

Kuina: Popular art student

Sweet Home:

Sang-Wook: Loner kid who smokes on school grounds

Hyun-Su: Quiet kid who gets badly bullied

Eun-Hyuk: Gets good grades but if you ask if he can help you with homework he’d leave you on read.

Eun-Yu: Mean popular girl that’s fuelled by insecurity. Falls in love with loser Hyun-Su but bullied him super hard to cover it up

Ji-Soo: Always in the music rooms, does assembly performances, too cool for you.

Jae-Hyeon: A little bit of a nerd but would sit with you if you were alone, somehow became friends with Sang-Wook and Ji-Soo???

Me: Goth art kid

Outer space Au:

The Beach is a gang of space pirates, sinking other ships and selling the scrap for money. They take in those that they sink the ships of, giving the choice to join them or die. Usagi, Arisu, Chishiya, and Kuina are a part of a government space fleet.

Usagi: The survivalist and biologist of the fleet (alien who can climb vertical surfaces)

Arisu: The tech guy of the fleet (human)

Chishiya: Captian of the fleet (alien, somewhat of a cat (kill me))

Kuina: Fleet bodyguard (human)

Aguni: Captian of weapons and defence of the space pirates (human)

Hatter: Captain (alien, his kind are born with tattoos but they move on their skin and change)

Last Boss: Wanted killer who is a part of the defence (Alien, same as Hatter)

Niragi: Also a wanted killer who is a part of the defence (Alien, race is angels, if you have a ‘pure soul’ you have white wings, halo, holographic sheen skin, ect. But when you commit a heinous act you’re wings turn black, halo cracks into horns, and reflective eyes. Niragi has his wings cut off by his bullies)

Me: On the space fleet as the history expert (alien, same as Niragi, still have the wings)

[ninewheels]

My Top 5 Films of 2021

tick, tick... BOOM!

I actually wrote an article on this for 25 Years Later, which is good because I want to be more concise about my feelings for this post. Look, this film hits me on some very particular levels--firstly as a writer with no career who turned 30 not too long ago, and also as a big ol’ musical theatre dweeb who gets all the references to everything--but... no, y’know what, unlike in that article, I’m not going to follow up that “but”. I 100% got this film, and I loved it. That’s what matters.I recognize the famous Broadway names making cameos all over the place, some less conspicuously than others. Anyone who watches the film can hear the characters talking about Sunday in the Park with George and then glean from clues the parallel between that musical and this story, but I know Sunday really well, so I also know that when Susan says to Jon “I wanted you to tell me not to go,” it’s a reference to when Dot says the same thing to Georges, and then I cry even harder than I already would. Maybe the simple way to phrase it is that this movie and I speak the same language. I don’t want to think of it as just a movie for and by theatre nerds, because if you aren’t, I really want you to watch it anyway! But yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda is as big a musical theatre dork as he is a celebrated creator of musical theatre, and it turns out he’s also as great a film director as he is a songwriter. I liked the source material beforehand, but the adaptation of the score breathes such new life into it. It feels iconic, in the sense that it’s full of scenes, moments, characters, motifs, etc. that each have weight and stick in the memory as reference points unto themselves, but are also assembled into a big tapestry of ideas surrounding the artistic struggle. And at the center of it all is Andrew Garfield, being absurdly talented and adorably charming.

The Green Knight

Look, this film had me from the get-go back in early 2019 or whenever: Dev Patel starring in an Arthurian fantasy? I’m in! As it got further along in production, and promotional material started to clue me in on how weird and artsy and spooky it was gonna be, my hype cup overflowedeth I had even more of a feeling this was going to be my kind of movie. And high as my expectations were, the movie didn’t disappoint! Patel is soulful and charismatic and just so gorgeous. Let’s be real, the whole movie is gorgeous. Every part of The Look is there, from the production design and costumes to the cinematography, and y’all, don’t even get me started on the look of the title character. It’s so nice to look at that I don’t even mind how slow certain scenes are, and glacial scene pacing in arthouse movies is a personal bugbear of mine. It occurs to me that in a year like 2021 (and 2020, and I’m sure 2022 will be no different), when I’m thinking quite a bit about my own mortality, I benefitted from a dark, existential meditation on coming to terms with the inevitability of death--just as much as I benefitted from the warm and fuzzy inspirational philosophizing of tick, tick... BOOM. It also occurs to me that maybe The Green Knight connecting death very specifically to the entropic power of nature through its symbolism (green, which as The Lady says, “will overtake your swords and your coins and your battlements and, try as you might, all you hold dear will succumb to it: Your skin, your bones. Your virtue.”) might have been the perfect way to frame it for my current headspace. Those rich bastards who let a pandemic become endemic just so that they could keep making millions, they may live longer and their influence may linger further into the future, but that will change someday, because nature is change is death, and all are inevitable.

West Side Story

This really was the most unreasonably good year for movie musicals ever, huh? (Special shout-out to In the Heights, also great but not on this list.) The original stage show and the first movie adaptation of West Side Story are major cultural touchstones, but this new movie feels like the next evolution from that solid foundation. It’s a more perfected form of the piece. Granted, there are a few details on which I felt its predecessors did better, but let me stress that those are a very small minority. The story as a whole works better and hits harder than ever. Lord knows it’s got the best cast any production has ever had--so many world-class performances, not least among them Rita Moreno, who managed to wring tears even from my girlfriend, the most jaded of West Side veterans. Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner don’t take the source material for granted; they’re committed to justifying everything and bringing it all to life in a tangible and fully-realized way that the original film didn’t and than the stage version never could within the practical confines of theatre. There’s also prime examples here of how to adapt something darker and grittier in a way that feels organic to the material, instead of clumsy “OW THE EDGE” morbidity; West Side is hella dark in the first place, all you need to do is lean into the corners that are already there, not try and make new ones (I say, side-eying the recent would-be Broadway revival of the show, which was cancelled in previews due to COVID). I guess as a theatre nerd I’m finding it hard to talk about the film in a way that isn’t relative to its source material. So let me offer a more universal assessment then: it is a gorgeous epic of a story about the ways we give ourselves to love and to hate, both as means of defining our own lives in the midst of an unfair world that allows us so little control over those lives.

The Novice

I checked this one out mostly on a whim after it dropped on VOD, and it kicked my ass. It follows college freshman Alex (played by Isabelle Fuhrman, who is absolutely fearsome) who joins the rowing team and gets really psychotically obsessed with being The Best at it, to the detriment of her physical health and her relationships with other people. The obvious and common comparison is to Whiplash, and--I mean, yes--that is a reasonable reference point. I had that thought myself. I also had the thought that the use of sound in this movie is absolutely amazing (y’know, the kind of thing it takes a film major to notice?). Well, writer-director Lauren Hadaway worked on Whiplash, as the sound editor; so I guess some things turn out to be just that obvious. In all seriousness, whatever thematic similarities there are, this movie has a decidedly different dynamic from above, because Alex doesn’t have a mentor, at least not in that way. Alex is just... like that. For all that her journey is a descent into obsessive perfectionism, she’s primed and ready to go down that road from the jump, and the journey is less about her changing and more about we the audience growing to understand her. Honestly, to pick a nit, I wish the script did dig a little deeper into what makes her tick, but on the other hand, I’m definitely glad that it doesn’t turn out to stem from one single Significant Childhood Event or suchlike. Any under-explaining the script may or may not be guilty of hardly registers anyway thanks to how exciting Fuhrman is to just watch. However unhealthy Alex’s behavior may be, I can’t help but see her as a power fantasy. I’m not talking about right and wrong, I’m saying my visceral reaction was to root for her obsessive ambition. And we definitely don’t have time to unpack all of that, so I’ll just leave it with: movie good.

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

On the subject of things we don’t have time to unpack, let’s talk about my feelings on an Evangelion movie! Any of y’all who follow me have probably gathered how important Evangelion is to me. The series ended with a two-part finale that I love, and then followed up with The End of Evangelion movie retelling it in an entirely different manner (also my favorite film of all time nbd), and now at the end of the Rebuild series there’s a third ending to the story--the absolutely for-reals real final ending this time, seriously. It’s even weirder and even more impenetrable than ever, which is really saying something, but I loved it. I didn’t understand a goddamn thing that happened in the entire second half of the plot, but I did understand the story. I got the themes, I got the character arcs, and that’s all I needed, because that’s what really matters to me. Maybe it’s one of those things where I was able to let go of any specific expectations because A) the last movie already threw the concept of expectations out the window, and 2) whatever this film did, I’d still have The End of Evangelion. I didn’t really need anything from this movie, but it gave me plenty nonetheless--a wonderfully tranquil first act bringing the characters back to solid ground for a while after the confusing odyssey of 3.0; trippy space opera spectacle wild enough to make me forgive those 3D modeling effects they’ve used in every Rebuild movie; one particular surprise shipping development that made me personally attacked, but in a good way?; and a metatextual brand of closure that nicely complements the kinds offered by “Take Care of Yourself” and End of Eva. I fully expect my opinion to morph and sharpen with time and further viewings, but my first impression is a happy one. Whatever its flaws may be, I’m pot-committed just because I love Eva, and it rewarded my love with some (strange and audacious) shows of love itself.