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bangtanhoneys · 1 year ago

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The Grammy Awards - Grace Chu

Note: this is a bit long. Over 5k words which is the longest thing I’ve ever written. I wanted something different and while I still think the Grammy’s did BTS dirty, I wanted my girl to have some love. I don’t expect everyone to agree to it but it is fanfic after all.

Part 2 l Part 3

When Grace had created her first solo album that wasn’t a mixtape, she had no plans to submit anything to the Grammys. The history between the Grammy’s and BTS had left a bad taste in her mouth - they were used as eye candy for performances, to bring in the audience and leave them till the last minute, even with five nominations and no wins. So when she was asked if she wanted to put the ‘In My Head’ album in for any categories, she shut the idea down.

Really, she should have realised that Bang PD would have just done it anyway.

The first she heard about it was when Chaelin, CL from 2NE1, had sent her a text of congratulations followed by IU. Then her parents called her to say congratulations and there was a flurry of messages in the BTS group chat.

Of course, she thought they were all off their heads because there was no way in hell that she was nominated for a Grammy, let alone three. But when she went on the website, sure enough, under her name were the following categories:

7 Rings - Record of the Year

In My Head - Album of the Year

7 Rings - Best Pop Solo Performance.

It left her feeling very conflicted.

While she was proud of herself and the team behind the song as well as the album, she remembered the disappointment on the rest of the boy’s faces when they received no nominations for their solo music and the bigger disappointment when they didn’t win as a group, sitting there in the audience with cameras in their faces and once again, no win.

She didn’t want the award for the very reason that she didn’t want to go all the way out there, to dress up, to sit there and then nothing. Feeling nothing but pure disappointment.

So, she kept silent and kept on preparing herself for the tour that would be happening in a few months after the November nomination announcement. Everyone was excited, including the boys, yet she felt absolutely blank about the whole thing. In her head, it was just another ploy to get the BTS name attached to the Grammys.

A week later, after the nominations were released, she got called into a meeting with everyone including Bang PD, their choreographing team, the CEO and PR and some others that she didn't know. Grace sat down next to Sejin, wondering why most of the important people in Big Hit had been called to the table.

“Okay as everyone is aware, Hea has been nominated for three Grammy awards. They’ve been in touch and asked if Hea would be interested in either opening up the Grammy’s with a song or if there would be a medley performance at some point,” the CEO explained. “We’ve already got an idea but wanted to hear what everyone’s thoughts were before we went forward and if Hea wanted to go through with this as well.”

Grace glanced towards Sejin out of the corner of her eye. He knew her better than most and he knew the thoughts of the boys as well. They were proud of her and this would be a big thing for not only her, but for the boys, Big Hit and Korea as a whole. If she won, she would be the first K-Pop Korean and the first Korean female. If she didn’t win, she would still be highly regarded because of the nomination.

Though she knew full well that some antis would see this as an opportunity to bash and slander.

Sejin knew her thoughts about the Grammy’s and he returned her look, giving her a slight nod. If he thought she should go, then off she went.

“I want to get the boy's opinion first,” Grace started. “But if everyone thinks I should go and this is going to be a good thing, rather than a disappointment, then I’ll go. And I suppose, depending on the time limit, it’s going to be one song rather than a medley?”

The CEO nodded, nodding towards Bang PD. “We’re thinking of at least 3 or 4, depending on the time slot. Plus this could be a good test for the tour as well if we use songs from the Dangerous Woman mix tape and then you’ve got some other songs as well you want to release? If not, then we would just stick to 7 Rings.”

“Not until January but the Grammy’s are in February, so that would tie in with that mixtape’s release,” Grace agreed.

“Okay, well let’s see what we can put together and I will check what time limit we have so we can work towards that. We don’t want to put more pressure on the team for dancing so we’ll work with you on that and maybe work with InTheLab in LA,” the CEO glanced towards the team of choreographers who nodded in agreement. “And once we have confirmation on everything, we can discuss outfits and the like. Would you be going with Seokjin-ssi?”

That made Grace pause. He was out of military service now and was free to take, even with his own schedule and music going on. Hobi was free as well. So she could take the two free members of BTS but there was also the option of her parents as well? It would be an honour for them, especially her father.

“I will double check but I think I would want to take my father. I know he’s not one for the public eye but if I won, I’d want him to see that in person rather than on TV. If I don’t win, well it’s an experience.”

With plans in motion, Grace left the meeting still feeling conflicted.

‘GRAMMY’s want me to perform. What do you think?’ she fired off a message to the group chat, as she turned down the hallway and headed to Hobi’s studio.

There would be no response from four of them until that evening so she wasn’t expecting anything. Of course, her boyfriend was the first one to reply.

‘Do it and kick their ass.’

Yoongi then replied: ‘Agreed. Our turn will come but I want you to win without us.’

Grace sighed and slipped into Hobi’s studio, finding him already mixing a mock up of her songs.

“I haven’t actually agreed yet,” Grace laughed as she took a seat on the couch.

“I know you feel conflicted,” Hobi said as he turned down the volume on the speaker as Dangerous Woman played in the background with a bit more bass to it, spinning his chair around to face Grace. “I feel conflicted for you. I would be proud as a Korean if you won because you’d be the first one to win. It would be like watching Jungkookie at the World Cup - he’s still BTS but it’s a major thing. Like Yoongi-hyung’s tour, that was for him but he was still BTS.”

“I know but the Grammys have fucked us around,” Grace frowned. “Nominate us, tease the audience about us or our performance or whether we’ve won and leave it till the last minute and then not give it to us though they’ve been hinting we’re going to win. They’ve used us for views and we’ve had nothing in return.”

Hobi sighed and nodded, reaching out to pat Grace’s knee. “Yes, that’s true. But why not go and show them what BTS’ female member can do? I know you don’t care about the awards and the nominations you’ve received for your hard work but go and do this one. Go and show them what they're missing.”

The four other members sent similar messages, though Namjoon added: ‘Make me proud as a leader and a brother. Whether you win or not, the fact you’ve been nominated for three awards and you’ve been asked to perform is amazing. So go and do it.’

Seokjin didn’t exactly decline the invitation to go but rather wanted the focus to be on her. With that, she somehow managed to get her parents to agree to go though her father was uncomfortable with the idea.

“Do we have to go on the red carpet?” he asked over dinner the following night.

“No. You can be taken straight to the seats inside, bypassing all the photos and the faff. There will be cameras and they might film your reactions but other than that, no you don’t have to do the whole thing,” Grace confirmed as she took her plate of homemade spaghetti bolognese that her mother made.

Her father was silent as he dipped the garlic bread into the sauce. Grace could see the cogs turning in his head just as they had in hers when she heard the news. It would bring great honour to the family name yet did he want to risk his anonymity? His wife, Grace’s mother, was already a fan favourite having been seen in various Big Hit videos.

“It would be my honour then to go.”

So began the practice for the Grammy’s alongside final dance practice for the tour.

The team had agreed on one song, the one with the nomination, rather than a medley since she had only been given five minutes to perform as the first performance of the night. Her categories would then follow afterwards. Alexander McQueen’s fashion team had sent a blazer dress in her size for her to perform in though the stylist team at Big Hit had to add some shorts so the dress didn’t show everything when she bent over.

She also had a dress from Elie Saab, the designer reaching out with the perfect dress he said would be fitting for her first solo project.

Her parents had flown out a week beforehand to enjoy America as tourists and to avoid the chaos at Incheon which had predicted record high numbers of press and fans for Grace’s flight out. And the prediction had been correct.

She could hear the noise from the car as her managers sorted out passports and boarding passes, bodyguards in position to form the Queen’s Guard to battle through the chaos that was awaiting them inside.

“You ready?” Sejin asked, handing over a mask and sunglasses.

“Never,” Grace sighed with a slight smile as she slipped the sunglasses on and adjusted the mask to cover her mouth.

The moment she stepped out, the noise grew even louder. She paused before the doors, letting the press outside get the photos they needed before entering the airport, the bodyguards tight around her as they moved through the sounds of cheers, screams and the sound of camera flashes going off. She was more than thankful for the sunglasses that protected her eyes against the blindness of lights.

It was difficult. They were trying to rush against the barriers put up in place for everyone’s protection and out of the corner of her eye, she could see a few cameras get knocked down for being too close and some people getting shoved away as they had escaped over or underneath the barrier.

But she kept pushing on, Sejin’s hand tight on her shoulder as they finally got out of the crowd and to the lounge where they could wait for their flight to be called. Security was outside the doors and inside the doors, only letting those in who had passes or were part of the Big Hit team.

“It gets worse every time,” a bodyguard muttered as they accepted the passports and boarding passes, handing them over to the managers.

“They need tighter controls at the airport,” another agreed.

For Grace, she just wanted to get to Los Angeles and get to the hotel, get the awards over with (which would be held at the same stadium she had rented out for her own tour) and come home. She was thankful her parents would be joining her but she kept waiting for the phone call to say there had been an honest mistake and could they cancel.

The call never came.

Not while they were getting on the plane, not while they were in the air, not while they got to LAX and not while they got to the hotel. If anything, her appearance in California had heightened the news around the Grammys.

“We have reports that Grace Chu, the female member of BTS, just landed in Los Angeles over an hour ago and was taken straight to the hotel. Her performance is one of the most highly anticipated performances of the night, as this will be her first solo performance at the Grammys without the rest of BTS,” a reporter said with the Hollywood sign in the backdrop as a ‘live’ report. “Big Hit has been quiet in terms of the performance, outfits and whether anyone else from BTS will be attending given that five members are still in their military service.”

Sejin clicked over the channel to something else as Grace opened up her suitcase in the bedroom, smoothing out her clothes before putting them in the wardrobe. Her designer clothes for the carpet and performance had been put in her room before her arrival.

“Every news channel is about the Grammys,” Sejin sighed as he finally got to the local news that wasn’t reporting about the upcoming award show that was two days away.

“It’s the main event of any singer’s career,” Grace said as she poked her head around the doorway. “I suppose it’s like their version of a Daesang.”

“At least BTS are awarded properly for a Daesang.”

“Only sometimes,” Grace called out.

The next day the team planned a schedule to head to the Crypto.com stadium which felt surreal as she would be on the stage in only a month’s time. She would start her American leg of the tour here for two nights then fly to Chicago and to see it laid out for the Grammys was a bit odd. She had seen the renderings and designs for her stage at the stadium so to see large tables with black tablecloths and fancy flower vases, gold chairs and screens being set up was just…strange.

It would seat over 20,000 just for her.

They did a full rehearsal of her song and then another one to tidy up some moves, and to allow the TV camera to do its blocking. The usual Bangtan Bomb camera followed the team around from the hotel to the stadium, to the changing room and out again.

When the day came, Grace stared up at the ceiling from her bed.

While she wasn’t overly bothered about the whole thing, that didn’t stop the nerves from settling in. She pressed a hand to her stomach to stop the slight wave of nausea and she let out a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting out another breath. She wasn’t sure if she was nervous because of the performance, the awards herself or the fact this was going to be a big step in her solo journey. Maybe it was pure nerves because this was something completely out of her hands and that she couldn’t control.

She let out a slight huff of annoyance and rolled out of bed, pausing to open the blinds to see L.A in its morning glory. It was already busy and Grace flicked on the TV to see what the latest reports were - the red carpet was down, reporters were already in position and celebrities were already Instagramming their breakfasts’.

“Right,” Grace paused and rubbed her face. “Shower, skin routine, hair routine and food. And then the Grammys.”

The hot water soothed out any tight muscles from stress and she washed her wavy blonde hair (recently dyed for her tour), combing through the oil she used to keep it looking fresh. Face and body cream applied, she wrapped her robe around her body and made her way out of her room.

Her parents were already there, sitting on the couch in front of the TV as they ate breakfast. They looked completely chill even with the day ahead.

“Good morning,” her mother greeted as she glanced over from the news report. “There’s buffet breakfast in the dining area if you’re feeling up to it?”

Her father placed his half-finished plate down on the coffee table and stood, giving his daughter’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “Fruit and tea would be best to start with. I bet you're feeling a little nervous?”

Grace smiled, nodding as she leaned on her Dad for a moment. “You always know and fruit and tea would be amazing, thank you.”

She joined her mother on the couch and tucked up against her side, stealing a piece of toast that she was munching on when her Dad came back with a bowl of fruit containing: grapes, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, watermelon and honeydew melon and her usual cup of tea, already with her two sugars and milk.

The Chu family quietly watched TV as they ate their breakfast, every now and then mentioning something in regards to what was happening on the screen. There were no words to be said between the three of them while time ticked away and a knock on the door came from Sejin, poking his head around the doorway.

He smiled slightly, bowing to her parents and then turned his attention to Grace.

“The stylists and makeup team are here to get you ready. Also, you have a surprise visitor.”

Eyebrows raised, Grace finished off her tea and went to put the dishes along with the others in the dining room but her father beat her to it and shooed her away. “Go, I’ll handle this.”

While some thought of her father as cool, hard to read and not very affectionate - he was very much like Yoongi. Tsundere - cool on the outside, fuzzy on the inside. Very much a strict Korean father when in public and with strangers, but an absolute chaotic fool when around other family, friends and the boys.

Slightly apprehensive as to what could be waiting for her, there was instant relief when the doors opened to the other bedroom of the suit and Bang PD stood there with the Big Hit Team. She could see it on his face: as if he was going to miss this and let her do it on her own.

“Thank god,” she muttered as she wandered over and instantly met his hug with one of her own. He had spearheaded her solo career since Dangerous Woman and it only felt right to have him with her, even if he wasn’t going to be on the red carpet. At least he would be with her and her parents during the actual award ceremony.

“You know I couldn’t miss this,” he grinned then gave her a pat on the head. “Go on, go and get ready. I’ll go and see your parents and give them a bit of a run down.”

The make up team kept the glam to a minimum but it still took over two hours to do. Her brown eyes were highlighted with bronze eyeshadow, the liner black but thin and her natural eyelashes fluffed out. While she sat there, letting them do her contour and styling her hair into a half-up, half-down ponytail; she started her vocal warmup by singing Don’t Blame Me, using the mix they would be producing for the tour.

They carefully slipped the Elie Saab designer dress over her figure, slipping on the pair of Louboutins that had been gifted to her by the designer. A pair of earrings from the boys and a bracelet from Seokjin and she was set to go.

Big Hit took a few photos of her before the event, one with Bang PD, one with Sejin, the other with her parents and then a couple of her on her own. They wouldn’t be uploaded until she was just about to walk onto the red carpet though the photo with her parents had been sent to the boys.

Various messages came in as they had been given leave by the military for this occasion, heading to Seokjin’s apartment for a private viewing party with a few close friends and plenty of alcohol. She didn’t read any of the messages, too nervous and unsettled to do anything other than to slip her hand into her father’s.

Conversations in the car went over her head and she paid little attention, only nodding here and there as her parents, Sejin and Bang PD talked about how the evening would go, where they would be sitting, and what celebrities would be attending. The crowd lining the streets was noisy and huge, though completely used to seeing the many celebrities getting out of their cars.

Her car stopped and her parents got out first with Bang PD, a member of staff leading them to the entrance straight away to avoid any press or attention though Grace could see a couple of celebrities say hello to her boss.

“You ready?” Sejin asked, pausing at the door.

Letting out a deep breath, she counted briefly to five then got out.

The noise was instant. Reporters paused in their sentence, wondering what was going on and turning to see who had arrived to cause the disturbance. Even a few celebrities paused and turned.

“Everybody, Grace Chu from BTS has arrived,” Liam McEwan turned to the camera with an excited look on his face. “The queen is here.”

There were so many people clambering for her attention as she posed for photos, smiling at the hundreds of cameras as they yelled her name. The beads and embroidery sparkled on her dress, her fingers fiddling with the belt then the dip which to her was a bit dangerously low but the reporters obviously loved.

The PR lady moved her along towards an excited looking Liam, who Grace grinned at and opened up her arms. “Liam! It’s been too long since we’ve seen you. How are you?” Fans would later comment on how typical it was of Grace and BTS to remember reporters who had been kind to them.

The two exchanged a hug, a few questions about the boys, her performance and how he couldn’t wait to see it. Grace left him to carry on down the carpet with him gushing over how lovely she was, which made seven men raise their glasses in cheers.

“Seee! Told you she could do it,” Yoongi said as he raised his glass of whiskey, not at all a bit tipsy as Jungkook reached over and filled it up for him.

“She hasn’t even gotten inside yet hyung,” Jimin laughed, already opening another bottle of champagne as if Grace had already won her three awards and had been crowned Queen of Korea.

Seokjin and Namjoon as well as Hobi, the only three who had been determined not to drink until the end, slowly sipped on their iced coffee and laughed as they watched an excited maknae open Taehyung’s bottle of wine for him.

“But she’s won everyone over! I mean, that dress is amazing on her,” Taehyung said as he stood, pushing over Jimin who spilled himself into Hobi’s lap. Obviously, a career in the military had done nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

Taehyung stood next to the large TV screen, pointing at various parts of her dress. “I mean, it’s pretty low. I wonder who signed that off but either way, she looks amazing. And look! Cleavage! No one has seen noona with cleavage yet.”

Yoongi groaned, covering his eyes. “Don’t mention Grace and cleavage in the same sentence. I’m not drunk enough yet.”

It took forever to get Grace inside the stadium as she bumped into several celebrities she knew and said hello to a few more, stopping herself from doing the traditional Korean greeting of bowing. She finally sat down next to her father who handed her a glass of water.

She was about to thank her father when Sejin and a member of the Grammy’s staff came over, to tell her that they would be coming to get her in half an hour so she could do her performance which would be the first one after the first award.

Hearing that made the nerves return and she gulped down the glass of water, letting out a deep breath. “Don’t be nervous Hea, you’re born for this and you’ve got so much experience in performing in front of a large crowd. You’ve got a bigger crowd than this next month,” her father patted her hand then turned to talk to her mother as if it was nothing.

“Thanks Dad,” she laughed but took the moment to calm herself, to watch everyone start making their way to their seats and for all the audience to get settled in the stands. So many cameras were pointing at the stage, pointing at the audience, pointing at the celebrities, pointing at an overview of the entire award ceremony.

As promised, she was whisked away to get changed in her performance outfit that had been created by Alexander McQueen’s team and adapted by the Big Hit team. The jewellery and the heels remained, as she slipped in her in-ears and took hold of her microphone.

The dancers, made up of the team of her tour dancers, were in their costumes and ready. They looked as nervous as she did and were doing mini-choreographies in the hallway, making sure they hadn’t forgotten anything.

“Okay, Grammy’s here we go,” Grace said when they crowded in a circle behind the award stage itself. “Remember, have fun, don’t worry and let’s go make history. BANG,” she finished and the dancers lifted their hands as they shouted, “TAN!”

“Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to 5-time Grammy nominated member of BTS, Grace Chu,” the loud announcement came and she could hear the applause and then cheers as the curtain lifted.

On stage was a small orchestra, dressed in dinner suits and black dresses as they played the opening of the Sound of Music’s ‘Favourite Things.’ Though her in-ears were up on the highest, the crowd was still loud. She stood there in the middle, with the lights around her blacked out so no one could see. Her fingers gripped around her microphone then relaxed, as her track came in.

Each light came on to show her standing there, in her blazer dress that was very short but presentable. Grace Chu - solo artist but a member of Bangtan Sonyeondan. By the time she got to the short rap part, the nerves and worries had gone away.

“When you see them racks, they stacked up like my ass yeah,” she sang/rapped, turning her body a little to the camera to show her hand grabbing a chunk of her backside to match the lyrics. She then fully turned to the camera, the dancers in formation on either side of her as she continued the verse, not knowing that thousands of miles away in Korea she would be causing a storm.

The song faded out to the cheers and Grace watched as the audience stood, clapping and cheering for her. It took her moment to catch her breath at the view and in gratitude, she did a full bow as the cameras turned away for the next award to be presented.

Out of breath and on a high, she turned back to the dressing rooms to find Bang PD waiting for her. “Amazing! That’s how you do it! That’s how you show them who's boss,” he yelled as he grabbed her, giving her a good squeeze that lifted her off the ground and then back down again. He was still yelling as they walked into the dressing room.

Her parents were just as excited as she returned to her seat, more relaxed now the stressful part was over. “Well done,” her father patted her on the back and handed her a new glass of water as her mother passed a napkin to help dab away some sweat she had missed.

The evening was long and the awards took forever.

She didn’t win Best Pop Solo Performance so that kind of settled her for the night. If she didn’t win any awards, it didn’t matter as she killed her performance and made herself proud, made her boss proud, made her parents proud and no doubt made the boys and ARMY proud.

“The nominees for Record of the Year are,” that sentence interrupted the conversation she was having and her mother nudged her to pay attention.

“There’s no way I’ve won,” Grace muttered but had to smile when the camera came on her when her name had been announced as a nominee, causing the ARMY in the crowd to scream.

She almost missed it.

“And the winner is,” There was a giant pause and Grace turned to her mother, about to say ‘see told you’ when “7 Rings - Grace Chu.”

“What?” she said instead, turning towards the stage with a shocked expression as her mother pretty much squealed as she jumped up in the air, followed by Bang PD and then the boys at home.

“Me?” she laughingly asked and she realised what was happening when her song was being played in the background.

“No way,” she muttered to herself as she stood, her father helping her as she made her way to the stage where her award was waiting for her. She bowed towards the presenter, to the girl who brought the award on and stood in front of the microphone.

“I nearly missed the winner being announced by not believing I would win this,” Grace said as she stared at the award and then at the crowd in front of her. “So many people to thank and I didn’t bother to write a list. To Bang PD, to PDogg, to the team at Big Hit & HYBE and to everyone who believed in me when I started this solo career. Thank you for being a big support to me and thank you to BTS, my boys back at home who pushed me to make this song. And finally to ARMY,” she paused and glanced down at the award again. “Gamsahabnida,” she thanked in Korean.

The crowd was loud as she was ushered off stage and Sejin was there to greet her, tears going down his cheeks. She realised then and only then, she had made history not only for her, for the company, for the boys, but for the future.

“Oh my god,” she laughed as she handed over the award to get engraved.

By the time she had sat down with her award, they were announcing the last award for the night. She didn’t have time to fully process what was going on when Chris Martin walked on stage with a little Grammy award in his hand.

He gave her a little smile before turning to the camera.

“And the nominees for Album of the Year are.”

There were the expected cheers for each nominee, her nomination got the most cheers which caused Chris to laugh. He opened the envelope, paused and looked up. “The winner for Album of the Year,” he turned his attention straight to Grace. “In My Head by Grace Chu, produced by Bang PD & PDogg from Big Hit Entertainment. Congratulations.”

The noise was deafening as Grace covered her face with her hands, taking a moment to try her hardest not to cry. She felt hands on her shoulders and her wrists, she heard a lot of cheering as she finally looked up and met the proud yet teary eyes of her father. Everything she had ever wanted was to make him proud. And she had done it.

She stood with Bang PD, who wiped his own eyes and she took hold of his hand as the two of them made it towards the stage. Chris Martin bowed towards her which made her smile and bow in return, the two exchanging Korean greetings before they finally hugged.

“Jin will be so proud,” he muttered into her ear and stood back to hand over the Grammy towards her, then moved to greet Bang PD.

“Never,” Grace started then felt her throat close up as she held back her emotions once again. “Never did I imagine that I would be standing on this stage again, to accept the Grammy for Album of the Year and not have my boys with me. It’s bittersweet, I won’t lie but this award is not only for me and Bang PD and Big Hit but it’s for them and for every single person who worked on this album with me. To my parents, thank you for always supporting and loving me. To my boys, I’ll see you soon and to ARMY and my man, I love you both immensely.”

She bowed deeply to the crowd as they stood and applauded, letting her have a moment before she handed the award to Bang PD and stepped to the side to let him have his speech.

Grace felt Chris’s hand on her shoulder which he gave a squeeze, grounding her in place as they all walked backstage to find her parents and the team there to greet her. It was then and only then, could finally break down in the arms of her parents.

Sejin had the boys on the phone, putting it on speakerphone as they screamed their congratulations across the line. She couldn’t get her words out as her father hugged her, holding her tight to his chest as all the worry, the nerves, the anticipation and the disappointment flooded out of her all at once.

She could go back home to Korea, to Jin, as a twice Grammy-awarded artist. And they could all be proud of Korea’s Noona.

#bts 8th member #bts additional member #bts eighth member #bts female member #bts fic #bts fanfiction

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teetle-time · 24 days ago

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We Always Imagine We'll Be Stronger If It Happens To Us, But…

Leo and his family are taking Mikey out for a night on the town to celebrate his 21st birthday.

It just kinda sucks that, for all his planning to make sure none of his family was someplace they couldn't get backup in case something went screwy, he forgot that he might be the one who wound up needing backup.

(or, i was sexually harassed a week or two ago so i'm making leo go through The Horrors so we can both get The Catharsis.)

〜

wrote that venty fic about The Horrors i've been puttering off and on about on my main since i experienced The Horrors. it's on ao3 now :) TW for harassment of what I'm like 95% positive is the sexual variety and also transphobia. luckily for leo, he is never alone.

〜

Hindsight was 20/20, and Leo had already had that particular lesson beaten into him years ago by a chewed-up-bubblegum-ass alien and a kid about his age or so who'd grown up in the apocalypse. It was all said and done, and he'd already made sure that he'd stay on his toes so nothing like that could ever happen again.

So why in the name of Pizza Supreme he was stuck in a less-than-great position, despite how he could very easily think of several points in time that he could have used to avoid said position, he had no idea.

It went something like this: he, his brothers, April, Sunita, and the Caseys had decided to hit the town. Well, the Hidden City, at least- topside NYC was still a bit jumpy about nonhumans from the invasion. They'd decided that Mikey's 21st birthday was as good an excuse as any to go explore, and if Mikey decided to dip his toes into drinking alcohol, they'd make sure nothing bad happened.

Leo could have insisted they pick a different bar in their lineup, but he didn't, and so they didn't.

Strike one.

Then they'd been distracted by a group of street performers doing a startlingly bopping a capella rendition of several songs from both human and yokai history, all melded together into a series of medleys that had Donnie tapping his feet and bouncing to the beat. Leo had offered to stick with Donnie for some of the performance, then the two of them would catch up to the others at the bar. It was just down the street, after all, and they were the family who'd kicked the Krangs' asses right back into the prison dimension. What could go wrong?

Leo could have pushed Donnie to just grab a photo of the board with the troupe's name on it for later googling, then ushered him along to the bar with the others, but he didn't.

Strike two.

Then, after the troupe's set seemed to finally be over- and wow, Leo hadn't even known some of those songs existed, let alone how fun they were to listen to- Donnie had turned to Leo and told him in no uncertain terms that "I will not be leaving until I get their autographs, Nardo." Leo had chuckled and given him a shove towards the troupe.

Leo could have gone up to join him in asking for the autographs, but it was something Donnie wanted more than Leo did, and he wanted to make sure everybody else was still at the bar down the street. The crowd that had gathered around the troupe was still there, after all, so it wasn't like he could really see the place at the moment.

So he didn't.

Strike three.

Leo was scrolling through his messages on his phone, chuckling to himself at a photo Mikey had taken of a tipsy-looking Raph blubbering over Casey Sr.'s phone with the caption "bro forgot cats existed and just found out they do 😂😂😂" and going to respond-

-and an arm fell over his shoulders as a voice he didn't recognize exclaimed boisterously, "Oh my god, there you are! My mom and I have been looking everywhere for you! C'mon, if we hurry we can get to the water fountain in time for the light show tonight!"

Leo did not flinch.

He'd made sure to train himself out of it after the failed invasion.

It didn't stop his spine from going cold as ice as he grimaced and slipped out from under the arm, turning to look at the stranger with a grin faker than he'd used in a good long while. "Sorry, bub, I think you've got the wrong turtle."

The stranger looked like a tortoise yokai, which made the earnest expression on his face come across that much more easily to Leo. An older tortoise sitting in a hovering, mystical-looking version of a power scooter watched their younger companion tiredly, but made no moves to intervene.

"No, I've got the right one! C'mon, don't you recognize the hat we agreed I'd wear?" The stranger gestured to the goofy-looking hat on his head, a pattern of cartoony rubber ducks running across the entire thing.

Leo subtly stepped back a short ways, red flags going up in his mind. "Whaaat are you talking about?"

"Oh, c'mon, you remember me!" insisted the stranger. "Rubb3rducky6969? Eddie Gates?" He lifted his arms as if to cross them in front of his chest, but he just held them parallel to each other as a mystic tattoo under his scales lit up, displaying his name along his forearms in bold, gothic lettering.

"Not ringing a bell," Leo said shortly. "Look, I'm just here for-"

"Our meetup, yeah!" Eddie smiled and nodded fervently, shifting on his feet like some kind of fully-grown schoolboy. "I've been dying to meet you, y'know, and, well, I don't wanna say anything that could get misconstrued, y'know, but you've talked so much about your womanly figure and…wow."

Steel shot through Leo's spine, and he only barely managed to keep from grinding his teeth together as he took another step back. "Dude, I'm a dude."

"Well, yeah, I mean, I guess," and ooh, if the flippant reluctance of that phrase didn't set some distant, not-already-creeped-out part of Leo's blood to boiling, "but-b-but I just…oh c'mon, you seriously don't remember me?"

"Absolutely not," Leo said without hesitation. "I'd say this has to be one of those things, like, how human society has that whole 'statistically, 7 people on the planet look exactly alike despite not being related at all' thing or however that goes, but…"

Eddie frowned thoughtfully, then smiled and nodded as if remembering, "Ohhh, right, you did mention you tend to get blackout drunk."

Thinking very much of how alcohol tasted like whatever gas stations had going on in the air around them, and thinking very much of how Splinter only ever kept a few bottles of sake in the house, which Leo had never really enjoyed the taste of, Leo scowled. "I don't drink."

"R-right, right, you don't drink often," backpedalled Eddie, though he immediately un-backpedalled with a, "but when you do, you drink a lot."

Leo shifted on the balls of his feet, reaching ever-so-slowly for his swords to portal the guy directly into the nearest yokai hospital, propriety be damned, but Eddie just kept on babbling.

"I just-! You mentioned your greatest turn-on is 'feeling rushed,' and you were insistent on it, too. All caps, the whole shebang, haha," Eddie chuckled.

Leo found himself suddenly thinking about an episode of a show Splinter had fallen asleep watching, back when he was only about nine or ten. The characters in the show used their skills in manipulation, trickery, and deception to lie tastefully to their marks and get them to reveal information about themselves- information that the main characters could then use to set right the wrongs that their marks had done.

Kid-aged Leo had imprinted on the idea of being able to tug at people's emotional states to get them where they needed to be.

Teenaged Leo had tried to do exactly that when he'd first had leadership dropped on his head, only for it to backfire in such a spectacular fashion that they'd needed time travel to avert the ensuing disaster.

Present-day Leo had the stark realization that Eddie What's-His-Nuts was trying to do exactly that to him.

This realization fled his mind almost immediately, however, because the next thing Eddie said-

"I said to myself, I said, 'Cmon, Eddie, Nardo seems like such a sweet girl-'"

The swell of ringing in Leo's ears drowned out anything else Eddie said.

Leo hadn't given this complete and total stranger any part of his name, least of all the Donnie-specific-

DONNIE!

They'd stuck together in case something happened and they needed to bail the other out, and Leo had been pretty sure Donnie would be the one in need of bailing, but-!

"I don't know you!" Leo managed, louder than he meant and stiffer than he'd thought he could be. "Don't call me th- I don't know you!"

And he spun on his heel and lurched through the crowd, making as close to a beeline for Donnie as he could manage without being able to actually see him.

"Wh-Nardo, wait-!"

But Leo just shoved through strangers with equal parts "sorry" and "I don't know him" falling from his beak, and ooooh he was hyperventilating now, that wasn't gonna be good for his unshakeable cool guy image-

"Leo?!"

Leo looked up at Donnie and the members of the troupe, frozen mid-autograph (from Donnie, funny enough- did they recognize him from someplace? Did Donnie already get their autographs?) and visibly confused, and he tried to explain what had just happened.

All that came out was more of the same "I don't know him, I don't know him" and shaky gesturing back in the vague direction of Eddie What's-His-Nuts.

And heavy breathing too quick to be healthy.

Couldn't forget that.

Donnie's expression hardened, and he gave the troupe a curt nod. "Apologies, but I believe I must cut our interaction short, gentleyokai. It was truly a pleasure-"

"Who's this, Nardo?" asked fucking Eddie from behind Leo.

Leo most definitely did not jump a foot in the air and yelp, "I don't know him!" before dashing into the space just behind Donnie.

"Oh, goddammit, Eddie, what are you doing?" groaned one of the members of the troupe, slapping a tentacle to their face as they slumped.

Donnie scowled deeply. "Yes, I believe I would like to know that as well, especially if you all do know him. Our family will also want to be informed of this incident, if it was enough to cause such a bad panic attack in my-"

"I-? You didn't say you already had someone, Nardo," interrupted Eddie, sounding hurt.

"He is my BROTHER, you cretin!" snapped Donnie.

"Wh-? No, she's got those marks on her eyes-!"

That was all Eddie got out before Donnie was up in his face, what looked like half the US Military's arsenal hovering all around them and glowing a downright furious violet. "You will leave my brother alone. You will stay away from him. If you so much as sneeze in his direction-"

-one of the spidery legs in his battle shell unfolded for just long enough to smack a sticker on the back of Eddie's neck, one in Mikey's artstyle that showed a crab puff snapping crabby claws-

"-I will know." Donnie grinned toothily. "And you don't want that. Got it?"

Eddie nodded hastily and scrambled away as fast as his legs could carry him.

"No subcutaneous tracker for him?" Leo tried to quip, though his voice was still a bit too strained to come across as completely natural, goddammit.

"Family members get the tracker," Donnie said lightly, dismissing his ninpo with a wave of his hand. "Dum-dum creeps who refuse to back down and cause immense mental distress, but who can't physically harm us, get a completely normal sticker that is definitely not sending location information to the authorities, he said convincingly."

Leo managed a disbelieving snort. "You're siccing the cops on him?"

"What? Of course not, scoff!" Donnie crossed his arms. "You remember those yokai that Raph ran into that one time we all came down here and went off to do our own things, only for all of them to blow up in our faces so Dad and Mikey had to bail us out of a place that was definitely not jail? And how they've been skirting just a little bit closer to the straight and narrow lately?"

That got a full-on wheeze out of Leo.

"I am so sorry about Eddie," said one of the higher-voiced members of the troupe. "He's always given us the creeps, but we've never actually seen him act on that whole situation until just now."

"We're absolutely firing him, right?" asked one of the basses.

"Oh, that wasn't even in question," answered someone whose voice fell a bit closer to Leo's in pitch. "Hey, Wanda, your aunt's still in the music business, right?"

The one who'd apologized for Eddie nodded. "I'll call her once we're back at the hotel." Then, to Leo and Donnie, "You dudes good to get wherever you're headed?"

Leo scrubbed at his face to loosen up the muscles trying to lock him into a rictus grin, then smiled a bit more genuinely. "I've got mystic portals, when I've got the presence of mind to use 'em. We can just portal to the others, right?" He glanced at Donnie.

"I will send them a text to ensure we have enough space to arrive, but if they don't read it, that'll be on them." Donnie grinned, this time with only the mischief of brotherly shenanigans in the expression.

"Good." Wanda nodded and started putting mostly-emptied water bottles in a backpack sitting next to her. After a moment, though, she paused and turned back to the two of them. "And, hey, I told your brother here already, and I'll tell you… my aunt was wearing a cloaking brooch in Metro Tower that day."

She didn't need to specify which day.

"She only survived because you guys fought off the Krang quickly enough that the healers were able to reverse the damage," continued Wanda. "So…thanks. And you're welcome at any of our shows, whenever, wherever. That goes for all of you, too, so tell your friends."

"More welcome than Eddie, amirite fellas?" called the bass with a sharp laugh.

Leo bit back a snicker. "Thanks. I…I kinda needed that, to be honest. After…y'know."

Wanda's face didn't really lend itself to humanoid expressions, but her posture softened all the same. "No prob. Stay safe, yeah?"

"Yeah." Leo grinned.

He and Donnie stepped closer to each other, and with barely even a flick of one sword, a portal opened beneath them-

-and they were in the bar.

Casey- both Caseys- seemed to have gotten into a drinking competition a short ways away, and April and Sunita were enthusiastically cheering them both on. At the barstools, Mikey sat and sipped from a fancy-looking drink that smelled more of fruit than anything else, and Raph seemed to be pouting in a booth off to one side.

At Leo and Donnie's arrival, though, Mikey lit up- literally, when it came to his spots, but also with normal relief on his face. "Oh, thank goodness you're here! Raph's been on stage three of turtle tipsy basically the whole time!"

"How fortuitous," said Donnie mildly, and oh son of a-

Donnie bodily picked Leo up and chucked him at Raph, yelling, "RAPHALA! HUG THIS MAN!"

"DONNIE, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON Y-!" Leo started, only cutting himself off when he landed against Raph's plastron with a grunt.

Raph perked up right away, and almost before Leo knew it, he was wrapped up in a bear hug and vibrating with the force of Raph's churring.

Vaguely, he had the impression that his and Donnie's flashy entrance had caught the others' attention, and he was pretty sure that they were gonna be asking what had happened any second now, but Raph just tucked Leo's head under his chin like they were little kids again and churred louder.

Explanations could be Future Leo's problem.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I love you guys?" Leo mumbled, the leftover tension draining out of his body at record speeds as he let himself sink into his big brother.

Raph was too far gone into this stage of turtle tipsy to respond with words, but he still shifted Leo in place until he was more secure, then smiled blissfully and started rocking Leo ever-so-slightly from side to side.

Leo felt his eyes start stinging with tears at the sheer safety of it all, but the sleep of the exhausted claimed him before he could do anything about them.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #tmnt #save rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rottmnt #save rise of the tmnt #save rise of the turtles #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt raphael #rottmnt fanfiction #tmnt fanfiction #self fic #rise #the Guy who did this irl is just lucky i'm not so gauche as to use his name in a place that shouldn't have his name.#he was gauche enough to do that to me but i'm better than him >:/#anyway watch leverage (2008). they go over SEVERAL cons + explore how conmen think in that show and it was a formative part of my childhood #so when red flags shot up in my brain wrt The Creep i was able to identify what the fuck was going on #instead of just feeling vaguely creeped out in a way that would have had me brushing it off because Surely I'm Just Overreacting Again

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driversatellite · 2 years ago

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this love | h.s | part two

synopsis: harry and y/n were in a secret relationship for years and unfortunately it had to come to an end, but a year after the split they find themselves face to face once again, maybe they can mend what was once broken.

harry styles x desi!reader

part two: harry spots a familiar face in the crowd

word count: 2.3k

series masterlist | main masterlist | last part | next part

The Love Band was excited to be playing their first night in LA, they truly loved playing at the Forum, they had a lot of fun there and because they had played there so often they had gotten comfortable there. The fans were great too, the band loved looking around the arena to see the pure happiness and joy in the crowd.

Mitch was looking around the crowd as Harry was singing the chorus to “Daylight” when he spotted a familiar face, he had to do a double take because he really thought his eyes were deceiving him. There was no way she would come and not tell anyone, Mitch glanced over to Harry to see if he had seen his ex-girlfriend in the crowd, but judging by his carefree dancing Mitch concluded that he hadn’t spotted her yet, but he knew Harry would see her, it was impossible not to, she was close to the stage and it was Y/N, he would 100% be able to spot the girl he still loved in the crowd. Mitch just hoped that Harry wouldn’t react when he spots her, because he knew that wouldn’t end well.

It was Sarah who spotted Y/N next, Harry was singing the chorus for Satellite when Sarah spotted her old friend. Sarah was shocked to see Y/N in the crowd, she knew there was a possibility of seeing her when they were in LA, but she wasn’t expecting to see her at a show. Sarah glanced over to Mitch who thankfully was already looking at her and the two shared a look, they had both spotted her. Sarah looked to Harry who was on the other side singing to the fans over there, he clearly hadn’t spotted her yet, but once he did, Sarah knew that the debrief after the show was going to be an interesting one.

Pauli was dancing around, having the time of their life when they saw Y/N, sure Pauli didn’t know her as long as Sarah and Mitch, but they did know her for bit and could pick her out from a crowd, and it was definitely Y/N who was with her friends in the pit. Pauli shot a look to Harry who was having the time of his life dancing along to the music, they were surprised that Harry hadn’t spotted her yet, it was well into the show and Harry loved looking at all the fans, but Pauli didn’t want to be the one to bring it to his attention, cause they didn’t know what would happen once Harry inevitably saw Y/N.

The dance medley had finished and even though everyone was a bit tired, they were still having the time of their lives, Harry on the other hand was feeling more energized than ever, performing was exhilarating for him. The opening chords for “Love of My Life” started and Harry smiled, he loved this song and he loved hearing the crowd sing along to it. He also loved seeing the crowd sing along, he was taking in the audience, a smile on his face, but the smile was quickly wiped away when he saw a familiar face. Harry swore he felt his heart stop, he blinked a few times, he swore he was hallucinating, because there was no way that she was actually here. He tried to not make it obvious, but he couldn’t help but stare at Y/N, she was actually here, he wasn’t going crazy, Y/N was actually in the same room as him, for the first time in almost a year.

Harry shot a quick look to the rest of the band, and from the look on his face they could tell that he had spotted what they had seen earlier. None of them knew what to do that could reassure him, they just hoped Harry held it together for the rest of the song, thankfully the encore was next, so he could have a moment away from all the eyes.

Harry really tried his hardest to not stare at Y/N, he didn’t know how much longer he could hold it together seeing her there, but he couldn’t help it, she looked amazing, she was still stunning. Harry surveyed her, he noticed that she had cut her hair and her make up was done differently than she used to, she was wearing a necklace he didn’t recognize, but she still wore the little pearl studs on her lobes that he had gifted her. He didn’t understand how she could look so familiar but so different, sure she looked fabulous but Harry could tell there was something that was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Harry’s staring wasn’t subtle and Quinn and Zoya picked up on it, they excitedly jumped up and down, grinning ear from ear.

Quinn shook Y/N with excitement, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, Harry’s looking over here.”

Y/N had been doing her best to not look at Harry so Quinn’s statement made her freeze, “What?”

Quinn pointed to the singer who still had his eyes on them, “Look he’s looking over here.”

Y/N looked up and made direct eye contact with Harry and she felt her heart fall to her stomach, this was what she was hoping would not happen. A million thoughts entered her head, the loudest one saying “I can’t do this, I need to leave”. Y/N looked everywhere but Harry, hoping he would take the hint, but when she looked back, his eyes were still on her.

She swallowed before looking back to Quinn who was clearly trying her hardest to not freak out, “Umm, I don’t think he’s looking at us, maybe he’s trying to read a sign or something.” There were plenty of people with signs, so it was plausible, that’s how she had stayed hidden so long, whenever she sensed Harry coming towards them, she would position herself behind a sign and it had worked every single time, until now.

But Quinn shook her head, “No, he’s definitely looking at us.”

Y/N was so invested in trying to convince Quinn that Harry wasn’t looking at them that she hadn’t noticed Zoya recording everything, Harry spotted the phone and gave a small smile to her and Zoya almost fell to the ground with excitement. Quinn and Zoya excitedly were looking at the video again, while Y/N still had her eyes on Harry. Harry could read Y/N like a book, and from her stance and face he knew she was annoyed, other people were starting to notice Harry staring and it was bringing more attention to her and that was the last thing she wanted. Harry got the message and moved to the other side of the stage and she let out a sigh of relief, deep down she knew that Harry would see her, but she hadn’t expected it to go that way. Thankfully for the both of them, the song was coming to an end and the band was going to take a quick break before finishing the show.

Harry couldn’t wait to leave the stage, he was still in shock, he was also on the verge of breaking down, but he knew he couldn’t, not before the show ended.

As soon as they were all down, he turned to look at the band, “Did you see?”

Mitch nodded, while Sarah said, “Yeah.”

Harry took a sip of his water before he started pacing, “I can’t believe she came, how did I not know she was coming? Why didn’t she tell me?”

“Maybe she didn’t want you to know.” Mitch suggested.

Harry let out a scoff before burying his face into his hands, “I can’t do this, I can’t go back up there and pretend everything is alright, not when y/n/n’s right there and I can’t say anything to her.”

“Invite her backstage after.” Sarah suggested.

Harry shook his head, “She’ll never agree to that, you know how she is.”

Sarah shrugged, “It doesn’t hurt to try.”

It was then when Jeff rushed over, he could tell that something was off and wanted to make sure that Harry was okay, “You good H?”

Harry just let out an exasperated sigh before plopping down on a chair and Jeff looked to the rest of the band in confusion, it was Pauli who broke the silence, “Y/N’s here.”

Jeff’s eyes widened, “Shit, really?”

All Harry could do was nod, he didn’t have the energy to think about any of this, he had a show to finish.

“She didn’t text Glenn about coming here.” Jeff murmured.

Harry’s head shot up at that, “She texts Glenn?”

Jeff nodded, “Yeah, you know they’re friends.”

“I know, I just didn’t know that they texted regularly still.” Harry said. He knew that Y/N had occasionally texted his friends, wishing them happy birthday or congratulating them on things, but he was surprised to hear that she still texted Glenn regularly, especially cause she knew how close Harry and Glenn were. But then again Harry knew how close Y/N and Glenn were, Glenn was the reason that the couple had met in the first place and it was unfair of Harry to think that Glenn would stop being friends with her because of their break up.

“I mean they’re really good friends H, she still comes over sometimes and Glenn took her out to dinner for her birthday a couple weeks ago.” Jeff stated.

Sarah glanced at the digital clock that was their timer and saw that their time was running out, they needed to figure out a solution before then, they needed to figure out if Harry would even be able to finish the show, “Okay we can discuss that later, we need to figure out what to do, what do you want to do H, it’s up to you?”

Harry glanced at the timer, he knew he was running out of time and had to make a decision fast, “I’ll finish the show, I can’t not finish the show. And after the show I’ll ask her to come backstage to talk.”

Jeff looked to his best friend apprehensively, “Are you sure you want to do that tonight? You don’t want to wait?”

Harry nodded, “If I don’t do it tonight, I won’t do it anytime soon, I need to do this tonight.”

The band and Jeff shared a look, they weren’t sure that either party were ready to have this conversation, but it wasn’t their decision to make.

“Whatever you decide, we’ll support you H.” Mitch said, patting his friend on the back.

“Thanks guys,” Harry smiled, and then looked to Jeff, “Get her a pass that will be ready for right after the show and right after I get off stage I’ll text her, hopefully she won’t leave before then.”

Jeff nodded, “I’ll get the pass ready and I can try and stall the doors opening to buy you a little time, it won’t be a lot, but just to delay them leaving for a few minutes.”

“Okay, well, let’s finish the show strong.” Harry said and the band nodded and sent encouraging looks to him, they knew this was hard for him, but he was being a trooper.

Right as Harry got back on stage Y/N could tell he was off, he was rigid and his jaw was tense, this was exactly what she was worried about. She didn’t want to be the reason that the people who came to the show got a sour Harry. Nonetheless she tried her best to ignore that and just enjoy the last few songs, the opening chords of “Sign of the Times” had started and Y/N could feel the tears coming. The song had always been one of her favorites and it never failed to make her cry, especially when Harry sang it live. She willed herself to keep the tears at bay, she had already sobbed to “Matilda” earlier and now that she knew that Harry knew that she was here, she was even more on edge, anything would send her spiraling. But as soon as he got to the bridge all her willpower was gone and the tears rushed down her face, she was truly a mess. Zoya wrapped her arm around her friend and pulled her close, she knew that the song did bring out the ugly cry in people, but she didn’t expect Y/N to be this affected.

Harry was also teary eyed as he sang, there were so many different emotions hitting him all at the same time, he knew it would be a bad idea to look at Y/N, but he couldn’t help himself, he snuck a glance to where he knew she was standing and saw her sobbing into her friend’s shoulder. He didn’t expect her tears to hurt him as much as they did, he didn’t know what specifically had turned her into a sobbing mess, because before the encore all she looked was agitated. He knew that the song did make her cry, every time he sang it she would shed tears, but never this much. He was starting to backtrack, maybe he wasn’t ready to speak to her, but then he looked at her again, she had stopped sobbing, but there were still some tears falling down her face and she was trying to wipe the tears off, and Harry knew all he wanted to do in that moment was be the one who was wiping her tears away.

With the motivation to talk to Y/N, Harry finished off the set strong, once Kiwi ended he zoomed off the stage and to backstage where he knew Jeff would be waiting for him with his phone and true that Jeff was stood with Harry’s phone and a backstage pass in hand. Harry grabbed his phone and wrote a short text to her.

h: hi, come and meet me backstage please, we need to talk

---

#Harry Styles #harry styles x you #harry styles x reader #harry styles x desi reader #hs #hslot #hslot la #harry x reader #harry #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #exes to lovers #this love series

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yvesdot · 3 months ago

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Well, this is new! I watched the entire VMAs (just about) for the first time ever, and here is my official writeup—less so for Dots (certainly not a public-facing project), more for all my friends I want to gossip with. Here’s everything I’m going to be talking about for the next few days that happened at the VMAs, with helpful links to all the available clips.

Before anything happened, Kendrick released a new song on Instagram. This immediately trended alongside the VMAs for the rest of the night.

Chappell Roan snapped at a photographer on the red carpet. It’s still frankly unclear to me what happened—in the video I’ve seen passed around, you hear a voice in the background say “shut the fuck up,” to which Chappell turns and retorts, “you shut the fuck up!” When they apparently protest, she shuts them down, saying, “not me, bitch!” It’s unclear whether the photographer in question was originally talking to her, or to another photographer, and also whether she was accusing him of saying anything to her. I’m not personally invested in finding out more.

Eminem opened by performing “Houdini” and “Someone Save Me;” I showed up halfway through with the volume on mute and had no idea why that man was wearing the world’s worst blonde wig. I do think the obvious visual reference to his original VMAs “Slim Shady” performance is genuinely cute. It is unbelievable he still rapped the “If I was to ask for Megan Thee Stallion if she would collab with me / Would I really have a shot at a feat [shot at her feet]?” lines with Megan Thee Stallion hosting.

Megan was adorable and an excellent host. She is so funny, so genuine, so easy to watch and so good at balancing being personable and competent. Honestly, she and Chappell gave some very similar energy tonight and it made me wonder if they know each other (I am not very aware of Chappell things—yet!) She was also, naturally, exceptionally well-dressed. The crowd absolutely loved her.

Taylor immediately won the “Best Collaboration” award for Fornite with Post Malone, which began a streak of 7 awards won that night, mostly for that one song, despite the fact that her latest album has been one of her worst-received by fans and critics alike. (This is not a comment on whether the songs on the album are good or not, just on the relative success in comparison with her past work and the reception of other projects nominated. It’s surprising.) Her seven awards were the aforementioned Best Collaboration, Song of Summer, Best Pop, Artist of the Year, Best Direction, Best Editing, and Video of the Year at the end of the night. This ties her with Beyonce for most VMAs ever won. She also claims a number of other records, but I am not going to list all that.

I will tell you that she opened this acceptance speech with “Waking up this morning in New York on September 11th, I’ve just been thinking about what happened 23 years ago; everyone who lost a loved one and everyone that we lost. That is the most important thing about today and everything that happens tonight falls behind that,” and then continued as if this had been a normal thing to say and/or she had not said it.

I’m still frustrated at the timing of her endorsement of Harris coincidentally last night. It feels too obviously set up to quell rising fan anger and ensure every award she won would be “untainted” by people’s criticisms of her.

Megan recreated the iconic Britney-with-a-snake look.

Sabrina Carpenter performed a lovely medley. She opened singing “Please Please Please” (with the “motherfucker!”) on a swing, descended to a couple of audio clips including the iconic Britney line about Titanic from her “Oops! I Did it Again” music video, performed “Taste” with an astronaut and an alien (she did kiss the femalien, though Britney Spears (!) commented she ought to have kissed a girl), and transitioned into “Espresso” with a few dozen astronaut backup dancers. I loved her outfit and especially the lipstick mark on her thigh (!!?!!), and I have to give her credit for doing this insane performance setup in front of both Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, about whom “Taste” was allegedly written.

Katy Perry accepted the previously-announced Video Vanguard Award and performed a medley of tracks—in order, “Dark Horse,” “E.T.,” new track “I’m His, He’s Mine” featuring Doechii, “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “I Kissed a Girl” (rock version), “Firework,” and “Lifetimes.” You may notice that “Woman’s World” was nowhere on this list. Also, during their performance of “I’m His, He’s Mine,” Katy and Doechii scissored in a possible reference to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s 2021 Grammys performance of W.A.P., and MTV cut directly to Orlando Bloom in a likely reference to the Britney/Madonna/Christina VMAs kiss where they cut to Justin Timberlake.

In my opinion, it was a great performance from the choice of tracks to the aesthetic(s) to her voice. She clearly still has it! However, people audibly booed when her name was announced and several times as she gave her speech, which, side note, opened with ““I did that all too on the first day of my period, if you can believe it!” It didn’t help that she chose to—well, look, here’s the whole thing, bold by me.

Can you believe it? Thank you so much to MTV for believing in my weirdness from day one and for helping artists extend their worlds beyond a song. There are so many things that have to align to have a long and successful career as an artist. There are no decade-long accidents. (a long, meaningful pause, during which people booed) So I would like to acknowledge a few people: my team who have been with me for over 20 years, direct management, and my label Capitol Records.

Trust me, it takes a village of strong people, a lot of healthy discourse, and a lot of group chats. My parents and my family, the deepest roots I know. We don’t always agree, but what a lesson that those disagreements can still be full of love. Thank you to MySpace, Warped Tour, and all the bygone places where I found a voice, identity, and a community so early on. Thank you to the friends that were there when my Jetta was repossessed. My Katy Cats: You stood by me for a lifetime, and the LGBTQ community who I recognize I would not be here without and who show me that you can be both kind and [bleeped out—”cunt”?]. Thank you to Orlando for keeping me grounded, celebrated, and doing the dishes. And lastly for my Daisy [her daughter], the only flowers I’ll ever need.

I’m excited when I look around music today, and I see all the amazing young artists who are operating with confidence, agency, vulnerability and authenticity. I’ve heard a lot of “Do this, don’t say that, wear less, wear more now. Hey, don’t cut your hair.” One of the biggest reasons I’m standing here right now is I learned how to block out all the noise that every single artist in this industry has to constantly fight against, especially women. I just wanna say with my whole heart, do whatever it takes to stay true to yourself and true to your art. Turn off social media, safeguard your mental health, pause, touch grass. And do what you were born to do just like I was born to do this. 143 comes out September 20. I love you!

I probably don’t need to say it, but I find it incredibly upsetting and disappointing that she would frame the criticism of her, which has centered almost entirely on her working with Dr. Luke, someone whom numerous women have accused of being misogynist and generally abusive, as “noise that women artists have to deal with.”

Also, I don’t have video proof of this, but they played a truly bizarre intro to the award where they called her “the queen of camp” and said “she’s a mother and she IS mother” and I don’t know what to do about that. They did play the world’s briefest audio snippet of “Woman’s World” during that.

Chappell Roan performed “Good Luck Babe” and nothing else, which nonetheless seemed to quiet upset fans whose shows were canceled with little notice last week due to the “scheduling conflict” of Chappell deciding to do the VMAs. I wish the mixing had been better; I could barely hear her voice! But the aesthetic was lovely (very Dorian Electra “Man to Man”) and the set was extremely well-used. She definitely seems unused to performing in this more regimented style, but there’s an infinite amount of time for her to either get comfortable with it or adapt it more to her usual performance method of running all over the stage.

Tyla won Best Afrobeats for “Water,” obviously. Lil Nas X (presenting the award with Halle) could be heard saying “But we already knew, though, right?” as she approached the stage. She gave the world’s most diplomatic speech which acknowledged that African music is (obviously) more diverse than the label “Afrobeats.”

Megan delivered an incredible medley performance: “BOA,” a sample of “Wanna Be,” “B.A.S,” a sample of “RATTLE,” “HISS,” and “MAMUSHI”—with a surprise appearance by featured artist Yuki Chiba, in a cool hat! And may I just say, for all-around stage presence, choreography, vocals, delivery, everything, Megan stole the show 100%. And that’s with all the ridiculous censoring she had to do! If you are not into Megan, you need to be, now. She is the moment.

Benson Boone did a flip (1:29) while performing “Beautiful Things,” a song I found myself hearing for the second time ever. It is apparently the song of the summer to many people. That’s cool! I genuinely had never heard it in my life before this week. He’s clearly an exceptionally talented performer, so let’s see where he goes.

Sabrina Carpenter won “Song of the Year” for “Espresso” and seemed genuinely shocked, somehow.

Halsey did an absolutely gorgeous performance of “Ego,” a song I hadn’t heard before but found myself liking. I should get into Halsey!

Camila, the other half (?) of the Camila-Shawn-Sabrina love triangle, with an album which underperformed (especially in comparison to Sabrina’s), faked out the audience (including her ex and his sometime-other-girl!) by pretending to play “June Gloom,” the closer from the standard edition of the album about why he runs back to her if he really likes Sabrina so much, and then cutting the recording off to actually sing “GODSPEED,” the closer off the deluxe version—and the latest single, dropped only last week. Apparently it’s the first track she wrote for this era, after a breakup with an entirely different ex. Point being, I give her a lot of props for just how much that moment rocked.

I suppose as a professional I ought to say all this is only allegedly what the songs are about. But, you know, we know.

You know Glorilla rocked the house down. Having seen her in SF, I could tell just how much she’d improved since then, not just in her performing skills generally but in her confidence. You go, Glo.

Chappell Roan won “Best New Artist” in a moment everyone saw coming a mile away and read her acceptance speech from her diary. She’s so cute!

Video of the Year went to Taylor and she shouted out “my boyfriend, Travis Kelce,” in her speech. This is not news, but people screamed like it was? She also told people to vote. None of this is really important to me but you need to know that I went to r/GaylorSwift again after several months’ abstention as a result of the way people were talking about it. People chanted Taylor’s name. Also, Megan initially opened the little card upside down, which was adorable.

Best performances of the night: Katy Perry, Megan Thee Stallion, and Halsey.

Most deserved wins of the night:

Chappell Roan (Best New Artist)

“Espresso” (Song of the Year)

“Water” (Best Afrobeats)

“Mamushi” (Best Trending Video, though any pick might have been good)

“BOA” (Best Art Direction)

Biggest snubs of the night:

“Not Like Us” (Song of Summer, “Fortnight”)

“Paparazzi” (VMAs Most Iconic Performance, “Roar” — a case where any other pick would have been better)

Sabrina Carpenter (Artist of the Year, Taylor Swift)

Glorilla & Megan Thee Stallion’s “Wanna Be” (Best Collaboration, “Fortnight”)

Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter (Best Pop, Taylor Swift)

“Too Sweet” (Best Alternative, “Beautiful Things”)

“Von dutch” (Best Cinematography, “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)”)

“Rush” by Troye Sivan and “greedy” by Tate Mcrae (Best Choreography, “Houdini”)

Additionally, “Espresso” was not nominated for Song of Summer (“Please Please Please” was), and Britney’s “Slave 4 U” was not nominated for VMAs Most Iconic Performance.

Here’s the full list of nominations and wins.

Here’s my compilation of favorite outfits. Katy Perry wore a QR code tramp stamp which led to preorders for her album.

Other thoughts:

LISA and Anitta and Rauw Alejandro’s performances were also great! I don’t know that this was the best intro to their songs (my stream was not excellent quality) but I’m glad I stuck around!

Ads for HIV medication and Kamala Harris played throughout the night. There was one ad of Camila’s “I LUV IT” playing while she did insane things and drank Bacardi that almost made me dislike the song.

Charli not being anywhere near this event was criminal. I know she has the Sweat tour to rehearse for (I’m going to see her! AHHHH!!!!) but I really felt her absence. People also expected Taylor and Ariana to perform, and neither of them did—Ariana wasn’t even present! Lady Gaga wasn’t, either, which is a possible reason “Paparazzi” didn’t win Most Iconic VMAs Performance; apparently the VMAs prefer to give awards to artists who are present so they can give a live speech. Meanwhile, they gave Artist of the Year to Taylor Swift for the second year in a row and didn’t air it because she was walking in and out. Make of that what you will.

I successfully predicted the results of 5 awards (Best New Artist: Chappell Roan, Best Afrobeats: Tyla, Best Direction: Fortnight, Best Editing: Fortnight, and Video of the Year: Fortnight). Next year I might just start gambling and put it all on TSwift; it seems an easy victory.

Let me know if you want more of this sort of thing! I've done it for presidential debates in the past, too, though that was Patreon-exclusive. Heck, if I wasn't on hiatus, this might have been, too ^__^

#txt #vmas #2024 vmas

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haljathefangirlcat · 11 months ago

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so I didn't watch the rest of the finale last night because at one point my sister got bored and was like "hey, wanna rewatch Hazbin Hotel instead"... and tbh I'd rather listen to any song from that show in either the original or the Italian dub on loop than listen to most of this year's Sanremo songs even once more (cover night excluded, I actually enjoyed a good number of those performances)

anyway I can't wait for the preemptive "I don't hate people from South Italy ignore all my jokes about all of them being criminals, pls but big strong fanbases tuning in to vote for their musical blorbo is CLEARLY something unprecedented that no one could have EVER predicted" to suddenly turn into "OMG CLEARLY THAT BITCH ONLY WON BECAUSE SHE'S A NEPO BABY"* because we collectively just kinda suck like that

that said, I'll probably try and watch at least Roberto Bolle's guest appearance because of, uh, totally not shallow reasons (and also because I hear Ciuri flirted with him? right in front of Ama's salad?? but then they canonized the ship's portmanteau and sang a song about it??? right in front of Giovanna's... no, okay, Giovanna's probably used to it by now)

*no, I didn't like Geolier's song. I didn't even find his cover medley particularly memorable on a night when I liked almost everyone else. and yes, the audience in Sanremo has always booed anyone they wanted to their heart's content. it's the discussion around what happened that irks me... as well as a supposed professional being all like "hey aren't you ashamed of being thieving filth" at a 23yo at his first Sanremo appearance who, what a coincidence!, comes from Naples and was singing in Neapolitan after endless "why can't you just sing in Italian" and "Neapolitan isn't an Italian dialect, it's some weird unintelligible alien tongue" bs. For whatever's worth, I think Angelina's a good singer but I didn't really think much of her song, either, tho I did find her cover both really moving and really beautiful

#sanremo #sanremo 2024

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hooked-on-elvis · 11 months ago

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"Blue Moon" (not specially from Kentucky)

"Blue Moon" is a song first release in 1934, written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and has become a standard ballad. Early recordings included those by Connee Boswell and by Al Bowlly in 1935. The song was a hit twice in 1949, with successful recordings in the U.S. by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé. — Wikipedia

— "Blue Moon" by Connee Boswell (1935)

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This ballad was recorded and performed by many artists over the years including Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, The Platters, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald and many others, including our dear Elvis Presley.

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The first time I ever heard a bit of the song "Blue Moon" tho, was performed by actress Rebecca Lee Meza who played young Selena Quintanilla in the movie about the Mexican-American star, "Selena" released in 1997 — *Talk about Jennifer Lopez in that role! She's stunning and so lovely!* — I love that movie beyond words because it's a childhood memory I hold dear, watching this movie with my mom and sister, and I also got to know what Selena Quintanilla meant (who sadly was murdered the very year and month I was born, March 1995. I was just a few weeks old.). Later in life, when I was old enough to make my own choices, I got to learn and appreciate Selena's real self, her songs, admiring her career, her beauty, her talent and charisma, and that I do 'til this very day. The movie did great in portraying her life, but then... the song became something more to me — I'll get there but I wanted to share the the videos and other version of "Blue Moon".

— Oldies Medley: "Blue Moon/We Belong Together" from "Selena" movie (1997)

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I didn't find a recorded version with Selena's real vocals, but The Vidal Brothers recorded the song which was featured in the opening credits in "Selena" (1997 movie). The song Selena used to sing as a child was an arragement by Abraham Quintanilla, Selena's father and manager. He performed the song when he was a member of the male group "The Dinos" in the 60s. He then passed it to Selena and her siblings, "Los Dinõs", who used it in home rehearsals, as the movie "Selena" (1995) shows (the scene above).

Abraham Quintanilla about The Vidal Brother's version below:

"This are the Vidal brothers from Kingsville texas, I brought them to Q productions Recording Studios taught them the kind of harmonies we used to do (The Dinos) they done an excellent job and we used their singing for the beginning of the SELENA movie, the song is a cover song that we The Dinos sang back in 1965." — Mr. Abraham Quintanilla, Selena's father. His comment is from 9 years ago, as he left it on this Youtube video with that song.

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"Blue Moon" by The Vidal Brothers.

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As I said, "Blue Moon" was a familiar tune to me, which I already appreciated but I just had listened so far to the versions featured on the "Selena" movie. And then just a year ago or so, was the first time I heard Elvis singing that song (man, it happened a few times, listening to Elvis singing songs I knew previously from other artists) and my jaw dropped.

It did hit me home listening to my newfound favorite artist singing a song so dear to me.

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"Blue Moon" by Elvis Presley, recorded at Sun Studio on August 19, 1954.

The song was released as single by RCA Victor in 1956 and then featured on Elvis' first LP "Elvis Presley" (1956). The tune gained its rightful place when released on "Elvis: Sunrise" (1999), a compilation album of Elvis Presley's SUN recordings and again on the album "A Boy from Tupelo: The Complete 1953 to 1955 Recordings" (2012).

Sun Records never released Elvis' version on Sun Records. It was among the unused Presley recordings turned over to RCA when it purchased Elvis’ contract in late 1955. It was released, along with three other discarded Sun cuts, on Presley’s first RCA album in March 1956. In September that year, RCA released Blue Moon as a single backed with another Sun recording, Just Because, as part of a mass singles release. It soon became apparent that of the seven singles, Blue Moon/Just Because was selling the best. In its September 22 issue, Billboard listed that single in both its “Coming Up Strong” and “This Week’s Best Buys” lists. “This disk, with emphasis on ‘Blue Moon,’ is stepping out and starting to move,” Billboard reported. Source: elvis-history-blog.com

Some may like Elvis' version, some not, but to me this is an all-time favorite song and Elvis Presley's version is one I'll forever cherish. In spite the sadness in the lyrics, it's a beautiful, loving ballad, and I love his voice on it.

♥

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JUST TO MENTION something I find cool about Selena and Elvis, both artists I high appreciate:

ELVIS AND SELENA AT THE HOUSTON ASTRODOME, HOUSTON, TX [1970/1995]

Selena had a great splendid moment in her career performing at one of the same venues as Elvis, coincidentally the same month even (not the same year tho), a place where he also had one of the greatest moments of his career: The Houston Astrodome, Houston, Texas.

Selena performed there on February 26, 1995. While Elvis was much earlier (and a few times after his first performance there) on February 27, 1970.

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Selena - "Como La Flor" at the Houston Astrodome, Houston, TX, on February 26, 1995.

Elvis at the Houston Astrodome, Houston, TX, on February 27, 1970.

In 1970, on February 27, 28 and March 1, Elvis Presley performed six times at the Houston Astrodome, setting a new attendance record - around 180,000 people attended.

#elvis presley #elvis #elvis the king #selena #selena quintanillla #selena and los dinos #houston astrodome #blue moon #Youtube #elvis fans #elvis fandom #selena quintanilla perez

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miashyperfixations · 1 month ago

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MTV European Music Awards 2024

10.11.2024 @ The Co-op Live Arena, Manchester (23,500 Capacity)

Written Nov 2024

Earlier this month, I was able to go and watch the MTV EMAs live for free through my university. This was an experience I never would have imagined happening to me ever, so doing it so early into my career journey was so exciting.

Being admitted into the venue almost 2 hours before the start time, I was able to fully take in how much effort and logistics truly goes into live broadcasting. It was so fun and interesting to be part of a live broadcast event as an attendee with an eye for these kinds of things. We were also able to see stage setups going up and down from where we were and it was truly fascinating to be able to watch the absolute military operation that was the stage switchovers in between acts whilst the cameras focused on the presenter or other aspects. Le Sserafim’s setupalone was a mission, with a whole extra 3-tier step pyramid stage being put together piece-by-piece on the middle stage, for a full production alongside backup dancers.

As MTV Superfans, we were treated with a side-stage view in the back half of the arena, meaning we were directly across from the celebrity seating area with the centre ‘H’ stage in between us, whilst still having a pretty great view of the main performance stage at the end of the arena. Seeing so many amazing acts in one night was unreal. Benson Boone opened up the show from his floating piano and went on to win the first award of the night (Best New Artist). ‘The Warning’ live was an absolute dream come true, and those pyrotechnics? Amazing. RAYE was a complete powerhouse with her orchestral medley of ‘Escapism’, ‘Oscar Winning Tears’ and ‘Body Dysmorphia’ with a choir backing her. I was blown away. She was definitely the highlight of the night for me. Other performers included Teddy Swims, MTV Global Icon Award-Winner Busta Rhymes, THe Pet Shop Boys, & Shawn Mendes

This experience gave me a lot to consider when it comes to my future career. The multitude of job roles involved in a production like this is endless, and certainly gave me a lot to think about when it comes to deciding what route to go.

#music #music producer #music production #concert #live music #taylor swift #mtv #mtv ema #mtv europe music awards #manchester #co-op live #awards show

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acaplaya-musings · 9 months ago

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Voiceplay Visuals: In The Air Tonight

Now this is a song that many people know, at least partially! Even if the name doesn't ring a bell for you, you almost definitely know the part that some people call "one of the most iconic drumlines in music", so really it's no surprise that this was an arrangement from The Human Drumkit himself, Mr Layne Stein! Voiceplay's cover of In The Air Tonight premiered on YouTube on the 17th of June, 2023, and features J None, back again! I will of course say more about the video when we actually get into it, so let's go!

Apparently the style/aesthetics of this video plays homage to a classic 80s cop show called Miami Vice, which used the song "In The Air Tonight" in its pilot episode, in a scene which (so I've heard) has been referred to by some as one of the most iconic in the history of television.

(Also the car belongs to Layne's dad, and likely would have been sitting in the garage since the early days of 4:2:Five, at least)

J looking very cool and fresh in that red blazer! (Reminds me of the Walk Like A Man section of the Boy Band Medley!)

Geoff is, once again, the only bare-shouldered/sleeveless one of the group! (A back-to-back occurrence if you don't count the Peaches video!) (Also peep the necklace!)

A cool audiovisual effect thing to transition into the "modern-day" filming style!

Cesar is vibing, and Eli is back at it again with the unworn-sunglasses-as-accessory!

Cool necklace! And he's got earrings, too!

I won't lie, this may be one of my favourite Geoff Looks of 2023. It's not even anything particular about the outfit, he just looks so pretty in this one! (And his hair is looking very nice here, too 👀😁)

"Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand"

Of course I had to acknowledge Cesar's powerful side-eye here! Like seriously, if anyone ever asks you what a side-eye is, just show them this moment! 👌

Group shot!

I believe I read a comment somewhere saying this was filmed outside PattyCake Productions or something, like outdoors? And apparently it was a bit warm outside, especially with the lighting rigs, but if they were sweating/partially melting at all during this, you really can't tell! They did great!

(And shoutout to both Layne and Tony for set design and direction!)

Cesar never fails to put his whole self into his performances, and I love it every time

Voiceplay love adding brief little moments like this into their videos sometimes, just to keep things interesting and/or keep viewers on their toes 😄

Get it, Layne! Go off!

I wanna post screencaps from Geoff's little vocal solo and/or Layne's epic drumline-recreation immediately after, but still images don't do either justice! Go (re)watch it yourself!

"I been waiting for this moment, for ALL my liiife!"

The retro filming style/aesthetic is back! Happening so quickly and smoothly that you would be forgiven if you didn't immediately pick up on it! (*cough*)

Sure, why not?

"Well I been waiting for this moment, for all my life, oh loooooo o r r r d d"

(Pretty Boy!!!!!)

J None is freaking amazing, and I really hope he becomes a permanent Voiceplay member again someday; both he and Cesar are fantastice vocalists and performers, and they both have vocal ranges wide enough that they can both easily take the role of baritone and/or tenor!

In my opinion, the original song does not really start getting interesting until the "bass drop" drumline like 3 minutes into the song, but Voiceplay's cover is not even close to dull for a single moment! We get incredible vocals from everyone in this one (and I didn't talk about Eli much at all here, but vocally he was of course phenomenal), and the arrangement has a fair few complexities and interesting stuff to it, like the stomp-clap-click percussion moment which I still struggle to actually keep in time/on beat with! Definitely a very strong cover from Voiceplay, and frankly it's a crime that it "only" has 500k views on YouTube! It deserves a million! At least!

#voiceplay #acapella #In the air tonight #geoff castellucci #eli jacobson #layne stein #cesar de la rosa #j none #acaplaya analysis #voiceplay visuals

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kelsxaballerini · 1 year ago

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Kelsea Ballerini performing at HFRP Music Festival | 26.8.23 | London, England.

@hollywoodfamerp @djokeerv

SET LIST

SUBJECT TO CHANGE

HEARTFIRST

'Well, hello, London! Are y'all having a good time tonight? I am Kelsea Ballerini and I am so excited to here with y'all. Let's get a little country up in here, right? We are all here to have a good time so yell, sing, jump, dance, I want to see it all.'

LOVE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT/DIBS/YEAH BOY MEDLEY

INTERLUDE (FULL LENGTH)

BLINDSIDED (YEAH SURE OKAY)

'So, there has been a lot of life happening lately. But thanks to y'all, I am feeling better that ever before. You made the EP happen. I am so thankful. But I need to shout out someone who has made things even better. I think things are going to get a little stranger up here. Please welcome, Joe Keery!'

HOW DO I DO THIS

LOVE IS A COWBOY (Acoustic, feat Joe Keery on guitar)

'Now, as fun as it was to have my man up here. This one goes out to all the friends in the crowd tonight. You get to have fun, get as unhinged as we can with your ride or die! Can you do that for me, London?'

IF YOU GO DOWN (I'M GOING DOWN TOO)

'If you know... you know.'

PENTHOUSE (HEALED VERSION)

'Thank you, London. You have been amazing! Please, close your eyes, sing this one loud with me and remember, that no matter what any one else says you are doing your best and no one can take that away from you!'

DOIN' MY BEST

#hollywoodfameevent #hfrpmusicfestival

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unproduciblesmackdown · 2 years ago

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Hi there! I found your blog through your Joe Iconis posts, especially the ones for the Christmas extravaganza and I saw you sharing lore about it. Could I maybe inquire more about Mr. Macabee? Love all the clips of him, but I never quiet got his role and I wanna know more. (Also if you don‘t do that anymore, that‘s absolutely fine, have a nice day!)

oh it's excellent to get asks about posts that are at that ideal nexus of Very Specific (and probably niche enough that there's not the broadest pool of ppl it's already relevant to) and Especially Enthused, thank you! even if my response to such asks is a [shrug] in 500k words, it's fun, and hopefully there's any reward for having asked lol

here, unfortunately, it's Not an alignment of "enthusiastic nicheposting" and "my being someone who's ever actually seen the christmas extravaganza" lol....but somewhat extensive digging for posts about it does end up yielding some patterns / more of a sense of some things. but by no means do i even get the idea i know about like, the majority of the show, and all i know is secondhand and with plenty of just like, my inferences / how i understand/piece things together

i think the most Direct Commentary from people in the know is that, no new info here really, the precise phrasing "the old-timey barkeep" is used often enough across various sources that i think he Must be somehow introduced/described using those words in the show itself lol. and then there was the surprise moment in a relatively recent interview w/will roland where it's like, ooh getting more information about also elusively lore'd character jimmy armstrong? then on the edge of my seat about his saying his Interpretation involved building on a prior role of his, and absolutely not expecting him saying it was mister macabee, but delighted by it lol. and his describing mister macabee as sort of the spirit guide of the christmas show is maybe the one specific description of mister macabee which is from outside the show that i know of. certainly illuminating as a kind of reference point for all his material, i think

like, i know that the Plot in the christmas extravaganza is one where like, the whole event Exists as a show within its own show, with joe iconis as a character, and the audience, and then lots of other entirely constructed characters but also actors/performers sometimes showing up as Themselves(tm) in an at all humorously fictionalized kind of way, same as joe....so, i think mister macabee is Ostensibly a feature of [wherever the show is being held], like, he's "really" keeping a bar out here, supposedly the same as joe is really putting on this show and the audience is really attending it. and then i imagine he Just So Happens (Or Does He??? what if it's a magical christmas alignment. re: his being a Guide who's somewhat Outside the rest of what's happening, but intervening with a purpose) to keep helping the show along lol.

definitely know he does get involved with the show at various points, and seems to be one of the roles who is Always Around, off to the side or wandering around as the cast will do, or at least around often enough that the actor doesn't play multiple roles in any given show where they're mister macabee. like, he famously takes over the "here comes santa claus (super sexy edition)" sequence, will always be summoned by mister chestnut into his titular christmas medley, despite mister macabee not even knowing the lyrics (he does), being involved in the hard candy christmas sequence as well....with an unshakeable earnestness & self-assurance that he passes along to others and makes it so that, even only knowing so much about the role, i would pull his picture out of my wallet like "mister macabee what should i do" in any given situation. guiding continues

(also, it does Not clarify things, but that there's also this like, alternate? copy? evil (probably not)? mister macabee role played by some other actor, seems to be a pretty minor part though.)

so, what i know about mister macabee's role is: a bartender at whatever establishment is hosting the xmas show, a prominent part that's around too consistently for the actor to play other parts, sure seems to actively be always Helping the xmas show proceed via various manners of participation in it, a funny little christmas extravaganza friend who knows what he's all about.

#joe iconis christmas extravaganza #only know so much about mister macabee but truly like any time of year: what would he do....#the Morale Boost / Moral Support Zone In My Mind is definitely barkept by him lmao like well of course. polishing a glass in there #thanks again for sending the niche ask; very enriching #definitely get some joe iconis posting around here even if i'm not a pro. inevitably comes w/the [going ''huh who's This'' re: will roland]#uncoincidentally wearing a t shirt like ''will kill for more will roland mister macabee material'' w/''i invite all mister macabee material #in general'' on the back. like i don't really have that tee but maybe i will....maybe i will

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just-wublrful · 8 months ago

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8 and 12!

8. ever been in a theatrical production?

Yes, actually! All school related ones but still :]

If I recall it was Oliver the Musical, Aladdin (stage play), Hairspray the Musical, this improv show I cannot the life of me remember the name of, a medley of various theatrical productions (specifically the Matilda the Musical sections), and another one that we unfortunately never got to perform onstage due to the Covid lockdown happening at that moment (still a crazy experience. We ended up filming music videos that you can actually find online HELP) but yeah I miss being in productions :]

It actually inspired one of my WIPs which was in part tribute to that and my enjoyment of Shakespeare, so yeah

12. what's your favourite form of the arts? (visual/performance/etc. all of them)

Uhh sequential art! Comics! They're like. My favorite blending of narrative storytelling/writing and the visual arts and I want to make my own someday :]

#asks #THANK YOU RADS!#ur awesome!!

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corner-stories · 8 months ago

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dancing around on knife shoes

Mikasa Ackerman. Sasha Braus. Ice Dance. Post-Competition Victories. Photographs. Figure Skating AU. 1364 words. (ao3.)

The high of the season’s final competition is still buzzing in her veins, even when it’s been days since she and Jean arrived home from Tallinn. But it’s a manageable kind of buzz — a sensation that puts a spring in her step, yet never grows strong enough to risk clouding her judgment. It’s something that allows her to breathe, even just for a moment, knowing full well that the emotional and physical turmoil of the last few months had led to something.

Mikasa’s heard about athletes who have fallen into despair after a major achievement, usually in the form of a mourning period during the loss of such a high. Yet as she heads to her usual cafe on her way to the rink, as she sips black coffee while traversing the sidewalk in the early sun of spring, she feels neutral. Maybe a bit happier than usual, but all in all it feels like a normal day.

When she crosses the parking lot of the skating club she sees Sasha. Just like every other day the brunette smiles and waves as she gets out of her car.

Sasha is always in such good spirits, but today she practically skips towards Mikasa, nearly glomping on the younger girl with an unexpected hug. It’s only been a few days since they last saw one another, yet Sasha is as chipper as can be.

Sasha’s arm links around hers and Mikasa lets her, then the duo of ice dancers head towards the building. For someone who came in fourth at Junior Worlds, Sasha is absolutely ecstatic over her rinkmates out-skating her and Connie.

As to be expected, Sasha chats Mikasa’s ear off. She talks on and on about what Mikasa and Jean winning gold means for their dinky little rink, how it will solidify their skating club as a facility that has both nurtured and created champions, and how podiuming Worlds is a triumphant end to any season.

Since Sasha playing the role of motormouth is nothing unusual, Mikasa only half listens as they walk through the concourse. At least Sasha brings up the accomplishments made by their other rinkmates, less she only ever discusses her own discipline. Armin’s silver in singles had been an unexpected win, having fought his way from sixth to second between each program, utilizing his quad toe and salchow to make his mark in the free. Porco and Pieck’s bronze is worth lauding as well, as they managed to medal despite fumbling their synchronized double axels.

As Sasha rambles, Mikasa is tempted to help her rinkmate focus on the actual purpose of today. With Worlds behind them, the only thing they have left to do are a handful of gala shows, rehearsals of which are happening on the nearby ice. To some it’s an opportunity to keep skating and performing, but for others it’s a thank you for all the support given to the skaters throughout the season. And for Mikasa, it’s a healthy mix of both.

But before the duo of ice dancers can even enter the icy realm, the two notice something peculiar about the hallways. Just outside of the rink is a medley of wall-mounted photographs — framed images that depict the various skaters of the rink who had medalled at competitions. Most of the athletes are at the senior level, but as of lately more skaters of the junior level have had the honor of being immortalized.

So when Mikasa and Sasha pass by a few photographs they know haven’t been there before, the two stop walking and look over.

“Oh sweet!” Sasha is first to exclaim. “They already have these up.”

She unlinks her arm and steps forward, smiling at the new images on the wall. Mikasa does the same, looking fondly at the photo of her and Jean standing proudly atop the podium.

In the image she’s smiling, happily holding up the gold medal that now resides in her home. While her expression is overjoyed, it is still tinged with the slightest amount of disbelief, her mind still trying to acknowledge the feat far after the final scores had been announced. Jean is standing behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder as he holds his own commemoration for his work. She can almost hear the image, whether it be the memory of the applauding crowd, the snapping of photographs, or her partner whispering “Holy fuck, we did it” just behind her ear.

A different framed photograph depicts Jean and Mikasa in the midst of their free dance, the image in question immortalizing a curve lift, the one where Jean glides across the ice in a besti squat and Mikasa stands on his thigh with a single skate. She’s still not sure which part of the lift had been the most difficult — the way she snakes herself around his neck and shoulders before arriving in the final position, the stability Jean requires to secure his arm around her leg, or making it all look effortless. For a sport that consists of dancing around on knife-shoes, they certainly like to go above and beyond.

Before Mikasa can reminisce about the final dance for too long, as well as risk getting into self-critiques, she hears Sasha speak up again.

“Hey, lookit!”

Mikasa turns her head to the right and sees Sasha standing near a trophy case, the brunette’s eyes affixed to a certain image. She steps over to see a photograph that she almost cannot recognize, even though it’s her in the frame.

Despite coming in fourth, the ice dance team that is Braus/Springer are commemorated alongside their rinkmates. One photograph on the wall depicts Connie and Jean on the ice — Jean has Connie lifted onto his shoulder, a feat that brings a smile to both skater’s faces, and the two glide across the rink in front of rows and rows of empty seats. If Mikasa recalls the picture had been taken during the gala rehearsals, when the various skaters were practicing for the final group number.

But the photo that Sasha is focused on is different. Mikasa gets a closer look to see a picture taken on the day of the free dance.

She sees herself and Sasha at the kiss-and-cry. Despite the name of the place and the medal ceremony being minutes away, Mikasa is smiling and so is Sasha. The two are hugging, though Mikasa is the one awkwardly holding her hands to her chest while Sasha’s arms are around her shoulders. Their gazes are meeting and Sasha’s mouth is open, obviously in the midst of running her mouth, as per usual.

For a moment Mikasa tries to remember what Sasha had been saying. The audience in the stands had been so loud that perhaps she had forgotten, but if she had to guess then perhaps it had been something along the lines of “Holy shit, Girl!” or “I’m so fucking proud of you!”

It’s a position that they’ve been in before, a side-effect of being rinkmates and rivals for years. Perhaps there’s something about the feeling imbuing the venue once the event officially ends, when the scores are released and the skaters can finally breathe. At a certain point it doesn’t even matter what the actual results are, just that the skaters can relax.

With the image of her and Sasha’s post-competition embrace now immortalized in their rink, Mikasa is thankful. It’s certainly a more flattering image than the ones taken when the scores were announced. Mikasa still isn’t sure if it was her or Jean who cried harder when they realized they came in first, though it was certainly her who sobbed into his shoulder.

With a tender look Mikasa glances at Sasha and says, “It’s like we won the Olympics.”

The warmth in Sasha’s eyes is quickly sapped. She sharply bumps her friend with her elbow.

“Hey!” she says in a scolding, yet playful tone. “Not yet!”

Mikasa lets out a hum, which is the closest she ever gets to a laugh, and links arms with Sasha again. The duo of ice dancers head over to the rink, knowing well that the mark they’ve made on their world will be remembered.

#mikasa ackerman #sasha braus #sasha blouse #mikasha #mikasasha #snk #figure skating au #still on my Mikasa the Ice Dancer bs

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