#where i currently work at a theater production

[eddiemunson-reader-shame]

Be My Wife: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Summary: A “friend” freaks out when you split a Coke with Eddie the Freak.

Warnings: references to A Clockwork Orange, bullying, STI/STD mention, backwash drinking

A/N: So… I know this isn’t a Christmas fic. But I wrote this because I had those times in my youth where someone spread horrid rumors about either me or my friends, and I had to make those split second decisions to determine my loyalty. I always try to be loyal as best I can.

Thank you to @writhingg for giving the green light on this fic. And big thanks to @rxqueenotd and @melodymunson as well. And big thanks to viewers like you. Thank you. ❤️

Resources: @strangergraphics-archive for the dividers.

Taglist: @ali-r3n @melodymunson @twihard28

“Hey droogie, can I have a sip of your Coke?”

You looked up from where you were perched on the pony wall by the Seven Eleven bike rack. You had been chatting with a classmate, Chessie Hagar, about purchasing a purse from her mother’s Avon Colorworks catalog. It was a new collection for the year 1977. Said eye catching magazine with its spread of rainbow themed products was currently held between the two of you, and the pages began to rattle as Chessie shook in fear upon hearing the deep voice.

A flutter-smack sounded from the girl dropping the catalog when Eddie The Freak approached. His stride was casual as one could be, whilst battling both midwestern humidity and pit sweat in a white hand-me-down Jimi Hendrix shirt and sleeveless denim vest. As one of the middle schoolers who had been blessed with a growth spurt, his lanky height, shredded second hand clothes, and shaved head often made those in your grade— and some of those above— piss their pants.

You alone did not fear him.

The Fates had elected to weave you both in a tangled web of coincidences: you had been his project partner in every shared class since you started at Hawkins Middle School together, and you just so happened to live in the same neighborhood on occasion. The distance from Al Munson’s janky two bedroom home to yours was but a hop skip and a jump. Eddie used to ding dong ditch your house when he was six, until one day your mother caught him by the ear and brought him in to mend his tattered jeans and offer up a hot meal.

To any other rando, he was an unstable pariah. But to you, he was just Eddie Munson— the cute boy next door who sometimes ate at your place. And you had become his droog after spending winter 1972 sneaking into the Hawk Theater, and making Stanley Kubrick films your new big boy personalities.

Without thinking, you handed the soft drink over. His fingers brushed against yours as he took the Coke out of your grip and went for a swig, with plush pink lips wrapping around the transparent jade glass of the lip and neck. His protruding Adam’s apple was bobbing with the rhythmic gulping, and you couldn’t stop staring.

“Thanks.” He belched out.

“You said a sip, not half the goddamn bottle!” You whined.

Eddie grinned sheepishly and backwashed a good mouthful. Giving a half assed apology and a promise to pay you back mumbled under his breath, he handed the bottle back.

“Still up for doing last minute project prep?” You asked, swirling the leftovers he’d saved for you.

“Nah, let’s take a break from the train wreck brothers. Catch you tomorrow, though?” He said, scratching a blackhead off his nose and snorting a bit, “I had an idea for the oral report that might earn us a little extra credit. Think you can mimic a British accent?”

“Eh. Can’t do an accent without sounding like fucking Alex DeLarge.” You groused.

“We can work on that. Leave your milk-plus at home, though. Don’t want me own droog reenacting some Roman ultra violence on me.”

“Just don’t go popping out from behind your curtains at me again, that’s a good way to get stabbed in the neck with my mom’s kitchen scissors.” You snorted.

“Ahhh, the droog’s no fun. I guess I can tone down the surprise pop ups, though. If you insist. Catch you later?” Eddie said, waving.

“Later. Peace out, man.”

Chessie let out a shaky, sobbing exhale when you made to drink the dregs of your soda, and you turned and raised an eyebrow.

“Whassamatter?” You asked.

“Are you nuts?! You just shared your drink with the freak!” She blurted out.

… since when the hell was sharing with Eddie a crime?

“Yeah, so? It’s hot out. He looked thirsty.” You said.

“Did you seriously forget everything we’ve heard about him?!” She whisper-screamed, “Don’t you care what everyone talks about?!”

You rolled your eyes. Everyone talked about Eddie. If you hadn’t heard at least one rumor from a faceless student whenever he walked by, you were either stupid or living under a rock. They said he was a bad boy— yes, even with a full vocabulary of slurs and insults available, they still called him a bad boy. Like if he was still in diapers drawing with crayon on the wall, and needed a spanking.

Depending on who you asked, Eddie either did or sold drugs, it was never clear which. Some of the other trailer park kids said he was a mean scrapper when he went to his uncle’s on alternate weeks. Women’s restroom lore stated that he carried a switchblade in the back pocket of his Wrangler jeans, and that he used it to torture animals for his Satanic rituals.

A million and one things were said about him on the daily, but you knew none of them were true in the slightest. None of the talk deterred you from spending time with him. Sometimes he came to your house, more often than not you went to his.

Every other day found the two of you parked in front of his mom’s turntable, jamming to Deep Purple and putting together an elaborate poster board with some spray painted fake leaves made into laurel crowns, along with a block of text about your chosen co-emperor of the early Roman Empire.

You had wanted to write about Caligula so you could use the word ‘orgy’ in the report without getting in trouble, but Eddie had insisted he had a better idea when he discovered a two years tumultuous ruling of brothers from 209 AD to 211 AD.

“As much as I love a good sex party on paper, you just know that’s what everyone else is gonna write about. Let’s write about this nut job Caracalla instead! Dude killed his brother in the arms of his mother, and struck his name from the record. That’s like, the most metal shit ever! Also, here’s a better word for you to learn: fratricide. Apparently there’s a whole list of technical terms for when you kill a family member.”

“… what’s the rumor mill gotta do with my Coke?” You deadpanned.

“If you drink after him, you’re gonna get mono like Cindy! You gotta throw it out!”

Cindy Bishop in your science class had told everyone that had functional ears— swearing up and down on her life— that Eddie Munson had kissed her and given her mononucleosis. A dreaded affliction whose nickname to you sounded like one of the variations of sound formats for any sort of audio.

“Mono…?”

“Yes! Or the syph!”

You knew Eddie had to have heard Chessie’s vitriol. Turning around, you could see him staring at the two of you from across the parking lot, one leg over his bike. There was a stinging look of betrayal on his face. Telltale signs of a wet cherry nose and shameful red cheeks gave away his mistrust; as if he was expecting you to do as your friend told, and throw the bottle he drank from in the trash.

His imaginary affliction was just that: imaginary. You knew that to be gospel.

The kiss with Cindy was real, unfortunately. It happened way before Cindy was kept home with mono, and you remembered the incident well. Eddie had come running to your house just to brag that he’d finally gotten his first kiss, and that pretty soon he’d be popping girl’s cherries left and right.

Just learning about the simple kiss had pissed you off, because the closest you’d ever gotten to kissing Eddie was sharing the same fork whenever you both roasted Vienna sausages on the gas burner in his kitchen. Eddie hadn’t been sick when Cindy stayed home, he came faithfully to school to trap you on the playground and speculate about the thousand and one hidden meanings behind the kiss.

With all the excitement, he never noticed the smallest details like you did. One of the guys in your PE class had been sent home with a rash and a high fever, and it was only a month after Cindy was rumored to have also kissed the collapsed boy that she got sick. You had always shared cups, utensils, and other things requiring mouth use with Eddie and had been fine. Yet Cindy and Tommy Hagan swapped spit once, and both were out of commission.

But no one would ever say anything about Tommy Hagan getting mono. They’d always redirect every disease outbreak to the poor loser who split time between Cherry Street and Forest Hills Trailer Park. The same poor loser who had the misfortune of wasting his first kiss with Cindy; a girl who frenched behind the portable classrooms with anything that had a pulse. People could be so blind and stupid, they failed to notice the sickness timelines were not matching up.

No one deserved their first anything to be with Cindy. Not with the way she stabbed people in the back.

You took a long, hard pause as you stared into Eddie’s wet brown eyes. He was asking you a silent question you already knew the answer to: were you a stinking traitorous droog, or a loyal one? Were you, his one friend in the entire world, going to stand against him?

Without saying a word, you looked at Chessie, then looked back again at Eddie.

In a world of traitors— where brothers stabbed brothers in the arms of their mothers, or where violent men disowned each other with drug laced milk bottles to the face, you would always pick instead to be Eddie Munson’s loyal droog.

You lathed at the lip of the bottle and stuck your tongue down the neck, and shotgunned all of Eddie’s backwash.

Chessie’s mouth dropped open as she began to gag, and Eddie opened his mouth in an obnoxious and breathless laugh as you chugged the entirety of his germs. The carbonation caught up to you, so you let a belch rip before turning back around to face him.

“I GOT YOUR MONO NOW, MUNSON!” You screamed out to him, “NOW YOU GOTTA MARRY ME!”

“IS THAT HOW IT WORKS, DROOGIE?” He shouted back, a shit eating grin stretched across his face, “YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME KNOW BEFORE I TOOK A SWIG, I WOULD HAVE MADE SURE I GOT YOU A RING POP FIRST!”

“IT'S GODDAMN ROMAN CONFARREATIO LAWS, EDDIE! YOU GAVE ME MONO INSTEAD OF SPELT BREAD, NOW YOU GOTTA MARRY ME!” You joked.

You noticed from the big, smart ass grin that he was about to do something outrageous, and your heart began to sing. He immediately got to his knee on the asphalt, everyone in the Seven Eleven parking lot watching as he began to scream like an orator in the colosseum. He used your full government name and everything when he called out to the small parking lot audience.

“HEAR ME, CITIZENS OF HAWKINS! I AM BUT A VESSEL FOR THE GODS, A BEARER, A MESSENGER OF THAT MOST HOLY WORD FROM MOUNT OLYMPUS! I HAVE SHARED OF THE COOTIE WITH A WOMAN, AND THUS OUR MARRIAGE BETWEEN EMPEROR AND DROOG IS SOLEMNIZED-…!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, FREAK!” Someone called out, immediately flinching back when Eddie rounded on him.

“THE GODS. HAVE. SPOKEN!” Eddie screeched, a glob of spit flying out of his mouth and onto the hot asphalt.

He was wide eyed. Deranged. Eddie lifted up the hem of his denim vest and held it out and to the side, to look like wings unfurling, screaming to the heavens as you began howling with him.

“YEAH!” You screamed out, raising your bottle and shouting every bit of nonsense you could think of, “GOD SANCTIONED DROOG MARRIAGE CO-RULER ULTRA-VIOLENCE! MAZEL TOV!”

“THE IMPERIAL HUSBAND NOW DEMANDS TO KISS THE DROOG BRIDE!” Eddie screamed, “PLANT ONE ON ME, GODDESS DIVINE OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAWKINS!!”

You looked at Chessie, who looked as if she was going to throw up or scream. It wasn’t immediately clear which. Instead of ending the joke, you grinned. Shrugged. The glossy magazine paper pages of the forgotten Avon Colorworks catalog ripped under the tread of your shoes when— without warning— you took off towards Eddie, and planted a fat wet kiss on his mouth. He froze for a moment, but returned the kiss with fervor, making an obnoxious hum and wet smack when you pulled away.

“Yum.” You gushed, licking your lips and changing your cadence to the unhinged Kubrick Cockney, “Them’s tasty cooties, they are, brother sir!”

“Yeah? Them false cytomegalovirus germs are what taste good to ya, droog?” He laughed, wrapping his arms around you and putting on his own terrible accent.

“That they are, sir, that’s what gives all me food and drink that plus flavor.” You grinned.

The two of you cackled, thoroughly enjoying throwing out random quotes and various insanities that to the normal person would put them off of your insanity and edge-lord humor. Chessie had long since taken off for the gated community of Loch Nora on her bike, but you didn’t care. You could live without a selection of eyeshadows, a rainbow tote purse, and all of your false friends if the choice came down to choosing them, or Eddie.

“Wanna go into the gas station and split another bottle of mono before we blow this joint?” You asked.

His grin could have rivaled that of Malcolm McDowell.

“Now, how can I say no to my new wife?” He grinned, holding out his arm for you to take, “But I am a man of my word, so you’re getting a new Coke, plus that Ring Pop so’s we can make this thing official.”

“Spare no expense, huh?” You grinned, and he pulled you in closer. Both of your hips knocking together.

“Hey… Only the best and finest gems and refreshments for Empress Droog the First of Hawkins, Indiana.” Eddie said with a confident smile.

You smiled at him, nudging one another with your bodies all the way into the gas station, until he pulled you in for another sloppy kiss in the middle of the snack aisle.

[airenyah]

i think i just made friends with an older thai lady??? dkjdjdjf

i went to this thai take-out place near my parents place for lunch that i'd gone to with my mom a month ago for the very first time. and back then my mom made me speak thai with the owner and we had a bit of a conversation with half in thai half in german. so today i went back and the lady recognized me and immediately started talking to me in thai. and while i was waiting for her colleague (son?? possibly??) to make my food i had a half thai half german conversation with her again and she mentioned how she really struggled understanding german (even worse bc in my hometown about 95% of the people speak dialect only, which is not something that is taught in school books rip). and wouldn't you know it, she asked me if i wanted to help her practice german if she practice thai with me and i was like "yeah sounds cool" and she gave me her number skdkfjcjjcfj

[askhatchetfieldhigh]

OOC: Hello everyone! If you didn't already know, I work in the wondrous field of ✨professional theater✨, which means I am constantly going around preforming in regional theater statewide. I am currently in a production of a show, where I play a very significant role, and we are heading into tech week for that show very soon, which means I will have less time to be on here. Here are the days in which I will/may not be able to check into my inbox:

Thursday Nov 7

Monday Nov 11

Tuesday Nov 12

Wednesday Nov 13

Friday Nov 15

Saturday Nov 16

And, as of right now, that is it. There is a good chance that either Friday, Saturday or Sunday I won't be able to (going to take a road trip to see my best friend, who is also in regional theater. We acted together in my last regional show and she is currently performing in a show) but I don't know which of the 3 yet.

Thank you for your continued support of this blog... love you all lots!

[headfullofpresley]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 | 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏

Pairing: Elvis Presley x reader

Word count: 3,8K

Series summary: Elvis has worked hard to become the successful adult movie director that he is today and all that hard work is paying off by how well the public reacts to his work and how much money is coming into his bank account, despite the fact that porn is still very much illegal. Working in the adult industry is not something you saw yourself doing despite coming from a place where it always has been out in the open, but you soon find yourself swept up and away by a certain American director and right into the heart of the porn industry. The only question that remains is... will you sink, or will you swim?

Chapter summary: Working on his newest and what he believes his biggest project yet, Elvis flies to Amsterdam to shoot most of it. Everything is going well until he's forced to fire his leading actress on the spot and there's a stop being put to his work. But as he wanders into a cafe for a much needed drink in the bustling city, faith seems to be on his side.

Warnings: porn director!Elvis, European!reader, set in the year 1970 (so some details may be a little off?), obvious mentions of sex/porn etc, mentions of prostitution, Elvis giving reader a lowkey foot rub in public (honestly, he's going to be into feet in this series bc i'm feral), mentions of soft drugs, alcohol consumption.

A/N: hi! this idea was born from an ai but mostly from The Deuce (definitely watch it!), where i took most inspiration from. i'm super excited about this series, and honestly it's giving me a lot of inspiration to write in general again! this is going to be a short series- i'm thinking around 5 parts, but we shall see, hm? no smut in this part, but obvi there will be in future parts, as well as some darker topics. hope y'all enjoy! ❤

masterlist | want to be added to the taglist? just ask!

Who ever said Hollywood was a jungle has obviously never set foot in New York City.

They’ve obviously never experienced what a real concrete jungle is like and they definitely don’t know that the Golden Age of Hollywood has seen its best days. Directors were feeling pressures from the outside – from the public that wanted something different, something more than those cringy movie kisses. The smaller movie theaters were starting to ID their customers because their movies weren’t so family friendly anymore. Establishments that specialized in peep shows were popping out of the ground like weeds. Burlesque clubs were turning into proper stripclubs and people would rather spend their money on naked girls dancing in their faces than on overpriced cocktails at supper clubs.

They didn’t know that the world was changing.

They didn’t know that even though adult entertainment was far from legal, it was one of the most produced and exported and imported products in the country.

They didn’t know. But Elvis Presley did.

Having made his start as a director ten years ago when he was in his early twenties and was nothing but a naive Southern boy from Memphis, he crawled and clawed his way through shitty jobs in New York. From parking cars, to serving drinks in sketchy bars to being a bodyguard at a massage parlor and driving around hookers to their appointments… He’s seen it all, and he’s done it all.

He worked hard to get where he currently was – being one of the most famous porn directors in New York. Everyone knew who he was and everyone respected him. Times Square was home to countless of peep shows, stripclubs and whatnot and you’ll bump into a prostitute every five steps. Elvis never used their services but he was friendly with them, greeting them as if he had known them forever. Which in some girls’ cases, was true.

Most of those girls were looking for a way out, wanting to get off the streets and into the safety of a movie studio, but Elvis has learned from a previous mistake where he hired a girl who had a pimp and the leech tried to get him to pay them more than the other actors. Since then, Elvis stuck to actors and actors only.

The director was doing good for himself, owning his own studio and brand under the name of “Presley Productions”, and living in a spacious apartment in the city, yet he still wanted more.

He wanted to make a movie so good, it would get international attention. He wanted it to be so good that theaters wouldn’t stop showing it and he wanted it to be so damn good that it would get him a shiny, gold award on his shelf.

And whenever Elvis had his mind set on something, he made sure to accomplish whatever it was that he wanted to accomplish.

It would only be a matter of time before Hollywood would get whiff of his work, and who he was, and for him to open up a second studio there. Elvis didn’t believe in ��Hollywood first, the world later” though – he was going to knock everyone off their feet, from the housewives in California to the business men in Hong Kong, all at the same time.

 

The script he had written for his newest movie had been done for months now and all there was left to do was the casting. The process went fairly simple and easy – his main actress was Annette Haven and she was a gorgeous brown eyed brunette, but for some reason he couldn’t get used to her.

Granted, he wasn’t the one playing in the movie and her co-star seemed to have no issues with her, so perhaps he figured he was just being too picky because he was so passionate about this project. Annette was friendly during the first few weeks of filming but as they got to Amsterdam, the sex capital of the world, to shoot most of the movie, her behavior started to change.

She was cranky on set, pranced around like she was the Queen and was late for filming almost every single day. To put it mildly, she was getting on Elvis’s nerves and when she showed up high as a kite one afternoon, the director was done with this girl.

He never was a tiran on set and always made sure everyone was doing okay, but right now it was like a bomb exploded and everyone watched and were awkwardly rooted to their places as Elvis had a go at the main actress and fired her on the spot.

“Take the rest of the day off. We’ll figure things out tomorrow,” he announced to the other actors and the crew. He gave them a bitter smile before he turned around and walked out of the studio they rented, angry and annoyed at the fact he lost a full day of filming, his leading actress and money.

He needed a goddamn drink.

 

Amsterdam was a crowded, bustling city and in some ways, it was much like New York but it was different in so many ways too. People were a little more laid back here (and he figured the many coffee shops where one definitely was not drinking coffee but getting high at instead had something to do with that) and instead of running into a lady of the night on a street corner, they were placed behind windows in certain areas. The Red Light District, for example. It was crowded with tourists and while there was a long canal outstretched in the middle of the district, there were shops, bars, coffee shops and sexual tinted business lined up on the sides, drawing people’s attention left and right. The infamous windows were located in the alley ways, the red lights that were on indicating a girl was working at the time. While he was definitely no stranger to sex workers and what the normal citizen would call “wildness of it all”, it was like he had stepped into a different world, yet it felt a little bit like home too.

Spotting a typical Dutch brown cafe on a corner, he stepped inside and was welcomed by the loud rumbles of laughter of men shooting pool and sitting at the tables and the bar and the smell of cigarette smoke and beer. Nobody aside from the waitress even spared him a glance as he sat at a table near the window and the second he looked at the girl that came up to him to take his order, a smirk spread across his face. In the middle of August, it was only natural for the girl to be wearing a pair of shorts and he was glad this place didn’t set any strict dress codes for their employees, because Good Lord, those legs looked like they went on for days. He noticed the red heeled sandals she wore on her feet and her fresh pedicure on her toes, drawing him in even more. The way that black little apron was tied around her waist did things to him and as his eyes shamelessly moved further up and noticed the size of her breasts that were filling up the tight top she was wearing, he could only think two things – first, he needed to get his hands on those things. And second, she would be perfect for the movie he was shooting out here.

Annette Haven who?

“Hallo?!” You spoke again, waving your hand in front of the dark haired man that just sat down by the window when he didn’t respond to you the first time. Instead, he was shamelessly checking you out from head to toe and working in a bar in the Red Light District, you were used to it but it still got you a little annoyed at times. At least some men tried to hide it and most men actually spoke, with actual words. As he excused himself in English and scanned the crowd for a second, you realised he wasn’t Dutch and decided to cut him some slack.

Perhaps he really was a creep, but your boss wouldn’t be too happy if a customer walked out without being served.

Happened before, because while other waitresses accepted the bold and creepy men that came to drink almost every single day, your mother had always taught you to stand up for yourself and to not take any shit from anyone.

Besides, this was 1970. What did men expect? For you to drape yourself over their laps and beg them to take you? Absolutely not.

“A beer’s just fine, honey,”

You bit your tongue to ignore the pet name and flashed the American a smile, looking him in the eye. “Anything else? Something to eat maybe?”

Elvis grinned and shook his head, watching you walk away to get his drink. You were a very pretty girl with a very pretty body and he realised he was going to amp up his charm if he wanted to see what was underneath.

And he definitely wanted to see what was underneath.

 

“There you go,” you said as you came back over to his table and put his beer down in front of him. Before you could make your escape once more, Elvis spoke up.

“You know, your English is pretty good,”

At this, you almost scoffed as you stood up straight and looked at him with a hand on your hip. These Americans were always so full of themselves.

“Thanks. It’s only a language spoken in countries all over the world,” you smiled sarcastically and Elvis grinned in amusement as he leaned his arms on the edge of the table, quirking an eyebrow.

Feisty. He was intrigued.

“I been to Germany back in the day and believe me, they definitely didn’t sound as pretty as you,”

You raised your eyebrows a little at the odd compliment. Didn’t sound as pretty? That was the first time you ever heard something like that. This guy looked exactly what you imagined a pimp to look like – gold rings adorning his fingers, dressed up nicely in a velvet crushed jacket despite the heat outside – yet he used the word “pretty”, instead of something vulgar like most customers did when they’d try to flirt with you.

You knew you had probably judged him too quickly and although you were intrigued by him the same way he was by you, you weren’t going to make it easy on him.

“Let me tell you a secret,” you whispered as you leaned down and closer to him a little, looking straight into his eyes, which you noticed were very blue and very pretty. “You’re not in Germany anymore, sir,”

Elvis let out a laugh as you gave his shoulder a playful pat and raised his glass, a sly smirk settling on his features.

“You got that right, honey,”

As you walked away, he didn’t fail to notice the playful smile you threw his way as you looked over your shoulder.

 

Elvis wasn’t planning on spending half the day in this particular cafe, but for some reason, he was already on his third beer and he just couldn’t leave.

He could say it was because he needed to clear his mind and think of a solution to fix the problem about not having a lead actress anymore, but the little voice in his head told him he was looking right at that exact solution.

You.

He knew it would be risky – you were just a waitress and you probably had never set foot on a movie set in your entire life, let alone an adult movie set, but he couldn’t stop imagining you in front of the camera, in all kinds of positions.

As he watched you move around the place, serving customers, it was almost like he was watching a movie right now. The way you moved so effortlessly on those little heels, the way you avoided customers that were a little too handsy and the way you were laughing with local customers who you’d probably served many times before.

The sound of your laugh was like music to his ears and he wondered how you’d sound while you were being fucked with those gorgeous long legs dangling in the air. Just imagining you moaning in pleasure had a shiver run down his spine.

And while you had pretended you didn’t like Elvis at all and he was just another annoying American tourist, you couldn’t help yourself from glancing into his direction every so often and making your way to his table to ask if he needed anything else.

When you did just that after talking to some locals at the bar, he looked at you and smiled.

“Sit down,” he told you as he nodded to the empty seat across from him as he leaned back in his seat. “Doesn’t the old man give you a break?”

You chuckled softly as he nodded to an older looking, grumpy man in the corner behind the bar. Your boss. He barely did any of the work and just sipped on his beer, watching his waitresses work their asses off.

For a shitty pay, too.

“Hardly,” you admitted honestly with a soft chuckle, noticing that your boss wasn’t paying any attention to you so you sat down opposite the dark haired man that had his eye on you the entire time. “So, what brought you to Amsterdam?”

Elvis was pleasantly surprised as you asked him that. Not only would it give him the chance to keep you at his table longer, but now was also the moment where he would have to tell you what he did. And find out your reaction to it.

So, he just came clean right away. In one way, it was a good test to see how open-minded the Europeans really were.

And if you were a full blown, crazed feminist.

God… please don’t be a fullblown crazed feminist, he prayed mentally.

“I’m here to make a porno.”

A silence lingered between you two, but it only lasted for about three seconds. You nodded your head and chuckled in an amused but friendly manner.

“Are you an actor?”

Thank God.

“No,” he laughed, shaking his head a little as he took a sip of his beer, licking his lips. “I’m the director of the movie,”

You leaned your arms on the table and sat on the edge of your seat, crossing your legs under the table as you swung your foot back and forth a little. Elvis looked at the way your breasts were pressed against your arms for a second before looking back at your face, an excited twinkle in his eyes.

“And why are you not directing your movie right now?” You wondered aloud, tilting your head a little.

“Well,” he let out a laugh as he tapped one of his rings against his glass for a second, looking at you. “My leading actress wasn’t as fit for the role as I thought.”

“Or maybe you aren’t as good as a director as you think you are,” you teased with a grin on your face.

At that, Elvis just looked at you with a raised eyebrow. He could tell you were pulling his tail, but perhaps far in the back of his mind… he wondered if that could be the truth. He decided not to let his insecurities get to him though, not right now, and when he felt your swaying foot hit his leg under the table, he reached a hand down and grabbed your ankle. You widened your eyes a little and stared at him as he gave you a cocky grin and removed your shoe, dropping the red heel to the floor before he put your foot in his lap.

You looked around nervously to see if your boss caught onto you slacking yet, but he was still busy with the locals at the bar. Elvis ran his hand down from your ankle to your foot and pressed his thumb against your sole, making you turn back to him and bite your tongue to hold back a small gasp.

While you certainly never let customers touch you, right now you weren’t trying to get away. Nor could you muster up a smart remark to throw at his head. You’d been on your feet all day, wearing those heels, and the little massage he suddenly decided to give you wasn’t entirely unwelcomed.

“I am a great director, sweetheart, trust me..” he grinned as he looked you in the eye, a kind but mischievous gleam in his blue orbs. This man definitely was bold and for the first time in your waitressing “career”, you were enjoying the attention of a customer. And a tourist, at that. “Some people just can’t resist the many coffee shops in the city,”

You chuckled, nodding your head as you tried to focus on the conversation and not his large hand rubbing your foot under the table.

“Ha! Bet she was A-American,” you mentally slapped yourself for the stutter (and the lame reply) but if he noticed it, he didn’t mention it. Instead he just grinned and caressed his short nails across the arch of your foot a little.

“Who said she was American?”

“Well, if she was Dutch, she could’ve.. resisted the tempting clouds of weed,” you countered back with a small, playful grin on your face.

He laughed as he cocked his eyebrow, his eyes staring intently into yours as he found your pressure point and pushed his thumb into it, making you nearly moan out loud right there in the middle of your work place.

You managed to save yourself with a small groan.

“Think you can do better?”

At this point, your face was flushed and he realised he was slowly breaking through that sarcastic façade of yours. Then again, he wasn’t exactly playing fair with the way he was shamelessly giving you a foot rub and while you had genuinely peaked his interest, he was a little desperate too.

He wanted to finish his movie and make sure it was good. It had to be perfect. And he didn’t want to get a professional actress now that he had laid eyes on you.

Porn wasn’t a strange concept to you despite never having been in a porno yourself. You lived in a city where sex was out in the open for everyone to see and consume and while porn was illegal here as much as it was in the States, it was tolerated. Perhaps it wasn’t such a strange idea for you to dip your toes into the world of adult entertainment.

“I know I can do better,” you said confidently, looking over at your boss who looked your way and you quickly pulled your foot out of Elvis’ grip, slipping it back into your heel. “Just tell me when and where,”

Elvis let out a hearty laugh as he widened his eyes at you a little. This had been easier than he expected – you were offering yourself for the job and while that was certainly surprising, he wasn’t complaining at all. You were perfect for this movie and the fact that you were inexperienced in the industry might even be better for the storyline.

After all, the lead girl was supposed to be a little naive and a whole lot of innocent.

You quickly urged him for a phone number and address when you noticed the sour face of your boss staring at you from behind the bar and Elvis quickly scribbled his contact information down on the back of a paper coaster as he realised he didn’t have any business cards on him at the moment. You grasped it from the table and shoved it in your pocket, getting up from your seat.

“Hold up,” he said after he paid for his drinks and you were about to walk off to the bar to get back to work. You felt him grabbing your wrist and you turned around, looking at him as your heartbeat sped up a little. “I didn’t get your name..”

“It’s Y/N,” You told him, gently pulling your arm out of his grip. You wouldn’t mind holding onto him a little longer but you felt your boss’ eyes burning in the back of your head.

“I’m Elvis. Elvis Presley.”

You nodded and flashed him a smile, tapping the back pocket of your shorts where you had put the coaster in. He grinned and nodded, slowly leaving the cafe, hoping you’d call him and go through with this.

A pretty girl like you shouldn’t have to work in a shitty place like this.

 

You watched him go and the entire time your boss was giving you an earful about work ethics as you stood behind the bar, you barely heard the words coming out of his mouth. Quite frankly, you just weren’t paid enough to deal with this. You liked your co-workers but that’s all they were – co-workers. They didn’t pay your bills and neither did your shitty monthly pay that your boss gave you.

You wanted a change. No, you needed a change.

And maybe it was a naive and stupid thing to do, but for some reason, you had trusted that stupid American tourist.

Maybe he wasn’t even a director at all, but the longer your boss went on and on about your behavior, you decided it was worth the risk.

“You know what,” you interrupted him loudly, pulling your apron off and throwing it at his face. “I quit!”

Your boss threw a string of profanities to your head as you opened the cash register and grasped the amount of money he still owed you. He was too slow, and too fat, to stop you and before he could get to you, you were already halfway out the door. Though ofcourse, you didn’t leave without theatrically flipping him off.

 

You ran down the street, squirming your way through the crowd, and into a phone booth. Closing the door behind you, you fished the coaster out of your pocket and rang the number. You were connected to Elvis’ hotel and then put through to his room after several minutes. As soon as you heard his voice on the other side of the line, you inhaled a sharp breath of air and clenched the phone against your ear.

How bad could the porn industry really be?

The fact that you were a virgin didn’t strike you as a problem. Nobody had to know, did they? You were sure you’d be able to mask it.

Even from the director.

You stared at the people walking by the phone booth and leaned against the glass wall, your next words rolling off your tongue determinedly.

“When do I start?”

taglist: @powerofelvis @breadsquash @generoustreemystic @ab4eva @marriedtopresley @steph-speaks @notstefaniepresley @ellie-24 @dollksj @webbedwebs @re3kin @wivette @eliseinmemphis @18lkpeters @rosepresley @ccab @whatstruthgottodowithit @dkayfixates

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss and Helen J Shen Make Robots Feel More Human in Maybe Happy Ending

----------

Darren Criss and Helen J Shen are currently starring in Maybe Happy Ending, a new musical at the Belasco Theatre where they play two retired Helper-bots who formerly assisted humans with their day-to-day tasks. Set in the future and directed by Michael Arden (Parade, Once On This Island), the show takes the audience on a journey through love, loss, and belonging. It’s received rave reviews on Broadway after first debuting in South Korea, then moving to Japan, China, and Atlanta, Georgia.

This marks Criss’s return to Broadway after stints in American Buffalo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He also starred as Blaine Anderson in Glee and won an Emmy Award for his performance as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Shen is making her Broadway debut after recently graduating from the University of Michigan.

----------

Darren Criss: I was about to go into tech rehearsal for American Buffalo at the top of 2020, an American contemporary classic play with Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne. I was like, “Wow, dude, the show is cooking. I’m opening this on Broadway. All these incredible things are happening.” Then, it was no more. I feel like I went through the pandemic with these two men [Rockwell and Fishburne], because we were all so excited to be part of this show. We would FaceTime regularly, read through the play, and talk about life. The show went on in our minds. We weren’t sure if we were ever going to get to do it.

That was something we kept chugging through, and we finally got to come back in ’22 with some of these things which now seems so in the rearview mirror: COVID restrictions and testing and audiences wearing masks. We were very diligent about all that stuff, and luckily we’re on the other side of that.

But at that time, that show was the longest I’d ever been on Broadway. The poster for that show at Circle in The Square [Theater] remained there for two and a half something years, even though the show hadn’t ever opened.

----------

Talkback On their initial reactions to Maybe Happy Ending:

Criss: I think the best stories we’ve heard are the ones we weren’t prepared to hear. It’d be like if Batman wasn’t as culturally ubiquitous as it is, and I tried to pitch you Batman. You’d be like, “That sounds so dumb. Rich guy fights a clown? This sounds absolutely ridiculous, and there’s no way this is going to be one of the most popular IPs the world has ever seen.”

That is what’s so exciting: When you feel people in the audience truly not knowing what’s going to happen, whether production-wise or as a spectacle. You don’t know if some things are going to look a certain way, you don’t know things are going to sound a certain way, and you don’t know if the story is going to feel a certain way.

Musicals live and die by their music. I love Shakespeare, but I’m not listening to Shakespeare in the car on the way to work in the subway. Musicals have that. They have this sort of extracurricular component that you can have forever after the fact. When I listened to the music, I was like, “Oh, wait. Hang on. This is really special. Why is this so smart? Why is this so beautiful and elegant and sophisticated and familiar and nostalgic?”

That keyed me in. And then I read the script and I went, “Wait, hang on.” I am glad that I was available to do it, because I think it’s one of the greatest things that could have happened to me at this point in my life.

Shen: It felt like a very kismet meeting of minds and hearts and souls and stuff. Still to this day, I’m like, “Thanks for having me, you guys.”

Criss: This was a train that was bound for glory with or without us.

On what they’ve learned from each other:

Criss: We went to University of Michigan together. That’s certainly a fun relating point, and something that I’m really proud of, the fact that two U of M alums share the marquee of the Belasco Theater. That’s so special.

But, to keep using the academic reference, I am an upperclassman now, which is very strange for me, as I kind of crossfade into that chapter of my life. I’ve always been the young gun. Now, being on the other side of that, I feel like I’ve been given a role of, “Okay, I am a senior now. I tell the freshmen what’s what, and hopefully, I’m saying something correct.” It’s an occasion I have to rise to. In rehearsals, from the very beginning, the loud voices of doubt were certainly prominent. I think Darren, Michael, the people who have more experience in the industry, and just experience in existing in these spaces, have taught me how to not apologize for my space that I take up, which is something that I think I’m still processing and still will continue to be processing throughout.

On what this show means for Asian-American representation on Broadway:

Shen: It means everything to me. If I was sitting in the audience, to see a show like this, to see someone who looks like me embody this character, be nuanced, be flawed, be all the kinds of things, instead of just the flavoring of a body, is everything to me.

Growing up, if you don’t see an example on the path that you’re choosing, it can feel impossible. You feel like, “Oh, there’s one spot.” That is so frustrating, to feel that sense of competition with people who look like me, instead of feeling like I stand in solidarity with them and stand in power next to them.

It’s been amazing to talk to people at the stage door who are like, “I’ve never seen myself represented on stage in this way.” I’ve never felt it where my Asian-ness isn’t the only thing that is my character. To have my Asian-ness be just a fact [of my character] is so much. It means so much to me. To see my parents see that, too. They wanted to protect me so much. They wanted me not to feel pain in this industry, and for them to see that I can inspire others is probably really exciting for them, and exciting for me too.

Criss: Everything that has happened for this show thus far was not on my itinerary. The response has been wonderful, but that’s not why we’re doing it. It’s not why we’re here. We’re in it because we found a beautiful story that we fell in love with, and we’re lucky enough to be asked to join it. It’s better to pursue something you love and potentially fail than succeed at something that you can’t stand. We’re in that rarefied wave, which is the combination of your passion and excitement matching those who are outside of it.

I want to be very clear about this, I think what I love about this show’s heart and soul is not that it is an Asian show. It is inhabited by Asian-American actors, and those Asian-American actors represent something really beautiful. I love the idea that in the future, this is a show that can have anybody from any background in it, because the story is so enduring and such a human story. My million dollar clickbait line is that I believe that the show is about as Korean as Romeo and Juliet is Italian. It’s just where we set our scene.

Now, at the same time, fuck yeah—Asian excellence on Broadway. It’s really exciting. Having any kind of representation in any mainstream commercial form of entertainment is wonderful.

On Elsie Fest, Broadway’s Music Festival, which Criss co-created and produces every year:

Criss: Elsie is such a passion project for me. It’s for this community that I love so very much, and I’m so pleased that it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own. I will keep doing it for as long as I can.

Having people like Helen, and the new guns, like Joy Woods, Lizzy McAlpine, and Rachel Zegler, people who will show up to be a part of this, is so encouraging to me. It gives me such faith in a community that I already have endless faith in and love and appreciation for. It is my small way of thanking this community for what it has given my life and trying to give it back in whatever way that I can.

Shen: Elsie, to me, it’s a love letter to the inner child, to the inner theater kid that we all are continuously. I have been a fan of this, obviously, for years. I can’t believe I got to sing A Very Potter Musical this year.

Criss: Andrew Barth Feldman was at the first Elsie Fest ever in 2015, almost 10 years ago, a little brace-faced teenager at the VIP meet and greet to meet StarKid, my friends from Michigan who made A Very Potter Musical, and there he was almost 10 years later singing the song that he was there to support with us. That is the best.

[jbaileyfansite]

Ariana Grande interviews Jonathan Bailey for VMan Magazine (2024)

Jonathan Bailey’s acting career began at the age of eight when the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company cast him in a role coveted by all little boys who like musicals: Gavroche in Les Miserables. Since then, he’s starred in contemporary plays, refined his iambic pentameter flow via several Shakespearian productions, and, in 2019, won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in the gender-swapped revival of Company. In other words, Bailey is a theater nerd. 

This made his upcoming role as Fiyero Tigelaar in the movie adaptation of the Broadway hit, Wicked, all the more unbelievable to him. Over Zoom, with co-star Ariana Grande, Bailey admits that he’s only recently had the space to fangirl over the reality that he’s playing the lead in a musical that rocked his world when he first saw it at the age of 15. Tuning in from Thailand, he and Grande chat about his upcoming project, another adaptation, Jurassic Park, and the memories of Oz that he (reportedly) carries in his pocket.

Ariana Grande: Hi, good morning. What time is it for you?

Jonathan Bailey: It’s 8am. Feeling pretty fresh.

AG: You look beautifully fresh. Just for context, for people reading, Johnny, you’re currently in Thailand. What are you up to over there?

JB: I’m on a really long holiday in the jungle, pretending to run away from fake dinosaurs… Um, no, I’m filming Jurassic Park.  And there are massive links between it and Wicked because it’s got so many of the same crew.

AG: Yes!

JB: The bereavement of leaving Wicked behind has been sort of solved by the fact that so many of them are still here. So, I’m keeping the Wicked dream alive, but with dinosaurs. 

AG: That’s so beautiful. You’re so lucky to have a little piece of Oz with you still every day.

JB: I carry Oz in my pocket. 

AG: Yes. How is it going? 

JB: I am loving it. We’re doing a whole new version of the Jurassic Park franchise.

AG: What can you say about your character, about this new franchise?

JB: I can say that it’s written by David Koepp, who wrote the original. It feels like it’s in ultimate hands to bring it back to what the original achieved. (Jurassic Park) was the first film I went to see with my whole family, and I was way too young, I was terrified. There is a similarity between doing this and Wicked, I also saw the original run of Wicked in London. 

AG: I would love to touch on Fellow Travelers, which was such an emotional and expansive project. What was the process of taking on a character like Tim, whose story is told over several decades? 

JB: Fellow Travelers will always be something that I’m incredibly proud of. For me it [was] the most fulfilling creative, emotional, and spiritual thing I’ve done. Tim and Hawke (leads in Fellow Travelers) are allegories. So many men that lost their lives. It’s never lost on me, all the other actors that couldn’t come out or were vilified for being caught having sex in toilets. All the horrific ways in which a pure thing like man-on-man love has been misconstrued.

AG: It was absolutely palpable. 

JB: I had this amazing weekend in Bangkok and I met this group of Malaysian dudes who were just so brilliant. They were doctors and they were really bright, intelligent, kind, sweet men who were having such a brilliant time. We ended up having dinner and, after a few drinks, they were telling me that they come over from Malaysia to Bangkok because they can’t be out to their families.

AG: My God.

JB: It’s so painful.

AG: I was gonna say, this leads us beautifully into The Shameless Fund, your foundation that you launched actually this week, congratulations. How does it feel that it’s finally out there in the world?

JB: It’s been a labor of love for about two years. When the second series of Bridgerton came out, I was suddenly aware of an increased platform, especially the fact Bridgerton is viewed in multiple territories where being gay is different. So, I just sort of fused the two together—

AG: It’s a beautiful way of making sense of it all. 

JB: Thank you for being an icon and an ambassador for the Shameless Fund.

AG: I’m so proud of you and I love you and your heart so much. Okay, moving on. I was wondering what things have helped you recharge your human battery?

JB: I’ve adapted my life slightly. I don’t live in a city anymore, I do a lot of swimming and gymnastics, which is something that I’ve done [since] I was younger. I [also] think it’s friends, which I know is such a sort ofeye roll [answer]. I’ve got amazing friends, they’ve always been there and I’ve been friends with them for so long.

AG: And me, for 2 years. 

JB: I’ve spiritually known you for 20 years.

AG: Yeah, 100. Let’s move on to Wicked. How did you prepare for the role of Fiyero? 

JB: I mean, it’s a complete dream come true. The preparation started when I listened to the soundtrack when I was like 15. And I remember viscerally; it sent ripples through culture. Also, I remember hearing the orchestration. I hadn’t really heard the synth-meets-full-orchestra-meets-syncopation.

Something about it just completely grabbed me. My best friend from school, me and him went to go and see it together—we were soulmates through school. And it was so funny that, like, two lads just went with it. I think the themes of Wicked have probably expanded, and that’s what I’m really excited about with the film.

AG: Yeah, it feels like it needs to be now more than ever before, perhaps.

JB: I went to go meet Jon (Chu, director). We chatted for about two and a half hours and it was really emotional. The one thing that we talked about with Fiyero: everything is so easy to him. How do you tell the story of someone who seemingly doesn’t care? What’s he frustrated by? We discussed it and found quite a human thing, I think. And, obviously, with our film, it represents extreme privilege and it’s about his bubble needing to pop. 

AG: I think our characters share that in a big way, Elphaba comes along and pops both of our bubbles. Perhaps for the first time we both are able to look at things differently. And it’s not that we’re not loving, heartful people. It’s just that we’ve never had to look outside of what affects us until we meet her.

JB: Exactly. And anyway, it was Jon. Basically, the answer to every question about Wicked is Jon Chu. Don’t you think?

AG: Yeah, I do. I think we were very spoiled to have done this with him. It felt like a teeny, little secret student thing—its intimacy. It felt so small and private until all of a sudden, we were outside, and the Daily Mail was hand gliding over our set—oh, he should play the pterodactyl in your film. 

JB: I think he’s actually hovering over right now.

AG: Can you explain what this was, please? 

JB: It was a man on a massive kite, floating around with his legs hanging down.

AG: I couldn’t believe my eyes. Well, firstly because I don’t have the best eyes. But secondly, because there’s no way. There’s no way! I was like, ah, guy on a hand glider.

JB: With a GoPro. With a GoPro on his toes.

AG: With a GoPro on his toes. Was your experience filming Wicked at all what you expected it to be?

JB: There were certain elements of it that I was incredibly impressed by and I think that is because of the love and care of Mark Platt and Jon Chu. Obviously we’ve grown up loving theater and musical theater, I always felt attached to that wonderment. I think my expectation might have been that somehow in the making of something, you lose that. But we were on those incredible sets. 

AG: Oh my gosh. Best in the world.

JB: I think I was in Wicked fan survival mode for the last 18 months. I’m starting to really get excited about it.

AG: It takes a certain amount of time to grieve something like that. I mean you’re already in Thailand and a whole different person, but it’s interesting how it takes a while and then it hits you.

Source

[too-antigonish]

How Do I Stream Here in America?

A number of people contacting me privately about the group discussion for Here In America have had questions about the mechanics of getting tickets for at-home streaming from the Orange Tree .

Here is my understanding of how everything works:

What you are buying: First and perhaps most important, I have confirmed with the box office that when you book a ticket for the online stream you can watch *at any time* and *as many times as you want* between 7.30pm BST on 22 Oct 2024 and 11.59pm BST on 25 Oct." 

Where to buy: This is the starting page for booking tickets: Here In America On-Screen

What do the dates mean? On the left you will see 4 possible booking dates: Oct. 22nd through Oct. 25th. The date you choose does not matter. All streaming tickets receive the same access.

What about the different prices? Once you click on one of the dates to book your ticket, you will see three price points:  £39.00,  £29.00 and  £15.00. Again, the price you choose to pay does not matter as far as your access to the stream. The difference price points are there to give you options depending on your financial situation. You are encouraged to pay as much as you can—knowing that money is what keeps  theaters like this running. However, most organizations also *don't want* people priced out of the arts.

What do I get instead of a "ticket"? Once you've booked your ticket, you will receive an email that you will reply to with a login and password. The login and password are what you will use to access the stream when it becomes available.

How will I actually watch the stream? This page has access instructions for streaming online OT productions:  OT On-Screen Access Instructions

The following page is currently up on the OT site as the page that will be used to stream HIA when it is released: Here In America Streaming

What if I want to be in the group discussion? If you are interested in either of the group discussions mentioned here, you will need to send me (@too-antigonish) a message because I will need to send you a private link for the discussion. 

[inkdragonworks]

June Update

Breaking the chain of not updating to talk about what I've been working on. As the absence of Poppin & Jupa here can tell, I switched projects back in April, to an older one I worked on for about 8 months in 2022. Main reason was feeling dejected a bit after the animation didn't do as well as I was expecting; been getting the impression that Tiera is more popular than them with folks lol.

Again I won't be cancelling it, or never working on PnJ, just switching focus so I can stay productive and make something that feels fun for me, which this has.

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

As a refresher, here's the game I've been picking at:

The game's current design can be broken down into:

intro sequence to introduce Tiera and the setting

initial puzzle + encounter to introduce the main mechanics

large hub in the form of Fragaria Park where you avoid the main threat, collect items, interact with side attractions, and access the 4 side areas

4 side areas, which have their own puzzles/challenges within with a primary goal at the end that progresses you towards the final escape

optional collectibles Since April I've worked on a part of the large hub, 3 of the 4 side areas, and the optional collectibles.

"Who works on optional stuff before the main game is done" well they play off of the main mechanics but mainly it's an excuse to draw something cute instead of programming.

These are Anna Banana and The Fruit Friends (Also Strawberry), characters from a cartoon show that Tiera likes (Except Strawberry).

They don't play any significant role/impact in the game (Besides Strawberry), but they reveal part of Tiera's interests, they form a small bit of the world's background, they make for fun type of collectible that gives something to do besides the main puzzles, and, again, I just felt like drawing cute shit.

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

For the hub, I worked on a themed side area dedicated to a playground. This does have puzzle elements in it, but a lot of it are silly interactions, and a reference to that cartoon I did a while back. Maybe you can recognize it here.

It's one of those "makes the setting feel more realized/fleshed out" deals.

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

For the side areas, what I've mainly been doing is settling on their exact design, blocking out the areas, and working on their puzzle sequence, obstacles, and any single screens that are tied to it.

Here's what I mean by "single screen":

Something that cuts away from the main game to it's own puzzle. This one here is for the performance theater. All graphics are placeholders just to get the logic in and see if it might work.

Making these type of puzzles is fun cause it reminds me the most of Resident Evil 1 and various flash adventure games I've played.

As for obstacles, a significant one I'm playing with for the theater is darkness, making use of Tiera's sonar to detect a safe path around deep pits.

She won't fall off right away, but it's tied to the same stamina system.

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

Another side area are the sewers, everyone's favorite video game setting. That obviously involves water, but the trickiest thing about it has been dealing with really complicated patterns of depth changing.

What that means is Tiera climbing up and falling down a lot, and trying to keep track of that. Here's what that looks like without proper graphics:

I'm very happy with how the area is turning out so far though, it's something you'd get to later and I think the puzzles do a good job of reflecting that progression.

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

The last side area I've poked at was the final sequence of the game. I've had a lot of different ideas of how to go about it but I think I'm happy with the set of them I have planned, something that builds up towards the climax and building off of what was set up in the rest of the game.

I wanna be careful about spoiling it, but here's one effect from it I've started work on:

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

I'm trying not to overshare here, though there's a lot more I've thrown into my server that I couldn't here. One of the side areas I haven't gotten to really pinning down is the Hedge Maze. I have a basic outline, but the main obstacle involved requires more dynamic logic. It's hard to settle on what that logic should be without set level design, and it's hard to settle on level design without knowing the limitations of that logic.

It's a similar issue with the main challenge of the game, both for the player and for designing: the ghosts.

What's intimidating is the feeling that they need to be very deliberate in this type of game, to balance between adding tension without veering into frustration. I'm hoping tackling everything surrounding them will make me more confident, but odds are I'll have to start with something simple and half-broken just to break the ice. And accepting I'll have to make something that gets thrown away, which I'm not used to doing... I really prefer thinking through stuff first before making it.

Anyway, thank you for reading.

[ohsalome]

Ivan and Phoebe by Oksana Lutsyshyna

Ivan and Phoebe is a novel about a revolution of consciousness triggered by very different events, both global and personal. This is a book about the choices we make, even if we decide to just go with the flow of life. It is about cruelty, guilt, love, passion – about many things, and most importantly, about Ukraine of the recent past, despite or because of which it has become what it is today.

The story told in Oksana Lutsyshyna’s novel Ivan and Phoebe is set during a critical period – the 1990s. In the three decades that have passed since gaining independence, Ukraine has experienced many socio-political, economic, and cultural changes that have yet to be fully expressed. The Revolution of Dignity in 2014 marked a pivotal moment in the country’s history, as it signaled a shift towards European integration and a strong desire to distance itself from Moscow. Prior to this, Ukrainian culture had remained overshadowed by Russian influence, struggled to compete for an audience and was consequently constrained in exploring vital issues.

77 days of February. Living and dying in Ukraine

"77 Days," is a compelling anthology by contributors to Reporters, a Ukrainian platform for longform journalism. The book, published in English as both an e-book and an audiobook by Scribe Originals.

"77 Days'' offers a tapestry of styles and experiences from over a dozen contributors, making it a complex work to define. It includes narratives about those who stayed put as the Russians advanced, and the horror they encountered, like Zoya Kramchenko’s defiant "Kherson is Ukraine," Vira Kuryko’s somber "Ten Days in Chernihiv," and Inna Adruh’s wry "I Can’t Leave – I’ve Got Twenty Cats." The collection also explores the ordeal of fleeing, as in Kateryna Babkina’s stark "Surviving Teleportation '' and "There Were Four People There. Only the Mother Survived." 

It also highlights tales of Ukrainians who created safe havens amidst the turmoil, such as Olga Omelyanchuk’s "Hippo and the Team," about zookeepers safeguarding animals in an occupied private zoo near Kyiv, and one of Paplauskaite’s three pieces, "Les Kurbas Theater Military Hostel," depicting an historic Lviv theater turned shelter for the displaced, including the writer/editor herself.

In the Eye of the Storm. Modernism in Ukraine 1900’s – 1930’s

This book was inspired by the exhibition of the same name that took place in Madrid, at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, and is currently at the Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany. 

Rather than being a traditional catalogue, the publishers and authors took a more ambitious approach. Rather than merely publishing several texts and works from the exhibition, they choose to showcase the history of the Ukrainian avant-garde in its entirety – from the first avant-garde exhibition in Kyiv to the eventual destruction of works and their relegation to the "special funds" of museums, where they were hidden from public view.

These texts explain Ukrainian context to those who may have just learned about the distinction between Ukrainian and Russian art. Those "similarities" are also a product of colonization. It was achieved not only through the physical elimination of artists or Russification – artists were also often forced to emigrate abroad for political or personal reasons. Under the totalitarian regime, discussing or remembering these artists was forbidden. Archives and cultural property were also destroyed or taken to Russia.

"The Yellow Butterfly" by Oleksandr Shatokhin 

"The Yellow Butterfly" is poised to become another prominent Ukrainian book on the themes of war and hope. It has been listed among the top 100 best picture books of 2023, according to the international art platform dPICTUS.

The book was crafted amidst the ongoing invasion. Oleksandr and his family witnessed columns of occupiers, destroyed buildings, and charred civilian cars. Shatokhin describes the book’s creation as a form of therapy, a way to cope with the horrors. "During this time my vision became clearer about what I wanted to create – a silent book about hope, victory, the transition from darkness to light, something symbolic," he explains.

Although "The Yellow Butterfly" is a wordless book, today its message resonates with readers across the globe.

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails by Halyna Kruk

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails is a bilingual poetry book (Ukrainian and English) about war, written between 2013 and 2022, based on Halyna’s experience as an author, volunteer, wife of a military man and witness to conflict. 

The Ukrainian-speaking audience is well-acquainted with Halyna Kruk – a poet, prose author and literature historian. Kruk is increasingly active on the international stage, with her poetry featured in numerous anthologies across various languages, including Italian, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, English, German, Lithuanian, Georgian and Vietnamese. 

For an English-speaking audience, her poetry unveils a realm of intense and delicate experiences, both in the midst of disaster and in the anticipation of it. The poems are succinct, direct, and highly specific, often depicting real-life events and individuals engaged in combat, mourning, and upholding their right to freedom.

[rippleberries]

Your Weyounsday treat: One of the first articles about Jeffrey Combs published.

Arizona Daily Star Sun [Tucson, AZ], 29 April, 1979, pp. 1, 4

Did they have to give the article that title? (ಥ﹏ಥ)

[BEGIN ARTICLE TRANSCRIPT]

The Arizona Daily Star TUCSON, SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 1979 Sunday Loneliness comes with actor's role

At 24 and looking as if he still drips with innocence, young is a word that can be freely used to describe Jeffrey Combs. He is young, looks young, and is in the young years of his professional life.

Also, he had an early and, given his calling, perhaps prophetic brush with a person of that name.

"My parents had a car accident when I was about a year old and we had to go into a hospital," explained Combs over lunch. "Loretta Young was in the same hospi- tal and had requested that a nurse bring a baby to her every morning to hold. So, while I was there, a nurse would come to my mother in the morning to take me up to her room and Young would feed me."

Youthful naiveté is what Combs' character in the Arizona Theatre Company production of "The Show-Off" is all about. In the play, which has its last performance tonight at 7 in the Tucson Community Center Little Theatre, Combs plays the youngest son of the family, a con- stantly preoccupied fellow who trips over his tongue and shoelaces and brings home the bacon with a formula.

This has been Combs' first season with ATC and he says "The Show-Off" has been his favorite play. Tucson audiences have also seen him as the narrator/nephew in "A Christmas Carol," as Valere in "Tartuffe" and as Diego in "The Royal Hunt of the Sun." But it's the current George Kelly comedy that places as the favorite, partially because it feels so familiar.

"The whole feeling of the show is so human, so close in a way to my own life that I didn't have to reach that far to get the feeling." Combs, the fifth of seven children, knows what a tightknit family is like.

"My own family ties are very, very close and I miss the times of being together with them. It's hard to be in such a nomadic kind of work I always want to see them.

"At times, being an actor can be one of the most rewarding things in the world. And at other times it can be very lonely."

Combs is the youngest member of the ATC resident company and he has experienced both the rewards and the loneliness this season. He says that it's part and parcel of the career he's chosen, and that it will be tempered as he grows older and gets more professional experience in the process. But he's impatient and knows it.

"One of the disadvantages of working in Tucson is the isolation. The sheer locale of the city being geographically where it is.

"I am an impatient person. There are people that I love, to whom I've had to say 'see you later.' They ask 'why?' and I have to say I'm going to Tucson to this theater. And that I might not be the same person when I get back, just as they might not be the same."

But, Combs says philosophically, the phases of life are like that. And he knows that he has been free in making the choices, even though they still hurt at times.

"There was no question in my mind whether I wanted to come here or not - certainly I felt the sacrifices were worth it. And I would like to come back here next year."

But he would also like to have the chance to experi- ment with his own ideas, collaborating with others in improvisational structures, using his own material to cre- ate worlds, rather than someone else's.

"The chances to do those things would be the only reservations I would have about coming back. It's not that I wouldn't want to-Sandy (Rosenthal) is one of the most energetic spirits of the theater. He loves it more than anybody I've ever seen. But I have this itching and my focuses and desires may go in a direction that might not be appropriate here."

Combs says that the idea of an ensemble resident company is not new to him; in some ways, it's the system he knows best from his work with the Pacific Conservatory Theatre of the Performing Arts and the Old Globe Theatre.

"I've pretty much been nurtured, pushed in the en- semble direction all along. I haven't really gone out and jobbed into a company for a short period of time, or been put in the position that the prime directive is to 'get the show up by 8 p.m. Tuesday." But he's found that he's grown in the season he's spent with ATC.

"I've synthesized some of the things I've learned relearned them through experience. I feel really relaxed in this company. Not in the sense that I'm so confident that what I'm doing is good, so I can relax, but in the sense that I can make a mistake and not feel like I've really let someone down. I can learn from the situation.

"And I've learned a sense of what the professional world is like, what the good side is like. Take someone like Bob Ellenstein. He doesn't have to be here - the only reason he is is that he's dedicated, that the experiences here will make him a better actor. He could just as easily be making 15 times more money somewhere else, doing things that were not as enriching to him."

Combs says he is unhappy with a portion of his abili- ties, particularily when he senses he's acting out of techni- cal proficiency rather than a more emotionally-based ground. There needs to be a balance, and he says that his season with ATC has given him the opportunity to work on that weakness.

And he says he waivers between the acting world and his own desires for domesticity. On the other hand, he's exactly where he wants to be.

"I love what I'm doing. The commitment is so drastic that it can be frightening, at times. The more renown you get, the more value placed upon you as an artist, the more freedom you have and the more choices you can make. But, being a young actor, you can't have all those freedoms yet.

"One needs to have some sort of perspective from other things. It's just that I want so badly to be in this business and to do the things I want to do. Maybe it's an obnoxious thing for someone only 24 years old to say, but I don't want to be a victim. I'd rather be the perpetrator, if you will." [END ARTICLE TRANSCRIPT]

[BEGIN PHOTO CAPTION TRANSCRIPT] Combs says that he has felt lonely at times this season, away from his family, friends and home base in California. At the same time, this year has been one of growth with the sort of challenges any actor needs, particularily in the formative, initial years of a professional career.

Now finishing his first sea- son with the Arizona Theatre Company, Jeffrey Combs hopes that it won't be his last. But the 24-year-old actor also wants to scratch the itch he has to do some of his own work in a collaborative, improvisational situation.

Photo by Tim Fuller [END PHOTO CAPTION TRANSCRIPT]

[rz-jocelyn]

[NEWS] Sato Ryuji has been Cast in "Hiragana Actors☆League ~The Story of Three Kings~"

Sato Ryuji, along with Tamaki Yuki, has been cast in "Hiragana Actors☆League ~The Story of Three Kings~" as one of the butlers to King Terayama Takeshi.

Online live and archive streams have also been announced for all the performances.

INFORMATION FOR SATO RYUJI'S APPEARANCE

Date: November 02, 2024

Times: 12.00 (Japan time) / 15.30 (Japan time) / 19.00 (Japan time)

Venue: Hall 3, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse 1

MAIN CAST

Terayama Takeshi

Sato Ryuji

Tamaki Yuki

NOTE:

[1] Terayama Takeshi reached out directly to Sato Ryuji to ask if he could participate in this project. Below is a short translation of their exchange about this.

SATO RYUJI @ryuji7117

Actors☆League ~The Story of Three Kings~ I received a phone call directly from Tera-kun. It makes me feel happy to be needed.

TERAYAMA TAKESHI @tera_revival

Even though you're busy, thank you 😭 You're indispensable!

Source(s): ( x , x )

[2] Ryuji and Terayan have co-starred with each other in the "Rock Opera 'R&J'" and "'Jujutsu Kaisen' The Stage".

To watch the "Rock Opera 'R&J'", please refer to this link: HERE

There will be a free online stream of "Jujutsu Kaisen The Stage -Kyoto Sister-School Goodwill Event & The Origin of Obedience-" on October 12, 2024.

To watch the stream, please refer to this link: HERE

[3] Ryuji and Tamaki Yuki have worked with each other since "Present◆5" in 2013. Since then, they've worked with each other in productions like the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" and most recently, the "Jakkotai" Stage.

The "Jakkotai" Stage is currently available to stream internationally for a limited period of time. To watch the stage, please refer to this link: HERE

Tama-chan also recently invited Ryuji to be a guest on his online streaming programme "Tamaki Yuki's Gekka Bijin". To watch Ryuji's guest appearance in the programme, please refer to this link: HERE

STORY

Once upon a time, there were 3 kingdoms.

The Presher Kingdom, ruled by King Tera The Eminashi Kingdom, ruled by King Shunly The Hazukarashi Kingdom, ruled by King Karahashi

The kingdoms used to be on very bad terms and were constantly fighting, but two generations ago, their kings formed an alliance and they lived in peace.

Recently, however, the three kingdoms were hit with a major problem. Their lands have been transforming into deserts, an effect brought about by global warming. The greenery in the 3 kingdoms start to gradually disappear. At that time, it was decided that, once every 20 years, a "gift exchange" would be held between the 3 kingdoms where they would give each other gifts.

This is a fluffy story about the 3 kings as they work together with their citizens to give gifts to each other.

LIVE AND ARCHIVE STREAM INFORMATION

To purchase the live streams for the performances, please refer to the links below.

12.00 (Japan time): HERE

15.30 (Japan time): HERE

19.00 (Japan time): HERE

Archive streams for the performances are all available after the performances end until 23.59 (Japan time) on November 09, 2024.

NOTE: "Theater Complex TOWN", which is the site that is streaming "Hiragana Actors☆League ~The Story of Three Kings~", is also the site that hosts the "Rock Opera 'R&J'".

Source: ( x )

[jgroffdaily]

A new interview at the New York Times with Jonathan, Daniel and Lindsay has been released. Gift article at the link, and excerpts below:

3 Actors, 1 Unshakable Bond

Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe are the heart of the tear-streaked “Merrily We Roll Along” Broadway revival.

What propels the highs and lows of “Merrily We Roll Along,” the 1981 Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical that begins performances this month at the Hudson Theater, is friendship. But for the stars of this first Broadway revival — Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe — embodying the implosion of that friendship may well be more emotionally charged, rewarding and wrenching than anything they’ve done before.

As often happens with actors portraying intimacy, the sentiments they evoke in performance have bled into real life — or the good feelings anyway, when their characters are still fresh, hopeful and unconditionally smitten with one another. These well-seasoned pros may be in their 30s or early 40s, but when they describe their relationship — offstage, I mean, although the line becomes blurry — they’re as effusive and dewy as Romeo and Juliet before the going got tough.

“It’s such a special show in that way,” said Groff, 38, who received his first Tony nomination at 22 for playing a sexually addled adolescent in the musical “Spring Awakening.” “Often I feel you get that with the people you play romantic interests with. But the love story in this show is the friends. So there’s this intensity in a friendship that I’ve never experienced with a play before.”

Groff made those observations last fall when “Merrily,” the American directorial debut of the British actress (and frequent Sondheim interpreter) Maria Friedman, had just started previews in its Off Broadway incarnation at New York Theater Workshop. That its transfer to Broadway seemed guaranteed once it opened had much to do with the aching, loving sincerity with which its cast suffused it.

When the Workshop production ended its limited, sold-out run in January, Groff said he and his co-stars were “a wreck, even knowing we were going to Broadway, to say goodbye to an experience that meant so much.”

Nonetheless, Groff, Mendez and Radcliffe agreed to think as little as possible about “Merrily” for the next seven months. And while they continued to keep in close touch (they all attended “Sweeney Todd” together), they avoided discussing it.

And so the shadows of Frank, Mary and Charlie were banished, and life, being life, continued — in some cases, momentously. Mendez and Groff both worked on television projects (which they could not discuss because of the actors’ strike). Mendez moved back to Manhattan from California with her 2-year-old daughter.

Groff saw Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour four times, officiated at a friend’s wedding in Portugal and attended a 10-day silent meditation retreat in Utah. (Two of his last calls, before he surrendered his phone, were to Mendez and Radcliffe, to let them know where he’d be.) And, yes, he and Mendez both saw “Barbie.”

The bond among the stars felt, if anything, tighter than when I spoke to them last December. They were aware of it from the moment they met. “When the three of us first walked into the room,” Groff said, “there was a natural — —”

“It was a heart connection,” Mendez said.

Groff continued: “It’s a vibe. It’s chemistry. You have it on dates sometimes. And then going night after night after night and digging into the energy that was between us and the show deepening it. The three of us have — it’s such a gift — a meant-to-be alignment of personality and energy.”

What they share, among other things, is a bone-deep love of that currently beleaguered art form, the theater. Groff and Mendez, who turned 40 this year, arrived in Manhattan in their late teens from Pennsylvania and California to “pound the pavements,” as they said, sounding like the hoofers in a Busby Berkeley musical.

(“That’s so Dan, that his first role would be ‘Equus,’” Groff said.)

So would [Radcliffe] describe himself as a member of that New York-centric cult that makes a religion of the Broadway musical? ��They’re the high priests,” he said, pointing to the others. “I’m like an altar boy.” He said that hearing a perfectly normal phrase “like ‘How do you do?’” will trigger his co-stars to start performing a lyric with just that phrase.

Sure enough, when a few moments later I mentioned that I grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., Groff and Mendez responded immediately and simultaneously in swooping falsetto and soprano. “Winstooon-Saaalemm,” they sang, quoting a number I had almost forgotten from the musical “The Light in the Piazza.”

When they discussed their lyrics and dialogue from “Merrily,” they often seemed tremulous with the excitement of discovery. With an exactitude and passion that was unexpected at the end of a long rehearsal day, they parsed several scenes and musical numbers for me, especially moments when their characters just miss the chance to repair what’s gone wrong in their relationship.

Groff and Mendez started crying during several such descriptions, as if they had only just fully realized the extent of the destruction being done.

Groff, who grew up in Lancaster, Pa., said, “I know when I was a kid, theater was like an escape for me, as a closeted teenager. And I think I really relate to when Frank says, ‘Music is my life, without music, I would die.’ Musical theater at that age was, like, lifesaving. And so to be now, at 38, doing a musical as a more fully realized version of who I am … I always went to theater to escape and to express and get out of my life completely. And it’s like this show — and maybe this is what makes it so unique and what brought me to this experience — this show is both the escape and bringing me into my own life at the same time.”

When Groff, whom she knew casually, called her to say that a casting agent had said she would be perfect for the part of Mary, she had become a mother and was newly divorced. “I was like, I don’t live in New York anymore, and I don’t know who I really am right now. I feel really lost. How am I going to do this?” Mendez said.

“But somehow, magically, it all just worked. And when I got back here, the first day I walked in with them, it was just like, Oh my God, I’m home. And I know who I am and what I’m made to do. Of course I ended up here. There was no other place to end up.”

[just-antithings]

This is not about antis, exactly, but there's definitely a similar vibe in the sentiments and it annoys me and I want to complain, so.

Apparently there's a program in my country that schools can sign up into that offers free "art experiences" to 8th graders (so about 14-year-olds). Looking at the program's website quickly, it seems to include plays, music concerts, probably art museum tours, I don't know what all. But like, either way, any of the stuff that the program offers is vetted beforehand to make sure it's suitable, and worksheets created for the kids to do before and after the show to try and get them to engage with art and understand what it makes them feel and whatever, and the kids get to rate whatever art thing it was they got to go to, afterwards.

Now, apparently, one of the things this program has arranged tickets for is some theater's current production of a comedic play written in the 19th century by one of the more famous playwrights/authors of my country's history (whose work, incidentally, was in his own time frequently under fire for its immoral and/or otherwise inappropriate depictions of whatever). I have never seen or read this particular play, so I can't tell you much about the plot or what the content of the text itself would be, beyond that it's a comedy that probably includes at least one character making a fool of himself, since that tends to be typical for the author's work afaik.

Anyway, to get to the point, the specific production that was on the program included, apparently, a scene in which, for comedic reasons, the main character's pants were pulled down enough for his bare ass to be visible, and something was written across his buttocks. And some other scenes which maybe, at least in the eyes of some in the audience, could be considered possibly somewhat sexually suggestive, though, again, I have not seen the particular production so I can't weigh in on whether they really are or not. Either way, even at worst, it's... come on, the school groups that was shown to were kids of about 14 years old, if they've never seen anything more sexually suggestive than that in movies or tv or somewhere, I'm honestly very surprised. In any case, the play contains no depictions of actual sex. And again, the play was checked by professionals and deemed to be appropriate for the program's art experience list.

Anyway, apparently the principal of some Christian school wrote an opinion piece in some news paper about oh how terrible and unnecessary sexualized and kids should not be exposed to that and so on and so forth. Aaaaand since then, the theater's social medias have been swamped with harrassing comments and, *sigh*, people accusing various people working on the production of pedophilia. To the point that the theater has had to switch off commenting altogether on many of their posts and made a policy of not answering phone calls from unknown comments anymore, because the shitstorm just got to that point.

And I just. literally WHY THE FUCK are people like this?? like. how do you even get from "theater play includes a scene where an actor's bare behind is visible and maybe a few other things with a slight sexual tone happen" to "people working for this theater are pedophiles and putting children in danger". Just. geez. it's so fucking stupid. Also I find it ironic that this was a work from the 19th century, that in its own time shocked people and was deemed immoral, and... what do you know, a modern rendition of the play also shocks people and gets deemed as immoral, apparently.

ugh that’s so shitty. time is a flat circle

[i-like-books-and-women]

Sorry for sending you another ask but you mentioned that you're in band and I'm wondering if there are any traditions or superstitions that you keep up with?

like for theater we cannot say macbeth backstage or anywhere near the theater, it will curse the production

Don't apologize bestie I love talking with everyone on here.

Snjdnejwjdje omg I get to yap about band.

We have loads of traditions. Not so much superstitions but shit tons of tradition. My school has had a marching band since the 1950s/60s so there's literally decades of stuff. We were at the first state finals with the current competative marching band organization in my state and we were at the most recent one last year at the 50th anniversary kinda history. (There's a lot of stuff so i'm gonna shove it under a page break)

Anyways now for the traditions. There's a lot and different sections have different ones but anyway.

So we have dismissal at the end of practice where we stand in a big blob with the drum majors (field conductors) in the middle (it's fucking rank in there but we persevere) and they hiss and everyone else hisses and pushes in closer. The dms clap three times and the chant goes like this in a call and responce: "band atten-hut, pride. Feet, together. Stomach, in. Chest, out. Shoulders, up back down. Eyes, with pride with pride. What are we working for, excellence excellence. What's it gonna take, hard work hard work" and then the dms go "You are dissmissed". The chant is basically how your posture is for marching. And then this was added last year after dismissal someone from the trumpet section goes "hipp hipp" and we go "hooray" and that call and response is done three times.

On competition days we practice before we leave and we crowd around like we're gonna dissmiss and the seniors take turns each week and give a lil speech/pep talk. Then a different senior (I think we're either gonna do me and my friend together or we trade off but normally it's the same person every time) comes in the middle of the circle and leads a different chant "I, I, will, will, leave, leave, no, no, doubt, doubt, I will leave no doubt, I will leave no doubt, I will leave no doubt, I will leave no doubt." (There's a lot of chanting and screaming lol).

We also have the band prayer that everyone says before contest days too "in this game called life we ask for a field that is fair, and the courage to do and to dare. And if we shall win let it be by the code with our faith and our honor held high. And if we shall loose let us stand by the road and cheer as the winners go by."

At the end of the year we have the band banquet and we have the drum major hand off where we stand in a circle and whichever drum major(s) are graduating march around the circle and when they get to whoever is staying and whichever new people are going to be dms they have them present and resend arms (essentially salute) and the dm(s) that are leaving hand off the whistles (that are never used) and then they break and start hugging. After that everyone crowds around and we dissmiss for the last time (it's funny cause we're all screaming and sobbing).

At state my freshman year I found a cool rock after we were already in uniform so I shoved it in my bra and I'm a big rock collector so now for semi state a decent sized group of us shove rocks in our bras for good luck.

Every year for graduation we play homeward bound and all the seniors get the solos (it's the last thing they play with us before graduating and it's a whole emotional thing).

For semi state we do paper plate awards which are always fun.

For regionals the parents decorate the band room with posters and pictures and all sorts of fun shit

Band Halloween (the parents set up trick or treating stations and everyone wears costumes all practice) and senior night are basically the same night (it's our last practice before the week of state which we do a community show instead of our regular Thursday night practice. The parents get/make cakes/cupcakes decorated in theme with all the shows that that senior class did.

For regionals, semi state, and state we have music notes/flags with our names on them that go up on the road circle in the middle of our town. There's a sign that goes up that says "your regionals/semi state/state bound marching band". When we make state they put them up on the way in from the student parking lot at the high school and then they go back to the road circle.

Since 2014 the color guard has decorated canvases based on whatever fall/winter guard show (one for each) was done and they have the show name, year, every single person who was apart of the guard for that show's name on it, a cute little phrase (on the fall guard ones) and the seniors get a little special decoration cause they're old and special.

We're lucky that with the way our school functions that band is 2 class periods so we only have after school practice on Thursday nights and on Thursdays the parents set up a table that has cookies, fruit, snacks, drinks and all that stuff. And we call it cookie Thursdays and we learned how to sign cookie Thursday so now every Thursday you look across the band and it's just us signing "cookie Thursday" across the field at each other.

Band sunsets are gorgeous so we do "sky appreciation" where we just look at the sky cause it's pretty.

Each section for the most part has their own dismissal. Me and my girls have "1 2 3 slay *groan tube noise* *crisscross jump* *wiggle*" and then I say "okay go home" and we have an honorary member of the flute section (my friend and I don't remember why he counts but he's the alto sax section leader) does it with us.

Saxes for semi state do this thing where they open a pack of pokemon cards everyone gets one to shove in their shoe blindly and they put the nicest one that's left in the lil kitchenette we have in the band room. And on contest day before we leave from warm ups they go "may the force be with you or not the choice is yours". (There's 6 kids in band from my grade and half of them are saxes)

For band camp we do variations of our regular stretches that make it more fun and a couple others that we only do for band camp. We do dress up days too (decided on by the seniors) and we have a talent show. We also have senior skits and speeches. Skits is an "in a nutshell" recap of their past three years and the start of their fourth. And senior speeches is when they talk about what they wanna do with the rest of their lives and why band is great and why people should stay. (There's always crying cause that's when it really sets in that it's their last for them and everyone else). The seniors also do a senior prank durring band camp.

And then every time the seniors give speeches they always start it with "hi I'm blank" and we do throughout AA "Hi blank" thing every damn time.

Also when you want someone to zip up your uniform you ask them "can you do me" and when you want them to unzip you you ask them to either "undo me" or "do me in reverse" .

We go for a run led by a person/people chosen by the dms and if they run us past any signs you slap them. If you run around someone who's in band's car you drag your hands all over it.

I think that's about it in terms of traditions and superstitions. (A lot more of these are more superstitious than i thought.) It's so fucking crazy that I'm a senior this year and I don't wanna leave but there's a bunch of cool whit that comes with it so a win is a win. There's definitely been some traditions that we don't do anymore cause they were stupid or harmful and there's a couple that my class wants to start up but this is pretty much the comprehensive list of all the band traditions from my high school.

[quitealotofsodapop]

[bonding experience/enrichment.]

Just food? What about things like theater, since SWK does know Mac was interested in that?

Wait...when did musicals become a thing?

Don't worry! The gang take Macaque out on all sorts of activities when he's up for it, not just food.

Macaque quickly gets a hang of television and films, much to SWK's surprise. ("It's recorded on wax and film and projected using light and electric signals. It's not that hard to understand.") But the second Tang mentions seeing a live version of a musical like say Les Miserables, then Macaque *immediately* wants in.

"Modern" theatre has been around since about 1800s, but theres a lot of variation depending on where you were in asia at the time of Jttw. A lot of stage shows in China during the pre-Tang dynasty were song and dance dramas recreating real life events, or battles. Shadow Puppetry (like with Mac enjoys) became a thing during the Han Dynasty (140 – 87 BCE). Depending on when Macaque passed away, he could have been exposed to the romantic-comedy era of Zaju theatre in the Song (960–1279) dynasty.

Macaque really doesn't like crowds, but he can attend a live show as long as he has someone to ground him. The first musical the others bring him to is one that infamously uses shadow puppetry in it's effects; The Lion King.

Macaque is silent for the entire production, so much so that the others think he's bored stiff - except for Wukong who knows what Mac looks like when he's completely enthralled. And because Mac has been subconciously clutching SWK's hand since "Circle of Life".

The second "King of Pride Rock" finishes, Macaque jumps to applaud and cheer. He gets so excited talking about the effects and music afterwards that he can't stop stimming (hand flapping and jumping into his shadows) and ends up crashing asleep the second him and Wukong get home. He's the kinda guy to bring flowers to throw on stage for the actors.

He gets so infamous at the theatre as a frequent and supportive guest, that he gets offered a job working there. Mac quickly accepts. Macaque presents his first shadow play that very halloween at a children's matinee - a few traditional fairytales (like the story of Chang'e and Hou yi, and the tales of Nuwa), capped off with his infamous "The Hero and the Warrior" story, with a slightly more... hopeful ending. He's gets a little flustered when the kids starts asking "Did the Hero and the Warrior get married after?" at the end. Especially when he remembers that Wukong (along with the rest of the gang + Nezha) came to support his opening show. His shows become very popular for all the effort and heart he puts into them, and his insane shadow puppetry skills. Ends up with a few friends/co-workers from the theatre who kinda know he's The Six Earred Macaque, but they aren't saying anything.

Some extra theatre/musical hcs I have for the LMK characters:

Current favorite musicals/plays of Macaque's include; Wicked (the themes of persecution, the unfairness of history, broken friendships, and grief really speaks to him), The Phantom of the Opera (only he understands the motivations of a drama king), and Mamma Mia (he likes the Abba songs).

Wukong gets bored like... real easily. He's a comedy guy. But he'd rather be bored watching something with Macaque than alone. He tries to underplay how interested he is in things cus he thinks he's just annoying people. He accidentally "WHOA!"ed loudly the first ever time he ever saw the live costume change/transformation in Beauty and the Beast. He got really embarassed, until Mac backed him up with his own excited hooting. He also really enjoyed Great Gatbsy ("That wasnt exactly a musical, peaches." "It had a lot of songs though." "Fair point.").

Pigsy doesn't really care for musicals, prefers straight acting. But he'd be lying if he said he didn't cry during The Waitress.

Tang is a Nerd. A big history Nerd. He has seen almost every historical musical and play there is, and critiques them harshly for accuracy. Except for Hamilton - he will relent for the eye and ear candy alone.

Nezha has really old fashioned tastes. He likes traditional chinese opera. His fave is "The Heavenly Maid Scatters Blossoms". He also liked "Matilda".

Princess Iron Fan and DBK have seen "Romeo and Juliet" like hundreds of times, in multiple languages. PIF stopped seeing the show after her husband was imprisoned. She does however have a ridiculously in-depth knowledge of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan era plays. DBK unashamedly loves sappy romantic musicals, and will sing the love songs to PIF when he can.

So yeah. Lots of theatre enrichment for the drama king himself.

[twstfanblog]

So it's been said that Vil and Yuu met before Rook and Yuu. Do you have any idea for when in the timeline Vil and Yuu met? What was their relationship like at first? I'm so curious as to how they got to their current bitchy queen siblings relationship.

I need to just buckle down and WRITE MY MAIN STORY FIC. But timeline wise, I change Book 1 pretty heavily, because having it start like...the night of the prolouges end always bothered me. So its a good few weeks before that even kicks off, giving me plenty of time to relationship build.

Buckle up this'll be a bit.

After the first week of school, I have the NRC club fair. This is where you check out clubs, sign up, or do your tryouts. Yuu looks at all the clubs NRC has to offer, but Ortho is the one to point her toward the Film research club, since he is an unofficial member.

Yuu actually insulted Vil during the opening ceremony by alluding his eyebrows were fucked up. She apologizes, and instantly, Yuu is a little shit and Vil won't stand for it. But she's wanting to do tech work, a thing their club is severely lacking in, so he allows her to join.

From there, they clash softly but frequently. Yuu loves shitty movies and thinks you can learn more from them than good ones. Her favorite new hobby is also traumatizing people with movies.

Yuu was a little theater kid back in her old world so she actually knows what she's doing tech wise. She's also a decently talented singer, a fact she doesn't really gloat about. Vil begins to learn she's a budding little triple threat; sings, acts, and dances, all pretty well. He wants to see her really work on those skills, a thing Yuu refuses to do because those are all hobbies and not something she wants to really grind on.

Yuu's a jack of all trades. Shes got decent skill and talent in a thousand things, but she doesn't care to master a single one of them. A fact that drives Vil up a fucking wall.

They snip at each other constantly in the beginning. Something that would frustrate Vil, because he normally keeps his cool better than this. The real start was when they found a common dislike of something. Neige.

Yuu later in canon is fine with Neige, hates the dwarves more than she dislikes him. But before she was very open about her distaste for him and being frustrated that his face seemed to be everywhere. That's when Vil started to be a little endeared by her.

There's also the fact Yuu does like fashion and makeup. Makeup being one she had to stop doing for a while because she wasn't sure what products were safe for her to use in twist. And the last thing she wanted was to have an allergic reaction on her face. Vil helps out because he DID like the eyeliner she had on and was wondering why she's been bare faced for almost three weeks.

Their relationship honestly starts out antagonistic, but from Vil learning more about Yuu via founding out all of the little talents and hobbies she possesses, they get closer, and their common interests really shine through in their friendship.