#//all the characters have their moments and everyone loves them and yet ricky as a protagonist gets all this flack for messing up sometimes

[izzysillyhandsy]

How I learned to stop being angry and love the Death Scene (for now)

This may be a controversial take, but I've come to the conclusion that Izzy's death scene maybe wasn't badly written after all.

There is one big aspect of this scene that I really love: it was 100% in character for Izzy AND Ed (and everyone else too) at that point in their story.

BUT it only works if we are not expected to believe that 1. this was in any way a happy ending for any of them and 2. that this arc is finished.

If Izzy stays dead permanently, his death and the way it happened, what was said and notably what wasn't, was tragic for everyone involved - especially Ed - and we should feel bad about it. This isn't an uplifting scene of closure for either Izzy or Ed, and it is totally understandable that most Izzy fans were crushed by it (and Ed fans, even those who don't like Izzy, should be too!).

If there is no possibility that anyone, in any way, can talk to Izzy ever again and (in Ed's case) clean up the mess between them - then this is not a comedy any more. It's a tragedy. And it should be treated as such by the show and the creators (and this might be where disappointment lies waiting).

The death scene by itself though was fitting, if we look at where Ed and Izzy are on their character arcs at the end of S2. It played out exactly as I'd have expected.

Izzy - All about Eddie

The main problem I (and many others) had with Izzy's death scene is that it is all about Ed.

Izzy is apologizing for everything that happened, including Ed cutting his fuckin' leg off. He is reassuring Ed that he wants to go, it's ok, no need to be sad. He encourages Ed to be soft, emotional, himself. He tells him that his biggest fear, being unloveable to anyone except Izzy, isn't real - he has a family now.

And, now that I've had time to think about it, I realized: YES this is exactly what Izzy would do.

All of S2 was about Izzy breaking the chain, but until the end it was still all about Ed for him (because it's not as easy as cutting off a rotten leg, unfortunately). Izzy would make his last moments about Ed, trying to do as much good as possible in the short time he had left. Or, trying to undo as much of what he thought he'd done wrong.

And I really don't want to take away from Izzy's accomplishments and character growth in S2. He'd come so far already! After years and years of singleminded devotion and love he'd finally realized that their form of entanglement was destructive.

Izzy broke up with Ed in Ep2 - and it almost killed him both of them. He started to look for meaning outside of his relationship with Ed, rediscovering aspects of himself that had long been buried and forgotten. He began, tentatively, to form bonds to members of the crew and put himself out there, away from Ed's side, away from being Ed's voice and Ed's hands, ruled by Ed's emotions.

But there wasn't enough time: still, everything he did was, in one way or another, at least partly about Ed.

Whittling - a Blackbeard metaphor Training Stede - "What did he say about me specifically" La vie en rose - a love song about "the one" and promises for life Hiya boys - oh my god he's trying so hard here but this is killing him, isn't it Bonding with Stede at Jackie's - "He's a complicated man" The Ricky monologue - so much passion behind every word, not getting what you want, letting go of ego for something larger - the whole speech was (at least partly) about Ed

(I believe the first Ricky monologue about belonging is more about Ed than the crew and I know this is not a popular take. Still, for me it makes sense because this is how Izzy felt for decades. I don't think he has shaken that mindset yet - give up your ego, your own dreams and personality for something larger - Ed&Izzy or Blackbeard. When he says "he crew" it feels like a bit of an afterthought - there is a pause.)

So, at the end of S2, Izzy is not over Ed at all - he's deeply hurt, feels incredibly guilty (unreasonably so!) and is repressing a lot of what happened.

He's still so entangled with Ed - if this is his last chance to make things right, he will.

And as much as I would have loved seeing Izzy dying surrounded by his loving family, he wasn't there yet. Not as long as Ed was around. And I think the crew understood. They understood Izzy more then he understood himself at one point ("You're in a toxic relationship with Blackbeard"). They understood what he was going through, and they gave him space to say goodbye to the man he had loved for his whole life.

Izzy died how he lived - all wrapped up in Eddie. And at this point in his life, I wouldn't have expected anything else.

Ed - All about us, you and Me

I love the symbolism of these 2 frames - while Izzy's bloody hand is entangled in Ed's hair until death (and beyond), Ed's bloody hand is putting a distance between Izzy and everyone else but himself.

I wonder how Ed would have taken it if it had been the other way round - if Izzy had found himself a Stede at the start of S1.

I think not well is an understatement.

Even though Ed seems constantly annoyed by Izzy in S1 (and violently destructive towards him in S2), at no point did I get the impression that he actually wanted Izzy to leave, for Izzy to love him less intently or be less devoted.

But, it wasn't very much about Izzy as a person, or Izzy's happiness, or their shared happiness anymore. I think Ed saw himself and Izzy as "together forever, us two against the world", but without putting any work in or pausing to think how Izzy was actually feeling (and I am 100% sure that Ed knew how much Izzy loved him and how little love he got in return).

But being with Izzy was Ed's whole life, they were two halves of the same whole, and Ed even kinda expected Izzy to stay around after he fell in love with Stede ("We could have worked this out!") and didn't really think about how this never, ever could have worked out for the kind of relationship they were having (this is how Steddyhands... was so compelling actually).

So is it any wonder that, in Izzy's last moments on earth, Ed wants to have him all to himself? He sends Stede away. He signals the crew to stay (waaayy) back. He cradles Izzy in his arms, his back to the crew and everyone else who loved him.

And although, at the start, he tries to get a word in (to apologize back, to tell him he's forgiven) - Izzy dies without hearing anything that wasn't directly related to Ed and Ed's feelings.

Ed never tells him he loves him. He doesn't tell him how much Izzy will be missed for himself and not for what he could do for Ed. How important he was to Ed all those years.

The only thing Izzy gets from Ed before he dies is "You can't go. You can't leave me. Please! You're my only family."

What will happen to Ed? You can't do this to Ed! Ed has noone else! And as sad as this is, it is in character for him at this point in his life.

Ed is fundamentally a very self-centered (and self-hating) person, and his journey towards change had just begun with his death and rebirth. And just like Izzy, he would have needed much more time to grow (although Izzy'd gotten much, much further than Ed).

At Calypso's birthday, I think for the first time in forever, Ed saw Izzy as his own person, someone who he could actually love apart from this Ed-Izzy union they had going for so long. But only a few days (I guess?) later, Izzy dies.

So, at the end of S2, Ed still sees Izzy as "his" to a degree, sees him as one half of "us". He almost expects Izzy's last words to be about him (or them) and doesn't yet see Izzy as his own person, with his own feelings and ties to other people who might have wanted to say goodbye as well.

For Ed, Izzy died how he lived - wrapped up in Ed and Ed keeping everyone else away. Talking about himself only in relation to Ed. Izzy as a part of Ed that's vital and needed - but not itself in need of words of solace or other people's love (or any love, period).

Conclusion

At this point in Ed's and Izzy's life, the death scene and how it was written/acted is perfect, in my opinion. But for the characters, it's incredibly tragic.

Izzy never got what he wanted most - Ed's love. He died believing almost his whole life was a mistake, keeping Ed from his true self for far too long and destroying him in the process. In the end, the crew who had unconditionally loved and accepted him, stood at a distance, and the man he still loved over anyone and anything else never told Izzy what he meant to him - and now he never will.

Ed was absolved of his guilt and maybe, in the moment, he even believed it. But of course everything that happened in S2, and everything before that, wasn't (only) Izzy's fault and in the future, Ed has to deal with that. Only now there is no Izzy here to work it through with, and to make amends, no one who was there for it all and who knows parts of Ed best. When Ed finally realizes what Izzy meant to him, it will be too late.

So, if we get a S3 and nothing is ever made of all of this, if Izzy is really dead and the Ed/Izzy dynamic is done and dealt with, then it was bad writing (and I am so afraid that will actually happen).

But as it stands, I'm beginning to love the scene for what it is: a tragic, consistent ending for two characters that I love deeply.

But please don't tell me this was a kind ending.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #izzy hands #edward teach #this got longer than expected #but it's a more positive take #I guess I want to make sense of it all - even Ep8 #and I want to love this show again!! #rewatching S1 right now and wow - I'm not ready to give this up yet

[utilitycaster]

absolutely no pressure, but when you have time, would LOVE your thoughts on the Adventuring Academy Dropout posted today with Matt and Brennan - they talk a bit about spotlighting and when it’s important and i would love to hear your take

So, I just watched it because I was not yet in the mood for Neverafter.

I think it was overall a very good discussion, and while I don't think it always comes out perfectly in practice on their respective shows, for the most part I can't fault them on that because that's how D&D goes; a DM plan never survives contact with the players.

I think to hit the high points:

Brennan's point of "we have 6 PCs and 2 hours so everyone gets 20 minutes would be an absurd system" is extremely correct and it's one I think people would be well served by remembering

The discussion of Caduceus, Ricky Matsui, and Orym as characters who explicitly do not have an internal darkness and whose role is by design one of party support (either mechanical or RP) is also a very good one; basically, if a character doesn't have much internal conflict, that's totally cool! Just make sure the player is aware that this will put them in a particular position within the narrative and that they won't usually have a huge big spotlight but will have other crucial opportunities in the story because they don't have that inner turmoil weighing them down. (And of course Matt and Brennan's praise for Taliesin and Zac was extremely well-deserved).

The talk about the Briarwoods arc and also the art devil fight in The Unsleeping City were both excellent, namely, it's ok and even good to have a character who is particularly in focus for an arc - even a long arc - provided other characters still have plenty to do that's not just surrounding the focus character, and also it's normal to have multiple characters in focus. I've said this before about Briarwoods and Pirate arcs but truly, I can name absolutely crucial moments for every single C1 and C2 character present in those arcs.

Brennan's statement of how a good player could diffuse even the most lopsided spotlight is a very worthwhile one. Not to get corporate but some of you have never had to work around a shitty but not actually fireable offense-type manager and it shows.

The final point of table trust and the fact that both the DM and the players should, and indeed must communicate, is key. I think there is an unfortunate mindset that exists in some D&D spaces that you shouldn't have to speak up if things aren't to your liking and REAL FRIENDS NOTICE. This is wrong, and bad, and an undue burden on everyone around you, and frankly assumes that you (or the person you feel is being wronged) is in fact the main character of the universe, and explains a lot of other bad opinions in actual play spaces, but anyway. Speak up! If you feel another player is getting all the time, either because of them or because of how the DM has structured the game, speak up, and as Brennan said, also ask what you can do!

One last personal takeaway, which is that Brennan as a tiny sidebar (in discussing Ricky) mentioned that playing a character who isn't in some way in internal conflict can be difficult, and referenced Superman as an example. I think this is actually the key: to be a truly great player, who builds characters who are genuinely interesting and who can carve out a spotlight in every story, you do either need to understand your character's inner conflict such that you can generate story from that; or you need to be able to look at Superman and understand the inherent conflicts that must have existed to bring him to that point. Honestly, because of the earlier context on worldbuilding and continuity/narrative's importance in good worldbuilding, I had that in mind, and the same applies to character. If your character is tortured, why? If they're not...why? Because if you can't answer those questions there's a reason the spotlight's not on you.

#answered #megabees #adventuring academy #critical role #long post #dimension 20

[r0semirages]

So. I made an RTC swap au!!

It started just with an idea of John Doe!Ricky that I had for a pretty long time, but recently I decided to turn it into something cooler, so I made this whole thing. Maybe I'll sketch their designs later (or at least make picrews of them), but idk how much time it will take. I haven't change some things, like the relationships between some characters, because I thought it wouldn't work very well. But, this isn't fully finished yet, so there's some moments that may be changed in the future.

I imagine this AU more like a play, than a musical and honestly I really don't think that it'll become something serious, cause I'm not that good at writing and creating full stories, so, at least at the moment, it's just for fun. Also, the designs are based on the 2016 cast, but feel free to make your own interpretations with your favorite cast. And maybe someday I'll make them too, we'll see. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy it!! (Pls excuse me if there are any mistakes, english isn't my first language, blah blah blah. Also there are a lot of spoilers for rtc, so if you plan to watch it — don't read further!)

So, first is Penny — the most imaginative girl in town. She's super silly, sometimes awkward and doesn't really have any friends because most people think she's weird. Penny often gets left out or bullied, and she uses escapism to cope with this + all the stuff with her parents, who she didn't get enough love from. Her fantasies is a bit different from the original Ricky's: they don't have a lore, she just makes up random stories to escape from reality and writes them out sometimes. She *definetely* writes fanfiction and probably posts it online. For some reason people find it cool, but no one in the choir knows about it. She's still a Seven-Up fan and she plays the ukulele (that will be used in the new birthday song for Ricky)

I changed her design just a bit, now she wears a lot of accessories, mostly pins (bc I headcanon the og Ricky having them) and it's mostly based on Emily Rohm's Penny, while her personality is more like legoland Penny's.

The next is Ocean — the angriest girl in town. Like the og Mischa, she hates her parents (but in this case they aren't adoptive) and their lifestyle, but instead of becoming the most succesful to prove that she's different from them, this Ocean just becomes a total mess and starts hating everyone. Idk if I will make her like shitty rap about money in autotune, but she definetely has a history of stealing stuff from stores, lol.

Design changes: messy hair; she doesn't have a headband and a tie, her shirt isn't fully buttoned up. She wears a sweater vest over it with a short skirt (a dress, actually).

Then we have Constance — the most succesful girl in town. She's a big nerd and spends a lot of her time studying because she wants to be the best. In general she behaves just like original Ocean and treats Noel like Ocean would treat her in the og musical (they're besties, but not really). She's pretty mean and very ambitious. This Constance doesn't have as much love for her town as the og one and she plans to move out (and become a premier minister of Canada, maybe :p) She's the one to make the final vote in this AU and of course she will choose John Doe/Ricky.

I haven't change a lot of things in the design, but her hair isn't dyed anymore, buns are down, she has a tie and maybe some hairpins. In general she looks a bit more tidy

Next one: Noel — the nicest boy in town. A complete opposite to the og Noel, he doesn't want to change anything in his life and enjoys living in Uranium. He's still super homosexual and has a big crush on Mischa, and, as I've said before he's "best friends" with Constance who treats him like shit and makes jokes about how he's never gonna breed👍🏻 /ref

He's really insecure about himself, but very friendly with everyone else (especially Mischa). He still enjoys all the french stuff, but you know, in a less... horny... way. And his mother is a baker and Noel often helps her in their cafe

He now has a short-sleeved shirt, round glasses and half of his hair is purple (it's also a bit more messy). In general I didn't change a lot in his design, but I made him such an UwU softie boy /j

Then, Mischa — the most romantic boy in town (ah yes, this one is for you, Mischa simps). He's still in love with Talia and his backstory is the same, but instead of becoming an angry rapper, he became a sad romantic guy, who dreams about moving to Ukraine with his (probably non-existing) internet fiancé. He just wants to be happy :(

Design changes: his clothes and hair aren't that messy anymore and he has a black jacket (like the one chance theatre Noel had). Also his nails are usually black or any other dark shade!!

And! Finally! My best creation yet — John Doe!Ricky. Perhaps, the rest of the choir doesn't remember him (well, in fact they do remember him, but it's a different theory and I don't want to bring it here) because he couldn't talk and no one really noticed him. The only person he was pretty close with was Penny, but still, they weren't even friends, they just standed close to each other while the choir was performing and both sat in the back of a rollercoaster when the accident happened. There will be a role-swapped version of the Savannah scene, but I don't know what name should I use instead of Savannah yet (if you have any ideas, please drop them in the comments!! I'll be very grateful)

When he gets choosen by Constance he'll came back to life as Ricky and yes, he WILL remain disabled because I'm a very big Ricky fan + a very big ableism hater, don't expect that shit from me👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 Also he will still have 14 cats because. Why not. I love cats.

The only thing that will change is the fact that he's a little happier now?? People around him treat him better and he doesn't have to fantasize about fucking cat-people from Zolar to be happy lol. Oh man I'm writing a bit too much about him sorry I just love this guy a lot. Bless his little heart

Finally, about his design: honestly he's just a yassified version of this picture /hj

↓

Okay, so he has a head stolen from some super swag dressed in a Bowie-like style doll that for some reason was in the warehouse. He has a big purple star around one of his eyes and some parts of his hair are also colorful (purple/blue/pink). His clothes isn't very different, but maybe I'll add some more accesories

Well, that's all atm. I will try my best to make some content for this and keep developing this idea and I really really hope you will like it!

Reblogs/comments/likes are VERY appreciated and again, if you have any recommendations for improving this au I'll be really glad to hear them or just any of your thoughts!!!

Ty for reading (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠✧⁠*⁠。

#ride the cyclone #rtc #ride the cyclone au #rtc au #swap au #🌀rtc au #🌀stuff i made

[youarentamaybeyoureayes]

I'll never understand why people act like the first season of HSMTMTS is or should be deemed the best?

Don't get me wrong, it's totally fine to have a sense of nostalgia because you might recall season 1 being the first time you fell in love with the show or you're reminiscing about what drew you into it in the first place, but most arguments about season 1 never involve talking about any aspects of the show other than the fact that it ended with the R*ni love confession, and it makes it difficult for me to believe that there's any other reasons why you deem the season so superior to the others.

When you remove the nostalgia blinders, season 1 only gives a semblance of justice to a tiny amount of characters. Ricky and Nini get the most attention devoted to them, but whether it's because of the writing or simply the fact that she's the best actress on the show who's also capable of elevating any material that's given to her, it's Gina personally that stands out to me this season. Yet while it was airing, she was getting harassment from R*nis who were ignoring the obvious issues in their relationship to take all of their anger out on Gina. This would go on to happen for two more seasons.

Everyone other than Ricky, Nini, Gina, and maybe EJ, gets abandoned or shoehorned into things that age in a horrific way. I would argue that Kourtney's character suffers the most this season, and it was actually jarring seeing someone as vocally talented as Dara Reneé play a character that wasn't initially a singer. She wasn't even supposed to have a role on the show that lasted beyond two episodes, and yet she has one of the strongest, if not the strongest voice in the entire cast. For a show that was meant to revolve around theater kids, that alone was unrealistic and as a black woman, I can't ignore how colorism played a role in that. No one with a voice like that would have been given a supporting position if they were nonblack. Somehow the likes of M*tt C*rnett were given more solos on the show, and he is easily the worst male "vocalist" of the cast.

I won't even get into the fact that other than Gina, EJ was one of the most hated characters that season singlehandedly for getting in the way of R*ni, yet once the chances of R*ni making it to endgame status were getting increasingly lower, everyone decided that he was their favorite person and became P*rtwells. Not because they saw potential in anything (we all know one of the biggest plot points of season 1 was Rina getting closer, no matter how many people want to ignore it) but because they hated the idea of any character involved in R*ni being happy with someone who wasn't a part of their ship. Because I'm saving that for a later conversation.

The point is, like every season, season 1 had more flaws than most of the fandom wants to acknowledge, especially in the characterization of the ensemble cast, which was never the right move for a show that would not be as strong without their ensemble. Nostalgia as well as the plague of real life shipping has made people believe that this season was somehow unbeatable, when I would even argue that at the show's absolute worst in season 2 we would already see the improvements and corrections that season 1 failed to expand on. Such as giving underutilized characters like Kourtney and Carlos more depth by introducing their storylines with dealing with self doubt and acceptance.

I've always said that the episode that really made me stick with the show was episode 5 of season 1, and it isn't just because I'm an avid Rina. One of my favorite parts of the episode will always be the Born to Be Brave group number. Seeing Carlos start off dancing by himself and then Ashlyn going up to join him was one of the first moments of the show where I noticed just how strong the ensemble was and just how much heart they all brought to the show.

One love confession that didn't even manage to end up being the best love confession on the show is not what made the show what it is now. Delusional nostalgia is trying to tell you that despite other seasons allowing characters who were overdue in getting their own storylines finally have their moments to shine, nothing will ever amount to season 1 because of what you shipped. Season 1 didn't even deal with their deepest subjects. In retrospect, the entire season was essentially like a trial run. Even the first 4 episodes were written by a different show runner. The entire thing was an experiment. And while it was a good start and while I do understand why it's a season that's so loved, I just wish more people would unpack the reasons why they loved it and stopped dismissing the fact that there were seasons that did things better, even if your nostalgia is trying to tell you otherwise.

#hsmtmts #high school musical the musical the series #rina #ricky bowen #gina porter #kourtney greene #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew smith #anti portwell #anti rini #not sorry #ashlyn caswell #high school musical #rant #this is really all over the place #i'm sleep deprived #and i'd write something more coherent but this has just been on my mind #tired of tiktokers and etc acting like nothing will ever amount to s1 #all because they were jolivias at the time and never watched beyond part of season 2 #like you're making it so obvious you dipped as soon as rini broke up #and don't even get me started on the people who didn't think their breakup was coming #there were literally signs of it from the moment the love confession ended #delusional nostalgia and denial are diseases #useryay

[itsasweater]

HSMTMTS thoughts before season 4 pt. 2

So this is my second part after my re-watch of season 1 through 3 before the final season airs. After giving my thoughts on the seasons in general I thought I would talk about the ships on the show since a lot of new content dropped. The discourse has been interesting to say the least lol

Warning!!! I am going to be brutally honest about the ships on the show because I don't mind discussion, discourse or pushback. I'm not going to put any anti tags because I think the fandom could use some brutal honesty right now, especially with the severe lack of media literacy when it comes to this show and it's ships.

Rini (Ricky and Nini or is it Nina lol):

So I would categorize them as a typical Disney ship, pretty cookie cutter and unoriginal. It's the typical relationship that was formed because of childhood and growing up together. This type of pairing has been done before and will certainly be done again. So for a new show it is understandable to promote this relationship to bring in the audience.

During season 1, the show placed a lot of easter eggs that would forecast the downfall of this relationship, re-watching season 1 definitely helped me catch more of them. As curtsies-from-princess-ashlyn pointed out, throughout season 1 Ricky is looking for comfort and emotional support from Nini but he doesn't get that from her because she doesn't understand what he is going through when it comes to his home life with his parents. Obviously Ricky spends the first half of season 1 trying to get Nini back with her not giving him the time of day, until the homecoming episode changes everything for him because of a certain new girl (Gina). He kind of forgets about Nini while building this new relationship, a relationship that both Nini and EJ notice. The show eventually has Ricky and Nini come back to each other towards the end of the season 1. The thing that stands out to me the most is that in order for them to be put back together, they literally had to remove Gina from an episode for it to happen. Shows tend to do this a lot, when they want a certain pairing together they remove another character so that the pairing can stand alone without any competition in the scenes. But to me this is something that always makes me go hmmmmm you had to remove a character and stop total interaction in order for this pairing to get back together. Ricky and Nini have the moment in the finale where he confesses to her bringing up all these moments from childhood and bam end of season. I think a major reason why that confession scene did nothing for me is that he mentions all these moments that he has had with her from their childhood and we the audience didn't see any of it so it kind of falls flat. How am I supposed to be invested in that speech when I didn't see those moments. I also think putting them back together just regressed their characters. I always have a hard time watching that scene because the acting was just off, I think it was mentioned that they let Josh improvise it and maybe they shouldn't have.

Season 2 starts with Rini back together and in the very first episode Ricky looks directly at the camera and says that him and Nini are never breaking up ever again lol. I don't know if needing media literacy is necessary for that line because the show is spelling it out for the audience foreshadowing that they are going to be over again. That line was not a mistake, it was telling the audience to be prepared. Nini starts the season by not being truthful to Ricky about leaving and going to YAC until she just blurts it out with everyone around. The communication with these two has just always been non existent. Nini doesn't even know that Ricky moved, she goes to his old house yet Gina knows his new address, that's another thing that made me go hmmmm and wonder. Nini starts feeling held back by Ricky and that he doesn't like/love her for the right reasons, which makes her write the Rose song that is clearly about Ricky even though she denies it when he asks her. Ricky gets all excited when Nini comes back and thinks she came back for him but in a brutal way tells him that she didn't. She was already off the bus when he called. Where having media literacy comes into play is understanding that with everything else in Ricky's life changing which is something that he hates, his relationship with Nini and Nini herself represents something the same. He clings on to Nini because he wants at least something to be the same and not change like everything else in his life, which is unfair too Nini. Midway through the season they break up with Ricky initiating it with him saying he doesn't like who he is/becoming while with Nini. The breakup scene was honestly done really well. Obviously the relationship was needed in the end so that the characters could grow and understand what they actually want.

It surprises me how many people in the fandom still cling to this relationship because they were truly miserable with each other during season 2. If you truly cared about the characters you would not want them back together, they clearly outgrew each other and just didn't work anymore. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised though that people still cling to them because of the weird Jolivia stuff that I still see. Liking Rini and wanting them back just seems to be a cover for Jolivia's, like seriously people.

Lastly, people in the fandom like to say that if Olivia didn't leave the show or that if the drama didn't happen Rini would have been endgame yet season 2 was already written before all of that. Like I said at the start, the easter eggs were already planted in season 1 for the downfall of the relationship. I certainly think Rini was definitely endgame if the show was a limited series having only 1 season because of how season 1 ended with them together, they couldn't end it on a cliffhanger with no resolution. They did not know if they were going to be picked up for another season, once they did, they were able to go in the direction they wanted too.

I was planning on going over all of the ships in one post but by the time I finished my thoughts on Rini it was already too long lol so I might just do a post everyday leading up to the new season on the other ships.

Thanks for reading if you did! If you just read the title, thank you!

#hsmtmts #highschoolmusicalthemusicaltheseries #rini hsmtmts #ricky bowen #nini salazar roberts #ricky and nini #rini

[myheartissetinmotion]

watched the roller coaster safety tutorial for the first time and it changed my life, so here are my initial thoughts on The Kiddos™️

(in song order)

Ocean: first of all, her birthday is one day after mine, and idk if that means something. she’s a somewhat terrible person but has really interesting development, and playing her would be a very challenging but very fun nut to crack. I’m a bit terrified that everyone who knows me and knows the show would think I should play her, ginger overachiever as I am, but idk if I want to be perceived that way ANYWAAAAAAY that’s to unpack later, she’s fascinating and her song’s a bop and a half

Noel: oh my god I adore him. concerningly relatable. easily on the list of roles I’ll never play but wish I could. his song is the fothermucking best. no notes (other than the ones he was hitting beautifully the whole time.) genuinely would love to know more about him-and that kinda goes for all of them

Mischa: a strikingly complex yet utterly hilarious character with the best one-liners to ever grace a stage (“that shit was emotionally devastating, yo” is def making its way into my vocabulary). very Tobin and I love him for it. had me utterly cackling with the rap and then came out of nowhere with THAT. VOICE. Gus Halper, you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you.

Ricky: the fact that MTG never has and likely won’t play him is a GODDAMN TRAGEDY, along with the fact that Alex Wyse hasn’t played the Geek. anyway I love him dearly. an icon. wtf his song was, I’m not entirely sure, but iconic nonetheless. so sweet and so genuine. ugh. love him

Jane: DREAM ROLE ARE YOU KIDDING ME. a legit soprano in a contemporary musical?! HELLO?! the only drawback to playing her would be not being as present with the others and not getting to dive into a more complex character, bc her whole point is that she doesn’t remember her story, but STILL. Emily’s an angel. how on earth does she DO THAT. honestly wish the other kids and the audience could have gotten to know her-what was there of her-a bit more, beyond the tragedy; more “Savannah with the greenest eyes” moments.

Constance: this musical truly saved the best for last. Constance, darling, I’d die for you (and, tbh, a part of me thinks you’re the one who should’ve lived). that monologue broke me, built me back up, and broke me again. she is such a beautifully well-rounded character and I’ll be studying that performance for hours, I just want to break the fourth wall and give her a hug, thank you and goodnight

#ride the cyclone #rtc #musicals tag #my life #dream roles #my loves #my faves #ocean o'connell rosenberg #noel gruber #mischa bachinski #ricky potts #jane doe #penny lamb #jane doe rtc #constance blackwood

[generalwildcat]

Who do you think should sing “Scream” from HSM3 EJ or Ricky and why? I know EJ already graduate high school and he won’t be in the musical but it is still possible he could be the one that sings the song.

I gotta think about this one a minute. This is probably gonna be a bit....

From the standpoint of the series thus far, Ricky makes the most sense. He has played Troy already, he's done Troy's songs, he's been the lead, he's had how many big numbers...we know that Joshua Bassett can handle singing it. I can totally picture it.

From the emotional standpoint of the song, it better suits EJ. We know how much conflict EJ has. We know how much he's been struggling. We know how much pressure there is on him. On a surface level, it's not too different from Troy. And, likewise, we know Matt Cornett could sing the song just as well.

Scream is all about inner conflict. It was a massive number in HSM3. We couldn't just hear the confusion and struggle in Troy's voice. We could see it. His movements, his angst, even the scenery and the camera angles. Troy was stuck once again between the person he was expected to be and the person he wanted to be. Even though everyone accepted him as a 'musical singer person', they still figured he was going to pursue basketball. Because before he was even a musical singer person, he was the basketball guy. Music was so obviously just a side thing, right? But Troy was starting to learn something about himself. He enjoyed music. He enjoyed performing. With Gabriella, a whole new world was opened up to him. He was starting to think that maybe music could be part of his future. Maybe that's what he was meant to do. But the thing was, he still enjoyed basketball. He still wanted it in his life. But surely he couldn't have both. (Never mind that he was also struggling with Gabriella being so far away at Stanford, that's a whole other layer. But for the purposes of the song specifically, i'm focusing on the inner turmoil between the I Want and the I Should.)

Now at this specific point in time, with the end of the third season, i don't think Ricky or EJ have the exact same connection to the song that warrants one of them singing it over the other. But we know how much can change over the course of a season so anything can lead any of them to Scream (both singing Scream and literally screaming).

While we did see Ricky struggling with whether or not he should tell Gina how he felt about her during Season 3, as of the end of the season that already reached its conclusion. Does Ricky have anything else in him that could lead to Scream? To him needing that moment? While he does have conflict (as every character does), i don't think there's one specific thing sticking out that climaxes to a Scream moment. His dad's continuing relationship with Miss Jenn (i love her) and how he really feels about that; pressure to do this relationship with Gina right because he knows he not only screwed up with her before but he also made mistakes with Nini so he wants to get this right (no Frozen pun intended, it just magically happened); if he does play Troy again, can he do that right, as in can he do better than the first musical; what does his future look like, or, one step further, does he know what he's doing with his future. While those are all legitimate concerns and thoughts, again, i think how everything is handled, how the story goes, and how the season plays out determines if any of those or something yet to be seen/that i haven't mentioned determines wanting or expecting Scream from him.

Contradictory, EJ has had some of the biggest struggles of any character. And all throughout the course of one season. There is a lot that can bring him to Scream. To needing to Scream. There's the aftermath of the documentary getting released; how's that going to affect him; how does, if at all, it affect his relationship further with his dad; what does this mean for his future; how does EJ as a person deal with everything, both mentally and emotionally. There's the relationship between him and his dad that already exists; we know how much Cash expects of EJ; we saw how strained their relationship was in Season 3; we know that, even though his dad says one thing he goes back on it (yes you can take a gap year no wait actually i don't approve of that after all, you're going to a fancy pants school so you can be a real man (an exaggeration but you get what i mean)). EJ did graduate, but he's not going to college right away...so what happens now? And, if his primary support system was Val, who does he have to lean on now? What does he specifically have to look forward to?

From specifically the emotional standpoint, that ferocity and angst and drama behind the song itself? At this moment, i lean slightly more towards EJ singing Scream. It feels like there's more of a buildup to that from him compared to Ricky. As we've seen with the past few seasons, a person doesn't need to be in the musical or play a certain character to get their song. There are other ways of doing that and, for the most part, they've all been done well. So with that in mind, i agree that there's a chance it could end up being EJ. And, especially with the range of emotions he's had throughout Season 3, i'm excited to see how EJ would handle it.

From specifically the wanting aspect? Who i'd want to sing Scream? I lean more towards expecting Ricky to sing it. Whether i want that or not? I think it seems like i know who i want, but that doesn't mean that's who i do want or that i'm going to stick with that. For me, it's mostly gonna come down to the story. But at the end of the day, i'm just going to get excited when someone starts singing the song.... Or any song from the movie, to be honest 😆

Am i looking too much into this? Probably. For all i know, i'm trying to read so much in between the lines and over think it that i'm missing the obvious answer right in front of my face. What i do know is, from a musical and acting standpoint, while Joshua and Matt are no Zac Efron, both of them have enough ability to do the song justice. The trick is going to make us believe them the way that we believed Troy without trying to be Troy.

Or, you know, if they really wanted to throw us for a loop they could just have both Ricky and EJ singing the song and turning it into a duet where we see both of them struggling before they ultimately come together. But there's no way in hell that's gonna happen 🤣

#high school musical the musical the series #hsmtmts #hsm3 #high school musical 3 #scream #ricky bowen #joshua bassett #ej caswell #matt cornett #i'm thinking way too much about this

[rinisbowen]

Hey, first just wanted to say that I love your blog and your analysis of the show so much! ❤

I was wondering if you had an opinion about Ricky's feelings towards Gina: do you think he knew what she meant in the flashback scene or do you think it all went over his head?

I think alot of people want Ricky to remain oblivious ,so that it can't be said that he deliberately hurt Gina, but I think it would make a much more nuanced and interesting plot if he understood how she felt the whole time, but had no idea how to handle these feelings (especially if he correctly assumed that she never would have confessed to him if she thought she might ever see him again.)

I think alot of his behaviour towards her in season 2 could be read as him trying wayy too hard to imitate the dynamic they had in season 1 to avoid having to talk about the new developments in their relationship (e.g. with all the awkward banter in season 2 episode 3.)

Only thing is I have no way to fit the "if we were dating" comment into this narrative. If he had any inkling of how she felt then that comment was way out of line and would make me dislike Ricky, but based on the rest of the season as a whole I can't think of any explanation for the way he acted towards her other than that he was aware of how she felt.

Hope this ask makes sense, feel like it got a bit rambly! 😊

hi oh my gosh anon you are genuinely the sweetest. thank you for your kind words, and the ask itself. i feel like i'm in an odd place with my thoughts bc things are quite polarized in this fandom and i- sorta try not to be? but i'm thankful you appreciate my thoughts and such :)

(also yes you absolutely made sense, luckily my brain works in a very rambly way- so i think i do get what you mean haha. y'all should see the state of these answers before i cut them down.)

--

if you're asking just whether i have an opinion as to whether ricky took gina's confession for what it was- i'm really not sure what i think here.

i 100% understand why ricky not understanding what gina meant by "i wouldn't quit on us" is very appealing to rina shippers especially, along with people who just tend to see the good in ricky as a character. people probably ought to start giving all of these kids the benefit of the doubt a little bit more haha, but that's just me. 

--

i don’t know if it all necessarily went over his head, but i think it’s not a bad guess considering his history of being more than a bit oblivious to things in a more general sense. 

i think your idea is really quite interesting, because it doesn’t seem out of line 100% with anything that happened. him trying to protect her from the fallout of something she probably wasn’t planning to do under the circumstances. him internally deciding it was better to just pretend it never happened because he figured that was better for gina. 

and besides, he loves nini, he just got back together with her, so it’s no big deal for him, no sweat off his back. 

i think regardless of whether he understood her confession he didn’t mean to deliberately hurt her, and i don’t think that should be as much of a hot take as it maybe is. 

i think in this context you suggest, ricky’s maybe confused about how he’s supposed to behave with her, like you say about ‘awkward’, because it’s on some levels true that their “friendship” in season 1 was tinged with something beyond that, and how do you not send your friend the wrong message when you very much have a girlfriend but also your friend apparently likes you. but i do think the same behavior can be explained under the “he didn’t get it” circumstance, i’ll just save that for now to avoid this getting too long.

--

i know the “if we were dating” is what gets him the most negative energy. i get why, it’s a downright stupid way to phrase it to a girl who likes him. particularly if he’s aware she likes him. 

but does it have to make you (or anyone) dislike him? 

i really don’t think it was that serious for him that it’s worth hating him for. to gina? yes, it’s what allows her the opportunity to set a boundary with him for the first time. that’s a big deal for her character arc! this sorta comes back to a point i make at the end of this post about the rina thing in season 2 not being about ricky. it doesn’t actually matter what he means or what he feels. 

but in a broader context, it’s a mere slip of the tongue. ricky’s just trying to ask her advice on something he’s puzzling over, and he’s using an example. like- he’s not trying to imply a single thing by his words there, as is clear by his little “obviously”. it’s obvious that ricky here is just thinking out loud, he’s just like so put yourself in nini’s shoes. “if we were dating”. for all he knows she’s totally fine giving him advice on nini. she did so freely twice now, without his asking. i get that it’s the wording the fandom gets most angry about, and not the asking as much, though that too a good bit, but- the wording is just that... wording. 

it’s careless not malicious. and yes, that matters if you’re looking at it from a should we hate ricky perspective. the answer to that is firmly no. you’re supposed to be proud of gina for shutting him down, because that’s the right step in her journey, but at the end of the day he’s a dumb teenage boy who has no idea he’s hurting her with his words. (which is true regardless of whether he understood her confession. the way tim’s talked about this has been to say he’s like this oblivious teenage boy who just doesn’t get what he’s doing to you.)

we see everything about this framed from the perspective of gina liking him, but whether he knew she did (and that’s for all he knows she doesn’t anymore since he’s with nini), it doesn’t make him a bad person for asking advice in a way that unintentionally hurts her. we can’t all sit here and pretend to personally have never accidentally phrased something in a bad way and hurt someone’s feelings. 

--

i also admittedly don't think it matters a ton whether or not he understood, because the point of the whole thing was solely about gina and not about him. most of the "rin.a arc" in season 2, if not all of it, was entirely about gina. i could get into this perspective another time if anyone wanted me to elaborate, but yeah. just food for thought. what mattered was that to gina, that was a confession, and that he then continued on to act normally.

i tend to think of random things like this while i'm going along trying to answer this stuff, stream of consciousness and all that haha.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts: analysis #hsmtmts: gina porter #hsmtmts: ricky bowen #answered #anonymous #in defense of ricky bowen #//this became a bit rambly but when don't i to be fair #//but yeah i think people miss a lot of nuance about ricky's character sometimes particularly through the ship war goggles #//like yeah it was a dumb thing to say that doesn't mean we have to crucify him for it #//all the characters have their moments and everyone loves them and yet ricky as a protagonist gets all this flack for messing up sometimes

[lacontroller1991]

Point of No Return (Rick Flag x Reader)

TRIGGER WARNING: HEAVY THEMES OF SUICIDAL IDEATION (if you are not comfortable with this subject, please do NOT read

TRIGGER WARNING: GUNS

Warnings: 18+, Suicidal Ideation, Mentions of Guns, Character Death, Language 

Everything will be under the cut

ALSO - If you are in my tag list, I purposely not tagged you to this one as I don’t know if you’d be comfortable with this subject (it’s more of a self comfort fic for me anyways, but I figured people still would wanna read it): Follow up of 2016 SS

Also depending on the response to this, I might make a part two??? Idk yet, but maybe if you guys like it enough!

Everyone has low points. Rick understands that, but never in a thousand years would he think he would have a low point. He saved the city. He and the rag team that Waller had put together, yet he couldn’t save her. The only woman he ever loved. Phone buzzing next to him, he looks down, reading the short text that appeared on the screen. You there? Rick sighs, moving to grab the phone and open the message, wanting to type a response but not having the energy or motivation to talk to someone, even if it was you, his best friend since 8th grade. Meanwhile, you stare at the screen, seeing the typing bubble pop up before disappearing as quickly as it appeared. Frowning, you move to your laptop, pulling up picture after picture of the aftermath. You know she died. You saw the spot where they had blown her device to hell and where Rick crushed the witch’s heart, so you can understand why Rick hasn’t exactly responded to any of your texts or calls. But he’s been missing in action for a week now, and you are worried for him. Closing your laptop, you shrug your shoulders before grabbing your purse and heading out the door, ignoring the nagging in the back of your mind.

----------

Rick paces back and forth, a range of guns placed on his bed as he looks over to them every 5 minutes. Pathetic, a voice that he recognize to be his father’s spoke to him, you’re gonna kill yourself over some dumb bitch?

“Shut up,” Rick mumbles, tugging at his sleeves as he continues to pace in his room, thoughts swirling around his mind. Would the pain go away? Yes. Would people miss him? Probably not.  He was a horrible person, done horrible things. People would benefit from him taking his life. Maybe not you, but you’d move on, he knows you would. Guilt takes over his thoughts, you are so good to him. You are the first one there after missions, first one there to patch him up, first one there to comfort him. You would definitely benefit from his death. Stopping his pacing, he glares at the guns and bullets on the bed, mindlessly running fingers over the cool metal before pushing them to the side and taking a seat on the bed, grasping a gun in his hands.

----------

You walk up the stairs, a box of pizza in one hand and Rick’s spare key in the other. He had not responded to a single text nor a phone call, and the moment you got home, you had a sinking feeling in your gut. Something was wrong. You had to get to Rick’s. Approaching his door, you knock against the wood, and after a moment of him not responding you let out a sigh and insert the key, turning the lock and entering the dark apartment.

“Rick?” You call out, placing the pizza on the counter as you kick your shoes off. The apartment was dark except for the light shining through his bedroom door. Normally he would hear you, it wasn’t late so you know he wasn’t sleeping, and even if he was you know he’d wake up as he is a light sleeper. Stepping through the apartment, you notice the lights shining underneath his door but no sound is coming through. Opening the door, you gasp at the sight in front of you. There Rick sat, eyes puffy and red, a gun loaded in his hands.

“Ricky?” You quickly move to your knees in front of him, hands immediately reaching for the guns and tossing them all behind you and out of his reach. You stare up into his eyes and notice nobody was home, “what the hell happened?” Standing up, you move to sit next to him before pulling him into your side, your body trying to wrap around him as he makes no noise or movement, the only thing telling you that he was alive were the tears that were falling freely down his stubbled cheeks. He looks like shit, you think to yourself, still confused as to what is happening, is this because of June? Moving your body away from him, you take his face in your hands, thumbs swiping the tears that collect at his lashes.

“Rick, what’s wrong?” He shakes his head, too numb to do anything else. Never in a million years did you or he think that he would actually think about killing himself, let alone over a girl, but here the two of you are. 

“She’s gone, (N/N), she’s gone,” he whispers as you nod, pulling him back in for a hug to allow him to sit there for as long as he needs.After a while, he pulls away and looks at the guns on the floor with confusion and remorse before turning to look at you.

“(Y/N), I think I need help,” he mumbles as you rub his arms in comfort. Standing up, you walk to his closet and pull out a luggage that you know he keeps there. Placing it on the bed, you start shoving some of his more comfortable clothes in the container, making sure to keep an eye on the colonel. Noticing the way his eyes cast toward the guns on the floor, you quickly walk over to the weapons before picking them up off of the floor and placing them in his safe. Shutting the safe, you formulate a password in your mind and change the safe’s password, not wanting him to have any type of access to his weapons.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m making sure you can’t access your safe until you have a sane mind. You’re also gonna stay with me for a while,” Rick shakes his head as he stands from his spot, his body cramping from sitting in the same position for hours.

“No, I can’t do that to you.” You look over to him before moving to stand in front of him.

“Rick, you need help. I want to help. Please let me?” You beg as he sighs but nods. Sighing in relief, you continue to pack some of his stuff before grabbing his arm gently and tugging him out of the room.

----------

Rick awoke with a start. Judging by the way the sun shines on the wall, he slept in. Not that he was complaining, he definitely needed the sleep. Groaning, Rick lets the thoughts from the night before replay in his mind. Since when did he reach enough desperation that his only option was to lodge a bullet in his skull. A sharp knock breaks his concentration as you walk through the door, a plate of his favorite food in your hands. Sitting on the bed, you place the tray of food in front of him. 

“Thank you,” Rick mumbles as you just sit there, a look of pity and soberness adorning your features, “don’t look at me like that.”

“I’m sorry Ricky. I just can’t imagine why you would wanna do that.”

“Don’t you have work?” He’s deflecting. Shaking your head, you give him a small smile.

“Nah, I took the week off. I want to stay with you to make sure you’re ok.”

“No, I’m not okay. My whole fucking world was just ripped out from underneath me. My girlfriend died because of a fucking witch. I had to save the world from said girlfriend. And if that’s not bad enough, my mentality is fucked up now. I wanted to kill myself (Y/n), I have never once thought like that, but yesterday I was close,” Rick presses his thumb and index finger close together as a demonstration while you sit in silence, allowing for him to continue, “I was close to blowing my brains out. Not like anyone cares. My father doesn’t. My mother is dead. The only person who ever loved me died, I have only you.”

“Isn’t that enough? I love you, Rick. I can make you happy,” you whisper, your eyes tearing up at his confession.

“Maybe in another life it would be. She was my world, (N/N). And now she’s gone,” his admittance hurt you more than you thought it would. But it another life, maybe you were his world. How you wish that were true. How you wish he would let you love him. How you wish he would love you the way you love him.

“I understand. You can stay here. I just wanna make sure you’re going to be okay,” you mention before excusing yourself and rushing out of the room, tears cascading down your cheeks. The weight of his words weigh heavily on Rick’s consciousness. He didn’t mean to say it like that. He loves you too. I’m just in shock. She’ll understand, Rick tries to calm himself as your words swim in his mind. June was his everything, he was your everything, and now he just fucked that up.

#rick flag #rick flag x you #rick flag x reader #rick flag x y/n #colonel rick flag x reader #colonel flag x reader #colonel rick flag #colonel flag #colonel flag x you #rick flag fanfiction #rick flag imagine #colonel rick flag fanfic #Joel kinnaman #reader insert #reader #the suicide squad #dceu #dceu tss #lacontroller1991

[thevalleyisjolly]

Ok, I’ve rewritten this post several times because I really want this to be a productive and respectful discussion, but this is a conversation that does need to be started.  I’ve been thinking about the whole cultural appropriation story line in this season of The Unsleeping City so far, and of course I think it’s great that Cody is starting to realize why that’s wrong and that Murph is making it explicitly clear that it is wrong, but I want to reorient the conversation away from Cody now and talk about Ricky as a Japanese-American character.

Because when Zac went “Just to paint a picture for you...” during the museum fight episode, there was quite a bit of surprise from non-Asian people in the fandom that this was really a serious issue, and one that Ricky would be bothered by or speak up about.  But why wouldn’t he?  I mean, the character is Japanese-American, and so is the player.  Doesn’t it make perfect sense that he would at least be a little bothered by a white person appropriating Japanese culture?  Asian fans certainly noticed and pointed it out before that episode aired.  Ricky/Zac certainly noticed - go back through the episodes and observe how every time Cody pulled out a kunai or threw a shuriken, Ricky was cringing or facepalming with an uncomfortable laugh.  Even with seven different camera perspectives to watch at the same time, it should have been pretty clear in the fandom that this was an ongoing issue that would bother and was bothering Ricky.

And I think there are several different facets to this, but the one I want to address is how there’s a tendency in fandom to ignore or erase Ricky’s Japanese heritage.  Not literally (although there is a particular sting every time I see another Ricky fancast where the actor is of another Asian heritage than Japanese - Asian people are not interchangeable).  But especially prior to Season 2, there was a general trend in the fandom that liked to simplify Ricky’s character and overlook him as a complex player character because of traits that are very common in East Asian immigrant cultures.

Perhaps it’s because my heritage is East Asian and I’ve had more exposure to general cultural customs and behaviours among East Asian immigrants, but Zac’s portrayal of Ricky has always read as a very obvious Asian-American child of immigrants to me (and, y’know, Zac and Ricky are actually Asian-American children of immigrants).  Not expressing negative emotions out loud, not verbally articulating thoughts and feelings but expressing them through actions, deferring to other peoples’ needs first instead of expressing his own wants because it’s not about him.  With the caveat that I’m Chinese and not Japanese, these are common practices that I’ve observed in my own family, among friends and acquaintances (of various Asian heritages including but not limited to Chinese), in broader experiences with other East Asian immigrants.

(Asia is not a monolith and I’m not familiar with the immigrant cultures and experiences of people from other Asian heritages.  I specify East Asian here because that is broadly what I can speak on and because Ricky is Japanese, but other Asian people please feel free to discuss your experiences as well)

And obviously, these are not monolith traits observed at all times, I’ve definitely met plenty of East Asian immigrants who did express their emotions loudly, who used their words, who were assertive about their own needs and wants (this is not the post to be getting into different generations of immigration and the culture differences between those generations).  And it also depends on the context - from my own experience, in private within families, both emotions and words can get extremely loud (if you dare to risk the wrath of your elders by arguing with them!)  But my point is that the habits I pointed out above are still relatively common in East Asian immigrant cultures, even if not all individuals follow them at all times.

Particularly prior to Season 2, there was a common perspective in the fandom, usually couched in “uwu, I love that Zac is playing a hot dummy!!” that would go along the lines of “Ricky doesn’t have a character arc, he doesn’t get into conflicts with other people, he doesn’t say anything and is just happy to be there, he’s a shallow character who’s just a himbo.”  All of which I’d dispute, (*insert post here about Ricky as a character reclaiming Asian masculinity*), but I want to focus on how the main traits -refraining from overt emotions, remaining reserved in speech, not bringing up his own needs and wants- that were brought up and used to simplify and dismiss Ricky’s character were traits which are commonly found in East Asian immigrant communities.  The whole “remaining reserved/trying to avoid conflict” is something a lot of East Asian-American kids pick up at home because what you say or don’t say isn’t as important as what you do or don’t do.

And I mean, so much of Ricky is about doing things for people, showing his feelings through his actions, not his words.  Just because he wasn’t getting into PC conflict in Season 1, or expressing his emotions in the same ways as other PCs, doesn’t mean he was just a silent, cheerful himbo.  Which there’s nothing wrong with being a himbo, and it can be particularly empowering in Ricky’s case as an Asian man (see above linked post about Asian masculinity), but that’s not all there is to Ricky’s character!  And don’t get me wrong, I personally love that part of his ongoing character arc in Season 2 is speaking up about his feelings and expressing to other people what he wants (because there’s the “American” part of the Asian-American experience that’s not just about having Asian heritage but is also about negotiating that relationship in a place with different norms and customs).  But it doesn’t negate the “Asian” part of “Asian-American” either, which does impact and shape the way Ricky interacts with people and the world.

In hindsight, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that interest and meta in Ricky skyrocketed once he did start being more vocal and assertive in Season 2, which are common traits in many Western cultures.  And it’s not the only reason that there’s a deeper interest in Ricky now (shout out to all the Asian fans and allies who’ve been really diving into Ricky’s character this season!) and I choose to believe in good faith that it isn’t intentional or malicious (audiences do tend to gravitate more towards tangible moments of conversation and conflict rather than background acting).  But I think we as fans need to start questioning why as a whole, we really didn’t start giving deeper thought to Ricky until he began displaying more typically Western traits, because I think it’s emblematic of how, very subtly and unconsciously, we are used to privileging white “American” behaviour and ignoring or glossing over Asian (immigrant) traits.

In many ways, Ricky prior to Season 2 (and very arguably up until the museum fight), has been perceived in the general fandom as a sort of post-racial American-melting-pot character.  Fans don’t wholly ignore that he’s Japanese-American, you can’t really do that when his family name is “Matsui” and when the Season 1 finale showed that his interactions with the American Dream pretty strongly involved his parents’ immigrant experience.  But knowing intellectually that Ricky is Asian doesn’t always translate to actually perceiving him as an Asian person with all the implications and racial dynamics that entails.

An example of how this manifests: Ricky and Esther become a canon couple.  Numerous posts begin to appear (and periodically still do) that express opinions along the lines of Ricky/Esther being the only tolerable “het” couple.  Ignoring the fact that we don’t know Esther’s sexuality and we only have an offhand Ztream comment for Ricky, Ricky/Esther is a canonical interracial relationship between two non-white people, a Japanese man and a black woman.  Interracial relationships are already extremely poorly represented in media, to say nothing of interracial relationships between non-white people.   Yet we overlook the racial dynamics and only focus on the perceived queerness (or not) of the ship.

Or, for another example, taking the discussion on cultural appropriation and making it all about Cody’s flaws and character development, rather than considering how it affects Ricky as a Japanese man to see a white man disrespecting a part of his cultural heritage.

Anyways, I really urge D20 fans, especially if you’re not Asian, to start questioning and challenging how you really perceive characters, what kind of characteristics you tend to privilege and be drawn to and why, and what kind of fandom environment you shape in your interactions with the show and with other fans.  This is not to say that Ricky should be everyone’s favourite character or that you can’t dislike him, but it is important to think about why we have the preferences that we do.  I especially urge you to remember that Ricky Matsui is a Japanese-American character, that this was a deliberate choice which has been repeatedly brought up by Zac (who is a Japanese-American actor), and that you cannot and should not ignore Ricky’s heritage when you think and talk about him. 

(And if you think Ricky is being an “asshole” to Cody just for being, frankly, mildly perturbed in his direction because Cody spent most of the season so far being very offensive to Ricky’s cultural heritage, I really encourage you to think critically about your opinions and why you hold them.  And if, after thinking critically, you still don’t see why they’re wrong, please don’t let the door hit you on the way out.  Your conscious racism is not something that is welcome in this fandom, and Asian fans are not here to teach you better)

((White and non-Asian people can and should reblog this, but don’t clown around.  Productive, respectful discussion is welcome.  Asian fans are more than welcome to add their perspectives/agree/disagree, especially people with Japanese heritage))

#dimension 20 #the unsleeping city #d20 spoilers #tuc ii spoilers #ricky matsui #diversity in fan spaces #asian rep #white people can and should reblog this but don't clown around #non-asian people can and should reblog this but also don't clown around #productive discussion is absolutely welcome but please be respectful #asian fans are more than welcome to add their perspectives/agree/disagree; especially fans with japanese heritage #i really love tuc but being an asian fan in the fandom is just like *avoids twitter* *avoids discord* *curated list of blogs to follow*

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x12 Review

Second Chances was a lacklustre finale for an uneven season. Let’s dig in!

Earlier this week I re-watched S1 in preparation for the S2 finale and the contrast between the two seasons is jarring. In almost every way S2 has been worse and after seeing this finale I’m less optimistic that Tim will be able to fix the long list of things that have gone wrong. Tim has said in some of his interviews today that pretty much all of S2 was written before the pandemic and that they didn’t have to do as much re-writing as people might think due to the stringent safety measures Disney put in place. Of course, that removes an excuse for the bad writing we’ve seen so much of this season as according to Tim what we saw of S2 is largely what he envisioned minus big crowds and background dancers.

 Across his many interviews today, the one consistent point is that Tim does not have any real plans for future seasons; things like Ricky’s endgame he hasn’t decided on and he can’t even guarantee the summer season the finale sets up due to the weather in Salt Lake. I do think a S3 is an almost certainty given the show’s popularity but I’ll take Tim at his word that he truly doesn’t know if they’ll be renewed since it seems to be a new Disney tradition to wait until seasons are done airing before making a renewal decision (the same thing happened for the popular and well received Mighty Ducks: Game Changers which got a silent renewal only after all of S1 aired). That being said as poor of a season finale as Second Chances is it is also a terrible potential series finale. In large part it goes back to his lack of planning, he wants to keep all options open but in doing so Tim is crippling the show’s ability to deliver any pay offs or tie up loose ends.  

The one mostly well done plot line this season was Portwell which got a happy ending tonight as they canoned. The only good thing about the big brother angst was that it was so insane that it had to be addressed and sure enough it was and Gina got her first kiss with a guy she really liked. If Tim is to be believed the reason we didn’t get an on screen Portwell kiss was not because of their age difference or covid concerns but because he felt that everyone’s first kiss was different so he wanted it off screen so viewers could fill in the blanks themselves. Tim’s line of reasoning is profoundly stupid. Imagine if they had Jamie show up and he and Gina talked off screen and Tim tried to claim that because everyone has a different relationship with their own siblings that he wanted the audience to fill in the blanks as to how their conversation went!

Still we saw great character development on Gina and EJ’s part as both really grew from the people they were in S1. As Tim noted, EJ bringing Gina back in 1x10 was kind of the set up for this story line. The only thing missing was a brief Portwell scene sometime in eps 2x01-2x04 to set them up. The consistent development they got from 2x05-2x12 is unlike any other ship on the show; only Rini exceeds their development. 

Unfortunately I don’t think that will last in S3 because Tim will always favour Ricky over EJ and if he wants to do Rina he’ll dispose of Portwell before doing so. I was surprised that they never bothered to have Ricky and Gina have a conversation about Gina’s S1 confession. It was a huge mistake to have Gina pine over Ricky for half the season and it was no surprise that Gina’s story line got instantly better once she stopped interacting with Ricky. Tim has made clear in interviews that he’s still interested in the possibility of Rina which makes his poor writing of them even more bizarre. What conclusions are the audience supposed to draw from the Rina story line this season? That Ricky never cared that much about Gina? That it’s totally fine for the show if they don’t interact for 6 eps in a row? That Gina has moved on? I’ve said before that a wiser man than Tim would recognize that doing both Portwell and Rina will do tremendous damage to the show and he should pick one and not do the other. Of course he’s not that smart but it is wild how he’s accidentally written their story line to make for a perfect end to Rina. 

Second Chances was great and is the only part of the finale that would have been well suited to being part of a potential series finale. 

The Rini closure was a sad inverse of their S1 opening night confession. They’ve fallen so far from being the it couple of the series and I fear Tim doesn’t actually know what to do with them now. He really needs to decide if he’s tearing down that treehouse for real. 

The less said about the Valentine’s chocolates the better but at least Gina and Nini are cool again and Nini can explore her budding music career with Jamie’s help. Tim repeatedly said in interviews that the scripts about Nini’s music career were all written before Driver’s License came out and I think he understands that the audience is just going to see the show as copying from Olivia’s life. 

The wildcats just deciding to drop out of the Menkies was a lame cop out. Tim has said he always meant for that to happen though they were originally going to compete at the Menkies then drop out (presumably that’s where we would have heard Lily singing Home). Somebody should have mentioned the $50 000 prize money which the East High theatre department could surely use after Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara burned it down (remember that story line that had no consequences?). And that NYU scholarship could have been life changing for one of them and yet no one even brought  it up once this season. 

I did like the twist that it was EJ and his dad who got Mazzara into Caltech. He’d be a fool not to take it but I’m glad he confessed to Miss Jenn. She’s had a really rough season and I hope she redeems herself in S3.

Howie was acting so weird tonight and last ep that I have a hard time believing he was really so awed by Kourtney’s talent rather than feeling guilty for helping to steal the harness. The harness is another useless plot device; there are no consequences for Lily stealing it, she’s not caught, East High pulls off another version of the transformation off screen, and then East High withdraws from the Menkies anyways. Doubtless the harness will eventually come up to serve Rily angst. 

At least Lily was straightforward, I’ll give her that. She has such an odd way of speaking, almost child like. As awful as it is there is potential for a forbidden/secret romance story line with Rily. It really does not speak well to Ricky’s character that he’s so easily fallen for Lily’s act when he has no reason to trust her and she never apologized for making fun of Big Red during the auditions or making Ashlyn feel insecure during the dance off. 

The one way in which S2 was drastically better to S1 was in regards to the Seblos story line. Clearly Joe being bumped up to regular made a big difference. We got the first same-sex kiss between two boys and the first love song sung by one boy to another in Disney history and that is a legacy to be proud of. Of course, there was still some Disney censorship such as Carlos and Seblos being unable to use the word gay in the same ep that focused on Carlos singing In a Heartbeat to Seb. 

S1 of HSMTMTS had a clear direction, the wildcats would have to try and come together to stage High School Musical and Ricky and Nini would have to decide if they still had a future together while Gina and EJ had to work on being better versions of themselves. It was simple sure but it worked very well. There was a lot of heart but also a lot of humor and the show never took itself too seriously. What has S2 had? Beauty and the Beast was hardly the main focus of the cast or the writers and the central couple that S1 was built around is now broken up either for a long time or for good. There was a lot less of the meta moments that jokes that made S1 such a hit, for far too many eps this season the show took itself way too seriously. Hell even the lighting this season was darker than in S1. 

Olivia Rodrigo’s team had complained in a recent article that Olivia wouldn’t be able to potentially tour until fall 2022 due to her contractual commitments which is a sign that they think a S3 is very likely though I wonder how late S3 filming would have to start to keep her occupied until late 2022. There’s no confirmation of this but I thought it might be worth keeping an eye on; a post on r/hsmtmts by someone who claims to have a source working on production says that the plan is for S3 to be a summer theatre camp possibly with Camp Rock renditions and the plan for S4 is to jump 6 months ahead to the final semester of senior year and end with Ricky, Nini, Big Red, and Kourtney graduating from East High. They also say that part of the delay in the S3 announcement is a conflict between Tim and Disney executives. Tim wants to move production to LA and film on sets as it’s easier and cheaper while the Disney execs still want some on location shooting in Salt Lake. Again this is all unconfirmed but if it pans out it will represent a major shift in the series. 

Regardless if Tim wants the show to remain successful he needs start planning out what he wants to happen. He should not assume he’s getting more than 4 seasons. If the series gets a S3 but then is suddenly cancelled then how would he want all the main story lines to wrap up? And if they make it to S4 where does he see it ending? The graduation of the current juniors is a logical series ending point but if Tim wants to do something different he needs to start thinking of that now. I can’t say I’m excited anymore for S3 but I do really hope that Tim and his writers can turn things around and that will only happen if they recognize what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes. 

Until next season Wildcats

#HSMTMTS #Portwell #Rini #Gina Porter #EJ Caswell #Ricky Bowen #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Kourtney Greene #lily #HSMTMTS Reviews

[sunnysunsins]

Why I love Ricky and why it grinds my gears when I see somebody slander him. Essay by SunnySun (Part 2)

| Part 1 (Character traits and development) | Part 2 (Design and relationships) |

In part 1 we looked over the character development and all the traits Ricky expressed during the first arcs of the manga.

But for now, to rest a bit after me basically retelling the debut, I will tell you a little story which kinda fits into the reason why I never judged Ricky, even during his introduction.

(Besides me being a casual enough media consumer that I went “You are the character archetype that starts of as an asshole but is actually a tsundere sweetheart that will fall for either the MC or one of her friends” when I first saw him in screenshots for the anime.)

When I was in school, around the same age as our kiddos, I had a frenemy. Let’s call him Arty. If translating our relationship onto SH characters, he would be Ricky and I would be Shaun, but not quite. Arty was a rich kid with a lot of friends and fancy things he loved to brag about. And I was a normal girl who liked to draw during class. And he would pick on me constantly, to which I would bite back and so on until our respective friend groups would have to jump in to keep us from throwing hands. He was really annoying to say the least, but we were classmates so we had to get along somehow. That was until some things in my country happened and our now very small class of – at one point – 8 people just had to get along out of necessity.

I bit down my childhood grudges and tried to be kinder towards Arty, with small things like just greeting him in the morning. And he returned the same kindness back. Slowly we started to get along and by the 9th grade, after which I went to college, we were friends. And he even asked our mutual friend about how I was doing! The same person who would pick on me over everything when we were kids.

So when I first saw Ricky, I was reminded of Arty and decided to give him a chance too.

That’s not where the parallels end though.

What actually made me try and be kinder to Arty in the first place was thing that happened that week. I won’t go into detail, but he shared something personal with me, something he didn’t want to share with his friends to not seem weak in front of them. He shared something vulnerable with me – a person who constantly fought with him. Sounds familiar?

Ricky and Shaun had a moment like this too. The boulder scene, where Ricky literally cried and begged Shaun to look after his master thinking he will die. Thinking back on it, I think this is the moment that Ricky became my fave, though I didn’t know it yet.

The thing that solidified him as my son, however, is the FREAKING BANGS. Ahem, sorry. I guess this is the best time to talk about character design.

He looked like a generic richboy, though really cute with those downturned eyes and long lashes of his. Note here – downturned eyes are usually reserved for cute and innocent characters (Emi and Ram have those too), so just this tiny detail is already unconsciously bringing us to give him a chance despite the… less than stellar first impressions.

Malfoy wannabe – very strong vibe that fooled even characters in-universe (looking at you, Shaun). And it definitely fooled the readers, as after chapter 103 came out people were really freaking confused.. They were expecting some nobleman’s son, but he was just a little village boy with cute little bangs and a cute little vest. Imagine this was how he was from the start? While his initial personality would’ve given the same impression, just his bangs alone would’ve made him have a different vibe. Hmm.. emo rich-bitch?..

And if you know me, you also know how I feel about his bangs. I made a whole collage of just panels with them for hells sake.

Now with the personal reasons out of the way, let’s return to psychoanalysis, this time focusing on Ricky’s relationships with others.

As I mentioned, he tries to be condescending to everyone because this is what Patrick asked of him. He gets flustered very easily and tries to get the higher ground back by using the legendary “no u” card (which more often than not fails). In later chapters we see that he feels bad for making an off-hand comment about Emi and he’s happy to see that Ram is alive and well.

As Kate put it:

And while most people don’t concern him at all, two in particular are the most important to him – Patrick and Lou.

His relationship with Patrick is really highlighted during chapters 29-30, 66, 97 and 101. Patrick relies on Ricky, almost hides behind him, and is openly distraught at the thought of losing him. He calls Ricky “indispensable” and “exceptional”, asking for his advice and opinion often.

Ricky in turn is extremely loyal, going as far as to swear on his master’s name when accused of lying. He is willing to do anything to keep his master’s status high, going as far as to analyze every possible suitor for him (though we do meme a lot about his true intentions in picking Louise as the best option, lol)

They have a very trusting relationship, once again brought up in 97 and 101 (Patrick literally said “there’s no way Ricky is lying”).

And I would like to use this segment to once again bring up Morph-Patty protecting Ricky from other morphs bc it was extremely cute.

Speaking of protectiveness, Patrick also immediately stopped his argument with Kate in 97 bc he saw that it made Ricky really uncomfortable.

And as I start discussing the relationship between Ricky and Lou, I must admit, in the name of fair analysis, that I am a shipper. However, for this part I will not be using the shipping glasses, only my regular prescriptions ones. Got it? Got it. Let’s go, we’re almost done.

They didn’t see eye to eye at first, with Ricky still trying to go by his master’s wishes and Lou being… well, pokerfaced af. But then chapter 29 came along and started shifting everything. As I mentioned, Ricky was genuinely concerned when Lou fell and cut her leg, going as far as to bandage it for her. (Making her ask “are you worried about me?”) After that, if you notice, he closely follows the map and checks every unsturdy looking thing before they move forward.

Also something something crush something something faces so freaking close something something thank you animators for bonus 3 seconds if you know you know

Then there’s the shear-giving scene, more on this one later, it’s really important. What I will say for now, it’s Lou thanking Ricky for helping her, despite her mistress’ thoughts on the matter.

After that they both are brainwashed to hell and back. But then comes a funny little wrinkle: revelation of chapter 103, that not only did they know each other before abduction, they were that one couple that’s not together yet, but everyone knows it will happen sooner or later.

So this, combined with Ricky falling for Lou again jumpkicked the breakdown of his brainwashing, eventually leading to ch.97. She is directly tied to his “humanity”.

And now we arrive at another question the user that pissed me off into writing this asked: “What is Ricky’s purpose?”

Well, one is obvious – continue to support Patrick. But what does this mean for the story? If every character has a purpose…

Just looking at the humans, Emilyko is the heart, Shaun is the brains and he shares strength aspect with Lou, and Ram is the inside-woman. What does this leave for Ricky?

Well, this might be a stretch, but hear me out. I think both blondes are the heart. And while Emi takes care of the bigger picture, like turning enemies into friends, Ricky is more focused on helping the ones already on our side. Namely, his closest two people.

I can hear you scoffing at this, but once again, let me finish.

In chapter 102 Lou says this about feeling like a human again “Even though I understand the situation, I think I haven’t actually felt it after all…”

What does it mean to be human? To do something for yourself, not dictated by your shadow-master or even against their wishes.

But wait, Lou has done it already. Twice.

Once, when she gave up her shears as thanks for helping her get to her shadow.

And another time, when she asked for a flower, even though “faces” shouldn’t talk.

Why did she do it? In her own words:

As she is tied to him getting his humanity back, he is tied to her. And I strongly believe that just like the previous two times, he will be key in helping her feeling human again.

But hey, this is just my dumb take. Only Somato knows for sure and all we can do is wait and see.

If you read this to conclusion you are something else, have my respect (unless you are the user that pissed me off into writing this. I doubt anything here made you actually think.) Ahem, yeah, I’ll go back to doing something actually productive-

Who am I kidding, I’ll just sit there waiting for any comments on my needless essay, lol

TLDR: There is none. If I could summarize everything in a few sentences why would I’ve written this?

Ok, here you go: I love Ricky because reasons.

#Shadows house analysis #Shadows House #shadows house spoilers #shadows house manga #ricky shadows house #shadows house ricky #patrick shadow #ricky #in this essay i will #ricky x lou #lou x ricky #shadows house theory

[drabbles-mc]

Sometime Around Midnight

Ezekiel Reyes x Reader

Request by Anon:  I have a request (feel free to ignore). I’ve been recently listening to that song “Sometime Around Midnight” by Airborne Toxic Event, and basically I think a fic based around those lyrics would fit ANY Mayan. I’d love to see someone give it a go :)

Warnings: language, angst, alcohol & smoking, EZ being a Sad Boy

Word Count: 2.6k

A/N: I’ve been sitting on this request for a little while now. I was trying to figure out which of our boys I wanted to write it for, but then when I started drafting it for EZ this sorta just fell out of me haha. It doesn’t follow the song exactly, but I hope you like it nonetheless! Enjoy some angst for the Boy Scout xo

EZ Taglist: @ly--canthrope​ @noz4a2​ @queenbeered​ @sincerelyasomebody​ @sadeyesgf​ @thesandbeneathmytoes​ @appropriate-writers-name​ @tomhardydallasstarsgirl​ @multiyfandomgirl40​ @sillygoose6969​ @louisianalady​ @gemini0410​ @paintballkid711​ @chibsytelford​ @yourwonkywriter​ @sesamepancakes​ @mayans-sauce​ @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead​ @plentyoffandoms​ @georgiaaintnopeach​ @twistnet​ @amandinesblogofstuff​ @garbinge​ @bucky-iss-bae​ @enjoy-the-destruction​ @encounterthepast​ @everyhowlmarksthedead​ @rosieposie0624​ @mylittlelonelyappreciationtoo​ @mijop​ (If you want to be tagged in any of my stuff or stuff for specific characters lemme know!)

They had warned you that it was a bad idea to get involved with any of the guys when you started working at the clubhouse as the new bartender. It had been a playful warning, but a very truthful one. And you hadn’t planned on crossing the lines of professionalism. You’d worked as a waitress and a bartender in what felt like a million different places, and you never had an issue when it came to keeping your personal and professional life separate. Don’t get involved with coworkers, and don’t get involved with the regular patrons. Working at the clubhouse meant that the guys from the MC fell into both categories simultaneously. Which you would’ve thought would make it easier to keep yourself from getting involved with any of them.

Yet somehow you found yourself making one little exception after another when it came to Ezekiel. There was just something about him that was hard to say no to. On top of the fact that you could stare at him all day and night without getting bored, there was something in the way that he spoke and smiled that made you feel safe. So you found yourself staying after everyone else had long since gone home to share one last beer with him. Letting him take you home on his bike turned into letting him come inside for a few minutes, which eventually turned into letting him stay the night. It all snowballed and you could’ve stopped it, but you didn’t want to. You knew it was a bad idea but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care.

It wasn’t supposed to be anything serious. Both of you agreed to that. Neither of you were really in a place in life where you were up for intense commitment. It should’ve been fine. But, despite the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be serious, there was something in you that couldn’t handle the way that he would still get strung out over his ex. You knew that pretty much everyone had that one person that was more difficult to get over than the rest, you just didn’t think that EZ’s was going to be someone who was still in his life so frequently. You knew that you had no right to be jealous, after all it wasn’t like the two of you were boyfriend and girlfriend, but it was still something that you couldn’t stomach. So you cut the cord. It hurt, and you didn’t really want to do it, but you knew that for the sake of your own sanity you had to.

That was two months ago. And in the span of that two months, you never came to the bar on nights that you weren’t working. You didn’t want to make it awkward for yourself, or for Ezekiel, or for anyone else, for that matter. But things felt like they were getting back to some kind of normalcy. So, when Bishop told you that he was going to have someone else work the bar when a couple other charters came to town, but that you should still come and have a good time, you figured there wasn’t going to be a better opportunity to feel out the situation.

You walked through the doors of the clubhouse to the party already being in full swing. You smiled at the sight of so many people enjoying themselves in one spot. There were a lot of faces that you had become familiar with in your time working the bar there, but there were some new ones too. Carefully maneuvering your way through people to get to the bar, you smiled at the young man that was doling out drinks as fast as he could.

“A beer when you get a chance, Ricky,” you said with a laugh.

He looked over at you, eyebrows raising when he realized it was you, “Shit, Y/N. Not used to seeing you on that side of the bar,” he chuckled, “Or seeing you all prettied up.”

You laughed as you snatched the bottle away from him, “Very funny.”

���Nah, I mean it. You look good.”

You smiled and took a sip of your beer, “Thank you.”

As you were scanning the room, Bishop appeared in front of you. There was a soft smile on his face as he pulled you into a hug, “Glad you came, sweetheart.”

You smiled as your cheek rested against his kutte for a moment, “Thanks for the invite,” you paused, “You sure it’s alright that I’m here?”

There was no hesitation as he nodded, “Of course. This is your bar, too.”

That was the last comment either of you made about it as you strayed to other topics. You had him tell you about some of the people that you didn’t know—the faces that you didn’t quite recognize. He was more than happy to dish out whatever details you wanted to know, enjoying that you wanted to know as much as you could about the people that came in and out of the clubhouse.

When he got flagged down into another conversation, he left you with a gentle kiss on your temple before slipping off into a new cluster of people. You leaned back against the bar, happy to just listen to the music and watch the party continue to unfold into the controlled chaos that it always was.

You were just about to ask Ricky for another beer when a young man appeared on the stool next to yours. You could feel his eyes on you and you looked over at him with a smile. His patch said Oakland and you instantly ran through what you could remember of their roster as you tried to put a name to his face.

“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked with a smile.

You nodded, turning your body so that you were facing him, “Sure can,” you glanced over at your friend, “Another beer, please, Ricky. Put it on this guy’s tab,” you gestured to the biker sitting next to you with a laugh.

He laughed as he held out his hand to introduce himself, “Manny. Name’s Manny.”

You chuckled as you shook his hand, “Nice to meet you, Manny. I’m Y/N,” you scanned him up and down, “I haven’t met you before, have I?”

He shook his head, “No ma’am. Just transferred from Spokane.”

“Ah,” you nodded, “that’s why I don’t recognize you.”

“You know everyone else down here?”

“Almost,” you laughed.

The two of you sat at the bar and talked. You hadn’t expected to get so wrapped up in conversation with him, but it was a welcome surprise. He seemed sweet, funny. You noticed the way that he was slowly but surely leaning in closer the longer the two of you talked. You pretended that you didn’t notice, soaking up the attention while you could have it. In another day or so he’d be gone and you’d be left to your own devices again. Besides, it was nice to feel wanted.

Manny was halfway through a sentence when he stopped, seeing someone behind you. A grin broke out across his face as he stood up and walked over to whoever it was. You turned to see Ezekiel standing there. He greeted his MC brother with a hug, but his eyes were glued on you the whole time.

“’Sup, Reyes? Was wondering if I was gonna see you around here tonight,” he chuckled, blissfully unaware of the tension.

“I’m never far,” he looked back and forth between the two of you before his eyes settled on Manny, “Mind if I steal Y/N for a minute? Gotta talk to her about something.”

He nodded, stepping back out of the way, “Sure thing,” he turned to you and flashed a smile, “You know where to find me if you wanna put another drink on my tab.”

You laughed and nodded, “Thank you.”

EZ waved for you to follow him and the two of you made your way out of the intensity of the clubhouse and out onto the deck. The air felt a little more breathable. This was the first time the two of you had any one-one-one time in months, and you weren’t sure what to make of it.

“So,” you sipped on your drink as you leaned back against the railing, “how’ve you been?”

EZ nodded, and you could see it in his eyes that there were a million thoughts running through his mind, “I’ve been alright. You?”

You shrugged, “Pretty good. Can’t complain,” you paused, “What’d you wanna talk about?”

The words got caught in his throat. When he’d seen the way you were talking and laughing with Manny, he felt a sliver of what it must’ve been like for you when he would come to you torn up about Emily. He knew that he had no right to be jealous, and for the entire night he was fighting the urge to go up and say something to you, to Manny, but his willpower finally wore out.

You stepped in closer and you gently rested one hand on his arm, “Hey, you good?”

Everything about you in that moment was distracting. He couldn’t look into your eyes without being hit with an onslaught of memories. The warmth radiating from your touch, and the wave of perfume that gently washed over him as you stepped in nearly knocked him off his feet. Every single memory of you that he tried not to think about, that he tried not to replay over and over again, hit him like a freight train.

He shut his eyes and shook his head, “I’m fine.”

You cocked one eyebrow, knowing him too well to believe what he was saying to you, “You sure?”

“I miss you,” he said, not able to look you in the eye as he did.

You couldn’t help but to let out a hollow laugh as you shook your head, “Do you really? Or did you just not like seeing me talk to someone else?”

He pressed his lips into a line, knowing that you could easily see through him. He sighed, “He’s not gon—”

You cut him off, “Don’t,” your tone was kind, but still firm, “EZ, I think it’s probably better for the both of us if you don’t finish that sentence. I don’t say shit to you when I see you with Vicki’s girls all over you, right?”

“That’s not the same as a patch talking to you.”

“So that gives you the right to stick your nose into it?”

He knew it was a losing argument. He really didn’t know where he thought the discussion was going to go. Every logical bone in his body had been telling him to not bother walking up to you in the first place, but he did anyway. And now he was paying for it.

“I wanna be friends with you, Ezekiel,” you told him honestly, “So when you’re ready for that, let me know. But I don’t think you are yet,” you stepped in and gave him a quick hug, “Enjoy the party.”

You walked back inside, and took a deep breath as the door shut behind you. You walked over to the bar and got another beer before locating Manny again, eager to pick up where you had left off. You sauntered over to where he was sitting on the couch, letting out a laugh as he pulled you down onto his lap. You lazily draped one arm around his shoulder as you let yourself get roped into the conversation that they were having.

You had never been the kind of person to go out of your way to try and make someone else feel jealous. That wasn’t what this was about. However, you couldn’t deny the fact that seeing that pang of envy present in EZ’s face as he walked in and saw you draped over someone from a different charter, it felt good. You knew that beautiful mind of his was replaying the nights when the two of you had been in very much the same position, and how he cost it all for himself.

Despite the fact that it was starting to creep into the small hours of the morning, the clubhouse was far from empty. That wasn’t particularly unusual, but you just wanted to be home, in a room that wasn’t weighted with the scent of alcohol and cigarette smoke. However, the warmth emanating from Manny’s hand resting lightly on your thigh wasn’t something you really wanted to give up just yet.

You leaned in a little closer to his ear, “How attached to this party are you?”

He chuckled, looking you in the eye, “What’s your offer?”

“I’ve got beer at my place that won’t make you keep running up your tab,” you trailed your nails lightly along the back of his neck.

“In that case,” he laughed as he tried to play off the fact that you had just sent a chill through his entire body, “I’m not attached to this party at all.”

You laughed as you hopped up off his lap, holding your hand out to pull him off the couch. He let you tug him along towards the door with a smile, trying to toss money onto the surface of the bar to cover his tab before leaving. Ricky let out a whistle and a laugh as you made your way towards the door and you couldn’t help but to shake your head.

The two of you walked down the steps of the clubhouse and Manny looked over at you, a smirk on his face, “You up for a ride?” he paused, “On the bike, I mean.”

You chuckled, nodding as you followed him, “I think so.”

He handed over his helmet with a smile, and you let him adjust it for you as you explained the way to get to your place. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see EZ standing on the deck, eyes glued to the scene unfolding in front of him. You tried not to let your eyes linger on him for too long. Before you knew it, you were hooking your leg over the back of Manny’s bike and wrapping your arms around his waist, settling against him as he pulled out of the lot.

EZ could still hear the rumble of the motorcycle as he took off down the steps to head towards his trailer. Angel had watched the entire scene play out and he went after his brother who he knew was about to do something undoubtedly stupid.

“Yo, Boy Scout, where you going?”

“She can’t just fucking…” his voice trailed off, not knowing how to end the sentence as his feet slowed to a stop.

“You gotta let that shit go, ‘mano,” Angel caught up to him.

EZ heard what his brother was saying, but he was too busy reliving every night that the two of you had peeled out of the clubhouse just like that. The thought of you having those moments with someone else knocked the wind out of him. He thought about how things unraveled, about how you had let him go because he wasn’t strong enough to do it himself. He knew he had no right to feel like he should be chasing after you, but he still wanted to. There was nothing more for either of you to say, but watching you ride off like that with someone else left a knot in his stomach.

“EZ,” Angel piped up again, clapping him on the back, “C’mon. There’s nothing for you out here right now. Let’s just go back inside.”

EZ let his brother drag him back to the clubhouse, back into the midst of the chaos. It felt emptier now, though. He wondered if that feeling would ever subside, if he would ever be able to fix what he’d broken.

#mayans mc #mayansmc #mayans fx #mayans mc imagine #ez reyes #ezekiel reyes #ez reyes x you #ez reyes x reader #ezekiel reyes imagine #ezekiel reyes x reader #ezekiel reyes fanfic #my writing #fanfiction #drabblesmc

[beyondd-dazedd]

bren’s thoughts from this past episode because i’ve seen it so many times now and i’ve got a lot of thoughts so here’s season 2 episode 7 of hsmtmts (a rant):

portwell morning announcements?? ICONIC whether you’re vibing with a romantic or platonic endgame the fondness and their chemistry is amazing. (sofia wylie and matt cornett better be sending their hospital bill to disney because they are literally carrying season 2 on their backs and i said what i said.)

the rini drama?? feels bad. like the way they built up the end of season 1 with them to have it come crashing down feels like drama just for the sake of drama and honestly it’s a little boring to me which is unfortunate because i really did like them season 1.

ricky my sweet baby ricky. you need therapy. but also he was right about the rose song and i stand by that. it doesn’t fit the show and i think he has a right to try to explain his feelings without nini shutting him down. i am all for nini focusing on her own music and thriving through that but don’t shut him down sis that ain’t it

the costume reveal scene was so funny from the DEH thing to carlos popping off on kourt to seb mediating to EJ and kourt’s convo about the costume i thought it was all really funny. also carlos totally had the right to snap at kourt because wtf kourt. HOWEVER i loved seeing her all giggly and excited. it’s a side of her character we haven’t really seen yet and i think dara completely embodied that high school first real relationship giddiness. also loved miss jenn saying don’t dance with the enemy and all of them IMMEDIATELY ignoring her and going to north high followed by her also ignoring her own advice and going as well.

all of them joining together to sneaky steal the mask back?? iconic. peak friendship vibes. carlos being the leader of the group in a sense this season is something i’m LIVING for. also Gina 1.0 to 2.0 is a spiritual journey and i’m so proud of her. Ash dressing up for the mission?? that’s so her (she’s undercover let her live wildcats). the disappointment in carlos’s face when they all finished the wildcat cheer?? that got me. frankie does so well with carlos’s facial acting and i love it.

also gina baby you got all these boys vying for your attention why are you wasting your time on ricky?? ricky baby i love you but you’re being an asshat about that whole thing. the way ricky hasn’t really taken into consideration gina’s feelings is not it. he really is just kind of trapped in his own world and refuses to see anything from someone else’s perspective. i saw someone talk about how ricky is the beast in this season. like yes he’s playing the beast but he’s also metaphorically taken on that role. he’s lashing out at people who don’t deserve it, he feels misunderstood, he’s struggling, etc.

ANYWAYS that’s my thoughts of rina right now so back to the episode. EJ coming in to help get gina out of the situation with the guy was fake dating excellence truly. there’s no way he heard what was being said since you can’t see him in the background at all so either he’s picked up on gina’s reactions so well that he could tell she was uncomfortable or he had a lil jealous moment. either way i’m here for it. and again whether you like them platonically together or romantically together that portwell scene was adorable as hell. the teasing ?? the fondness?? both sofia and matt’s acting is incredible. also a GREAT parallel to the homecoming episode to show just how far their relationship has come.

the rini drama plus kourt being giddy again. portwell standing next to each other?? antoine’s use of the word fugly really shows how unhinged this show is. lily proposing a dance off and everyone being like ??? no that’s fucking weird was hilarious. gina standing up for her sister ashlynn like that was gold.

man you may hate her (i do too) but lily is damn good at stirring the pot. i almost admire her complete understanding of the drama going on in everyone’s lives. she knows exactly what she’s doing when she says particular things.

the scene with antoine and ashlynn was so hilarious. joshua bassett seriously does not get a break from this damn show comparing him to people that are way more famous than him lol. also red hitting himself in the face was adorable and no i won’t take criticisms on that. also antoine is BOLD bold.

EJ cheering while everyone is upset that it was the mob song?? big golden retriever energy. i love him.

i don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion but i actually really liked this version of the mob song. they really leaned into the whole stupidity of the dance off idea and i think it actually works out well. plus there’s a ton of talented people on that track which makes it so much better. (also thought east high should have won on vocals alone. no their dancing wasn’t better but they had that really nice blend on their vocals and they all seemed a lot less frantic than north did.) also if they had let sofia just be sofia and dance. east high wouldve won on that alone.

i liked the song with miss jenn and zack. the choreo was beautiful but god i hate zacky roy. and that’s all i’ll say on that. (miss jenn i know that’s derek hough but you got two other very nice gentlemen who want you. don’t go for the low hanging fruit sis)

what was the point of lily telling them they would be disqualified if they used the rose song?? the only thing i can think of is she wants it to be a fair fight. which is noble i guess?? i don’t have time to psychoanalyze lily and no one wants that.

EJ’s face when they all turned to him for the sports metaphor had me sCREAMING and all of them being disappointed and talking over one another was very funny.

nini joining up with the group at the last minute seems to be her thing lately huh? i’ve said it once and i’ll say it again ricky was right about the song.

the couples walking out together. ft. nini and ricky fighting (again). PORTWELL EXCELLENCE (and huge dorks. i love them). red and ashlynn getting a bit rocky which at first i was like why is red jealous but then i remembered its high school. seb, carlos and kourt is an iconic trio. seb and carlos running off to avoid the drama is the gay agenda but also being in on the drama is the gay agenda. you feel??

HOWIE?!! why am i gasping i knew that? the fact that some of y’all really thought they would cast roman banks on this show and let howie go free without any drama?? nah man he had to be the beast for north fOR THE DRAMA. my baby kourt looked so hurt im so sorry beautiful. howie looking so guilty and upset?? heart breaking.

all in all i really loved this episode. i thought it was well done and set up a lot of plot lines. i don’t love how much some of the stuff feels like drama for the sake of drama but we’ll see. i’m sorta over rini this season as of this point. rina is in shambles because wtf ricky. portwell is alive and thriving as they should. seblos is beautiful and wonderful as always (i think the sassy verging on mean and the literal ball of sunshine is always a great pairing) redlynn is a little rocky but they’re both so empathetic and sweet that i think it’ll work out alright. kourt and howie (kowie?? hourtney??) is not doing too hot but i LOVE them together so they better gets their shit together.

#hsmtmts #ej caswell #gina porter #ricky bowen #nini salazar roberts #ashlyn caswell #big red #seb hsmtmts #carlos hsmtmts #howie hsmtmts #lily hsmtmts #antoine hsmtmts #kourtney greene

[pluviophile-bookworm]

HSMTMTS 2x11: Let us pull up a chair as the dining room proudly presents... the reason for my next mental breakdown

I can't believe myself, honestly. Oversleeping on the one day of the week that I've got something exciting to wake up for? Oh well, I'm up now and I'd better go ahead and do this before my dashboard has showered me with spoilers. I mean, I have never really minded spoilers, but when it comes to this, somehow I do. Though I do wish something had forewarned me about last week's snap ending (get it, 'snap'... I'll see myself out). I'd better dive in already.

Yes, Mr Mazzara, that's what I've been saying for a while! Ok, maybe I haven't been very vocal about it, but it was in the foreground of my mind that they should have asked for Mr Mazzara's help re: transformation! I'm just glad he pointed it out. Not that he could have done much while he was busy playing therapist for his beloved Miss Jenn. Oh well.

Were those Ash and Ricky doing actual paired-up warmups? That is what they should have been doing for weeks now. That and having actual off-stage interactions, too. But I still subscribe to the theory that the gang had some good rehearsals off-screen — otherwise there's no way they could have been this good on stage as we saw in the previews. I said it last time and I'll say it again — not everything is for us to see.

Wow. The one time our leads are in unison, and it is about both being injured. The East High drama club must be cursed — they can't have one production run smoothly and without what can only be described as pure unbridled chaos.

They don't have any understudies? That explains some things... but also how? But also, I'm so happy Ashlyn is going on. No way she would have missed her first (first of many, right?) chance of being the lead because of some 'minor' injury.

Ricky and Nini still can't talk to each other properly. Oh well. Take your time. It's not like I care about this pairing anymore.

Did EJ just use the word 'dig'? Boy, the boy's got it baaaaaad. Also, what is it going to take for these two to realise they're in love? For all we know, they might have that big kiss we're all dreaming of and still be like 'nah, it's nothing, we're buddies'... give me a break! But I mean, at this point they might just be turning into Redlyn 2.0, where even a kiss doesn't define things. But hey, if they do follow in Redlyn's footsteps, that only means good things in their future, right?

What did that fake French git do to my boy Carlos? He's not supposed to look this inanimate until right before the climax of the play! Well, I mean, at least Seb serving as his interpreter means that Seb gets more lines for a bit. Too bad he can't go on for someone with more lines in the play.

Miss Jenn's 'words of inspiration' were less than inspired... yeah, this show's going down. Or it would, if it depended solely on her. Let's hope the kids do better. I mean, I know for a fact they will... at least for about 5 minutes of the thing. There is still room for things to go wrong and I'm scared.

Oh, my sweet boy... I wish I could jump in there and do something to help him feel less nervous. Thing is, if I were there, I'd probably be the most nervous of them all, even if I were playing Townsfolk #3 or something, and everyone's nervousness would rub off on me, and I would be making things worse instead of helping. So yeah, I'm kind of glad I'm not there.

Ahhhh who called it? @redlyncentral was it you? Ash got flowers for her Biggie! And there's a card whose contents we've yet to see. But that doesn't seem to be helping either. My sweet, sweet Reddy... I hope and pray he'll be alright.

Well this is awkward! Who told Mike to show up and shake everything up right now? Miss Jenn is literally on the brink of exploding, and now she's stuck in this completely unnecessary love triangle. She needs some space. And a quiet place to breathe, thanks Mr M for suggesting it.

'Did we forget to build a mote around the school or...' Yeah, you tell her, Rick! That girl whose name I never want to pronounce (because it makes me think of much nicer people and she's making me hate it) has no business being there. She's not... being given a redemption arc, is she now? Some people just don't deserve it. And if hating her is an unpopular opinion now, well, I never did care much about having popular opinions. I can live with that.

'Lily, scram!' Yes, thank you, Natalie! I've always wanted someone who would voice my thoughts in a way that the characters can hear them. Make this girl a main next season, won't you? (Just so we're crystal clear, I mean Natalie, not the other one.)

OMG Mr M is in the play! In a way... I love that!

I love, love, love the way they did the prologue. 'Repulsed [the prince makes an over-the-top gesture of repulsion] by her haggard appearance [the witch shows off her face to the audience]...' I love this. I would pay a lot for a chance to see their entire play, you know?

Oh dear, somebody give my boy Reddy some sort of... medical aid against all the throwing up! I've got a nice pill that helps me with my bad cases of motion sickness. Hey, so maybe I could have helped if I were there after all. Great, now I feel bad. But also, is all the throwing up an excuse on the writers' part to keep my boy off-screen for the majority of this episode? Because it's a really lame excuse.

Gina's 'Many questions' continues to be a mood. What exactly is Miss Jenn expecting from the kids? Last-minute adjustments? No way. This spells disaster.

Was Carlos on vocal rest or something? Because he shines like the star he is... despite all the very obvious nervousness backstage. I mean, I wouldn't have it any other way, but... oh well, I wouldn't say it's unrealistic. In my personal performing experience, the most nervous ones perform the best. (So... what is that saying for my boy Reddy? Good things only.)

I've already had the opportunity to geek out about Be Our Guest yesterday, but... I mean, just look at them! Carlos doesn't need actual candles to be on fire, Ashlyn is stealing the scene without any lines in it, Gina is absolutely gorgeous, and don't even get me started on EJ and Big Red looking at their girls in absolute awe! This is everything!

Aww, look at them! Gina and Ashlyn dancing together, I mean. They're sisters and it really shows. And I love them both so much.

Kourtney is an absolute show-stealer! I'm still upset about some casting choices (one of them is in this scene, doing his absolute best with the crumbs he has been given), but she is absolutely perfect. I think I'll rewind and watch this entire scene again before moving on with the rest of the episode.

I'd just like to point out that Frankie's voice in his lower register is everything!

'You absolutely dusted that stage'... Not EJ making a pun so punny even I could not have thought of it... boy is absolutely smitten!

Not me tearing up when Jordan Fisher appeared as Gina's brother... like, I knew it was happening — I knew it even before it was announced. And I still teared up because, well, it's emotional in-universe and out.

Awww, my boy Reddy is so in love with Ashlyn... I mean, who wouldn't be... but — not Ricky saying Lily might not be as mean as they thought. Especially not to Big Red of all people. To him, she was just as mean as they thought.

'Side hustle project in the south hallway'? Ooh, what is it, I want to know now!

Why do I feel like things are a bit too awkward between Kourtney and Howie? Not that I'm too invested in their relationship, but if it bothered me, imagine how it must feel for the stans.

No, Ash, you absolutely do not need to add any fancy riffs to the song! Especially not just because L... well, that girl did it. You're unique and lovely and a literal Disney princess inside and out. That girl? She's just a wolf in a sparkling golden dress.

Awww... Big Red literally lowers Ash's blood pressure! Those two are such an amazing couple! (Full disclosure, though, he kind of does the same for me too; the other night I had this horrible nightmare, and I woke up in cold sweat in the middle of the night, and then... ok, getting too personal there.) The point is, if even the fantasy of a Big Red hug makes me feel better, imagine what his actual presence would do for Ash at that moment. Where is my boy? Everyone seems to be looking for him.

Oh... guess they took my advice to give the poor boy something for his vomiting issue. Good for whoever thought of it.

And we're back to the Porter siblings... forgive me if I still can't wrap my head around calling Gina's brother Jamie. I don't know about you guys, but thanks to my lovely new friend Paz he will always be Theodore to me. I guess we can headcanon that as his middle name. Anyway, I love it that they made a joke about the hilarious height difference between him and Gina because, well, it's the only thing I can think about when I look at the two of them. It reminds me of me and my little cousin who has been taller than me since she was 10, and is still growing taller now at 13. But, I mean, it's not very hard to be taller than me, since I'm so, so short... ok, this is not about me. Moving on.

Was I the only one who actually laughed out loud at Ricky drinking from the bowl as the Beast? I mean, that part has always made me laugh in the original movie, but something about Ricky's take on it makes it even funnier.

Meanwhile, my girl Ash is absolutely killing it as Belle. Not me having the very same expression as Big Red while watching her... gosh, I love both of them so much! Also, no offence to the rest of the cast, but Julia really is the best vocalist out there. Out of all of them. I said what I said.

My apologies to Ricky, but his voice is just not it when it comes to playing the Beast. Still, with the other option being him putting on that fake deep voice from the audition, I'm glad he didn't.

Ahhhh Portwell nation you ok guys? Since we didn't get them singing Something There, this is very much the next best thing... and boy, is it good!

Those glances between Kourtney and Howie, on the other hand... what on Earth is happening there?

Ok, so you all know just how strongly I feel about Seb's casting as Chip, and yet... boy had one line and absolutely ate it up! Give him an actual singing role next time, Miss Jenn!

EJ being starstruck by Jamie not because he's a big music producer, but because he's Gina's brother... excuse me while I sob!

Excuse me, what!!!! 'A big brother figure'? Boy, this didn't turn out the way I thought it would... now I'm scared.

Way to ruin things, Jamie! And I don't even mean the fact that his name is not Theodore. It doesn't matter what his name is anymore. He might just have put a spanner in the works of Portwell, and they were just doing so well! Ugh, I'm so frustrated. I wish I'd never boarded — what did I call it — 'the majestic S.S. Portwell'. What if it doesn't set sail now?

And there goes another disappointment... Carlos' 'the orchestra hasn't vamped this much since Bop to the Top' line had nothing to do with Seblos, and everything to do with what might still be the downfall of this show. I am not ready.

No. Miss Jenn did not just say that. She did not just tell Ricky — who, may I remind you, not that anyone's forgotten, just fell off of a high place last episode — to 'jump off of something high'. I realise she's under all the pressure, but that is not an excuse. Well, at least she heard herself.

Oh my gods... Nini — well, Nina, actually — did not just call him 'Richard', did she? That's it, that's the point of no return. And well, I kind of wanted them to reach it.

Told you, didn't I? I told you that-girl-who-must-not-be-named was evil! I always follow my intuition and it has not once deceived me. Redeem that, if you can! Guess what? You can't. We've just reached another point of no return.

Wait, a bloody cliffhanger? I cannot handle this. I physically cannot handle this. If you need me, I'll be sitting on my bed in shock, trying to process everything that happened. I'll need a while to get a grip on myself.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts s2 #ricky bowen #nini salazar-roberts #gina porter #ej caswell #ashlyn moon caswell #big red redonovich #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew-smith #kourtney greene #hsmtmts miss jenn #hsmtmts mr mazzara #hsmtmts howie #jnk

[imaginesbymk]

“Find Me Under The Giant Rabbit.”

Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction One Shot

SUMMARY: I read a Reddit fan theory that Mr. Pink survived, escaped the cops, got arrested and was then put on parole - leaving behind his old life and lying low as a waiter at Jack Rabbit Slims. What happens when you show up to the restaurant one night?

PAIRING: Mr. Pink/Buddy Holly waiter x Reader

TAGS: swearing, smoking + mentions of basically everything that happened in reservoir dogs which is the heist, violence, etc

NON REQUESTED

WORD COUNT: 2,870 (it’s long i’m sorry)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: this is probably the cheesiest thing i’ve ever written, and it’s nothing tarantino would ever put in his films, also there’s no way PF and RS can legitimately tie in together 100% even though there are some factors to support otherwise, but i wanted to write this and see something lol :( leave a like/reblog + feedback!!!

[gif credit]

YOU put your car in park, shutting off the engine, and observed it from afar. It was one hell of a big restaurant, almost a bit too cartoon-like. There was a giant anthropomorphic rabbit on top, and the lights claiming the name were glowing a bright red and yellow. Mind you, this was in Los Angeles, so who wouldn’t blame you if you took one look at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, and mistake it for a restaurant at Six Flags? 

Dozens of bikers came in with their motorcycles, yet their engines couldn’t even overpower the chatter coming from newcomers left and right. You ignored a heavy tattooed biker dressed in all leather and denim catcalling you from afar, and you reached the front desk. 

A man dressed in uniform, most definitely in character, tipped his hat at you and led you to a table with only two chairs. You weren’t expecting anyone to join you in the other seat across. So what if you went for dinner by yourself? You didn’t bother asking anyone to join you for that matter. Not anyone you could think of at the top of your head would be any less boring.

You began tracing your fingers around the rim of the ketchup bottle when not even five seconds after sitting down, a lady approached your table with ruby red lips. 

Of course, you thought. Servers were dressed up as icons from the 50s era.

“Marilyn,” you say in awe.

“Close enough,” Instead of being seated in the Marilyn Monroe section being served by a Marilyn Monroe-looking Marilyn Monroe, you were greeted with a tall Mamie Van Doren, who is just as breathtaking as Marilyn refilling everyone’s coffee mugs from the other side of the restaurant. “How about I get you started with drinks?”

Ricky Nelson’s performance on stage came to an end when Mamie arrived with your food. You looked around the place while eating. People weren’t eating by themselves. Families, friends, dates, all of them occupied their seats. Now that you’ve noticed, you sort of wished you brought someone with you, otherwise the seat across from you is used as a footrest. 

So there, you propped your feet on top, and relaxed… then you sat upright. Your eyes fixated on the waiter in his section, which were the cars back in the 50s used as booths. You watch him walk towards one of them. The couple was a young woman in a blunt bob cut with bangs, and a man wearing a black suit with long black hair tied back.

You squint your eyes. It couldn’t be...

“Hi, I’m Buddy. What can I get ya?”

You blinked, dropping the half bitten French fry from your mouth. Holy fucking shit.

It was all coming back to you. The news broke out about the heist going wrong at the wholesale, all dead except for one, a cop who laid dead on the ramp inside the rendezvous was identified as Mr. Orange. Since he wasn’t supposed to know where you were from, Mr. Pink never turned up to your door as an emergency hideout, or to drag you with him on his getaway because he never had one. You never heard of him ever since. 

Here he was, Mr. Pink, alive and well, wearing glasses. What the hell happened? How long has he been working here? Is he supposed to be Buddy Holly?

“How do you want that cooked? Burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell?” you hear him ask the man in the suit who ordered a steak.

“Bloody as hell, and oh, yeah, look at this- vanilla coke.”

You noticed the irony. He left you in a black suit - and he comes back in white. Like he’d ever want to be caught dead in white, or pink.

“What about you, Peggy Sue?” he asks the woman, jotting in his notepad. You recognized the pun.

“I’ll have the Durwood Kirby burger, bloody. And… the five dollar shake.”

Were you about to laugh? Call out his name? That was enough for you to get antsy in your seat, but you didn’t want to draw attention. You saw him again while finishing up half of your meal, giving the couple their drinks and disappearing back into the kitchen. He was doing his job, but it wasn’t like he was giving his one hundred percent. For someone who preached to the Gods about professionalism, Mr. Pink sure lacked work ethic. Every employee was on point with their character impersonations as if you had travelled back in time. Meanwhile, he acted like himself and seemed bored while wearing an emotionless face, as if he hated his job and epitome of his existence. It was never a dull moment for him whenever he was with you, though.

You got up to use the restroom.

“We’re lucky we got anything at all. I don’t think Buddy Holly’s much of a waiter,” you heard the man at the booth tell the woman as you walk past them, spotting their food from the corner of your eye. It’s no surprise hearing that. Mr. Pink never looked like the type to work at a job like this.

You sat back down and soon, Mr. Pink reappeared, standing over to the side and watched the announcement of the twisting contest, smoking a cigarette. You see him eyeing two pretty blonde women walking past him, and he looked back his way, now in your direction.

He finally did what you wanted him to do, and he stares at you for nearly a solid minute.

You waved awkwardly. 

Mr. Pink tosses the cigarette in a random person’s ashtray and disappears behind the door once again. You darted out of your chair, and marched your way to where he headed, just as the couple he served got up on stage to participate in the twisting contest.

A Zorro waiter jumps in front of you. “Stop right there, mi amor!” his eyes darted at you through the cheap black mask he was wearing. “I believe the bathroom’s on the other side of the bar.”

“Where’s Buddy?” you ask Zorro.

“I’m afraid Mr. Holly is taking a quick break from unenthusiastically serving love birds in their cars.”

“Can you tell him I’m looking for him?”

“Once I see him.” Zorro then took out his sword and pointed it at you, a grin plastered on his face. “Now, shall I escort you back to your dining spot?”

Although you were aware this guy was only in character, you didn’t wanna risk getting kicked out, or having a realistic looking sword ripped through your body. You sighed and turned around, heading back. You noticed at your table a folded napkin beside your empty plate. Mamie Van Doren was last seen there, her back facing you with her heels clicking away on the tiles.

“Excuse me!” you called after the waitress. She ignores you, smiling down at new customers at an umbrella table.

Cocking an eyebrow, you used your finger to flatten the crease and read the note in bold handwriting.

FIND ME UNDER THE GIANT RABBIT. - BUDDY 

You threw the door open and ran outside, precisely under the giant rabbit of the Jack Rabbit Slim’s sign, just like he said on the napkin. You felt like an idiot checking every direction to find no one. Not a lot of the bikers were seen riding or hanging out around the parking lot, some people were coming and going, but you couldn’t find Buddy Holly.

Defeated, you turn to walk back inside. 

Mr. Pink rushed out the door and caught his breath. It looked like he was chasing you down before you could take off. A song used for the twisting contest kept playing from inside.

You didn’t run up to him and jumped in his arms or anything dramatic in that matter. You both stared at each other.

A few days before the heist you two stood across each other waiting for Mr. Brown and Mr. White inside the hideout. It was a quiet moment, not an awkward one. He just took that opportunity to study you, as you did him. It took him that moment to realize he was warming up to you. 

“Well hello there, Buddy,” you smile smugly.

YOU and Pink loitered at the side of the eatery, where the back door to the kitchen was located. He had taken off his fake glasses, showing his full frame.

“Okay,” you watch him lean against the wall, lighting his cigarette. “Talk to me. What happened to you?”

“What the hell do you think? Cops tagged me when I tried driving away. I was put behind bars, and by some fucking miracle this place took me in when I needed money.”

“You didn’t know any other crime bosses looking for a lanky dude?” Pink rolls his eyes at your joke. “I know the heist went terribly wrong, I saw the news. Everyone’s dead as Dillinger.”

“That briefcase had a shit load of two million dollars worth of stones,” Pink blew smoke out. “I swear, if that asshole undercover cop was never sent to set us up, I could have been enjoying a cocktail in Santorini. You’re lucky you called in sick that day.”

You shuddered, remembering how god-awful the illness was. “Never again. I felt like I was being hot glued to a sauna.”

You remembered the day of the heist. In fact, you mentally prepared yourself for something that you’ve never done before. You braced for what was supposed to go smoothly as Joe promised. Instead, you were woken up by the worst case scenario above 38 degrees. You were thankful Joe took it easy on you and promised another job next time. 

“All right, your turn. What did you do after that shit show went down?” Pink asks you.

“Just did my own thing. I wasn’t there so the cops never searched for me.” Pink took a slow drag, staring at nothing. He didn’t really look the same as before. Still lanky, except his hair was a bit more darkened and styled in curls, possibly because Buddy Holly had it permed that way. But his face read that he had been through a lot. Normally you felt zero pity for assholes like him, but you managed to blurt out, “I missed you.”

Pink, blowing out smoke in the air, eyed you up and down and furrowed his brows. “Likewise.”

Not only did it suck not being able to make money, you also couldn’t do it with Mr. Pink. As much as he kept his professionalism to a T, he squeezed in time to get along with you. It was no wonder Joe hired you - you were different than the guys, you moved differently and never felt small. Mr. Pink was drawn to that. 

Maybe that was just an understatement. He grew intimidated by something he expected to experience the least from in the job, and of course, straight out of a fairytale, you had to stop and ask yourself if you felt the same way, and if what you felt was right. Neither of you had any idea. It was against the rules to give out personal information to each other, and Mr. Pink took those rules very seriously, even if it was just one job that he most likely wouldn’t come back to unless a higher pay was involved and Joe Cabot liked him enough to recruit him again. 

If Mr. Pink grew too attached, if he let his guard down for one second, God forbid something would have happened to you. Without a doubt, he would have heavily blamed himself and walked away from the job without saying another word. 

His options were to wait until after the robbery to make a move, or do his job, get paid and leave. Whether or not it was out of selfishness was out of the question. Mr. Pink is already selfish in an intuitive kind of way, he’d rather avoid spiraling into a wave of emotions for one person - so he chose the latter.

“What?” Pink looked at you, feeling a bit tense. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Huh? No. It’s nothing,” you blinked, realizing you were staring at him longer than you should have. You shook your head, most likely shaking off the intrusive thoughts. Maybe this wasn’t a good time to tell him what’s on your mind. 

If anything, he’s most likely sleeping with the Marilyn Monroe waitress. “It’s just… you shaved the goatee.”

Pink nodded, looking a bit annoyed that there was no facial hair left on his chin to rub. “Buddy Holly had a clean face. For the record, the only advantage of this job is that I’m under disguise. Other than that, this place is a circus. I’m zooming back in time whenever I clock in.”

“It’s a 50s themed restaurant,” you state. “Working here sounds like fun. At least you get to dress up and experience pop culture.”

He scoffs. “No, fuck the 50s. Shit was all I Love Lucy and those puffy ass dresses.”

“They’re called poodle skirts, Pink.”

“Like I give a fuck what they’re called.”

“You know Buddy Holly smiled. He was a singer and a guitarist. If you keep up the attitude, no one’s gonna tip you. Nice Guy Eddie told me about your rant on tipping.”

“Ha! And? You will never find me up on that stage performing That’ll Be The Day, moving like a fucking animatronic.” Halfway finished, Pink tossed his cigarette aside and looked at you. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

You felt your cheeks flushing. Fuck. “I am?”

He nodded, putting his Buddy Holly glasses back on his face. “Yeah. It’s a breath of fresh air seeing you here.” He stares down at his wristwatch for a moment.

“Your break’s done?”

“It’s been done,” he says. “Fifteen minutes ago.”

You shook your head, chuckling. “You’re so fired.”

“This isn’t the first time I stopped caring, so my boss isn’t gonna bat an eye.” He had his hand wrapped around the back door which was supported by a wooden block to keep it open. “Look, I’ll see ya arou-”

“Pink?” Your heart rose up to your throat.

He turned back to you. “Hm?” 

You just had to do it. You reached up and kissed him softly. Pink didn’t shove or curse at you. His features softened, pulling you close to him and kissed you deeply. Even when you two pulled away, his arms didn’t unwrap from your waist. His forehead was pressed against yours now.

“My name’s Y/N,” you tell him.

He stares at you, no snarky, sarcastic comment left for him to give.

“I know you’re not willing to give your name up just yet, you can’t fully trust me, and I get that, but I won’t tell anyone what happened. You got lucky, I think… but I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“You don’t have to-”

“I’m serious.”

“Y/N,” he says your name for the first time. “You don’t have to go all sappy for me. Karma came in hot. Jesus Christ, I mean, I left you.”

“Not really. You didn’t know me. The cops had the place staked out the entire day, there was nothing you could do.”

He looked down at his shoes. “All right. But still, I feel shitty. Can I at least make it up to you?”

“How?”

Pink shrugs. “I get paid tomorrow.”

“Good for you,” you reply. “Save it like you’re gonna lose it.”

“I’ve had this job for a while now, I got enough to last. But once I win the lottery, I’m gone.”

“To Santorini?”

“With a cocktail in my hand. But that’s besides the point, right now I got enough to take you out on a date… if you’re down.”

“Where would you plan on taking me? Here?” you laugh.

“You’re funny. How about the movies? Overruled, I’m taking you to see a movie. I gotta know where you live first. It’s okay to know now.”

You nodded, you couldn't argue with that. Besides, you two would just be making out in the dark the entire time.

His hand was back on the handle of the back door. Pink pulled it open, looked back at you and smiled for the first time tonight. That warmed your heart, and you were certain it warmed his. He watched you stuff something inside his pocket square as you told him your address. He went back inside, shutting the door on you. You walked back to the front of the restaurant to pay for the bill, and went straight home. 

Mr. Pink shuffles past the chefs in the kitchen, feeling through his suit pocket to pull out his notepad and whatever you stuffed inside just moments ago.

I didn’t even serve them. Is this supposed to be for Mamie Van Doren? He stares down at the dollar bill crumpled in his hand. His frown suddenly transitions to a small but genuine smile. 

Fuck it. Nothing could stop him now. He definitely owes you a date night. He quickly stuffs the tip back in his pocket square, and comes out the sliding door. 

THE END

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