#and this sounds amazing - tons of first person interviews

[queen-mabs-revenge]

This is the untold story of the Santiago Boys. A story that will get you to rethink everything you know about technology and politics. A story that will leave you asking: What if? Decades before Big Tech stole our future, these rebellious engineers dreamed of a different digital universe. Imagine a world where technology serves the people, not corporations. Where big data helps democracy, not ruins it. A place where the impossible always becomes possible. Their ideas were bold, their goals noble. But as their dream is about to become reality, powerful forces crush it. Why is their story not better known, and what really happened to the Santiago Boys? Have they really resurfaced in Silicon Valley? Spies, terrorist attacks, startups, and much human drama -- it's all here. The Santiago Boys have lessons to teach us, and on the 50th anniversary of the Chilean Coup, their story is more relevant than ever.

Upcoming 9 part podcast series about Project Cybersyn - there's a sign up on the linked page to get an update when it drops!

#project cybersyn #socialism #chile #big tech #tech history #sooooo looking forward to this - did some research on this when i was preparing my lead-off on ai #but didn't get a chance to get into the weeds #and this sounds amazing - tons of first person interviews #this was plugged on this machine kills with more info about it and it sounds like it's gonna be unreal #mabs recs podcasts

[maybemoonout]

if you were to put together a milex starter pack, what would be the top moments you’d include?? love your blog btw! 💗

Hi there anon! I'm so sorry it took me so long to answer this, there's just a lot going on right now for me so I only really found the time to answer this now! I hope you don't mind and still see this T_T

A starter pack sounds like such a fun idea! I want this to be sort of a bite sized post that allows new people from the fandom to find a little bit of everything they need to know. I think that's a good idea, so I decided with that!

///

To get started, I wanted to link this post by @i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind who made an AMAZING full blown post proving milex and it's wonderfully detailed and full of interview moments that start from the true beginning. A GREAT read if you need something to get you started!!

Some of my favorite moments that I got from that post are:

— Alex Turner on ‘Hot Press’ (x)

— Miles Kane, Les Inrocks Magazine 2016 (x)

And many many more from that post, it's also a great place to collect gifs since it has a lot, just remember to credit @i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind !!

///

Another GREAT post to read about their relationship is this post by @paperlovesadness that discusses Miles and Alex's relationship as the definition of Twin Flames. It's INCREDIBLY detailed and has sources for all the interviews mentioned. It's honestly such an interesting study, the definition of twin flames, even outside Milex, so please do give it a read!!

///

More great reads for this fandom are song analyses! You can find tons just by searching, but personally I have read all the song analyses of @yellowloid and @paperlovesadness, and I love them A LOT. I also have a few of my own, just check out my #ask !!

///

@puppetsspace started a Milex Timeline of events but it only ever made it to 2007, I don't know if anyone else made a bigger timeline but this is still a great blog to check out for the early timelines! My favorite one there has to be this post where Miles sees Alex for the first time and he looks in awe. Very sweet!

///

@yummilexhub created a full blown collection of the entire EYTCTE Tour!! A great place to get sources and clips!! please check it out here!

///

Now for some more fun stuff, if I had to choose my favorite moments it would be really... difficult. I have A LOT in mind and I honestly can't pick just a few so I'll try limiting it as much as I can.

---

1. The Iconic Øyafestivalen 2016 hug

Need I say more? Miles HIMSELF posted this moment, so it's not surprising everyone loves it, including meself.

2. The Iconic Coachella Kiss

This is honestly my favorite for 2 reasons:

[edited] I was unfortunately a slave to the internet but I originally said here that they were really banned but really its just a rumour!! I hears the guy handling coachella really wasn't happy with the whole thing thoigh, still funny lmfao

It was the one of the few moments that were the closest to a kiss, there are a few others but this one is the most popular and most iconic because again of said reason in #1.

3. Sharing Clothes

This ones not really a moment but a collection of moments. I find it EXTREMELY FUNNY that whenever people do those "boyfriend style" things on Alex, you see the regular array of ex girlfriends or current girlfriend, and out of nowhere, it's just Miles HAHAHAHHA. LIKE IT'S FUNNY AS HELL. I find it kinda sweet that Miles is somehow the... consistent out of all of the styles, like no matter the era of Alex there's gonna be a moment where he shares clothes with Miles, compared to the others who obviously only ever share with him in one period. I guess that's the perks of being the best friend?

Some examples:

Striped Shirt

Leather Jacket

Fred Perry Cardigan

4. The Albums being called "their baby"

This one is a little more of a stretch because I've only ever seen it one time. In this interview Alex says "for the past 8 years we've considered...trying for another baby" then they both start laughing hysterically. It's funny and cute :)) If anyone ever sees a different moment where Alex and Miles call the albums their babies, please do let me know!

5. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

These gifs explain themselves I think

///

I honestly can't think of more on top of my head right now, if anyone wants to add more please do! I'll definitely add more later but for now, this is my starter pack!

I hope this is a good little collection of stuff for you guys to see a little bit of everything!

#alex turner #miles kane #milex #the last shadow puppets #tlsp #ask #answered #my post #my gifs #gifset #starter pack #hope this helps T_T

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Floyd Leech Bloom Birthday Personal Story: Part 1

"Happy Birthday"

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

[Octavinelle Dorm – Birthday Party Venue]

Floyd: So, it's almost time for the birthday interview, huh. I wonder what they'll ask this year.

Floyd: And 'sides, who did the "Magical Pendulum" even choose to be my presenter?

???: Excuse me!

Ortho: Happy birthday, Floyd Leech-san! Let's have a good time today.

Floyd: Oooh, so you're the one who's gonna get this show on the road, Clione-chan? Make it entertaining for me, 'kay?

Ortho: I'll do my best. So then, I'll get the interview going right away.

Ortho: "Are you good or bad at flying?"

Floyd: Flying? Sure, I like it, but I don't know if I'm good at it, or nothing.

Floyd: Sometimes I can clear a set task in one go, but when I can't, I just suuuck.

Floyd: Stuff like having to fly at a specific height in a straight line's super boring, too.

Ortho: I understand. So you're the type whose flying skills can change greatly depending on your current emotions.

Floyd: Isn't that how everyone is?

Floyd: If something looks fun, I totally feel like trying it, but if it's boring, it's a pain to even lift one finger to do it.

Floyd: But meh, even on days I'm not really feeling up to doing anything, I can still fly higher than Jade or Azul, so.

Ortho: Oh, that reminds me, I've seen statistics that says merfolk tend to dislike flying.

Floyd: Hrrrrm, there's data like that? I bet whoever researched that must've been real bored.

Floyd: I mean, I guess Jade and Azul don't really like flying from the get go, anyway.

Floyd: Back when I first started learning how to fly, it didn't matter how into it I was, I still messed up a ton.

Floyd: It's a totally different sensation than being in the water, so I had a hard time just trying to balance on top of the broom.

Ortho: That does indeed sound like an issue that arises simply by default of being merfolk.

Floyd: Oh yeah, way back when, I remember I had a total epic fail.

Floyd: I couldn't control the broom at all, and ended up slamming into the bushes. Ahaha,

Ortho: Eehh!? Did you get hurt?

Floyd: Uhh, just got scraped up here and there, I guess? But it was so fast compared to how we move in the ocean, so it startled me a bit.

Floyd: But, I just couldn't get over that thrill I felt, y'know～? I wanted to feel it again, so…

Floyd: I'd watch videos and try to copy what I saw, trying all sorts of different stuff. Eventually, I was able to fly better.

Floyd: Lobster-sensei even told me that out of all the merfolk he's ever taught here, that I was one of the fastest to pick it up, too.

Ortho: Wow, that's amazing!

Ortho: I wonder why your improvement was much faster compared to the other merfolk?

Floyd: How should I know? Lobster-sensei just said that it's important to not be afraid of flying, though.

Ortho: If I were to compile everything you've explained here… I guess that means what's most important is to have the proper spirit, right?

Floyd: Maybe?

Floyd: It's also just a waste of time to just be zoning out thinking of other things, or just doing nothing like a sea anemone, anyway.

Ortho: Ehe, you're right. I want to be able to learn new things without fear just like that, too.

Floyd: 'Kay, I think that wraps it up nicely, don'tcha? Clione-chan, get on with the next question.

Part 1 (Part 2) (Part 3)

Requested by @sadinasaphrite.

#twisted wonderland #twst #floyd leech #ortho shroud #twst floyd #twst ortho #twst translation #mention: jade #mention: azul #mention: vargas #. don't mind me as i post translations out of order from my own intended order because i still haven't finished sebeks new years story

[dayamore]

I love women lol..

Ok… Women in NEW YORK.

& I’m gonna keep it up & coming / underground!

Lola Brooke

Her YouTube literally has 46million+ views.

Great press runs (dope interviews)

Already has MAJOR co-signs (including Lil Kim)

Already ACTING.

Hit a milly on IG

Doing campaigns (Nike, Topicals, & Yeezy)

Booked to perform at fw (a fashion girly)

TikTok sounds jumpin

Freestyles slappin

Already performing on major stages

On magazine covers

Crazy write ups

Dope collabs! (Latto, Yung Miami, Shabooya Remix)

Lady London

TONS OF PRESS

AMAZING FREESTYLES

TONS OF WRITEUPS

Pen is immaculate

Howard girly

Fashion girly !!!!

Major collabs! (Including Ciara)

EXTREMELY MAJOR CO-SIGNS !!! (Including Missy)

Tiktok sounds ? LIT.

Major campaigns! (Including Puma)

She isn’t as big as she should be because she’s extremely strategic, intelligent, & truly a woman of god. She ain’t on crazy shit just to get on.

Maiya The Don

Doing campaigns (Topicals)

Performed at fashion week

her tiktok sounds been jumpin.

Major co-signs

Dope collabs (layy banks , flomilli, lola brooke)

Tons of content / press / interviews

Very sweet interviews

SUNYNEWPALTSBAE

Geezly

Poppin over seas

Already landed major collabs (Rochy Rd)

Great press runs

Raina Simone

This woman talent is insane.

Rap circles around these men.

Debut album dropping soon!

Tons of amazing freestyles

Extremely thought provoking, gives me chills.

Major co-signs. (Including Erykah Badu)

Major write ups.

Amazing interviews.

Howard girly

(A personal favorite idc about industry standards)

Selyna Brillaré aka TrapSelyna

A literal super star.

Major write ups

Major campaigns (including Marc Jacobs & Burberry)

The voice of Telfar

Tiktok sounds jumping

Social media socialite

Amazing debut model career (featured in vogue)

Future actress

She does music for fun, she’s a major creative so she doesn’t have a bunch of music videos but i hope y’all enjoy her content.

Her debut ep soon drop.

In Rosalia’s music video!

Baby Storme

Personal fav

Putting on for the goth/alt girlies

Incredibly innovative and talented

Dope press

I love her content

From Yonkers so duhhhhh.

Drill /HardcoreRap/BarbieBarz!

Millions upon MILLIONS of views if you add all these girls together.

Major co-signs

London Hill got signed to Nicki 💞

Major impact on TikTok

Have performed or will be performing on major stages

Have plenty of deals / endorsements and campaigns

Beyond talented!

Have debuted on TV

Fashion Week performances

First ladies of their teams (Griselda & CokeBoys)

feat. Miah Kenzo, Chinese Kitty, Connie Diamond, BuggoutB, Princess Sany, KGoddess, Jenn Carter, BillyB, Kenzo B, London Hill, Shani Boni, Armani Caesar, WinterDaBrat, LegendaryRella, DreamDoll, YungDevyn & BreezyLyn

ALT / ROCKSTARS / POP / POETS/ ELECTRONIC/FASHIONBAES/VIBES

Fashion Icons

Major campaigns

Breaking down the stigma of New York only having one sound.

Major co-signs.

Beautiful content

Amazing models

JunglePussy, Maliibu, & Princess Nokia are OGS!

Duendita & H31R are groups!

Kiyanne can rap her ass off.

These girls bringing the VIBES!

feat. Madison Star, Diani, Girll Codee, Rokkstarnova, Duendita, Melii, Princess Nokia, Abby Jasmine, SPRTYK, Kiyanne, Baby Osamaa, Lagloinski, RillyRil, Maassai & JWords aka H31R, JunglePussy, MaliibuMiitch

Women ID love to mention:

OSHUN

Cleotrapa

#yara’s tunes #yara’s thoughts #inspo #ask yara #spotify #soundcloud #nyc girl #rap girls

[cosplayinamerica]

Harrison Krix of Volpin Props City: Atlanta, GA As ridiculous as it sounds, my current “goal” is to have a Wikipedia page about me that I didn’t write! That’s kind of a strange goal, but eventually if I keep making things that people like, it might happen. In the long, long, long term I’d eventually like to work for a production studio and make custom projects like this full time. I have this equally insane idea of working in cinema and winning an Academy Award someday… but man is that a pipe dream! For now, I’m just a dude in his garage and the only real thing I’m trying to do is continue to build neat stuff. As long as I can keep learning and expanding my skills, I’ll be happy.

It began in October of 2007 – my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I had just finished playing Twilight Princess and really wanted to go as Link and Midna for Halloween. I started doing some research online about costuming and prop construction, and that’s where I found out about Cosplay as a hobby in general. She decided to tackle the sewing bits while I attempted to make our props in about a week. Looking back, those first ones were done super cheap, but they got me introduced to a lot of new materials and techniques. A lot of our friends told us we should try out DragonCon in ‘08, and after visiting that once, we were hooked.A little while after, I started work on the Portal gun, which was a lightning strike. It got a ton of press pretty much overnight and suddenly people wanted me to make stuff for them!

I’ve been taking commissions for prop work and expanding my skills ever since.A little while after, I started work on the Portal gun, which was a lightning strike. It got a ton of press pretty much overnight and suddenly people wanted me to make stuff for them! I’ve been taking commissions for prop work and expanding my skills ever since.

I think my commissions are a bit different than most people. Since I do this in my free time, and not really as a source of primary income, I tend to pick commissions that I’m personally interested in making.

I think that the greater my affinity for a build is, the better the eventual product will be. The idea of challenging myself is also something I look for when I take on a project, which is why I rarely build the same thing twice. I like learning new materials, techniques, and skills. I prefer to push myself to try new things and constantly expand my skillset, so I can continue to make more complex and intricate pieces with each new project I attempt.

the interview from 2012 was conducted by Christian Kotea. I photographed Harrison in his garage studio around the same year 2012 or maybe 2013. It's pretty amazing how his business has grown and it started in this garage.

#prop maker #cosplay

[chorusfm]

Sonic Blume – “Falling Behind” (Video)

Today is a great day to share the news that indie rock band, Sonic Blume, have released their latest single and video for “Falling Behind.” Sonic Blume is Max Connery on vocals/guitar/synth, Danny Murray on drums, Noah Sullivan on guitar/synth, and James Waltsak on bass, and this NJ-based band is onto great things on this track. The single comes from their latest LP, All Your Favorite Songs that is out everywhere you stream your music now. I was also able to catch up with this talented band for a brief interview below. Thanks for connecting with me today! Can you first tell me about the lyrical inspiration behind your single, “Falling Behind”? I wrote this song with my friend and incredibly talented musician and songwriter, Adrian Simon, who puts out music under the name Ade. When we wrote this song, I was in college, doing all of my classes on zoom from my parent’s house. And with living back at home, I sort of felt like I was in high school again, and that I wasn’t really getting older. I felt stuck in this same old routine and couldn’t break free from the mundanity of it all. These feelings were the inspiration behind this song. Also, “Come Together,” by The Beatles was a big inspiration behind the flow and style of lyrics in the song, with the endless metaphors that can seem almost nonsensical at first. I understand you recently released a new LP called All Your Favorite Songs. How has the fan reaction been to the new material? Any favorites stand out from either the fan perspective or from the band, personally? It’s been really cool! Some of the songs we have been playing live for a bit now. “Rocky & I” has been in our set for a while, and seemed to be a song that a lot of people and was sort of a favorite before it even came out. So it was exciting to finally put that song out. But what’s always sort of interesting and has been really cool for this record, is when people respond to songs that you maybe don’t expect them to. The songs “Daylily” and “Staring at the Sun” weren’t singles and are on the back half of the record, but we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on those songs which is awesome to hear. My favorite is definitely “Without a Sound.” I like that it feels like a good balance between the sound on this record, and some of our older stuff, and also the song means a lot to me too. I know you’re from New Jersey, can you let me know some of the benefits and/or potential drawbacks for making music in such a musically rich area? It’s really amazing. I honestly can’t really think of any drawbacks. The scene that we’re a part of is so active and talented, and very communal too. Everyone plays in everyone else’s projects. I have a ton of fun getting to play in my friends’ bands. It’s really easy to feel inspired that way too, I think, just being able to be a part of a scene where everyone is so supportive and creative. Another huge plus is just the physical location of New Jersey, where you’re so close to both NYC and Philly at all times and have access to playing in both cities whenever. Now that the new record is out, what is 2024 looking like for Sonic Blume? Really we’re just hoping to play as many shows as we can. Over the past year, we started doing some east coast touring a little bit, but we want to do a lot more of that. We want to play in a lot of places we haven’t been yet, and try to keep the momentum going. And who knows, possibly new music too. Not entirely sure what 2024 holds for us yet! --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/features/sonic-blume-falling-behind-video/

[local-legal-marketing]

Short Videos, Big Results for Law Firms

Videos Humanize Law Firms and Build Trust Recent surveys show that 90% of clients say video helps them evaluate legal service credibility and professionalism. Video marketing is a proven way for attorney websites and social media to educate and attract modern clients. Why Law Firms Should Embrace Video Content Well-crafted legal videos offer many benefits: Improved SEO Optimized videos can drive website traffic and search visibility. Simpler Alternative to Blogs Short videos are easier to produce than written content. Social Media Engagement Videos tend to get shared significantly more on social platforms. Short-Form Video's Growing Impact How we consume information has transformed with technological advancements. Short videos excelling at quickly conveying digestible content in an engaging format have gained immense popularity. This trend now extends to the legal industry, as attorneys recognize platforms like YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels present new opportunities to connect with potential clients. Enhancing Online Presence These sites offer lawyers the ability to showcase expertise through valuable legal insights, establish thought leadership, and foster brand awareness by creating informational and shareable short videos. With fewer lawyer competitors currently leveraging short-form video, now is an ideal time for firms to capitalize and tailor video strategies to the unique user preferences of each platform’s audience. Well-Suited for Busy Viewers The concise, attention-grabbing nature of short videos makes them a great vehicle for lawyers to convey key messages to time-pressed audiences. Rather than lengthy written content, short videos allow making an impact quickly. Let me know if you would like me to modify anything in this rewrite to better fit the context! I aimed to focus it on opportunities and benefits to law firms from short videos. Creating Great Legal Marketing Videos The key is keeping videos focused, authentic, and helpful: Keep it Brief Aim for 1-2 minutes maximum. Cover one specific topic or question. Offer Legal Tips and Insights Provide specific, valuable legal help or information. Show Your Attorneys Film videos with actual lawyers from your firm to humanize your brand. Optimize for SEO Include meta titles, tags, and transcripts so videos can be found online. Promote Your Content Embed videos on the website and share them across social media channels. The following is a DRAMATIZATION AND IS NOT AN ACTUAL EVENT: One firm posted a video series: "5 Things To Do After Your Car Accident.” They filmed personal injury attorneys at their firm discussing each tip. The videos drove tons of traffic from YouTube and website visitors increased by 15%. Getting Started with Video Marketing Dipping your toe into legal video marketing is simpler than you realized. Here are some first steps: Set Objectives Define your goals from video marketing, like website traffic, rankings, and conversions. Track progress. Find a Location A home office, conference room, or legal library with good lighting can work great for a DIY legal video shoot. Prepare a Script and Questions An outline keeps your videos focused, on-brand, and your attorneys sounding natural. The following is a DRAMATIZATION AND IS NOT AN ACTUAL EVENT: One firm struggled with rambling testimonial interviews. After scripting questions out before their next client video, they helped the subject stay on topic and their conversion rates increased after posting it. FAQs 1. What equipment do we need? Modern smartphones can produce quality legal videos. Lighting and lavalier mics also help. 2. How much do videos cost? For DIY videos, costs are less than $500 for entry-level gear. Professional production with legal video marketing firms ranges from $1,000-$5,000. 3. What content works best? Tips, law explanations, attorney/staff profiles, and client testimonials make engaging legal video topics. Now that you have amazing legal videos, promote them across channels: Feature on Website and Blog Embed videos on relevant pages and blog posts. Link to the videos in content. Share on Social Media Upload natively on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Insert eye-catching custom thumbnails. Leverage Paid Ads Run paid campaigns highlighting top videos to expand reach. Retarget visitors who watched part of a video. The following is a DRAMATIZATION AND IS NOT AN ACTUAL EVENT: One personal injury firm drove over 600 contact form submissions in a month thanks to Facebook ads showcasing their accident advice videos to local traffic. Ready to Level Up Your Legal Marketing? Take the Next Step with Law Firm Video With strategic video marketing, you can humanize your law practice while establishing expertise and credibility. Let's explore how custom legal videos can benefit your firm. Contact us to start boosting your online visibility today! Read the full article

[gotbamb00zled]

how I got into IT with "zero" experience

Someone in one of my discords was wondering why people say things like "here's how I become a web developer with no experience." I wanted to rant about it, but Discord did not like how verbose I got. This is my story of how I was surprised to get into IT with having (almost no professional) experience. in my case, I wallowing in covid depression, but I got a CompTIA A+ cert because I wanted to get into cybersecurity. I studied for maybe 1-2 months but could have done it faster. Getting the cert was easy for me but I've been using Windows since the early 90s.

I was taking some online courses from TCM (Cyber Mentor Academy). Great resource for affordable education. Anyway, I saw listings for IT support jobs. One was a company where you give over the phone support to repairmen for those filtered water dispensers you see in offices…one was IT support for healthcare providers…

The dispenser support interview was first. I didn't perform well at the interview, but they seemed desperate to hire someone so they offered me the job despite my clear lack of enthusiasm for what they do. Then, after a phone interview with the healthcare place, I got offered that job. The water job was horrible pay and not full time. The healthcare job was I think $16/hr. Sounded stressful.

I was shocked when I got home and saw a contractor for Sandia Labs IT support wanted to Zoom call interview me. We did the interview maybe the next day. I didn't feel like I was doing that well in the interview but they seemed interested and we got along well. Toward the end, they paused for a bit and seemed to be chatting to each other via DMs. They sounded like they were gonna say "Well…we still have more people to interview" but instead they said "Well…I think you'd be a good fit."

The pay was triple what I made at my last job, plus extra for a health savings account. Had benefits, dental, vision, $300/year you could spend on any type of fitness gear or gym memberships and it would be reimbursed. Other benefits on top of that. Every supervisor there was supportive and working to get us promoted to a position working directly inside Sandia rather than being stuck as a contractor. We were all in the process of getting security clearances which opens tons of doors especially for cybersecurity.

Long story but I ended up quitting that job for various reasons. But I'm still amazed they gave me a chance…amazed that just studying for a month or so and getting one cert led to them giving me a 2nd chance after 2-3 years with no jobs on my resume.

I realize I'm a white seemingly cisgender male and because of that, I have an easier time of navigating the chaos life than most do. Sure, bipolar still throws me off quite a bit, but I was convinced they would never hire me for that Sandia job. Convinced I'd have to go work at some call center or grocery store again making $9 an hour and having constant back and shoulder pain from all the phsyical labor.

Seek out free or affordable education. Not sure if this is still true, but TechHire used to cover tuition for the Deep Dive Coding bootcamps that CNM offers. And there's Cultivate Coders still…? Not 100% sure if they're still around. But the resources are out there on YouTube or sites like gamedev.tv or GameDevHQ or Udemy.

Pursue what stimulates you intellectually. That might be music for one person and UI coding for another. Don't let your parents or your game dev idols convince you you're not going down a viable path. Do you think people thought Tim Schafer taking a risk and founding Double Fine was "viable"? Was John Carmack and George Romero quitting their lucrative day jobs to make Doom "a smart move"? No. But Carmack and Romero knew they could achieve their goals and they took that risk.

Sometimes, those risks in game dev don't pay off. Maybe funding falls through or a publisher backs out on a deal. Maybe the cost of living increase to move to another city and work at that studio makes it unrealistic. But covid changed how we think about work-life balance. My brother went from having to drive 1 hour to work and 1 hour back every day in LA before and during covid to mostly working from home.

Again, I'm not trying to sound like I'm humble bragging.

I'm 34…I live with my parents…I'm on disability…let's just say I have to pull up my bank app and double check I have enough money to cover a purchase more than I'd like.

But so what? I'm going to orientation to volunteer at a local nonrprofit helping the homeless find housing and jobs tomorrow. Sure, there will be no pay. But I'll wake up ready to help people find stability in their life and take the bus home glad I was able to help.

[brightest-night-sky]

My Assorted Thoughts on the HSMTMTS QnA bc my brain is Rotted™

its a lot :3

"what’s the first thing you remember from stepping on set?"

Julia's answer was so sweet and really cements in my mind that this show is by and for theatre kids. The way she talked about being nervous and the set becoming a family is verbatim how I'd describe the casts I've been in. It makes me so happy things went smoothly for them bc I'd give each and every cast member the world and mars if I could.

Idk why but Frankie talking about his ankles is so adorable to me? Its so obvious that his first day was a core memory for him and I hope its his first of many first days on wonderful sets. (Also hearing Kate Reinders was literally the Miss Jenn to Frankie's Carlos warms my heart.)

Dara is me tbh im a photographer thru and thru. I don't have a ton to say on her answer other than, again, it makes me so happy to see these talented actors who have made my favorite characters who they are got to have these amazing and formative experiences so young.

"Fanfiction is a huge part of Tumblr- My question for you all is, have you read any fanfiction about your characters, or characters from other pieces of media?"

I'm not sure if them saying Julia asked this question was a joke but if it's true then she is more for the people than any president in history.

I KNOWWWW DARA HAS READ SOME GOOD FANFIC

conspiracy theory dara has actually read every hsmtmts fic on the internet cover to cover

WHOEVER WROTE THE FIC/HEADCANON THAT SHE MENTIONED PLEASE COME FORWARD I JUST KNOW THAT WAS VALIDATING AS HELLLL

new life purpose: getting a cast member to read a fic of mine w/out sending it to them directly.

"if hsmtmts was filmed like a 2000s movie, what would your character's freeze frame epilogue look like?"

asker the person that you are i literally love you this is such a random question

Carlos getting lost on his way to NYC and ending up in LA is canon, I now headcanon that Seb went with him (seblos is endgame in my heart no matter what happens in s4) and didn't figure out they were in LA for months.

"Babe, the weather app isn't working. It says it's supposed to be snowing, but there's not even any clouds. I bought a carrot nose for nothing!"

Ashlyn being a broadway star isn't even a headcanon anymore. its canon now im currently willing it into existence with my mind powers as we speak.

I like to think out of high school she's the lead of some wild off-broadway show that absolutely bombs but develops a huge fanbase after a slime tutorial ends up on yt. after she starts becoming lin-manuel miranda levels of broadway famous, she literally produces and directs a revival of that show to honor her beginnings.

kourtney being a lack of social media therapist is a spin off i'd pay to see.

ALSO they're all friends for life after the show ends this also canon (see: mind powers)

"julia, as a queer person how has it felt being able to finally tap into and expand on ashlyn’s queerness, especially after having advocated for ashlyn to get a queer storyline since the show first began? her queer storyline has been so relatable and delicately done and you are truly the perfect ashlyn to do it!! <3"

I didn't know Julia made queer ash happen she's so cool???

I can't really add much bc she just put the response so well so just go look

"for frankie: what can you tease about carlos's journey this season and where do you see him beyond season 4?"

THANKU ANON JUSTICE FOR CARLOS BEING MORE THAN COMEDIC RELIEF

him opening response with "real housewives episode" i love this man

however SEBLOS ANGST??

maybe this was like mega obvious in the promo stuff and i just missed it but i feel so blindsided??

"over again" sounds like a mutual breakup song title i don't like where this is going

at least they get to slay one more duet :(

"what can you tease about kourtney’s journey this season?"/"Dara, can you tell me what you've learned from Kourtney this season?"

asker you and I are one

First off the interviewer phrased this question differently than the ask which confuses me?? maybe it was a spoiler thing idk

maybe im reading too much into her tone but Dara is literally talking like she and kourtney are one and the same that woman is a star

tbh from the sounds of it I have a lot to learn from kourtney too

"Dara, what was it like to portray a character who struggles with anxiety and panic attacks? What does that mean for you to be able to play that role?"

same as I said before its really beautiful to see that she's so connected to her character and I really and truly wish her the best in life

"Describe a spoiler with 3 emojis. Yes this is a real question I promise."

“🌈🌈💅”

ALERT: MADLYN FOUND CANON IN SEASON 4! I REPEAT- MADLYN FOUND CANON IN SEASON 4!

can i say caswen yet?

“😭💙💖”

(i don’t have the regular pink heart yet)

seblos angst…

at least the hearts aren’t broken?

“😱❤️✨”

NOT DARA IN HER TOM HOLLAND ERA

don’t be shy show us the unedited footage we won’t hurt u :3

if i had to guess this means kourtney’s gonna end up with an unexpected love interest and be flourishing

howie

"what do you think your characters star signs/birthdays/middle names/favourite colours etc would be!!"

another go watch tbh they know their characters so well

"to tim: how did you feel going into this series, knowing that there was already a very dedicated hsm fanbase? were you afraid to stray too far away from hsm or did you want to change the dynamic between the series and the movies?"

onto the man himself

tim was smart not making a remake people were and still are TIRED of disney making those. honestly so many more franchises would've benefited from similar approaches to the one Tim took.

Tim says he "wasn't the target audience" for hsm and im not exactly sure what that means, but it certainly didn't stop him from making hsmtmts enjoyable as hell.

BY THE THEATRE KIDS FOR THE THEATRE KIDS LIKE I SAID

"is there any possibility the show might get a spinoff? These characters have so many stories left to tell! I wish we could see more of them."

great minds hattathehattxr i've been low-key hoping for this

hoping this was a strict-NDA "nothing right now" and not a nothing-right-now "nothing right now"

even if this show doesn't get a spin-off, i hope it at least reignites the "musical high school tv series" genre. theater kids are a ferociously adoring fanbase and hopefully studios realize that soon.

plus disney owns tons of musical IP so even if hsmtmts is done they might end up doing something similar soon

what im saying is frozen: the musical: the docuseries irl

"For Tim: Is it possible to release deleted scenes even if there not considered canon?"

im mad at u anon im never gonna get over this idea now

even more than deleted scenes, im interested in the S2 script/concepts before olivia started leaving like i still love this show as is but I wonder what was planned.

especially bc this show was renewed for s2 before it released and olivia didn't blow up until 2020 so there had to be PLANS plans

how much does the documentary and its falsified storylines impact the kids when they get back to school?

i forget they're actually famous all the time

glad it's not gonna be the main thing though

i wonder if they're gonna go the way of other shows and make jokes about shippers? if they do i think it'd be tasteful judging by the responses, but I'm still curious.

how much does the documentary and its falsified storylines impact the kids when they get back to school?

did any of you take anything with you from set when you wrapped? if so, what?

this fandom and its questions im honored to be with u guys

IS THAT THE LAST APPLE?

i wonder if this is forshadowing miss jenn getting a spot in hsm4

What's your favorite non-canon ship within the show?

oh we want the TEA

unfortunately he won't say :/

if the surprising ships doesn't refer to madlyn and caswen i don't wanna hear it

For Josh: What was it like to work with Sofia more in season 4? For Sofia: What was it like to work with Josh more in season 4?

Now for the leads <3

ik the rinas are gonna eat this clip up

Even if im indifferent about rina i think its great Josh and Sofia got to work together. They feel like really close friends which imo is the best kind of relationship for two actors playing lovers to have. Whatever happens, I'm excited to see them this season.

who’s the clumsiest person on set and why is it josh?

not the asker throwing shade?

I would assume that bc she's a dancer Sofia would be more coordinated, so it's kinda surprising she's the clumsiest. If nothing else, it gives me home i won't have two left feet some day

also the fact josh catches sofia and she makes fun of him for it they are so best friend coded

If you could have written an episode of the show, what would be the main plot?

"The wildcats go to bora bora" "high school musical the cruiseical the series" omfg why didn't Tim let them cook?

I guarantee somebody has or will perform a bunch of high school musical songs and call it a cruisical.

Sofia would be such a pretty mermaid and now i need to see her sing part of your world with josh

ok that's all of them sorry this was so long winded im just going crazy. happy 4 hours left to those on the east coast.

#hsmtmts #ricky bowen #gina porter #ashlyn caswell #carlos rodriguez #kourtney greene #joshua bassett #sofia wylie #julia lester #frankie rodriguez #dara renee

[bltrust]

Budget workbook free

Budget workbook free how to#

Budget workbook free full#

I try to limit my purchases to non perishable stuff because my family just simply can't eat 10 pounds of potatoes before they go bad, but this really saves us a lot of money because we buy everything freezable or non-perishable from here. I'm not sure if you have these particular stores where you're from but hopefully you have something similar. I might allow myself something nominal like $10 to spend on fresh produce, but that means pretty much I go the entire week without spending a thing on food.ģ) Shop exclusively at a warehouse club like Sam's Club or Costco. That means I make every meal from what I have on hand in the pantry, fridge, and freezer. I find that this also saves me time in the morning since I don't have to think so much about what I'm going to do for food and also makes me enjoy dinner a lot more too 🙂Ģ) Do a pantry purge challenge at least once a month. You can double the savings if you use a similar strategy for breakfast AND lunch (for me, it's a peanut butter & jelly sandwich). Both are dirt cheap so I get one meal out of the way for very little, like maybe $30-$40 for the whole month. For example, I eat oatmeal with banana slices every day for breakfast. That way, you both end up paying less for housing than you would if you lived apart.Īs for food, there are three things our family does to really slash our spending:ġ) Choose a super frugal meal and eat that everyday for breakfast or lunch. With the latter suggestion, you could make it a win for your family member by offering to pay something to them, like a reduced rent. You would relieve so much of your pressure if you could either take on roommates or move in with family. I don't know your exact numbers but from what you wrote it sounds like a dire situation, so you may have to consider major change. To see big improvement, I would recommend focusing on the top two expenses that most people have: housing & food.

Budget workbook free how to#

Until you get another job, your other challenge is to figure out how to make due with what you have. (I also just borrow it from the library, so I don't have to spend money on it). It gives you an idea of the kinds of skills and accomplishments to think of that help sell yourself. What I love about their book is that they give advice on various parts of the job hunting process but they also give TONS of examples of solid resumes for practically every field. If you don't show them you doubted the decision, they shouldn't either.Įvery time I job hunt, I refer to this amazing book called Knock Em Dead Resumes. Say they no longer need your care so you are excited to get back into the workforce again. You can explain that your parents fell ill and you knew it was the right thing to do to take care of them. You may be concerned that your employment gap will be a red flag for potential employers, but it won't be if you speak to it with confidence.

Budget workbook free full#

By doing this, you can a) start to have some money to help alleviate the financial stress you're feeling, b) start plugging up the gap of unemployed time in your resume, and c) doing it part time still gives you some time to look for a full time gig.ĭon't wear your worry to your interviews. If you are really financially strapped, I think a wise strategy is to get a part time job asap first. I know that caretaking is one of those things that is way harder than it seems, so I know you have at least several qualities that would make you a wonderful person and employee.Īs for your situation, I see it as two problems put together, so let's address them each one at a time. I wanted to start by saying that what you did for your parents is absolutely commendable and important. Thank you for dropping a note to say hello!

#Budget workbook free

[vinylwriter1]

Of Beatles and Bugs

You ever think about how "The Beatles" might have been called "The Bugs", if they haven't been from Liverpool but from America?

Yeah me neither, because it doesn't make sense. But again what does really make sense. Ok that was a really shitty introduction of the topic.

Anyways, moving on, The Beatles.

I can guarantee that nearly every single person on this planet has heard of them. The kind of first boyband in the history of music. Yes you heard me right, those grandpas were the first boyband.

Now the rise and fall of British music deserves a whole different essay, just because I have a lot to say about it, see this as a warning or an ad for it.

But The Beatles were in fact the first modern band that acquired such groundbreaking success all around the globe. So they rightfully are Rock legends.

Which is kinda funny if you compare how they looked and dressed for their first shows vs how they looked and dressed at the end. They went from local church boys to the stoners on the field hiding behind said church. (I know this doesn't make sense, but its early in the morning right now and I slept for only a few hours, so bear with me)

Anyways, I have to admit I used to say that I hated the Beatles. Which is kind of ironic, because I have always been a big fan of old classic rock, or old music in general. And their music is really really good.

So why did I hate them?

Easy, try to find a single tier list of rock music or old music without the Beatles being on top. Impossible, you can try, but you will fail.

The thing that always annoyed me was not that they don't deserve the number one spot, but that looking at those lists became less and less exciting because you always knew who would be the winner.

It got to the point where the real winner was number 2, because you couldn't always foresee who that would be. I mean we all know the Beatles have a ton of good music. If I recall correctly I think Paul McCarty said in an interview that they never had an unproductive songwriting session, that they always come up with something that sounded good.

Now, a few years after my Beatle hating time (wait until you find out I also used to hate Harry Potter, but that's a different story for a different day), I can admit that that first spot is rightfully theirs.

Even if it makes those lists boring over time, imagine having such an impact on the world in the 60s that now, 60 years later young people all around the world are still listening to your music. And now, 60 years later, you still lead the lists of the most influential rock stars, or musicians for that matter, to ever live.

Their first place is not only because of their good music, but also because of their influence on music and the legend they left behind.

Now you may or may not wonder how I changed from being a Beatles disliker to a fan. Well, like I said I liked the songs, the music was and still is amazing, I was just annoyed with "the band".

So some time ago I started to listen to the songs without picturing the band, and I slowly began to understand why they are the number one for so many people. Like me now. Taste changes.

Now I kinda reached the end, that's all I had to say, but I would still like to list some of my favorite songs by them. So here are my top 10 songs from the Beatles.

1. Eleanor Rigby

2. Maxwell's Silver Hammer

3. Carry that weight

4. Here comes the sun

5. Yesterday

6. Penny Lane

7. Let it be

8. The long and winding road

9. I saw her standing there

10. Blackbird

#the beatles #oldmusic #musictierlist #tier list #eleanor rigby #yesterday #john paul george and ringo #rant #thoughts

[sevlgi]

hit and run

requested: no

group: blackpink

pairing: rosé x fem!reader

genre: a  shit ton of angst, some fluff

contents: idol!rosé, actress!y/n, closeted!rosé, costar!au, slight enemies-to-lovers, unhappy endings because i’m a bitch, a lot of attempted cinematic parallels, italicized dialogue is when they’re speaking as their characters

warnings: slight homophobia

synopsis: There’s absolutely no reason for you to get involved with a costar who you should hate by all accounts. But of course, you manage to forget that love is usually more like a hit-and-run than a cruise ship. 

a/n: while i was writing this, i  imagined this as what happened before rosie sang “gone”, so maybe you can think of it like that too? i’m honestly so terrified of this flopping lmao... 

for a little background on the film: Y/N plays Luna, a pirate captain who unknowingly sacrificed her family in order to have the power to fight the regime that Rosé’s character Helen is a part of. Helen approaches Luna, determined to help her bring justice, but Helen is unable to choose between the benefits of staying with the regime, and following what she knows is right and destroying her life as a result.

word count: 6.8k

The last thing you want to hear on the morning of your first script reading is that the actress playing your love interest in the film has changed.

“What?” you say loudly, straightening in the backseat. Your manager frowns, and you sit obediently, but the scowl doesn’t leave your face. “What do you mean the actress changed?”

“Yeah. She had to leave the movie at the last minute,” he sighs.

Sooyoung was chosen alongside you, after lengthy interviews testing whether the two of you would be able to handle your characters’ dynamic. It took weeks for the director to decide that you were the pair that she wanted, so the news that you’ll be meeting your costar for the first time in front of paparazzi is quite the shock to your system. “Shit. Then who’s the replacement?”

Your manager presses his lips together firmly before answering, “Park Chaeyoung. She’s an idol.”

You groan and slump down again. “Great. Another idol actress? Please don’t tell me that this is her first role too. Oh god, is she straight?”

“Yes to all of the above,” Chan says tensely.

Maybe you’re being dramatic, but it’s honestly a big deal. It’s the first leading role you’ve bagged, especially in a mainstream LGBTQ+ movie, and Sooyoung was the best costar you could’ve picked. You’ve never met Park Chaeyoung before, and you already know that all your plans are going to be messed up.

Chan pulls the car into the parking lot, and you scowl when you realize that most of the paparazzi have arrived. “We’re going around the back. Y/N, promise me one thing: don’t make a scene, okay?” your manager pleads. “I’m not happy about it either, but Chaeyoung has a good reputation. You’ll just ruin yours if you blow up at her.”

“I promise,” you answer through gritted teeth. You slip through the open side door as soon as you get out of the car, ignoring Chan’s call after you to have a good time like you would’ve.

To make matters worse, you don’t even get a chance to talk to the director or Chaeyoung before you’re swarmed by a crowd of reporters, even if that ‘talk’ would’ve consisted of more yelling than anything. “Y/N, Y/N!”

“Okay, let her up!” Seulgi shouts, pushing her way through. She grips your arm to lead you towards the cast table, whispering under her breath, “I’ll explain later. But just run with it, okay?”

You have plenty of problems with idol actresses, but you’ve never been inclined to say all those problems to their faces. Until now, that is.  Now, you’re sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with a girl you know has absolutely no credentials to be playing the other role in your upcoming movie, resisting the urge to ball your script up and throw it in her face.

There’s nothing wrong with Park Chaeyoung as a person-- she’s admittedly gorgeous, probably sweet, and you’re sure she isn’t a bad actress in any sense. The only thing wrong with the situation is that she’s painfully straight and auditioning to be your love interest in what might be Korea’s first mainstream lesbian film, and that you have never spoken to her before.

Chaeyoung avoids your stare with a clenched jaw, and in normal circumstances, you would already be apologizing profusely for making her uncomfortable. In this circumstance, though, your obvious grudge against her only contributes to the dynamic her character is supposed to have with yours.

“Miss Kang, is it true that the actors were only picked today?” 

The director grimaces, and the both of you turn to look at the cameras flashing by the sides of the room. It was never the plan to allow paparazzi to sit in on the first reading that you and Chaeyoung would be doing together, especially since it’s true that Chaeyoung was only chosen hours ago, after the original actress bailed. Even though your grudge should be against the girl who left, it’s easier to glare at the one sitting next to you. “Not exactly. Y/N has been confirmed for the role of Luna for months, but we recently added Chaeyoung as Helen. But we can assure that their chemistry will be wonderful,” Seulgi reassures the audience. What a lie.

Yet another reporter calls out, “How much of the script will we be seeing today, and when will the trailer be released?”

“Since the casting was changed today, the trailer has been delayed,” Seulgi says. You can hear the panic in her voice, and clear your throat. “As for the script… we’re only doing part of one scene that will show up in the trailer today, so we’ll just let them begin. Y/N?”

As you take a sip of water to prepare yourself, you almost hope that Chaeyoung messes up her part. It would be bad press, sure, and it would only contribute to Seulgi’s stress, but it would be satisfying for her to realize that she doesn’t deserve her part. She’s just an idol, after all, and she’s taking away representation from the people who need it.

“Are you saying you’re better than me?” you begin, your voice ice-cold.

You watch Chaeyoung’s throat bob, but her voice is steady and clear when she says her line. “No! I’m not saying that I’m better than you… but by all accounts, there’s no way you should have this power.”

“Would you be less scared then?” You pause, watch as Chaeyoung’s expression changes to the panic that her character’s would. “I’m kidding, Helen. I did things to get these powers, things that I’m not proud of.”

“Why would you do that? You’re strong… you don’t need them.”

“I’ve never been-- shit.” The tips of your ears start to burn, and suddenly, your lines are swimming before your eyes. Maybe all your hoping and wishing that Chaeyoung messes up has reflected onto you instead.

She attempts to remind you, “I haven’t always--”

“I know,” you hiss, but your voice is too loud in the silent room. Chaeyoung turns bright pink, too, but you still can’t seem to say your lines out loud. Shit, shit, shit--

“I’m just trying to help,” she sighs.

You whip your head to glare at her, and she winces at the daggers you send in her direction. “Shut the hell up--”

“Okay, the script reading will end here,” Seulgi announces loudly, and you bite down hard on your tongue. You don’t dare to look at the other cast members, don’t dare to think about how they must be guilting you for cutting their PR short. “Thank you everyone, please leave with security.”

You stay in your seat, staring at your script with burning eyes until you feel a hand on your shoulder and jolt. “Hey,” Chaeyoung reminds you, “we can leave.”

“Don’t touch me” is your only answer, and you storm out of the room. Alone.

The next time you see Chaeyoung is the next day, at a script-reading that the paparazzi knows nothing about. (You do see a friend request from a Park Chaeyoung the night before, but you ignore it.)

Seulgi attempts a smile, but it doesn’t hide the bags under her eyes. She claps and raises her voice to get the cast’s attention. “Okay, everyone. We didn’t get what we wanted yesterday, but that’s fine. Um… let’s try yesterday’s scene from Chaeyoung’s part, okay? From ‘you don’t need them’.”

Chaeyoung nods. “You’re strong… you don’t need them,” she starts, worry tinging into her voice.

“I haven’t always been strong,” you reply, your voice harsher than it should be just to stop yourself from messing up again.

“Still. Powers aren’t everything, Luna, it’s too hard to have them.”

You sigh. “Newsflash, princess. It’s harder not to.”

“But--” Chaeyoung interjects.

“Did you ever think,” you cut her off, “that I didn’t care that it’d be hard? Did you ever think that the rest of us are tired of you abusing the thing that you’re given, but we have to fight for?”

You look right to Seulgi once you finish, ignoring the part underneath that says you should look to Chaeyoung at the end of the scene. The director smiles anyway. “That was great, you two. I think you capture the tension perfectly, which is a relief.”

You fight the urge to laugh. “I know that changing our main cast so close to the actual production is really difficult,” Seulgi sighs. “And I’m really sorry to inconvenience you all. The schedule is really squished now, and we just have to work through it. Chaeyoung, Y/N, all I ask is that you try to work together, okay? I know you’ll be amazing together.”

Chaeyoung speaks, possibly for the first time besides her lines. “Of course, Ms. Bae. I’ll do my best.”

��I’m sure. We have to cut this short, again, but we’re scheduled for costume fitting right now,” Seulgi groans. “We have to at least get the outfits for the trailer to fit. Sorry, everyone. Down the hall, okay?”

Of course, you and Chaeyoung have to get fit together. The only sound in the hallway is that of her heels clicking on the wood, and you resist the urge to shout at her to stop. Luckily, you arrive in the fitting room before you can.

Your eyes widen at the dress hanging there. It’s incredible, even without the layers that would support the skirt-- you can’t even imagine how the beading and pink silk would look on Chaeyoung. Ethereal, probably. “Y/N, yours is here,” the costume director laughs, beckoning you over.

Even though your own outfit isn’t nearly as opulent, you can’t help but admire the gold detailing on the cuffs and the tailoring. “Thank god yours doesn’t take so much sewing,” the director grunts, pinning the side. “You know, the two of you are going to look fantastic in these, even if we have to spill all that blood on them to shoot the trailer.”

“Sooyoung would’ve looked better.” It’s mean, and it’s a low blow, but the director doesn’t take your bait.

She pokes her head out to where Chaeyoung’s being fitted. “Now? Okay, Y/N, go out there. We need to take a look at the two of you together.”

You can’t stop your jaw from dropping when you see Chaeyoung. She’s all candyfloss hair and gold adorning her tiny waist, and in all her glory, you can’t stop yourself from thinking that maybe she was made for the role. “You look really good,” she compliments softly.

Nodding stiffly, you turn for the seamstresses. Chaeyoung moves to fiddle with her gloves when she realizes that you have absolutely no interest in continuing the conversation.

Well, if there’s one thing you can nitpick about her, it isn’t how she looks; she looks absolutely perfect for the role of Princess Helen, maybe even more perfect than Sooyoung. 

One of the costume directors steps in. “Okay, you can get changed out, but you have to come back in a few hours,” she tells you. “We have to make a lot of changes, then fit you again.”

You step down from the podium, going towards your dressing room without a second thought until Chaeyoung calls for you. “Y/N? Do you want to have lunch later? In your trailer or something?”

“Sure,” you answer, barely glancing back. When you do, all you see is her with shiny puppy eyes, and in her giant gown, it’s eerily similar to the role she’s supposed to be playing.

“It’s nice. You’ve decorated it?”

You nod absentmindedly, clearing the narrow couch off for yourself to sit on, since Chaeyoung has taken the only chair that could fit in the trailer. “Yeah. I mean, I’ve had it for a few months, so.”

She winces. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” you frown. Chaeyoung apologizes too much, but at least she’s upfront about whatever she has to say.

Your costar sighs, “For usurping the role? You must’ve gotten attached to Sooyoung, and it’s got to be horrible for me to just… arrive like this.”

“You know… that’s part of it.” You can’t lie; a big part of the resentment you hold against Chaeyoung is the fact that she took a role meant for someone else, someone you were friends with. “The other thing… I don’t like idol actresses,” you tell her.

Chaeyoung’s brows furrow, and she leans forward. “Why? I mean, why don’t you?”

You pause to think about it. “Well… I mean, think about it like this. Sooyoung and my auditions went for weeks before we were chosen, as a pair. Didn’t you get this role because you were an idol? You had to audition, sure, but I bet you just flashed a few smiles and read the script and got chosen. How is that fair?”

She opens her mouth to speak, but you hold your hand up and continue, “And the other thing. You’re straight.”

Chaeyoung chokes on air at that, spluttering, “What? You hate me because I’m straight?”

“No,” you say incredulously, “Well, I don’t hate you. But you being straight, and landing the lead role in a film like this… you’re taking away representation. And that’s kind of shitty of you.”

The air inside the trailer becomes suffocating, and Chaeyoung’s fiddling with the jacket in her lap finally stops when she throws it aside and stands up. She sounds like she’s about to cry when she says quietly, “Have you ever considered that I’m not straight? It’s not… it’s not that easy to be out about it--”

“Oh, cry me a river,” you groan. “Look, I apologize for assuming, but if you want to act in lesbian roles, you can’t pretend to be straight. It’s all for your fans, isn’t it? Another part of being an idol--”

She stands up, then storms right out of the trailer without another word, the door banging closed. The only thing you can do in response is sigh and utter a quiet, “Shit”.

Perhaps it’s just your luck that the first proper scene you have to film with Chaeyoung is your culminating kiss scene.

It shouldn’t be in the trailer at all-- according to the scene schedule, the two of you would’ve filmed your scenes together in chronological order, and the kiss would’ve been at the end, hopefully after a reconciliation between the two of you. However, for some inexplicable reason, it’s going to be the first one you do, without a single second of rehearsal.

You’re a one-take wonder, and you always have been, but you can’t help but think about how impossible it’s going to be to pull off such an intense scene with someone you just fought with. Sighing, you lean over to fiddle with your hair; it’s slightly tangled now, and there’s a fake scrape on the side of your cheek. 

At a side, Chaeyoung is similarly beat up, fake blood smeared on the left side of her face. Her long hair has been put in an updo and then taken down, and parts of her dress are ripped; to you, she looks more like Helen than herself now.

“Okay, everyone, are we ready? Positions, please!”

You arrange yourself on the ground where you should be, holding a handkerchief to your cheek like instructed as Chaeyoung stands by the camera to run to you. Exhaling sharply, your eyes meet hers for the first time in days. “Action!”

Chaeyoung sprints to you as soon as she’s cued, falling in front of you in a heap. “Luna,” she gasps, reaching a gloved hand out to the ‘injured’ half of your face.

“I’m fine,” you smile weakly. The camera hovers by Chaeyoung’s shoulder, and you soften your gaze as much as possible as your hand comes up to hers.

The other girl only moves closer, her eyes scanning yours and her dress surrounding the both of you like a sea of gauze. Her nose is almost brushing up against yours, and you mutter softly, “Be careful. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want.”

“Well, what do you want?” Chaeyoung implores, almost inaudible. Her breath quivers, and you feel it when you reach forward to cup her jaw. “Luna, what do you want right now?”

“I’m not making a move until you tell me to,” you shake your head. 

The blonde’s hands slip off your face, and she braces herself on your thighs instead. She laughs breathily, “Coward.”

“Your coward, huh?”

Chaeyoung pauses, scraping her teeth across her bottom lip. It’s so quiet that you think you could hear a pin drop, and the torches held up by the crew flicker across her face so naturally. “If you want to be.”

There’s probably another line that comes after, but with Chaeyoung so close to you, it swims blurrily in your mind. So instead, you just lean up, pull her down, and connect your lips.

She plays along, thankfully, stumbling slightly in her character’s eagerness to get a little closer. The only thing you can hear is Chaeyoung’s slight gasp when you let your hands wander down to her waist, and it’s almost scary how absorbed you are in the scene.

“Okay, cut!” Seulgi’s shout breaks you from your trance, and you hold your hands up as if in surrounder. Chaeyoung’s cheeks are red yet again when she sits up, staring anywhere other than you.

Your director hops off her chair to run towards you, a huge grin on her face. “That was perfect,” she shouts. “Y/N, I think you forgot a line? But it worked out amazingly. The one-take wonder, right?”

You grin when she pats you on the shoulder, a little harder than necessary. Apparently, all your worries were for nothing, as you and Chaeyoung stand to monitor your own shot in the screen next to Joohyun.

You can’t even hear all the praise she showers on the two of you, and you pay no attention to all the details she points out that apparently showcase your perfect chemistry with your costar. All you feel is a slight squeeze on your hand, hidden in the mess of fabric by your side.

You jolt awake at the sound of your phone ringing loudly by your side, finding an unknown number as the caller ID. Accepting hesitantly, you greet, “Hello?”

“Y/N? Did Chan give me the right number?”

Oh. It’s Chaeyoung. “Yeah.” You clear your throat in an attempt to sound a little less drowsy, then repeat, “Right number. Why’d you ask Chan?”

“Well, it’s kinda hard to find you when you never accepted my request,” she laughs quietly. “Um, I have to record the OST today, and I was wondering whether you’d want to come watch? Chan said you didn’t really have any scenes later today.”

“Um. Okay. I’ll ask Chan to bring me,” you answer, then hang up. Your head swims slightly, partially due to the fact that you woke up to the piercing sound of your ringtone and partially because you just don’t understand why Chaeyoung’s reaching out again. You should be the one apologizing, after the tangent you went off on, and you highly doubt that your kiss scene doubled as an apology. Of course, you’ll take it.

Your manager is more than pleased to pick you up this time, but thankfully, he doesn’t question you. If he did, he’d probably be the one you shouted at.

The studio is honestly too small for two people, probably hastily set up, but you recognize the recording equipment from a video of Chaeyoung recording one of her group’s songs. And you recognize the girl already standing in the recording booth, waving you over. “Hi,” she smiles, and for all you try, you don’t see a hint of malice.

“Hey,” you mumble, taking a seat. “Uh… I’m sorry.”

“Wow, straightforward,” she tries to joke. “What for?”

You scratch the back of your neck, sighing, “For assuming, for blowing up on you, for… I don’t know, kind of everything. I’m an asshole, even if what I said wasn’t wrong.”

Chaeyoung chuckles, fiddling with the mic. “I mean, I appreciate the apology, but I wasn’t great either. You definitely had some truth behind what you said, even if it was kind of too to the point.”

“I know. You were just trying to apologize and help us become civil, and I kind of ruined it,” you hum. The other girl adjusts the lyric stand as you continue, “But I’m hoping you understand why I had to say what I did?”

“I do,” she agrees. “You’re definitely right that it’s not good representation at all, I just wish you had heard me out.”

You nod uncomfortably, changing the way you sit on the couch just to distract yourself. “So… you’re gay? I’m just asking because I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about it, and I’ve seen plenty of your interviews.”

“So you watch my interviews?” Chaeyoung teases. When you scowl, she just smiles, “I can’t say specifically, but I am confused. You said last time that it’s just another part of being an idol, and you’re… you’re right. It’s taboo for idols to be gay, even though Korea’s opening up to it a bit more now. So even though I want to, I don’t think I can ever be out about it.”

“I understand. And I’m sorry,” you say quietly.

She swallows, throat bobbing. “Thank you. Hey, Y/N… would you mind singing with me?”

“What?” You stare up at her incredulously; it’s not like your singing would make the other girl faint on the spot, but you definitely don’t possess an angelic voice like hers, either.

But maybe it’s an olive branch. “Just… can you match this note?” She hums, and you attempt to create the same pitch. “Okay. Can you do the chorus part in that key, while I do it in the main one? We’ll sound better like that,” Chaeyoung offers.

Against your better judgement, you stand, and shuffle into the recording booth next to her. “If this sounds bad, you’re taking the blame,”  you warn, and she giggles while twisting the stand so you can see.

You do sound good together, maybe to a level that you would’ve never anticipated.

You know that something’s off when Chan doesn’t wake you up bright and early on your birthday, even if Seulgi already promised that you wouldn’t have to go to work on the day of. After spending many a birthday with him, you’ve already gotten used to him tugging you up just to take you outside and celebrate somehow.

You know something’s especially off when you hear a female voice cursing from your kitchen, and smell something burning.

“Who the shit-- Chaeyoung?”

The girl turns in surprise, caught red-handed with a piece of burnt toast pinched between her fingers. “Um. Hi?” she offers weakly.

Suddenly self-conscious, you cross your arms over the faded sweatshirt you wear. In your own apartment, Chaeyoung is leagues more put-together in the summery dress she wears, her dyed hair tossed in a braid and glitter shining at the corners of her eyes. “Hello?”

“Chan said you wouldn’t be awake for a few hours,” she sighs, shaking her head as she tosses the toast in the trash. “And I wasn’t supposed to burn the toast.”

“What were you supposed to do?” you question, stepping closer. There’s a cake box on the counter, as well as a couple suspicious tubes of icing right by it, and you think you know what’s going on.

Chaeyoung huffs out an exasperated breath. “I was supposed to surprise you. Chan has something going on at home, so he sent me to supervise your birthday instead. Obviously, I messed that up.”

“It’s fine,” you shrug, taking a seat at the counter and reaching for the icing. “I’ve always wanted to decorate a cake anyway.”

She looks surprised at that, but a smile breaks out across her face. “Really?”

“Really,” you confirm. It’s partially a lie, but you’re decently sure that Chaeyoung will refuse to let you do most of the work anyways. “Uh. I’ll just change first, and then we can get that going?”

“Yeah,” she grins, and you take it as your cue to scurry off to the bedroom.

By the time you come back, there’s a plate of not-burnt toast on your counter, and Chaeyoung’s pouring out two glasses of the juice that you can never bring yourself to buy because of the price tag. “I hope you like it, this is one of my favorites.”

“Like it? I love this,” you gasp, surging forward to pick up one of the glasses. “It’s expensive as hell, though.”

“Well, I couldn’t get you a gift, so I thought a nice morning would suffice,” Chaeyoung laughs. She unties the bow on the cake box to reveal a completely bare vanilla cake, a few packets of sprinkles that you hadn’t noticed now lying next to it. “Do you want to start?”

“Oh, sure.” You choose the blue icing after a bit of debating, and pick up the spatula that your costar offers you. “You didn’t have to, though, I would’ve been okay on my own today.”

Chaeyoung shrugs, “I mean, I didn’t have anything else to do, and I wouldn’t like to be alone on my birthday.”

“How do you usually celebrate?” you question, glancing up at her.

She pauses to think, then answers, “Well, I do live with my members, so we’ll get something to eat. Sometimes, we’re on vacation, so we just do what we can, but I like staying in the dorm to receive the things that their families send me.”

“It sounds sweet.”

“It is,” she grins. “I honestly don’t know what I would do on my own, it seems lonely-- Oh. I’m sorry.”

“What for? It is kind of lonely,” you admit, squeezing a glob of icing out. It’s definitely not as graceful as you would’ve appreciated, and you catch Chaeyoung stifling a laugh. “Chan lived with me at the beginning, but he eventually moved out when I got a girlfriend. Obviously, that didn’t laugh.”

“Sorry,” the other girl repeats again, and you wave a hand out. “When was that?”

“She moved out two years ago,” you answer. “And I’ve been alone since. Or, lonely, not always alone.”

Chaeyoung nods just so that you know she heard you. She accepts the icing tube when you hand it to her, making a spiral that’s infuriatingly better than yours. “How about you? I know you said you aren’t out, but have you dated yet?” you question.

She shakes her head, admitting, “Not yet. I don’t really know how to, you know? You assumed I was straight when you first saw me, so I think everyone else does too.”

“Sorry,” you say, an echo of her.

Your costar doesn’t respond, only setting the spatula down once the basic blue icing is smooth. “I think we’re supposed to refrigerate this before decorating, right?”

You grimace. “Well, I don’t know. I stopped watching cake videos years ago, so I’ll just listen to you.”

Chaeyoung hums and ties the box back up. “Okay, then I’ll just do it. Um, do you mind ordering chicken or something while we wait?”

“Sure.” Reaching for your phone, you ask, “Would you be opposed to romcoms?”

“I’m never opposed to romcoms,” the other girl answers.

You have to remind yourself to order two servings of chicken, something that you haven’t done in a while. But it’s comforting, in a way, to not be alone again.

“Can you believe we’ve only got a week left of filming? I feel like I haven’t seen you at all.”

You wince guiltily, even though you know that Yerim doesn’t mean it. Acting with your friend was originally a huge incentive for you to accept the film’s role, but the two of you quickly discovered that you had almost no scenes together, and with your push-and-pull with Chaeyoung, you forgot all about it. “Sorry, Yerim.”

She makes an incredulous expression, swatting your arm. “Don’t be ridiculous, Y/N. I’m happy you’re pursuing love and all that, and besides, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to act together.”

Blinking, you set your cup down on the counter. “Pursuing love?”

Yerim raises her eyebrow and says, “Yeah. Aren’t you and Chaeyoung together yet? We’ve been filming for two months, I’ll be shocked if you still haven't kissed and made up.”

“Uh. Well, we’ve kissed, but I don’t think it counted,” you frown. 

Your friend sighs and rolls her eyes. She’s all too used to how dense you are, and apparently, she’s finally gotten tired of it. “You’re an idiot. You literally met the morning of your first script reading, and you knew each other for… what, a week before you had your kiss scene? There’s got to be something there.”

“No.”

Right on cue, a few of the other cast members arrive, Chaeyoung sandwiched between them. “Have you seen the articles?” Nayeon grins, waving her phone around in the air. She’s drunk, obviously, but you have to indulge her.

“Which articles?”

She shoves the screen in your face as an answer, and you cringe when you find a screencap of you and Chaeyoung. “You won’t believe the chemistry-- nope, I’m not reading that.” You hand the phone back to Nayeon, then press it in her hand when she doesn’t take it. Yerim sends you a knowing expression, one that you definitely don’t like.

“Aw, come on! It’s good press,” Nayeon whines. “And a great kiss scene.”

“Don’t be weird,” Chaeyoung warns. She doesn’t seem to be drunk at all, though she does look fantastic in the silver dress that she wears. Your eyes linger on her for an embarrassing amount of time.

Nayeon pouts. She’s bubbly-- you’ve learned that much through acting alongside her in a total of three productions so far. You note that your costar doesn’t seem to be so accustomed to her temperament yet. “You’re no fun, Chaeng. We all know you enjoyed it.”

She goes bright pink at that amidst Yerim’s joking coos. “The token straight, converted?” your friend gasps, and you elbow her to stop her from going too far.

Apparently, it already has. “I didn’t!” Chaeyoung defends herself.

“Prove it,” Nayeon demands, slipping when she attempts to lean on the counter next to you.

Chaeyoung goes silent at that, apparently unable to find a way to ‘prove it’. You finally sigh, “Okay, I think that’s enough teas--”

If it wasn’t for the fact that you’ve long since memorized your entire script book, you would almost think that Chaeyoung reaching forward to tug on the front of your shirt is a scene between your two characters. After all, it’s perfectly in character for your eyes to widen comically as the other girl kisses you right on the lips. 

It’s also in character for Nayeon to start whooping next to you when your hands wrap around Chaeyoung’s waist to pull her in closer. You part at the noise. “You certainly look like you liked it,” Nayeon grins. 

“Yeah, get a room,” Yerim follows, and you shove her.

“You know what? Maybe we will.” Ignoring your friends’ jeering, you grab Chaeyoung’s wrist and lead her down the hallway, though not to a bedroom like you joked you would. “Hey. You okay? I didn’t know if that teasing crossed a line,” you whisper worriedly.

She bites down on her lip, but instead of answering you, Chaeyoung tilts your face up and leans closer, only stopped by your hand on her wrist. “Chae…”

“I’m sorry, this… this isn’t what you want, is it?” She steps back, mouth already opening to apologize, but you stop her from leaving you alone in the hallway.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” With the flashing neon lights echoing in her eyes, you can’t tell what Chaeyoung’s feeling, and you can’t tell if she’s willing to answer you properly at all. “I’m not making a move until you tell me to.”

Still, you don’t hear her say a word, until your grip starts to loosen on her wrist. “Did you drive here yourself?” she finally asks, barely audible. You nod hesitantly, and Chaeyoung’s voice grows firmer when she says, “I’m telling you to make a move.”

“I thought you were questioning?”

She swallows hard and takes your hand. “Not anymore.”

You don’t taste any alcohol when you lick your lower lip, and so, you nod. It’s stupid, especially considering how quickly your time together is about to end.

But for once, you know what you want.

“Good luck out there, Chae,” you smile, arms wrapped around the girl’s waist. 

“Thanks,” she hums, adjusting her hair yet again in the mirror. “We’re almost done filming, I have to promote us well so that we have enough money to at least put the damn film out.”

“Mm.” Your thumb smooths over the sliver of skin exposed by her top, and you place your chin on her shoulder to look at the two of you together.

She glances down at you. “What? Are you thinking about something?”

“Sort of,” you shrug. “I just can’t believe we’re almost done, but we… we just started this. You know, this thing between us.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely a thing. But it doesn’t have to stop with filming,” Chaeyoung says offhandedly.

Raising an eyebrow, you question, “Doesn’t it? It’s going to be suspicious for us to constantly be seen together after filming together, I’ve seen the way your fans behave. Especially while you’re not out.”

“I think I can negotiate that with my company,” the other girl shakes her head.

You joke, “What, you release another two albums if you get to come out about having a girlfriend?”

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?” Chaeyoung responds immediately. Her ears pink endearingly, and you wait for her to clarify, “In secret for now, obviously. But… one day, I’ll be out about it. I promise.”

“Don’t make empty promises, okay?” You press a kiss to her bare shoulder and let her go when you hear a knock at the dressing room door. “Do good!”

“Alright, Chaeyoung, it’s about time that we ask you some questions about your upcoming film, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” your costar smiles, and you raise your head from your phone to watch the screen. She’s sitting cross-legged across from some of the most famous idol interviewers in Korea, absolutely poised and natural even in front of the crowd that cheers over the interview.

The woman behind the podium clears her throat. “A huge talking point in Korea right now is your chemistry with your costar, Y/N. How exactly do you pull that off, since you’ve never experienced a relation like that?”

Chaeyoung laughs nervously, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Oh. Well, um, I don’t have much experience with relationships at all, so--”

“Really? A pretty girl like you must have had a boyfriend or two before.” You despise the way that the interviewer leans in conspiratorially, as if the prying questions weren’t completely scripted. “But you seem a little to pretty to have experienced that, am I right?”

The crowd laughs with her, but Chaeyoung glances behind the scenes, probably to where her own staff sits. “You know, you can tell me if you ever felt… uncomfortable during filming,” the interviewer continues on. “Y/N has been out for years, hasn’t she?”

“Oh, she has…” You’re practically fuming, but you also can’t seem to pry your eyes away from the screen. All of Chaeyoung’s practiced idol-charm has seemed to dissipate into thin air, and she’s practically blending into the wall as she sits there.

The Chaeyoung you know-- no, the Chaeyoung that you’ve come to know, wouldn’t stand to hear something like that. You’ve watched her argue with a scriptwriter, and you’ve watched him get fired because he said something incredibly offensive, even though it wasn’t about you. But here, she sits still and just listens to the interviewer discuss you behind your back, and she says nothing about all the disgustingly backhanded comments.

The thing is, you don’t care about Chaeyoung not being out. You were closeted for enough time yourself, and you know how hard it is, so you’d never wish it on her; but watching her completely let go of all her personal principles just for a stupid interview is just another reminder that you’re letting go of your own. Chaeyoung won’t ever speak up, you realize, because her career comes before anything else. And you can’t stand for that.

“I’m leaving,” you tell the guard standing outside of your door. Only increasing your anger, tears start to burn in your eyes, and you scrape your sleeve across your face as roughly as you can. Chan picks up on one dial, and you say furiously, “Pick me up. It’s over.” In more ways than one.

Chaeyoung shivers at the top of the hill, where she’s supposed to be filming her closing scene with you. She hasn’t seen you for the past week, and after how disastrous her interview was, she’s pretty sure she knows why.

“Where’s Y/N?” she finally asks her makeup artist, giving in to her own curiosity.

Felix shrugs, reaching to mess with the blood on her hairline. “I have no idea, honestly, I haven’t seen her yet. She’s never late, though, you don’t have to worry. You’ll get your scene done.”

“That’s…” Chaeyoung sighs. That’s why she should be worried. “Right.”

“Okay, can we start?” Seulgi shouts. It’s started to rain, but with the excited look on the director’s face, Chaeyoung figures that it suits the scene even better than the gray clouds that had been planned. “Great. Chaeyoung, Y/N!”

Your hair is plastered to your forehead with the rain, and water makes your blouse cling to your curves; with the grim expression on your face, Chaeyoung could easily just mistake you for your character. “Hi,” you mutter, taking a seat on the grass right next to your costar. You say nothing else.

When cued, Chaeyoung takes a deep breath before her line. “Luna. I love you.”

For a second, Chaeyoung thinks you won’t respond, but the rasp to your voice proves her wrong. “No. No, you don’t.”

“I think I’m the one who should be deciding that, don’t you?” The blonde raises her eyebrows, reaching forward hesitantly for your shoulder.

Of course, you dodge it. Blinking the rain out of your eyes, you’re resigned when you ask, “You have your birthday gala tonight, don’t you?”

“Yes, but--” Chaeyoung swallows, lets her hand make contact, then continues, “I’m spending as much time as I can with you, aren’t I with you right now?”

“But you’re going.” It feels like you’re staring right into Chaeyoung’s soul when you speak, as despondent as your voice is. She nods, and you stand, her hand slipping off of your shoulder and into her lap. “Then go. You’re still a princess at the end of the day, aren’t you?”

“At the end of the day, yes…”

“You can’t do that. You sneak out onto my ships, get my people to love you and protect you, and then turn right back to your family to stay safe while we die for you. You can’t say you support our cause and then go back on it when it’s inconvenient for you, it doesn’t work like that!” Chaeyoung flinches at how intense you sound; at this point, she barely knows if it’s still acting. She can only hear her own heart in her ears, can only see your chest heaving from how quickly you spoke, and it all feels too real.

“What, do you want me to get found out?” Chaeyoung demands, getting to her feet as well. The rain becomes harsher, angled so that it perfectly blurs her vision of you. “I’ve saved your ass just as many times too, don’t pretend like I’m not a valuable part of your ship!”

“You’re still pretending.” Realizing that it’s not the right line, Chaeyoung opens her mouth to stop you, but your voice chills her into silence when you speak again. “You’ll always pretend, as long as it benefits you, won’t you? You can’t do that, Helen, not if you ‘love me’. Putting a crown on your head doesn’t mean that you’re a princess. Until you realize that, and until you’re willing to embrace it, you don’t love me. and I don’t love you.”

None of it is the script. None of it is the scene that you rehearsed a thousand times together in your trailer, but somehow, it makes Chaeyoung’s heart quaver in her throat so much more than the original lines ever did.

And when you drop your gaze to the ground, turning to walk off into the rain alone, she knows that to you, your entire relationship is already done.

#blackpink #blackpink x reader #rosé x reader #rosé imagines #rosé scenarios #blackpink imagines #blackpink scenarios #blackpink reactions #blackpink rosé #blackpink chaeyoung #park chaeyoung #park chaeyoung x reader #park chaeyoung imagines #blackpink is the revolution #blackpink in your area #girl group imagines #girl group scenarios

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 3, Episode 8, The Boost Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Marc: Hi, I'm Marc Roskin, Director of The Boost Job.

John: I'm John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Aldis: This is Al Hodge, the black guy in the show.

[Laughter]

Chris: And this is Chris Downey.

John: You know, I didn't know you knew that was what we said. I always thought the phone was off when we put that in.

Chris: We add that in post.

Marc: It's on his chair.

[Laughter]

John: The black guy.

Aldis: The black guy.

Chris: You can see it, it’s on the back.

John: Since our friend Albert Kim, who wrote this episode, cannot join us today, we’re going to- instead of asking the question ‘Where did this episode come from?’, ask our friend Marc Roskin: What did you think when you first read the script and the challenges therein?

Marc: I said, ‘We're gonna need some more money.’

[Laughter]

Marc: I was excited about it. Albert and I have done a handful of episodes together. My first episode that I directed in season one, The Stork Job, was written by Albert. And we had a great working relationship, and then of course the MMA episode.

John & Chris: Mhhm.

Marc: So Albert and I- and The Runway Job.

John: Yup.

Marc: So I was always excited to get an Albert script, cause it's gonna take you in a world that you know about, but you don't know that much about.

John: Yeah, and Albert was a journalist for years, for 20 years before he became a screenwriter. So that is his primary attack on stories- 

Chris: Yeah.

John: -is he gets into an area and he just researches the hell out of it and a story comes out.

Chris: Yeah I think- he got a ton of information about car theft. I mean, I think there are transcribed notes from some of his interviews that are 20 pages long.

John: Yeah, yeah. Apparently it's- and it's one of those things where it's a crime that you're familiar with and you have no idea of its scope and the amount of money that it moves for various and sundry groups. What gave you the idea for shooting the chase like the chase? In that opening sequence?

Marc: Well we knew it had to be fast. But I always wanted to get one of those cop cams.

John: Yeah?

Marc: I said we gotta get one of those lock off shots that always look- that you see out of Cops- 

John: In the windshield?

Marc: That everybody’s used to seeing. And we put the time code in so-

John: We did all that in post right? All that-

Marc: Yeah, we added all that in post. And we had to shoot somewhere near the stage.

Chris: Some of its stock footage though, right? Was some of it stock?

Marc: The opening- the helicopter shots are stock.

Chris: Stock, right.

John: We didn't actually rent a helicopter and chase anybody.

Marc: And then we just matched the pickup truck to get the actual chase.

John: I actually remember that in the script. I remember that Albert opened- 

Marc: Oh, here's my shot!

John: The push in?

Aldis: Ahhhh.

Marc: Transition!

John: And the board!

Chris: That's great I love that! That was kind of- didn't you do that the first time in Stork Job? Kind of a version of that where we went into the-

Marc: Yeah, we did a push in, but we kinda locked Tim’s face off and then just matched it, and changed the background and then pulled out.

Chris: Ah, I love that.

John: Nice, really flawless, that was gorgeous. And here- it's interesting because I had lunch with Matt Nix who created Burn Notice the other day and we were talking about- they also did the car cloning episode and he said, ‘What we do in an act, you do in a scene.’

[Laughter]

John: And it is. We explain to you exactly what car cloning is. I mean cause it’s fascinating, it really is amazing the level of sophistication that has come to car theft.

Chris: And of course the person that has to deliver all this exposition, is our friend here. This-

Aldis: Black guy! 

[Laughter]

John: We like to say the charming black guy.

Aldis: This- Albert makes me sound entirely intelligent, far more intelligent than I really am, in ten seconds flat.

John: This was also interesting because we started with the crime, Albert had done some research into car theft, we knew it was used to move money around for various and sundry drug rings, but we did not have a character story yet.

Marc: Right.

John: And this is one of those times- it was interesting, we didn't create a story bible. We knew Nate's son died, we knew Sophie knew Nate, and everyone else was pretty amorphous. And there's a reason we do that, so when somebody’s like, ‘Hey wouldn't it be cool if one of these people used to be a car thief?’, you can put it in and you haven’t violated the character in any way, shape, or form.

Chris: Yeah, story bible- any time somebody tells you they wrote an extensive character bible for their show-

John: They're doing it wrong.

Chris: They're doing it wrong. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: Because there may come a time in season three where you wanna say that Frank's dad was a drunken astronaut-

John: Yup.

Chris: And you don't want- you don't want somebody saying, ‘Well it's not in the bible!’

John: Yeah, when you're trying to make 100 of these goddamn things. This was also a ton of fun, one of the clear outs we do- I think the Leverage team has a travel agency at this point. 

Marc: Yes.

John: Where they just send people on innocuous vacations.

Aldis: Yeah.

Chris: Who gets the miles I wonder?

John: Who gets the-? Probably Hardison.

Aldis: Hardison, yeah, come on.

Chris: Oh right, he gets the miles.

John: He probably gets staggered miles under different identities. Where is this dealership? Cause these are real dealerships.

Marc: Just outside of Portland. There's one strip just like in every town where there's just tons of auto dealerships and we just picked two. One for the Bauers and one for Penzers.

John: And they were nice enough to-

Marc: They were great. They were great.

Chris: And here we go.

John: And yeah, this is a clear out, and this is a part of the traditional template of the show. What we're gonna do in the clear out, how we're gonna establish the fake identities. And again, one of those things sometimes we skip and the audience really enjoys, which baffles us because- that's a sweet look actually I never noticed that before. When you're watching on a 40 foot screen you notice that stuff. The- nice shot.

Marc: Thanks.

Chris: Oh that’s nice.

John: Really pretty shot. And notice we’re hanging out in the apartment because we're saving money to get to this.

[Laughter]

Marc: Yes!

John: What is this?

Aldis: That’s gorgeous right there.

Marc: This is PRI. This is the race track in Portland and they were gracious enough to have us, have a lot of fun on the track. 

Chris: Look at that.

John: And Chris what- this sequence is eerily reminiscent of a classic television show.

Chris: Well yes it is, John. It- one of our all time favorite, and by us I mean you and I-

John: And any right thinking person.

Chris: Rockford Files. It's an episode called ‘Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job’ which was a two parter con episode of The Rockford Files.

John: It is the great Rockford con episode.

Chris: Yes, yes. And I'll say that not only have we done our homage to the opening con race for pink slips scene, but I believe that it was also an homage done in the first Charlie's Angels movie. 

John: Yes.

Chris: Technically came from the same source material, I'm willing to say.

John: Yeah, this is a classic moment. And the only thing missing is the silver fire retardant suit.

[Laughter]

John: And-

Chris: Right.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: Yeah, Tim is really rocking the classic Jim Garner, Jimmy Joe Meeker right there. ‘My job is to be an asshole and inflame you.;

Chris: ‘Right, to win your car and to then use it as leverage against you in a con.’

John: Bill Engvall!

Marc: Bill Engvall. Wow, what a treat. 

John: Yup.

Marc: He was so excited to play this part, and he was so rehearsed, and he had a great time. He said, ‘Let me get this straight. I get to race cars, I get to point guns at your good guys, and I get the girls?’ He's like, ‘I'm in.’

[Laughter]

John: Yeah he did- this was not a hard transition for him. And great, by the way. Bill had wanted to do the show for a while, and this was really his first one hour experience. He was a great villain. And by the way America, you're welcome for Sophie in that outfit.

[Laughter]

John: A little something from us to you.

Chris: Did you- Aldis did you get to run a lap around here? When you were here that day?

John: Yeah, cause everyone took their cars out, everyone got on the-

Aldis: Oh, yeah sure. No, I was stuck in the back with the computers. 

[Laughter]

Aldis: I wanted to. I had my little Prius out there with a big dent in the side.

John: Nice.

Chris: Prius with the roll cage.

John: Just open up the Prius.

Aldis: Yeah, but actually- credit to Roskin on this, some of my scenes where I'm by myself shooting the computer stuff was shot in the rain.

Marc: Yeah.

John: Was this?

Marc: Another location.

Aldis: Some of this exterior stuff.

John: That was not on that day at all.

Marc: Yeah, the shot where we previously saw Aldis looking at the clock, that was at stage in the rain. And there will be another one during the upcoming race-

Aldis: Mhm.

John: Nice gearhead, nice-

Marc: Yeah, look at all the toys we had. Lots of cars and people.

John: How'd you get that many cars?

Marc: We called a lot of the car clubs, the local car clubs in Portland. And they were great, they came up-

Chris: Is that like boat owners? Car guys? Kind of similar?

John: Yeah, they wanna show off their cars, and they have great cars, and you just get everyone to sign a release. 

Aldis: And let's stop lying we-

John: And what's he driving?

Marc: That's the Challenger; it's Eliot’s car.

Aldis: It is. We actually went to a vacant lot and shot-

Marc: There you go introducing the EMP cannon.

Aldis: Yes it is.

John: A crucial part of this year's plot.

Aldis: Very crucial.

John: Where we first plant it in.

Chris: Did you get to keep that?

John: Did you get to keep that prop?

Aldis: That's right, the prop that-

[Laughter]

John: RC canon!

Marc: RC canon!

Chris: Oh, I love that.

Aldis: Cam on the car.

John: Familiar to Call of Duty players everywhere around the world.

Aldis: Yes indeed, which I just picked up today.

John: Black ops? 

Aldis: Yes.

John: Pretty great.

Aldis: Yeah I had it for PC first-

Marc: Look at the size of Aldis’ guns there.

Chris: Look at that!

John: Yeah what is up with-? OK, you and Chris got in a little bit of a gun war this year. You seriously-

Aldis: Nah, man.

Chris: Before they started rolling cameras were you doing 50 pull ups? I mean, tell me what was going on?

Aldis: Nah, it was-

Marc: Who's getting their shirts tailored? That's what I wanna know.

[Laughter]

Aldis: Shirt stays tailored, it’s called ready made.

John: See I- the writers have this, but we call it the gut show, and it's not quite the same, not as attractive.

[Laughter]

Chris: Now where's our deal with Corgi cars so we can have the Leverage car?

John: I know, what were we thinking about that?

Chris: They still have those?

John: That's a great shot. Now how'd you shoot this?

Marc: Long lens! And we put- you think the guy with the flag is in front of them, but it was a little too dangerous so he’s actually behind them.

Aldis: Behind them.

John: Ahhh, there you go.

Marc: And lots of CG smoke. 

Chris: Oh yeah.

Marc: Dean loves him some smoke.

John: Now this was actually a mix of your stuff and second unit, right?

Marc: Yes. My stuff, second unit, yeah.

John: So how'd you get those shots? Straight on?

Marc: We had a- you know an insert car.

John: Oh, so you actually chased them?

Marc: Put a crane on it. Yes. We almost decapitated Dean during this episode.

[Laughter]

John: Remember that opening shot where you can see the bridge that goes across the racetrack as they pull up? Yeah they didn’t…see the bridge.

Marc: Yeah, with the 30 foot crane; we should have lowered it. 

John: Yeah, probably.

Marc: We almost damaged a lot of gear and people on that.

Chris: But this is great.

John: But these things happen; it brings you a very exciting car chase.

Marc: Yeah, we had cameras mounted here and there, did a speed up in post, and added a little bit of a shake.

John: The shake was cool.

Marc: And of course-

Aldis: Here we go.

Chris: Oh that's great. That's a real CSI-level thing right there, I love that.

Marc: Visual effects, torque. And these two had a blast racing.

John: Well Tim took his real car out, right? He took-

Marc: Yeah, he took his real car. But then Bill and Tim- I mean we let them race. We just- they went at it. It was fun, we got all these great shots, and a lot of production value, yeah.

John: Yeah, cause it's just them in the car.

Chris: Now what do you think makes the car chase? Is it the side- the wheel mounted shots? I mean, what do you think?

Marc: Yeah, there are shots that I would've wanted to get more additional, but we just ran out of time. 

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: You know with cars, a lot of times it helps to get shots where the cars are passing camera-

Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: Yeah.

Marc: To really show the speed.

Aldis: How fast were they going?

Marc: They were going probably, you know, 60 miles an hour in some places.

John: That's good, that's super safe. I'm glad we did that.

[Laughter]

John: I mean, it's not like we had actors jumping on top of trains or anything like that. That’s still-

Aldis: No, no, not at all. No, no, it's just racing cars.

Marc: Penzer Auto.

John: There you go. This was great the idea of these guys, just totally-

Marc: And that is Kevin Pritchard who is the- at that time, the GM of the Trail Blazers.

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh, that's great.

John: That’s right. Great wardrobe by Nadine Haders there. Giving us the upscale with somewhat cheesy vibes.

Chris: Yeah, that's car salesmen chic there.

Aldis: With a little taco meat in the chest right there, boom.

Marc: Yeah.

Aldis: Give the ladies a little something.

John: But look at the guy in the back screwing around with the donuts? That was great, that was really inspired. 

Marc: Yeah.

John: Draw a raffle to win the real race car. Yeah, this one takes awhile to ramp up, actually.

Chris: Well, you know, the interesting thing is we had a couple of arenas that were fun to play in. Obviously we wanted to talk about- wanted to learn everything we can about car theft-

John: Yup.

Chris: But also when you have thieves and grifters, you wanna see: how does a grifter sell a car? I mean that was just-

John: Yeah.

Chris: In the story breaking process, we knew we wanted to see Sophie selling a car. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: And that was- so we knew we were gonna live the dealership for a certain amount of it.

John: That stand up. That stand up of Tim wound up in some strange places over the course of the year.

[Laughter]

Aldis: He take that home with him?

John: Yeah, he did.

Aldis: Probably.

John: It was really disturbing. He insisted on taking it home with him. I don't know what the hell happened at the Hutton household, but that wound up at home. And now this was interesting, because we ran into scheduling problems, so even though they are all in the same room, Bill’s not there.

Marc: Yeah Bill was- there's a couple scenes here where- Bill missed out on. This guy was great.

John: Yeah. We’re really blessed in Portland with comedic actors. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: We got a lot of great people filling these crucial roles.

Chris: I love this whole sequence here.

Marc: And Gina- she just dove into this, this was great.

John: She may actually buff the car with her butt, at this point. I’m not sure.

Marc: Which is fine with me.

John: The- oh the losing the weight, the- yeah, we had a lot of fun researching all the different techniques a salesman used, and a lot of NLP, you know. Which I think we tag again in this.

Chris: There's not that much in between a con man and a salesman. 

John: No, not at all.

Chris: You know, they’re both trying to get somebody to do something, sign on the dotted line, separate them from their money, so, I mean, there's a lot of techniques that are the same.

John: The trick is to get them to think it's something they want to do.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah. Nice surveillance video.

Marc: Yeah.

John: Nice way to split up. Now this was interesting trying to come up with the threat. You know, car sales and stuff, you're thinking, ‘Oh, this guy runs a car dealership, he's not gonna be that dangerous.’ And then Albert went, ‘Well, it is a primary source of finance for identity theft and drugs.’ And I went, ‘Oh, well those are violent and deadly people, fine.’ It is amazing how much crime is organized. I mean that one of the revelations of research in this show is how much stuff you think is completely random crime that kicks up into some large organization. The Syndicate as Rockford would call it.

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh ‘The Syndicate.’

John: The Syndicate. The ‘We can't say mafia cause we’ll be killed in the 70s, so we say the syndicate.’

Marc: That’s right. I love this scene. She’s so good that our bad guys gotta have her.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah, yeah. She's the fiddle in this. No, we're not gonna undervalue her, she's not really the fiddle, she's the bait. 

Chris: Yeah

John: And they're recruiting- and getting her to be recruited. I love the clip-on tie on Eliot. That's a nice tie.

Chris: She's Eliot in Tap Out.

John: She’s Eliot in Tap Out.

Aldis: Bravo, Roskin, for managing to get Eliot in a tie and a collared shirt.

Marc: It took a while. That's why we had to do clip on.

[Laughter]

Aldis: Yeah.

John: He wore a tie in the pilot. He doesn't like to remember. Yeah, wow is he a horrible human being in this. The hat- the toothpick is really the key to this character. 

Marc: I love that we had to name the car Veronica, which became a great joke in the opening.

John: Yeah.

Marc: Because we couldn't clear Cobra.

John: Yes. 

Chris: Right.

John: I think by actually not clearing you're not allowed to say it in the commentary. 

Marc: Oh, seriously?

John: Eh, don't worry about it, it's cool, it’s Cobra, we can say it.

Marc: That was Albert who said that.

John: Yeah, he tossed the name up, Veronica, and then came up with that great joke.

Marc: Who knew Betty was the fast one?

John: Really, you knew Betty was the fast one. 

Marc: Of course.

John: If you think about it. You know she's the one with the photos of Archie all over her wall. It's creepy.

Marc: And nothing says car sale than balloons.

[Laughter]

John: Yes.

Chris: And the guy- the guy! The inflatable guy!

John: The wobbly guy! 

Marc: The wobbly guy!

Chris: The inflatable wobbly guy.

John: Gotta have the wobbly guy, there we go. And now the reset, just to know what's going on. And now you're thinking to yourself, ‘Wow it's been a while since we've seen Aldis and Beth. Where might they be?’ Ah, there they are.

Chris: Here we go.

John: Here we go. And this was a lot of fun, actually, playing- to a great degree we played this as if in Parker’s head, this is their first date.

Aldis: Yes.

John: And they're stealing a car.

Aldis: Mhm.

Chris: Right.

John: This is just something you do with people you like.

Aldis: Now granted, this was probably a car in a lot full of Ferraris, Benzes, Mercedes, but we chose to steal the beater.

John: Well you're making a statement.

Aldis: We’re making a statement.

Marc: Yeah, it's his car. It's Lefty’s, come on!

Aldis: It’s very-

John: Oh, I never noticed that you actually screwed the logo on the car. That's a digital bug on the car.

Marc: This is one of our local actors, Casey, he did a great job on this. 

John: Yup.

Aldis: He was great.

Marc: And this is actually the location where the fire department trains on lighting cars on fire, and putting them out, and ripping doors off.

John: Really? Oh that's cool.

Chris: Oh, look at that!

Marc: Hence all the burned out cars.

John: Which is perfect. Thank you, Portland Fire Department. 

Chris: Yeah, look at that.

John: That is one of those things that's- if you just ask around- and by the way, great wardrobe choice here, too. I'm fairly sure we’re in the Matrix at this point.

Aldis: Yes.

Chris: It’s very Matrix.

John: It's a weird challenge for the Matrix.

Aldis: You can tell just by Beth’s hair.

John: Stealing a car. Ordinarily you're flying helicopters, but in the Matrix you steal cars.

Aldis: We steal cars, it’s what we do.

Marc: Tapping into Parker's past here.

Aldis: Past a little bit.

John: Yup. And this is a lot- somebody, actually, one of the fans tried to put together the timeline. It's like, don't try to put together the timeline.

Chris: This is kind of-

John: It’s an amorphous blob of crime.

Chris: This is reminiscent of the Stork Job scene-

Marc: Yeah.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Between the two of them.

John: It's an emotional thing.

Aldis: Oftentimes.

John: It's more like this is the stuff you don't know. And who's that playing Lefty?

Marc: Don Alder. Who was actually in plays with our casting director.

John: Alana Binker.

Marc: Alana Binker.

John: Oh, great.

Aldis: Oh, nice.

John: And Bill looking smooth.

Chris: Death of a Salesman? The Gin Game? What'd they do?

[Laughter]

Marc: I don't know, but if you look on her wall at the office, there's pictures of her and Don. The younger version.

Chris: Love letters? I gotta ask her.

John: What did we name- that's Lefty but where's- where’s Mantlo? What character was that?

Chris: Mantlo is the client.

John: Oh, that's right, it's the client. Named after Bill Mantlo, who created ROM: Spaceknight, and we won't explain why that happened.

[Laughter]

John: Just know that the Leverage writing team loves them some Spaceknight. This could go badly.

[Laughter]

Aldis: Could go very badly.

John: No the- I love the little shading actually that Beth puts on this. Just that she's back in her element. And this is kind of- this is much like we're different people when around our parents. When Parker is in car thief mode, she's old Parker. 

Marc: Yeah.

John: You know, she's not that person anymore.

Aldis: Now this is the first time we've seen Parker revert back to her old ways as a car- not just a car thief. But you know, she's usually a grifter in an uncomfortable setting, playing the nerdy girl, the assistant, the whatever. 

John: Yeah.

Aldis: This is something she's like- this is home base for her.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

John: And why it was interesting to have her back.

Chris: It's not really a part she's playing.

Aldis: Nah, she's just doing her.

John: There's that moment at the season two finale where she's about to throw Jeri Ryan off the roof.

Aldis: Right.

John: Where you see like, ok that's lurking beneath the cute. And this is the first time she gets to kinda live in that character.

Marc: At any moment she could swing that ponytail and kill someone.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah there's a razor in it. There’s actually a razor in that ponytail. Did we cut that sequence? Where she fights with a ponytail? I think we- yeah, yeah. If the fans are really good and we sell more than a million of these, we’ll put that in the next issue of the DVD. The ponytail fight.

Aldis: Yeah.

Marc: That’s right.

Aldis: Now this was a great day for shooting because for some reason people just- they see cameras and they like to start honking their horns as they pass by. 

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh is that what-?

Aldis: And we couldn't get a shot off with them, and the planes, and the trucks. It was amazing. But we eventually managed to shoot something.

John: Look at that flawless concentration; you guys were all over this. This was also a ton of fun watching the- you do panic very well, I'll say that.

[Laughter]

John: You do controlled panic. It's in your toolbox, it's very nice.

Aldis: I trained for that. School of Juilliard: panic. 

Chris: Panic.

John: They have a panic room; they throw spiders at you-

Aldis: Yes they did.

John: And they film your response. It's really nice. Yes, and this is one of the first times we see- we’ve seen you explain how to con people. This is one of the first times we see her explaining her job.

Aldis: She’s taking over the Hardison gap here.

John: Yeah. And to a great- and yeah exactly, stay focused. This is one of those sort of things you would see Eliot doing. Or Nate.

Marc: This was a gnarly day as a director.

John: Oh yeah? why? 

Marc: We had a lot of page count to do on this day. It was a big workload. We were fighting the sun the whole time.

John: The sun goes up, sun goes down.

Marc: Sun goes up, sun goes down.

Aldis: The sun is not necessarily our friend, is it?

John: Sun is not your friend, not when you’re shooting during the spring. This, by the way, is real, the reset code. This was a ton of fun.

Chris: This was part of his research.

John: And Albert showed up with YouTube videos of people reprogramming their wireless keys- their key fobs on the fly, which you can find on YouTube. Oh, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Anyway, you can do all this. And you’re in! And the hook is set. This is actually two episodes-

Marc: Wait! But there's one more nibble for the hook. 

John: Yeah.

Marc: Josie!

Chris: Oh!

Marc: Malese Jow.

John: I remember we were first watching the dailies on this, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, that girl’s fantastic!’ I emailed Albert and go, ‘Does she have an agent?’ I mean I thought she was a Portland actress. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: He emails back: ‘She's a giant television star, she's in Vampire Diaries; there are fan clubs for her. You're an idiot.’ 

Aldis: Already on TV.

John: I'm not 12. I'm sorry! I don't- if I was 12, I'd know she was a TV star. She's fantastic, she’s really- and a great chemistry with Beth.

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: Bill had a good time with this, he had a really- and Gina was so giving in this scene.

Chris: And where is this shot?

Marc: This is actually on top of the car dealership.

Chris: Oh.

John: This is in their office?

Marc: Oh yeah, Dave loved this. Big spaces.

[Laughter]

Marc: But it played well.

John: Yeah it did. Well this is television, man. Everything television plays in the close up. Give the actors a little time to work and-

Chris: Oh, she looks great.

John: And the- did you match the eyeline on there? 

Marc: Oh, hmm, yes! I did!

[Laughter]

John: I was about to say you got real lucky there, that was nice.

Marc: I like a good French Reverse on the couch.

John: Why don't you tell them what a French Reverse is?

Marc: Well we’re on the back side of their shoulders, normally you're on the forward side.

Aldis: Is that so?

Marc: That's when you do their overs. It just gives it a different look.

John: Gives it intimacy.

Marc: Intimacy, and also can use it in cars as well.

John: The French Reverse?

Marc: Oh yeah.

Aldis: You realize you could say that paragraph one more time again, not speaking about TV, and it would sound terribly inappropriate.

[Laughter]

Chris: ‘You can use the French Reverse in a car, too?’ Yeah.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Aldis: French Reverse on the couch.

John: You're over their shoulders from behind.

Aldis: It's intimate, yeah, French Reverse on the couch.

John: Now did we actually bust up some cars here?

Marc: Uh, we did. We did a lot of pre-busting of some cars. Yes, it was fun.

Chris: Does he twirl this bat?

Aldis: He twirls everything.

Marc: Are you kidding? Of course he twirls the bat.

John: Aaaand there it is.

[Laughter]

Chris: There it is! Oh! There we go!

Aldis: A little extra special.

Marc: Reverse!

John: With the reverse.

Aldis: Please give him a chair next season, see if he twirls that.

John: No, the problem is he will. You have to know whatever you give Chris, he will find a way to move it rapidly through space. 

Aldis: He’s gonna twirl it.

John: Don't get me wrong, it's always impressive on camera, but damn.

Marc: And-

John: This is not what we thought it was.

Chris: It's bigger than we thought, folks. What is it? Yes.

Marc: Which is actually where the fire department houses their fire trucks. And we turned it into a chop shop.

Chris: Oh that’s great.

John: You cleared out the fire trucks?

Marc: Yeah, that's all there was there, fire trucks.

John: City of Portland, don't be alarmed, your fire trucks are easily available.

Marc: And our art department just filled it up.

Aldis: Kudos, Becca.

John: Yeah. Great, great production design on this.

Marc: They put on a car lift in the back.

John: Really?

Marc: Yeah, it wasn't there.

John: That's crazy. This was also a lot of fun, trying to figure out- I mean, cause you know, car theft stories are old stories in con and crime stories. But you have to basically backtrack through all the ways your car can be located, and write them into the script.

Chris: Yeah.

John: And grind them up like- if these people steal cars for a living, they have to do all this crap in order to make sure they can't be found.

Marc: That’s right.

Chris: Oh, there's a great shot.

Marc: Yeah.

John: Yeah that's really lovely. I also love the little script touch - that was Albert - of having Eliot take advantage of the innate racism of the locality.

Marc: Right, yeah.

John: To go ‘yeah there's just some crazy Spanish people with bats’. 

[Laughter]

John: Of course you would believe that! Why would you not believe that?

Marc: They were speaking Spanish!

John: Yeah exactly. Is that an anchor or a cross around his neck?

Aldis: It's a cross, I believe.

John: Is it a cross? I thought it looked like an anchor for a second, I thought that was odd.

Marc: Penzers future drivers for the kids.

Chris: That's great, you built the whole backstory.

Marc: Dave Connel loves sparks. More sparks please! 

John: Who doesn’t love sparks?

Chris: Sparks look great on the RED, didn't we learn that?

John: Look at that. Always fantastic.

Marc: Now we complain, ‘Dave, more sparks, mate.’

[Laughter]

John: Little sound you can always lose. You can always do ADR. Sounds really not all that important

Marc: This was a- I like this scene, you guys did such a good job of explaining how it all works, and how scary it can be if someone gets your identity.

John: Oh, this was definitely one of those ones where you finished the research as Albert was assembling it. It was one of those ones like, ‘Man, I wish we didn't know this.’ This is just, ‘I don't like going through life knowing this.’

Chris: There was even some stuff we didn't use.

John: Oh yeah.

Chris: The reassembling of the car when- remember?

John: What was that, yeah?

Chris: Okay it was- they strip a car down to its shell. 

John: Right.

Chris: Right, the shell will be found by the police.

John: Yes.

Chris: They'll keep all the parts.

John: The shell will be auctioned by the police.

Chris: Yes, the shell would be auctioned by the police.

John: For 200 bucks, for scrap.

Chris: Right, yeah.

John: Because everyone gets the shell and they go, ‘Well keep it, my insurance will pay for it.’ And then they buy it-

Chris: The thief buys the shell, which now has a clean vin number, and reassemble it with the parts that they stripped off the car, you know, two months earlier.

Marc: That's brilliant.

John: Yeah. Crime really is the perfect marketplace.

Marc: Sparks in the reflection!

[Laughter]

Aldis: Sparks!

John: There’s like nine layers to that shot of a dude on a phone. I mean, you're working hard there man, you're working very hard. No, identity theft- it's tough, because it's one of those fascinating crimes we did a lot of research on. It's tough to make visual, but I like the way you came up with the moving the- moving the names over onto the other- 

Marc: Derek, yeah.

John: That's Derek Frederickson, that's the fifth Beatle working hard.

Marc: It was really- it was great, you know, it was: this is where we take cars, this is where we strip them down, here's where we do the identity theft.

John: It is again- crime is capitalism at its finest.

Aldis: If anybody’s actually looking very hard in that scene, where you see that transfer, there's a bunch of IDs and licenses. We've got Hurley's license up there.

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh you do, really? Oh that's great.

John: Oh no, his identity being stolen! Oh he's made a clean break and now!

Aldis: Hurley from season one.

Chris: And now we gotta use that in season four, that's good to know.

John: I know, that's great to know I didn't know that. Oh now we gotta wipe this off the commentary cause we can use it in season four, make people think that we actually planned it.

Chris: It’s extra value for the DVD commentary.

John: For people who bought the DVD.

Chris: They were there when we got the idea.

Aldis: Ah, baby.

John: Man, Aldis you should be in the writers room all the time and not up in Portland.

[Laughter]

John: Just hang out with us in a tiny stuffy room, eating-

Aldis: I have nothing to do with my weekends now.

John: We don't work on the weekends, what are you crazy?

Aldis: Dammit, you better.

John: Oh, alright, fine we’ll work harder. Setting the hook. And by the way, one of the fun bits of watching these commentaries without sound is watching the Gina scenes to watch how she modulates the emotion without dialogue. 

Marc: Mhm.

John: And you can actually track how the con works and how she does the hook, cause Gina is a great actress, without words. Just through looks. I mean, the other actors are always working hard but, yeah, it's just great to watch her work these scenes. And hooked. What was I gonna ask- the- so wait, you built the chop shop?

Marc: Yeah.

John: From the ground up, in an empty room?

Marc: It was- yeah, completely empty. Nothing was in there except fire trucks.

John: Did you do digital extension or just that wall was there?

Marc: No, we just dressed the heck out of it. 

Chris: And they had good- nice chemistry.

John: Yeah this is- we are about to get the shot that launched a thousand fanfics coming up. The- a little something for our friends on LiveJournal, there you are. And there you go. 

Chris: Wow.

Marc: And the head the guys drop out the sound here.

Chris: It’s mentoring.

Marc: She's concentrating.

John: It’s mentoring! Absolutely. That's good, we've taught the kid how to be a better car thief. Excellent.

[Laughter]

Marc: That's right.

John: As we do. I like how Hardison has somehow gotten permission to check out your ID theft system. ‘Hey dude, do you mind if one of my friends-?’

Marc: That's major!

Aldis: It’s funny cause-

John: ‘If I just come over here- and I'm gonna check my Gmail, is that-?’ ‘Yeah sure man, go right ahead. You’re cool.’ No, it's- I have to admit, about halfway through this I was like how do we make Malese Jow a recurring character?

Marc: She’s great.

John: Because she's a great actress and she has great chemistry with Beth.

Marc: Yeah.

John: You know, it really is one of those ones where you're like, ‘ahhh’, and then she goes away and goes to become a big TV star on the show.

Chris: Oh you know she could get in trouble and then need our help.

John: There you go. But she's on another show.

Chris: Oh is she?

Marc: She's working with a landscaper now at the end of this.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Chris: Oh that’s right.

John: Well, but trouble happens to landscapers. 

Aldis: That’s true.

John: You know you're digging up, you're gonna plant the garden, what do you find? Body, coke, thousand dollar bills. You never know.  

Chris: Yeah, sure.

Marc: Dead hooker.

Aldis: Dead hooker is always a great storyline.

John: Alleged dead hooker, the landscaper didn’t find. Where’s this?

Marc: This is right by our stage; it's the golf course, the par 3 golf course and driving range.

Chris: How have you done on the par 3 there? Pretty well?

Marc: What’s that?

Chris: Have you done well on the par 3?

Marc: Not too bad, not too bad. Yeah, so this was a little montage of stealing cars. As many little bits and bobs as we can get.

Aldis: Worked out nicely, too.

John: This is the sort of sequence I will say to young independent filmmakers where it's like, ‘Oh, how do I shoot something?’ You can shoot this. With your camera at home, that's a- that montage is a bunch of controlled shots.

Chris: It's a lot of work.

John: It's a lot of work, but choose your shots carefully and you can do, you know- we make a big television show on a not very big budget, and a lot of it is through very careful shot choice. Also we have a car carrier.

Marc: Yes, that was an overage.

[Laughter]

John: But you can steal a car carrier.

Chris: An overage is an extra expense folks.

Marc: That's an extra expense. With the driver and the cars. That's production value.

John: That is production value right there.

Marc: And solo she's still working- whoa!

John: And that was another great thing: we never see Parker entering or leaving.

Marc: No. 

John: If Parker-

Marc: We actually see her leaving, and they cut it out of the first cut, but I really wanted to see her just kinda walk away into the darkness and look cool. Out of the pool of light.

John: Disappear.

Chris: It's a nice wide shot.

John: That's a beautifully lit set, too, that really is gorgeous. 

Aldis: Yeah.

John: It’s the prettiest chop shop I’ve ever seen.

Marc: There was a scene after this-

John: There you go, now she’s gone.

Marc: Where Lefty tells Penzer-

John: There you go, there it is.

Marc: No, where Malese Jow’s character tells Lefty what happened. And it was a really nice scene, but we just didn't have time for it, and we really get the point across here.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah that's tough, that was a nice scene. She did a great job in that. 

Marc: Yeah.

John: I mean, they both did a great job; it's a lot of great actors all around. And this is the roundy-round, why is this the roundy-round?

Marc: The roundy-round, the tables are turning here, you can see the direction change at a certain point, where he's gonna make it evil.

John: So we’re emotional- we’re in one emotional beat, going this way, and then as he takes control-

Marc: ‘Kill ‘em.’ ‘What?’

John: And we go the other way.

Chris: Oh, that's where we land.

Marc: That's where we're gonna land.

John: Yup.

Chris: And those things are very difficult to time, right? I mean you're trying to get-

Marc: Yeah, you just keep score and keep going. And the actors can start- they start to feel it when the cameras coming on, don’t you Aldis?

Aldis: Yeah, the roundy-rounds take, on average, about 17 hours to shoot.

[Laughter]

John: Tell- see I say that, but nobody listens to me! No, the damn circle track has yet to be destroyed.

Marc: There was a line in there that Bill Engvall delivered. ‘What, this isn't a tree house?’ I love that line.

John: Yeah, he did a great job. I mean, it's tricky because it's one of our more comedic villains-

Aldis: Yeah.

John: Which was great to have Bill, but he had to be believable as scary.

Marc: Right.

John: And Bill really got the job done. Very impressed.

Chris: And I'm sure he doesn't get a lot of opportunities to play bad guys.

John: He’s a nice guy.

Chris: I mean he's such a nice guy, he’s-

John: That's a great shot, where the hell is that?

Marc: This is by the docks, by the port. Where we did- near the finale of season two?

John: OK.

Marc: Just a big warehouse. Which, it’s very hard to shoot in after 9/11, getting on these ports.

John: Amazingly, you can't bring a bunch of- you just can't bring a bunch of people and propane down to major ports in America anymore.

Marc: Yes.

[Laughter]

Marc: Then you tell them you wanna fire guns? That’s exciting.

Chris: This is not good, it's great.

John: This is a great shootout scene. And I'm pretty sure we stole the key throw from the Red Skies pilot.

Chris: Oh?

John: I think we were trying, ‘Well how the hell does he get away from them?’ I go, ‘Wait, wait, I got one in my pocket.’

Chris: Red Skies, John’s lamented USA pilot.

John: That was my own USA pilot. And then just enough time to move.

Marc: Just to give a strike, and jump through the cars.

John: There you go.

Marc: Couple of sparks.

John: And did we do squibs or did we do digital hits?

Marc: We did actual squibs and sparks on all of this. We were shooting, you know, like a paint gun at Christian.

John: And then we- oh yeah, no, this was squibs. There you go.

Marc: And here you go. And-

John: And the hit!

All: Oh!

John: Great hit! Great great hit.

Marc: He took it.

Chris: Wait, he didn't do that?

John: No, for once we did not let Christian get hit by the car.

[Laughter]

Chris: Alright. 

Marc: Yes.

Chris: Sure looked like it.

John: Don't you remember the second season- or first season we were watching the dailies-?

Chris: First season he wanted to get hit by the car.

John: And I see the hit and go ‘Oh, good hit!’ Then I see Christian’s face on the road-

Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah he-

John: I'm like, ‘What the hell?’

Chris: Yeah, he did that.

John: ‘What the hell?’

Marc: Yeah.

Chris: How does that make you feel?

John: Thought it was crazy to run on top of a train.

Chris: Yeah, isn't that- doesn't that contribute to running across a moving train? When you see him getting hit by a car you think, ‘Well he did that.’ Set the bar of insanity higher.

John: It's seriously a mutually enforced thing.

Aldis: See I’m no longer supposed to comment on that particular action, because John would get mad at me.

John: I will get mad at you, don't run on top of trains anymore. Before we finish the season.

[Laughter]

John: In between seasons-

Aldis: But I'm still here, John.

John: In between seasons, you know, your brother is a very talented man. I could make that work. But you know not in the middle of shooting. That's a great- having that framed up doorway is great. It's a really nice shot.

Marc: Yeah, it's like the searchers doorway.

John: Yeah- wow, nice reference.

Chris: Some of this green screen? Didn't we add?

Marc: No.

John: No, no. 

Aldis: That was all real.

John: You're thinking of the finale where we put the airport in the back.

Marc: This is all real.

John: And now people are getting shot at, so I have to get the hell out of dodge. That is a funky top.

Marc: Yup, oh not too fast. We had a shot before of the gun in the drawer, literally, but we didn't use it.

John: It's better to just have it appear. You know where it comes from.

Marc: Exactly.

John: He's got a gun drawer, he's a bad guy.

Chris: That's Columbo, the shot of the gun in the drawer.

John: It's 1973, we don't wanna do that. We know where guns come from.

Marc: Hey, I was just shooting what was on the page, that's what I do!

John: That's right you slavishly obey the script.

Aldis: Just to recap. You do realize Nate is wearing the same thing, right?

[Laughter]

Aldis: That a conscious choice?

Chris: Did he not bring a change of clothes?

John: He didn't. He did not bring a change of clothes on this con.

Aldis: Nah.

Chris: No fresh underwear? Did he go commando?

John: Ah steam! Look at steam.

Aldis: I love how we destroy the hundred thousand dollar car, yeah.

Marc: We had to figure out a way to allow for Malese Jow’s character to return, so we had to- cheat the car was really damaged.

John: Yes.

Marc: Some rubber glass and some smoke.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: We've broken a lot of car windows. In the pilot, actually, if you go back and watch, when Nate smashes the windows- it was pretty funny, we learned our lesson. Cause we were thinking, ‘Oh, how hard is it to smash a window?’ 

Aldis: He hit it like three times!

John: With a giant baton? Super hard! It turns out.

Aldis: Yeah, he cranked that thing three times just to get it.

Marc: Look at that.

Chris: There we go.

Aldis: Oh the boat is going!

John: How? 

Marc: Gotta love that.

John: How did you get that timing?

Marc: Timing just worked out. Actually, you know what? I got friends at the harbor.

Aldis: It's called sitting in the middle of the rehearsal while a boat is going by saying, ‘Guys we gotta shoot! Shoot! Shoot!’

John: ‘Get up there!’

Marc: ‘Shoot!’

John: Oh and nice clearout man, that's a good solid hit from Hardison.

Chris: I did kickbox today, I did all this stuff.

[Laughter]

John: Did you do this?

Chris: I just want you to know, seriously, no joke, I did.

John: You're gonna move in?

Chris: I'm ready

Marc: Christian is not a big fan when the others fight with him. 

John: No, well you know, everyone’s got their slot. 

Marc: That’s true.

John: Everyone’s got their ability.

Aldis: We’re not all punks, come on!

John: And then the girl shows up to save the day.

Marc: And you can see it's getting darker.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, you're racing the sun there aren't you man? How much- there's some grain in that shot.

Chris: How wide did you open that aperture?

Marc: Wow.

John: How big is the light on that one?

Marc: That was- like I said, remember I said that was a rough day? That was the end of it.

John: Wow. That is- you almost had the moon in that shot.

Chris: Yeah, I think we can say this episode was written fairy early in the process, and it took a while for the machinery of the show-

John: It was written third.

Chris: Written third or fourth, I think. And it took a while for everything to be up to speed and for us to be ready to shoot it.

John: Oh god yeah, cause this was really take a deep breath. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Car carriers and chases.

Aldis: This was one of the first-

Marc: This was a fun scene.

Aldis: This was where we were [laughs] shooting in this, and said, ‘Okay, she’s making a right turn, everybody go woah! Making a left turn, everybody lean! Woah!’

Marc: Poormans with green screen.

Chris: Looks great!

Marc: She takes a sharp right-

John: This is poormans?

Aldis: Yes, yes.

Chris: Great, man.

Marc: And not everybody started leaning the same way.

Aldis: The same way, it was-

Marc: As Aldis is saying, like, ‘No! Everybody’s gotta go the same way!’

Aldis: And not to boot, but this is like a smart car, the seatbelt once you get in it straps you in, it literally locks you. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: Oh.

Aldis: It feels the slightest thing. So you're sitting there trying to move, and do your thing, but you're strapped to the seat literally because it sucks you in, it tightens. So thank you, BMW, for the extra safety.

Chris: Oh!

John: I wanna know why the hell did you shoot poormans with the greenscreen when I shot the thing in the finale and I was crammed in the truck like a hostage? Like locked off cameras.

Aldis: Eh.

Marc: You know John, this was main unit!

John: You bastard. Wait, with Gina driving, which was terrifying. Gina doing stunt driving on, like, long stretches of Portland-

Marc: That’s one of our electricians-

Aldis: Now John, we’re gonna need you to not get in the trunk of a car with a Brit driving- 

[Laughter]

Aldis: -before we finished the finale, just saying.

John: Just saying.

Aldis: It's the equivalent of running on a train.

Marc: There was that look.

Chris: That look again.

Aldis: What look?

Marc: Scared look.

Chris: Scared!

John: You do scared well.

Aldis: Am I scared?

John: It's more concern, it’s careful concern.

Chris: They do bickering Edward Albee couple.

John: Yeah, very well. 

Marc: Yes.

John: I also love the read- that was not the anticipated read on: ‘I got hit by a car, get over it!’ That was great by Beth. 

Aldis: Yup.

John: That made us laugh in the dailies forever. Yeah this was a lot of- and the resolve, it was all cop cars, that was a ton of fun.

Aldis: Yes, that was awesome.

John: It was nice, because it was just a perfect example of one of those episodes where we had almost the entire thing broken on the board, and we couldn't figure out what the tie up was.

Chris: Oh, yes we did.

John: Yeah- no.

Chris: I- what that they are all cop cars?

John: Yeah.

Chris: I figured it out eventually.

John: No no, that's what I mean-

[Laughter]

John: There was a giant hole in the plot-

Aldis: Claim it Downey, claim it.

John: No, there was a giant hole in the plot-

Chris: Yeah.

John: And it was like, ‘OK, we've gotten all this other great stuff about cloning cars, how the hell do we bring this back?’

Chris: Right, right, right. How do we bring it back?

John: How do we bring it back? Right.

Marc: We spent all the money on the EMP cannon and not on that tracking device, I’ll tell you that.

John: Well the tracking device are permanent-

Marc: Yeah.

John: And that's Eliot giving himself brain cancer, pointing it at himself. That's season six. 

Aldis: Yes.

[Laughter]

John: No, that's why you have a writers room. That’s what I’m saying, you tend to- these things are-

Chris: Yes.

John: You never know who's got the, ‘Oh, you know how that works,’ bang.

Chris: Right.

Marc: There you go.

John: And out.

Marc: Blow it out!

John: Gotta keep that.

[Laughter]

Chris: Now he didn't spin it, though!

John: He didn’t spin it, it's too blunt.

Chris: It's too blunt.

Marc: It's too expensive.

John: That prop.

Aldis: Put it in the contract: can’t spin that.

Marc: That prop had to make it to another episode. No way Eric Bates would allow that to happen.

Aldis: Did Bates build that?

Marc: Yes.

Aldis: Bates is a master.

John: And this was also- one of the ones where we were doing the rewrite like, ‘Do we have time for this fight? No, that's ok.’ 

Marc: Off camera.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Which we did in Double Blind, which worked great.

Chris: We did in Double Blind, yeah.

John: Sometimes the off camera fight can be very amusing.

Marc: Yeah.

John: It's one guy with a gun. You know Eliot can handle it.

Marc: Exactly.

John: Probably hit him with that tiny car there.

[Laughter]

Marc: Toy Cobra!

Chris: Why was the car next to him? That's great.

John: We missed- we missed the entire toy car fight.

Marc: Didn't you notice in the beginning the cars were in good shape, now they are all damaged. We smashed them at four in the morning. I think that was the longest day on Leverage.

John: Yeah?

Marc: Yes, thanks to me.

John: Tough, you’re awesome.

Marc: I got the shortest and the longest-

Aldis: Nah season finale, first season was long-

John: Season finale, first season.

Aldis:, It was the longest. We were done at like five.

Marc: Yeah I-

John: We might not have started-

Marc: I think we beat that.

Aldis: Oh?

John: I don't think we started then, though, I think we started during the day.

Marc: And of course, the reveal.

John: A nice wipe reveal. Old school, very nice. Oh, and another explanation, again, one of the things we have to constantly reset is that the earbuds are not magical. They obey certain laws-

Aldis: Yes.

Chris: That’s right.

John: They go through the phones and they do not always work. And we wound up using that plot point, they don't work underwater, I think.

Marc: And they make your hair bigger.

John: They do. Well that's the- that's getting- taking the car hit and winding up in the river. 

[Laughter]

John: And the- what's the wrap up on this one? Oh, there you go.

Chris: Think we got-

Marc: Little exchange with Parker.

John: And that was-

Chris: Don't be too hard on her.

John: That was right.

Marc: Don't be hard.

John: And again, a reestablishing of the new peer relationship between the two of them. This is not a conversation they’d have first season. 

Chris: Right, yeah.

John: She is allowed to modify his behavior at this point in the relationship.

Aldis: Like either one of them can judge, they both put us in jeopardy.

John: Yes, that's true, but you know she's apologized for it while he really never has.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: He's not a pleasant- the character not a pleasant character. Nate Ford is not a good guy.

Aldis: No, no, he is not.

John: There you go. And now you got a car, you’re back in business.

Marc: That's right.

John: Oh-

Chris: And she has a legitimate businessman to learn a trade, an honest trade.

John: Well that was the birth of it, right? That was the birth of the episode, was the whole idea that vin numbers were only tracked-

Chris: Right.

John: -within the state. So as soon as you cross the state line. And being from the Northeast, you cross the state line accidentally.

Chris: Right.

John: So that was a great way in. That's a lovely- I like this one.

Marc: Lovely scene.

John: I like the ending of this one.

Marc: Yeah, it's nice.

John: Well it's frustrating, because, you know, the writer part of me is like, ‘I would like Malese Jow to become a mini Parker and learn the ways of crime.’ But you know the moral showrunner is like, ‘No, no. She should- Parker doesn't want her to be this person.’

Chris: Save it for Little Leverage.

[Laughter]

John: Save it for Little Leverage? Like the TV version? Like the Japanese TV version?

Aldis: Leverage minis.

Chris: No, Disney XD.

John: Oh that's good. I think Disney would- a giant corporation would really love for us to teach children how to steal.

Marc: This scene was mostly ad libbed by all our actors.

John: Yeah.

Chris: I like this a lot, too. I like the family meal. We've done this a few times.

Marc: That was actually, I think, Gina and Tim’s idea. 

Aldis: Yeah, she said she wanted some food.

Marc: She said, ‘We need to have a family meal to give us something to do differently than just sitting at the bar.’

Chris: We did it the first time in The Wedding Job?

Marc: Yeah.

John: Yeah it's nice. It's again, the sorta I imagine these people live like this, you know. Great episode! Fantastic, giant production value episode, Marc Roskin.

Chris: Wow.

Aldis: Bravo.

Marc: Thank you.

Chris: Bravo, bravo.

John: Really big bravo to you. Big bravo to Albert Kim who's out there somewhere.

Aldis: Yes.

John: Listening to this, making sure we didn't say anything shitty about him during the commentary.

[Laughter]

Chris: I don’t think we did.

John: Hey Albert, I know you're sitting there on your couch listening.

Chris: We miss you buddy.

Aldis: Yeah man, come back.

John: And put another disc in and watch some more because it's pretty great.

Marc: And that is The Boost.

Aldis: Peace!

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Elliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Deveraux #Season 3 #Episode 8 #Season 3 Episode 8 #The Boost Job

[script-nef]

How their relationship gets revealed (iii)

Characters: Akaashi, Oikawa, Sakusa, Tsukishima, Ushijima

Category: fluff

Akaashi Keiji

You’re a best-selling novelist and incredibly famous

Akaashi has been your editor for 3 years now

He’s such a hardworking and dedicated worker

You buy him a lot of presents and he does as well

Constant uploads onto social media with new gifts and meals together

Which happens a lot because you need constant feedback and reviews

And so your readers kind of ship you with him

Lightly, like “Y’all are cute together” and “I wish I have this kind of support”

They don’t actually think you’re together and also don’t want to force it on you

But little do they know that you’ve been dating for over a year now

Because Akaashi is:

1. Kind and caring 

2. Really hot/pretty 

3. The gentlest person you’ve ever met and 

4. Is incredibly professional and can separate work from personal feelings 

5. Just look at him

He confessed his feelings for you after your last book sold over a million copies

Because he was drunk after the celebration

But you also liked him and a new relationship was born

Mainly kept on the down low because it’s just easier

You and him both have meddling people around you

But feelings grew day by day

And you desperately want everyone to know your boyfriend is such a wonderful and amazing partner like scream it from the top of your lungs

And so a new book was made

In the dedications page, you wrote “To my other half, thank you for taking care and loving me”

Reader are surprised at the relationship update

But are super happy for you even though they don’t know who it is

The book is a really sweet and cute novel

Readers think it sounds kind of familiar for some reason…

And at the end of the book, it says “To Akaashi Keiji”

(Turns out it was loosely based on yours and his relationship)

The reading community is flipped and your book reaches bestsellers in record time

Oikawa Tooru

Oikawa comes to Japan for a match against the Schweiden Adlers

His return was met with thousands of fans and plenty of photographers and reporters

Every one of his fans were saying how much they love him and hope he wins

And tons of gifts are given left and right

He gives his ever-so charming smile and gracefully accepts them

An interviewer asks him what he missed most in Japan

He rattles off a list

“My family, my friends—Iwa-chan isn’t here though—Japanese food. There’s this wonderful ramen place in my hometown! I also have to see Mattsun and…”

The reporter smiles and nods to his replies

His fans are screaming how they’ll buy anything he wants in the background

He thanks them but that just makes them scream louder

Then his face goes soft, like he’s remembering a really happy thing

“...but I missed [Name]-chan the most.”

The reporter’s eyes widens along with all his fan’s

Even hardcore, and I mean hardcore, fans didn’t know about this

“They’ve been supporting me so much and it’s been ages since my last visit… I just want to see and hug them.”

His small smile is so full of love and affection, even a blind person could see he’s in love

They had zero idea he was in a committed relationship

Most of his fans scream that they hope he has a good relationship

(He ignores the ones that are shrieking“No!”)

Photos of you with him are uploaded after he wins against Schweiden Adlers 

He’s smiling like the sun in every single one of them

Sakusa Kiyoomi

Sakusa hates interviews and reporters

Because they keep sticking microphones, which is covered with theirs and everyone else’s germs, into his face

And expect him to be polite when he’s so uncomfortable

So he has a reputation for being a little (read: extremely) difficult for post-match interviews

Nearly everyone had given up

And then all of a sudden, he’s actually civilised in interviews

Like, answering questions and even smiling a little

Everyone’s thinking 

“Is he okay?” 

“What’s happening?” 

“Oh god he’s finally lost it after being in a team with 3 crackheads #PrayForSakusa2020”

In reality, it’s because you’re the one interviewing him

He doesn't want to do it for anyone else, but you insisted that he has to

And now he responds to other reporters as well (albeit incredibly unwillingly)

But he only smiles for you

Fans start noticing after 3 – 4 interviews

“Is it me or is Sakusa really nice when that reporter asks him” 

“No I noticed as well” 

“DOES HE LIKE THEM ASDISJDW IS MY BOY IN LOVE” 

“WHY IS EVERYONE DATING OR IN LOVE WHEN I’M SO ALONE”

After a match, you finish a live report which people can chat on (just say there is one)

It’s in a sheltered place so currently not a lot of people are around

And he doesn't walk away, just keeps standing there

He thinks the camera is off now, and so do you

But is isn’t it’s still on and going live

You’re about to pack up and walk away

But a small tug stops you

It’s Sakusa and the people are going wild because holy shit, is Sakusa actually touching someone??? Our clean freak?? Are my eyes deceiving me??

You take his hand (“What the hell?”) and softly ask “Kiyo? What’s wrong?” (“DID THEY SAY KIYO UGH CARDIAC ARREST”)

He mumbles about how he doesn’t want you to talk to his teammates, even for the sake of interviews (“IS SAKUSA JEALOUS??? OUR DETACHED BOY???”)

You giggle and ruffle his hair, kissing him over the mask (“I AM FAINTING CALL 119”) while saying you need to do your job

And then look over to the cameraman

Whose jaw is on the floor

And you can see the red blinking light from the camera

“Ah, shit”

Tsukishima Kei

His teammates (*cough* Koganegawa *cough*) outed him on social media

You were working overseas and came back after months

The day coincided with a practise match, but Tsukishima was able to excuse himself

So you’re having the time of your life with your saltTM

He’s actually a really nice and sweet boyfriend underneath all that salt and sass

Even made a date course to explore the city

Had a good lunch and some strawberry shortcake in his favourite bakery

You enjoy it immensely, so he was smiling secretly

But then his phone starts blowing up for some reason

When he checks it, there are thousands of questions flooding his messages and social media

Turns out Koganegawa slipped up

He was doing an Instagram Live and when someone asked where Tsukki was

Did he come up with a good excuse?

Nope, he immediately said “Oh, he’s out on a date!”

Everyone’s confused because our salt has a partner?? Since when??

And then he realises he screwed up, especially with how private Tsukki is

The only thing stopping the exposed boy from returning to the gym and throwing hands with the setter is you

You kept saying it’s fine and it’s okay

He reluctantly gives up on planning his revenge (not really though)

You distract him enough to go to the museum he’s going to be working at

And he later uploads a photo of you from behind while you’re reading a dinosaur’s description

(And a separate one where Koganegawa is in a dogeza pose)

Ushijima Wakatoshi

Schweiden Adlers won another match

Ushijima answers interviews, like he does every match

One particular reporter asks the root of his energy and passion

They expected an answer like “thirst for success” or “pride and honour” or something along those lines

But he smiles softly, which breaks everyone watching because they have never seen that before

But the next thing breaks them even more

He says “[Name], my spouse.”

His teammates knew about you but not everyone else

People are spitting their drinks out and absolutely flabbergasted

Even his own teammates because he didn’t seem like the person to say that

He says it’s your first anniversary as a married couple

But he’s overseas so he can’t be with you today

Says that he sent a present and he hopes you’ll like it

Then bows and just walks away to change

Like he hasn’t said the most scandalous thing since the start of his career

Tons of articles and Twitter posts are made about him and this new revelation

To the point where it’s trending #1

He doesn’t care though, and you really don’t either

It wasn’t that big or important of a secret

He just didn't mention it up to now because he didn’t see the need

He doesn’t have to publicise the extent of his love for you because you already know that

The present was a brand-new, top of the line laptop along with a new phone

The same brand as his (awww couple items)

So that he can FaceTime/video call you with HD quality

His teammates have to listen to him being sickeningly cute every night now

And complain about it on interviews 

#BestHusbandUshijimaWakatoshi starts trending

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[fruitcoops]

Two of A Kind

I’ve been focusing on asks a lot lately because of everyone’s awesome ideas, but I saw a Cut video that was similar to this and just couldn’t resist. Hope you enjoy! Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

TW for mentions of sex and endless simping!

“Are you ready?” Marlene asks behind the camera. Kasey sits alone on a stool in the middle of the room, drumming his fingers on his knees.

“Yep. What am I doing again?”

The video cuts, revealing the same room, this time with James Potter on the stool. “You’re going to be answering a few questions,” Marlene explains. “And then we’re also going to be interviewing your wife and comparing your answers.”

“Oh, God,” James laughs. “Okay, hit me with your best shot.”

A title card appears on the screen. First Question: What was your first date?

Remus thinks for a moment. “Like, our first official date, or something that was definitely a date but we were both too dumb to notice?”

“Kasey took me to an ice rink,” Natalie says. She is inexplicably sitting on a folding chair rather than the stool. “We spent about three hours there, drinking cocoa and talking. It was a ton of fun!”

“Ice skating.” Kasey grins. “She told me she could skate, but she had never stepped on the ice in her life.”

“It was at Sid’s.” Sirius smiles to himself. “We had been together for about three months at that point.”

“Remus asked us to define ‘first date’,” Marlene says, sounding amused.

“Is there a different definition that I’m not aware of? We hung out at Sid’s a bunch before we actually got together, but those didn’t qualify as dates.” He pauses. “Looking back, they kind of were dates. We just didn’t know it.”

The video transitions to Lily and James, whose interviews are lined up side-by-side. “Lily took me to get ice cream after we went for a walk in the park,” James answers with a bright smile.

Lily laughs. “Our first date was a disaster. It was twenty-five degrees outside and we got ice cream. I think our brain freezes lasted about three straight minutes, but I had a great time.”

Second Question: When and where was your first kiss?

“Our first kiss happened on our first date,” Natalie says. “Kase caught me when I fell over and I just leaned right in.”

Kasey’s dopey smile makes his eyes crinkle. “At the ice rink. It felt like something out of a movie.”

Lily frowns in thought. “Oh, god, maybe our sixth date? He dropped me off at my apartment and kissed me goodnight.”

“I pulled a move straight from a John Hughes movie.” James grins and stretches his arms out. “Walked her to the door and everything. It was perfect.”

“Pascal Dumais’ basement,” Sirius says with a light laugh. “Which is a surprisingly romantic place.”

“It happened right after Sirius’ birthday party, which I was tricked into attending.” Remus gives the camera a mock-serious look. “Always be suspicious of Pascal Dumais. Always.”

Third Question: Who said ‘I love you’ first, and what was your reaction?

Sirius bites his lip. “I said it first, but only by two seconds. It was a long time coming, to be honest.”

“Sirius said it first.” Remus smiles at the memory. “We were both kind of wrecks at the time, but it was…amazing. I think I just cried harder and kissed him.”

Lily rolls her eyes fondly. “James said it first. We were both super drunk and he just blurted it out in the middle of the club.”

“She ran away!” James practically shouts as the video cuts to him. “I told her I loved her, she gave me this shocked look, and then disappeared! I get a text an hour later saying she caught a cab and went home, and she signs it with ‘love, Lily’. What the fuck was I supposed to do with that?”

Natalie coughs slightly. “Um, I don’t remember who said it first.”

Kasey grins at the camera. “Natalie said she didn’t remember,” Marlene calls.

“Oh, she remembers.”

Fourth Question: How’s your sex life? Anything you can do differently?

Sirius, who was taking a sip of water, chokes. “Excuse me?”

Remus is dead silent for a second, blinking at the camera in shock. “It’s, uh, good.”

“If we gave you some alcohol, would your answer change?” Marlene asks.

“Probably. Does anyone else feel like they’re suddenly in danger?”

“What sex life?” James snorts. “We have a baby. There is no time or energy for anything anymore.”

Lily raises an eyebrow. “You think I want him anywhere near me after I just shoved a baby out of my crotch?”

“It’s damn good.” Natalie winks, uncapping her own waterbottle. “Pro tip for anyone looking for a hockey boyfriend: go for the goalies. They’re flexible.”

Kasey is laughing into his hands when his interview appears. “She said that?” he manages. “Oh, Christ.”

Fifth Question: Do you dirty talk?

“Yes.” Kasey and Natalie say at the same time. James winks, and Lily shrugs with a sly smile.

Remus gives the camera crew a disbelieving look. “Are all the questions like this? Were we lulled into a false sense of security?”

“Answer the question, Loops!”

Remus sighs deeply. “On occasion, yes. I’m going to regret saying that.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Sirius says, narrowing his eyes as he sets his water down.

Sixth Question: How well do you sleep?

“Not bad,” Remus says. “Better than I used to, that’s for sure.”

“I don’t sleep,” Lily scoffs. James just looks at the camera and wordlessly gestures to the shadows under his eyes.

“Pretty well,” Natalie muses, slinging one arm around the back of her folding chair.

Sirius nods. “I’d say I sleep well most nights. It’s more comfortable with another person, which was surprising.”

Seventh Question: Why do you feel obligated to share a bed?

“Obligated?” Sirius and Remus say with matching tones of incredulity.

Lily’s smile becomes softer. “I really like sharing a bed. It makes me feel safe.”

“Oh, I love sleeping next to Lily.” James’ gaze turns dreamy. “She smells nice, she’s so warm, and sharing a bed makes childcare much easier when the other person is within reach.”

“You can’t tell her I said this, okay?” Kasey looks around at the camera crew before answering, and his cheeks turn light pink. “Nat’s side of the bed faces east, so if I get up for practice and the sun is rising, she glows a little bit. I dunno, I like it.”

“Kasey is really warm and cuddly.” Natalie says after a moment of thought. “He’s like my own personal heater and I’m never cold if he’s there. Don’t tell him I said that.”

Remus bites his lip before speaking. “I’m not much of a cuddler, but I sleep better next to Sirius than I ever have before. It’s incredible.”

Sirius cocks his head to the side with a smile. “Hmm. Having someone there to hold, especially someone I care about so much, is the best feeling. If I ever wake up in the middle of the night, he’s just…always there.” He half-shrugs. “It’s sappy, but it’s true.”

Eighth Question: Rate your attractiveness on a scale of 1-10

“Eleven,” Lily and Natalie say in unison, as if it’s obvious.

“I’m going with a solid six,” Remus decides after a moment’s deliberation.

“Eight, maybe?” Kasey answers.

Sirius makes a face. “Six? Seven?”

James is mid-laugh when the video cuts to him. “Um, seven. Lily and I have talked about this before and I got in trouble for saying ten, that’s why I’m laughing. Sorry.”

Ninth Question: Rate your partner’s attractiveness on a scale of 1-10

Not a single one hesitates. “Ten.”

“Remus said he was a solid six,” Marlene says as the camera focuses on Sirius.

His eyebrows shoot up. “What? Where is he? Re!”

“What?” a distant voice shouts back.

“You’re a ten!”

“On what scale?”

“Nat said eleven, didn’t she?” Kasey asks with a grin as the clip changes. “I love it when she does that.”

Final Question: What animal is your partner and why? Give three reasons.

Lily gives Marlene a hard look. “Marley, I love you, but what I say right now needs to stay confidential from my husband.”

Sirius laughs quietly. “Oh, he’s going to hate me for this.”

“Lily is a lioness,” James says immediately. “She’s strong, fierce, and unbelievably brave.”

Natalie tilts her head. “Good question. I’m going to go with a bear, since he’s got a big, tough reputation but he’s all soft inside. He’s a pretty solid guy, too, and he likes cold weather.”

“Nat is one of those really colorful birds,” Kasey says. “The ones with big personalities and the pretty feathers.”

“James is a lion.” Lily thinks for a moment longer. “It’s not just that he plays for the Lions, but he really is one of the bravest people I know. He’s protective of his family and cares a lot about keeping everyone together.”

Remus grins at the camera. “Sirius is a dog, and I will happily tell you why. Number one: he loves going for walks. Number two: he is endlessly loyal to the people he cares for. Number three: peanut butter.”

“So, Re is either a cat or a dog, and I really can’t choose.” Sirius’ eyebrows draw together in thought.

“You can choose both if you have reasons,” Marlene calls behind the camera.

“Really? Alright, he’s a dog because he’s friendly, loyal, and brings people trinkets as gifts. Um, I don’t have a legitimate reason for the cat one, but do any of you know that one vine with the cat that’s being dragged around on a leash?”

The camera crew bursts out laughing, and a small picture of the cat appears in the upper left of the screen.

“Anyone who has tried to pick Remus up knows that he looks exactly like that. Goes completely limp, it’s the funniest fucking thing.”

The video cuts to Remus, who raises his eyebrows. “He said what?”

The title card appears and Marlene’s voiceover begins. “Thanks for watching, Lions! Special thanks to Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James and Lily Potter, Natalie Darcy, and Kasey Winter for being with us today. Like and subscribe for more!”

#sirius black #remus lupin #james potter #lily evans #kasey winter #natalie darcy #marlene mckinnon #social media #sweater weather #coops #jily #kat #lumosinlove #my fic #fanfic

[rozengrotto]

the 12th of July is Russell’s birthday and here’s his card~!

♡ Birthday Interview with Russell and his Groooovy art under the cut ♡

Part 1

  ♡—Octavinelle Dorm - Birthday Party Venue—♡

NRC School Newspaper Birthday Interview Feature

~Russell version~

Yuu: Happy Birthday!

Russell: Ah, thank you a lot! It still surprises me to receive so many birthday greetings from everyone.

Are you not used to people wishing you happy birthday?

Russell: Can't say I am, really. My family is rather small and I never had many friends growing up. But I do appreciate the congratulations lots! It feels nice!

How does your family celebrate your birthday?

Russell: Every year, my mother treats me to a fancy restaurant and we eat tons of good stuff. Maybe you know of it, it's run by Azul-senpai's parents. The food there is heavenly! Even my aunt, granny and little cousins come to visit for that occasion. It can get surprisingly lively when all of us are around~

Speaking of, what is your favorite food?

Russell: Any dish that has shrimp in it! They are delicious and so easy to catch. I especially love biting off their heads first, it makes a funny sound! Oh wait, doesn't Floyd-senpai call you “shrimp” as well? Hehe, how interesting~

* gulp * M-moving on. Is there any food you dislike?

Russell: Hmm, let me think. I'm not all that picky, but I dislike caramel toffee since it’s all sticky. I hate it when food gets stuck between my teeth. It reminds me of the time when I had to wear those stupid braces. Luckily I don't need them anymore and my teeth are super duper fine now! Wanna see them~?

Part 2

You seem to get along well with your upperclassmen.

Russell: All of them are very kind and I feel like I can learn a lot from them. Just yesterday Jade-senpai told me about a kind of mushroom that glows in the dark! Isn’t that amazing? It's never boring around here above the surface. But most of all, it's great to hang out with Floyd-senpai! He's so much fun and he never cares about what others say, I like that!

So you admire him?

Russell: Very much! I wanna be strong and smart and make my own way, just like him!

He also knows that looks don't define a person.

A book shouldn't be judged by its cover after all. People easily underestimate me since I seem rather weak and small.

But I don't think that's a bad thing.

It's more fun to see the shock on their faces when they realize what a person like me is capable of.

We anglerfish love the element of surprise~

You are an anglerfishmer, yes? Can you tell us more about yourself?

Russell: Oh? Do you want to learn more about us anglerfish, Prefect-san? How nice!

Let me give you some awesome trivia about anglerfishmer then!

When I am in my merform, I can make my whole body glow in the dark. You wouldn’t believe how many foolish fish are drawn to the light, hehe~

Also I can extend my jaw and make it reaaaaal big! Sadly, I can't do that as a human, I think it would look rather weird anyways.

In the past before I had braces, people used to make fun of me for my teeth since they were so crooked and long and strange. They still are kind of long and some people keep staring... But Floyd-senpai told me to bite anyone who says anything bad about my teeth!

That doesn't sound like a good advice....

Russell: Haha, it's alright, Prefect-san, I was just joking! I'd never bite anybody! ...without a reason, that is~

Part 3

What sort of presents did you receive?

Russell: Let's see here.

My classmates and a few of my senpais gave me some neat stuff and sweets.

Oh, and my mother sent me a jar of stars this year! They aren't truly stars of course, but bioluminescent algae formed into star shape. She always knows what I love the most. I keep it on my nightstand and use it as a reading light!

So you like stars a lot?

Russell:  Mhm, I love stargazing. When I was little, I used to sneak out and swim up to the surface to look at all the glittering stars in the night sky. As a child I thought they were fellow anglerfish so I waved at them, but of course they never answered. I remember crying because of that, but in hindsight it was silly of me to be sad about it.

You know, I was born in the depths of Coral Sea where it's mostly dark and cold. We communicate a lot via light signals, so seeing something shiny and glowing always makes me feel happy and at ease. Many fear the dark. Well, I can't blame them, it's dangerous if you can't see what's lurking around. However, we use that to our advantage when we hunt, hehe~

I...see. Uhm, is there anything else you like?

Russell: Yes, I love acting! I did some stage plays for fun when I was in middle school. Everyone says I’m really good at putting on a show! I can even cry on command. It's my dream to become an actor one day and appear in a grand movie.

Right, you are a member of the Film Studies club, correct?

Russell: Indeed! Imagine my surprise when I found out that Vil-senpai is the leader of said club! I watched every single movie that his father featured in, I’m a big fan of his works!

Although I am part of the club, Vil-senpai himself still won't give me a major role. He says I'm a good actor, but I need to put more heart into my performance. When I had my audition he saw right through my act! Not many are able to do that, Vil-senpai truly is something else. I suppose I still have much to learn. Just watch me, one day I will prove myself to him!

I am sure you will be able to do that!

Russell: Why, thank you, Prefect-san. I'll try my best~

Thank you for sharing all of this with us!

Once again, Happy Birthday!

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