Few Words Wednesday

From Cleaving Chapter 10– Epilogue

“Daddy!”

Zach looked up from the script he was marking to see Chris approaching, carrying a squirmy Nathan who was squiggling like a fish to get down.

“Well if it isn’t my two favorite boys!” Zach said, waving to them from the edge of the set.  He turned to Tobias, the assistant director who was giving him the shoot sequence for next week.  “Anything else?”

“Nope.”  Tobias closed his script and retreated, saying, “Have a good weekend, Zach,” just as Nathan plowed into his legs.

“Hey, Little Man,” Zach said, bending down to scoop Nathan up.  “How long have you guys been here?  We ran a little late.”

“Not long,” Chris said, placing a hand on Zach’s waist and giving him a quick kiss.  “But we caught the last scene.  It’s looking good.  I didn’t think you were filming the argument until next week.”

“We’re ahead of schedule.  My scenes really clicked today,” he said, grinning at Chris because it felt so good to be acting again…Snowden had gone well, but the role was small. This was something Zach could really sink his teeth into.  And Chris seemed happy being a stay-at-home dad between his own projects. They were each doing one or two projects a year, traveling with each other as necessary to keep the family together.  Thankfully, Zach’s current project was filming primarily in LA, and they were enjoying a few months of routine.  “In fact, I’m getting Monday off because they’re shooting some scenes with just Emma.  So I get a long weekend.”

“Were you sad, Daddy?” Nathan asked.

“Nope.  My character was upset, but I’m happy.  I was just pretending for the camera.”

“‘Quiet on the set’,” Nathan mimicked, putting his finger over his lips.

Zach grinned and put his arm around Chris.  “Did you have to be quiet in the sound stage?” he asked Nathan, starting toward his dressing room.

“We were good, weren’t we, Babbo? No talking.”

“We were,” Chris agreed, shooting Zach an amused look.

“You’re a pro,” Zach said.  “I’ll just get out of my costume and makeup, and then we can head out.  Did you guys pick out a movie for tonight?  Is the pizza dough made for Nathan’s Home Pizzaria? You didn’t get dough on the ceiling again, did you?” he asked, nuzzling Nathan’s neck and making him giggle.  

“No pizza,” Nathan squealed, squirming away and hiding his neck.

“No pizza?  Change of plans?” he asked, turning back toward Chris, whom he now saw was dressed a bit more formally than movie night would typically require.

“Yeah.  Well, maybe,” he said, motioning to Zach’s dressing room.

Zach was immediately alert.  If Chris wanted privacy for this conversation…

Once the door was closed behind them, he asked,  “What’s up?” setting Nathan down so he could scamper over to the pile of children’s books on the small sofa in the corner of the room.

Chris rubbed the back of his neck.  “Well, if you’re up for it — not too tired — we should head over to Children’s Hospital.”

“Children’s Hos… what happened?  Is Luca okay?”

“Fine.  Everyone’s fine.  Well, not everyone, but I shouldn’t have led with that.”  He took a deep breath and pulled out his phone.   “I got a call this afternoon.  From the County.”

Oh.  Oh.

007 Headcanon: The Seduction of Q

chibichibit:

violyntfemme:

dhampir72:

svengooliecat:

Everyone thinks that Bond is the one who sees Q and decides, “yes, that cute boffin there, I want that” while Q obliviously goes about his life clueless to the agent’s attempts at wooing–because Q’s a lot of things, but Bond’s usual brand of tea he is not. 

In fact James Bond is literally the most oblivious dork when he’s off the clock. It’s like, if he’s not doing the seducing, he doesn’t notice? And that baffles the hell out of Q. Because Q has been trying for years to get 007′s attention and has been doing the lion’s work of the seduction. 

Pretty sure it started with a look at 007′s smoldering obituary file pic and legend status: “yes, that ruggedly handsome 00 there, I want that. power couple goals.” Presumably Q has a hand in arranging his own meeting with 007, via Tanner, and chooses a museum on purpose. You know, if I want to be snarky, pretentious, and look really good doing it I’d pick a museum, too. Lots of things to be pretentious about, and truly excellent lighting.

The way Q throws Bond off his game in Skyfall and then damn near bats his eyes? Hard to miss, but Q considers that maybe the agent thinks he had something in his eyes. Or was just getting his nerd eyes adjusted to non-computer lighting? Q even talked about his pajamas. And exploding pens. Within moments after making 007 think Q was an art student looking for a bit of strange. Wtf, dude. Does he have to spell it out for him?

Probably. Bond’s been knocked out a lot. So Q:

  • Rebuilds Bond’s beloved car
  • Endangers his career at least twice, canonically
  • Flies out to Austria to get him, despite a canonical fear of
    flying
  • Mentions mortgage and cats, you know, in case Bond has a
    kink for stable and well-adjusted
  • Definitely starts dressing sharper
  • Flirts awkwardly with Bond
  • Makes him an exploding watch (not a pen but still not subtle)
  • Is salty as a polite potato chip about Bond turning up with Dr. Swann at his hotel room

And let’s not even get started on this:

Actually, no, let’s. It’s my favorite. I can’t think of any other character in the entire franchise, besides maybe Dench!M who would be able to casually disarm Bond. And if she did, it would be more like classic Q grumpily snatching his sandwich back. Q doesn’t snatch or get grumpy. He just slides in close, wraps around the gun, and pulls it slowly from Bond’s grasp while basically looking Bond in the eye the whole time. Look, I’m super ace and slow on the uptake, but I’d totally get that message. 

In sum, Bond’s not so much the seducer. Q is. 

Can I just say that not only is this brilliant headcanon, but it’s so funny I can’t stop laughing. 

It also really makes me want to write fic of all of this using the following tags on Ao3: #Mentions mortgage and cats, you know, in case Bond has a kink for stable and well-adjusted #Is salty as a polite potato chip about Bond turning up with Dr. Swann at his hotel room

Also #yes, that ruggedly handsome 00 there, I want that. power couple goals.

Reading this makes me want to dust off my 00Q materials and start making new stuff.

sadgaywerewolf:

I spent my entire shift at work thinking about an AU where Remus keeps his job at the end of PoA, and Umbridge comes in 5th year to do inspections and keeps trying to find a reason to fire him but no one literally has any bad things to say about him.
Not Draco Malfoy “I know I’m usually the first to throw someone under the bus but also O.W.L.s ARE this year and I’m not losing a competent teacher and risking my O.”
Not even Severus Snape, who, when questioned, has to some very fast mental math between who he hates more- Lupin or Umbridge. Not to mention, implying that Lupin could be dangerous due to his lycanthropy would be a self-burn on his own potion making skills, and he assures Umbridge there’s not a person in the country who brews a more effective wolfsbane potion.

And when Umbridge observes his class (classes, actually, she’s determined to find a slip up), she sees nothing but students acting ridiculously well behaved, engaging in non-threatening and non-aggressive defensive magical theory, and Lupin standing demurely at the front of the room smiling at her.

(Lupin didn’t ask them to do this, of course, but there’s an unspoken understanding amongst the students that the kid who loses Lupin for the school is going to have their social life fuckin destroyed by every 7th year who finally feel confident in their ability to pass a DADA NEWT, not to mention the unbridled wrath of one Hermione Granger)