tomorrow is something worth winning

— keeping faith in a new beginning. manav. they/them. xxii. musicals sideblog.

[bijackkellys]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

fandom: next to normal word count: 5,411 relationships: gabe goodman & natalie goodman tags: family dynamics, magical realism, alternate universe - supernatural elements, gabe goodman lives, comes back wrong, unexplained necromancy, hurt/comfort, angst, mental health issues, sibling bonding

She stood frozen, staring. He pulled a clump of sod from his hair. Even from here she could smell it, the heavy, acrid scent that clung to him, like earth turned over, like pavement after rain. “Natalie,” her mother beamed, eyes huge and bright and wet, “Say hello to your brother.” He waved at her. “Surprise,” he said mildly, as if he were dropping in for dinner. “Can I use your shower?”

[bijackkellys]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

fandom: next to normal word count: 2,687 relationships: dan goodman & gabe goodman tags: family dynamics, father-son relationship, gabe goodman lives, unexplained necromancy, magical realism, alternate universe - supernatural elements, gabe goodman is a little shit

"You named me after an angel," Gabe said then, only a little ruefully, "I guess that didn't turn out like you'd hoped."

[bijackkellys]

Hi!! I've been so obsessed with your undead!gabe au lately and I'm very curious on Gabe's thought process when Natalie is suggesting they somehow find a way to get him into college (or at the very least have his own life) beacause it's one of the only scenes where I don't have even a vague grasp of what he's thinking. So, what do you think was the thought process there for Gabe?

ahhhh i'm so glad you liked it and i LOVE getting asks about my thought process so this is the best.

okay so, in my head at this point in his new life gabe is kind of stuck in this liminal space. he's been hanging around the goodmans as his mom's ghost and shadow for the whole of his existence, so his family is all he really knows. while he, like nat, can clearly see all the problems they have, nat wants her independence and to build her own life whereas gabe thinks if he sticks around he can fix it and is really reluctant to get away (a lot of this is just jumping off of west end gabe's clinginess). that's kind of why i wrote him as very focused on natalie and his mom; he's kind of used to being whatever people need from him.

on kind of a deeper/darker level, i think gabe at this point also hasn't accepted that he's really back, or that whatever his new life is has any kind of purpose beyond just being there for his family. natalie saying "you could have a life" and gabe lashing out is him being afraid to touch the possibility that this might be permanent, and he really might have to figure out how to live for himself. that's kind of what i was getting at with the last section, where he's starting to realize that his return hasn't changed much for the family and therefore questioning why he came back at all, and how he doesn't know what he wants and it scares him. i don't think i'd write this but a reasonable continuation of this arc would have him trying to uncover what kind of a person he is, what he likes and doesn't like, maybe doing what natalie suggested. but yeah, at that point in the fic, he's mostly scared and getting faced with a lot of uncertainty that he really doesn't want to deal with, so he deflects and gets snappy instead.

thanks for this ask & for reading!! seriously means the world <33

[bijackkellys]

are you fucking out of your MIND 😟 - guy who just finished your undead gabe fic

I’m sick to my stomach oh god….. I love your natalie like that’s so Her omg and gabe’s unsettling but warm vibe- he’s just so vivid I love him ……. their dynamic and the resentment but overwhelming longing that’s more than halfway drug out of the water on all ends ohhhhh goodman family your suffering is unending but you’ll always be famous to me </3

begging on my hands and knees for 92649373937292893739373928229290 more installments

p.s. did somebody say drag path by twenty one pilots bc gabe goodman you fucking Reek like that song…..

thank you so much for this omg i'm so so glad you liked it!! i LOVE writing natalie so much that is my babygirl....and i'm thrilled that gabe came off well, i honestly go back and forth so much with how to write him, he's so resistant to any attempts at being pinned down. but i had so much fun with this au so this means the world <3

i do absolutely want to write more for it and i fully have another installment mostly written in my drafts, i'm just trying to get around some of the clunkier bits in the pacing and work out some persistent kinks. i had kind of shelved it in my mind though but this is great motivation to pull it back out !!

thank you again for reading & for this. also yeah gabe is the most dragged path to ever exist...he's literally etched in the surface as evidence....can you find him............

[bijackkellys]

drafting a new installment of my undead!gabe au……

[bijackkellys]

let's go daddy issues!

[bijackkellys]

drafting a new installment of my undead!gabe au……

[bijackkellys]

wolfeus and morgydice and the whole current cast of hadestown i love you guys so much. seeing it live with them was such a privilege and in many ways completely changed how i think about theatre probably for the rest of my life; i love you hadestown i love you actors that put your whole heart and soul into the performance i love you stories that change fundamentally but never die. here’s to the new cast and the old <33

[bijackkellys]

jack wolfe. putting my art on his story?? hello????

[kidclubz]

It's a tale of a love from long ago.

[prints]

[bijackkellys]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

fandom: next to normal word count: 5,411 relationships: gabe goodman & natalie goodman tags: family dynamics, magical realism, alternate universe - supernatural elements, gabe goodman lives, comes back wrong, unexplained necromancy, hurt/comfort, angst, mental health issues, sibling bonding

She stood frozen, staring. He pulled a clump of sod from his hair. Even from here she could smell it, the heavy, acrid scent that clung to him, like earth turned over, like pavement after rain. “Natalie,” her mother beamed, eyes huge and bright and wet, “Say hello to your brother.” He waved at her. “Surprise,” he said mildly, as if he were dropping in for dinner. “Can I use your shower?”

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

Next to Normal 2024 West End Proshot + things i said out loud while watching it

[maybemacdc]

happy ntn west end cast recording day!!

[rowan-on-the-moon]

so uh. how about that blocking in the next to normal proshot

[kidclubz]

go my jack wolfe characters 🪲🪲🪲

[kidclubz]

idk if u take art rqs but may i humbly request some gabe goodman art/doodles🥹 i love how u drew him

Ik they'd only be 2 years apart but I can't help but think of doting older brother gabe goodman...

[bijackkellys]

truly don't think anything will ever capture the experience of being a hurting and traumatized teenage girl quite like natalie goodman sobbing and shouting "not for me, not for me" while her mom who is also the source of these issues holds her and tells her things will get better. genuinely sickening.

[cabeswatersedge]

“Morgan, she is an independent, fierce Eurydice. She falls for this sweet, soft boy, and she just wants to protect him.” (x)

Morgan Dudley as Eurydice and Jack Wolfe as Orpheus Hadestown on Broadway: Sep 2, 2025 📹: bikinibottomdayz