It's sad we didn't see more of Justin's teddy bear,Gus 😌😝🐻
No, do you know what’s REALLY sad??? That we never saw Justin introduce Teddy Bear Gus to Actual Human Being Baby Gus!!!!! Just THINK about it!!! Brian getting overwhelmed because he’s watching Gus and he’s fussy and nothing will calm him down, so in utter desperation, he calls Justin and asks him to come over. Of course, being a kind and generous soul, Justin does, his old teddy bear in tow. He squats down in front of Gus, shaking the teddy bear to make him look like he’s dancing, and says “hi, guess what my name is?” in a funny, high-pitched voice. And then when he says his name is Gus, baby Gus thinks it’s the FUNNIEST thing ever and claps his hands screams with laughter. Justin then gives the teddy bear to Gus, who gives him a huge hug and takes him off with him to play as Brian heaves a HUGE sigh of relief and rubs his temples before giving Justin a heartfelt, grateful kiss. And then when they put Gus down for a nap and he’s still clutching the teddy bear, Justin knows his beloved childhood toy has found a perfect new home with a child who will love him just as much as he did.
And when Gus moves to Toronto, it’s with Teddy Gus right along with him, and every night he gives it a tight squeeze and thinks about the man with a sunshine smile who his daddy loves so much and who gave him the best present ever just to make him feel better and thinks that he’s the luckiest boy in the whole wide world. <333
surteslevres replied to your post: Emy, I am distraught. Tell me your favorite fluffy...
*bangs on table* reading glasses for everyone
YES HOW COULD I FORGET?! READING GLASSES FOR EVERYONE. BRIAN GETS READING GLASSES. JUSTIN GETS READING GLASSES. EMMETT GETS READING GLASSES. TED AND MICHAEL AND BEN GET READING GLASSES. LINDSAY AND MEL GET READING GLASSES. DEBBIE PROB ALREADY HAS READING GLASSES BUT I’M GETTING HER NEW ONES BECAUSE SHE’S DEBBIE AND SHE DESERVES THEM. AND HUNTER AND GUS GET READING GLASSES TOO BECAUSE DAMN IT HEALTHY EYES.
Emy, I am distraught. Tell me your favorite fluffy happy post 5x13 headcanons about any character please. I love you.
Okay okay, I couldn’t pick just one character so I had to do (at least) one for each of them, I hope that’s cool. Here we go:
Justin: Naturally becomes a hugely successful artist in NYC. It takes a lot of hard work, but he’s never one to back away from a challenge, and it definitely pays off. The pieces that ultimately catapult him to fame are from a series he simply entitled Time. But okay, since you asked for fluffy – whenever Brian visits, Justin steals his phone when he’s not looking and changes the background photo to a sappy and/or dorky one of the two of them. Brian pretends he’s just too lazy to change it back, but the truth is, he always looks forward to seeing which photo Justin will choose, and actually intentionally leaves his phone out for him to find it.
Brian: After a couple of years and a lot of angst and even more hard work, Brian is able to launch Kinnetik - New York. It is his actual dream come true, everything he’s wished for as a child, but now it’s amplified by all these new dreams that only recently occurred to him of discovering this fantastic city with the man he loves. And if you thought Kinnetik - Pittsburgh was impressive, wait till you see this one. Brian’s first act was to commission the great Justin Taylor to paint a massive mural in the main entrance, and it is a showstopper. People literally come in from off the streets just to stare… and then get snatched up by the best advertisers in the country. Brian, for his part, sometimes gets carried away staring at it too…he’s only human, after all. You can’t fault him for getting distracted looking at this awe-inspiring sight and knowing it was painted by the most incredible man in the world who happens to love Brian just as much as Brian loves him.
Lindsay: Upon moving to Toronto, becomes a total babe in flannel. All flannel, all the time. Except for, of course, when she’s working at her own art gallery and has to put on one of her knockout outfits to wow the pants off the guests. On the weekends she teaches private art lessons to students from the back patio of their home and attempts to garden, although it turns out she doesn’t have a green thumb and all her plants die. :( But she never gives up, and loves the peaceful, idyllic life in their new home.
Melanie: Of course, Melanie stops at literally nothing and quickly finds a job at one of the top law firms in the city. Except it’s actually a lot for her, and she finds herself surprisingly homesick. Hell, she and Brian even call each other up at least once a week just to snark at each other. But then who arrives to save the day but LEDA, who zooms into town one day and reminds Mel to live it up a bit. While she’s there, Melanie goes to buy a new bike, and from then on out, she makes sure to find time to ride regularly. (And, yes, sometimes she and Lindsay get a babysitter for Gus so the two of them can have date night on the open road.)
Gus: Grows into an absolute sweetheart, of course, and the spitting image of Brian, but he also becomes quite the artist! One would think Lindsay would be his inspiration, but no. Just like his dad, Gus worships Justin Taylor. Justin Taylor is the coolest person on the entire planet. Everything pales in comparison to Justin Taylor. Anything Justin Taylor says is law. Lindsay, Melanie, and Brian all come to roll their eyes whenever Gus tries to pull the “but Justin said…” card. Whenever Gus and Justin get together, they spend time painting together, and Justin is sure to give him pointers while being sure not to stifle his creativity.
Michael: Eventually, Michael starts feeling that itch again. The comic book store is great, but he just wants to do something more. Boom. He ends up organizing his own queer comic book convention. (Oh, because you KNOW Rage inspired a generation – there are tons of characters for queer youth to find in comic books now!) It is a RAGING (ha, punny) success, especially on the years when he can convince Brian Kinney to don a pair of tights and dress up as the REAL Rage for photo ops.
Ben: Finally writes another successful book – and this one wins a Pulitzer! He puts some of the money into worthy causes, but then also decides to splurge and treat Michael to a long overdue honeymoon. They start with Tibet, which has always been Ben’s dream, but also hit up Tokyo, Hong Kong, and wrap up with the beaches of Thailand.
Hunter: Decides he’s going to be a big, dramatic actor… and does it! After attending acting school in NYC (and crashing on Brian and Justin’s couch far more than anyone would like to admit), he works his way into the movie business, eventually becoming a pretty successful leading man. Along the way, he convinces Michael and Justin to work on a new screenplay for Rage, convinced that now the time is right. And it is! Hunter stars as Rage in an adaptation that does make it to theaters, and wins rave reviews for the performance.
Ted: Ah, Teddy, my love. After Brian moves to NYC to be with his beloved, Ted is left to run the flagship Kinnetik. With the new position comes even more confidence, and, of course, even more cash. He decides it’s time for a completely new start and buys himself a new house. It’s just as reliable as his old condo, but has a bit of an extra flair, which is befitting for his new zest for life…especially since now Blake has moved in with him, and they’ve adopted an adorable kitten named Violetta (after the character in La Traviata, of course), who attempts to sing along whenever they play opera. Which is…all the time.
Emmett: You know how some people just become famous for being famous? That’s Emmett. He does everything. After writing his memoirs, he’s approached by a major newspaper to do an advice column. From there, he’s back on TV again. Then it’s his own radio show. Then his own fashion label. All the while, he’s throwing the most fabulous parties you could ever dream to experience. He’s basically Ryan Seacrest, but infinitely more talented. Everybody loves Emmett. Especially Drew, who makes sure to return on his 21st birthday.
Debbie: Ahhh, Debbie. Forever our mama. She always keeps the Diner and her home open to her kids, biological or not, because she is what truly makes this group a family. Now that everybody’s all spread out, it’s hard for the whole group to come together at once… but they do when Debbie and Carl finally tie the knot once same-sex marriage is legalized. And there’s this special moment when Debbie walks into the room, Carl’s hand in hers, and sees her son with his husband and children, sees all the men and women that have become a part of her family over the years, sees all their smiling faces and how they laugh with each other and embrace each other and tease each other, acting as though no time has passed, with so much love and joy in the air, and she knows she is the absolute luckiest woman in the world. Because there is no other family that can ever come close to this one.
I totally do not want Justin to create youtube channel and document his steps as an artist. I totally do not want him to get really excited that it's taking off and that people love hearing him talk about it. And I totally do not want him to someday force Brian to sit down and do the boyfriend tag because everyone wants it, why are you even asking me this??
I do not want Justin to geek out as he explains this new art technique he’s trying out and he wants all the viewers to see.
I do not want Brian to tease Justin as he films and making things 1000x more difficult than they have to be because he can’t stop flirting with him during production time.
I do not want Justin to post his latest video and “totally not care” how many views it gets in the first hour but ever-so-casually peeking every few minutes…or for Brian to ALSO ever-so-casually announce the viewer count every fifteen minutes.
I do not want want Brian to ““““““““anonymously””””””” reply to any critics with blistering comments about how they can go fuck themselves because their philistine selves obviously don’t know one shit about art.
I do not want Justin Taylor to go down in history as one of the premiere artists of his generation who was able to successfully utilize social media to push his art and further his image, cementing his status as both a highly respected and wildly popular artist.
I do not want Justin to feel so humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude no matter how many times fans reach out to him to tell him how much he inspired them, for him to know it was all worth it, that he’s finally made it.
I do not want Brian’s face to beam with pride as he looks at all of Justin’s success and see how happy he is and think that this is it, this is the life, this is what it all means.
I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ANY OF THESE THINGS I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY ARE YOU MAKIGN ME SEE THEM?!?!?1
ALRIGHT okay I take your sloth idea and raise you one: Brian and Justin take Australia. For whatever reason they get away to fucking Australia and the get that awful corny photo with a koala bear Brian refuses to even entertain the idea of letting it touch him let alone get a picture with it so it's just Justin but like lowkey Brian gets a picture of Justin hugging it taken professionally and on his phone so it can be his background I'm just
YES, anon, YES!!!! Brian acting like he’s all above tourist traps but unable to resist Justin snuggling with that furry lil guy and how delighted he looks that it takes all of .2 seconds for him to order a photo package and then set the best one as the background on his phone. And then if anyone tries to tease him about being a sap, he just shrugs and says “it’s Sunshine with a fucking koala,” as if that explains everything.
i've noticed that Justin & Emmet 'share' a wardrobe, specifically that white jacket with the red stripe, and I think some t-shirts too. Is it ever explained how come they both have the same clothes, or is it just assumed that Emmet passes them on to Justin? I think it's really cute.
my bad! just checked again. Emmet’s jacket has one red stripe, Justin’s has two! oh well…
Haha! Well, QAF does have a history of characters sharing each other’s clothes. For me, the most noticeable is actually Brian and Emmett, the two tall guys, sharing clothing. Please see, for instance:
The Tie
And, of course...
The Shirt
My personal head canon for these is that after Brian lost everything at the end of S3, he sold off some of his designer duds to various consignment shops, and Emmett knows how to snatch up a good deal! Brian may pay thousands for his wardrobe, but Emmett knows if he keeps a keen eye out, he can get the same wardrobe for $20. (Now, of course, Brian could have just given away his old clothing to his friends, but, you know... plus, I don’t know how the gang would feel about wearing Brian’s hand-me-downs, given how they already have to deal with his castoffs at Babylon. *g*)
I do love the idea of the gang sharing clothing, either from intentionally passing them on to each other or just leaving a t-shirt or something at the other’s place and it getting “inherited.” (Although I imagine any clothing item of Emmett’s would be rather baggy on Justin!)
You can view it as QAF being economical and recycling old costumes and hoping nobody would notice, or build it into your headcanons of the gang being so close they even somehow wind up in each other’s clothing. Bet you can guess which one I choose. :D
I ask you to direct your attention AWAY from Justin attempting to be one with the lamp and instead at that charming theater sitting there.
Because literally every time I watch 3x08, I fall a little bit more in love with that theater, and how when Justin and Daphne were in 7th grade they had to do a creative project on a Shakespeare play, and so they decided to do a puppet show performance of Macbeth the Scottish play. They had a number of creative differences, as they each had their own distinct vision for the performance (and both of them wanted to play Lady Macbeth), and it seemed the only thing they could agree upon was that this little theater that they managed to build together should be painted blue. When the day came to present their project, they were barely on speaking terms, and were glaring at each other and uttered their lines with no small amount of venom. But then at one point it hit both of them how ridiculous it was, to be portraying these dark, murderous characters with puppets on a little stage, and they burst into giggles and couldn’t even finish the show before they were collapsing into each other, unable to contain their laughter. They got a poor grade -- Macbeth isn’t a comedy, after all, but it became one of their most cherished memories. Daphne’s mom accidentally put the puppets through the wash and destroyed their delicate features, but they always kept that stage. It’s a permanent fixture in Daphne’s bedroom, and then her apartment, and eventually her own house. And when she’s older and has a child of her own, sometimes Uncle Justin stops by and the three of them spend the day making puppets and putting on shows for each other in the most beautiful blue theater that ever existed.
Please tell me you have like a bunch of justin/gus headcanons! Gus growing up always knowing he could count on Justin. Gus calling up Justin needing advice because even though he is the youngest fan member(except Gus and JR) he is probably the wisest
OF COURSE I DO! Because you know Gus came to visit Brian and Justin all the time, right? And obviously Brian and Justin went to see him as well! Psh, Canada is nothing. That leads to…
Gus insisting Justin read him bedtime stories because he makes all the fun voices and using his Brian-levels of persuasion to get Justin to read him more than one story. (Brian is always close by just to make sure everything’s okay, not because his heart overflows with warmth seeing the two people he never thought he’d love but who now mean the world to him cuddled up and wishing each other sweet dreams.)
Justin and Gus spending hours and hours drawing together. (But never coloring books – they both agree it’s way more fun to create something entirely on your own.)
One time Brian got called away on a work emergency and couldn’t go to the zoo with Gus as he planned and felt horribly guilty, so Justin saved the day and took him. That misfortune ended up becoming an annual tradition, so at least one day on each of Gus’ summer trips to see his dad he and Justin go on a “Day of Adventures,” just the two of them. Amusement parks, journeys through flea markets, museums…wherever the day takes them! But they ALWAYS end it with ice cream.
Justin catching Gus crying because he doesn’t want to go back to Toronto because he’s afraid he’ll forget what his daddy and Justin look like, so Justin gives him his own camera and tells him to take lots of pictures to help him remember. That’s how Gus begins his lifelong love of photography. Brian and Justin’s place is filled with his photos. And while Brian may grumble about how he feels there’s always a flash going off in his face, he loves being able to have physical reminders of all his loved ones as well.
Gus coming to Justin and asking what to do when his dad seems to get lost in his sadness, and Justin sweeping him up in his arms and suggesting they go give Brian a big hug and tell him they love him.
Gus occasionally trying to play his parents against each other and Justin being Up To His Tricks because he knows very well what teenagers do.
Gus in his “grown ups just don’t understand!!!” phase and not wanting to talk to Lindsay or Melanie or Brian about his problems, but reluctantly turning to Justin, who knows when to listen and when to offer stellar advice. It doesn’t matter how old Gus is; if he wants some one-on-one time with Justin, one of them will ask the other if he wants to “go out for some ice cream,” and they spend hours and hours just talking.
Especially as he gets more into art and photography, Gus developing a kind of hero worship of Justin, and frequently telling everybody, “well, Justin says…” It’s amusing, adorable, or infuriating, depending on the situation.
Alternatively, Justin often tells Gus he’s just like his father. This either makes Gus beam with pride or run away screaming. (Brian has the same reaction when he hears.)
Gus and Justin doing their Christmas shopping together every year. They always pick out one horrible gag gift for Brian, because they like to watch his face as he struggles to say something nice about the hideous tie or lime green fedora before presenting him with his true, perfect gift. (Yes, Brian has caught on. Yes, he still plays along.)
Justin and Gus just having a beautiful relationship that may not be exactly father/son, but is uniquely them and based on a great deal of love, mutual respect, and a shared interest in the arts, that evolves and deepens as the years go on. It may not be the most conventional family, but it’s theirs, and that’s all that matters. <333
