One especially interesting part of many a Banana Splits concert
Generally about two-thirds of the way into the second part of a concert appearance by The Banana Splits "themselves," especially in smaller, more intimate locales such as the small-town "opera houses" (usually applied with facetiousness implied), there's bound to be something of an ice-breaker segment leading into the finale, sort of a way to start winding things down.
Bingo will be imagined leading this segment off with some spiel opening to the effect of "Now, I guess you're wondering about the importance of the next segment to hand ...," bound to include Drooper's superhero pastiche of "Super Drooper" made even more hilarious with the transformation background being ABBA's "Super Trooper," which some in the audience have probably mondegreened as "Super Drooper" and his ur-cape being festooned with rhinestones for hilarity, prompting Snorky to make some silly commentary about the whole in his Harpo Marx manner (with Drooper interpreting the whole, inevitably).
Followed by Bingo (himself the Splits' drummer) inviting select audience members to try and pull off a "rimshot" drum number better than Bingo (again, with hilarity being the object--and quite often with contestants getting a T-shirt as a thank-you gift).
Fleegle, not to be outdone, puts in his quarter (bombastically, of course) by as much extending thanks as going into the audience and getting into such antics as kissing random audience members (especially 'tween-type kids and middle-aged ladies), exchanging banter-filled humour and randomly handing out Banana Splits souvenirs and then some (in some instances, awarding one audience member a substantial-sized summer sausage).
Lest Snorky be left out, his place in these antics is to not only award a special Banana Splits prize pack (including T-shirt, satin jacket, backpack and travel set, announced by a rather substantial trumpet blast), but also select random visitors to be their guests at the apres-concert party backstage).
All in all, things are bound to be rather interesting as Banana Splits concerts start winding down and going into the finale, which will be a reprise of "The Tra-La-La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" and a special end-of-show working of "We're The Banana Splits," followed by the group hug and the ur-Benediction.
ladies may i just say how much i enjoyed the latest podcast ep? racism in fanfic (and to a much wider extent, fandom) is a long overdue conversation that needed to happen so i loved hearing about ashley and mj’s thoughts. much respect to shanna and fal for recognizing that they should take a backseat in the discussion as well! also, i cracked up at 21st century girls at the end, so thank you for that! perfect outro 💕
lia 🥺🥺🥺💕 i’m so happy that you enjoyed the episode, because we agree--this is a subject that is longggg overdue! obviously, others have been saying the exact same things for forever, but hopefully the more people speak on it, the harder it is to ignore. all of the racial injustice happening over the past couple years is proof that this is not a subject that we as a society should ever be silent about.
we ended up having a lot to say in this discussion, so please look forward to the next parts 💜
😂😂😂 this one is still more of an idea than anything else. so one of the members (i have joon written down, but that’s not finalized) somehow gains the ability to go back in time. he desperately keeps doing it in order to stop himself from losing you 👀
sndfdhsdkjl i relate to #81 on a spiritual level, that is 1000% something i'd do. with fluffy hobihobi please! [also hi hello ily lots ♥]
Downpour
Pairing: Hoseok x ReaderGenre: FluffWarnings: NoneWord Count: 1.7k
Prompt: 81. “We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you want to stop and feel the rain?”
A/N: FOR MY DARLING LIA! I hope you enjoy love <3333
Pitter patter. Pitter patter.
Raindrops smack against the large glass façade of the coffee shop as you stare out the window wistfully, the palms of your hands pressed to your cheeks. Your elbows are propped up on the counter as you watch the puddles grow on the sidewalk, wondering how unlucky you have to be to forget to bring an umbrella to the café, even though your roommate had warned you about the weather when you were heading out the door.
You had gone to the coffee shop in the hopes that the cute barista, Hoseok, would be working today. Well, that was partially the reason. In reality, you have a paper due next week for one of your political science classes (an elective you chose on a whim that you only partially regret), and could have just written it in the library.
But as a regular, Hoseok often checks up on you and gives you cookies or muffins if you’ve been cooped up working all day. And you had hoped he would be there to offer up his heart-stopping beautiful smile and a sympathetic ear. Instead, it had rained all day, you barely got through a quarter of your essay, and Hoseok isn’t even working.
You pull out your phone to check the time, and realize that it’s later than you thought. It’s dark out, the moon snuffed out by the clouds overhead. You debate texting your roommate to come bring you a spare umbrella, but then remember that she has a meeting with one of her study groups this evening and is probably on the other side of campus already.
You weigh your options and are just in the process of calculating just how soaked you would be if you were to run home right this second, when the bell above the door chimes, signalling the entrance of another customer.
“Oh, hey, Y/N!” A familiar voice chirps. Your eyes widen and you spin around to see Hoseok shaking off his umbrella, looking sharp in a well-tailored coat and his hair pushed back from his forehead. “Fancy seeing you here.”
You try to suppress the blush that blooms across your face, but you know that you probably resemble a cherry tomato by now. “We only ever see each other here, Hoseok.”
“And whose fault is that?” He winks with a grin. You try not to read into it too much—Hoseok is flirtatious by nature, and you just happen to be the only girl in the cafe whose name he actually knows. “Were you here all day again? Paper due soon or something?”
You sigh, remembering the mountain of work you still have remaining. “Unfortunately, yes. Poli-sci with Professor Lee, due next week. Barely made a dent, though.”
“Ah,” Hoseok commiserates. “I took that class in second year. I don’t envy you.” He gestures to the counter with a jerk of his thumb. “I just came by to pick up my pay check. Do you need anything? I can try to swipe a croissant for you if you’re hungry.”
You shake your head with a bashful smile. “No, it’s alright. I was actually going to head out, but I forgot my umbrella and I’m trying to see if the rain is going to let up anytime soon.”
Just as he makes the statement, a flash of light bursts from the clouds and a loud rumble shakes the sky. You groan, your shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Maybe I’ll just call a cab,” you mutter, pulling your phone from your pocket. Hoseok sees this and gently places his hand atop yours to lower your device from your line of vision, and you can’t help but shiver slightly at the feeling of his skin against yours, no matter how brief the contact.
“No need. I can walk you home.” He gestures to his umbrella with a smile that makes his cheeks dimple slightly. “My umbrella has room for two.”
You open your mouth to protest. “Hoseok, I—”
But then he lifts his hand, gesturing for you to stop. “I insist. You don’t live very far, right? Let me just go pick up my pay check and we can head out.”
He doesn’t let you get a word in edgewise before he’s heading for the counter and disappearing into the back. Hoseok emerges five minutes later with a grin and his elbow extended towards you.
“M’lady. Ready to go?”
You manage to nod and place your hand in the bend of his arm, and the two of you venture off into the storm.
It doesn’t rain often where you live, but whenever it does, it always seems like a torrential downpour. This storm is no exception—the raindrops are heavy, splattering against the material of the umbrella and pummelling against the pavement. The battering overhead is so loud that you have to raise your voice in order to speak, and you have to strain to listen whenever Hoseok replies.
The streets are pretty much abandoned, the only light coming from the street lamps that cast their illuminated reflections along the puddled concrete. There aren’t many cars on the road either. You figure that most people are already holed up at home, waiting out the storm and hoping that the power doesn’t cut out and leave them stranded.
You hope that, too. But at least, for a little while, you have Hoseok as a companion.
You’re still holding onto his arm, not that he’s protested at all or shifted in any way that would make you believe that he wants you to let go. The two of you have been dancing around each other for months, now. You were in that limbo between being friends and him just being your barista. But with this offer to walk you home, to actually be alone with him outside of the café, your heart and head can’t help but soar to so many different possibilities.
Your other arm swings idly at your side, and you feel a few drops of rain against the back of your hand. You glance down for a second, enjoying the cooling sensation on your skin, and it reminds you of when you were young and used to splash around in the rain in your parents’ backyard. You stop walking and Hoseok jerks back, regarding you curiously.
“You okay?”
You nod, biting the inside of your cheek. “Yeah, I just…” You pause, shaking your head. “It’s silly. Never mind.”
Hoseok nudges you with his elbow, a faint smile growing on his face. “I’m sure it isn’t silly. What’s on your mind?”
“I just…” You glance past him at the heavy rainfall that slaps against the street. “I want to feel the rain.”
Hoseok’s expression turns to one of surprise. “We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you want to stop and feel the rain?”
You blush, tugging lightly on his arm to get him to start walking again. “It’s dumb, never mind.”
He doesn’t budge. “It’s not dumb,” Hoseok replies quietly, and there’s something in his eyes you can’t quite place. “Not for too long though, okay? I don’t want you to get sick.”
Hoseok then takes his umbrella and closes it, allowing the rain to fall down on you, drenching you both in a matter of seconds.
You tilt your chin up to the sky and close your eyes, basking in the sensation of the droplets on your cheeks, against your eyelids, and dampening your hair. It instantly brings you back to when you were six years old, when life was simple, and you can’t help but smile. The rain brings the smells that cement you in your childhood—fields of wet grass that you would race through in your sneakers (to your parents’ dismay), and the driveway of your childhood home where you would watch the rivulets filter down into the storm drain where your property would align with the street.
You recall all of it behind closed eyelids, and the memories have you instantly smiling with fond nostalgia.
Your eyes are still shut as a giggle escapes your lips, and then suddenly, you feel a pair of hands gripping your waist and gentle pressure against your mouth. It takes you a beat to realize it’s Hoseok, that his arms are around you, and that he’s kissing you in the middle of the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
As soon as your brain resumes functioning, you tug him closer by the soaked lapels of his coat, angling yourself slightly to deepen the kiss. Your hands rise to cup his sharp jawline, and you feel him smile slightly against your lips. The raindrops that fall against your face help to cool your skin as you feel yourself growing warmer and warmer on the inside, and you wonder if the racing heartbeat you feel belongs to you, or belongs to him.
Hoseok’s lips are slick from the droplets but neither of you seem to mind, totally wrapped up in your own little world. Reluctantly, you both pull away, your eyes glazed over slightly as breath returns to your lungs in tiny puffs.
“W-what was that for?” You have to ask, though you’re smiling so wide that you’re afraid it will split your face clean in half.
Hoseok licks his lips, a subconscious action that has your mind reeling and heat pooling between your legs. “I don’t know,” he shrugs, his arms still holding you close. “You just looked so…beautiful. And ethereal. And perfect.” He then adds, with a shy grin, “Plus, I’ve never kissed a girl in the rain before, and it’s always something I wanted to try.”
You nibble at your lower lip and move a lock of wet hair away from your face. “Worth it?”
He beams at you, eyes soft with affection. “Worth it.”
Thunder claps overhead again, and it catches you off guard. You jump just slightly in his grasp, and he chuckles, his grip on you tightening ever so slightly.
“Do you want to come over to mine?” He asks, sounding a little bashful. “I have an en-suite washer-dryer combo and I would feel really terrible if you caught a cold being out in the rain like this.”
You don’t even have to think twice. Grasping his hand in yours, you answer, “Lead the way.”
A Banana Splits concert run we'd love to see on their Road Trip of Redemption
One whose posters and handbills feature the inevitable fan club photo, not to mention the (howbeit hackneyed in its own way) claim FRESH FROM FIVE WEEKS IN IOWA AND MISSOURI (in particular rural areas of Extreme Cultural Deprivation made worse by the likes of so-called "Real Americans" too dependent upon the ilk of Fox News, NEWSMAX and suchlike prolefeed for their own good, still hard-wired in an insistence that Branson should be the Defining Cultural Standard for the American People and Nation--notwithstanding that the Missouri portion of the tour referenced concentrated on such parts of Missouri north of US 36 [Future I-72] along with a decent part of rural Iowa).
Stuff we Old Hanna-Barberians must certainly enjoy imagining, if but for the sake of whimsy
Peter Potamus' Uncharted Polynesia sojourns including a diving experience as featured a live dolphin birth, and in open water besides, making such more fascinating.
The Banana Splits suddenly taking a liking to Camp Coffee and Chicory Essence made with hot milk in the mornings as much as the evenings--sometimes providing plenty of inspiration for concert tour or album ideas.
What exactly gives Inch High, Private Eye relaxation between cases, even allowing for his Liliputian size.
Touché Turtle--finally!--getting a chance to put his fencing prowess to the test with The Goofy Guards, even considering that Touché's bent-tip foil is balanced for both hands (though we wonder whether those of Yippy, Yappy and Yahooey are weighted to favour, say, the right hand in combat).
The Skatebirds, as a precaution against dodgy inline skate repair shops, keeping in readiness a little self-repair kit in case no reliable repair shops are available--especially on extended trips. And also eating chicken tenders with the fingers.
Ruff and Reddy leading a road trip of the Cushman Scooter Club of America, especially in connexion with their annual convention.
Fancy-Fancy, more or less the Don Juan of the Top Cat clowder, having designs on mating with at least one female from every breed of cat recognised by the Cat Fanciers' Association to the extent that resources permit.
Punkin Puss and his girlfriend taking some "quality time" beside some spring in the Ozarks country in the midst of some powerful warm weather--including some diving experiences as sees him find some freshwater pearls.
