turbulent hand holding

The Bear/Sydcarmy // "Who wants to melt some provolone on a fucking baby right now?" // A certified menace serving a life sentence in cliffhanger jail. Lover of semicolons, lots of music, and coffee. I am a geriatric millennial, a Taurus, and an insomniac who often writes fic on my phone in the dark when I wake up at 4am.

[turbulenthandholding]

turbulenthandholding * masterpost * fic * meta * speculation

Sydcarmy - The Bear Fic

Ongoing

How Do I Get You Alone? | E | Chapters 5/6

Six months after their fight behind the restaurant, Carmy's moving to Copenhagen. In the dwindling hours he has left in Chicago, can he and Syd manage to let themselves say goodbye, let alone talk?

but I'm runnin' just in case (aka Witness Protection) | E | Chapters 12/20-ish or anyone's guess

“Take a seat, Ms. Adamu,” Carmy's agent says, gesturing to the folding chair next to him. She sits down, sliding her chair closer to Carmy's as she does. He can feel the warmth of her from the mere inches of space between them. The agent drops a heavy binder down on the table. “Mr. Berzatto, Ms. Adamu, let me be the first to welcome you to the Witness Protection Program.” | A Sydcarmy Witness Protection AU for the "Strange Currencies" day of Sydcarmy Week 2024 and the "You're Leaving" AU day of Sydcarmy Week 2025

turbulent handholding | E | Chapter 1/4

Syd shakes her head. Again. And again. And when she finally speaks, as the plane starts to pull back from the gate, she stutters, “I…You're Carmen Berzatto.”

“How do you…?” he asks, intrigued, eyes sparkling.

“I love you,” slips from her lips, unbidden.

“What?” he asks, his cheeks instantly ignite to a blushing scarlet, his hands clenching into fists on his thighs.

“I…Your food, I mean. I ate at Empire a few weeks ago,” she begins to babble.

// Syd unexpectedly sits next to Carmy on a flight back to New York City shortly after eating at Empire (aka the expansion of my drabble from the Say More Please Drabble Challenge on tumblr)

Get ready for a gapers' delay if you're heading down Sheridan Road, folks! (Find an alternate route if you can) | Collaboration with @anxietycroissant | M | Chapter 11/13-ish | CW: Claire POV

“Carmy, sorry but… this is the first day off we’ve both had in weeks, and I got Lisa to trade shifts with me so I could spend time with you. I never see you anymore,” Claire complained, sighing softly. “I know The Bear is important to you, but like, we’re important, too. Right?”

Multi-Chapter Completed

...and in the house we see a light that comes from what we feel inside (aka Advent 2025) | E | 27 chapters (but additional spice baby content forthcoming)

2025 Sydcarmy Advent Fic: Carmy has an accident leaving The Bear one night and ends up in a coma. Find out what happens when he ends up in all of Sydney's dreams.

All This Nothing (Has Meant More to Me than So Many Somethings) (aka Advent 2024) | M | 27 chapters

Post-season 3 You've Got Mail-inspired Advent Fic. With a good enough review, Jimmy gave them until the end of the year to save The Bear; Carmy and Syd have one month left to manage it. Carmy turns to Reddit for advice and makes a new friend.

me in honey | M | 10 chapters

"there's a fly in the honey / and baby's got a baby with me / that's a part, that's a part of me / left me to love / what it's doing to me"

Very loosely finished speed-run the relationship/accidental pregnancy story.

soul meets body | M | 18 chapters

Emmanuel is unable to make himself say the words to his daughter: you, somewhere, have a soulmate, and the permanent marks of their life will be written across your skin for all of yours, just as your life is being written on theirs. No, I don't know who or how to find them. No, I don't know why. It's like magic, baby, in this sad and awful world of ours where magic does not exist and bad things happen all of the time.

One Shots

Clear the Air | M | 838 words

“Hey, Carm?” Syd whispers in the still of the night.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Can I confess something to you?”

Carmen Berzatto's Personalized Sleep Story | E | 1523 words

“What's wrong, Syd?” Carmy asks, the concern in his voice potent as it rings through her head.

“Just keyed up, I guess,” she says, adjusting the blankets over her. She hears a cabinet door close on his end of the phone. “Restless,” she says, letting the word hang before whispering, “Kind of like…physical. Or something.” // Syd and Carmy are dating, slowly. Syd can't sleep.

Sent from my iPhone | T | 1501 words

Later in the night after their argument during Goodbye, Syd sends Carmy an email. He replies. An epistolary ficlet.

Favor for a Favor | T | 1436 words

It's only right that Carmy asks Neil Fak to return Claire's green sweatshirt, since he had the audacity to give her Carmy's real phone number in the first place. Chaos ensues.

The Jewel-Osco Customer Service Counter 2/14 | T | 1090 words

Post-Sheridan Road, Syd gets a job at the customer service counter of a local grocery store. Carmy needs cigarettes. An old dude has no chill. It's Valentine's Day at the grocery store.

Frozen Pipe | T | 1524 words

A cold snap hits Chicago; Sydney gets concerned about The Bear.

Copenhagen (let me go home) | M | 9794 words

6 months after The Bear opens, Carmy goes to Copenhagen for a short guest stint at Noma before it closes and realizes some things about his life back in Chicago.

The Bear Meta

Birthday party blocking and updated here (season 5)

Sydney's polka dots and Yayoi Kusama (post-season 3)

Why Frank Lloyd Wright? (post-season 4)

Carmy's Re-Introduction to Claire in Pasta (post-season 2)

Unhinged The Bear Musical or Movie Speculation or Analysis

Music Speculation: Season 5

Part 1 - Right in Time

Part 2 - Electrolite

Part 3 - Head Over Heels

Part 4 - Chicago Promenade

Part 5 - I Can Wait

Part 6 - Chicago (the band)

Hairshirt

Part 7 - Twisted

Part 8 - Taylor's Version

Part 9 - THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

Music Speculation: Season 4

How You Get the Girl + 1989

Leave

Music Speculation: Season 3

This Must Be the Place

Hope the High Road - used in Season 4!

Chicago Promenade

I Don't Want to Lose You Yet

The Long Race

R.E.M. - Sydcarmy verison

R.E.M. - Syd version

R.E.M. - Carmy version

Bang and Blame

Animal

Crazy

You Are the Everything

Music Analysis

Apron Strings (Season 4)

Finest Worksong (Season 4)

Richie as Director Avatar and Taylor Swift

Nice Dream (Season 3)

Strange Currencies

Movie Analysis

While You Were Sleeping

Groundhog Day

Other Speculation

Season 4 Theme Speculation

Harry Potter Fic

Disclaimer: fuck JKR forever!

Harry/Pansy

Touch (aka Advent 2016) | M | 26 chapters

A Hansy Advent Story. Not all of us handle the past the same way: some of us embrace it, reject it, grow with it, or relive it in recurring nightmares. Harry has saved the wizarding world before; now it's his turn to be saved. Rated M for substance abuse, PSTD, language and sexual situations in later chapters.

Vice | M | 4 chapters

Pansy's growing up, taking on new responsibilities and wanting new things, but she has one last vice: her not-friend with benefits. HANSY.

[travelinblues]

So what then, we’re supposed to just walk around now carrying this show in our souls like it’s completely normal ?? It happened and now it’s over and we just have to live with that ??

[aerishey]

when you and your platonic coworker meet for the first time, and the memory keeps replaying in your head like a broken record, helping you through tough times

[richyjerimovich]

Would you guys ever get a tattoo to commemorate The Bear? GQ Friendship Quiz with Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White

[alwaysshipping1]

The photoshoot that keeps on giving 🥹 (source: AyoESource)

[richyjerimovich]

Would you guys ever get a tattoo to commemorate The Bear? GQ Friendship Quiz with Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White

[mahoyaformayor]

An ode to the embrace (and ship) of the century ⭐️🐻💛🐻⭐️

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Sydcarmy + Walking Through The Beef Bear

[lightlyotherworldlycreator]

This is the last time i’m getting baited into explaining plot but people are again calling it that Carmy left Syd with the restaurant .Syd offers him that a job is always available at the bear . then entire architecture monologue is him realising he wants to be back at the bear with food, family and Syd. The next scene after that is Carmy inside the bear texting Mikey all good wearing his apron in the office . We don’t know he is back for good but he will be that’s the thing . That’s the implication. This is not even subtext my god some of you messaging me are 😤

[seleneee900]

"Take a breath. Another one. Listen to the pan. You hear the music?"

Carmy talking Syd through her being nervous about serving her ribs. And she listened and followed him and it worked. Carmy grounded her back in the moment just with words.

Exactly what Richie was trying to do the whole season but didn't work, until Jess came and offered her hand. Richie needed touch. Syd just needed Carmys words. To have that level of trust and intimacy with someone? No comment.

And when Carmy tells her she got 2 stars, and she kinda runs off, all shocked and unable to deal with her emotions (leaving a sad Carmy behind), she goes to the kitchen and gets lost in her head and emotions, until she hears Carmy. Carmy making noise brings her back to the moment again, and then she walks out and finally lets it all out. It was like the thread between them was tugging and she finally let herself go along with it. To him. She lets herself feel her emotions and be happy at last, and Carmy welcomes her back (happily, in his arms). *sigh*

Richie and Jess our technically confirmed couple, nothing flashy but soft and intimate. Just like Syd and Carmy. 🫶🏻

They are more married than most actually married couples. Ever. If I would write soulmates, it would be like them for sure 🥲

[turbulenthandholding]

5x08 birthday party blocking, again

Expanding on this post I made about the blocking of the final birthday party scene in The Original Beef of Chicagoland, another very interesting thing was brought to my attention.

As I noted, Carmy is facing away from the camera and towards Claire during this scene:

Facing backwards, facing his past.

However, @beuck_ on twitter pointed out (to @ambeauty who passed it along to me...thank you again!) that at the very end of this shot, you can actually see someone standing at Carmy's right side, with braids and the same gold earring Syd is wearing in other shots. So Carmy isn't talking to Claire by himself, he's talking to Claire with Syd at his side.

And then, of course, the rest of the scene follows and we see Carmy, facing forward making extreme anime heart eyes at Syd as she cuts the cake, in his last shot of the show:

Facing forwards, facing his future (Syd).

Also highly recommend watching this, which is the same scene scrubbed of music so you can hear the dialogue, almost entirely between Syd and Carmy, much more easily.

To me, this is incredibly conclusive, in the way that the show shows very intentionally and layers in meaning and subtext and symbol and everything else. Claire is the past; Sydney is Carmy's present and his future. It's all here. And I just love that so much.

[turbulenthandholding]

A couple of follow-on thoughts:

FIRST -- as Carmy is talking to Claire, he looks over at the right...means he's looking over at Syd:

SECOND -- I was thinking again about the blocking and the shot of Carmy standing between Syd and Claire:

Yes, he is between them, but in both of the shots of him standing between them, he is always physically closer to Syd and Claire is positioned further back in the shot than either Syd or Carmy.

Let me know if I missed anything else!

[turbulenthandholding]

5x08 birthday party blocking, again

Expanding on this post I made about the blocking of the final birthday party scene in The Original Beef of Chicagoland, another very interesting thing was brought to my attention.

As I noted, Carmy is facing away from the camera and towards Claire during this scene:

Facing backwards, facing his past.

However, @beuck_ on twitter pointed out (to @ambeauty who passed it along to me...thank you again!) that at the very end of this shot, you can actually see someone standing at Carmy's right side, with braids and the same gold earring Syd is wearing in other shots. So Carmy isn't talking to Claire by himself, he's talking to Claire with Syd at his side.

And then, of course, the rest of the scene follows and we see Carmy, facing forward making extreme anime heart eyes at Syd as she cuts the cake, in his last shot of the show:

Facing forwards, facing his future (Syd).

Also highly recommend watching this, which is the same scene scrubbed of music so you can hear the dialogue, almost entirely between Syd and Carmy, much more easily.

To me, this is incredibly conclusive, in the way that the show shows very intentionally and layers in meaning and subtext and symbol and everything else. Claire is the past; Sydney is Carmy's present and his future. It's all here. And I just love that so much.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Favorite Otps/Pairings: Carmy Berzatto & Sydney Adamu (The Bear) “You could do this without me. I couldn't do it without you. Yeah, you could. I wouldn't even wanna to do it without you. You know, you... You make me better at this. You make me better at this."

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

#They're Saying It's The Embrace Of The Century

[onewholestar]

There's been a lot of talk about this moment, as there should be. I thought the whole sequence was so beautiful.

Someone on Reddit wondered why they might gone with this shot of Sydney instead of one from the first time she made the cola ribs, and to me this signifies the transition from professional to personal in Carmy's mind. Leading up to this, we saw Chef Terry giving Carmy her spoon and then Carmy passing it to Sydney, and if they had chosen to continue with Carmy's first reaction to the ribs in comparison to how he's reacting now, that would have presented a very logical through-line of Carmy passing the torch and looking back on how far Sydney has progressed professionally.

But, instead, they show us this (new!) moment from when Carmy and Sydney first met. To me, that signals that Carmy is thinking more about Sydney's overall presence there, rather than just her professional accomplishments. The image itself is also very romantic, I think -- like, one person lifting their gaze to meet the other's in this way is something that shows up in a lot of overtly romantic media. I think it's really interesting and revealing that we have this moment that we as the audience have never seen before but that Carmy has apparently been carrying around in his head -- I think it would have changed the tone of that first meeting and how we interpreted it if this shot had been included the first time around. Kind of makes me wonder what other moments Carmy might have a different/expanded perspective of.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[alwaysshipping1]

The smiles on their faces…sharing a secret