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goji-pilled · 2 years

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okay, no more fluffy Tamura fer now, back to DW AU. Pre Anthony von Seckendorf, i think, i dunno still figurin out a timeline at th mo...

Pain. Aching, agonizing pain. It wasn't something that was new to her, the sting of betrayal from her old friend still aching even after they reconciled years later, however the pain she felt now was something she hadn't felt enough before. This wasn't like the sufficating despair she felt in the years before she met her fair lady, her queen, her Oriko. This was the kind of pain that she would inflict upon others that she had hunted for Oriko's sake; she would never kill anyone no, but she would leave them within inches of their life after that... accident on her first hunt.

Oof, her everything hurts. She definetly has some torn... things and a buncha sore bones. Letting out a groan Kirika tried to open her eyes and figure out who the fuck kicked her ass and left her to die. Oh, and also figure out where the hell she is. After a stupidly long hour of trying to open her damn eye (ok it was actually, like, a couple of seconds, sue her) Kirika was awarded her efforts with-

Darkness. She couldn't see a damn thing but she knew she opened her eyes, and all her little sighty orbs could see was dick 'nd nothin'. Actually, wait that was a lie, she could see something else, a person looming in the dark in front of her. They were saying something, some gibberish or shit cuz she couldn't understand a lick of anything she was hearing. If she squinted she could barely make out the hair shape of her captor? Savior? Asshole who she was gonna not-kill? Whoever they were they must've noticed she was alive cuz the blobby shape started to get bigger and-

And her heart soared as her goddess in mortal form appeared before her, her queen dawning her holy uniform and her lucious locks flowing down her back. Mikuni Orikio was here, in the flesh, and is-

Rescueing her after she failed her mission, most likely. Oriko must've saved her im the nick of time and rescued her worthless ass after she was beaten to a pathetic pulp by whoever she had tried to fight. Kirika would rather cut out her own tongue than spout blasphemy on Oriko's name, however even she would admit that Oriko was a fool sometimes to always grant her mercy when she never deserved any.

Trying to grovel and plead her case Kirika soon realized that it was impossible for her to move; chains held her arms taut stretched above her and legs parted thanks to a pair of anklets around her feets. She was hanging slightly from her arms, her limbs stretched to further than she thought her bones could ever reach; must've been a gift from her magical girl-ness, she's noticed her body do some freaky things while she was hunting. Freaky things that she's had too many thoughts about that all eventually lead back to her majesty...

Focus Kure, focus!

"Oriko! I'm so sorry I failed you! I promise, whatever punishment you've deemed fittinf for a lowly worm like me!" Hanging her head down, Kirika groveled as best as she usually would, their song and dance of too-real self-depricagion followed by words of affirmation and maybe a lil kissie or two having to be limited for now. She'd make it up once they made it home.

Her queen smiled, those eyes boring holes into her own that Kirika couldn't help but lose herself in; pools of murky emerald leaving her enraptured by the love and affection that was aime towards her. Her goddess reached a hand out and cupped Kirika's cheek, threatening to soil her clean palm with her own weak filth. After a moment they stared, lost in eachothers eyes before a laugh broke them apart. Oriko took her hand back and moved to stand behind the still capture Black Blade. Oh! Oriko was finally going to rescue her! They were gonna blow this popsicle stand and then kinda-not-murderize the fool that nabbed her and finally rest at home. Maybe they'd have some Darling tea with some of those little cakes as they lounged im bed and-

Pain. Sharp, intense, agonizing pain flared out from the small of her back and throughout her entire. It felt as if lightning struck her and was trying to break out of its new fleshy prison; it was a close enough feeling she got from fighting that one witch a while back. She didn't know how long she was forced to endure this torment - the punishment that her fair lady wished to inflict upon her? - before she felt hamds caress her head.

"My sweet Kirika," her goddess! "Can you please tell me, my love?" Tell her what? Whatever she wanted to hear, she would speak it aloud! "Can you tell me, what your wish was?" Her wish? That was easy! It wasn't like before when that rat decided to screw her mind around when she asked for her wish, she remembered nearly everything as clear as her love's pristine uniform.

Rasping out her answer, Kirika breathed out "To change... into to the best me... I could ever be... to protect you... to save you... Oriko..."

"And in there lies our problem."

Who said that?! Was that the botch that whooped her into next week!?

"How odd, for a wish such as that to have such an affect on someone as... unstable as her..."

Unstable?! Whore, that's just a fancy way to say loony! And Kure Kirika ain't some lunatic in a fit of puppy love! This was the real deal, bonafide affection and devotion! She ain't crazy, everyone is crazy for thinking lil' kiddie love can be real love! That kind doesn't give you the power to fight demons or shit it just-

More pain, this time Kirika couldn't mask the scream as some sorta sick cross between a groan and moan - she wouldn't question Oriko's tastes - as her body spasmed out from the shock coursijg through her spine.

"Ever shifting, ever changing, Kure Kurika. You may be the only possible person to every break free of my will. Even if, albeit, you weren't aware of such a feat."

That stupid voice! Who the fuck did she think she was, actin' all high and mighty when a real goddess was right behind her?! Now that she thought about... why did the voice sound familiar?

"Yuuki, would you kindly assist me in this endeavor. Your own handiwork appears to be lacking due to recent discoveries."

"Yeah, yeah boss lady, I get it. Remind me again which one of use is the more proficient mind fucker outta the two of us, hmm?"

There was absolute silence for but a moment, until the sound of metal locking around flesh rang out and a harsh cry came out of "Yuuki's" mouth.

"G-got it boss. One super braindead puppet coming rigbt up."

Before she knew it the pain came back, as the hands embracing Kirika's head began to smother her mouth and eyes. They were doing something to her, something to her back that was making her existence absolute hell. Breathing became an ordeal in itself as she slowly started to blank out. When her body started to become too heavy and her head started drooping, she started repeating a mantra in her head.

Something's wrong here. Gind Oriko. Protect Oriko. Save Oriko.

Something's wrong. Find Oriko. Protect Oriko. Save Oriko.

Nothing's Wrong. Find Akemi. Protect Oriko. Save Oriko.

Find Akemi. Kill Akemi. Protect Oriko. Save Oriko.

Kill Akemi. Kill Tomoe. Kill Sakura. Kill Kaname.

Save Oriko.

hey hey hey, i'm writing dialogue nd i don't hate it! also can i jst say im like, super scared of makin th characters ooc, and is tht lik stupid of me to worry bout?

hope h see this n th mornin if my timing is correct!

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

Ohhhhhhh lore with Oriko and Kirika today I see 👀👀

#felix answers #love the variety of povs we get #io3

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mannanoo · 10 months

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Requiem Sous-Marine

Major Character Death Teen and Up Audiences Elizabeth and Booker DeWitt Bioshock Word Count: 1,102 Completed

Elizabeth knew that she was going to die. She knew that a long time ago, even knew that this was going to be the last doorway she went through.

That didn't make it any easier when the wrench first cracked her skull.

Everything was dark.

It was hard to distinguish where everything was coming from. Where she was. She could hear screaming.

It sounded like a small child. No, a little girl-no not girl. Sister. A little sister.

But, why would a Little Sister be screaming?

Oh. Right. Sally. Atlas had her.

Elizabeth tried to remember why that was such a bad thing and who exactly Atlas and Sally were. She knew it was bad, she could remember that she was trying to get to Sally, but everything was swirling in her head. She tried to push herself up, and could distantly feel the cold metal beneath her palms. Her eyes blinked open slowly, a pitiful attempt to try and clear the dizziness and fog from her eyes.

For a moment, she’s looking at her reflection in a bathroom mirror, then she blinks and she sees Booker, leaning down and offering his hand to help her up. Then, someone snaps their fingers, breaking the illusion as a face enters her vision, blurred and almost unrecognisable. She thinks for a moment that Booker really is there, with her in Rapture, until he speaks.

“What is this? it’s just a buncha gibberish! What does this say, you little whore? Hey, hey, hey! What does this say?” The strong Irish accent brings her back to the moment, and she sees the man on the airplane with a gift overlapping the image of Atlas’ furious face.

She smirks at him, or at least tries to, she’s not sure her brain is working right after that wrench made contact with her temple. She blinks again and the ghost of the man on the airplane disappears, just leaving Atlas.

“It says… would you kindly.” It feels like one last victory. Even if she dies here, Atlas won’t hurt Sally. It wouldn’t do him any good. It feels like winning, the idea that the Ace in the Hole Atlas has had her running around for was the last scribbled note of a paranoid mad scientist.

It feels so good until Atlas smiles and straightens up to look at his men.

“We’ve got the activation phrase. Now all we’ve got to do is get that genetic freak on an airplane, and Rapture’s ours.” The wrench in his hand comes down on Elizabeth again, leaving her completely stunned.

She thought she’d won. How the hell could “would you kindly” bring down Rapture and the Slicers and Fontaine and the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies and every other monster haunting the tunnels of Rapture? The cold, damp floor of Rapture was fading from her senses, she could barely hear Sally screaming, or shaking her shoulder or holding her hand. She barely registered Atlas and his foot soldiers walking away with their supposed “Ace in the Hole”. She was getting cold, but couldn’t tell whether it was from the damp metal floor or just because she herself was fading.

As Rapture was fading, she could hear a low humming. Too low for it to be coming from Sally. She realised in that moment, she hadn’t actually saved the girl and that she was still a Little Sister. The thought made her want to let out a sob. All of the work she’d done, all of the realities she saved herself from Comstock, and yet in this one all she’d done is make sure she hadn’t died as a child, and instead been turned into a monster that hunted for ADAM running through the veins of the dead.

She was going to die alone with a monstrous version of herself, the only other version of herself she hadn’t been able to save.

“You’re not alone here, Elizabeth.”

Her eyes would’ve shot open, if her head wasn’t so jumbled from the wrench.

“Booker?” Her hand itched to reach out, to feel around for his large, calloused fingers.

“Just in your head, Elizabeth. But you’re not alone.”

“I’m scared, Booker.”

“I know. And you knew you would be going into this. You knew this would happen, Elizabeth.”

“I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t save Sally, Booker. She’s still a Little Sister.”

“Elizabeth. You don’t remember but I need you to now. Sally is going to be fine, with or without you.”

“But Atlas is going to destroy this place. He’ll kill the Little Sisters, he’ll kill Sally. I have to get up Booker, I can’t stop.”

“Elizabeth, you saw through this door. You saw what was going to happen, you saw that this was going to happen and you saw what happens after. And I promise, that even if you don’t remember, that Sally will be saved, just not by you. You’ve already set it into motion. You can rest now Elizabeth.”

“I can’t yet Booker. I have to know. I have to see it.”

“You’re bleeding Elizabeth.” She knew that. She could feel the blood on her forehead and upper lip. She could barely see the door, could barely see through it. She pushed further, and then saw it.

The bathysphere with the Little Sisters. No, not Little Sisters. Just little girls now. She could see Sally, her eyes no longer yellow and pupil-less, but the same blue as her doll’s dress. She could see the man holding out his hand to the girls, with the same gentleness that Booker had showed her in all of his final moments.

“Elizabeth. You’re bleeding. Elizabeth, please.” His voice pulled her back through the doorway. She could see Sally-the Little Sister version of her at least- holding her finger gently, singing in her broken little voice La Vie En Rose. She smiled gently at the girl, before closing her eyes.

“Booker?”

“Yes, Elizabeth?”

“My heart’s almost out of blood. I don’t think we’ll see each other again.”

“Probably not. But I’m here, with you now.”

“Will you stay with me? Until the end?”

“Of course. I promise.” There was silence for a moment as the last of her senses faded, Sally’s touch and voice fading to nothing but white noise.

“Booker?”

“Yes, Elizabeth?”

“I know what I saw, but can you tell me one more time?”

“Tell you what?”

“That she’ll be okay? That Sally will be safe?”

“She’ll be safe Elizabeth. I promise. She’ll be saved from Rapture, along with the others. Just like how I saved you. I promise.”

“Thank you, Booker. And thank you.”

“What for?”

“For telling me to save myself from every version of you.” He was silent for a brief pause, and just before her brain and heart shut down completely, she heard his voice for the very last time.

“Anything for you.”

#ao3 to tumblr #ao3 writer #my fic #writing #bioshock infinte burial at sea #booker dewitt #elizabeth bioshock

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d-criss-news · 4 years

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Royalties Soundtrack Listening Event | Darren Criss Chat (July 7th, 2020)

Darren Criss 18:02:04

wait ha

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Darren Criss 18:02:08

sorry yall

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Darren Criss 18:02:12

this is confusing me of course

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Darren Criss 18:02:29

this is new for me too friends

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Darren Criss 18:02:45

well i'm here but I can't hear shit so gimme a sec

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Darren Criss 18:04:00

well I'll just keep typing here guys

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Darren Criss 18:04:04

bro

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Darren Criss 18:04:07

wilma

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Darren Criss 18:04:15

i'm tryin

Darren Criss 18:04:57

21kxuv372ubcprrbpiefadt6i

What was your favorite song to write for the show?

They each were really fun so that's hard to say but Hate That I Need You surprised the hell outta me

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Darren Criss 18:05:30

bettic72

darren non capisco un cazzo

anchio pero sti cazzi siamo qui

Darren Criss 18:05:49

genevievephillips

point and laugh at darren

yes let's laugh at him

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Darren Criss 18:06:18

2162bkuccm7xje6yfgmuzrnyq

You inspired me to write my own songs 🥺👉🏼👈🏼

thanks for writing the first positive thing I've seen on this. That's wonderful! I hope to hear them!

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Darren Criss 18:06:43

clo :)

i love that we are all grandparents when it comes to this

thank you for using the appropriate WE pronouns ha yeah this shit is confusing

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Darren Criss 18:08:44

zcvmtsgee5mom80oxeesa4v11

Darren how do you deal with stage fright .... i’ve been preforming in front of people for a while and i i still get scared . Does it ever go away ?

i guess it depends on how big the crowd is. everybody's different but I will say any kind of fright means you care, which is a good thing! Also the thing people forget about performing, for the most part, is you can't SEE the audience, most of the time they're in the dark. That's why performing for friends or in a small space where you can see everyone is much more nerve-racking

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Darren Criss 18:08:57

Dana

Darren can we have a royalties tour once rona is over???

wouldn't that be fun!

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Darren Criss 18:09:15

emilybutcher30

darren can you start streaming on twitch please haha i love you

ha can't compete with King Urie man

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Darren Criss 18:10:06

jake2000w

Darren, I know it’s all weird right now, but do you have any idea when we might see Nerdy Prudes Must Die?

what a good question. I have no idea but I've been wanting to see that show for almost as long as I've wanted to make Royalties. The boys have been talking about that one for a while now.

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Darren Criss 18:10:16

jesiqseigle56

Can you like respond .

like yeah

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Darren Criss 18:10:27

abbyforsmark

has Darren even said anything on this?

nope nothing

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Darren Criss 18:12:39

u6iczx4gua0att2g4kd2vdzwe

Did you write each of the songs with the performers in mind or did you cast them afterwards?

great question. Except for "Also You," which was written with Jackie Tohn for Jackie Tohn, we had no idea who would sing each song. I did the demos for almost all of them and then we had to pitch actors/artists to see if they'd be interested... which wasn't as hard (luckily) as seeing if they were AVAILABLE... which many weren't given the short time we had to make the show. Hopefully we can get some of those folks on for the next season IF THEY'LL LET US HAVE ONE!

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Darren Criss 18:13:52

delfi

darren royalties is so good i'm fucking proud of you

thanks for watching it, truly. I know the Quibi thing is strange for people so I appreciate you giving it all a chance : )

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Darren Criss 18:14:04

Caitlyn A :)

if you see this kick your shoes off

I would but no shoes

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Darren Criss 18:14:27

t59glm18dkw84n64l72jcuvpc

come to the uk challenge

god i wish.

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Darren Criss 18:15:39

damn someone said "travel to UK challenge" and I meant to respond "find a vaccine challenge"

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Darren Criss 18:17:08

i can't hear any of these songs but I"m just gonna start saying random shit about them

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Darren Criss 18:17:16

first off, i really wanted a theme song

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Darren Criss 18:17:23

that was a whole thing

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Darren Criss 18:19:18

Had to cut through a lot of red tape to make sure we had that silly song in there. We were already in the middle of post production when I finally got it approved, but it had to be under 15 seconds. I wrote 3 diff versions. So glad it ended up working. Theme songs accomplish so much in such a short period of time. Establishes tone. Gives the audience an almost Pavlovian response to the familiarity of the characters... I'm happy with it

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Darren Criss 18:20:12

also the "doo doo doo" lyrics are meant to sound like "scratch vocals" when songwriters record vocals with temporary gibberish lyrics with the intent of filling them in with real ones later

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Darren Criss 18:22:29

Just That Good was a concept that started the entire 1st season, and it was one of those instant-songs where Nick and Matt told me the title and I immediately had the hook just from those words. That only happens every once in a while and I was so happy it did for that song. The tricky part was writing the rest of it, but the back half of the song with the chorus repeating that one refrain over and over- that was the melody from the get go

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Darren Criss 18:23:08

I'll get back to Break it In, kick your shoes/let your hair, and kong later... i'll just go off on this one

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Darren Criss 18:23:48

so I wanted to nod to the grandeur of everyone's favorite vampire elf, Jared Leto

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Darren Criss 18:24:05

not HIM specifically, but 30 seconds to mars' very BIG music videos

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Darren Criss 18:24:29

i dont jared is a buncha self centered nutcases like our guys in SWITCHBACK JACKET

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Darren Criss 18:24:37

* i don't think Jared...

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Darren Criss 18:25:38

anyway yeah "so much better..." comes from a lot of the 90s alt rock that I grew up on, and the mix of that sound with a bit of electronic production was an effort to contemportize it as much as possible

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Darren Criss 18:26:26

but the rhythm guitar, lots of power chords and high octaves were all harkening to my fave bands like Lit and Eve 6... but put through a strange bizzaro nickleback/creed performance filter

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Darren Criss 18:26:55

"make you come true" is obviously a very salacious play on words

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Darren Criss 18:28:27

so the only way to make it feel earnest is if we made the track itself sexy as possible. A lot of the songs, even without being written, leant themselves to a certain genre just by the title, and this one was kind of a no-brainer. Sexy mid tempo r&b. And I didn't even know we'd get Jordan Fisher to do it- who SMASHED the vocal.

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Darren Criss 18:29:42

lauraacampbell-12

DARREN CHORDS OR LYRICS FIRST WHEN WRITING A SONG?

it's different every time but for this show specifically it's always title/idea first, and then the song comes from there. But that's because we're writing a show, so we have the luxury of getting to write from a specific place. It's much harder to do that in your own life when you just want to pull a title/idea from your own experience of life. I commend people that do that all the time.

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Darren Criss 18:30:06

what's NUTS about prizefighter is...

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Darren Criss 18:30:24

it was originally a song called LONG RANGER that BONNIE MCKEE sang, who I wrote the song with

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Darren Criss 18:30:38

and in the video we had CHRISSY TIEGEN lipsynching

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Darren Criss 18:30:44

it was bananas

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Darren Criss 18:31:26

we ultimately couldn't use the song because of some complicated writers shit- not too dissimilar from the things we explore in our own show, which is just totally ironic.

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Darren Criss 18:32:56

we were so bummed that we couldn't use the song but I'm actually really really happy with PRIZEFIGHTER. I love the song, and I love how it turned out production wise. I love how much of a massive influence latin x rhythms have had across the entire spectrum of mainstream music, so I wanted try my own hand at nodding to it!

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Darren Criss 18:33:08

Lara :)!

Ahhhhh so was that the pilot song you were talking about last week?

that's the one

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Darren Criss 18:33:45

hbz3jctrg5rwwma640hahffvt

You have inspired me to learn piano I already know how to play teanage dream now

you can thank Bonnie Mckee aka Kimmy Kelly for writing that song!

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Darren Criss 18:34:01

ok then there's the k pop song

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Darren Criss 18:34:08

honestly i had no idea where I was gonna start on this one

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Darren Criss 18:34:22

full props to the brilliant CJ Baran who I wrote this song with

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Darren Criss 18:34:39

we were just toying around with very industrial-sounding samples

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Darren Criss 18:35:21

and I started singing Edvard Grieg's "in the hall of the mountain king"

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Darren Criss 18:35:33

and he was the guy that was like YEAH JUST PUT IT IN THERE

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Darren Criss 18:35:46

and i realized, oh yeah, that song is public domain

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Darren Criss 18:35:59

and kinda ties perfectly to the nature of Elia Peck and his songwriting... huh.

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Darren Criss 18:36:05

So we went for it from there.

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Darren Criss 18:36:17

based the lyrics off of what the Neals say in the room.

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Darren Criss 18:36:34

and then just wrote a bunch of ALMOST nonense lyrics about things that you could HATE that you NEED

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Darren Criss 18:36:40

things like available wifi...

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Darren Criss 18:37:01

artistinal mai-tais.... yeah I guess if you really really liked those you could HATE that you NEED them...

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Darren Criss 18:37:04

etc etc

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Darren Criss18:38:16

but the idea was to have Mariam Hale's character hardly do ANYTHING on the track, since she, as the audience sees, doesn't really have much to offer... so we just built it around this huge track with crazy lyrics that just tees up a tag for her to say without even having to sing: I HATE THAT I NEED YOU

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Darren Criss18:38:43

2235n5s2qk5hjsujbhk5ilpva

I have classes in 10 minutes, and I'm not leaving until you dedicate a Royalties song to me.

looks like you're gonna miss calss

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Darren Criss 18:39:09

"calss" ha. which is like "class" but like... different.

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Darren Criss 18:39:32

alrighty PERFECT SONG

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Darren Criss 18:39:38

i really love this song as well

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Darren Criss 18:40:02

the reveal of this song is that they keep talking about this "perfect song" they've written

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Darren Criss 18:40:26

in other words we're teeing up a pretty big expectation of what a perfect song could possibly sound like

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Darren Criss 18:40:36

the reveal of course is that the song itself is in fact just called "perfect song"

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Darren Criss 18:40:43

which is ABOUT a perfect song

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Darren Criss 18:41:07

and about TRYING TO WRITE a perfect song, and how that's not necessary when you have someone that IS the perfect song

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Darren Criss 18:41:20

when we wrapped our heads around that idea, I really loved it

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Darren Criss 18:42:10

you'll notice we reference a lot of incredible songs, almost citing them as perfect songs themselves

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Darren Criss 18:42:14

ain't no mountain high enough

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Darren Criss 18:42:55

of course leonard cohen's seminal Hallelujah

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Darren Criss 18:44:05

and of course Britney's Oops I Did It Again ha ;)

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Darren Criss 18:45:00

the Oops being a layered joke of being annoyed with oneself that they AGAIN unwittingly wrote a lyric for already massive song, but in doing so citing yet ANOTHER already massive song... if that makes any sense

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Darren Criss 18:45:27

sorry for the typos yall i'm moving fast, i'd never let this shit slide if it wasn't a casual chatroom vibe

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Darren Criss 18:46:37

emzlolly1234

Did you know you wanted there to be a romantic thing between pierce and Sara?? :))))

yes that was actually our original "pilot presentation" episode. the one with the song LONE RANGER and Chrissy Tiegen. It was a longer version of what would become episode 7. We THINK it's a romantic thing but you realize that Sara is just playing Pierce to get the song she needs. That was always the premise yes.

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Darren Criss 18:46:51

luzmargotramos

if you reply with a single dot I'd probably die

then I better steer clear of any dots

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Darren Criss 18:47:04

ALSO YOU was an amazing lightning in a bottle moment

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Darren Criss 18:47:09

FULL CREDIT TO JACKIE TOHN

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Darren Criss 18:47:22

i always enjoy giving credit where credit is due

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Darren Criss 18:48:24

and I came in pretty hot for most of the songs- concepts, chords, style... but this one literally was a simple as Jackie Sitting down and just playing "It's you I love but also you and also you and also you."

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Darren Criss 18:48:37

we all just looked at each other going, welp, yup, that's it, jackie you fuckin rule

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Darren Criss 18:49:28

the song would have ended up very differently if she hadn't brought that to the table. the original episode and song was "one true loves" which isn't nearly as good of a gag/title as "also you"

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Darren Criss 18:49:50

i ended up squeezing "one true loves" into the bridge, but of course, kept ALSO YOU as the main event

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Darren Criss 18:50:02

i will say I was also trying to spoof my brother's old band, FREELANCE WHALES a little bit

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Darren Criss 18:50:26

if you guys know the song "generator first floor" where they sing ay ay ay ay ay a lot...

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Darren Criss 18:50:35

... as a lot of bands and songs had featured at the time...

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Darren Criss 18:51:00

i wanted to put them all in one joke. where a band sang not only hey hey hey but ay and EE and AYE and OH and basically all the vowels

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Darren Criss 18:51:10

which was where the joke of,

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Darren Criss 18:51:20

a, e, i, o, and also u

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Darren Criss 18:51:21

came from

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Darren Criss 18:51:32

which i'm particularly proud of

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Darren Criss 18:51:56

ok let's talk about BREAK IT IN

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Darren Criss 18:54:16

lxucxthxrxnx_

I’m a musician myself (not that great lol) what was it like coming up with the melodic side did you play any instruments for the songs?

i played instruments on all the songs except Break It In and I Hate That I Need You, since those were all electronic. That's not to say i played EVERY instrument but I definitely played AN instrument of some kind for the others.

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Darren Criss 18:55:34

as for break it in... anyway... yeah that was a blast. Nick Lang and I collaborated with my buddy Kendo who goes by the artist name KingJet.

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Darren Criss 18:56:54

Kendo has worked on a lot of legit songs in the hip hop space. For each song I wanted to make sure there was a level of authenticity to what we were doing. I didn't wanna SPOOF the songs. I wanted the songs to sound rock solid and that it would be the LYRICAL CONCEPTS that would be the source of satire. So Kendo was a great guiding light to keep the track as authentic as possible.

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Darren Criss 18:59:47

We explained to Kendo the whole joke concept of the song, which is basically just turning the idea of toxic masculinity on its head, and he was on top of it immediately- when we told him that there's this guy that's really concerned that people think he "fucks too soft" he immediately started spitting out lyrics like the hilariously defiant "I'm the KING OF THE HARD FUCK"

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Darren Criss 19:00:35

which just killed me and Nick. It was just so juvenile that it was adorable to me

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Darren Criss 19:00:57

emzlolly1234

Darren you’ve been here for an hour? That’s the length of royalties man xxx

yeah aint it great

Darren Criss 19:02:21

sophie :)

i personally think you should try your hand at writing a drill song, a british genre of rap that centres around rapping unrelated lyrics in front of chicken shops, personally think it has the right tone for the show for a season two

drill would be siq. I mean, opening the incredible pandora's box of UK based hip hop in general is its own magical wormhole of nuance and history and regional culture. it's amazing. i'd really have to do some homework if I wanted to pull that off!

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Darren Criss 19:02:49

cd2gu4ceqx4am9otf9hzwzivs

he’s talking again guys be worried he might write another essay

ok sorry i'll stop

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Darren Criss 19:02:51

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Darren Criss 19:03:03

cd2gu4ceqx4am9otf9hzwzivs

he’s talking again guys be worried he might write another essay

kidding!

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Darren Criss 19:03:39

fsheldens

when darren actually cares about us 🥺

awww i always do! I just wasn't built for internet stuff.

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Darren Criss 19:04:20

alpermehdi

speaking of nick how was it to work with nick??

the best. Nick is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

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Darren Criss 19:04:51

chloe :)!

what would be ur karaoke song choice from the show?

mighty as kong

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Darren Criss 19:07:32

isa.kowo

How much music theory goes into your songwriting? And did you learn all of it from playing the violin? In what way does it go into your songs?

all GREAT questions. I mean, music theory isn't something you CONSCIOUSLY employ when writing something, it's just that it really helps to know the rules or music when shaping it and trying to maximize its production. And as a matter of fact, yeah, I DID learn most of it playing violin. But when I was playing violin I was ingesting music from the perspective of a student ingesting information, not as a proactive creator putting anything of my own out into the world.

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Darren Criss 19:08:07

Honestly I really didn't start UNDERSTANDING music theory until I started writing music for other people, and noticing certain things and chords and shapes had names and that they could be manipulated to accomplish certain things

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Darren Criss 19:08:35

so most of my academic musical knowledge came in my 20s when I tried to start doing it professionally

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Darren Criss 19:08:52

Nick

first instrument you ever learnt?

violin

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Darren Criss 19:09:07

andyruiz080

I'm castin' my love net wide And fillin' every hole in my schedule

ha love that line

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Darren Criss 19:09:29

missweggy

Darren are you a big queen fan ( the band lol ) 😂

is the pope catholic

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Darren Criss 19:12:00

ChloeOmelia

Now its available, would you change anything?

jesus so much. but such is the nature of creating stuff. there's a great Hayao Miyazaki quote about always having to make new stuff to escape the woe of all the mistakes you made in your last thing... I mean, that's a bit extreme, I feel like we did the best we could given the circumstance but I totally get where Miyazaki is coming from. And in many ways that's everything we do in life. Do your best, know what you coulda done better and carry on

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Darren Criss 19:12:36

dj._.quackers

who or what was your biggest inspiration growing up

the beatles. the uk. the 60s.

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Darren Criss 19:13:02

Astriddd

Your first original song was "Not Alone". I'm right?

no it was actually a song i wrote in the third grade when I got a guitar for Christmas called "Save The Whales"

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Darren Criss 19:14:29

hiiqsbo9358wvfkcjcsgsu4lb

Darren I need an answer it’s been annoying me for days. So was everyone fucking everyone in Pierces old band or was she just fucking everyone seperately??

ha that's a really great question. I figured she was just fucking everyone individually, which is why the band was so contentious but then again I'd rather let your imagination run wild...

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Darren Criss 19:15:29

jphxxk5wjnaqnhuv806wmohdt

Darren, I love your taste in music. You should share your personal playlists ... bc everybody needs to know phantom planet 😉

if i actually shared my tastes in music, or actually shared the amount of stuff in my brain at the rate that I want to share, I would never work on or create anything because i would constantly be on the internet and you'd all be over me if you weren't already

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Darren Criss 19:16:01

But yes, thank you for saying that, I love me my phantom planet oh so very much :)

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Darren Criss 19:16:18

juli.nuttini

could you please answer me I don't speak English and I'm putting ALL my effort into asking you questions I'm going to cry

wow your english is actually pretty great

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Darren Criss 19:17:08

I'd like to write a song with Howard Ashman

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Darren Criss 19:17:23

dancebaby218

Was kick your shoes off inspired by your Hedwig shoes?

nah cuz that shit was actually comfy

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Darren Criss 19:17:55

12169199549

i skipped my clarinet class because of you for the third time :) what can i say to my teacher?

that Darren says you should have gone to clarinet class!!!

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Darren Criss 19:18:34

qalektvmexab6gfwibfihwu6b

Could you please answer me. We’ve supported you for years from the uk and we’re staying up for this but it’s totally worth it because you’re amazing!! Molly x

I wish so bad I could go to the UK!

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Darren Criss 19:20:01

FUCK someone asked about Sam Farrar and I wanted to answer it but it disappeared... Sam is a homie. one of my very first songwriting sessions was with him and a very famous member of the pop universe... who if I get a season two, I'm putting in the show.

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Darren Criss 19:22:00

9nc1yow3iwnp9p3fs4gcvdnsf

what other instruments would you like to learn in the future?

i just need to spend time trying to get better at the ones I've plateaued with. I feel like I got as good as I'd ever get on the guitar when i was like 19. So I've been trying to get better during the Quarantine. Picked up my violin and dusted off that Vivaldi, started doing drum rudiments on my drum pad, and started learning new licks and scales for guitar. Stuff I never got round to doing.

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Darren Criss 19:22:27

harefraz

mr. criss sir, what is your top quarantine activity?

playing music

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Darren Criss 19:23:26

actually lies. top quarantine activity is learning Japanese. 30 minutes a day. And it's been several months. Almost got Hiragana down, still got a few characters I'm questionable with but with any luck I'll start up on Katakana in the next few weeks.

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Darren Criss 19:23:40

224abi6avvottcsacto7vx46a

What about working with Mark hamill ? Insane right

you said it

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Darren Criss 19:23:54

t7sxis7855cd329gaa6iyty8v

Any updates on American Buffalo? 🥺👉🏼👈🏼

it's opening next year!

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Darren Criss 19:24:09

for the record this is really fun I'm enjoying this guys

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Darren Criss 19:26:26

Rachael

How different is it doing a show like Royalties where you're heavily involved in the creative process compared to other projects you've done in the past?

i'd say night and day but that's an understatement. When I did Glee all I had to do was act in scenes, record songs, and go to dance rehearsal. With Royalties, it's that AND casting, doing pre production, post production, notes, meetings, notes, writing and producing songs, location scouting, blah blah blah lots of the stuff that you don't have to worry about if you're not a creator. But make no mistake I absolutely love it.

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Darren Criss 19:27:41

Aisha

learn spanish

I'll get there. I already speak a bit of Italian so I wanted the challenge of learning something that didn't use a writing system I already understood.

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Darren Criss 19:28:23

rosieellenxx_

I take Music Technology as a subject at school and we have to make a whole song with the sole sample of glass breaking...

sounds fun. loads of things you can do with that.

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Darren Criss 19:28:48

21ynx6niidf2amx5nzilihsga

What are your goals for once quarantine is lifted?

hopefully to feel like I used this very strange time well.

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Darren Criss 19:29:14

Ok I should probabl get outta here right?

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Darren Criss 19:29:41

I've talked a lot about mighty as kong in other places

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Darren Criss 19:30:00

so I'll just leave you with a story about "Let Your Hair Down"

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Darren Criss 19:30:14

which was the very FIRST song we wrote for the show

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Darren Criss 19:30:37

I had a meeting with an artist at a dive bar in the middle of the afternoon

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Darren Criss 19:31:10

let's just say I showed up to that very first writer's session very late

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Darren Criss 19:31:17

and sober ENOUGH

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Darren Criss 19:31:41

wktusw4mcjn910r3eq91zg4k5

darren did you watch hamilton??????

duh last night. so fun.

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Darren Criss 19:32:17

anyway I was so relieved that we left with that song at the end of the day. The intent was always to write two songs with the exact same concepts just with different titles

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Darren Criss 19:32:50

the chords are the same, just slightly different voicings played on slightly different instruments

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Darren Criss 19:33:29

and the idea was that whichever song was funnier, or at least whichever song would be more fun to see in a music video... would be the one that Pierce & Sara write

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Darren Criss 19:34:08

"Kick Your Shoes Off" ended up feeling more like a full music video than "Let Your Hair Down" but I LOVE that first song, and hopefully people get to hear the whole thing on Spotify since you don't get to hear the whole song in the episode

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Darren Criss 19:34:51

with lines I love like "see my cheekbones, show off my clavicle, I bet you've never seen a ponytail to magical..."

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Darren Criss 19:35:39

emilybutcher30

i love that u spelled it sara not sarah

thank you. if you don't already know it, check out Ben Folds' "Zak and Sara"

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Darren Criss 19:36:01

OK i gotta get going

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Darren Criss 19:36:12

but thanks to everyone from all over the world for joining

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Darren Criss 19:36:17

i see you and i say hi to you!

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Darren Criss 19:36:23

happy birthday to all the bday kids!

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Darren Criss 19:36:33

thank you for spending a little bit of your bday with me

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Darren Criss 19:36:39

thanks for checking out Royalties

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Darren Criss 19:36:46

hope you enjoy the music

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Darren Criss 19:36:53

and hope there gets to be a season 2!!!

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Darren Criss 19:37:08

xo to all of you. stay safe, stay inspired. - Darren

#darren criss #royalties ost listening event #spotify #royalties #july 2020 #posting as text since it's soooo much easier than posting screencaps #royalties bts

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