it’s for lardo, of course, because her big senior showcase is on potraits of hypermasculinity, or dogs or something, Will wasn’t really listening, okay? but she’s making the whole first line paint something for her, and even though he tries to avoid it, he’s sucked in and forced into an apron before he can object.
you come on My Post, desecrate My Life like this, USE MY FULL NAME HOW DARE YOU !!!!
(please also don’t forget all the half finished sketches of nursey that dex hides in a journal far away from prying eyes. most of them are taken from memory, derek dozing against boards at faber, the 7am sunshine lighting up his face making dex’s heart feel stuck in his throat. derek laughing at something chowder said during lunch. derek with his eyebrows scrunched together as he reads through one of his novels for his lit classes. they manage to fill up an entire journal, none of them quite finished because they already say far too much. it’s at the Peak of his pining for nursey who is infinitely more talented than dex, who is far too charming and smart and cultured and passionate about the things he loves to even begin to consider a simple, small town boy like dex. so he hides away his feelings in graphite lines, in the runaway curl that always falls in nursey’s eyes, the strong arch of his nose, the gentle curve of his smile………it’s just easier for him to say what he feels when he doesn’t have to use words)
listen….. in one of our first ‘australian wildlife biology’ lectures we had a PhD student talk to us about their work on freshwater fish in the kimberley….. they literally got attacked by a crocodile there’s a photo of them grinning and one has a bandage wrapped around his head….. just fucking smiling all serene… dex is basically steve irwin and nursey is smitten
ok but..dex…in all khaki…and gross boots… who knows all these bizarre tricks to fend off mosquitoes who says “fuckin oath, mate” once a week…Nursey loves him.
has the photo of dex grinning with the bandage on his head as his lock screen.
Dex sees a hot guy and says ‘crikey, that’s a good lookin’ fella’. Nursey’s brain actually breaks. Partially because did Dex just come out to him??? and also partially because oh no is this a kink oh no oh no oh no
I’m kinkshaming Nursey tbh, he deserves it.
he can peel 5 prawns in 30 seconds and nursey is just mesmerised by dex’s hands he doesn’t even care they’re covered in prawn guts
I FOUND THE PHOTO have you ever seen anything more ridiculous LOOK THIS IS CHOWDER AND DEX JUST HAPPY TO BE THERE
literally so here for nursey losing his chill this year. im so here for him to become the dramatic nerd child he his on the inside. i want him to get jealous of dex being better friends with whiskey right off the bat and i want him to write twenty poems about it and grumpily stare at dex at breakfast and i want dex to be like “whats ur deal nurse maybe you should just. like–” “don’t finish that sentence dex.”
he has such a pure laugh omg. like i know we talk about how bitty’s laugh is the epitome of sunshine etc but dex my god. it’s not even that pretty to listen to, not like bitty’s tinkly laugh or jack’s really lovely chuckles. dex’s laugh is loud and everywhere and always shocks everyone because u know that boy has different laughs, like fake ones that he uses a lot. so when the team get to hear dex’s real laugh it’s amazing
and when dex laughs you can’t help but do the same because you’d do anything to keep hearing his real laugh
it takes a little while to get used to samwell. it’s slow. chris misses home, the beaches, the sun, his mothers homemade chinese food. there’s no homemade chinese food at samwell.
usually, nursey and dex can tell when he’s homesick. they do things like send him a string of emoji hearts, or bring him coffee from annie’s, or just sit with him, watching netflix or hockey.
once, bitty made char siu for chris. it was nothing like his mother’s, but chris ate it anyway. when nursey found him crying in his room after dinner, he slid into bed with chris and listened to chris tell him about all the food his mom cooked, and how the flavors felt more like home than any place chris had ever been.
the next morning, chris found a piece of notebook paper folded up in one of his sneakers. it was a poem about the taste of missing home. chris taped it on the wall next to his bed.
he is homesick, and that never goes away. missing home is second nature, but eventually it begins to fade.
not because he misses it less, but because he’s found a second home. here, at samwell, with ransom and holster shouting over each other, and shitty’s hugs and sloppy kisses, jack’s quiet words of encouragement, bitty always making sure that chris is okay.
lardo lets chris sit with her while she’s painting, and chris doesn’t know how to describe the way it feels to watch a work of art bloom onto a blank canvas, the way it feels to have a sanctuary, but it’s good. nursey writes more poems, and they talk about what it’s like to feel distant from the cultures they were raised on. dex tells him about his own family, manages to keep chris laughing with stories of his sisters when the two of them start to feel sad again.
he meets caitlyn farmer. she’s fierce and funny and understands chris in a way that makes him breathless. he fits into her life like there was a place created just for him. they talk, and they dream, and she makes him smile even when he thinks he can’t.
chris starts a new set of roots, across the country, for his second family. it’s not like california, of course. it’s different, but it begins to feel like home just the same.
Whiskey: Babe come over
Tango: I’m helping Dex fix the washing machine
Whiskey: My roommates aren’t home
Tango: Don’t worry! I’m sure they’ll come back
sometimes i sit here and get emotional thinking about
whiskey when talking to most of the smh:
vs whiskey when talking to tango:
the only other time he smiled was a few pages before, right after jack signed the jersey. both are cut off by the panels so we dont really get to see the WHOLE SMILE :((((
i firmly believe his Cool Aloof Dude Persona has two weaknesses: famous hockey players and tony
Whiskey: This is so frustrating! I hate everything! I hate everyone!
Tango: [voice cracks] Everyone?
Whiskey: …
Whiskey: [sighs] Everyone, but you.
just moving along like everyone else 