Emerald Sustrai

Michael keeping his hood up all throughout the day and only taking it down when he’s around jeremy, not just because he’s comfortable around his boy, but so there’s nothing shadowing his face and jer can read his lips clearly

whenever he’s telling jer something important (giving him the “ill mock u forever if u don’t” pep talk outside the auditorium), he holds jer by the shoulders and gets close to him to make sure he’s actually taking in what he’s saying and reading his lips and understanding him because jeremy WILL space tf out especially when he’s anxious

jer had zero clue what chloe was talking about when he was trying to get to his locker so when she ushered brooke away in disgust he was just like. oh :(

jeremy communicates exclusively in “uhhs”, “whats?”, and “huhs??” because no one at this Hell School will speak coherently

that’s part of the reason why he’s so attentive when christine is doing “i love play rehearsal”. she speaks so loudly and so expressively that he understands everything she’s saying and it’s so refreshing and wonderful and he doesn’t know if he wants to date her or just be her best friend but. he loves christine and her loud voice

how did jer copy the hand movements rich did during “the squip song” for his little reprise even though rich only did them once?? he’s used to doing asl and picking up a hand motion in one go, boom.

michael sits in the left beanbag because jer’s hearing is better in his left ear. even when they switch he always makes sure to switch back to the left when he needs to say something to jer

jeremy is a flailing, talking with his hands mess because he doesn’t know how loud he’s being and doesn’t want to chance a voice crack so the Flail is used to get people’s attention

rich feels kinda shitty about ragging on jer for his bad hearing when he’s got his own speech impediment and genuinely wants him to get a squip so he’ll be able to hear just like rich was able to speak correctly

the stunned look on his face when the squip enters and says his name?? it’s been years since he’s heard anything so clearly

During the Boyf Riends scene in More Than Survive, Jeremy and Michael stand next to each other to line the words up rather than taking their backpacks off.

Christine wears overall shorts with a long-sleeve pink shirt.

Rich talks to Jeremy before the Squip Song while he’s peeing. When asked how he does that, Rich takes both hands away, wiggles his fingers, and replies, “Confidence.”

During the first chorus of Two-Player Game, Michael starts dabbing. The audience promptly loses its shit.

Jeremy and Michael play leap-frog during TPG. They also pull off some sweet karate moves.

Scary Stockboy has a Scary Stockgirl companion. The latter is dressed in typical emo fashion; when Jeremy sees her, he says, “My Chemical Romance, am I right?”

The Squip has little light-up green dots on his shirt, and they’re all you can see when he first walks onto the back platform in a blackout. Blue and red dots are added as the show progresses.

Jeremy shoves Michael toward the bathtub after calling him a loser. Michael, thunderstruck, grabs onto it and doesn’t move.

Rather than singing “…at a party” near the end of Michael in the Bathroom, Michael weakly sobs it. Half of the audience is now in tears.

Jeremy and Christine talk on the couch with a giant unicorn between them as the Halloween party dies down. As this is happening, Rich stands center stage, screaming about Mountain Dew Red. When nobody answers him, he stays there, twitching and clutching his head.

The full cast, including the guys, are onstage during Smartphone Hour. They’re dressed in crop tops and glittery skirts.

The cast wears sneakers with light-up soles during Pitiful Children.

The longer the Squip is onstage, the more dramatic his makeup gets. In the first scene he looks relatively normal, but in his next scene, he has black, computer-like, lines-and-circles makeup on his neck. When he comes in later it’s crept up his left cheek, and by The Play it’s all the way up to his eyebrow with blue highlights added in.

Costume changes accompany these subtle shifts in makeup, starting with a plain jacket and ending with a near-floor-length leather one.

The Squip rarely interacts with the cast members directly; for the most part, he stays on the back platform, advising and controlling Jeremy from afar. Jeremy finally confronts him face-to-face after the fire, and during The Play, The Squip joins the rest of the cast on ground level.

Just before The Play, Christine addresses the audience as though we’re spectators at Middle Borough. When Michael makes an entrance he hops out of the crowd onto the stage like he was watching with us.

The audience cheers so loud after this that the orchestra has to hold its music until it’s quiet enough to continue.

When the cast of The Play says “I just feel so connected to you guys right now!” long ropes of neon lights drop from the ceiling. They attach these ropes to their backs like electrical cords.

It looks like Jeremy is about to kiss (Squipped) Christine instead of giving her the Mountain Dew Red. Michael, unable to watch this, turns away and almost walks offstage.

Michael screams “FUCK!” after the cast finishes screaming and dropping to the ground.

Once everyone has passed out, the Squip claws his way desperately across the floor toward Jeremy. Before he makes it, he collapses center stage with a puff of smoke.

-  before it started they projected tweets about the show onto the stage wall and there were So Many Memes

-  when michael first showed up everyone went batshit insane

-  also right before michael’s first appearance and michael makes an entrance he ran from the back of the theatre and climbed the stairs onto the stage ( i was on the end of my row so he ran right past me it was amazing )

-  when jeremy opened the mountain dew to take the squip it sprayed everywhere and michael was like “ its fresh! ”

-  i have never heard a whole theatre simultaneously gasp as dramatically as they did when jeremy’s dad showed up with pants on

-  when michael said “ is it really true i’m your favowite pewson ” he stood up and nuzzled jeremy’s neck and jeremy just YEETED him onto the beanbags

- christine swung her bag onto the floor to get a pen to sign up for the play and a water bottle flew out and probably hit someone offstage and she just froze there for a second like :O

-  im sure u all saw this but the playbills had quotes that fit the character’s so well and ryan’s ( michael’s ) said “ legalize it ” and jason’s ( rich’s ) said “ That’s what. ” - She

-  brooke’s poofball earrings. that is all 

-  i sat in the 3rd row and i can confirm michael’s rainbow patch THE BOY IS GAY

welcome to your super quantum intel unit processor

the first thing the squip did was make jeremy take out his aids because “your attractiveness will increase by sixty-eight percent without them. I am more than equipped to improve your hearing. I will now repair your hearing”

for the first time since his accident the summer before freshman year jeremy can hear everything perfectly again and it’s wonderful.

in fact it’s part of the reason why he trusts the squip initially: he’s already worked this miracle

Michael sees jeremy in the hallway after being abandoned at the mall and goes to tap him lightly on the shoulder like he always does to alert jeremy that he’s there. Jer just stares right through him before walking away. there are no hearing aids in his ears but he seems to hear whatever brooke lohst is saying to him because he’s laughing with her and why in the hell is he talking to brooke lohst and not stuttering or reading her lips??

the silence between them is deafening for three months

the first thing jeremy notices after waking up from his three day coma is that his ears hurt like crazy. and that his perfect hearing is gone again. 

it takes him a while to adjust again to his partial deafness. he’s frustrated and upset on top of the rest of his guilt and unease after the squip incident. he purposefully goes to school without his aids in, trying to close himself off and keep the voices in his head to a muffled minimum

then there’s a hand gently tapping him on the shoulder, alerting him that someone’s there. Michael, his hood pulled up. he can see that his aids aren’t in

“where are they?” he signs. Jeremy’s forgotten how much asl michael’s picked up over the last three years

“at home” he signs back. and he just wants michael to drop it, he shouldn’t be bothering michael after all he’s put him through, but then that hand is pulling him towards the parking lot and they’re getting in the pt cruiser and michael has the music turned up loud enough for jeremy to feel the vibrations through his seat and he wants to cry because after everything, even after all he’s put him through, michael still cares about him

they go back to jeremy’s house so he can get his aids and jeremy tells him about the squip fixing his hearing and all the other things it did to him. they have a long talk. they reaffirm their friendship. they listen to each other.

The Squip: Revenge

Mr. Heere: well uh- no revenge for you!

Rich: what is it buddy?

Jeremy: I think Michael doesn’t like me…

Rich: ?????? You’ve been friends?? For 12 years???

Jeremy: No, Rich. With like I mean…

Jeremy: *blushes*

Jeremy: like… LIKE me.

Rich: oh.

Rich: OH.

Rich: HOLY SHIT YOU’RE GAY FOR MICHAEL??

Jeremy: SSHHHH!

Jeremy: I-I mean… Hum, yeah, but… I… Don’t think he feels the same…?

Michael: *KICKS THE DOOR DOWN*

Rich and Jeremy: *SCREAMING*

everything

okay now seriously

Every member of the cast had fuckin beautiful amazing voices like they’re perfect

Everyone dropped after the Mt Dew Red, followed by Michael screaming “ohhh FUCK”

Rich peeing in the bathroom, he did like a “look ma no hands” 

Jeremy and Christine talking on the couch after the Halloween Party, guy in a unicorn costume that sits up, starts barking, then passes out again

The amount of averting/shielding eyes from Mr Heere’s dick

Brooke’s mic went out during The Play and she recovered and projected like a boss like I was in the mezzanine and heard her well it was a “go baby go” moment

Not something I enjoyed but I feel the need to include on this list: the amount of grinding that just occurred omg end me

SQUIP’s costume getting progressively more techy and extra 

the way Jake treated Christine like he wasnt charming like OG Jake he was just a dumb boi

Mr Heere making an entrance and running through the house to get to Michael 

Michael MAKING AN ENTRANCE and running through the house to get to Jeremy

When SQUIP was being affected by alcohol, and spoke Japanese he used like a slightly different deeper voice and it was perfect

Mr Reyes had a blonde wig with a ponytail its iconic

When Jeremy says “she was cheating on me” he 

1. flips the shirts on display 

2. coLLAPSES ONTO THe FLOOR

Jeremy’s walk when SQUIP controls him is like a cross between Frankenstein’s monster and an adorable robot

Michael’s “I’m your faavowite pewson” when he leaned on Jeremy’s shoulder then Jeremy pushed him off and he straight just fell onto the bean bags face first

Not a specific moment but SQUIP was just so goddamn fabulous

During the last chorus of Two Player Game, Jeremy and Michael did like epic fighting moves and then also LEAP FROGGED OVER EACH OTHER

Jenna Rolan conveniently pulling Mountain Dew out of her blazer 

The way Chloe dEAD pan delivered the 😊💄🐾 speech in Smartphone Hour was mad telling of how text is miscommunicated all the time like typing lol with a straight face AND her relationship with Brooke

MICHAEL IN THE BATHROOM

MICHAEL CRYING DURING MICHAEL IN THE BATHROOM

Brooke dropped her phone during Smartphone Hour and sCREAMED

SQUIP’s fucking unexpected riff in Be More Chill pt 2 that gave me FEELINGS

Michael : “That’s what makes it so … *shrieks* aWESOME!”

Jeremy singing in More Than Survive and hitting that high note on “WHY cant someone just help me out” and it hit my heart and it was so emotional and he was so sad and I just want to hug him for a long time

After Upgrade these pieces flew down that were like great big circuits like SQUIP has on him and they stayed down for act 2 

But then they gone for Voices in my Head so when SQUIP comes back out they would like bob up and down from the fly system like “ooh are we back? are we not? nah? okay byyyee”

SQUIP coming back in for Voices in my Head, he just crawled his way across the balcony and all the students were kicking his ass

THE FX ON SQUIPS VOICE AT THE END OF THE PLAY AND VOICES IN MY HEAD

Rich’s lisp is adorable and he sounds so excited when he comes out its so heartwarming 

The Pants Song, which is underrated already, was V GOOD