#jade beamon

character takeover - techie tots

Now it’s time to have some real fun. The techie tots are in the house, ready to take over, with some sick tunes to go with it. Come hang out and ask the hard-hitting questions!

Dave’s playlist

Jade’s playlist

Jeff’s playlist

Nate’s playlist

i can definitely talk about my fave crew of misfits! i’ll say i don’t think we’ll see much more detail about any of these family dynamics during ep runtimes, just because there’s already so much we’re trying to fit in and not enough time in the world (even tho yes we technically make the rules and can do whatever lol, but es and i do try to adhere to as realistic a tv structure as possible! it feels tighter structured that way)

so quickly i’ll just address dylan and asher, who are not as much mysteries as the other four techie tots just bc we’ve spent a little more time with them. i’m going to be exploring and introducing more of their family and those dynamics throughout the course of the dasher fic, so hopefully after a while they’ll feel as familiar as the rest of the front nine does in terms of their home lives. the short version is that asher is part of a nuclear family and is relatively well-off (they live comfortably, let’s say, given that his dad is an architect and his mom a tenured professor), and he gets along well with his sister lily. dylan lives with his dad and younger brother grant, and his mom passed away from cancer when he was about 6 - 7. his brother has resentment / a bit of a rivalry towards him that is pretty one-sided, but they do get along all things considered. dylan is very close with his dad. their family is firmly middle class and this doesn’t change until dylan starts bringing in substantial youtube coin at the end of high school.

jade is upper middle class and takes pride i think in leading a relatively average, calm life. she was raised by both parents, who are still together, and have a pretty stable marriage although they’re not the most romantic duo. this is where jade gets a lot of her realism from, not as prone towards romanticism or dreaminess even though she does like romance and would like to experience it one day (and can’t help but romanticize nigel). she is a middle child, with one older brother (ethan, 2 years older) and two younger brothers, jacob (3 years younder) and cody (6 years younger). this is part of why she is able to deal with the techie boys so well. overall she gets along very well with her family, and she’s lucky that her parents are highly supportive of her ambitions. her mother in particular loves her talents, because she’ll often make clothing items for her as gifts and then she can tell her friends when they ask about it that it’s “a one of a kind.” they’re definitely proud of her!

nate, as previously discussed, is low income. he lives with both parents but hardly sees his dad because he’s always out late working and exhausted when he gets home. he has two younger siblings, who he has a good relationship with but can often get sick of because of how often he’s asked to help babysit + entertain them when he’s a teenage boy and just wants to be doing whatever on his own time. so he’ll grumble a lot about his family, but he really does love them at the end of the day (despite mixed feelings about his dad, even though he knows how much he has to work isn’t his fault). because of having less disposable income, nate is the most money conscious of the techies for reasons other than being obsessive by nature (like asher). he in some ways thinks of himself as a hack in the aaa system (sort of like lucas, although not at all the same), because although he did have lots of interest in audio mixing and sound design and applied because of that, a major part of him applied to aaa just to see if he could get in and on scholarship. he never thought he actually would get in. although he’d never admit it, being admitted to aaa and meeting the techies was a very grounding and confidence-boosting moment in his life and helped put him on the right path for the future.

jeff is the second most secure financially of the techies after asher, though not too far ahead of jade. he is the youngest of three children, both already in college, though during S1 his sister was a senior at quincy high. his parents are arguably the most stable and truly romantic of all the techie parental units, giving him a realistic yet optimistic understanding of what a relationship is supposed to look like. his father has shares in a local community theater in brooklyn, and he’s highly involved in it, so jeff has been growing up around that world since he was a toddler. his siblings both had stints as actors in the local productions, and while jeff was never personally interested in performing, he loved hanging around the sets and observing the technicians. he started shadowing in the technician’s booth in middle school for extra credit + community service, but his mom noticed he had a real interest and knack for it, so it was her idea to research arts school and put him on track towards aaa. jeff is also the techie who has the best balance between aaa life and his former friends and community, as his main friend group is still predominantly his middle school friends which allows him a healthy detachment and outlet from the chaos of aaa that’s always ongoing.

dave, even to the rest of the techies, is a bit of a mystery. not in a purposeful way, like lucas, but simply because that’s how he is. he’s about dylan’s level of income, living with his mother in a cozy apartment in brooklyn. his parents are divorced, as they split when he was in elementary school, but the dynamic is amicable. his father was the more wealthy of the two, and his child support payments are what really keep the two of them afloat, but it never occurs to dave to grow bitter thinking about how he could give them more (as the other techies might be inclined to do). as far as dave is concerned, it is what it is. he spends weekends / vacations often with his dad in massachusetts where he now is settled down. although his home is far from the most lavish or exciting locale, the techie tots will hang out at his place relatively frequently, second to the orlandos as the go-to hangout spot. this is because there’s a den room that they can basically take over, and dave’s mom is usually home late because of work so they can kind of take run of the place. dave’s den is also the place the group of them will go if they wanna take some risks, like smoke weed now and then. although dave’s mom is still sort of distant from the group of them (not an agreed upon Group Dad, like randall orlando), she’s friendly with all of them and is always welcome to seeing them around when she comes home. dave’s presence at aaa is as much of a mystery as anything else -- he’s a great guitar player, and has always had a penchant for building and piecing things together, but no one can get a clear read on why he decided to apply to aaa, or what his application was like, or what he’s hoping to get out of the place. as dave once said, “sometimes, you just gotta go with it.”

i thought this would be a good time to answer this considering one of those dear male techies interrupted her romantically hued time with nigel this episode... LMAO. there’s definitely pros and cons to having a whole crop of boys as your teammates -- but at least these are ambition boys, i.e. mostly good-hearted and mostly queer lol

i think overall, no. like early on, for a chunk of freshman year, i think that jade would’ve liked for there to be more girls because it’s like the easier way of making friends or at least seems to be. because i think while she and isa are good friends now (sans the s2 rough patch), they’re not exactly compatible personalities naturally, and i think jade was super intimidated by her in freshman year and so like didn’t really... know how to talk with her and thus didn’t make an instant friendship (the way she did with asher, jeff, or clarissa). it seemed way easier to be a performer where there were tons of girls... only what you quickly learn on the performer side is that half of those folks are divas, bitches, or off their rockers (or, sometimes, all three *insert farkle emoji*).

so like yeah, the techie boys were loud and occasionally dumb -- like parkouring during tech time and injuring themselves -- and aren’t all emotionally literate, etc. etc., but they’re generally nice and cooperative and supportive. also keep in mind that jade has multiple brothers and is the only girl in her family, too, so this kind of dynamic isn’t New for her. i think she gets along well with boys (esp since she’s very no-nonsense beyond her shyness and it doesn’t take her long to lose the shyness with them and be like okay y’all need to get it together). and i think now at this point, they’re her family, so it’s hard for her to even imagine the techie crew being arranged differently

... you know, until they all start picking on her for her crush on nigel and being generally obnoxious as brother-types do and then she’s like hm okay well now i wish i was on the techie crew BY MYSELF!! but that’s how siblings be.

for a fun little bonus, here is the order ranked by jade on how easily each techie boy annoys her:

nate (for too many reasons)

lucas (when he’s in a bad mood / is rude / does something reckless)

dylan (he can just be... a lot sometimes. also he talks too much)

asher (they’re best friends, and sometimes best friends know how to annoy you the very most. also his knack for interrupting her and nigel with bestie privilege)

dave (it’s really hard to be annoyed with dave bc he’s just so... you know, dave.)

jeff (jeff is the perfect man and should not be criticized)