Erin RUTH (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lesmisloony) wrote2011-03-23 10:10 pm
lesmisloony) wrote2011-03-23 10:10 pm
STRASBOURG ENCOUNTERS PART TWO.
So there I was, zooming through the Alsacien night in a taxi, alone now that we'd deposited Bénédicte at her hotel, reeking slightly of Mikelangelo Loconte's cologne. When I finally arrived at the Troupe's hotel there was quite a crowd there, which confused the poor taxi driver to death since it was one o'clock in the morning at this point.
I leapt out of the cab and pounced on Lara and Joanna, my first question being-- "DID I MISS MAKTAV???"
Joanna seemed ready to turn in for the night; she said Yep, Maktav had already come by. I looked to Lara with giant puppy dog eyes of fangirl despair and she said "But he said he'd come back out to see you!"
WAIT WHAT?
As Lara tells it, Maktav came by and she stopped him to ask for a floto. He agreed, and then she asked him (in English as she doesn't speak French) if he remembered the American fan. Lara told me that he reacted with the sweetest smile she's ever seen as he said "Of course!!" She then told him I was on my way but wasn't there yet and Patrice Maktav agreed to come back out later to see me.
It was freezing still, though thankfully the wind had cut down since that morning, and Joanna was quite ready to go home, but Lara kept saying that we should stick around in case Maktav came back. Joanna quite reasonably responded "Yeah, but do you really think he'll do that?" and we were like ...maybe? Hopefully?
Meanwhile inside the hotel there was a cast party going on, and we could clearly hear the music being all OONCE OONCE like Jess's Flo icon.
And then, sure enough, someone says "Here he comes!" and I look up to see Patrice Maktav pushing his way through the revolving doors of the hotel. In a memory that will stick with me and warm my heart until I am an old lady knitting alone in a rest home he walked right by the other fans--one of whom even had a floto for him to sign, bless her!--and straight up to me. And bisous'd me and went "Ça va?"
OH MY GOD MAKTAV YOU'RE GREETING ME LIKE WE'RE OLD PALS
Lara keeps saying she loved how jealous and confused the other fans looked. I LOVE HEARING THAT. YEAH BE JEALOUS OF ME YOU GUYS ARE ALL DEVOTED TO MIKELANGEFLO BUT LOOK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TELL MAKTAV HE'S WONDERFUL.
LOOK AT HIS PRECIOUS FACE AND HIS GLOW-Y EYES.
And then he starts just kind of casually chatting, like asking me when I learned to knit and stuff. Then he noticed that I was holding a bag with two dolls left and kind of geeked out over them, especially the Rosenberg doll having a bald spot. He said Yamin was going to love that and I was like I really hope so... =/ He asked how many more dolls I was going to do and I said I wasn't sure, but I didn't think I'd be able to do all the dancers since I'm running low on pink yarn for skin. And he said I have to tell him when all the dolls are done so he can try to get them all together for a group picture.
MAKTAV. MAKTAV. MAKTAV HOW ARE YOU SO NICE.
And then! Then he goes, wait, when are you going to give them these two dolls? And I was like well... I mean, maybe tomorrow before the show? But Joanna pointed out that the trams are really slow on Sundays and we were going to have to leave the hotel pretty early to get to the Zénith on time. Maktav was like, yeah, we won't leave until something o'clock, and Joanna was like we'll definitely be gone by then. So then Maktav starts getting all worried and all the of the sudden he's like HANG ON. and he goes back into the hotel.
So me and Joanna and Lara and Laetitia are just kind of like ...?
A few minutes later, I saw Marjolaine sneak out the hotel door. The whole crowd turned around with the anxious expectant faces of stagedoor stalkers, but she was only wearing this little short sleeve shirt and seemed to be freezing already. She scanned the crowd for a second and someone asked her for something and she said no, she wasn't really here to do autographs and all that. And then she said "Je cherche Erin?"
AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY EH-HREEEEN. SHE SAID MY NAME THE WAY IT'S SAID. People have been calling me Eh-hreeen for like months except for my friends and I'm dealing with it because it's whatevs but guess who knows how to pronounce my name the right way.
So I flopped forward and was like C'EST MOIIII. And she clearly had no idea why she was supposed to see me because Patrice Maktav is a freaking angel who understands that it's a really good moment when you hand someone their gift and they don't know what to expect and apparently all he'd said was You gotta go out in the cold and find a girl named Erin and Marjolaine did exactly that.
You've already seen the video with her adorable reaction to the doll. I got the idea that she hadn't expected to get one since she's not part of the "main" Troupe or whatever but was clearly a bit jealous, so she was totally surprised and awesome. She danced around with it and then she was so cheerful she went into the crowd and started taking pictures with fans, which she originally wasn't going to do. She stayed out in the freezing for a lonngggg time.
And when I asked for a picture, it was like this.
Marjolaine asked if her eyes were closed, so I showed her how it had come out and she was like yeah no we're retaking it.
THOSE ARE SOME OPEN EYES.
So as she was going back in she bisous'd me and I asked her to say thanks to Patrice for me and she went all Josepha, like "Oh! Da Ponte!" and I'm not gonna lie a voice in my head was like NO I WANT HIM BACK AWAY.
Then as she went into the hotel lobby she held the doll up in one hand and bounced it through the air as she frolicked back to the OONCE OONCE cast party.
And so I whirl around to the girls and I'm like OH. MY. GOD. PATRICE MAKTAV IS SO NICE. And they're like TOTALLY HE TOTALLY IS. And I'm like JESUS WHY HAVE I BEEN PURSUING MIKELANGEFLO FOR SO LONG. Then some other fans came out of the hotel and said they'd seen Marjolaine running around the party showing the doll to everyone. D'awww and also SQUEE.
And all of a sudden Maktav was coming back! He looked troubled and he was like I called Yamin but he's gone to bed and won't come down!
HE CALLED YAMIN. AND YAMIN WAS LIKE I AM ASLEEP MAKTAV. AND MAKTAV WAS LIKE BUT YOU SHOULD COME OUTSIDE AND TALK TO FANS. AND YAMIN WAS LIKE WTF NO YOU IDIOT IT IS TWO IN THE MORNING AND I'M IN MY PYJAMAS.
At least, that's how I imagine it taking place.
And then Maktav is all worried about how I'm going to get Yamin his doll since I definitely will have to leave the hotel before he comes out the next morning. He was saying that they have to leave right after the show, but maybe if I come around to the side...? Which Joanna interpreted as he was trying to see if he could get me backstage or something and I was like I mean, I can just give it to him during curtain call. And Maktav is like OH YES THAT. And he's all But make sure you're really close to the stage! Can you get really close to the stage? And I'm like OF COURSE. So he seemed kind of content with that and finally signed that poor fan's floto before he went back in. And I'm like BWAHHHHHHHH DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN but I was distracted when Upgraded Latino Mikele arrived.
Oh he was just full of himself, that precious little man. Everything he said was clearly directed at the whole group, and all the girls were pressed around him giggling. He was obviously having a great time, though, going slowly through the fans and kind of just hanging out instead of rushing past.
When he saw me he put a hand on my cheek and said "Mon amooouuur!" and I was like IS THIS THE REAL LIFE IS IT JUST FANTASY because you know. No matter how platonic my adoration for Mikelangelo Loconte has become, there's always a part of me that's still that dumpy kid on the futon who just saw the Tatoue-moi video for the first time and feels like the guy singing it is gazing directly into her soul. AND NOW HE ACTUALLY IS IN PERSON. I can be in love with Flo or Maktav all I want, but Mikele is special to me because I loved him so much and for such a long time. And because he has never once behaved like a real person. I mean, can you imagine him microwaving leftovers or flossing his teeth? I cannot.
Anyway, you saw Lara's video where she gives him the mug and he basically flips his lid, the precious little thing. What you don't see is that he grabs Lara after she explains she doesn't speak French, wraps her in one of those giant Mikele hugs, thanks her for the mug, and then says something like "Tonight I am inviting myself in your bed!"
Lara's face. Was. Hilarious. Because she didn't associate those words with Tatoue-moi at all. I was behind him so I saw her face over his shoulder and when he said that she looked HORRRRIFIED. Hahahaha oh my gosh I will never stop LOL'ing. She kind of pulled away and looked at him like WTFFFF and Mikele of course didn't notice AT ALL because he was too busy trying to entertain all the other girls who were crowded around. Lol if this was America Lara could totally sue him for sexual harassment and the poor guy was just totally oblivious to her shock.
Then I went over and gave him the picture of that little fan (the one her mother sent me) and Mikele was like "Mais je connais cette petite fille! Elle est amoureuse de moi, mais c'est impossible, elle est trop jeune!" Then he went on about how nice she was and how she'd done so much to try to come see him and stuff. Well whaddaya know, Mikelangelo Loconte remembered a fan. Today I told the girl what he'd said on facebook and she FLIPPED OUT and was like THANK YOU THANK YOU IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN I'M GOING TO JUMP INTO YOUR ARMS. Hahaha awww.
As we were discussing calling a taxi to come pick us up--actually no, wait, Joanna had already called a taxi (you remember she was ready to leave) but it had arrived just as Mikele did, so we pretended it wasn't for us so Lara could give him her gift. It was kind of a shame, because the taxi guy waited around for fifteen minutes and finally gave up and went back. I feel bad for the dude, but if Lara hadn't given Mikele the gift then she would have had to have gone all the way back to Amsterdam without having seen him, so we basically made the right choice.
Then we were trying to decide if we could call the taxi people again or something and it was all some big crazy debate when suddenly Mikele bellowed "QUATORZE HEURES?!?!?!?"
Apparently the fans had just informed him that the show the next day was at two and he was appalled. He started going on and on about how he was going to fall asleep onstage. Then he started ACTING THAT OUT.
"Père, je n'ai pas le choix, il faut zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." and then "J'irai jusqu'au bout de ma musique. Jusqu'à vzzzzzzzzzzzzz." and he would do his little Mikele acting and then just slump over to one side. Except he was still grinning a little bit every time because when Mikelangelo Loconte is making fangirls giggle he gets SO PROUD OF HIMSELF. It was like his beer joke in Lille. God I just love that silly little man. And then he said he was going to fall asleep during Je dors sur des roses and when Tamara comes in she won't have anything to do.
And then he started talking about how hard it is for him to deliver the "jusqu'à vous" line convincingly, and somebody always tells him he needs to FEEL it in his gut but that doesn't mean anything... according to Joanna the next thing he said, which I missed because I was trying to hide the fact that I was laughing hysterically at Mikele talking in a brag-y voice about his terrible acting, was something about how that line and the "ma musique depassera..." line at the end were lines he had added to the show or something? Like, they were his idea but he had other ideas too that no one would listen to. Oh GOD Mikele are you for real?
Finally, after a whole lot more showing off for the fangirls that was basically in the same vein, Mikele went on into the hotel. We decided to call a cab from the same company using a different phone and to have it meet us at the nearest tram stop instead of at the Hilton so NO ONE WOULD SUSPECT A THING. That was the point in the night where I realised I was a million times more excited about Maktav than about Flo admitting he loved me or Mikele remembering me and speaking three different languages about it. And that was when I started singing "WHO AM I??? CAN I ABANDON FLO SO EASILY??? BECAUSE OF THE WAY MAKTAV BISOUS'D ME???" and stuff. I actually made it all the way to the end of the song about the time the taxi showed up and we all clambered in, me glowing and beaming at nothing at all because omg omg omg. But somehow me and Lara ended up singing Die Schätten werden langer under our breath.
Do you think this is the end of the story?
WRONG AGAIN.
We got back to the house and I jumped on the internet at once, ready to keyboard smash all over the Florum. I'd already come up with "BEAUTATRICE MAKTAVOMANIE" to start things off. And when I logged on facebook, I saw there were a few messages in my inbox. I've been getting a crapton of pm's from French fans, like that "petite fille"s mother and the petite fille herself, so I was like Well I'm glad Mikele remembered her so I have something to say.
AS YOU MAY KNOW BY NOW the message was not from a fan.
IT WAS FROM PATRICE MAKTAV.
As soon as I saw his name and user picture I flung myself out of the chair and ran backwards away from my laptop, somehow ending up cowering behind the chair and having a small mental breakdown.
IN A GOOD WAY.
After hearing me screech and howl for a few minutes with some kind of fanic attack of laughter, Joanna was like Okay I'm gonna video this nonsense.
And Maktav will like it
Hahaha what.
And so finally I pull myself together and climbed back up into the chair. I see another little red notification in my inbox (actually you see it in the video, too) and am like Hmm, wonder who... IT WAS MAKTAV AGAIN.
I don't even remember my second reaction. It was around almost 4am at that point.
Anyway, the first note was written in the world's most adorable English ever and basically was thanking me for recognising his contribution to the show and telling me he'd watched the video of me playing with the dolls and thought it was cute or something. He gave up near the end and switched to French for a while before signing off in English. He also said he keeps the note me and Laurel wrote him with him because it means a lot and AWWWWWWWWWW MAKTAV YOU ANGELLLLLLLL
I checked the timestamp thing, and it appears that after Lara talked to him and told him I was on my way (a little after midnight), he got on facebook, watched the video, and sent that message. Then he came back out to see me.
The second message was sent while I was reading the first--it was about 3:30am at that point. It was in French and it said "Erin! I just saw you're a fan of Dr Who! Me too! Who's your favourite Doctor? Mine's David Tennant."
WHAT THE
HOLY FANDOM COLLISION
WHAT
So I flipped my dang lid again and was like WHO WILL UNDERSTAND THE EPICNESS OF THIS MOMENT IN MY LIFE so I got on skype even though it was so late and sure enough there was Kelley and I was like LET ME VIDEO SKYPE YOU RIGHT NOW and I told her the entire story of the whole day amidst lots of shrieking and giggling and flailing. That kind of helped me get it together.
It took me a long time, but I finally settled my dang self down and went to bed, deciding to wait till morning to try to respond.
Okay now I'm gonna go ahead and go through Sunday, because not a whole lot happened.
We hoteldoored in the morning and I got a picture with the show's Bénédicte, not the Florum's Bénédicte.
She was a little in a hurry but I saw her signing something for another fan, so I asked for a floto by name. She said something about looking all icky because it was early in the morning and I awkwardly went "Mais c'est pas vrai..." and then she asked where I was from and actually the picture came out looking quite nice! She was really sweet when she realised I was a foreigner who actually knew her name and knew she was in the show.
The dancers came out again and I was like Oh fine, I'll get another floto with Mas.
I'm glad I did, because this one is a lot nicer than the one from Amnéville where I'm wearing my Beeg Tony hat and Mas looks like he HATES me.
AND THEN. The worst moment of my whole weekend. IT BROUGHT ME SUCH PAIN.
My dear darling Flo came out of the hotel.
And he was wearing.
The UNC sweater.
I hadn't seen it for weeks and just assumed it had fallen out of his favour like the Beeg Tony hat, but there he was and he was wearing it THE DAY AFTER I ASKED HIM ABOUT IT AND TOLD HIM I PRETEND HE WEARS IT OUT OF LOVE FOR ME
TELL ME HE DIDN'T DO THAT ON PURPOSE
And I'm like OH MY GOD
I NEED A PICTURE WITH THAT.
But there were a milllllion people crowded around and Floflo was obviously in a hurry. So then I was like alright, so I guess I'll just get close enough and be like I LIKE THAT SWEATER FLORENT MOTHE or something. So I edge my way into that crowd.
The hotel doors open again.
OUT COMES MAKTAV
NO WHAT DO I
WHAT DO I DO THIS ISN'T FAIR
Both of them are in a hurry. A few sweet souls and getting autographs from Maktav while a million crowd around Flo.
And then Maktav starts looking around like maybe he was trying to find me to see if I was still there and if I still had the doll and I took a step toward him but then there's Flo in the UNC sweater and I took a step back and then I started over to Maktav and then I was like BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DOOO THIS IS UNFAAAAIIIIIIIR and I just stood completely still right between the two of them.
And neither one saw me. And they got on a bus and drove away.
(You can see why we called it the Salieri bus...)
So then all the way to the Zénith I was singing
IL FAUT CHOIIIIIIIISIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR
ENTRE MAKTAV ET FLORENT
JE NE VEUUUUUUUUUX PAS
JE LES AIME, LES DEUX
and stuff.
By the way, I'm sure my entries like this prove to you that I am a REALLY HYPERACTIVE NOISY PERSON on these Mozart weekends. Joanna and Lara have every right to want to beat me up.
Anyway, you know that Mikele made a face at me during Place je passe and you know that my darling Maktav made sure Yamin got that doll during curtain call.
After the show we hung out for a while, wandered around Strasbourg, ate some omelets, exchanged videos, packed, and I got on the train. I drew an artistic rendering of the face Mikele made at me using Paint...
Except now that a video has surfaced I can see that my memory lied a little and he wasn't doing a weird thing with his mouth, but just kinda grinning. (Screencaps! http://lesmisloony.tumblr.com/post/4049244724/that-face)
And then I fell asleep with my face on my laptop.
Laetitia was wonderful enough to offer me a ride home from the train station with her parents, so I didn't have to deal with the Noctilien.
The next morning I got on facebook and got a chat notification...........FROM PATRICE MAKTAV. He said "Erin!!!" and I said "Patrice Maktav!" and then he asked me if I got home okay and "tu reviens quand nous voir??" (except he used French chatspeak actually). I told him I'm planning to go with friends to Lyon and Rouen and he said "cool." Our little conversation actually made me forty-five minutes late to class since I was walking out the door when I saw the thing pop up, but DUH I'M NOT GOING TO JUST NOT ANSWER PATRICE FREAKING MAKTAV AFTER HE PUTS THREE EXCLAMATION MARKS BEHIND MY NAME.
And the next day we facebook chatted about Doctor Who for about an hour. He also loves Torchwood and wants to go to the Dr Who museum in Cardiff.
GOD I LOVE MY GEEKY FANBOY MOZART BFF
Or as Kelley put it, "He's our soulmate!"
In related news, about a week and a half ago I sent Flo a message on his myspace thanking him for signing stuff in the rain at that failed television show night, and this morning it was finally marked as read.
HMMM AND I WONDER WHY I'M WANDERING AWAY FROM TEAM FLORENT MOTHE.
I mean I still love him pathetically but... I think I love Maktav more.
I'm gonna knit Maktav a TARDIS hat.
I leapt out of the cab and pounced on Lara and Joanna, my first question being-- "DID I MISS MAKTAV???"
Joanna seemed ready to turn in for the night; she said Yep, Maktav had already come by. I looked to Lara with giant puppy dog eyes of fangirl despair and she said "But he said he'd come back out to see you!"
WAIT WHAT?
As Lara tells it, Maktav came by and she stopped him to ask for a floto. He agreed, and then she asked him (in English as she doesn't speak French) if he remembered the American fan. Lara told me that he reacted with the sweetest smile she's ever seen as he said "Of course!!" She then told him I was on my way but wasn't there yet and Patrice Maktav agreed to come back out later to see me.
It was freezing still, though thankfully the wind had cut down since that morning, and Joanna was quite ready to go home, but Lara kept saying that we should stick around in case Maktav came back. Joanna quite reasonably responded "Yeah, but do you really think he'll do that?" and we were like ...maybe? Hopefully?
Meanwhile inside the hotel there was a cast party going on, and we could clearly hear the music being all OONCE OONCE like Jess's Flo icon.
And then, sure enough, someone says "Here he comes!" and I look up to see Patrice Maktav pushing his way through the revolving doors of the hotel. In a memory that will stick with me and warm my heart until I am an old lady knitting alone in a rest home he walked right by the other fans--one of whom even had a floto for him to sign, bless her!--and straight up to me. And bisous'd me and went "Ça va?"
OH MY GOD MAKTAV YOU'RE GREETING ME LIKE WE'RE OLD PALS
Lara keeps saying she loved how jealous and confused the other fans looked. I LOVE HEARING THAT. YEAH BE JEALOUS OF ME YOU GUYS ARE ALL DEVOTED TO MIKELANGEFLO BUT LOOK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TELL MAKTAV HE'S WONDERFUL.
LOOK AT HIS PRECIOUS FACE AND HIS GLOW-Y EYES.
And then he starts just kind of casually chatting, like asking me when I learned to knit and stuff. Then he noticed that I was holding a bag with two dolls left and kind of geeked out over them, especially the Rosenberg doll having a bald spot. He said Yamin was going to love that and I was like I really hope so... =/ He asked how many more dolls I was going to do and I said I wasn't sure, but I didn't think I'd be able to do all the dancers since I'm running low on pink yarn for skin. And he said I have to tell him when all the dolls are done so he can try to get them all together for a group picture.
MAKTAV. MAKTAV. MAKTAV HOW ARE YOU SO NICE.
And then! Then he goes, wait, when are you going to give them these two dolls? And I was like well... I mean, maybe tomorrow before the show? But Joanna pointed out that the trams are really slow on Sundays and we were going to have to leave the hotel pretty early to get to the Zénith on time. Maktav was like, yeah, we won't leave until something o'clock, and Joanna was like we'll definitely be gone by then. So then Maktav starts getting all worried and all the of the sudden he's like HANG ON. and he goes back into the hotel.
So me and Joanna and Lara and Laetitia are just kind of like ...?
A few minutes later, I saw Marjolaine sneak out the hotel door. The whole crowd turned around with the anxious expectant faces of stagedoor stalkers, but she was only wearing this little short sleeve shirt and seemed to be freezing already. She scanned the crowd for a second and someone asked her for something and she said no, she wasn't really here to do autographs and all that. And then she said "Je cherche Erin?"
AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY EH-HREEEEN. SHE SAID MY NAME THE WAY IT'S SAID. People have been calling me Eh-hreeen for like months except for my friends and I'm dealing with it because it's whatevs but guess who knows how to pronounce my name the right way.
So I flopped forward and was like C'EST MOIIII. And she clearly had no idea why she was supposed to see me because Patrice Maktav is a freaking angel who understands that it's a really good moment when you hand someone their gift and they don't know what to expect and apparently all he'd said was You gotta go out in the cold and find a girl named Erin and Marjolaine did exactly that.
You've already seen the video with her adorable reaction to the doll. I got the idea that she hadn't expected to get one since she's not part of the "main" Troupe or whatever but was clearly a bit jealous, so she was totally surprised and awesome. She danced around with it and then she was so cheerful she went into the crowd and started taking pictures with fans, which she originally wasn't going to do. She stayed out in the freezing for a lonngggg time.
And when I asked for a picture, it was like this.
Marjolaine asked if her eyes were closed, so I showed her how it had come out and she was like yeah no we're retaking it.
THOSE ARE SOME OPEN EYES.
So as she was going back in she bisous'd me and I asked her to say thanks to Patrice for me and she went all Josepha, like "Oh! Da Ponte!" and I'm not gonna lie a voice in my head was like NO I WANT HIM BACK AWAY.
Then as she went into the hotel lobby she held the doll up in one hand and bounced it through the air as she frolicked back to the OONCE OONCE cast party.
And so I whirl around to the girls and I'm like OH. MY. GOD. PATRICE MAKTAV IS SO NICE. And they're like TOTALLY HE TOTALLY IS. And I'm like JESUS WHY HAVE I BEEN PURSUING MIKELANGEFLO FOR SO LONG. Then some other fans came out of the hotel and said they'd seen Marjolaine running around the party showing the doll to everyone. D'awww and also SQUEE.
And all of a sudden Maktav was coming back! He looked troubled and he was like I called Yamin but he's gone to bed and won't come down!
HE CALLED YAMIN. AND YAMIN WAS LIKE I AM ASLEEP MAKTAV. AND MAKTAV WAS LIKE BUT YOU SHOULD COME OUTSIDE AND TALK TO FANS. AND YAMIN WAS LIKE WTF NO YOU IDIOT IT IS TWO IN THE MORNING AND I'M IN MY PYJAMAS.
At least, that's how I imagine it taking place.
And then Maktav is all worried about how I'm going to get Yamin his doll since I definitely will have to leave the hotel before he comes out the next morning. He was saying that they have to leave right after the show, but maybe if I come around to the side...? Which Joanna interpreted as he was trying to see if he could get me backstage or something and I was like I mean, I can just give it to him during curtain call. And Maktav is like OH YES THAT. And he's all But make sure you're really close to the stage! Can you get really close to the stage? And I'm like OF COURSE. So he seemed kind of content with that and finally signed that poor fan's floto before he went back in. And I'm like BWAHHHHHHHH DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN but I was distracted when Upgraded Latino Mikele arrived.
Oh he was just full of himself, that precious little man. Everything he said was clearly directed at the whole group, and all the girls were pressed around him giggling. He was obviously having a great time, though, going slowly through the fans and kind of just hanging out instead of rushing past.
When he saw me he put a hand on my cheek and said "Mon amooouuur!" and I was like IS THIS THE REAL LIFE IS IT JUST FANTASY because you know. No matter how platonic my adoration for Mikelangelo Loconte has become, there's always a part of me that's still that dumpy kid on the futon who just saw the Tatoue-moi video for the first time and feels like the guy singing it is gazing directly into her soul. AND NOW HE ACTUALLY IS IN PERSON. I can be in love with Flo or Maktav all I want, but Mikele is special to me because I loved him so much and for such a long time. And because he has never once behaved like a real person. I mean, can you imagine him microwaving leftovers or flossing his teeth? I cannot.
Anyway, you saw Lara's video where she gives him the mug and he basically flips his lid, the precious little thing. What you don't see is that he grabs Lara after she explains she doesn't speak French, wraps her in one of those giant Mikele hugs, thanks her for the mug, and then says something like "Tonight I am inviting myself in your bed!"
Lara's face. Was. Hilarious. Because she didn't associate those words with Tatoue-moi at all. I was behind him so I saw her face over his shoulder and when he said that she looked HORRRRIFIED. Hahahaha oh my gosh I will never stop LOL'ing. She kind of pulled away and looked at him like WTFFFF and Mikele of course didn't notice AT ALL because he was too busy trying to entertain all the other girls who were crowded around. Lol if this was America Lara could totally sue him for sexual harassment and the poor guy was just totally oblivious to her shock.
Then I went over and gave him the picture of that little fan (the one her mother sent me) and Mikele was like "Mais je connais cette petite fille! Elle est amoureuse de moi, mais c'est impossible, elle est trop jeune!" Then he went on about how nice she was and how she'd done so much to try to come see him and stuff. Well whaddaya know, Mikelangelo Loconte remembered a fan. Today I told the girl what he'd said on facebook and she FLIPPED OUT and was like THANK YOU THANK YOU IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN I'M GOING TO JUMP INTO YOUR ARMS. Hahaha awww.
As we were discussing calling a taxi to come pick us up--actually no, wait, Joanna had already called a taxi (you remember she was ready to leave) but it had arrived just as Mikele did, so we pretended it wasn't for us so Lara could give him her gift. It was kind of a shame, because the taxi guy waited around for fifteen minutes and finally gave up and went back. I feel bad for the dude, but if Lara hadn't given Mikele the gift then she would have had to have gone all the way back to Amsterdam without having seen him, so we basically made the right choice.
Then we were trying to decide if we could call the taxi people again or something and it was all some big crazy debate when suddenly Mikele bellowed "QUATORZE HEURES?!?!?!?"
Apparently the fans had just informed him that the show the next day was at two and he was appalled. He started going on and on about how he was going to fall asleep onstage. Then he started ACTING THAT OUT.
"Père, je n'ai pas le choix, il faut zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." and then "J'irai jusqu'au bout de ma musique. Jusqu'à vzzzzzzzzzzzzz." and he would do his little Mikele acting and then just slump over to one side. Except he was still grinning a little bit every time because when Mikelangelo Loconte is making fangirls giggle he gets SO PROUD OF HIMSELF. It was like his beer joke in Lille. God I just love that silly little man. And then he said he was going to fall asleep during Je dors sur des roses and when Tamara comes in she won't have anything to do.
And then he started talking about how hard it is for him to deliver the "jusqu'à vous" line convincingly, and somebody always tells him he needs to FEEL it in his gut but that doesn't mean anything... according to Joanna the next thing he said, which I missed because I was trying to hide the fact that I was laughing hysterically at Mikele talking in a brag-y voice about his terrible acting, was something about how that line and the "ma musique depassera..." line at the end were lines he had added to the show or something? Like, they were his idea but he had other ideas too that no one would listen to. Oh GOD Mikele are you for real?
Finally, after a whole lot more showing off for the fangirls that was basically in the same vein, Mikele went on into the hotel. We decided to call a cab from the same company using a different phone and to have it meet us at the nearest tram stop instead of at the Hilton so NO ONE WOULD SUSPECT A THING. That was the point in the night where I realised I was a million times more excited about Maktav than about Flo admitting he loved me or Mikele remembering me and speaking three different languages about it. And that was when I started singing "WHO AM I??? CAN I ABANDON FLO SO EASILY??? BECAUSE OF THE WAY MAKTAV BISOUS'D ME???" and stuff. I actually made it all the way to the end of the song about the time the taxi showed up and we all clambered in, me glowing and beaming at nothing at all because omg omg omg. But somehow me and Lara ended up singing Die Schätten werden langer under our breath.
Do you think this is the end of the story?
WRONG AGAIN.
We got back to the house and I jumped on the internet at once, ready to keyboard smash all over the Florum. I'd already come up with "BEAUTATRICE MAKTAVOMANIE" to start things off. And when I logged on facebook, I saw there were a few messages in my inbox. I've been getting a crapton of pm's from French fans, like that "petite fille"s mother and the petite fille herself, so I was like Well I'm glad Mikele remembered her so I have something to say.
AS YOU MAY KNOW BY NOW the message was not from a fan.
IT WAS FROM PATRICE MAKTAV.
As soon as I saw his name and user picture I flung myself out of the chair and ran backwards away from my laptop, somehow ending up cowering behind the chair and having a small mental breakdown.
IN A GOOD WAY.
After hearing me screech and howl for a few minutes with some kind of fanic attack of laughter, Joanna was like Okay I'm gonna video this nonsense.
And Maktav will like it
Hahaha what.
And so finally I pull myself together and climbed back up into the chair. I see another little red notification in my inbox (actually you see it in the video, too) and am like Hmm, wonder who... IT WAS MAKTAV AGAIN.
I don't even remember my second reaction. It was around almost 4am at that point.
Anyway, the first note was written in the world's most adorable English ever and basically was thanking me for recognising his contribution to the show and telling me he'd watched the video of me playing with the dolls and thought it was cute or something. He gave up near the end and switched to French for a while before signing off in English. He also said he keeps the note me and Laurel wrote him with him because it means a lot and AWWWWWWWWWW MAKTAV YOU ANGELLLLLLLL
I checked the timestamp thing, and it appears that after Lara talked to him and told him I was on my way (a little after midnight), he got on facebook, watched the video, and sent that message. Then he came back out to see me.
The second message was sent while I was reading the first--it was about 3:30am at that point. It was in French and it said "Erin! I just saw you're a fan of Dr Who! Me too! Who's your favourite Doctor? Mine's David Tennant."
WHAT THE
HOLY FANDOM COLLISION
WHAT
So I flipped my dang lid again and was like WHO WILL UNDERSTAND THE EPICNESS OF THIS MOMENT IN MY LIFE so I got on skype even though it was so late and sure enough there was Kelley and I was like LET ME VIDEO SKYPE YOU RIGHT NOW and I told her the entire story of the whole day amidst lots of shrieking and giggling and flailing. That kind of helped me get it together.
It took me a long time, but I finally settled my dang self down and went to bed, deciding to wait till morning to try to respond.
Okay now I'm gonna go ahead and go through Sunday, because not a whole lot happened.
We hoteldoored in the morning and I got a picture with the show's Bénédicte, not the Florum's Bénédicte.
She was a little in a hurry but I saw her signing something for another fan, so I asked for a floto by name. She said something about looking all icky because it was early in the morning and I awkwardly went "Mais c'est pas vrai..." and then she asked where I was from and actually the picture came out looking quite nice! She was really sweet when she realised I was a foreigner who actually knew her name and knew she was in the show.
The dancers came out again and I was like Oh fine, I'll get another floto with Mas.
I'm glad I did, because this one is a lot nicer than the one from Amnéville where I'm wearing my Beeg Tony hat and Mas looks like he HATES me.
AND THEN. The worst moment of my whole weekend. IT BROUGHT ME SUCH PAIN.
My dear darling Flo came out of the hotel.
And he was wearing.
The UNC sweater.
I hadn't seen it for weeks and just assumed it had fallen out of his favour like the Beeg Tony hat, but there he was and he was wearing it THE DAY AFTER I ASKED HIM ABOUT IT AND TOLD HIM I PRETEND HE WEARS IT OUT OF LOVE FOR ME
TELL ME HE DIDN'T DO THAT ON PURPOSE
And I'm like OH MY GOD
I NEED A PICTURE WITH THAT.
But there were a milllllion people crowded around and Floflo was obviously in a hurry. So then I was like alright, so I guess I'll just get close enough and be like I LIKE THAT SWEATER FLORENT MOTHE or something. So I edge my way into that crowd.
The hotel doors open again.
OUT COMES MAKTAV
NO WHAT DO I
WHAT DO I DO THIS ISN'T FAIR
Both of them are in a hurry. A few sweet souls and getting autographs from Maktav while a million crowd around Flo.
And then Maktav starts looking around like maybe he was trying to find me to see if I was still there and if I still had the doll and I took a step toward him but then there's Flo in the UNC sweater and I took a step back and then I started over to Maktav and then I was like BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DOOO THIS IS UNFAAAAIIIIIIIR and I just stood completely still right between the two of them.
And neither one saw me. And they got on a bus and drove away.
(You can see why we called it the Salieri bus...)
So then all the way to the Zénith I was singing
IL FAUT CHOIIIIIIIISIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR
ENTRE MAKTAV ET FLORENT
JE NE VEUUUUUUUUUX PAS
JE LES AIME, LES DEUX
and stuff.
By the way, I'm sure my entries like this prove to you that I am a REALLY HYPERACTIVE NOISY PERSON on these Mozart weekends. Joanna and Lara have every right to want to beat me up.
Anyway, you know that Mikele made a face at me during Place je passe and you know that my darling Maktav made sure Yamin got that doll during curtain call.
After the show we hung out for a while, wandered around Strasbourg, ate some omelets, exchanged videos, packed, and I got on the train. I drew an artistic rendering of the face Mikele made at me using Paint...
Except now that a video has surfaced I can see that my memory lied a little and he wasn't doing a weird thing with his mouth, but just kinda grinning. (Screencaps! http://lesmisloony.tumblr.com/post/4049244724/that-face)
And then I fell asleep with my face on my laptop.
Laetitia was wonderful enough to offer me a ride home from the train station with her parents, so I didn't have to deal with the Noctilien.
The next morning I got on facebook and got a chat notification...........FROM PATRICE MAKTAV. He said "Erin!!!" and I said "Patrice Maktav!" and then he asked me if I got home okay and "tu reviens quand nous voir??" (except he used French chatspeak actually). I told him I'm planning to go with friends to Lyon and Rouen and he said "cool." Our little conversation actually made me forty-five minutes late to class since I was walking out the door when I saw the thing pop up, but DUH I'M NOT GOING TO JUST NOT ANSWER PATRICE FREAKING MAKTAV AFTER HE PUTS THREE EXCLAMATION MARKS BEHIND MY NAME.
And the next day we facebook chatted about Doctor Who for about an hour. He also loves Torchwood and wants to go to the Dr Who museum in Cardiff.
GOD I LOVE MY GEEKY FANBOY MOZART BFF
Or as Kelley put it, "He's our soulmate!"
In related news, about a week and a half ago I sent Flo a message on his myspace thanking him for signing stuff in the rain at that failed television show night, and this morning it was finally marked as read.
HMMM AND I WONDER WHY I'M WANDERING AWAY FROM TEAM FLORENT MOTHE.
I mean I still love him pathetically but... I think I love Maktav more.
I'm gonna knit Maktav a TARDIS hat.