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Puppet History #Release Season Premier March 25th 2023
In retrospect, it had been a mistake to announce their pregnancy on Puppet History.
This is how it went down.
The most liked comment on the season premier speculates if Dino Mom knocked up Beef Boy.
In the second comment, a fan berates their audience for commenting on Ryan's weight gain by generously listing illnesses and disabilities that could lead to scale fluctuations. It is not a good guess but their heart is in the right place.
This illustrates the success rate of their first announcement. Steven, unlike Ryan and Shane, is not taking the situation lightly.
"Not only did I know this was a bad idea, I explicitly told you it was."
The moment Shane and Ryan lock eyes they promptly burst into a fit of laughter.
Steven pinches the bridge of his nose and calls a meeting. Not long after, the core team is gathered around the table with their phones and laptops out to gauge their audience's reaction.
A short discussion later presents them with three options.
"This is a simple case of just getting out with it." That is Steven's preferred course of action, with an emphasis on action. "Make an announcement on your social media platforms and on the company accounts to set the record straight."
Sounding like a broken record, Ryan leans his elbows on the table making room for his belly by scooting back his chair. "The whole point was not to make a big deal out of it. We just want to show people 'hey, this is happening now', without getting into it."
"We tried that and it didn't work," Katie reasons, or tries to. She casts Shane a brief look that Ryan misses to try and prompt him to speak up for the group.
In reality, nobody on the team had been overly excited about Ryan's resignation not to make an announcement and let the viewers notice changes naturally. It would inevitably lead to confusion. The Watcher team had held out some hope that Ryan would change his mind before he started undeniably showing.
There was only so much strategically placing Ryan behind furniture and under layered clothes when the third-trimester hit. Ryan finally got his way with the Puppet History premier, going full out in t-shirt and sweatpants tucked under his waistline. No announcement, just the pregnancy noticeably there. Without the months of gradual change hidden in the production process, has resulted in miscommunication.
Shane pins Ryan with a smile, "we have established that it did not go as planned. Other than announcing it online, we can go along with it being a joke, or do nothing. What do you suggest is our best option?"
"By doing nothing we would be going along with it. The season's already wrapped filming, what's there is there, so essentially we have two options."
"We need to announce this at some point and prepare fans for your paternity leave," Katie adds to the discussion.
Shane and Steven in unison deflate in sighs at the same time as Ryan gears up for said discussion. "We talked about this and that won't be necessary."
On Ryan's part, the 'talk' concluded that he would work up until childbirth to pre-record content to last them a couple of months postpartum, which the fans would not notice. With the company in its infancy, this would be the safest economic bet.
On everyone else's part, they were waiting to see if Ryan would actually haul it out until the end of his pregnancy. They cannot forefront the company's needs over Ryan's.
Shane on his part, a third secret part, pretends to be on Ryan's side whilst waiting to jump ship fast if Ryan ends up needing the rest.
"And don't give me those looks," Ryan points at the sceptics around the room, "we are not having this discussion again, we are strictly talking about the announcement."
Steven lifts his head. "So are we doing an announcement?"
"No."
Steven slumps back in his chair again.
Shane rubs his nose under his glasses. "Should we review the Puppet History season whilst keeping in mind the audience thinks the pregnancy is part of canon? The question is if the writing still makes sense that way, since it is not meant to be a bit."
"If it's not addressed people might be disappointed when the season finale comes around and it's not integral to the plotline," Katie points out. "It won't ruin it, but it affects the audience's expectations when they think it's part of the story."
A contemplative hush falls over table.
While they are expecting their first child together now, Ryan is aware that Puppet History is Shane's baby.
He shifts to Shane, noting that his eyes are soft and round from the laughter infecting their office all afternoon from reading comments. In that moment, profoundness finally hits Ryan. He realizes that this is an important call to make. Shane does not feel at liberty to choose for them. There is where trust lies in their relationship. Shane's smile has not dropped because Ryan will make the right call.
"In that case, the best thing to do is make an announcement," he puts carefully.
"And we can do that without making a big deal of it," Shane nods to Steven prompting him to jump on this now that they got Ryan on board. "Right, Steven?"
Steven is wild-eyed from grappling with Ryan's sudden agreeability. "Oh! Sure, it can just be a text post on your accounts that says you are happily expecting."
"Clean and simple," Shane gestures upwards, "then we never have to address it again."
"The rest of the season and the following content can roll out without you discussing your private life on the channel any more than you're comfortable with," Katie determines, "there won't be a secret and there won't be distracting speculation, just like you wanted."
"That does sound pretty good." Ryan's begrudged agreement would be more effective if he was not running a hand down his ample front, and the rest of the team wasn't so happy they managed to get him to go forward with an announcement.
The meeting is promptly adjourned with everyone shutting down their devices, Katie sliding a water bottle over to Ryan, and Steven kneading on his shoulders on his way out the door with the rest of the team, leaving Shane to pull Ryan to his feet without the chair rolling out from under him.
"Don't tell me to be careful," Ryan warns with Shane balancing him on his feet, a necessary evil. "I've reached my quotum of being patronized for the day."
"Copy that," Shane slips his hand off Ryan's shoulder, "how about some Taco Bell?"
"Hell yeah, Taco Bell."
Ryan drives, it's a pride thing, and they eat in the parking lot with Ryan's seat rolled all the way back for comfort and Shane's to make space for his legs, using the armrests between them for a table.
Shane's got ranch in the corner of his lip and Ryan keeps having to knock his hand away to stop him from stealing more nacho fries.
"You do realize if you steal from me you steal directly from the baby?"
"You do realize that if you eat this much cheese you will give me a cheese child, do you think I want a cheese child that comes out smelly and with mice nibble holes?"
Ryan wheezes out a laugh, "what the hell are you talking about?"
"Share your nachos!" Shane manages to get his fingers on one but his hand is successfully slapped away on the next. "Compassion and sympathy are lost on you."
"Should have ordered your own damn nacho fries, man."
They laugh some more and once their fingers are licked clean they return to scrolling through comments.
"They are all very confused," Shane concludes, grinning wide.
Ryan sprawls out as much as he can in the front seat, the belly shaking seems to have rocked the baby to sleep, allowing his organs a rest, it's as comfortable as he's been all day. "I know it's a good thing we're acknowledging it, I just didn't want it to be a big deal, which it now is."
"Don't even think of it in that way-" Shane makes a cutting motion with his hands after dropping his phone carelessly in his lap. "We're not 'addressing' some kind of controversy, we are sharing a major development in our lives with our fans and viewers. They'd like to be looped in because they'll be happy for us. Nothing more, nothing less."
"I don't want it to seem like we were keeping it a secret to the point that it warrants clearing the air. I wanted people to draw their conclusion based on what they saw over the course of our videos."
"Do you still want to go through with this?" Shane asks.
"I do," Ryan says without pause, "maybe not a textpost though. That seems impersonal, like we're releasing an official statement."
"And it's not a statement?" Shane either states or asks, whichever is least likely to annoy Ryan in this momental hormonal serene.
Ryan gathers their trash in the paper bag in preparation for their trip home. "We are spelling out that we want to be open about us having a baby."
Shane is handed the trash, rolls open his window and manages to reach into the public trashcan outside the car. "A picture then?"
"Yeah, I like that."
Weird Wonderful World #Filming Episode: Shane and Ryan Attend a Life Drawing Class March 31th 2023
The premise is simple, they each draw sketches of the model and reveal their pieces at the end of the shooting day. The model gets to choose which one is most lifelike. They are forty-five minutes into their life drawing session when Shane takes his stool away from his easel to sit directly in front of Ryan, without peeking at his sketch.
"You look offended," Shane states in a vain attempt to whisper while wearing mics.
"It's something about the way the nude guy can bend his back like that while I couldn't tie my own shoelaces even if you held a gun to my head."
They laugh.
Elizabeth calls for the cameras to stop rolling when their laughter takes a while to die down. In a breath the crew deflates. The two of them sheepishly stumble over themselves to thank the model for his patience while a robe is slipped back onto him by a member of the Watcher crew. He waves them off with a smile like a professional who dealt with people far more childish than them (although that's hard to imagine).
Lunch is called, for Ryan that means easing out of the wooden stool in front of the easel to the more comfortable chair behind the cameras for in-between filming. For Shane, this means stretching out his tall legs to get their food from the catering table. "Any requests?"
"Surprise me." Then he immediately calls Shane back, "Something sweet and something spicy."
Shane skips mid-step and holds his thumb up, "Yup."
"-Please."
"On it!" Shane returns with two plates in tow, one is handed over to Ryan and the other which does not have a wobbling mountain of food, is for himself. They sit and eat, mostly quiet to recover from the long set day preluding the actual life drawing session. "Put any thought in the pregnancy post yet?" Shane asks.
Ryan's digging in with the plastic fork shoveling food in his mouth, mixing them thoughtlessly. "Got any good recent pics?" Since he's added some weight to his front (or his everything) since they wrapped filming Puppet History some weeks before.
Shane balances his plate on his thigh to scroll through his phone gallery. Humming. "Got a couple good ones. Depends on the mood we're going for."
"We can always ask Steven which pics he thinks is right."
"I don't think he cares what we do as long as we do it soon."
"Fine," Ryan grumbles but is soon fluttering his eyes enjoying the spicy wings with the moist crumbs of brownie scooped together a little too much. He looks at Shane from over the top of his plate. Food makes him so agreeable. Goddamnit. "We'll do it today."
They knock their knees together and finish their lunch, after which Shane bins their paper plates and returns to the opposite side of the studio. They set up to continue filming the episode, cameras rolling, nude model out in the centre of the room while the boys sketch him in various poses. They save their creations for each other and the audience until the end.
Ryan is standing in the opening shot, looking pregnant in a way that makes Shane drop his pencil, twice. Ryan props himself up on his lower back for support, his smile is radiant under the studio light. He turns to the camera and explains that they needed a lunch break, "but we're back baby and I'm in it to win it."
"It's not a competition, Ryan!" Shane calls across the room.
Ryan does not break eye contact with the lens. "It's always a competition."
The model suppresses a laugh before returning to the cirque du soleil pose from earlier which they will surely have to blur frontal and back for the final edit.
Shane makes a face at Ryan over his easel, which Ryan can only look past sideways, not over. "You trying to distract me is not going to work," Ryan deters.
"That was not what I was trying to do." Shane gives camera 2 a secret nod. Then he returns to his abhorrent stick figure drawing.
Puppet History #Release Episode: The Tragic Life of Frida Kahlo April 1st 2023
They announce the baby on their Instagram accounts, Twitter and company Tumblr blog with a semi-candid of Ryan sprawled out in his desk chair, in his deflated slouch his belly is pushed out and Shane is crouched beside him, pointing with a goofed-out grin.
The caption reads: new ghoulboy incoming this summer
Ryan shuts his phone off and slides it to the floor where it can charge. Scooting back on the bed with Shane.
Bend over his screen Shane's glasses slide from his nose again and again.
Ryan pulls at Shane's shirt to stop getting distracted by the strip of skin but he remains engrossed with his laptop post-Puppet History episode two of the season and pregnancy announcement. Ryan settles in the Mount Everest of pillows stacked against the headboard, after fluffing them in perfect formation, he reaches for his popcorn on the bedside table, eating in bed cupping his hand under his chin.
"You gonna refresh that?" Ryan asks.
Shane has been hovering the cursor over the arrow button on Twitter for a long stretch. He scratches at his chin. "You shut down your phone."
"Don't let me stop you. If you're curious you should look."
"You aren't curious?" Shane's chin untucks from his chest when Ryan shakes his head. "Anxious?"
Ryan nods. "A bit. Glad it's over."
"Yeah," Shane shuts his laptop and puts it to the side. "We can let it go now."
Ryan elbows Shane's hands from reaching into his popcorn bowl, in the process flinging salt and buttered popcorn over the bed. "You dick!"
"Learn to share goddamnit!" Shane laughs. This time gaining a clawful of popcorn he stuffs down his gullet too fast for Ryan to stop him.
Ryan wheezes a laugh, trying to crush Shane with his weight by pinning him with a knee on his thighs. "You know where the kitchen is. What stops you from making your own damn snacks?"
"Your finely honed pregnancy instincts just know exactly what food to prepare, I respect that part of you. I tune into it. What are you gonna do about it?" It isn't entirely a fair wrestling match since Shane is cautious about making sudden movements and rather places his hands on Ryan's hips not to throw him off balance, or off the bed. On the other hand, Ryan is very pregnant these days and not entirely mobile.
This does not stop Ryan from playing dirty, pushing the bowl of popcorn to the very edge of the bedside table out of Shane's reach. "This, this is what I'll do about it."
Shane's eyes narrow.
Ryan laughs at what's to come, "oh fuck!"
Shane tucks him to his chest and slides Ryan closer, giving Shane the mobility to sit upright and take another handful of popcorn for himself. "I think I'm winning," he says with a mouthful.
Bellies squished together, Ryan settles to get comfortable with Shane taking most his weight. "You're an asshole," he says out loud even though he has to admit to himself that Shane managed to get his mind off the announcement debacle.
Shane bends his knees giving Ryan something to lean on while holding his popcorn hand out to him as a twisted peace offering.
Ryan picks the popcorn out of Shane's palm. "Your arms are freakishly gangly, that's the only reason why you got me there."
"Whatever you say."
Ryan throws a kernel at him. "You have to make more later."
"Yeah," Shane's eyes are so damn soft when drooping with sleep and a long day of smiles. His hand reaches between them and finds Ryan's abdomen. "Whatever you say."
New #Bonus Episode: Announcement April 2nd 2023
By some standards, the pregnancy announcement is a huge success.
It is simultaneously the most liked Watcher post across all platforms, and trending in the mainstream media. This is a good thing.
The bad news is they forgot they posted their pregnancy announcement on April 1st.
Steven is rubbing his eyes intensely, face almost on the table with how far he is bent looking down at his phone. "This requires damage control."
Fans have split into two factions, those who believe the announcement to be a joke and the others who pulled their heads out of their ass.
"We did exactly what you told us to do!" Ryan hates how his voice pitches higher when he knows he is threading on bullshitting. "The timing was unfortunate. But-"
"Maybe you could have cleared the day with us." Steven sounds tired.
"Half the audience is convinced," Katie is scrolling down the comments with her pinky finger on her tablet. "That's half the work done."
"Now the other half." Shane clasps his hands in one. "I suggest we do what we do best and make a video on the channel."
"It would breach the agreed upon release schedule," warns Steven. "Uploading another video during the Puppet History season."
They have breached the format in the past. Even somewhat more the last couple of months and the upcoming.
They wrapped on a season of Too Many Spirits with Ryan drinking virgin cocktails throughout the night and watching Shane waste away by himself. They were offered an investigation of a haunted house, but they were advised by Ryan's doctor to mind his blood pressure and promptly postponed Ghost Files. The filming order of upcoming videos has been based on optimal efficiency. They film what they can when they can.
"The next months we will likely breach format more," Kate strokes her chin, thinking, "you guys would be open to making a video?"
Ryan has been squinting at his phone for a better part of the meeting. "My stomach doesn't look 'comically huge'!" He catches eyes with nobody but Shane, who is sucking in his cheeks to not to smile. "What the fuck man?"
Shane tears his eyes away, his face tight with a reigned in grin, now pointed at Steven. "All we need is one camera and a couple microphones, we'll make it a quick one. Upload it today, and all order pizza."
"Hell yeah," Steven adjourns the meeting by slamming his hand on the table. He and Katie get up and pull a team together for a small closed set on the Ghost Files set.
Ryan and Shane rock up an hour later when equipment has been prepared. The main lighting rig is foregone for two stands just out of shot. They are mic'd up. Ryan lowers into the chair behind the metallic desk. Shane hovers until he is seated and follows. Both of them posed in front of the one camera pointed at them.
Shane pulls out his chunky dad-wallet and pulls out the sonogram picture. He folds his hands over it on the table.
Ryan pulls his beany over his ears with a weighted sigh.
"Ready?" asks Shane.
The small crew, including Steven and Katie have gathered around. Ryan sucks in as much air as his lungs under pressure can take. "I'm ready."
Under the table, Shane presses his leg to Ryan's when the camera starts rolling.
"Thank you for joining us for a special announcement. I am Ryan Bergara and this is Shane Madej," an unexpected rush of excitement fills his belly with butterflies. Ryan cannot stop a big smile from forming on his face. "You want to take this away, Shane?"
"We've talked about this before on the show that we will not present you with false evidence for clicks and views."
"And yet-" Ryan feigns a glare at the camera.
"Yet, we have been accused of doing just that!" Shane shakes his head in a disappointed teacher-like fashion. "Alas not ghost evidence, but evidence nonetheless."
"Who even fakes a pregnancy announcement?"
"That does seem to take things a little too far."
Ryan has his hands clasped underneath his swollen front and leans back in his chair in full view of the camera although his gaze is strictly fixated on Shane. "Anyway, we wanted to clear the air."
"What we really have wanted to do is let you know that we have tried to let you know. If that's not clear then I don't know what to tell you."
"We did announce it on April Fools," Ryan grins.
"I suppose."
They laugh.
"But we are truthfully expecting a baby."
Shane throws up his arms. "A new generation Watcher baby!"
Ryan nudges his arm with his elbow. "Show them the picture."
Holding up the sonogram, Shane stretches his arm to cover a large portion of the shot. "This is as real as it gets."
"Now stop saying that my pregnancy looks fake."
"And that your belly looks comically huge," Shane laughs, lowering the photo again. "You don't say that sort of thing to people. Anything else we ought to say?"
"Not that I can think of."
"Well, that concludes this impromptu announcement," Shane rests his hand on top of Ryan's normal-sized for a third-trimester pregnancy abdomen. "I hope that's cleared the air. If anyone still doubts it after this you should go fully naked on camera."
"Or we film and upload the birth video to the main channel."
When the camera stops rolling and the take is called, they are still laughing and brainstorming on how to strengthen their case to convince their audience.