gleekto:
Yeah so this is a fucking CRAZY story. But yeah - this was not random. He came to find darrenismydarcy who had hoped to see him coming out of the bus and had waited but left. We are at a cafe a few blocks from the venue.
He came to see a hopeful fan. WHAT EVEN?!!!!
@darrenismydarcy wrote up the background to how this happened which most of you have probably read by now…I’m going to try to find words to explain how LOVELY and trippy and bizarre these minutes were…
So picture it, we’re sitting around the table in Balzac’s cafe…and this is an important detail - Balzacs is NOT right beside the Sony Centre, It is not the Starbucks half a block away. It is not just across the street. It is a 7-8 minute, 4 blocks and down a street walk (google it!) from the Sony Centre.
Anyways, that’s us at Balzacs - We’re sitting around the table, @darrenismydarcy (in the blue) facing in towards the back (black) door. She’s telling us about her chill couple of hours hanging by the tour bus and chatting with the guard. We’re looking at her as she’s talking about Darren when I look up (I’m facing her/the front) when I spot a small dude with rumpled curly hair, glasses, and a beard -
My head: That’s Darren.
I say - “And there he is” - Everyone is chill (including me) because whatever - obviously not - “Darren Criss is here”.
So we all turn and by this point he is simply walking toward us as if we are his group of friends and he’s sorry he’s late. No time to even worry about it - he’s here, he’s come to see us. The usual. So he comes up to the table and first recognizes @darrenismydarcy from I assume the bus (and whom he is explicitly looking for) and he says to her, “Hey. Oh I’m so glad I found you. I heard you left So glad etc…” And she - very casually - because whatever, chill friends saying “hey” - says “You came here for me?” And she stands up to meet him and give him a hug. (Nice to see each other. The usual).
He asks her if they’ve met before (they haven’t), and then sees me sitting beside her, “We know each other!” (Of course we do. Old friends meeting at a coffee a shop after a couple of years). He takes my hand, I introduce myself, tell him we’re all coming tonight etc…He makes eye contact and nods at everyone at the table and I say, “Well, now that you’re here, can we take a picture to remember this?”
Darren says he was just going to say that (of course) and asks who has the best camera etc…and then - see above. He then tells us he’ll see us all at the show and have a great day.
So if you were seeing this from the table next to us, you may not have bothered to look up from your book. Guy was obviously late to meet his friends for coffee. He found them. No big. As @room108 said in her tags, he forgets he is a celebrity.
In seriousness, though - I have been around this fandom a long time. I’ve been a Darren fandom fan for 8+ years - I did 2 Listen Up Meet and Greets, Hedwig 4 times, H2$, and on and on - I know - and you all know - that Darren is so good to his fans, stage doors for hours, makes eye contact, is warm, wants to give - I knew all that already.
This moment fucking BLEW ME AWAY. This guy woke up from a nap on his tour bus, came out to meet the fan waiting - when he realized she had left, he must have asked the security guard about her and (bless @darrenismydarcy for randomly mentioning she was going to Balzacs) then googled the cafe - which was (see above) several blocks and an 8 minute walk away - walked casually there JUST to say “hey” and make a fan happy. Not only would she (nor we) ever have expected this, it was so beyond that I don’t think we could have imagined it.
When I went in for the VIP meet n’ greet and we had a “hey old friend!” hug, I turned to him and said “What you did was truly something special-” He interrupts with “Was so happy to do it. So glad.” And I just looked him in the eye and said, “Darren, you are a gem.”
What else is there to say?