After @lovetriangleroute shared Niki's (fabulous) wedding suits, I started thinking about Sophie's wedding dress. She likes texture and detailing, and I expect that would extend to her wedding. A couple of things she might wear:
Actually, never mind. She would go for the first one. It has all her favorite things: a little bit of edge, a little bit traditional, a little bit sexy, and a little bit whimsical.
Plus it looks easier to move in, and you better believe that she's dragging Orion to the dance floor a lot.
I got tagged three times, THREE by @auggiepierce, @theshanaverse AND @lovetriangleroute for this.
Either all of you know Im currently writing smutfic or something else is going on.
Anyways! This is last minute fic idea I got because I wanted to write about Oriana being obsessed with Taliyah's ass so warning for nsfw ๐ โผ๏ธ
She goes for her shirt, a soft dark brown hand stopping her.
She looks at her singer and sighs.
โWe shouldn't.โ
โWe could.โ
โYou need to leave in 40 minutes.โ
Taliyah groans.
โI don't like going to clubs or bars anyways.โ
She can't help but laugh at that.
โYou sing in them.โ
They click their tongue.
โGoing for work and leisure are too different things.โ
โThis is work.โ
They pout.
The scotch closer to her, making their eyes sadder and bigger.
โPlease, Ri?โ They move to kiss her neck. She obliges letting them, moving her head to make space for their lips.
"What would you even say to production?โ
They shrug.
โFell asleep and didn't hear โem.โ
She still hesitate, she shouldn't let them convince to skip filming.
She wants to, truly, she wants them for herself and bruise their ass until they cry.
But stillโฆCory might grow suspicious and the last thing they need is having her deeper in their business.
โTaliyahโฆโ she starts.
They look at her, with their brown eyes bigger than usual and their bottom lip between their teeth, it should have been hers biting it.
Fuck, it's so tempting and they're already halfway there, she could move her fingers deeper into their hole.
A moan escapes them as Oriana realizes what she's done.
Leaving on THAT note because I'm evil like that eheheh.
Tagging none because everyone and their mom got tagged at this point ๐ญ๐ญ
After @lovetriangleroute shared Niki's (fabulous) wedding suits, I started thinking about Sophie's wedding dress. She likes texture and detailing, and I expect that would extend to her wedding. A couple of things she might wear:
I wasn't going to post them today but I feel it appropriate hahah
Was mostly thinking about that au I mentioned with Auggy as a cool model and Willow their hectic stylist hehe
Auggy: :| Willow: โ*: .๏ฝก. o(โงโฝโฆ)o .๏ฝก.:*โ
genuinely love noelle's confidence and that it just Works For Her like yeah that feels Correct. girly just sassing and teasing everyone and they're always like "yeah no that's fair you ARE amazing".
live laugh love that for her.
no wonder Nate was captivated by her she just got that Star Power -jazzhands-
Sundays are the universe's way of reminding us that it is okay to be still. itโs a day made of soft fabrics, slow melodies, and the gentle art of doing absolutely nothing with a deeply romantic heart.
@loreofyore Congrats, you've unlocked an unskippable cutscene. i will now be discussing the intricacies of valenreign and why male g is the reason ppl dont see the poly potential.
basically. the sickening part about valenreign is that theyre actually great compliments to each other, and vic is an extremely supportive person, and extremely comforting to have around. She's silly while also having a sense of responsibility and taking things seriously. Meanwhile G likes to poke fun and make light, but gets overwhelmed and can't communicate very well, but they're a deeply caring person who *wants* to be good to her, but doesn't know how.
however, the problem is that G's offenses are much more egregious when theyre a man, and their (very real) concerns about Vic reporting to Viktor are ignored and disregarded as them being dramatic, when in actuality Victoria *does* report too much to Viktor. We can theorize about why that is, but a fact is that during the caruso dinner she expresses feeling abandoned and wishes for more support (which g interprets as her feeling like a caretaker which. ill get into later). But based on this its reasonable to think she reports to him out of a hope for support (which we know wont come).
Victoria and G both think of her as their caretaker, which is a correct impression from G, but also wrong of Victoria to do, but G has also not been able to prove himself as being trustworthy due to Viktors hovering. With Gina, this dynamic is not perpetuating heterosexual norms, but is instead a product of their environment. For Griffin, people considering him Vic's responsibility is affirming gender norms wherein women are blamed for their husbands' actions (i.e day drinking). Victoria babysits Gina because people think G is unreliable. Victoria babysits Griffin because people think that's her job as a man's wife.
This is kind of the theme of Gina vs Griffin; Gina is more tolerable because women are taught to be so. Griffin has little to no filter or restraint because men aren't supposed to have that. Gina will not welcome unwarranted touching, Griffin feels he's not allowed to reject it.
Consequently, Griffin & Vic feels more like a man who never loved his wife & a wife who deserves better, while Gina & Vic feels like a dysfunctional couple that could possibly work through their issues because the power imbalance is a result of their respective career levels, not a gendered thing like it is with Griffin.
While playing Griffin after several Gina runs, I found Griffin to be more volatile and, to an extent, dramatic, and living up to the diva title Iris ascribes in chapter 1. Conversely, calling Gina a diva feels like an overreaction ("A man can react, a woman can only overreact." Lana Wilson (Director). (2020, January 20). Miss Americana. Netflix.). This is a main way titles applied to Griffin have a different weight when directed as Gina, who generally speaking is far more polite than Griffin. I believe this difference also has a major implications for Valenreign, and why Griffin is either loved enough to have an affair with, or hated to the point of being ignored. Griffin is more frequently chosen than Gina, and that means people's first impression of a male diva, rather than a woman in a strict situation.
Griffin & Gina are extremely different and heavily affect how you will perceive Valenreign. Griffin comes off as a starfishing husband, while Gina reads as someone who can't communicate. The prevalance of Griffin over Gina likely has a direct correlation with the lack of Valenreign romancers (aside from the lack of valenreign moments in the currently public demo).
I had to switch to Gina partway through my first demo playthrough because of this exact issue, and I think it's so interesting how the Doyalist and Watsonian perspectives meld together and interact in this case, precisely because it's an interactive fiction situation.
From the Doyalist/outside pov, I find I prefer Gina primarily because of those cultural norms you mention: It's much easier for me as a reader to interpret G as a sympathetic character when their behavior is not directly reinforcing gender norms of toxic masculinity and patriarchal marriage structures. And I do think that's a very deliberate authorial choice on Amy's part. How society treats people of different genders, and especially how being high-profile in society changes based on gender presentation, is a major theme of the story (see also: differences in how Seven is talked about in the press).
From the Watsonian/in-universe perspective, everyone is behaving badly, and no one is really picking up on the idea that G is having serious mental health issues. Griffin is a playboy and a self-centered asshole who never takes anything 'seriously enough' because he never really grew up, but that fits the expected norm for his position so his underlying issues go almost completely unacknowledged by the people around him (and possibly the reader too). Gina, on the other hand is more likely to be slotted into the "rebellious/hysterical woman" stereotype with her issues dismissed and herself infantilized, not because she's acting like a child, but because she's a woman (which a lot of readers are going to be more resistant to just accepting, because we've seen it and its problems so often).
Yes, it's about power structures and their ripple effects either way, but it's also about biases I carry with me because of my own enculturation and lived experience. There doesn't actually have to be any textual difference between the characters' behavior for my interpretation to change, and I find that fascinating as a lens through which to examine my own thoughts and reactions as I play the game.
This is getting long, so more under the cut ...
No matter their gender, G is a person who has had their choices and agency systematically stripped from them over the course of a decade, during one of the most vulnerable times of their life: The adolescent-to-young-adult period of actually figuring out who they are and how to take responsibility for their own life and actions as an adult. Viktor talks about G as being sort of frozen in time as if that's a result of choices G is making, and isn't fully Viktor's own fault for putting a 16-year-old in a band full of people who are a decade older than them, pulling them out of school and its opportunities to interact with any peers, and then not only continuing to treat G as if they are a child for 10+ years, but also continuing to treat the rest of the band and Victoria (and G's family!) as "real adults" who are tangentially responsible for managing G and their "brand."
Obviously the caretaking expectation is not fair or psychologically healthy for anyone involved (Victoria, G, or the band), but as a reader/player who lives in a patriarchal society, this "everyone else has to take care of the star who's throwing a fit" is much less jarring when it's Gina (because we live in a society that regularly infantilizes women and I'm used to the idea that her choices are constrained) than when it's Griffin (because patriarchal norms have conditioned me to believe that a male star has more inherent power and should be able to do more), even though they have experienced extremely similar trauma and behavioral restrictions. It's a very cool (and interactive!) way to do social commentary on gender roles and expectations, and I like that Amy is exploring it.
I think it's also really interesting that Victoria is always Victoria, and we never see a version of this relationship where Gina is paired with a husband instead of a wife. I was actually expecting a gender change for Victoria the first time I played with Gina, and was pleasantly surprised when Victoria was still there instead. I was excited for the canonical queer marriage element, but I was also relieved about it. Because if Victoria was a husband instead of a wife, her behavior would also be less sympathetic: A man who gets frustrated over people expecting him to take responsibility for his wife is an asshole, not a damsel in distress, and the level of caretaking Victoria displays is much more likely to come off as controlling behavior if done by a man (because it is an attempt at control in a situation where she has very little power). As you said, ValenReign feels more like they can work things out when they're a queer couple, but I don't think that's so much a reflection of their behaviors or attitudes as it is an effect of American culture expecting women to be more sensitive/emotional and able to talk things out eventually. That interpretation is on us as readers, not the characters' actual actions. By keeping Victoria as a wife no matter what G's gender is, Amy is able to highlight the role of gender-based power structures without sacrificing reader sympathy for the characters-- but notably, readers may need to play both routes to see the common thread of commentary, because these perspectives are so deeply baked into (American and Western) culture.
Happy birthday, friend!! Youโre amazing and I hope you have a great day today ๐๐
Thank you dearest Chrys! It was yesterday (just had a bad end to my day so I didn't get around to replying to the last messages until now), but I'll gladly take the wishes for a good day today! Sending them right back to you! ๐ค
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