#beth + ruby

[foxmagpie]

ruby's face when beth tries to pretend she didn't to hook up with rio is like, proof that there's a reason beth doesn't tell them these things. they can see right through her. the only way she can lie to them is by not saying anything at all.

[pynkhues]

In the promotional photos it looks like Ruby is in Beth's kitchen wonder if she'll make a comment on the furniture swap. I'd love to hear more of her outside POV like in 407.

It does, anon! It looks like we might get two Beth and Ruby scenes, which is delightful to me – one in Beth's kitchen and one in Ruby's living room.

I'd love love love Ruby (or Annie! Or hell, even Dean!) to comment on the return of the furniture too. It must look so weird to people outside of their relationship, and the thought of Beth having to try and explain it (or lbr, shut down the conversation, haha), is so much fun. I neeeed it.

[foxmagpie]

ruby just wants her BFF to actually confide in her 😢

[foxmagpie]

it cuts me up so bad that i think this almost-betrayal by ruby is 1000000x worse for beth than dean cheating and lying for years because beth loves ruby so much more

[pynkhues]

I love reading your theories!! I was wondering based on the BTS, hints and last season where you think Beth and Dean will be in S4?

Thanks, anon! And oh gosh, I feel like it’s pretty impossible to tell at this point. We actually haven’t gotten that many BTS hints or spoilers yet, but we do know a few things of course – namely that there will be friction between Beth and Dean at Boland Bubbles from 4.02 (if not 4.01), that Dean will be arrested in 4.03 and that there’s going to be a Beth x Dean flashback to when they were teenagers. We also know that the kids are back on set quite a lot, which is actually a relatively significant thing given they were written off to Judith’s place after Rio emptied the Boland house in 3.07 (in fact, I think we only saw Danny again in those last four episodes, and that was in the finale). 

Where we left off in s3 too is on a big grenade. So much of the scene focused on Dean’s fixation on Rio and Rio not being involved in their lives, and with Beth not just doing exactly that, but essentially setting up Dean as a patsy to a business she was operating with Rio. 

That’s got to come to a big head at some point – there was too much build up to it for it not to, even moreso when you remember this arc was technically leading us to the season 3 finale. The fact that it’s pairing with flashbacks to when Beth and Dean were teenagers too makes me feel like we’re going to see some sort of turning point in their relationship. 

The 2.08 flashbacks afterall were used to deepen and contextualise Beth and Ruby’s relationship, which was in turn used to deepen and contextualise the depth of betrayal and the move towards forgiveness as adults. 

It could be that that’s the case with Beth and Dean, but I doubt it. Ruby’s betrayal was felt because Ruby’s duelling loyalties between Stan and Beth were manipulated and exploited by Turner – that’s very different contextually to Beth and Dean’s long, damaged history, and my tentative theory is that the flashbacks will be more about finally calling it on the Boland marriage than they’ll be about reconciliation, but who knows, haha, I’ve been wrong on this one before.

Either way though, I do think we’re going to see some big shifts in their relationship this season! What do you guys think? 

[foxmagpie]

i love that little look between beth and ruby like “that was easy”

[pynkhues]

3 7 22!!

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

I answered this one here, but I will say I forever want to write more scenes with just the girls, particularly pre-canon scenes, so I thought I might share a scene from my ridiculously belated prompt-a-thon fill which is 10 times Ruby’s danced, and this scene is about Beth and Ruby while Beth’s in labour with Emma, and Ruby’s pregnant with Harry. 

Below a cut to save your feeds!

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“I kinda figured we’d just arrange the thing.”

She’s only half serious when she says it, but it’s worth it to see Beth’s head jerk, her eyebrows somewhere up near her forehead even as her cheeks are still flushed red, her chest still heaving.

“You have been watching way too many old romances,” she tells her, amusement thick in her tone, and Ruby shrugs, rocking the baby carrier beside her when Danny starts to whine.

“Please, you’re the one who made us go see Fiddler on the Roof three times at the Revival Theatre. If it wasn’t for that, I’d never even know about the whole matchmaker thing with your people.”

“My people,” Beth scoffs, red creeping up her neck. “Besides, the whole point of Fiddler on the Roof was that he had to learn how to let his daughters choose who they married. That they couldn’t just arrange -  - ah.”

Beth exhales sharply, squirming back into her seat, hands balling, white knuckled at the arms of the chair, and she has to be close, Ruby thinks, dropping her hand to Beth’s back, rubbing soothing circles there as she tries to catch the attention of one of the nurses. They barely seem to even see them though amidst the crowded waiting room, beelining to patients with - - what even is that? A rash? Ruby side eyes the nurse taking the man out of the waiting room, before turning her attention back to Beth.

“What was that whole do you love me song about then, huh?” Ruby says. “Him and his wife had been matched, and those two were in it, y’know?”

“It’s generational. The parents do what they have to so the kids can have it better,” Beth insists, but she hasn’t opened her eyes yet, her eyelashes matted together with her clumping mascara and tears, and Ruby sighs, sitting forwards as best she can with her own pregnant belly in the way. New plan, Ruby tells herself. They are never pregnant at the same time again. One of them needs to run point, and she can’t send Stan out with Kenny and Sara forever.

“Where’s Dean?”

“I called Boland Motors,” Ruby promises. “He wasn’t at his desk, and honestly that new secretary of his is - -”

Well, Ruby thinks a little dryly.

She’s something.

Beth squirms back in her seat, panting a little now, and the contractions really are getting closer together, even if her waters haven’t broken yet. Maybe they’ll have to pop that bag for her – they had to do it with Danny after all –her gaze darts sideways to check on him in his stroller, but he’s fallen asleep again.  

“So, how do you wanna do it?” Ruby asks, keeping her tone light. “We gotta get this thing on paper.”

It’s enough to make Beth twist her neck sideways, to peel open her watery eyes in confusion, and Ruby waits until she has Beth’s full attention before she gestures down to her own swollen belly.

“Stan Junior here is gonna be a catch. I’m just saying. Beth Junior there might want to lock it down.”

Beth’s laugh is strangled between her breathlessness, the pain of her contractions, but god, it’s music to Ruby’s ears.

“Oh, Stan Junior will definitely be a catch,” Beth agrees, the sweat curling her hair at her temples. The contraction seems to pass, and Beth smooths her own hand over her belly, still panting. “Lilies for the wedding?”

Ruby hums in approval, only to pause, squint a little below the bright glare of the hospital fluorescents.

“Wait. Do they get married at a church or a synagogue?”

“Neither,” Beth says, brushing her hair away from her face with a trembling hand, her eyes fixing briefly on Danny, sleeping in his stroller. “I feel like we should get a vacation out of it.”

“Oh, you’re planning a beach wedding now?” Ruby asks with a grin, the thing only faltering when the doors open again but - - no. Just a nurse, brandishing her clipboard. Still no Dean. Typical.

Beth hums, like she hadn’t even noticed, looking back at Ruby, her blue eyes bright, and there’s something that feels like Beth in it again, something warm, impish, as she wrinkles her nose, considering, and Ruby can’t help it, the way it feels like a key that unlocks her.

“White sand, the ocean,” Beth says. “We’d probably need to hire a marquee.”

“And a beach bar,” Ruby agrees, grinning a little when Beth rolls her eyes, waving a hand at her innocuously, before she says:

“Well, that goes without saying.”

And Ruby just laughs at that, sinking back briefly into her hard backed hospital chair (which is one-thousand percent not designed for anyone at all ever) before leaning forwards again, standing up two of her fingers like legs and walking them from one side of her belly to the other, over the arms of the chairs, and up the side of Beth’s twitching belly.

“Miss Boland, before you depart your mother, do you take this little man growing inside me to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

It really is magic, Ruby thinks again, the sound of Beth’s laugh. The real one she hears less and less often, the one that makes her throw her head back, her eyes crinkle, the sound a little low, a little husky, the one she knows Dean can never get out of her, and that at least feels like a truth. That Beth is still hers. That she’ll never lose her, not entirely, to Dean, no matter how many photo ops she goes to, no matter how many times she defers to him, no matter how much she dims her light to grow his.

Beth props her own fingers up then, mirroring Ruby’s action and walking them up over the swell of her own belly, meeting Ruby’s fingers in the middle.

“My daughter is running a little late, but I believe I have the permission to speak for her this evening,” Beth says gravely, lowering her voice. “And she says ‘I do’. Now, Mr. Hill, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“He does,” Ruby says, face split in two with a grin. She lets her eyes slip shut and her tone lower in faux-seriousness. “Finally, our two houses united.”

“Well, our husbands’ houses,” Beth says wryly, and Ruby tilts her head, conceding.  

“That’s true. I think ours have been united a lot longer than this.”

She smiles over at Beth affectionately, but it just - - it floors her, the look Beth gives her back. Her eyes wide open, suddenly wet again, pupils darting across Ruby’s face like she’s - - like she’s looking for the lie, and when she doesn’t see it, she tangles her fingers with Ruby’s, quick as she can, mumbling something about a first dance and holds Ruby’s hand tight to her belly, swaying a little – as if to hide the fact that maybe she just wanted to hold her.

To be held.

And Ruby holds her hand back all the tighter.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

I am sure everyone would love me to stop talking about light and using ‘- -’, haha. 

But honestly? I actually don’t know how others perceive my style. Like I’ve said in other posts, I’ve been told my writing is extremely feminine by industry professionals, which I believe translates to being interested in women’s lives and writing fairly descriptively (masculine prose is usually v bare bones ala Raymond Carver and, of course, Hemingway). 

I think some of the characteristics of my writing is that it’s sensory and descriptive, that I like untidy endings, that no relationship is perfect. I think (and hope) I prioritise relationships between women, even with shipper fic, that my sex scenes (again, hopefully, haha) never feel pointless or isolated from the story, and I think I’m pretty good at metaphor, but others might disagree! Who knows! 

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

Y’know, I usually don’t? By the time I post something, I’ve usually re-read it so many times I lowkey hate it, haha, and reading it just makes me feel very self-conscious. I can see the machinery of my own writing I suppose. I can see the bits I’m proud of, sure, but I can also see the bits where I got lazy, the places where the pacing isn’t quite right, the parts where I think I’m too heavy-handed. 

That said, I did re-read all of C&C recently as I was building the timeline masterpost I posted about a month ago now, but also building a better story bible for myself to write new stories, and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed being in that world again as a reader? 

Particularly the last installment I posted of Playing House - ‘Animalia’ (otherwise known as the zoo chapter, haha) - I really, really hated when I posted. I’d had a few set-backs in my original writing professionally at that time, and then I had seen someone make an unkind comment about my fics which just sort of hit a nerve at a bad time. It meant I was extra critical of my own writing, and I loved the story in my head, but felt it wasn’t translating well onto the page. 

I got to a point where I was like - - well, whatever, I don’t want to look at it, and I know people like this ‘verse, so maybe they’ll overlook how crap it is’. I got such a lovely response to it at the time, but I still felt badly about it, and so re-reading it this time, and being like ‘hang on, Past Sophie, you’re an asshole, this is pretty good’ was a nice feeling, haha.

[pynkhues]

What do you think Beth and Stan interactions are like? And the hills & Boland kids?

I think friendly, although I don’t think they’re close at all. I think one of the things s2 did was demonstrate that Beth and Stan are both jealous of each other’s relationship with Ruby and the other’s place in her life, and I imagine that puts a lot of complicated feelings and a sort of tension between them. Reno has said we’ll get more of a sense of how Stan feels about Beth this season though too, so I’m curious to see what happens!

As for the Boland and the Hill kids, I’m not sure! I definitely like to think that Harry is friends with Jane in particular, and that they probably play together not unlike Marcus and Jane do. 

I lowkey think that Sara’s probably exhausted by Kenny though, in no small part because Sara is so smart, passionate and independent, and Kenny is, well, none of those things, haha. I wrote a post about it ages ago, but I feel like Ben and Sara are probably close? And both find Kenny a sort of annoying younger brother type, but also would not put up with anyone else making fun of him. 

I don’t know though! What do you guys think?