Thank you for answering my question, i love reading your thoughts and i agree with everything. Now on a more general note, if there was to be a clear romantic path with them, who do you think would make the first move, Ava or Deborah?
Thank you! And ooh interesting! I tend to think of their coming together in less romantic terms when I write fic mostly bc even though romance is 100% there (from their big gestures to the quiet moments, altho I think Deb especially would be more likely to call it care or even love than romance), I have a hard time wrapping my head around a romantic arc that blossoms outward and grows into a sexual relationship instead of holding steady on its own terms. (Obviously there’s value in both, but for me, the show is already giving me much of what I want of the latter but will not do the same for the former. So fic!) In my mind, I find that getting to the physical consummation between Ava and Deb in a way I find personally persuasive requires a kind of erotic/sexual tension that masks the romance lurking beneath it or a level of joking irreverence where the coupling proceeds as a “commit to the bit” sorta thang (a la @catelyngrant’s wonderful sugar we’re going down fic). Having it occur on romantic terms is lovely and I know many fic authors do it beautifully, but it’s a mode that to me shifts these two women into a slightly different tone (register? Genre?) than how I personally see them.
BUT! Pushing myself outside of my comfort zone … I feel like just realistically speaking it would have to be Ava because I don’t think Deborah would let herself risk being another older comic with more wealth and power potentially taking advantage of a younger woman. Even as she calls Ava a partner, not an employee, I think that nagging anxiety would linger. Also, I think she’s internalized enough mainstream heteronormative misogynistic bullshit to have a really hard time envisioning why Ava would want a relationship with her (maybe she could see the one night stand of it all after her s2 Memphis hook up, but she was still thinking of that encounter as a fetish fulfillment and therefore niche, not something she associates with romance or expects of everyone). And, practically speaking, I think Deborah gets off on the attention of her own pursuit in the realm of the romantic and the sexual (in deep contrast to the way she gets off on/at least finds deep gratification and meaning in being the pursuer of her own ambitions, whose too-easy coming to fruition actually, imo, frustrates the pleasures they might otherwise provide).
Anyway idk if any of that gets at your question, but it was fun to think with!
