An awful lot to process here, as usual. You really pack stuff in! I'll have to do multiple rereads to get everything straight. (Plus I've barely slept all summer and my brain is like Swiss cheese.)

Preliminary remarks: Johnny is more mature than Stella. Tiffany should be proud of him. And I think Zebeste is the kind of friend she'd like her son to have.

Official prediction: This'll be one hell of a party. And Tiffany will regret letting Johnny stay for it, at least once. Twice if she doesn't scoop him up and take him home after the first time.

That "not for public display" picture of Angel - is she wearing Valence undies in it, by any chance? Cat's not the one she has to show up, but with any luck she and Flo will never meet, and she will have to endure seeing him with Cat (doing what she could've done sooooo much better herself) at random times for months.

Valentine is showing a lot more vulnerable here than he has in any of the Widespot chapters, even the ones where he's pensive, worried, or grieving. Though anyone on the shoot would be surprised to hear me say so; even Flo. Cat's yanking him right back into his comfort zone at the end there, though. She's also, incidentally, giving Rem his one shot at getting anywhere with Flo today; but I bet Val cuts him out completely, even if he's not quite slick enough that she never realizes this has happened. And honestly I expect him to be plenty slick enough.

Ooh boy, can I relate; for me it was the summer of all work and no play and it's left me feeling very dull-witted. I'm actually surprised it only took me a few days to put together Stella's interlude so I could finally post this thing because every other time I sat down and looked at it, it was like trying to decipher ancient pictograms.

I think this must be my longest span between updates and I don't remember all of the things so I'm going to need to go through it again myself because there are usually a bunch of little details that I like tossing in there - one that I completely forgot when doing the interlude posing was that Stella is left-handed. Oh well.

Johnny is definitely a good egg. He's certainly not likely to make such recklessly impulsive life choices. That groundedness is one thing he and Zebeste have in common. She's already on her career path - which he's got plenty of time to figure out - but they re both attuned to the fact that the future will happen and that how it happens will depend in large part on what they do. Stella wants and she seeks, she actively puts herself on the line (in ridiculous ways sometimes), but she doesn't prepare. Never occurs to her to put in the work.

Your official prediction is a pretty safe bet, I think - but the Pish Posh crew are not heading straight home. They've got an early plane for another job, much lower profile of course, but it does mean that Tiffany's got limited options for getting out of dodge.

I know I'm officially slower than Christmas but there is still stuff to come on the Angel front so I don't want to get ahead of myself, but oh yes, she definitely would've missed the mark focusing on outshining Cat. Not that she would've necessarily known that. It would be funny if her own ambitions were impairing her aim there but Val would cherish the image less if it were a constant reminder of his Valence days.

While the 'I am become a name' bit has gone on for so long and been branded on so many entries (though this is the last one for it), the real title for the whole is the line that follows in the poem: 'For Always Roaming with a Hungry Heart Much Have I Seen and Known' which relates directly to Val's odyssey. I don't think he's done for surprises, not the least of which will be surprising himself. But, of course, you're spot on with the details there; always making me wish I had the next part lined up to show you exactly how it all goes down. Cat certainly got the jump on Flo but that doesn't mean she's got the edge!

Edited 2017-09-27 06:29 am (UTC)

I'm feeling that pictogramish way about the populated Bigg City. I know there's less than a week's worth of development to do on it, but it's a bunch of moving parts and timing issues and I fall apart trying to think about how it all needs to fit together. Sometimes you need to walk away and let your backbrain alone, and then when the day comes when you take a deep breath and tackle it, everything falls into place because you've been working on it without knowing it all along.

So, after a re-read and a day of simmering, the biggest thing leaping off the page here is how truly excellent Valentine is with the flirting. That's probably why everyone in the business said he was doing so well in the shoot - he has all this "power of attraction" stuff down pat. He says nothing but the truth when he tells Flo he never misses a trick. Ball field or ball room, it's important to be alert to your surroundings.

And the most important things he does in the romantic department aren't even what the amateurs in the room would think of as flirting. Admitting to being at sea and humbly asking advice of Flo, getting in good with Bo - the Universe, in the form of the Player, handed him a stroke of luck when he recognized Bo and was able to dish out a sincere compliment, but he was doing fine even before that, establishing a level of personal connection and respect, with both the woman he wanted and her nearest and dearest, that Cat doesn't even know enough to want at this stage of her life. It'd never occur to Rem (much less Gordo) to go anywhere near there, though he should watch and learn if he really wants to start seeing people he can go to the same movie with multiple times.

The key thing, of course, is that he's not acting. His ego's plenty big enough (batting lefty to show up the rookies, yeah, that's just what he'd do!), but not so big as to render him uninterested in other people.

Or perhaps it's that the ego's so robust, he has no need to feed it. You can tell by the way he treats Johnny, taking his concerns about his own game seriously and making time for him. Yeah, it's a good way to be with young fans, and since Flo and Bo seem to like Johnny treating him well is an obvious way not to shoot himself in the foot - but someone who was just feeding on adulation couldn't have pulled it off without impressing Johnny with a sense of his own inferiority and temerity, and of The Big Star's patience and condescension in dealing with him. And he'd hardly poke fun at himself inside his own head, or consider slipping out unnoticed before the party, if he were primarily concerned with impressing other people and making them acknowledge his greatness.

None of which prevents him from taking what Cat offers him on a plate. He may want something better, and plan to get it; but he's a long way from the point of giving up on meaningless woohoo, or of not letting his ego dine on whatever is offered it for free. His interest in other people (at least in attractive women and baseball players)as people is like the drawl - it comes naturally, but he works it.

And the vodka is a concern. Surrounded by temptation, it never occurs to him to resist it.

Also, as a tabletop gamer, I love that Lew's trying to figure out people's alignments. Also that "Chaotic" appears to be a turn-on for him.

I've only got a cultural osmosis kind of acquaintance with the concept myself but it felt right for Lew. I'm not sure it's the healthiest turn-on for him because even Stella with her utter lack of finesse would've chewed him up and spit him out. But that's not an entirely unfamiliar dynamic to him.

As virginal as Lew may seem, he's not strictly a virgin. During the summer after HS graduation there was the girl who hung around at some of his own haunts who decided that he would do to get in some experience and practice while she was too insecure to go for the kind of guys she wanted. He let her. And then there was the other one, in college; the kind of girl who usually looked through him, but she was having boyfriend problems one day and he was there. If he accepts that he's simply always or mostly going to be sexually passive then he's also coming to realise that he needs to make himself indispensable to the Chaotic Neutral's plans to get some of that single-mindedness thrown his way.

We'll be happy to get Bigg City whenever you're ready to share it. There are enough times (for procrastinating me anyway) where you have to rush the work and trust to your baseline skill set that it won't be awful even if it's not great, but thankfully most hobby projects can stand to sit and breathe for a while. Of course, you have to come back to it. That's where keeping the story itself, apart from the mechanics of pulling it together, leisurely ambling about in my head has helped. Because I am certainly not averse to abandoning ship in general! The flip side is that all that daydreaming means it's stretched to twice it's original size :-) but I can't imagine not getting it all done. Eventually.

Val's inability, or rather unwillingness, to resist temptation, yes, this is a thing that will come up again. And possibly again.

He's incredibly spoiled, on top of the ego. The fact that this hasn't made him thoroughly unpleasant and self-involved just means that Mama raised him right. Because he really has been living in "Val's world" for a while - any personality could get corrupted by that bubble - but though hardly humble, he's managed to stay relatively down to earth.

The 'ego so robust that he doesn't concern himself with impressing other people' is right on the mark. It also means that he can be genuinely generous with his time and attention, but only when he feels like it. Just imagine if it were Rem coming over during a lull to talk about the last game he saw or something. A perfectly reasonably subject for small talk considering who Val is, and Rem wouldn't be fawning, but I doubt very much that he gets to walk away without a sense of his own inferiority (though Rem would never cop to that). That wouldn't be innocent on Val's part, though, simply because he's some dude and therefore uninteresting; he has definitely noticed Rem noticing Flo. (No, really, I've got unstaged pics of them sternly eyeballing each other across the room while she's in the middle or talking to one or the other. It was hilarious.)

One of my all-time favourite shots of Val is the straight-on shot of his face when talking to Bo. I could not leave it out but I'm glad it didn't come across like he was flirting with Bo; flirty, yes, that's his default, but he was certainly not switching focus to the woman who happened to be in front of him at the moment. He's drawn to Flo and sure does mean to have her, but he wants her on his terms even while recognising that she's not a groupie, not Cat. He wanted her to be the one showing up to his dressing room and while they had the Dom and whatever's in the minifridge he would've happily stayed in there with her all night, blowing off the party, but afterward he still would've kissed her on the forehead and sent her packing. Would've if he could've.

Rem falls into the same category as the rookies hoping to take Val down at the exhibition game, or the future Peter Ottomas fooling around with Daytona - not threats or rivals, really (I don't think Val can conceive of either), but nuisances mucking up his territory and needing to be put in their places.

This of course is part of what's wrong with Rhett further down the line. Valentine makes all this look easy and natural and Rhett's convinced it's supposed to be the same way for him - but he's way too self-conscious to carry it off, and he's uneasily aware that he can never be top of any heap while his Dad lives. He hasn't got what it takes to back up his sense of entitlement.

But even Valentine has his limitations. I could've told him that Flo would no way come to his dressing room. The same qualities that drive Bo crazy as she does all the promotional work for both of them, that result in Flo never being the one to bring the portfolio and always being the one who doesn't follow up on Yes'm assessment of her face, mean that direct indirect invitations won't work on her.

Her sense of boundaries is as big a handicap in Starrywood as Stella's obliviousness to them - she'll never make a fool of herself going where she's not wanted, but she'll completely overlook opportunities to make herself wanted, and not recognize the more subtle signs that she's wanted already and only has to reach out her hand. It's reserve, rather than shyness, and I can totally relate; but it's a good thing she has Bo in her corner, pushing her out.

But Val didn't see that and now here he is with Cat. He'll have to go to the party if he doesn't want to settle for a second-stringer, and why should he settle for anything? And though I don't think Bo will get in his way, he is not a professional contact and she has no motive to push Flo in that direction. Sylvia-Marie's the target now; Valentine is not her business, or only in the same way a little sister's personal life is a big sister's business generally. He's got some more work to do for what he wants, and if he thinks about it he'll probably concede that it's more fun that way anyhow.

And maybe someday it'll all be a funny story, but right now there's a post-production letdown to cope with.

Elsewhere on the set, I don't think Tiffany would agree with FM and SM that she and Frankie have any chemistry at all. He bugs her, she'll cop to that, but Not In That Way Don't Be Ridiculous. And as for cheating on Brad with anyone, under any circumstances, much less while her son is in the house - she is shocked and appalled that such an idea would ever cross anybody's mind. What is this madhouse she's found herself in? If she ever finds out that's what they're thinking, her indignation will confirm them in the opinion, where if she laughs at the notion they might acknowledge a misunderstanding. But there's no way Tiffany's relaxed enough here to do that, if she ever is. I imagine her laugh is brittle a lot of the time.

Even if she remains blissfully ignorant (and how would that be funny? Nope, she's doomed), I don't think she'll enjoy this party much. I just hope she gets through the screening (alone in the dark with Frankie watching advertising near-porn) without having a meltdown.

Doomed! Oh yes, Tiffany is definitely doomed on that score. Syl has given her interdiction against it, but there's no doubt that Frankie would find a way to work around what 'no bone for doggie' really means if he had a mind to. And he does have a mind to, her apparent hostility notwithstanding. He figures Tiff's the kinda gal that needs a little rage to get her wound up enough to be any fun at all.

The next part picks up at the party but I've had a handful of wordless transitional scenes in mind to throw up either on tumblr or at the beginning and the awkward screening is among them. I'm just not sure I want to stage it. Might do the fallout at dinner instead. I'll decide once I've made some actual headway. But really, with her son in the house! What does he take her for? And how thoroughly corrupted are these Mash-ugas that it wouldn't even occur to him to care that her son was there? One day, safely at home with Brad, she might get a kick out of having been thought a worthwhile conquest by a connoisseur such as FM, but she'll probably need Brad to even suggest that spin on it.

One thing you can be sure Val won't be doing is spending all his time up there with Cat while there are more interesting possibilities down at the party. That was more like a snack that helped re-energise him for a bit, but he's not skipping dinner. He knows that he was overconfident, expecting to overwhelm what a girl like Flo 'wouldn't normally do' with a wink and a smile but ain't no problem for him to rise to the challenge.

He might have to work harder than he thinks, though. For Flo, it was a lot easier to enthusiastically put herself out there when she was all starry-eyed and eager and brand new to this, and she was rewarded for it to an extent. But she's got a kind of battle fatigue and has fallen back on what's most comfortable and most natural to her. When it's time to work she always shows up, fully, and shines, but she won't really be in her element with the Starrywood process unless she gets to a level when the work is coming to her. The good work. She deaded her last agent, as she'll tell you, when he wouldn't send her anything but more sex kitten roles. It was one thing to do the kind of thing that cracked Gordo's Top 10 when she thought the part actually had more to it, even if that's all people remember, but she refused to get typecast and become That Girl now and forever professionally. Bo respects it, but she doesn't really get it. Work is work. So she's got a lot of pushing to do.

It's possible that Sylvia-Marie's interdiction of Tiffany is based, not on any personal quality of Tiffany's making her into a Bad Idea, but solely on Johnny's presence. Though she hasn't shown any sign of awareness of Johnny's existence or Tiffany's relationship to him, I doubt much gets past her on a set and that not being visibly aware of things until she feels a need to would be a natural part of her schtick.

Or she may just not want him to be stung by a WASP.

Cat won't want to stay in the room all night, either. This is the kind of girl who wants to Be Seen, and part of the point of being with Valentine Hart is Being Seen with Valentine Hart. Being seen in the commercial with him is good, but everyone on the set today knows it's make-believe. To make a lasting impression on them, she'll have to show them that it's not all make-believe. Or at least, that's the tack she'll assume she has to take.

I wonder if she's realized that "making a lasting impression" is her weakness, as Rem notices. The Mashugas remember her enough to cast her opposite Valentine with out a screentest, but the Mashugas see her as embodying a role rather than as a talent per se. The trouble with her approach, though, is that no one - not even Val, who's good at it; not even the Mashugas, who have a use for her - sees her as a person. All she puts out there is sex kitten, so that's all anybody sees. She is the fate Flo is trying to avoid.

Alas for Flo, you have to do the promotion, and lots of it, before the work starts coming to you. It sucks to have a talent that is completely at the mercy of other people's choices and priorities. She's lucky to have Bo acting as free publicist, and I hope she comes to appreciate that. One of the things that is making Valentine so attractive (it's not as if she doesn't know better) is that he is in fact coming to her and recognizing her merits when all she was doing was going around being good at her job du jour. She didn't have to audition for his attention.

This whole story is about work. I can tell there's a lot of things to say about that by the way the ideas are writhing around. I'll probably have to sleep on the thought to articulate it at all; but that's the nub of it, the overarching theme. Work, and how it gets done.

Syl did give the most passing notice, accounting for the little crewman as Tiffany's back during her early bloody-mary-clutching appearance. She needed to be aware of who was in their midst, but she is otherwise not concerned with him. Sylvia Marie may actually have philosophical issues with the very concept of propriety so Johnny is at best someone else's responsibility, probably his mother's, but certainly not hers. The idea that she may not want Frankie getting stung by a WASP, that's funny, and much more likely. She doesn't care enough to actively dislike Tiffany, but she does not like her and has not hesitated to put her in her place (in her Sylvia Marie way) while Tiffany has hesitated to retaliate. It's clear which of them is actually in charge, but Poshy Pits is presumptuous in a way that would've touched a nerve once upon a time. She does not deserve a romp. There is also the fact that Frankie reasserted his veto against her making a trip to London-town and if anyone warrants a veto of her own it is Posh Tiffany. Doggie can find better bone. The question is, can he, among the women currently assembled? The next likeliest target would have to be Bo and wow, would that ever be a challenge to her more lax approach to working Starlettown contacts!

As for Cat, can only say we'll have to see how well that works out for her. One thing that can be said for her is that she's pretty pragmatic if short-sighted, and she's also a bit of a wild child at this stage of her life. No way she walks away from a party feeling like a single moment was wasted. She has no reason to believe that her impression fades, if only because in her interactions with others they're largely under her sway in the moment. That it might be merely renewed or temporary? None of that has come home to her. She is absolutely the fate that Flo is trying to avoid, in more ways than one, but Cat herself is having far too much fun now to worry about what happens later.

Flo is quite consciously not 22 anymore; she is concerned with consequences. That goes for her personal life as much as for her career. She's a family sim; Valentine's marriage would not ordinarily be a mere detail, but he has managed to make her forget about it. She's not necessarily judge-y about the implications of his rep, like Tiffany, his vows are his business, especially considering those Starrywood-style marriages, but her peace of mind is her responsibility and is usually her priority. Falling for the okey-doke...(so on and so forth) as Rem calls it, despite herself, might not be the win-win that Valentine expects. Her not having had to audition for his attention is unusual in Val-world. He can't imagine his attention is unwelcome and has certainly sensed that it isn't unwelcome, but we'll just have to see how he manages with Valentine Hart-ing in a more relaxed context.

That's an interesting insight about work. The work-play dynamic and the fuzzy boundaries between work and play are integral to everything that's been shown so far, definitely. But I think I might even characterise the whole, including what you haven't seen yet, with the words: Work. Play. Love.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

I don't know how much my thoughts are worth today, but I'll give it a shot.

Looking for parallels between Flo and the Family sim most associated with him in later life is natural enough, though Mary and Flo don't have much else in common, and my ignorance of how the situation with Mary arose in your Widespot prevents me from comparing them directly. One legitimate thing that does leap out, though, is that Valentine, for all his refusal of entourages and celebrity fussing, loves being looked after by pretty women! Whether Mary plucked up her courage to chase him, or he noticed her and swept her off her feet, or even if it was more or less an accident that neither of them consciously undertook, we do know that Mary took it on herself to look after the Harts after Angel died - and possibly even before, if they were ordering meals from Beulah or Angel was sick enough to prompt neighborly gifts of delicacies to tempt an invalid. So Mary and Flo are both women who appeared at moments of different degrees of discomfort and vulnerability, who decided that making him comfortable was their job. And he likes that about them, and lets them.

With Flo, we see him more or less deliberately picking her out and convincing her to be his anchor, though we don't yet know how it ends. Flo is no innocent Mary with a head full of romantic dreams, so it won't end the same way, for sure. Flo's heart isn't in danger, and even if it were, a Mashuga party is not a setting conducive to imagining you've met the love of your life in the life of the party. The stakes are very different here, involving self-respect and self-image, but also her ability to adapt. Is this the night she figures out how to participate in the Starrywood subculture and remain herself? Or is it, perhaps, the night she realizes she can't do it? (I hope not.)

We shall see. I'm sure you have lots of good surprises for us in the resolution of this situation. Valentine is not the only challenge she'll have to rise to tonight. There's been too much set-up for the party not to have professional ramifications for her.

Which brings us to the work theme. I'm still having trouble articulating what I'm seeing, but it starts with the Mashuga approach to creative life. Yes, they are vulgar, intemperate, and absurd - but they also do good work and this is because a part of them is always working. This is true of all the creative professions - your backbrain is always at it, gathering and processing what it needs while you go about your life. (The fact that Sylvia-Marie's hangover interfered with her mojo enough that Bo and Frankie had to bring Flo to her attention should signal to her to moderate the vodka some, though.) Sylvia-Marie, at least, is aware of this, playing the role of Yes'm to the hilt and stage-managing her life, setting up "the meeting of the sexy beasts" and other situations that will allow chance and contingency to do the legwork for her. Don't go looking for inspiration. Let it come to you.

Tiffany may be regretting bringing Johnny, but he is getting a good introduction to the World of Work here, seeing a lot of different ways to be professional as well as experiencing work for himself. He's surrounded by folks who are engaged in and focused on doing their jobs, and he's recognizing it, even when his mother isn't. He's also seeing and recognizing some unprofessional behavior, particularly during Stella's interruption. He asks good questions, and he's paying attention.

This may be why you felt you had to run with Stella's side story. She's a counterpoint to Flo and Johnny, but even to Cat, who - however second-rate she looks to Bo - is actually on the road Stella wants to run down. She's doing something right, or she wouldn't have landed this job. She may or may not be smart enough to keep from being chewed up and spat out by the Dream Machine, but at least she has the chance to find out. Stella, however, has no idea how to turn Dream into Reality, and thinks of life as something that happens to her, not as something she does. Aunt Vera's message to her was not the one she needed. She has to learn to Do, not Dream.

And there's more there, but sleep-deprived brain can't find it right now. The full breadth of the theme won't come together till the end, anyway, that's a given.

My email finally saw fit to acknowledge that there actually was new stuff in my inbox over the past two days – which is annoying because I've restarted and refreshed the tab a fair few times – but a message notification in the mix can't help but put a grin on my face, especially leading to a comment with so much to dig into:

So...There are clear parallels between Flo and Mary, but I think the differences between them are more significant. One is that Flo is not a nurturer by nature, not like Mary. If anyone were to piss her off or cross a line (even Val, though heaven forbid he ever be so clumsy! especially on such short acquaintance), they would be left in no doubt about it. She wouldn't seem so sweet then. And while Mary can get herself worked up, it takes her a while to let it out (though she has been slowly getting better at asserting herself), particularly if it means speaking against someone she loves, whereas Flo is quicker to take her loved ones to task because she loves them. And also quicker to forgive them, while Mary acquiesces but has got some grudges she's not aware of herself. Afraid Valentine's not going to be able to simply finesse himself off that list.

He can plead his grief and his need, but he really had no business messing around with that girl. He knew it at the time. He knows it even better now. Sure, she was naïve and inexperienced, but at that point in his life, Val didn't really believe in innocence. Hell, not even his kids were innocent. Excepting, Goldie, of course, but he still saw her as his little girl and putting Mary on a level with Goldie would've made the whole thing unthinkable instead of merely less than conscionable. Mary, baby or (thankfully) no baby, represents precisely the sort of emotional entanglement he'd spent a lifetime avoiding. By the time this trip to the past gives way to the present day, new lights will definitely be shed on the Harts, all of them, and possibly present new ways to read some of their scenes in Widespot.
As for how he did end up messing around with Mary here, it was more or less an accident. You could say that she'd been going after him the only way she knew how, insinuating herself as homemaker, which gave her a taste of independence from her own home where she was doing much the same stuff, only as daughter/drudge when at the Harts' she could play at being woman of the house. With this inner fantasy at work, she did pay more attention to Val, certainly more attention and more openly than when his wife was still around (earning her Candy's forever enmity for preying on Pop when he was down and out because he would otherwise never look at someone like her twice – a point Mary'd agree with her on), but Mary may have honestly believed that she was only showing her sympathy. She did not believe that any part of her fantasies would actually become real, but when 'thangs happened' she embraced it fully, expecting the whole fantasy might be really coming true for her. The full Cinderella. She was mistaken.

Flo is less likely to offer herself up to such disappointment. Not on so little assurance. But, oh, the liquor will be flowing and so will the animal spirits – no room for much in the way of inhibitions at a Mashuga party! So I do want to leave that 'anything could happen' vibe out there because it also taps into how all of the characters are feeling heading into the night. Well, all of the characters who have been here working together all day; there are a few others.

One of the things about the Mashugas is that everything is play to them and, conversely, everything is work. Even in their official capacities, there is a 'work is play is work' circularity, where the main distinction is when they need to pull themselves together and pull 'it' together into a product that can be transmitted rather than 'it' being simply an experience but, of course, the end result of their work is explicitly letting others in on the experience that they have captured. And shaped, of course. Verisimilitude is contextual; the human (or sim) condition lends itself to serious drama some of the time and some others it's best rendered in farce. There is a lot that can be said about them as individuals and as a couple but one of the things that makes them good at what they do is that they are fully present in their lives. Ridiculous and over-the-top as those lives may be as, apart from a handful of morals imbibed and left to settle, there's not a whole lot they consider off limits, which also means there's nothing they won't use in the furtherance of work or play or that fusion of both that they have thrived on.

Syl is too fond of imbibing things other than morals and cultural mores to moderate any time soon. She and Frankie did both independently notice Flo eclipsing Cat for Valentine's attention, mainly because it was not what they expected. That primed her to take Frankie's hint about Flo in the same way it primed him to pay more attention after Bo came at him promoting her. Simply being efficient would not have done it, nor efficient and attractive without overtly advertising the latter, but they deal in sexual allure. It is something that they can harness and monetise, but in their line of work sexual energy is also another creative force, and openly so. One that Flo is quite good at tapping into on-screen (as unselfconsciously as Cat but in more nuanced ways than she is yet to master). The blurred lines and overlap that goes on behind-the-scenes is where Flo falters, however natural it may be to the Mashugas, because she doesn't fake performances. It's where Cat will be on her surest footing to land future roles as opposed to resting on her body of work and it's where Stella assumes her destiny will be made, but she doesn't do much but fake performances.

The reason Stella had to go was because she had no business there. Literally. She had nothing to contribute to the work that was being done. Everyone else, including the departed characters and the non-speaking characters (all except the 'one what brung 'er'), is/was in the process of working and perhaps playing or preparing for when playtime would roll around, but she is only playing at trying to get a chance to work. She doesn't really want the work so much, anyway, she wants the perks. One reason I wanted to go with her is because that sense of purposefulness that she expects this kind of work-that's-not-work (like, not really) to give her is what is missing in her life. And it's not a function of her privilege alone because everyone else in her family has a strong sense of their roles and how they personally contribute to the “legacy corporation” that is their family. She's really just grasping for a role that she can play.

Whoa Nelly! Wonderful and looong chapter! There is so much to digest and besides loving the story, I really enjoy the back and forth in the comments between you and Peni.

I just want to know more about everyone and what makes them tick, even Gordo.

I chuckle every time I think of Goopy being a movie star. I can't decide if that was a stroke of genius or insanity.

Your Widespot story is better than television IMO.

Thanks! Here I thought the length would keep people busy reading in small doses long enough for me to make progress on the next part! But honestly, I could've separated and queued up the rest for later and didn't want to, so Woohoo!, so glad to hear you enjoyed it :-D

I've got some mini-character profiles that I want to post, including one for Gordo, but that'll be over on tumblr.

Goopy pretty much insisted on his cameo in this thing. That's how Starrywood he is.

And wow! I should go 7 months between posts all the time to drum up interest. (Kidding.)

Review for part one:
"Sylvia Marie put on her arty eyes to double check Frankl's set for him. Nothing was out of place,
but the bedsheets needed more crumpling to represent wild abandon of the lover Valentino."
Ha ha! Wonderful. That says everything about how this ad they are shooting is supposed to come over (and how Sylvia Marie would put it). And Val strutting his stuff all over the set, doesn't exactly put a dimmer on that opinion of him. He's looking good in those shorts... But the thing with Val is, that he really is that kind of guy that who's smooth enough to be smooth and still feel authentic and genuine and likeable. You've really made something of this character, but one of the things I love about all characters is that they are all so very real and that everything that could be a bit over the top, is just realistic because IRL people are over the top all the time. The industry is probably full of people like the Mashugas. I guess... I don't know the first thing about the movie industry, so you could feed me just anything and I'd buy it. But the lingo seems so plausible - do you have any personal experience from that scene, or second-hand, or is it all just your own imagination?
I can't help but laugh at your interpretations of both Stella and Cat, as they are so very far from the characters from my old story (that I took down recently, the pictures were on a Photobucket account I didn't want to pay for - I actually do pay for the one associated with Braxen). On the other hand both Catherine and Stella in my story didn't mirror their traits, so yours would be more accurate. I'm not a prude and I really do think that people are free to do whatever they want as long as it's under mutual consent, but I find people like Stella really annoying - because there are loads of guys who behave just like that; impossible to have an actual conversation with, since they're always two seconds away from unzipping and showing it to you. On the other hand it was extremely entertaining that Stella managed to annoy me so, because I was annoyed - believe me, I was very annoyed. :D And Remington... Well, that guy kind of grew on me. Someone who makes his own decisions, I like that. He's made that impression from the start of course, but we got to see him under real pressure here and he held up well. That he was just about to cave in when they were interrupted doesn't matter. It was completely in character.
As per usual there is so much to comment on, that I don't know where to start. The word count is impressing of course; all your posts are like short stories, so they always kind of deserve a longer review. They are always teeming with characters, who all have their own agendas and are all thinking and doing a million different things - and still it all keeps together. It's so very... lifelike, there's no better word than that, and everyone - literally everyone - has layers.
The special made cc is impressive as usual. That robe of Valentine's (that he actual never put on...), that keeps moving from Flo's hand, to his shoulder and then to the back of the chair. You're pictures are full of little details like that.

I see my obsessiveness is showing:-) It's been a while so there are a bunch of details that even I've forgotten about, but that were super-necessary at the time. I get such a kick out of being able to show rather than tell.

I don't know the first thing about the industry either, although I did do a bit of cursory research for the crew lingo in one of the earlier parts when they were putting the set together. But if it rings true, well, mission accomplished! The Mashugas were such fun to play and write - the whole thing was - but I'm going to miss those crazy sims when we finally move on.

Valentine is the beating heart of this thing (pun intended) so it's kind of essential that the reader likes him as much as I do. He certainly does some things that might be let's say less than endearing over the course of this whole saga (there's still quite a bit to go), but I definitely don't want him to seem annoying.

Now Stella on the other hand, yes. She's a spoiled brat, and her methods are quite childish whether she's barging onto the set or "seducing" the guy she only identifies as 'Red', not having bothered to learn his name. She's also definitely playing on the double-standard, assuming that there could be nothing questionable about her behaviour because he's a guy, so he's bound to be up for it, sooner or later - but sooner is better. She was also kind of settling a score for her ego as Rem was the one who tossed her out before and seemed altogether unimpressed by her charms. I'm glad you're starting to like Rem, but I'll hold off on saying more about that until you've read through to the end.

Saying that it's lifelike...that's just a wonderful compliment. There's usually quite a lot going on in my chapters, but that busy-ness is definitely meant to enhance rather than overwhelm. And hopefully also pay-off in repeat read-thrus with stuff that might not have been noticed the first time around.

It's been such a simming-lite year for me, but I really do love these silly sims!

Ha! Since I always, always click your links, I actually learned a new word reading this post: inaugural. I don't know why it felt like I hadn't ever seen that word, because I must have. Anyway, now I know. ;-) And as a side note, then I clicked myself further away to read about "Dinosaurs" traumatic ending. It is far too easy to get distracted by links...

I have never played Julien Cook, so I didn't recognize Zebeste's name. I think the way you've styled her makes her absolutely enchanting! And I envy you your dialect writing skills! Always have. Since I'm not a native speaker, it's always so fun to see if I can understand what people are saying - and to my utter delight, I always do.

I don't know if this story hit the point where it completely takes off, or if it is how I myself perceived it, but this last half of the post was cooking, if you understand what I want to say. I chose the word "cooking" because it described my feeling. All those different threads are coming together and I was intensely interested the whole time (with exception of when I got distracted by the links). This far into the story, I feel I've got a deeper understanding of at least most of the characters, and they all matter to me. And I absolutely adore the dialogue - and all that innuendo; I always chuckle at dirty jokes. The tricky part is not getting vulgar - because that's not funny, it's just boring - but you've got it all down. This is such a rich and wonderful story! It remember that I felt that it was a bit hard to get into when I first started reading it, but now I'm probably going to re-read the earlier posts (not right now though :D).

I actually didn't expect Cat to end up in Val's dressing room - and wasn't that very naive for someone my age? :D In defense, Val didn't see it coming either - because he had his mind set on someone else. It was really interesting though, to see him dip after that acting experience. That would be new to him, I suppose - but I think that the reaction wouldn't be that uncommon if you're in the business. Exposing yourself always takes a toll. Also, my guess is that acting would get you rather wired, and stepping out of the limelight would have you suddenly change from one state to another too quickly, so that would also bring you down, I suppose.

This time I actually made the mistake of reading your and Peni's comment dialogue before writing my own, and as per usual I feel that I couldn't come up with anything else to add. As much as I love the in-depth portraits of your sims: when I read what you're discussing, I always feel that I've missed most of it anyway. But I do love to read your conversations, because they always add loads of layers to the characters. I just should have waited until I'd written my own comment.

The funny thing is that there was already a kind of 'Dinosaurs' reference in an unposted bacc chapter from long before I wrote this - so I ended up clicking on those same links within the link once I found it because I had no idea about that ending either.

I have to say, I did take it for granted that most of my readers wouldn't be familiar with Haitian kreyòl (creole), which is why I wasn't self-conscious about including it even though I don't know the language either. It's much easier to parse, of course, if you're familiar with French, but as it's derived from colonial rather than modern French that doesn't always help either. I definitely intended for it to add a bit of colour and shading to her character rather than distracting, so I'm glad it was still easy to understand. I very much doubt that Zebeste's creator has seen her incarnation in my story, and I wouldn't venture to guess what she'd think of what I've done to her, but as with Widespot itself, posted publicly tends to mean 'fair game' to me, lol.

For some reason I thought I'd posted this in November, but apparently it was September, so it really will be a full year before the next one comes out and now I feel worse about the delay than I did already. But it really couldn't be helped. I had a rather gruelling schedule for the first half of this year - all I did was work and sleep. That's why I'm going to try to get as much done as possible in the next month. It's too much to ask for anyone to remember what's going on or to re-read to find out - although as I said above, I do hope that it stands up to re-perusals and isn't suddenly boring or too 'been there/seen that' the second time around. I did not intend to squander the momentum once things got "cooking" :-) Ah well, we'll see how much of that I can recover when the time comes.

It looks to me like you found plenty to say, for which I am grateful, but of course I love hearing your perspective, which is naturally different from Peni's. I wondered whether anyone thought it was or would be Flo tap-tap-tapping at Val's door. But of course it was Cat who had no intention of letting a moment like that pass her by! And since he went for it, no real hesitation, Val will certainly have a whole lotta finessing to do to get the girl he wants.

My first thought actually was that it was Flo, and thought "What the..." - because I hadn't expected that from her at all. So I was very relieved when it was Cat instead, from whom it on the other hand, was to be expected. As for Val, sigh - yeah, he would go for it. It doesn't mean much to him, just a bit of fun, and when freely offered like that... Flo of course wouldn't perceive it that way.

Yeah, Val missed his mark by a long shot with that one. Yes, Flo is attracted to him and it keeps creeping up on her, but she didn't even consider taking advantage of proximity and a bit of privacy to turn those fleeting fantasies into reality. And having been "Valentine Hart" for so long, what he doesn't realise is that any little whiff of his casual fun times with Cat (while she was just downstairs, mind you) would do more than even the wedding ring to remind her who and what he really is, overriding how he makes her feel.