Apropos of nothing, there was a little while when I ran an unofficial "personal finance 101" talk for folks who had come straight from college to big internet company making bigbucks and somewhere in the slides I made the point that you (person suddenly making bigbucks and tempted to buy a racecar or MiG or castle or whatever) need to live well below your means not only to save for retirement, future kids' college, etc, but also so that if the place you are working pivots to evil you can (without worrying about how long it will take to find another job (and how you will keep making payments on your lifestyle), which leads to short term moral compromise) hand in a resignation immediately. This should be taught in schools but is not.
"live below your means" is often said, but it is not often paired with what you should do with the surplus. "so you can buy awesome things" is what the callowness of youth finishes that sentence with. As "security against evil" is so good I am mad I never thought of it myself. Sticking that in my back pocket, thank you.
Ironically I had to walk away from a completely different kind of evil (changing jobs at the same time was just collateral damage) but that too would have been a lot harder without frugal habits and a cash surplus.
Christa knows Ignis is Marissa's kid. If Marissa also knows this, Marissa is probably going to run a paternity test on his "oops how clumsy of me" sample.
Marissa would be very interested in the smoothness of my brain and if she handed me the test results to show that my brain is smoother than a gyroscope she'd need to highlight the important bits and maybe put a sticker next to it halfway through the sentence to keep me interested
The real question is whether Marissa knowing for sure that Marissa' and Baz' have (at minimum) shacked up and got a son is going to make her MORE or LESS likely to keep running away from a guy who is crazy about her. We should debate this immediately.
at no point would I ever have considered what Marissa is doing "running away"! I think Marissa has been obsessed and is as yet unsure what Baz thinks because Baz can't say anything serious without it sounding like a joke or an insult or both. It took Science! Girl and Chained Lightning to get 'em together because there was actual peril and Baz was forced to reveal his true colors by circumstances. This totally flips the table--Marissa knows, might come on too strong, I wonder what Baz would do when he feels like the cards are being played for him, even if it's what he wants! THESE PEOPLE ARE COMPLICATED! Uh, Characters. These fictional characters. Are complicated. Ahem.
if I could attach images to comments, this is where you'd see a screenshot of the line in my plot notes that goes "cause of death: my big brain idea to rewrite Baz and Marissa's romance lmao"
word of God intruding into the debate: "obsessed" is a good word for it. they have an interesting love story to pick apart because they do have real obstacles in the way, but as soon one of them REALIZES the craziness is requited, then the practical considerations stop mattering (it's always Baz figuring her out first, let's be real, Marissa has her walls up too high). neither of them is really running away from the other, but they are both running away from what they'd have to face about themselves to make a relationship work! the excuses differ based on circumstances, but there are always excuses. Kari's timeline shows they could have gotten together a long time ago if Marissa specifically weren't so resistant to trust.
I agree with @Scoot, in that I don't think she'd avoid it. But I also am unsure how she'd reveal it to Baz while keeping her wall up. Either way, she's definitely going in guns blazing and I suspect Baz would just play it off.
Maybe Ignis plays a role in the reveal? He's gotta have at least some their wrecking ball tendencies.
FEBRUARY!!?!?! OK, Fair. Life does need to life, even for a writer. I don’t know why Marissa needs confirmation Ignis is hers though, but if Christa is wondering about what would turn Marissa into a supervillain … well protecting your kid would be one of the, wouldn’t it? Maybe even Baz. Oh no, what if Sebastian got in the way and that’s why he keeps ending up dead? It’s some sort of tragic backlash from the first event.
As the kids say, Marissa, girl, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???
Ideally, not being evil, but at this point who even knows where those goalposts are?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InFNedaNq6s
Apropos of nothing, there was a little while when I ran an unofficial "personal finance 101" talk for folks who had come straight from college to big internet company making bigbucks and somewhere in the slides I made the point that you (person suddenly making bigbucks and tempted to buy a racecar or MiG or castle or whatever) need to live well below your means not only to save for retirement, future kids' college, etc, but also so that if the place you are working pivots to evil you can (without worrying about how long it will take to find another job (and how you will keep making payments on your lifestyle), which leads to short term moral compromise) hand in a resignation immediately. This should be taught in schools but is not.
"live below your means" is often said, but it is not often paired with what you should do with the surplus. "so you can buy awesome things" is what the callowness of youth finishes that sentence with. As "security against evil" is so good I am mad I never thought of it myself. Sticking that in my back pocket, thank you.
Ironically I had to walk away from a completely different kind of evil (changing jobs at the same time was just collateral damage) but that too would have been a lot harder without frugal habits and a cash surplus.
Christa knows Ignis is Marissa's kid. If Marissa also knows this, Marissa is probably going to run a paternity test on his "oops how clumsy of me" sample.
Ooooohhhh, I could totally see that!
This was a wild ride that moved forward and still ended nowhere I AM BEGGING YOU PLEASE ANSWER LITERALLY ANY QUESTION
I actually don't know how I could be any more clear without drawing the lines to connect up the dots, but I probably will find a way 😂
Marissa would be very interested in the smoothness of my brain and if she handed me the test results to show that my brain is smoother than a gyroscope she'd need to highlight the important bits and maybe put a sticker next to it halfway through the sentence to keep me interested
It's obvious that redacted is, or rather will be (wioll haven be) the child of redacted and redacted. That's why redacted wanted to do the thing.
Thomas More: "I trust I make myself obscure?"
Duke of Norfolk: "Perfectly"
The real question is whether Marissa knowing for sure that Marissa' and Baz' have (at minimum) shacked up and got a son is going to make her MORE or LESS likely to keep running away from a guy who is crazy about her. We should debate this immediately.
at no point would I ever have considered what Marissa is doing "running away"! I think Marissa has been obsessed and is as yet unsure what Baz thinks because Baz can't say anything serious without it sounding like a joke or an insult or both. It took Science! Girl and Chained Lightning to get 'em together because there was actual peril and Baz was forced to reveal his true colors by circumstances. This totally flips the table--Marissa knows, might come on too strong, I wonder what Baz would do when he feels like the cards are being played for him, even if it's what he wants! THESE PEOPLE ARE COMPLICATED! Uh, Characters. These fictional characters. Are complicated. Ahem.
https://ebhoward.substack.com/p/10-the-wildcard she has been called out (by herself) as "self-sabotaging" which I just think of as "running away but with more steps".
if I could attach images to comments, this is where you'd see a screenshot of the line in my plot notes that goes "cause of death: my big brain idea to rewrite Baz and Marissa's romance lmao"
word of God intruding into the debate: "obsessed" is a good word for it. they have an interesting love story to pick apart because they do have real obstacles in the way, but as soon one of them REALIZES the craziness is requited, then the practical considerations stop mattering (it's always Baz figuring her out first, let's be real, Marissa has her walls up too high). neither of them is really running away from the other, but they are both running away from what they'd have to face about themselves to make a relationship work! the excuses differ based on circumstances, but there are always excuses. Kari's timeline shows they could have gotten together a long time ago if Marissa specifically weren't so resistant to trust.
Ah!! I was hoping we were gonna get Romance Take 2!!
I agree with @Scoot, in that I don't think she'd avoid it. But I also am unsure how she'd reveal it to Baz while keeping her wall up. Either way, she's definitely going in guns blazing and I suspect Baz would just play it off.
Maybe Ignis plays a role in the reveal? He's gotta have at least some their wrecking ball tendencies.
My scorecard is worthless.
One thing I can say for Marissa is that she’s a plot mover. 😂
FEBRUARY!!?!?! OK, Fair. Life does need to life, even for a writer. I don’t know why Marissa needs confirmation Ignis is hers though, but if Christa is wondering about what would turn Marissa into a supervillain … well protecting your kid would be one of the, wouldn’t it? Maybe even Baz. Oh no, what if Sebastian got in the way and that’s why he keeps ending up dead? It’s some sort of tragic backlash from the first event.