methodwriter85

Chapter 104 -When Taylor Buck kills her father. "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle You know, I kind of love taking a sweet song and applying to a twisted moment. LOL I feel like it needed to be something that would be played during a daughter/father dance. LOL

As Joan Crawford would say, "This ain't my first time at the rodeo." People have been having "accidental" overdoses or "suicides" in this story since at least 1968. (Can't remember if JP had any people killed during the original CAP story, but he definitely did in 1968 and The Land Whore.)

I guess we could go with Zach being 6'1" and 210. Travis could be 6'1" and 185. So a sizeable difference, but not to the point that the hoodie disguise scheme wouldn't work, especially at a distance. This is reminding me of the behind the scenes discussion we had about Big's height. You originally wrote Big as being six inches taller than Darius, which would have put him at about 6'6" because Darius is canonically 6 feet tall. (Annoying JJ that both his brothers are over 6 feet tall, while he's stuck at 5'6".LOL)

I went back to the clothes scene in chapter 90. Here's the monologue about Travis's body: A lot, but not enough,” Stef insisted. Now that he’d stopped shopping, he looked exhausted, which wasn’t surprising considering the energy he’d put into getting Travis outfitted with a new wardrobe. Travis wasn’t as easy to shop for as some guys. I thought back to when Stef and I had taken Ryan Grafton out to look at clothes. Everything seemed to fit Ryan perfectly, while Travis was the kind of guy where things either fit him really well or looked like shit. I pondered that most of the clothes seemed to be designed to fit men who looked like JJ or Kevin Carmichael. Travis was definitely not a twink, so maybe that was the reason. Stef, rather than finding it frustrating, seemed to thrive on it. “It’s not as easy to shop as it used to be,” Travis said, reading my mind. “That is because you have a bigger body frame,” Stef said, stroking his ego. “Like I’m fat?” Travis asked, confused. I rolled my eyes at him. “You are most definitely not fat, and you have an amazing physique,” Stef said, stroking his ego. “Contrast yourself to JJ, who is quite muscular and fit, but that has a slimming effect on his frame. He does not have muscles that bulge out, whereas you do.” I looked at Travis and could see that. “You’re more like Zach in that regard,” I noted. Going by that, I'm guessing it's safe to assume that Zach and Travis are pretty close in size. Zach is probably bigger, but not a 35-pound plus difference, I don't think.

You did write that Travis is somewhat beefier than Will, right? I doubt he's that much tinier than Zach.

I would have agreed with you, but Mark described Zach as having a lean "Hemsworth" type of body in one scene early in the story. I almost flagged it as anachronistic but Mark countered that Will spending time in Australia meant he could have become very familiar with the charms of Chris Hemsworth while watching tv there.

Without going into spoilers...you sure as hell met it.

All this talk about past characters made me remember Alexandra Carmichael. The official fancast is Sigourney Weaver. Of course, to align with the age, we need to go with 2010's Sigorney Weaver when she was still in her 60's. (Alex would have to be at least in her 60's, right? She should be close to the age of Isidore, JP, and Fred, who are all late 50's/early 60's.) Such a stunning woman! She's aged incredibly well as a 70-something. I'm assuming she's gone to the school of, "don't do much, keep it subtle."

Wade, Tiffany, Matt, and their kids Riley, Madison, and Bobby are currently in Boston. Brad's brother Ace divorced his wife and moved to Italy to be with his college fling, Bianca. I'm guessing Courtney splits time between her mother and father. The Ohio contingent (the Cramptons, the Hendricksons, the Hayes, and the Schluters) still seem to be doing what they do in Ohio. I think Gathan Hayes should be graduating from Stanford at this time. I would guess he'd probably move to Chicago after graduation, as it's close enough to home but also in a big city with big city opportunities. I believe Ella Hayes (really a Crampton) is modeling in New York City. No clue if she's bonded with Uncle JJ or if she even realizes he's her uncle. Wade Danfield's sister Mary Ellen and Alexander Granger are currently setting up their family dynasty in England. So far there's at least one son named Freddie (who I believe was born sometime in the summer of 2003), and I would guess Mary Ellen and Alexander are already working on the spare. After which, I'm sure Mary Ellen will go on birth control (or even get her tubes tied) and then start screwing around with impunity when she realizes that Alex isn't going to stop slutting himself around. The Carmichaels (Brad's biological paternal side of the family) seem to be mostly based in San Diego because of the whole navy thing. We haven't seen much of them since Alexandra Carmichael got defeated.

Re: the hoodie scene. How convenient that Travis and Zach are both 6'1" athletic blondes who would look similar from a distance. LOL JJ's old room. Given the traumatic event that happened to JJ there, I don't blame JJ for never coming back. LOL

Great work, Private Tim. I do believe that Ace divorced Cass and got back with his European fling from Man In Motion. That was basically how Mark wrote off his character. Can't remember which book that happened in- maybe Flux? I feel like Ace was around for 9/11 but dipped out after that.

That's where I wanted Mark to send JJ, but since it's pretty obvious Mark isn't sending JJ to college, I also vote for NYU. New York City soap opera are in their final years (the last one goes off the air in 2012) and it'd be cool to see Travis on one. Especially if Matthew Bomer is supposed to be the career Mark is going to model Travis on. I also think Mark would have a blast writing a soap within a soap.

Well, duh. Will has forgiven Zach but that doesn't mean they get to go back to what they were before Zach's roid rageout.

I really love that Zach and Will have managed to get past their issues and make up. While I miss them as a couple, I am so glad they can truly be friends now!

Is that an OG Dallas reference? Edited: I was right. My mom actually named me so my nickname could be JR. I always figured it was because of Dallas. LOL

She would have followed the trends, at least up until her early 30's. Did any women under the age of 30 actually get through 1983-1988 without having had big hair at least once? LOL You know, I'm starting to lean towards you having had Meg Ryan's Another World look in mind for 80's Claire: It's called the Sloane Ranger look, very popular in the early 80's before the mid-80's when the dayglow Miami Vice/Madonna look took over. I used to think you had based Claire on Charlene Tilton from Dallas but I think early 80's Meg Ryan is more what you had in mind. LOL

I just remembered that when I read Be Rad and Man In Motion originally, I was totally picturing 1980's Kylie Minogue as Claire right down to her fluffy 1980's blonde perm.

See though, I wouldn't call present day Will out of control, though. He parties, yes, but he also has maintained great grades to the point that he's graduated a semester early and will be valedictorian at the ceremony. He is at 17 a pretty functional young adult,compared to where he was at 13-14. I think Will understands acutely that if he fucks up in a big way (say an arrest or an OD) he can't really sit back and blame everything on his dad. He chose to be responsible for himself and I think he has been. The real Trainwreck in waiting is totally John Hobart. Lol Maybe JJ as well if/when the realization that he sacrificed his childhood for an Olympic Gold he never got hits him hard. (Child stars and child athletes often have a lot of similarities.)

Honestly, if we're thinking outside the box, Alejandro could be a really fun narrator. This is where I wish we still had Blue posting here because he could be Mark's consultant for understanding Mexican American culture, like how Sharon helps Mark with Italian American stuff and I'm the 2000's youth guide.

I mean Will got Marie to change her plans to go to Stanford over Harvard by pouting over it. Do you really think Mark ever intends on giving Will a reality check? Does he even really need one? Knowing Mark Will is going to graduate like top of his class at Harvard. Lol

Do you honestly think Mark is going to write that kind of story? LOL He didn't write a "Will learns how to pay bills and do his laundry" story when he emancipated Will in Poor Man's Son. The reason why Mark could do that type of story with Matt is because Matt grew up in a relatively conventional household that had rules, which Darius, JJ, and Will did not. LOL

I would lean towards skipping to senior year at Harvard, because I think 2007-08 is going to be a really interesting year to cover and I'm not sure seeing Will doing start of freshman year would be all that fun to read, because he's pretty much already staked out his independence when he was in 9th grade. You're not really going to see a naïve kid wild out freshman year like what Matt did because Will has pretty much done every lurid thing a college kid can do without being in college. LOL

Mark doesn't like facial hair. LOL

Joaquin, the little boy we met in The Land Whore who is now a Mexican don. He's the dad of Alejandro, the hot to trot twink who is Matt's age.

Honestly I like Henry Cavill too.