traces, part nine.
Title: Traces
Part: 9 of 10
Characters: David Beckham, Martín Cáceres, Fabio Cannavaro, Iker Casillas, Royston Drenthe, Julien Faubert, Fernando Gago, Raúl González, Pep Guardiola, Thierry Henry, Guti Hernández, Xavi Hernández, Gonzalo Higuaín, Andrés Iniesta, Bojan Krkić, Lionel Messi, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Sergio Ramos ( Read more... )
Part: 9 of 10
Characters: David Beckham, Martín Cáceres, Fabio Cannavaro, Iker Casillas, Royston Drenthe, Julien Faubert, Fernando Gago, Raúl González, Pep Guardiola, Thierry Henry, Guti Hernández, Xavi Hernández, Gonzalo Higuaín, Andrés Iniesta, Bojan Krkić, Lionel Messi, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Sergio Ramos ( Read more... )
To me, this chapter shows a series of conflicts coming to a head, for better or worse. When it comes to Miguel and Ruud, each is warring with himself: While Miguel's sustained self-hate + unresolved Guti issues suggest a weakness that will inevitably lead to his own undoing, Ruud finally unburdens himself. More importantly, we see the Raúl/Guti's conflict. Starting with Raúl and Guti disagreement over Xavi's findings, we see the push-pull dynamics and trust-doubt/transparency-opaqueness issues that characterise their relationship, and how these affect the investigation. How you've written the development of Raúl/Guti is masterful + effective because through pitch-perfect dialogue and narration, further involvement in the investigation means further investment in one another, which is why their moments of misunderstanding cut so deeply for each other (and for us, too).
It's weird though because although Raúl and Guti are at odds with Titi, I don't consider this chapter's Raúl/Guti/Titi confrontation to be the core conflict, mainly because Titi (out of bravado, or self-delusion of his control over the whole mess) doesn't seem to perceive Raúl and Guti as viable threats to his machinations, so he gives little information while somewhat destabilizing whatever trust Raúl has on Guti by bringing up the Brass meeting as an alibi. The only person I could remember ever unnerving Titi in some way is Messi, hence all the trouble Titi had gone through in the past to present the appearance of a weakening Union, esp. with the Becksillas breakup. Basically, this appears to be a war of strategy between Titi and Messi, which Titi kind of anticipated before.
The fact that constables found Becks' house key in Titi's pants pocket is fishy to me. Careful, calculating men have their off days, but for someone as thorough + deliberate as your Titi to allow such obviousness is suspicious. Am I giving him too much credit? Is he actually just being a megalomaniacal asshole?
"That's what we do," Iker says, not really noticing himself shrug. "We lie about who we are, about what we do, about each other." GODDAMNIT. Way to cast doubt over absolutely everything and everyone, Iker.
Canna! I've got nothing. Still, it's interesting how during Iker's interrogation (and his declaration of love for Becks), thoughts of Canna preoccupy Iker, even before Raúl's question about cohabitation. If I remember correctly, Iker and Canna were at the start of the whole series, and that Canna couldn't find Iker's gun. So, he seems to be a possibility. But why did Canna assume that Pep killed Becks? IDEK! Ish, I have all these half-baked ~thoughts, and I blame you and your clever/skillful/addicting writing!
The Rubén/Titi scene is absolutely disturbing and painful, and I am so impressed by how you've depicted it. Quite appropriately, there is nothing titillating/gratuitous about it. The quiet that pervades is distressing because it offers no distraction, so it's impossible for Rubén (and us) to mentally check out of such torture.
Others: Your description of Ruud's lifestyle and his dependence on Becks, and the obligatory yet distant concern manifested through handouts, hurts in the best way. Holy shit, Pep possibly drugged Guti?! OMFG, MESSI! It works so well that you've written him as this sharp-eyed, somewhat condescending smart-ass because through him, you give answers while taunting the officers for being less astute by leaving some blanks, thus keeping us in suspense for the finale. And what's up with Iker and Guti?
Girl, why are you apologizing? I would wait for your updates forever, no joke. Cheesy, I know, but IDGAF. Although the need to discover the actual culprit's identity, and how all the plot points converge, is growing unstoppably, I kind of want to prolong the suspense. When this ends, I will doubtlessly need a day (or three) to recover then reread then recover from all the awesomeness again. Ramble over for now, much to your relief, LOL.
Thank you for this, and for being forever amazing. ILU and this so much, as always. :D + ♥
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I totally agree with what you said about the wars that Miguel and Ruud have had with themselves, and yes, Ruud has liberated himself from it whereas Miguel has dug himself deeper, to the point where he might not to be able to climb back up...
I love what you picked up about Raúl and Guti arguing at the beginning of the chapter. Again, your observations make me silly happy. And you're so right about their investment in each other deepening as they get deeper into the case. The possibility of betrayal stings that much more.
It's really interesting, what you said about Thierry's confidence being somewhere along the lines of bravado and self-delusion. I'd love to know what you think after the tenth chapter. It's so true that he doesn't see Raúl and Guti as a threat at all. He's spent so long manipulating people and finding their weak spots, ready to attack them at exactly the wrong moment, that Raúl's hardline tactics seem clumsy. As Thierry shows, he can so quickly wear Guti down - which strikes a blow to Raúl's confidence as well, since he's decided to trust Guti. And he did anticipate Messi's threat, which is why he's been so careful where Messi is concerned. Nobody else has elicited this kind of fear in Thierry. As for the key in his pocket, well, that'll be confirmed in the next chapter, but you're very right about it not being very like him to be so careless. ;)
As for Canna, I won't say much, but do you remember when Iker said that he suspected he might have killed Beckham? There's a massive web of distrust going on. If you'd killed Beckham and you didn't want anyone to know, wouldn't you naturally go around asking your fellow Union members things like "Hey, it wasn't you, was it?" just to the shift the spotlight a little?
I'm so glad you liked (very much the wrong word!) the ~quiet in the Rubén/Thierry scene. And I'm so glad that you see Lionel kind of the same way that you see me - dropping teasing clues just before the final chapter, haha.
Thank you again, so much. I wish I knew how to say it more ~creatively, but alas, Traces seems to drain me of whatever creativity I have.
♥
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It's really interesting, what you said about Thierry's confidence being somewhere along the lines of bravado and self-delusion. As I read this, I'm somewhat rethinking my opinion. The bravado/self-delusion thing, I still kind of think possible only because for all of Titi's hubris, he's bound to miss a step somewhere (probably when it comes to Rubén). And because the idea of Raúl's momentary clumsiness as a partial performance to bring down such a master is attractive. However, I say "somewhat" because Titi's too smart and too seasoned a puppet master to be predictable. The end result will probably be far more nuanced and complicated than I could ever anticipate, so I'm squirming in wait.
As for Canna, I won't say much, but do you remember when Iker said that he suspected he might have killed Beckham? OMG, YES! Canna's failed attempt to involve Iker in his coming-out scenario for the election. Hmm... Protection issues, and Canna's duplicity, and Canna's obsession with Iker (therefore, Becks, too), and what Becks means to Iker, and Titi and weaknesses... Work, brain, work.
Pfft, thank you. ♥
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Uh-huh. Fabio hasn't come close to being scrutinised by Raúl and Guti yet; he's managed to evade them quite admirably, though he has all the motive in the world to have wanted Beckham dead. But I will confirm now that there are no more Thierry-Fabio surprises to come.
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