tonight i went running through the screendoors of discretion...
I get my wisdom teeth out on Friday, April 13. I feel as though this doesn't bode well for the experience.
***
So, I'm in Parsippany for the night--I got maybe two, three hours of sleep last night and the prospect of driving back to Purchase at nine at night was... less than appealing. So I'm here, now, until tomorrow morning, at which point I will be a little layout fiend.
But I ended up doing a lot of driving today, is the point, and when I drive, I think. Often about fandom, because I am a nerd.
I've been turning around an idea for a TWW fic in my head lately, one that puts a spin on the usual Wilde election scenario that I write. I've been playing with the idea of Sam doing something dirty to win the election, something underhanded. The problem is, that's not Sam, he wouldn't do that, and to write him that way... it's walking a very fine line. The payoff scene, in my head, is Sam admitting his misdeed to Will, who condemns it, just like Sam knew he would.
This has sort of led to some deeper ruminations about Sam v. Will. Sometimes, back when I read TWW fic more often than I do now, there's a sort of Will!hate in fandom that makes him out to be stupid, fumbling, or antagonistic. Basically, fandom (at one time) had a habit of making him a big fat jerk who didn't understand how things worked. It always irked me, on some level, because when AS was writing Will he was adorable. It made me angry to read things that automatically made him the badguy, but now that I think about it, it's more than that. I especially hate stories that hold him up against Sam and have him coming out looking dumb.
When it comes down to it, Will is wiser than Sam.
Not smarter, necessarily, but...wiser. In the way that Toby is wiser, that, by the end of the series, CJ is wiser, and Leo has always been wiser. From the first time we meet Will, the first time we see him argue with Sam (and god knows I've watched that episode enough times), there's this sense of Sam talking down to him and Will kicking his ass all around the room for it. Will might not have Washington experience, but he knows what he's doing and forges his own way, whereas Sam follows his heart and sometimes needs to have his course gently altered by those around him.
It's what makes him, I think, the better candidate and what makes Will better at working behind the scenes.
One of the things that irritated me about Josh in the Santos arc is his lack of this... I don't know, wise-ness, for lack of a better term. Josh doesn't really seem to grow up in the way everyone else does over the course of the show. I feel like there's this spectrum from new and naive to old and disillusioned that all of the characters move along over the course of the show, except Josh. Toby starts somewhere in the middle and ends up right at the bottom. Sam starts at the beginning and inches towards the middle. CJ starts at the beginning and makes her way almost all the way to the bottom. Josh starts a little ahead of Sam and CJ, but never seems to make it quite as far as they do.
Which, circling back to the beginning of this bit of...whatever, is why I think I tend to stick Will as Sam's backing in almost all future Seaborn for America fic. I like the idea of Josh as Leo and Sam as Jed, if only because I am so so so attached to that original ensemble and would love to embrace the pipe dream of the gang sticking together when it's Sam's turn to run. Unfortunately, where we end at season seven... I just don't buy that it would happen. I don't buy that Josh is in the right place for it yet, and for some reason, I can't see him maturing the rest of the way to really capture it. I think Toby never wanted to be CoS and thus would be bad at it, should he take that position, and... let's face it, I love the dynamic between Sam and Will. I can't even believe that two characters with such little screen time together could have that much chemistry and that obvious a rapport.
So Sam is smart and quick and Will is wise and cautious and they balance each other out, in the end.
And they should have lots of sex. The end.
***
To end this on a completely ridiculous note, here's a story about the oral surgeon:
I sat down in the chair and the hygenist took some notes about my dental history and handed me a little pamphlet about wisdom teeth.
"Just read this over," she said, "Dr. Press will be in to see you in a minute."
So I read. It was short and the part of me that would be a hypochondriac if I wasn't so lazy was very wary of the "These Are The Things That Might Kill You But Probably Won't" page.
Those fears were totally forgotten, however, when I got to this line:
drink fluids, but avoid using straws as suction could disturb clotting.
Tell me I'm not the only person whose mind immediately went to the dirty place?
Clearly I read and write way too much gay porn.
***
So, I'm in Parsippany for the night--I got maybe two, three hours of sleep last night and the prospect of driving back to Purchase at nine at night was... less than appealing. So I'm here, now, until tomorrow morning, at which point I will be a little layout fiend.
But I ended up doing a lot of driving today, is the point, and when I drive, I think. Often about fandom, because I am a nerd.
I've been turning around an idea for a TWW fic in my head lately, one that puts a spin on the usual Wilde election scenario that I write. I've been playing with the idea of Sam doing something dirty to win the election, something underhanded. The problem is, that's not Sam, he wouldn't do that, and to write him that way... it's walking a very fine line. The payoff scene, in my head, is Sam admitting his misdeed to Will, who condemns it, just like Sam knew he would.
This has sort of led to some deeper ruminations about Sam v. Will. Sometimes, back when I read TWW fic more often than I do now, there's a sort of Will!hate in fandom that makes him out to be stupid, fumbling, or antagonistic. Basically, fandom (at one time) had a habit of making him a big fat jerk who didn't understand how things worked. It always irked me, on some level, because when AS was writing Will he was adorable. It made me angry to read things that automatically made him the badguy, but now that I think about it, it's more than that. I especially hate stories that hold him up against Sam and have him coming out looking dumb.
When it comes down to it, Will is wiser than Sam.
Not smarter, necessarily, but...wiser. In the way that Toby is wiser, that, by the end of the series, CJ is wiser, and Leo has always been wiser. From the first time we meet Will, the first time we see him argue with Sam (and god knows I've watched that episode enough times), there's this sense of Sam talking down to him and Will kicking his ass all around the room for it. Will might not have Washington experience, but he knows what he's doing and forges his own way, whereas Sam follows his heart and sometimes needs to have his course gently altered by those around him.
It's what makes him, I think, the better candidate and what makes Will better at working behind the scenes.
One of the things that irritated me about Josh in the Santos arc is his lack of this... I don't know, wise-ness, for lack of a better term. Josh doesn't really seem to grow up in the way everyone else does over the course of the show. I feel like there's this spectrum from new and naive to old and disillusioned that all of the characters move along over the course of the show, except Josh. Toby starts somewhere in the middle and ends up right at the bottom. Sam starts at the beginning and inches towards the middle. CJ starts at the beginning and makes her way almost all the way to the bottom. Josh starts a little ahead of Sam and CJ, but never seems to make it quite as far as they do.
Which, circling back to the beginning of this bit of...whatever, is why I think I tend to stick Will as Sam's backing in almost all future Seaborn for America fic. I like the idea of Josh as Leo and Sam as Jed, if only because I am so so so attached to that original ensemble and would love to embrace the pipe dream of the gang sticking together when it's Sam's turn to run. Unfortunately, where we end at season seven... I just don't buy that it would happen. I don't buy that Josh is in the right place for it yet, and for some reason, I can't see him maturing the rest of the way to really capture it. I think Toby never wanted to be CoS and thus would be bad at it, should he take that position, and... let's face it, I love the dynamic between Sam and Will. I can't even believe that two characters with such little screen time together could have that much chemistry and that obvious a rapport.
So Sam is smart and quick and Will is wise and cautious and they balance each other out, in the end.
And they should have lots of sex. The end.
***
To end this on a completely ridiculous note, here's a story about the oral surgeon:
I sat down in the chair and the hygenist took some notes about my dental history and handed me a little pamphlet about wisdom teeth.
"Just read this over," she said, "Dr. Press will be in to see you in a minute."
So I read. It was short and the part of me that would be a hypochondriac if I wasn't so lazy was very wary of the "These Are The Things That Might Kill You But Probably Won't" page.
Those fears were totally forgotten, however, when I got to this line:
drink fluids, but avoid using straws as suction could disturb clotting.
Tell me I'm not the only person whose mind immediately went to the dirty place?
Clearly I read and write way too much gay porn.