COMMENTS:
Poseidon Rising
PAGE 2
A collection of comments originally posted on the Blair Firsters
Board.
If you would like to make a comment about Poseidon Rising, leave your message in Key West Screened Porch at The Annex. I will periodically update this page with new comments as they become available. –Tessarae87 8 .31.02
CHAPTER 15
Ladyday
4.24.02 Awwww, Tessarae
this is so good!
But you know my
little CHAIR heart is broken for Chad
Dandesun 4.24.02
Secret
Gardens
That is one of my favorite books ever. I didn't discover it until I was a grownup but I really love it. I read it often.
I could probably sit here and write reams of symbolism and parallels between the Secret Garden and what it means for Blair here.
I hope this marks
the end of Chad's romantic interest in Blair. Not that it isn't interesting but
considering that over at the Knoll someone mentioned that it would be cool of
Chad could be Blair's brother and I've really taken to that idea. So much so
that them dancing and touching each other kinda squicked me out.
Nothing against you
Tessarae! Swear to God! It's just funny how ideas and speculation can color a
person's point of view.
Todd's continual Rising from the Watery Depths is really something. Honest to God, I don't think Blair has ever really let herself think about what Todd has gone through in order to survive. At the same time I wonder if Todd has ever recognized what it is he wants from Blair that will make his struggle for survival worth it. They keep throwing people in front of them as some kind of human buffer zone. First time it was Patrick and Tea and Sam... now it's Chad and Amanda and maybe Vincent.
One wonders if they realize they're little more than chess pieces. Todd and Blair are both so scared of what they really feel for each other that they'd rather manipulate and use people around them to shield them. Sure, they're miserable without the one they love but better miserable and controlling it than dangerously over the edge in love with no control in sight.
Todd hates what he
did with Jack. He tried to justify it before but it's been well documented that
he hated doing what he did to Blair. Sometimes I wonder if all the games aren't
his way of punishing himself as well. He's letting Blair keep him at arms
length. He's not pushing the envelope. He's letting her keep her walls up
because he knows that if he went after her with all of the love that he has for
her she simply could not resist. And maybe there's a part of him that wants to
protect her from HIM, too.
Blair thinks safe is going to solve her problems but it doesn't and in her heart
she knows it. It's so much easier to cut yourself off, or to remember only the
worst of it because holding onto the good parts will just make her weak. Except
that Blair was never stronger than when she was in love with Todd and Todd was
in love with her and Damn Everyone Else.
As they always say:
The thing about having everything is that you can lose everything.
Blair is so obviously trying NOT to have it all. She's trying not to have much
at all. There's something to be said for going back to the basics. Their
relationship was built on honesty. She wants it from Todd but you can tell she's
scared to death to give it. That means she can have it all again.
Anyway, I've rambled
enough. Guess this is what makes them so fun to write. There is a LOT of
material in both of these characters to explore. Keep it up, I'm still reading.
Tessarae 4.25.02
Am
I picking up on a little dissention in the ranks? LOL!
Thank goodness I’m bringing this one on home. Part III coming up. There are only four chapters left and I’m posting two chapters today.
Dande is not going to give me a break here about Chad! Now I not only have to deal with the fact that he is a twenty-two year old “child” but also with the possible, maybe, just might be incest taboo thingy! I give up and cry, “Uncle.” NOT! LOL Actually, I heard that speculation too and if they are not going with CHAIR (and personally I think we all need to thank our lucky stars that they are not going with Chikki) then I like the brother thing for the show! But in my little fictional universe it’s not true, I tell you. Not true! And, Ladyday, my mother used to say, “Every goodbye isn’t gone.” ;-) but…
I’m so glad you
liked the allusion to The Secret Garden, Dande. I have no idea where that came
from but it just popped into my head and felt right. I’m going to wait until
after I post the last chapter to add my two-cents to your take on T&B.
I’ll just say now that I agree with you but IMO Todd and Blair approach that
passion differently.
LadyDayN
4.25.02 Okay, I am so
stupid....
When I saw you post "Chikki" on the board......I thought you were talking to me, LOL! I just now realized that it was another name for a Nikki/Chad pairing.
As to getting my
CHAIR hopes up......I have a feeling I will have to troll the net for a
non-T&B fan fic writer to fulfill my CHAIR jones. I still love this story.
CHAPTERS
16 & 17
Blainca
4.25.02 Those Basturds!!!
Those dirty double
dealing basturds!!!!!
LadydayN
4.25.02 Nah blainca,
they ain't bastards
they are dirty low
down nasty ass mother fuckers!!
Dayum Tessarae! Blindsided me too!
Blainca 4.25.02 You
forgot PUNK!!!
They are dirty low
down nasty ass PUNK mother fuckers!!
That what they are!!!!
CHAPTER 18
LadydayN
4.25.02 Well shit don't
stop now!
Yummy! I can't wait
for the rest! I want Amanda to die!!!!!
Blainca
4.25.02 She ain't so
funny now!!!
And the Slimey
Aussie too death to them both!!!!
CHAPTERS
19 & 20
Dandesun 4.26.02
You're
a doll.
Thanks for the
subtle Chad/Jessi shout out.
I'm glad that Amanda did NOT turn out to be a turncoat. I really didn't think
she was on Vincent's side. She's so bizarre I almost believed it but I didn't
think she'd get through saving Todd's life and nursing him back to health and
then being such a total turncoat.
I had faith that she was conning Jewelsy, too.
As for that Aussie shite... heh. Sucker.
These stories are so good that you don't even realize that they are smutless
until you think about it for awhile. Good job with that!
Excellent work, hon. Excellent. Now, remember, you owe me a longer response to
Todd and Blair and their passions from before. You said you weren't going to
respond until this one finished. I see a 'The End' up there so you need to pay
up, missy! ;D
Again. Loved it. And I always look forward to anything else you take on
LadydayN
4.26.02 I knew Dande
would eat that Chassica up with a spoon!
Another wonderful, wonderful Tessarae classic. You are just so good. And Dande's right, you are so smooth a storyteller that I don't even miss the smut......strong endorsement from a major slut like myself! Very glad about Amanda not being a nasty ass punk mother fucker like that slimeball Jewlsy.
SO when do you start on the next one? Don't give me that "I've got a real
life" nonsense either!
Hotspot626
4.27.02 Not bad...
Well I finally got
around to reading one of your FF....nice. I read it all last night, in the
middle of some nice RL shit!!! Give you one compound abbreviation ER, and one
clue baseball bat. But hey it sure was a welcome relief to the mayhem of life.
Now if only Mr. Tomlin could get the message straight.
Tessarae
4.28.02 Thanks Dande,
Ladyday & Hotspot!!
I’m really glad you liked it. As always I am truly grateful for your support! This was an interesting one because you seemed so divided.
Dande, I loved it when you popped in and lectured me on the fact that Chad was
just a child. I said, “Whoa! Dande is pissed off at me. I must actually be
presenting a credible argument for CHAIR.” I was so excited. Not because you
were upset but because I wasn’t at all sure I could pull it off. You obviously
perceived Chad as a threat to Todd and DID NOT like it. Yippee! And like I
promised I returned him, only a little bit “older.”
Now, Ladyday, as you know, the membership of CHAIR is bitterly divided, split
right down the middle so much so that half the membership is looking for another
fan fiction writer to deliver the goods on CHAIR, but I wanted him to be more
than just a sexual threat. I wanted him to threaten something more precious
because Todd needed a wake up call. It’s all about love. I didn’t do it
consciously (nothing about this story was consciously planned except Blair
returning his stuff to him and Chad being involved with Blair somehow; I still
have no idea where Amanda came from :-) but I ended up creating two rivals for
Blair that represented different aspects of Todd: Chad = love while Vincent =
money, power & ruthlessness. It was interesting to me looking back over the
story that Todd immediately zeroed in on Chad as the real threat. He might
comfort himself by thinking that Blair is unduly interested in money and power
because those are the things he can control and manipulate but it is her heart
that he wants and he knows how little control he really has over that. And he
was right to be concerned because Chad really did love Blair and “if the stars
had lined up differently…”
Thanks for what you said about the smut (or actually lack thereof) not ruining
the story for you. Y’all know I have nothing against smut but I know my
limitations. I don’t write smut well. I know this because I tried (LOL) and it
came out clinical, mechanical and boring. I think good smut is written with
joyful abandon that is liberating to read. My stuff came out painfully shy and
self-conscious like someone looking at her watch and wanting to know if it was
over yet. So I’ve accepted that I’m limited and now just try to set the
stage then write around it! It’s a balancing act though because I don’t want
people to feel cheated or mislead but I guess by now everyone knows what to
expect from me—the standard soap opera fade to black. (Of course that fade to
black thing was given new dimensions when LL felt compelled to discuss his
thong! Way too much information for me. LOL.)
Thanks again for reading it! And, Hotspot, if it helped distract you even for a
few minutes, I’m glad it was there. Hugs!
Tessarae87
4.28.02 Dande, about
the passion thing...
I didn’t mean to imply that my opinion about T&B’s passion was deep or profound or anything but I figured that if I started gushing about them at that point, it would erase any suspense about how Poseidon Rising would end. Of course, I think LD has my number by now. LOL (I’m an unrepentant T&Ber whose faith at the moment is being sorely tested)
I agree with you about the intensity of their passion and how at this point it
scares them. In fact, the next “color story” starts with no one
strategically placed between them like “a piece on a chess board” and so in
sync, in love and loving full throttle they are scared about crashing and
burning (“Fly too close to the sun and your wings melt” sort of thing).
There are a thousand and one things I hated about TnT but the most disturbing to
me was how that relationship pandered to the worst in both Todd and Tea. I find
that I am drawn to stories about the redemptive power of love—how love can
elevate you and gives you the power to transcend limitations to become MORE than
you are outside of that glow. TnT represented IMO a relationship in which the
participants became LESS as a couple than they were as individuals—they fed
each other’s pathology and actively worked to see which one could sink the
lowest. Nothing about that relationship reflected love to me.
T&B were always just the opposite to me. Their connection transformed both
of them into something beyond what they were as individuals and as you said,
“they were never stronger than when they were together.” And I don’t mean
redemptive in the sense of suddenly becoming “good” by any means but that
love can fill in the gaps in your psyche, which allows you to grow and become
something closer to what is possible for you. But for that to happen and be
sustained it must be mutual. I liked Todd and Rebecca but in the end I thought
that relationship reached a logical and satisfying conclusion (JMO) because that
connection would not have allowed both of them to grow—either Todd would have
had to shape himself into something unrecognizable to be “good” enough to
deserve her or she would have had to give up so much of what she held “holy”
to be “bad” enough to deserve him. I always respected Rebecca’s insight
and her decision to do what was right for her. T&B were different for me
because their connection really did have the capacity to elevate BOTH of them
and not only one at the other’s expense. And that can be truly scary stuff for
two people as emotionally damaged as Todd and Blair were when they met. Yet they
took that leap.
But I do think that Todd and Blair approach their passion differently and those
differences are rooted in childhood (JMO). I have nothing to back up this
argument but it is a spin that makes sense to me and I don’t pretend to be an
expert on the back-story of Todd or Blair so I freely admit that I may have some
of the details wrong. When I write them though this is what I have in the back
of my mind:
To whatever extent Todd’s childhood was emotionally abusive, it was stable.
Peter was a cold, demanding and critical father but he was there. Todd knew
where he was going to lay his head at night. So he lived in an emotionally
punitive world but he was standing on solid ground. Despite Peter’s tendency
to be critical, he provided no moral center for Todd, or any sense of moral
limits or any sense that other people’s feelings really mattered (Todd’s
feelings sure didn’t matter to Peter). Todd came to believe he could control
what happened around him through a force of will AND he could make it right if
he found the right equation. And it didn’t matter how he did it. He developed
faith in his ability to manipulate the elements of the situation and create
different arrangements to ultimately find the key to get him what he wanted.
Whenever things didn’t work out he believed it was because he didn’t try
hard enough or manipulate skillfully enough. He wants Blair and when he’s not
seething with anger over some real or imagined betrayal, or off licking his
wounds, he has no compunction about manipulating the hell out of her to get her
to fall in line. He loves her. His passion for her threatens to incinerate him.
He wants her. So he pushes, he spins, he controls, he manipulates, he messes
up…but the one thing he can’t do is step back and let her come to him. If he
can make it “perfect” then she will stay and he will have what he wants.
Blair, on the other hand, had a very different experience in childhood so she
learned a different lesson. Blair learned that things can be perfect and it
won’t make any difference because you can still lose it. You can be placed
with a family where it looks like everything is going to work out fine. You can
see they care about you and you can project yourself off into the future and see
yourself happy and loved but then social services shows up with the black
garbage bag for your stuff and you have to let go. And it doesn’t matter how
perfect the situation was or how much you wanted to stay…you have to let go.
She loves Todd as much as he loves her, if not more, but to her that doesn’t
mean she gets to keep him. She can hold her passion and love for him in her
heart and the memory of something that was perfect but life has taught her that
in all likelihood she will have to let go. So what appears to be her settling
for less than what she could have with Todd is IMO her acting out the script
stamped on her in childhood. Her error, she believes, is thinking she can have
what she wants just because she wants it. At some point, she always steps back
and makes a nod to that lesson and tries to move on.
JMO
Blainca 4.30.02
Well
Tess you have done it again
Another terrific
story well written and highly enjoyable!!! Ya know you are really really really
good at this!!!
Thanks again
Tessarae87
5.2.02 {{{{Hugs}}}}
blainca!
As always thanks for all of your support!
I loved your reactions to Amanda and Vincent! I used your reactions to gauge how
well I was pulling it off.
Your comments were truly appreciated and I'm glad you enjoyed the story.
Zzanee 5.12.02 Excellent
story!
I am finally able to comment on this! It was so good and well-written. Said this before but I love the emotional texture of your writing. It speaks the emotional cores of the characters. Loved Blair's emotional journey and how Todd only got her back when he stopped playing games with her! Loved Amanda! Whacky chick! Now, there is a lovable conwoman! Oddly, she reminded me of Leo Depres when he came on AMC! Vincent is a jerk. Glad he did not get Todd's car!
BTW, don't worry about the smut...That will come or it won't...however, if you
went emotions you pour into writing your writing, I bet you could write a hell
of a love scene chickie and everyone know that makes the best smut.
Look forward to the next colorful story! Peace!
Tessarae87
5.13.02 THANKS, Zzanee!!!!
You know how much I value your opinion! I'm so glad you liked it.
I can see what you are saying about Amanda reminding you of Leo. I hadn't
thought about that before. Leo was great before they hooked him up with
"THE heart transplant." I'm not sure if he'll ever recover from that,
although he is much better now.
And I appreciate the advice about the smut. I hadn't thought about it that way.
Next time I'll try to think about writing a "love" scene and maybe I
can get it to flow more freely.
As always, thanks for reading it.
SkinTheKat
8-27-02
Poseidon Rising .... WOW!!!
I fell in love with just about EVERY
character in this Fan Fiction. CHAD made me feel bad that Blair could never give
him what he wanted. I adored Amanda and if I ever swung that way....LOL. And
even that naughty AUSSIE rocked.
It was wonderful the way you kept BLAIR'S VOICE HEARD even when you started up
the T&B Duet again. This was one of the most INTELLIGENT and BALANCED FFs I
ever read! I BOW to thee and thy GENIUS, my friend!
Tessarae87 8-31-02
THANK
YOU, STK!
I have to admit that it was fun writing it. Amanda came out of nowhere. She just popped into my head and took over. I thought it was just like Todd to return to Llanview working a scheme but thought it would be a change of pace for once if instead of his accomplice hurting T&B she actually worked to make things better between them.
And you know I LOVE Blair. My biggest grip with OLTL these days is how TPTB do not respect the character. It irritates the hell out of me that they refuse to acknowledge that by erasing Blair’s voice out of the most recent T&B storyline they crippled it and made it a shell of what it could have been. Blair is a great character and I guess my Fan Fiction is a reaction to my frustration over the fact that TPTB simply refuse to write her in a way that represents her intelligence, strength and determination (I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around the destruction they heaped on her this summer). In my fan fiction, I try to do right by my girl.
And sigh. Chad had so much potential on the show as a bad boy with that requisite heart of gold (for the right woman) that it bothers me how they decided to sanitize him and squander all sorts of storyline possibilities. I tried to take Chad’s interest in Blair seriously in Poseidon and make him seem viable as a competitor for her heart, not the widdle boy they decided to write him as on the show. And I thought Vincent, the Aussie scumbag, was a hoot, on one hand, and complicated interesting, on the other. Everybody hated him when I first posted the story but I thought he was great because he was a serious threat to Todd.
Thanks again for telling me how much you liked the story.
I really appreciate your comments.Tessarae
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