#maybe try that too and don’t just commodify their work and benefit from it while ignoring their efforts to say something that’s important

[samanthadalton]

Perfect match

Someone asked for jealous Ina so here it is I guess, (takes place after that book store scene in chapter 5) 

Pairings: Ina x Bea 

tag list: @cloud9in @kulaykape @helpconfusedpersonhere @citybornchick @astrangeandunusualgirl @jenxespinoza @sakaily @domakir (added a few people who might appreciate the fic) 

word count: 1.4k 

“You’ll find someone better for you. Someone more suited.” 

As the words leave Ina’s mouth, Bea can feel anger bubbling up inside of her, her nostrils flaring as she lowers her hands to her side, fists balled up, knuckles turning white. Ina stiffly turns away from her, head hanging low with a mournful look on her face as if she’s lost everything. And maybe she has, her career aside, Bea is the only person who she has ever genuinely connected with, someone who keeps her on her toes and makes her so...happy. But Ina has to keep reminding herself that she’s doing this for Bea’s benefit, if anyone at Belvoire caught wind of their relationship it would have serious repercussions not only on herself but on Bea and Ina would never forgive herself if  she’s the reason Bea’s reputation at Belvoire becomes tainted. 

“You should go.” Ina doesn’t even bother looking up, her tone devastatingly monotone. 

“Fine. Whatever.” Bea can feel the weight of everything crashing down onto her but she keeps her face expression blank and walks out of the bookstore without a second glance. Once she’s out of the store, she presses her back against the wall, shoulders slumped and the tears freely fall. 

……

In the following weeks, Ina and Bea do their damned best to ignore each other, Ina switched up her office hours so that Bea would have to drop off the papers in Ina’s office rather than handing them over face to face. Anthro class was even more awkward because it became undeniably obvious that Ina was excluding Bea from the conversations in class. Bea became fed up with Ina’s childish antics, it was obvious that Ina still felt something for Bea because during anthro class, in her peripheral version, Bea can see Ina’s gaze lingering on her. Every time Ina gave Bea the cold shoulder treatment, she could swear she sees Ina wince a little when she sees Bea’s somber expression yet Ina would never attempt to make the first move. 

If it was anyone else, Bea would've cut the metaphorical cord and moved on, but with Ina it was different. With Ina it feels easy, she doesn’t need to try too hard to be someone she’s not, and Ina was one the very few people to see Bea for who she really is, that was evident the first time they met. Ina instantaneously knew Bea was not from New York the minute she spoke to her, Bea was like a breath of fresh air, her refreshing wit filled Ina with ardor, which was soon explored in a private room at the bar the same day. What Ina didn’t know is that the brunette would be the reason why she lies awake at night, yearning for her touch, her soft voice, and pretty much bring about the demise of her career. 

Bea knew she had to take matters into her own hands, and a plan began formulating after she had met a boy named Connor in her mass communication class who just happened to be in her anthropology class too. 

“I can’t believe I’ve never noticed you in Kingsley’s class before.” 

Connor gives Bea a warm grin while he sheepishly rubs his hand on his neck, “well I usually sit near the back of the class. I’ve seen you because you’re Professor Kingley’s TA right?” 

“Yeah.” Bea’s smile falters slightly as she recollects about Ina’s past behaviour for the last week. Connor seems like a very sweet guy and maybe toying with his heartstrings is malicious but she wants Ina to eat her own words, and prove that there’s no one more suitable for her than Ina herself.  

Next anthropology class, Bea enters with Connor on her arm, laughing along to whatever joke he made in a slightly exaggerated manner, enough for Ina to whip her head up from her desk to notice them together. Bea makes a show of cuddling close to Connor as class begins, completely fixating her attention to her newest boy toy. Ina frowns a little as jealousy begins to creep into her emotions, but like any good teacher, she pushes her feelings down, continuing on with the class. Every now and then her gaze would snap towards the two, but Ina can only compose herself for so long. Her self control completely snaps when she gapes at the brunette who begins to whisper into the boy’s ear. 

“Miss Hughes.” 

Bea completely encompassed in her endeavour to make Ina jealous doesn’t hear the professor until Ina obstreperously clears her throat, saying Bea’s name in an exasperated tone. 

“Miss Hughes!” 

Bea hums non committedly as her gaze snaps over to Ina, and a faint smirk appears on her face when she sees the envious look igniting in Ina’s eyes. 

“Maybe you can answer the question.” 

“Uhhh, what was the question.” 

“Give us an example of how sex is commodified in society.” 

Bea stares intensely as Ina, admiring the slight redness that’s dusted on her cheeks as she contemplates her answer, “the media.” 

“Care to elaborate?” 

“The media often objectify women, portraying them as sexual objects, or to push certain stereotypes which can be harmful to our society.” 

Ina hums at Bea’s answer, content. “Well done Miss Hughes, but I would suggest you focus less on the people sitting around you and focus your attention to the class.” Ina raises an eyebrow, which to the other students may seem like a warning but Bea can decipher the hidden message and she gives Ina a small wink, displaying she understands the message, she’s jealous. 

As class ends, Ina calls Bea back to talk about ‘grading some quizzes’ and Connor gives Bea a sweet kiss on her cheek and thanks Kinglsey for the lesson in which Ina retorts with a small smile which doesn’t reach her eyes. 

“So professor, what’s this about some quizzes.” Ina waits for the class to empty before speaking. 

“Bea.” 

“Yes?” Bea playfully bites her lip as she looks over to Ina who subtly darts her eyes down for a second to watch the motion, but her eyes snap back up when Bea lets out a small laugh. 

“What are you doing Bea? This isn't you.” 

Bea can feel the blood rushing to her ears and anger begins to flare up inside of her, “this isn’t me? And what do you know about me? You don’t even give me the time of day, not even as your TA. You’re that much of a coward that you changed your office hours so we don’t see each other anymore.” 

Guilt flashes on Ina’s face as she takes her glasses off, her brows furrowed as she solemnly looks over at Bea. “You’re right Bea. I’m sorry. I just can’t risk it.” 

“Risk what? Your career? Because I would never let anything happen to you.” 

Ina takes a step towards Bea, her eyes filled with affection, “I’m afraid if I spend too much time around you, my self control will shatter and I will not be able to control my” she swallows uneasily, “my feelings for you.” 

Bea looks over at Ina, hope in her eyes, “then stop holding yourself back, this is exactly what we both want. You say you want me to find someone more,” Bea lifts her hands in air quotes, “suited.” She takes an unprecedented step closer to Ina who clenches her jaw slightly, but doesn’t waver, “did you ever stop to think that maybe you’re exactly what I need? That we need each other?” Bea tentatively reaches out, her fingers trails down Ina’s arm and in that moment, Ina feels her self control completely demolishing as she cups Bea’s face and kisses her with everything inside of her. Her lips move against Bea’s and when her tongue slips into Bea’s mouth, Bea lets out a soft moan which only compels Ina to assert her dominance against Bea further. She shoves Bea against the desk and begins to kiss down her neck, sucking on the sensitive spot as she begins marking the brunette’s neck. 

“No more holding back.” Ina’s voice full of promise as she continues kissing Bea. She abruptly breaks the kiss as her hand moves to grip Bea’s chin, jerking her head up to make their eyes meet, her voice dripping with the most intensity, “you’re mine, don’t you ever forget that.” She swoops in kissing Bea passionately as Bea feels satisfied her plan worked.

[zeytins]

i actually think the "bending as a measure for inequality" is okay in the avatar world because the bending population is large enough that they're not faced with persecution for being different (like many superpowered individuals, like in Marvel and other media) but also rare enough that it be commodified and hoarded by the elite. The pro-bending situation, at least for me, does show that well enough.

Like bending is extremely useful, it's not just like a combat destructive thing. It's got ways of making everyday life easier. And so of course in a growing industrial society that becomes very valuable. The most popular sport in the world becoming exclusive to benders would also indicate how much the gap between benders and non-benders has grown. Of course it's not a perfect metaphor and Bryke arent stellar writers at this but theres a good story here that could be better if further elaborated.

I mostly agree with you here! It’s an imperfect allegory, one that works well enough for the show. It makes sense, but we lack development. At least I do. Mostly because Mako and Bolin show us Republic City. Mako works a grueling industrial job with other lighting benders, a job that in history would probably take the place of, say, sweatshop labor. They’re a commodity being exploited by who? It could be Hiroshi, or Varrick, both of which are non-benders. 

On an industrial front, they’re doing the grunt work, which is usually not that well-paid. Easier to find a job, maybe, but I’m sure there are nonbender technicians that are valued higher above them. Then again, you could argue that someone who was a technician and could generate lighting could be much more valuable to the company. So what’s the solution to that inequality? I could think of maybe one or two, neither very good, but I don’t think bryke gives us an answer besides bending communism, which I guess is their where of making Amon’s cause more sympathetic.

On terms of systemic inequality, I agree that the top sport being pro-bending is an issue. The thing is, Mako and Bolin work their all their way to being second place champions and still have to ask Hiroshi for money. They still live in a loft above the pro-bending place. Aside from Asami asking Mako out on a date, it’s pulled them out of a gang and kept them housed and safe and fed and not much else. 

The best example we see is the gangs on Republic City’s streets. This is a good way to show, actually, because we see the gang terrorizing non-benders. My issue is that it’s just wayyy to comical that Korra rounds them up and the police force can’t, which begs the question: is the police force corrupt? But that’s for another day*. And then Amon starts with the chi-bending thing, and we see that trained non-benders can go toe to toe with trained benders. So then the way to address the inequality might be self defense classes, like the ones Asami was in. Either way, it shows that the baddest one on the block is the one with the most brute force. It’s easier to achieve that with bending, which is why the gangs work. 

*It says a lot that the police force is willing to subdue non-benders protesting and can’t get the gangs that the Avatar immediately finds after walking into Republic City. Like, it just can’t be that hard, not when Korra infiltrates them and everything after being there for two weeks. So THAT is something to definitely be more explored, rather than putting a “bad cop” in place of Lin and chalking it up to “well, the leader corrupted them” like was was Lin doing while she was police chief? Solving the occasional murder? Not trying to protect non-benders from the bending gangs or whatnot? Ok...

So in the end, we see that the biggest commodity that causes systemic oppression is money. They made it bending because money would be too obvious, but there’s nothing there that would actually help anyone. The population get its bending taken away, and non-benders receive more safety on the streets. But what about the next generation? The rest of the world? Does taking away bending help kids who were like Mako, or Bolin? To me, it just benefits people’s agendas, like Hiroshi and Tarrlok’s and Amon’s. People who are actually the elite. That’s why it probably falls flat, because we just don’t see the point of view of a regular person who follows Amon? Someone who genuinely wants inequality to end? Anyway. That’s my tirade. 

feel free to drop genuine questions or anything mildly amusing into my inbox about fandom/atlaverse or about your personal life let’s start discourse

[deveharrington]

I think David's family vacation was about damage control for his image. His tour isn't even sold out and they aren't big venues. It sure wouldn't hurt to be seen with Tea. At least he had some quality time with his kids instead of always being with someone that can't spell potatoes.

Disclaimer: all theories ahead.

1. I really really can’t imagine him doing something on that level just for publicity, or purposefully doing something that his kids don’t like/makes them uncomfortable/breaches their privacy, at least not for this purpose (PR? for the “tour”s ticket sales??) that hasn’t really been addressed in other ways that would be much more straightforward. Also, actually, I feel that there still seems to exist a separation between the identities of Family!Dave and Rockstar!Dave, I feel he is just that type to become different people for different audiences. 

Despite his current shit, I still think he wouldn’t do THAT. 

2. As for “quality time”… D has said things in the past about that, hasn’t he? But he’s also pretty much eaten every single word he ever said, hasn’t he? :l 

3. He is in a dreamworld: Also, he seems to believe that he is a “celebrity” who is above PR somehow ?? Lmao you never know with this dude. ????!!!?!!?! 

He is in a dreamworld 2: I’m saying he thinks he can live several separate lives and reap the benefits of all of them with no consequences :-)

He seems to not give a shit what people think, and I think this is a good characteristic, but David takes it too far. He has shown that he is flippant about the opinions of people WHO ACTUALLY MATTER is what I mean. Example: his children…

He is in a dreamworld 3: I could even believe that his kids don’t actually tell him how they truly feel about his current shit and David just believes that they’re being “supportive” (if he can fall for Scammer Brad Davidson’s lies, he can fall for anything…). Or if they are honest, and I hope they actually are, David also once said that he doesn’t ask for his kid’s opinions, and I really fucking hate that he said that but maybe I am just taking that statement out of context by bringing it up for this argument or maybe he was being sarcastic no fucking clue but anyways it is something to consider. Because even if it were sarcastic, I saw that as a red flag. I just see it as crude, flippant, meant to be “funny” but not funny at all - a typical “???” statement that comes out of his mouth and eventually leads to a sour truth somewhere down the line. And I’ve already asserted (but its just my opinion) that he actually does tell the truth when he jokes or uses sarcasm. Sorry for this tangent but what I mean…

… is that, hasn’t he demonstrated already that he can live different lives (evidence: just like he can get up on that stage and transform into… that… uhm creature(strike) persona that can flail around as it does)? 

How would pics of his kids cringing at paps help his image?

Also, I don’t see any posing, just awareness of the cameras. 

Under the cut: I don’t see any other effort being made to address the low ticket sales, and discussing how David seems to actually be doing the opposite of progressing creatively by…. wasting time on a new distraction: a “documentary”… and why does the guy need a documentary???? …Another gimmicky souvenir (DVD) for Scammer Brad to “sell”/shill??? lmao…..

thx anon, as for the “potatos” thing…. yeah :l………………………………….. :)

I don’t see any other effort being made to address the low ticket sales, example: no heightened promo since the initial announcement. And if there were, I would expect it to be music related. Why not take this time to make a music video, or put music on the radio, collaborate, or even just keep posting on social media where it would be easiest to just post whatever….??? I also think that people mostly separate his family role from his nonsensical-bullshit-“rockstar”-ego-audience-energy-siphoning-creature role and so far it looks like David is doing the same. It seemed like he always kept those two things separate (?? well he sings about Tea + his kids idk maybe the songwriting, his one contribution, comes from him but the rest….). 

How would pics of his kids cringing at paps motivate people to buy a ticket to his “concert”??? lmao.

And here’s the thing.. I actually suspect (and this is just my own perspective) that he might not actually be aware of any issues in terms of the “touring”!!! OR: if he has any questions (I don’t think he does lmao but if he did…), Scammer Brad just smoothes it out with bullshit, empty promises, new distractions/“projects” so as not to lose David’s faith. I think it would be in Scammer Brad’s best interests to do everything to assure him that its all smooth sailing, its just also hilarious that Scammer Brad literally can’t do a single thing in a professional or logical manner… including hiring actual professionals for specific tasks…….. LMAO wtffff…..

The theory in Point #3 just comes from an interesting parallel of David just being like “yah, somewhere down the line I believe BFD will be made someday somewhere a place for usssssss lalalala”. 

Going off of the point #3, in terms of distractions and new gimmicks: evidence: This “music” documentary… like… Don’t get me started on the idea of “music” documentary like… dude… why do you need a documentary?? LMAO. We know why you are doing this and the truth ain’t pretty!! This is a new level of “David’s mere presence is the gift alone”. But yeah Idk maybe they need to spin some gimmicky new merch (right beside the vinyls) or try to squeeze out more ways to commodify this “touring”. If it is just a documentary just for the sake of one then I still must laugh because… how many times has David said that he’s not a musician/singer/performer and thats fine but he’s also never demonstrated that he’s even wanted to improve, choreograph, or change what he does/how he expresses himself. What I mean is that, fair enough, what he does is fine and it is his right, but I’m talking about the dearth of any creative, artistic, innovative, even just progressive aspect to all of this that you know, would typically be the focus of any documentary on an actual artist (like, he writes the lyrics but doesn’t create the melodies/engineer the sound… I know that those processes can be separate but shouldn’t the actual documentary then be about his songwriting process and not about how much David is soooooo ~loved~ across the globe??? Like, I’m sorry to say it this way but I don’t see much else to the performative/“touring” aspect of all of this that would warrant a documentary… he’s never even made a music video… his music hasn’t even hit the radio…. its not like he’s created a stage persona?? wait, has he???? lmao…. come on, Dave.) 

To try to say it quickly lmao: (just my perspective) David clearly has no purpose even to his lyrics other than to sing about himself. He has no integrity behind anything he does. The point of a documentary would be to look behind the mask, the curtain but there is LITERALLY NOTHING THERE. AHHAHAAHAH they’re selling us nothing… and the sad thing is is that there is evidence that that has been done in the past!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But there IS a documentary warranted on how his very talented young band members create their music and persevere through David’s onstage performances without falling asleep. They are genuine artists and genuinely talented so here’s hoping that shining star David can allow them some precious seconds of face time on the documentary and I’m not talking about time spent talking about and aggrandizing David lmao….

But actually, this “documentary” move makes a lot of sense in terms of David’s history of you know… FLIP FLOPPING on his own words and being defiant of the labels others place on him/ he feels he is being subjected to while at the same time trying to squeeeeeeeze out as much as he can from those labels/the attention of others.

To conclude, It seems that David wants to separate family life from his work and thats good. To David’s credit, maybe I actually don’t see him as buying into his own “celebrity” “status” (at times..)… that is, until he sees an opportunity to use that “status” to get something he wants/needs to feed his ego (he acts like he might die if his ego ain’t nourished), but that is technically his right since he technically “earned” that “status” (its just my perspective, and my perspective includes the argument that he switches the goalposts a lot and doesn’t hold consistent to any sense of morals or character so… things can go both ways for him). Though I feel like he mainly owes that “status” to being at the right place at the right time, and he definitely owes his “status”/“success” to Gillian as well :-) I’m gonna end this response on THAT note lmao.