essbeejay | More Beach Chapter trivia!

Continuing on from this post and this post!

"You're not allowed to find my brother hot!" "Excuse me?" Blossom lowered her hat and glared. "Who are you to cast stones?" - Another thing I was very proud of in this chapter was the cross-character interaction that I managed to get going! The fantastic thing was that when I was writing this chapter I was in one of those headspaces where everything just FLOWED; come revision time I tweaked very little in this entire segment. It felt really good. I was typing up a storm and felt un-fucking-stoppable. Anyway, this is probably my favorite character exchange in this entire chapter. YEP
"Besides," she said, holding up a towel. "Someone's going to have to help Brick dry off when he gets out." - Originally this towel gag carried over into the next, more plotty section. There was actually more silliness that happened right before the fighter jet shows up involving girls fighting surreptitiously over the opportunity to towel Brick off and Brick and Blossom getting knocked over and Blossom landing on top of him in the process (SO ORIGINALLLLLLLLL) and then the entire moment getting ruined by the tide washing in over Brick. And also the fighter jet. My betas brought up the good and very valid point that we were treated to enough silliness in the front end and here it felt like overkill (and it's not like the Reds fans reading TEF are missing any awkward romantic moments between the two at any other point in the story save for the two of them actually resolving their tension). For anybody who's interested in reading that, though, it'll probably get posted as a tfr post at somem point.
Brick stared in horror at the thin wire mesh just underneath the outer metal—no, not mesh. Like an intricate capillary system, leaking tiny, near-microscopic drops of Antidote X. - I just wanted to point out I know nothing about how a machine like this would be constructed so all of this is complete and total BS on my part.
Fuck, it hurt. - Really wish I'd taken this line out. Too many repetitions of "Fuck" and "It hurt." Ugh. DRAMA!CAKES.
He stared at her as their siblings landed. "I guess when you're normal you just forget how to let things go." - OH JESUS why did I leave that line in there UGH
"Brick you need to wrap that up or something," Bubbles said, fussing. "Hold on, I'll be right back." (...) "Brick, here," Bubbles said, reappearing with a towel. She wrapped his arm as gently as she could; Brick hissed against the pain, nonetheless. - Bubbles/Brick! Bubbles/Brick forever! I will openly admit that I like to pay a little lip service to other pairings in TEF. If you pick up on hints between characters that aren't red/pink-blue/blue-green/green, then... yay!
"Butch, fire," he said, and in a blast of green there was nothing but ash between Blossom's hands. - For all that Butch "dislikes" Brick and has a history of (and reputation for) disobeying his orders... when Brick needs something done, Butch is usually his go-to guy, and when Brick says something, Butch tends to listen. I hope that keeps people guessing about his character and his intentions, and I also hope people see the complexity in him, since on the surface you'd think he'd have the least depth (since he's not "sensitive" like Boomer or a "thinking man" like Brick). This will come back later.
"I know," Brick sighed, surprising her. "Yeah, I know." He looked at his arm again, and, after a long moment, said, "Thank you." A stunned Blossom blinked at him. Brick wanted this to be over. He needed to go home. He needed to call JS. - Just for the record, Brick is not saying "Thank you" to be nice and demonstrate how much his character has grown here. He is saying "Thank you" to end the conversation and get Blossom off his back so he can go make that phone call. Because he is a selfish bastard.
Darius peered at Brick's arm. "What's that? A sunburn? Tsk tsk tsk, Brick. Even superbeings such as yourself need sun protection." - There was an episode about this... ("Sun Scream")
"Brick." Darius reached off-screen for a file and flipped it open. "You expect me to believe that you were developing three projects at once—one each for Weapons, Surveillance, and Specialized Training Sims all by yourself?" - I think I originally had Brick with five projects, and then I stepped back and said Am I on crack or something, Jesus he's still just a kid. So I scaled it back. But in all honesty, to me three still sounds like a lot for a young teenager, especially since they're in three completely different departments. (And, unsurprisingly, nobody calls Brick out on it, but Blossom being an amazing dancer gets called out more times than I can count on one hand. Hmmm. ~~Misogyny~~)
He returned the file to its off-screen home and turned his attention back fully to Brick, adopting a smug, conciliatory tone. - WORD NERD ALERT. I'm so happy I was able to work the word "conciliatory" into the narrative! I love that word! Okay carry on.
"Robin, pass me the marshmallows," Bubbles said, and as the bag was passed to her she stuck two on her stick and three on her sister's. They rotated them in the fire slowly, side by side. Bubbles leaned against her sister and rested her head on her shoulder. - I really really liked when people singled out this moment between the girls. I actually love when people single out any sisterly moments. It makes me happy because the romantic relationships in this story aren't the only relationships that exist, and seeing people recognize that... yeah. I love it. You guys rock.
"I wanted to go somewhere a little private," Butch suddenly said, and she looked at him, dread curling in her stomach at his words. - YEP. Judging from some of the comments/reviews, other girls have been here before. I hope I was able to convey that panic honestly and accurately.
"But they'd definitely done bad things," Butch continued. "Worse things than most others." - I feel like I've seen some people use this moment as an example of how the boys are actually good, and while I don't want to tell anybody how to read the story I do want to point out that Butch is kind of an unreliable character here. It should be evident that he and Boomer have a very warped sense of right and wrong, so to take him at his word here is a dangerous thing. (I think I stated before that Brick, unlike his brothers, knows the difference between right and wrong - he just doesn't care.)
"When are you and your brothers leaving?" she asked quietly, and his grip on her hand loosened, very slightly. He studied the sand crunching underneath their feet for a few steps. "Funny you should mention that." - I have an old version of this scene (Boomer and Bubbles walking on the beach) somewhere... another tfr post, at some point.
Bubbles looked at her and let her lips curl just enough into a small grin, waiting for her sister to ask one more time. - Some people were going "What news? WHAT NEWS?!" Which kind of made me go, Seriously? It just happened like two minutes ago (the boys telling the girls they were staying). You guys read too much into things sometimes ♥
OH I KNOW LAST THING. If you've followed me for a long time (or if you just actually read my Note to Self at the top of the page), you know that Honey and Clover is one of my favorite anime of all time. I must confess! Occasionally I have songs that I'll envision "playing over" certain scenes. They range from soundtrack music to pop songs to anime songs. Waltz, the 1st ED theme to H&C, always plays over the end to this chapter for me. I just think of multiple shots of the various "couples" together, bookended by Brick at home alone (in the beginning) and Blossom at home alone (in the end) over the instrumental, then moving into the next chapter's events for the rest of the song. Um. So I guess what I'm implying is Waltz is TEF's summer jam. /SHRUG