Schemes and Dreams

At the risk of giving away too much, you are right to be concerned about the Bailey-Moon's. The only two characters who are who they seem to be are Mimi and Venessa Jeong, who you will get to meet in part two. More on the Bailey-Moon's in a minute.

You could say that Mimi isn't entirely who they appear to be. That's because Mimi is still finding their true self. Mimi has two lines where they reveal that their gender identity may not be entirely settled. The confrontation teenage Mimi had with Nancy in the club. Nancy accuses Mimi, who in Nancy's mind is still Johnny of pretending to be a girl, and Mimi instantly responds with 'Who's pretending?" I didn't put it in Mimi's intro, but when they are in the Lady Mimi persona and performing their act, they prefer she/her pronouns, I inferred it. Mimi's exact quote, "Not that I'm ever truly out of character" is possibly a subconscious admission that they haven't reached their full identity just yet. It's these little details with Mimi that along with their personality make them so much fun to write. Mimi has an endless source of material to work with.

Back to the Bailey-Moon's. The bit with Orange's name was inspired by so many real life celebrities who give their kids...unique names. The gold and platinum standard for unique, if not weird names for me is Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa. I'm sure there are stories online that would explain the inspiration for their names. I've never looked it up because there is a certain fun in speculating on it, not that I do very often. I tried to channel that into Orange. It was a bit weak, but we're allowed a miss here and there. Octavia is a local and she comes from the inner city streets of DSV. As she moved into professional circles she dropped the slang, but dealing with Judith pushes her to the brink. When Judith, or even the thought of Judith, starts pushing Octavia's buttons she will slip back into using slang. I felt like adding that little detail highlights for readers when Judith has pushed Octavia to the edge of insanity with her craziness. The use of slang is Octavia's subconscious way of releasing the pressure without strangling Judith.

Thorne may or may not have changed. He has Octavia convinced that he's changed...or does he? Octavia did say that Thorne knows how good he has and he wouldn't be stupid, she said foolish, enough to mess that up. That could be what she truly believes because she loves him, or that's her mantra to calm her doubts.? Because of her own career she won't always be there to keep an eye on him, and she knows he has that history. Unlike the three main couples in Under The Tatosan Sun who all have pledged to be faithful, none of the characters in this story will be making that same pledge.