Schemes and Dreams

It took a little longer to work Rayvn in but I had a feeling readers would enjoy her passion for acting. She is friendly but she is shrewd, and almost calculating. She is determined to be the best, but she's not like Judith, someone who will happily destroy anyone who gets in the way. She wants to be famous for her acting, not infamous for all the other off-camera stuff. If needs be, she isn't afraid to whip out the claws (Do ravens have claws or talons?) and get ruthless. She is planning to use Judith to help her become a great actress. Even though they left Del Sol Valley over a decade earlier, Rayvn's mom knows a lot about how the business works. She armed Rayvn with that knowledge when she realized her daughter was determined to be an actress. Her mom witnessed young women being eaten alive by the movie business and she did her best to prepare Rayvn to survive and thrive. She knows the pros and cons of being associated with Judith Ward. For all of Judith's flaws, and they are legion, she is a great actress and can be a great mentor if you know how to deal with her. Rayvn and Judith should be an interesting dynamic.

Ahh, Thorne. Watching him over the years and in the first few sim days of this save, wow, what an egomaniac. In the past he's been a serial cheater too. I don't see that changing and that is festering under the surface of their relationship. Octavia is ill-equipped to deal with him but she's also ill-equipped to deal with her feelings and emotions about Thorne. She is convinced she loves him, but is that real or is it a well crafted lie? She's told herself she loves him long enough that she believes it on some level, and partly out of her wanting to maintain a stable home for Orange. She wants him to have a male influence in his life. But, here again subconsciously she knows Thorne is not a good role model. When I was writing that portion I wrote the line about Octavia not knowing whether to 'slap the taste outta his mouth' first. I kept going and I thought, what could Thorne have said that would have had her so mad she wanted to hit him or just bawl her eyes out. I thought it would be so like Thorne in that moment, he's mad, he's already called her unreasonable, he's going to go for a sexist trope. That one is disgusting and makes me angry when I hear it. I would venture to say every woman has been on the receiving end of that insult at some point in her life. If not to her face it's been said behind her back. The benefits of being a woman who stands up for herself.? Octavia needs a sober and grounded friend or confidante she can talk to. The celebrity world she lives in doesn't provide her with those kind of people in her orbit.

What can I say about Mimi that I myself, and you all, my lovely readers, haven't said already? Mimi is one of my absolute favorite characters to write for, and that's saying something with the cast of Under The Tartosan Sun in the mix as well. Drama and conflict aren't done with Mimi yet. The future drama will have little to nothing to do with Nancy and Malcolm though. Mimi has a lot to sort out and important decisions to make concerning, love, identity, career, and how to navigate the intersection of some of those aspects or all of them. Don't be surprised to see Mimi pop up in cameos on some of the future movies I stage.?