#anyway SHE’S SOOOOO BAD AT SOCIAL CHESS SHE’S REALLY REALLY BAD AT IT

[obstinaterixatrix]

also mom was running down some of the drama she’s been experiencing for years in her high school wechat group, and it is… astounding how terrible her self-proclaimed rival is at social chess. well first of all, they didn’t even know each other in high school? they weren’t in the same class? mom says they never talked before so she doesn’t know why this other woman is so obsessed with her, but this woman has been going to all of mom’s close friends and sending messages just slandering mom’s character and talking about how mom’s obsessed with attention and a terrible person and whatever ANYWAY. oh, warning for death, but like, a while ago one of mom’s close friends had a husband who passed, and this lady offered mom’s friend condolences, and mom’s friend was like ? I don’t know this person? and a little bit after this lady asked mom’s friend to have lunch and this lady was like ‘oh you shouldn’t be friends with that woman’ blah blah and it’s just. HER HUSBAND DIED????? YOU’RE TRASHING THIS WOMAN’S FRIEND TO HER FACE AFTER HER HUSBAND DIED???? AND SHE DOESN’T KNOW YOU???? AND HER HUSBAND *JUST* DIED????? and she keeps doing this too, like, going to mom’s close friends and trying to get them against mom but since they’re *mom’s close friends* they just send screenshots of the convo to mom and go like ‘hey so this happened’. she even, like, had a dinner or something with people and made them swear to never talk to mom ever again (one of the people there immediately messaged mom with a picture of everyone there and A DIFFERENT guy had lunch with mom on a trip to the US) (mom directly confronted him like ‘so what about the promise to never speak to me again’) (LMAO???) anyway this lady’s high school ex is apparently one of the heads of the organizers for the high school group (?) and mom had a dinner with him a while ago so she’s apparently holding onto a photo of them meeting up in case she, and I quote, “wants to toss a bomb into the groupchat”

#my ramblings #I actually don’t know if this is the same woman who just randomly started attacking dad #anyway another way she was bad at social chess #was one of mom’s friends does poetry #and I think one of them references mom’s record at the high jump #I think because after she graduated they stopped doing high jump #so Mom Has The Record Forever #but anyway she apparently messages him like ‘how could you write that it hurt my feelings so so bad’ #‘if I ever did anything to hurt you can’t we work it out’ etc #and he was SO pissed he messaged mom immediately #I think a lot of mom’s friends tend to either wait a while or wait until they’re in person to bring it up #but he was just SO mad #anyway SHE’S SOOOOO BAD AT SOCIAL CHESS SHE’S REALLY REALLY BAD AT IT #WHY PLAY AGAINST A LOSING GAME????? #well we’ll probably never know why this woman’s insanely jealous over mom #death ment /// #long post #well more like a text wall but w/e

[silver-soliloquy]

COMC week I don’t even know anymore but here are some Notes

XLIV

o   Edmond, do you…do you know anyone who isn’t connected to this whole revenge nonsense? Have you ever spoken to a single person without a sinister ulterior motive?  You might try it sometime, it’s fun o   That said, Edmond Knows Nothing About This Backstory is always a hilarious game o   So I think this is the first time Edmond’s used two disguises on the same person without being caught, as the Abbe Busoni and the Count?  Mysterious Stranger level-up! o   I also love that all his aliases apparently KNOW each other, half his social circle is actually just himself in different wigs o   Oh, Caderousse.  Yikes.

XLV

o   I have no comments for this chapter except WHAT LADY MACBETH NONSENSE EVEN IS THIS o   “I like ghosts” okay you goth weirdo

XLXI

o   A retreating forehead!!  Edmond, how did you not realize Danglers was evil when you first met him! o   Edmond spying on people from his window with binoculars like a stereotypical suburban housewife on the hunt for gossip is the most amazing image ever, thank you Dumas o   The whole horse theft thing is just SO PETTY. Like I know it’s part of a Scheme, but…sooooo petty. o   The politeness mind games Edmond plays with people is honestly the most enjoyable part of the book so far, why can’t we have less obscure chess mastering and more clever social maneuvering?

XLVII

o   The baroness Danglers is Terrible and kind of hilarious in her utter lack of chill o   I’m not sure which headcanon I like better—Edmond actually spending the timeskip years hanging around theatres and annoying the actors into giving him lessons, or Edmond being super obvious and overacting literally all the time but everyone assumes it’s just part of his ~eccentricity~ and never calls him on it o   He gave the horses diamond earrings.  What the hell, Edmond. o   Okay again, Edmond the shadowy figure pulling the strings of some mysterious grand plan isn’t that interesting of a character to me—Edmond the petty, passive-aggressive verbal sparer using rich people’s own societal convention and etiquette laws against them is FANTASTIC and I am totally rooting for him in those moments

XLVIII

o   Not really sure how much of this Edmond actually believes and how much he’s just saying to weird out Villefort, but what the hell anyways o   Nortier :(((((

XLIX

o   Haydee!!! o   …question, was Greece actually included in ~The East~ from a 19th century French standpoint?  I don’t think I’ve ever heard it lumped in with orientalism before, but Haydee being Greek also seems to make her Turkish and generally ~Eastern~ as far as her wardrobe and interior decor is concerned? o   Haydee definitely needs some friends, but she is awesome regardless

L

o   The Morrels are adorable and I’m really glad they’re doing well o   Watch it Edmond, you’re on the verge of making a friend o   Edmond BLUSHED oh my god let’s keep Julie around always o   Edmond’s identities are getting a little precarious here—if Maximilien ever talked to Franz about the whole Sinbad saving his family thing Franz would be only too happy to tell him that Monte Cristo goes by that name sometimes and “oh uh no there’s TWO Sinbads running around and the one who helped you is my weird English friend who just happens to look a lot like me” would be a pretty flimsy excuse o   But possibly that would require a higher level of friendship than Edmond would expect, especially since he had no reason to expect Max’s social circle to overlap with his enemies’ kids’ o   I would laugh so hard if all his castle of lies collapsed from a couple friends chatting though, oh my god o   WAIT A SECOND, didn’t Albert talk about Franz’s Arabian Nights adventures with the Count at the breakfast that Max was AT?  Come on dude, put it together, there can’t be that many people running around with that ridiculous an alias o   Also, so far Mercedes and Julie are the only two who have even looked funny at the Count so far!  A+ perceptiveness, ladies! o   Also I’m so glad that part of Edmond’s disguise routine is tight corsets o   I had to put down the book to go OOOOOOH at Morrel attributing his salvation to Edmond Dantes’s ghost, DANG Dumas I was not expecting that o   Edmond: oh well I have no idea who that is but I have to leave right now immediately for totally unrelated reasons

LI

o   At least twice this chapter I found myself thinking “wow, this is really Pyramus and Thisbe!” before remembering that that is, in fact, the title of the chapter, so well done Dumas you got me o   Also side note last time I read a thing where the heroine had an evil dad and the name Valentine was involved it belonged to the dad, so my brain keeps trying to autocorrect “Valentine” to “Valentine’s Daughter” o   Be quiet, brain, we can reread Mortal Engines later o   Valentine also really needs more friends!  Can she make friends with Haydee, please? o   @aporeticelenchus​  okay now it definitely makes sense that Edmond would have sought out Franz separately from Albert—I wonder what exactly he was hoping to find in his enemy’s future son-in-law, and if Franz met expectations? o   Marking this down as another class-as-costume moment, now for romance purposes! o   …I wonder what Franz did to make Villefort want him as a son-in-law so bad, since he doesn’t seem to like most people—maybe just being rich and titled, of course o   I’m so sad about Valentine and Nortier’s friendship already :( o   VALENTINE NEEDS A HUG o   I’m glad she at least had a good relationship with her mom?  Her mom was a good, from the little we saw of her :( o   I love how much literally all the kids hate Danglers.  He has a creepy laugh!  Thank you, Valentine

LII

o   This whole chapter is just…very extra.  There is absolutely zero subtlety happening here. o   Valentine is also definitely right to be scared of her stepmom, jeez.  Now I want to hug her even more! o   AU where Edmond’s grand vengeance is actually just raising all his enemies’ kids better than they ever could like in Maleficent o   “this domestic pest answering to the name of Edouard” man I love it when the narrators get judgey o   Once again Edmond pulls two disguises on the same person and gets away with it!  although the fact that he admits it makes me want to think he actually hired someone else to play the doctor in Italy, just to be contrary o   Edmond judging people’s parenting skills is also hilarious o   (Maleficent au!!!) o   EDMOND IS THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS, THE TRUTH IS REVEALED AT LAST

LIII

o   Eugenie!!! o   Albert is so rightfully terrified of her, this is amazing o   I would actually kind of love for the two of them to get convenience-married and then just ignore each other forever? o   Eugenie checking out literally every woman in the opera house is incredible, girl wouldn’t know subtlety if it bit her on the nose—but Haydee is a musician!  Eugenie should invite her over for jam sessions with her and her singer girlfriend! FRIENDSHIP! o   Please just give Haydee friends okay o   Also the slave/princess thing Haydee’s got going is making people uncomfortable and unsure how to treat her, class as costume but the other way around maybe! o   AT LEAST HAYDEE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE STAGE o   Haydee backstory!  Excellent!

LIV

o   “ADORABLE” o   Franz’s comments about the count in his letter to Albert—PLEASE CHILL??? o   Unless Albert is making this up as an excuse to compliment the count himself, in which case YOU chill o   Oh so Franz’s dad was a royalist!  That would explain that arranged marriage o   Albert’s really making a fuss about this marriage thing, Eugenie seems mostly indifferent?  Well, maybe it’s just because she’s a lot scarier than he is

LV-LVI

o   These are…a weird couple chapters o   It’s interesting to see the behind the scenes of Edmond’s chessmastering though! o   Also, these two are really terrible actors and I would not be surprised at all if they gave the game away o   At the very least, we should get to see Edmond judging their acting prowess which should be ENTERTAINING o   Again we have ~Andrea~ meeting Edmond in various identities without being any the wiser!  I really want to do a comparison with Fantomina tbh o   They’ve already broken character??  STANDARDS, guys

LVII

o   I’m sad that Eugenie and Valentine aren’t friends, but at least they can talk to each other? o   I do get the feeling that Eugenie wouldn’t have a ton of patience for Valentine’s woe-is-me spiel though, so okay o   …did Nortier murder Franz’s dad, because I would scream o   Honestly, all the next gen boys are so hearteyes about Edmond it’s hilarious o   Sweet of Edmond to get Max that horse he wanted, though!  And…he actually exercised subtlety for once in his life instead of just sending it to Max’s place with diamond earrings??  INCREDIBLE

#comc17 #book blogging #...should I be putting these behind a cut?