ASL2: Chapter 65 "Fine"
Added 2022-03-25 15:00:07 +0000 UTC-- CHAPTER 65: Fine --
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Comments
Agreed. At some point he has to learn from experience. These conversations always go the same way (and BTW, writing a grown professional woman in her mid20s behaving exactly like a teenaged girl with similar coloration did in BTC is not a great look, from an authorial/reader standpoint), and Ben keeps getting into these predictable situations. Ben wants to be just casual sex buddies with a girl, despite trying to be friendly and affectionate, and his interior monologue congratulating himself on his presumed comparatively superior treatment of his partners. And it ends up the same way. Maybe Ben's treatment of women in the bedroom is not extraordinary and should be the standard of decency, but this work makes him out to be a super-nice, super-generous, considerate lover, and it's always the crazy bitch's fault for getting too attached or for cheating on him or whatever. Like, recognize what story you're in, Ben. You don't constantly visit your doctor for a STD panel, do you? Of course not, because there are no STDs in this story. So stop solo-fucking and playing the boyfriend to girls with whom you don't want to get serious. Saying "I am not looking for a relationship, I have too many women in my life" has, on more than one occasion not only failed to produce the desired result, but causes the woman to instead make it all about herself being inferior to Adrienne etc. Furthermore, he's a father with a child. He has NO business doing ANYTHING that could endanger his living. Maybe the sexual harassment rules are looser at his company, but he's in one of the most progressive states in the country. Even if the company is fine with Penny pitching a fit over her sexual relationship with her boss not going where she wanted, and accepts Ben's explanation about their prior understanding and his commitments elsewhere, I'm pretty sure that if it's not an actual crime, it's at least something she can sue big time for. Ben is having sex with his subordinate. There is no way to get around that or dress it up. He can cost his company heavily, and that's going to impact his ability to make a living, curtailing bonuses or promotions even if it's not a firing offense (a feature of the universe even more implausible than the lack of STDs, FWIW). Ben shares custody of his son with a college student. Even if their parents footed the whole bill and they don't have student loans, he still needs the income stream for BJ. Adrienne can't take over the child support on the savings from a < 5 year modeling career while paying Bay Area property taxes, and Ben is way too toxically masculine in certain ways to not spend a solid half page whining about it even if she did. TL;DR - Ben should never have started sleeping with Penny. From a Watsonian (in-universe) perspective, it was abhorrently irresponsible and from a Doylist (reader/writing) perspective, it was a transparent plot device to manufacture drama.
Uppercase
2022-03-25 22:48:15 +0000 UTCTrouble in paradise this chapter. I knew Eden was going to be super needy after her breakup with Eve. Also the whole thing with Penny was a disaster waiting to happen, Ben really needs to stop thinking with his dick and focus on the relationships he already has. Since Ben’s real rock (Dawn) will be absent for the most part during her internship, he’ll be forced to deal with his relationships with Adrienne and Summer on his own. I get the feeling they are “fine” as in Ben’s definition of the word, Adrienne wants more deep down and still is as needy as ever after her relationship ended with Sasha, and Summer is still struggling with her trauma with past experiences, she already knows what she needs to do in order to become a life partner for Ben but it remains to be seen if she can find it within herself to do so, but I really hope she does. (Perhaps with Yvaine’s intervention?)
KC Forever
2022-03-25 16:52:19 +0000 UTC
