Velveteen vs. Everyone, Part II.

Wow! That was intense, so looking forward to the epilogue!

Oh Seanan. So many feels.

Wow! Just wow! I have so enjoyed this journey you've taken us on. Vel, her friends, her enemies, the heroes and the villains and a perfect final show down. Thank you so very much for sharing it with us.

You know, it was tragic all around, and my heart really went out to Super Model since "Vs. Jolly Roger", and that's only solidified more here at the end. To be so broken that you can't fill that hole, even to warping real love so that you can't ever find/have it. Fuck. Ow. Yeah. And Supermodel is the very archetype of that marketed ideal of beauty and perfection--she's damned from the onset by her own powers.
Not that that excuses the evil, but hey, so much harm comes from how we are broken, and our identities in the face of outside/overculture perceptions of unattainable ideals, "shoulds", etc.

I am wondering who Vel will be when she wakes up. I am wondering who takes charge next (and yeah, I also hope it's Claw!! LOVE TO CLAW!)
And if you ever do Princess's story, I will be all over that, because she's fucking awesome.

All of them are awesome.

Thank you for this fantastic story.

Much love. And screaming. In a loving way. :)

Yay!

*applauds*

Vel rocks.

It sort of reminds me of the concept of psychological investment. The more you've given to something, the more you feel compelled to defend it. So women who have spent their entire lives working to be beautiful—makeup, exercises, special clothes—often get outright offended when someone suggests they don't need it. Because if they admit that, they also have to admit that everything they've done to maintain the beauty is a waste, and nobody wants to admit that they've wasted their lives.

AUGH CLIFFHANGER MUST SEE NEXT EPISODE

“You taught me how to handle rejection.” Great line, great foreshadowing.

Having just pounded through The Whole Thing, I told Velveteen's power set to my rules lawyering partner. (He thought her name would be capped VelveTeen, by the way, which seems like totally a thing Marketing would do if they routinely designed for rebranding at 18...)

Clever Boy: "So the most useful thing she could keep in her toolbelt is a pack of smiley-face stickers. Or spray paint."
Me: "Spraypaint is her boyfriend's power."
Clever Boy: "But the stickers?"
Me: "Unlikely. The thing itself has to look like it has a face."
Clever Boy: "Mount Rushmore."
Me: "Definitely."
Clever Boy: "Amityville house?"
Me: "What?"
Clever Boy explains to me what such a house looks like.
Me: "Only if someone had decorated it specifically. Especially for Halloween. Oh god."
Clever Boy: "But scale doesn't matter?"
Me: "Maybe in power drain. But any statue... Oh. Oh wow."
Clever Boy: "What?"
Me: "Velveteen is the natural enemy of the Weeping Angels."

As I have a horrific phobia of mannequins, summarized by "anything my hindbrain thinks it looks like should be alive but isn't," Velveteen is now my anti-phobia imaginary best friend.

"Ack."

*helpless snickering* XD

Okay, okay, more seriously, thank you so much for generally being awesome and writing something this cool. :) I'm always delighted when I see that you've posted or published something-- heck, anything-- because I know that it's going to be good. I might not always enjoy some aspects of it (because fiction, like life, does not always have to be fair or kind), and some bits make my train of thought whiplash, but I know it's going to be well worth the read.

*curtsey*

GAAAH, how did I miss this coming out several days ago!?!?!

Wow. Fuq'in' wow.

*taking deep breaths*

Okay, now the epilogue...