Haunted 1-31
So this one is super late, but do I get a pass if I disclose that the spouse took me to the most wonderful place in the world, The Container Store? Although Haunted suffered, my entire kitchen has been reorganized, the spices/nuts/legumes are bugproofed, and the eleven winter squashes I impulse bought have a home. Our eight sweet potatoes also have a home. This is what happens when you marry into a fall-vegetable family.
Everyone look at the honeynut squash, they’re adorable and easily our favorite this season. LOOK AT IT!!!
OK, so he noticed he’d made her uncomfortable and apologized. That’s a step, but it doesn’t excuse it. I’d still have high boundaries with him for a while.
Squashes. <3
Absolutely, that’s understandable. It’s lucky for Ari she was wearing the sunglasses for espionage-against-Yuan reasons rather than sensitivity reasons.
Sure. She seems also like she’s not super attuned towards helping others feel included… Spy against the new guy and all!
OH NO ACCIDENTAL HAND BRUSH
Where do I begin? Do I start at the Container Store? I’m in the middle of buying a house and like, I have a lot of dreams about shelving and beautifully labeled containers that hold cereal. What I’m saying is that I need to bask in your kitchen.
Uh, I need to be invited into Yuan’s office for aesthetic reasons. Also love how he constantly shifts the room dynamic so no one knows whether to relax and run screaming. Did he learn that from Bernard (OKAY I KNOW ITS NOT TIME FOR BERNARD YET BUT HE IS ALWAYS IN MY HEART).
mmmm squash.
Ooh, look at you, getting your own realm. I’m imagining the realtor warning you that the basement is haunted and you saying “cool! What era is the ghost from? What’s their favorite food?”
LOVE a good kitchen. The Container Store visit unfortunately succeeded a pantry moth infestation. (Side note: speaking of the sweet potato drawer, I did attempt a sweet potato pie, and am starting to understand the frustration. Instead of cooking the potatoes the normal way where they come out spewing caramel everywhere and so moist they fall apart on the fork, I tried a new method that made them dead and dried-out. It did not strain well. Molasses were a good tip, though! Gonna try again this Thanksgiving.)
Well that felt awkward. Ugh awkward office dynamics >.< Like Yuan doesn’t seemed phased by the memo incident, but I’m bothered.
I know that there are two other guys (Sergio and Miles) in the company, but the panel where Yuan is ushering Sirak and Rayen into his office, and Gail, Iliana and Ari are staring at them, REALLY has this MEN RUN THE COMPANY feel. Gawd I hope I’m wrong.
BUT MORE ON THE AWKWARD DYNAMIC LATER
Oof, no, the “men run the company” feel was not intentional. The previous owner was a woman, Sirak is an assistant, and the focus is on Iliana, Ari, and Champei because after that Charlie’s Angels shot, we know they’re going to wreck shit once Yuan leaves them alone. And I’ll also say that in this story, people just kinda have the race/sex/sexual orientation/neurochemistry they have, and it doesn’t change the dynamic unless someone makes it weird or a character’s background gives them experiencial expertise in some context. There is a reading of both this and CT where TS4 is supposed to be set in a bigotry-free utopia, but it is in fact set in what our society perceives to be a bigotry-free utopia, and the crunch comes from how this universe differs from both ours and the one TS4 presents—but I do hope it comes across that the characters’ personality/motivations/actions/feelings matter more than their demographics, and they come from a variety of backgrounds just like regular people.