Isn’t It Ironic

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out
— “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette

Jer, Jer, forgive me. I gave your body to Dom, and now it’s beginning to look like he’s going to get away with your would-be girlfriend, too. Let me explain! XD

When I first got Dom, I pretty much knew that he and Valyntine would get along well. He’s a natural charmer (even Joce will grudgingly admit to this), and it makes sense that he would kick it up an extra notch for the only lady of the household. However, I’d only ever expected it to be on the level of “friendship”, with a little courtly flirting just because V gets so precious little of that from anyone else. Her relationship with Jer is next to nonexistent at worst and shaky at best, and while she’s close to the JoJuVi trio, she’s undeniably on the outside there too.

Dom seemed like a good solution all around – someone not romantically interested in her, yet he’s also talkative and charismatic. Because he was (at least initially, and possibly still is) more interested in chasing Joce’s skirts getting into Joce’s pants, he was “safe” but at the same time (and this is key), confident and friendly.

Important to note – Jerolyn doesn’t usually lack confidence except where V sees him the most, that is, when the two of them are interacting. Unfortunately for Jer, his lack of a spine around Valyntine doesn’t immediately earn him points. When he does have confidence, it’s because he’s in Angry Mode, which also doesn’t do a whole lot for a shy, softspoken girl. Yes, he can be sweet with V, but the point is that he so often loses his nerve that the chance to show her what she means to him passes him by.

But then there’s Domynic. Dom has absolutely no lack of self-confidence, and that would actually help V by encouraging her to be a little more reassured, too. Being less violent than Jer would also be appealing to a girl that’s been the victim of too much violence and pain already. He’s not the kind to go punching someone in the face just because he’s feeling frustrating. Dom’s not all sweetness and light the way Justyn is, but as a trade-off he’s a little more realistic in his outlook.

Ironically, what I can see Dom being most attracted to is that Valyntine is actually a lot like Justyn, even if she doesn’t realize it herself. And everything about that comparison – all the things that Dom is insanely jealous of Justyn for being or having or doing – would be exactly the reasons why he would like her. In a way, the Domynic + Valyntine relationship would mirror that of Jocelyn + Justyn, especially in terms of power types.

What makes Dom a failure next to Joce is that Joce has Justyn, a partner to work with that will make his own powers (that as a “booster”) worthwhile. A booster alone does very little, as the power is designed to act as an amplifier and battery for another. The closer the two are (booster and boostee), the better the final outcome. Two boosters working together (as in the possible Dom + Joce scenario) would be virtually worthless, as there would be nothing to amplify. However, split the groups up and the boosters can put the pedal to the metal, increasing the effectiveness of their respective partners.

In other words, it doesn’t make sense for Domynic to be with Joce. (Those of you worried that I may eventually break up the threesome can breathe a sigh of relief. They’re staying together, and they’re staying a threesome.) It would make sense for Dom to be partnered with someone that could use that extra step up, though, and as Jer has problems with that sort of thing as-is, the current candidate is Valyntine.

At one point, I thought Dom could merely be a catalyst to force Jer into confessing his love to V. It’d work well – flirt with her just enough to make Jer jealous, then use that to push him into making a stand for himself. (The whole “well, if you want her, then you’re going to have to fight me for her, huh?”, but never with the intention of actually trying to keep her. A ruse, if you will.) In general, I don’t have a problem with this, except that I would never want it to seem like Dom was purposely stringing V along. I don’t think it’d occur to him to hurt her like that; he’d only flirt with her knowing that she knew it was just pretend and was completely okay with it.

Getting back to the top half of this post, I’d put them together for photos partly as a request and partly just to see how they’d look together. Nearly everyone else (barring Jer, whose body Dom is using; and Vincynt, who is still MIA; and yes, I realize that “everyone else” doesn’t really make sense in this situation, but let’s keep going!) had been in shoots together with Dom, and V was next on the list. I didn’t think much of it except that they look good together. Not only good, but both of them look totally relaxed and at ease with one another and, dare I say it, even Valyntine looks happy.

V. Happy. That’s a hard emotion to coax from her in any situation, but I just have this feeling that she’s really, amazingly comfortable with Dom.

Talk about causing problems.

This may be something I’ll simply dismiss; yet now that it’s started, I can see how and why this would work, at least in the short term. What it would do with Jer is beyond me at the moment. I may mess with this story path for a while and see where it leads, if it only tangles things up in the end or if it helps with some of the issues I’ve been having with Jer anyway. We’ll see, I guess.

…I just think Dom and V are so cute together that it’s sickening. XD

Organization XXIV

In you and I there’s a new land
Angels in flight
My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah
Where fears and lies melt away
Music inside
What’s left of me
What’s left of me now
— “Sanctuary” by Utada Hikaru

There was an in-joke in here once, but it’s gone now.

Anyway.

For everyone keeping score, these were taken on the landing outside our apartment using natural light through the half-circle window and shiny, shiny reflectors. Now you can all see how much of an amateur I am, ’cause I don’t know a damned thing about using reflectors properly. I got light aimed in the right direction, and that’s about it. Kudos to me. At least I only dropped the lens cap once – it only went down a couple flights.

Ah, good times. XD ♥

a Lesson In Kindness

…Yet more practice, now with Justyn flavor.

Enter the Dragon

I rarely take “box ceremony” photos for new arrivals, but I thought this time I would make an exception.

Meet the newest member of the World Ruined crew — a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I’m really, really excited about this whole thing. XD ♥

Edit: Now with actual first photos!

They’re horribly off as far as white balance goes, and I don’t know what half of the functions do yet, but… eeee! These don’t nearly begin to cover my awe at the jump between cameras. Even just the move from four megapixels (Coolpix 4500) to ten megapixels (Rebel XTi) is like whoa. XD

Next up — figure out what the hell it is that I’m doing (and what I should change for future reference). This is gonna be fun. XD

give a hoot

Just a silly little souvenir. He’d been in the gift shop’s window display visible at the entrance to the zoo, but they didn’t have any extra stock facing out into the store itself. I ended up digging all the way to the back of the shelf to steal him from the window, but boy, was he worth it. Look at this cute little face!