FOUR

JENNY! NEWCOMER'S CUP! OMG! JENNYJENNYJENNY! MARC AND JENNY! I love you so much for acknowledging that these two obviously have a history, obviously know each other from way back! (Srsly, Show, why did we not get that?? It's only damn logical!). I adore them sizing each other up, and this:

…she wears the same smile he remembers, the one that flickered from mischief to malice and back again in the blink of an eye.

…is such a lovely recognition of that kind of… wariness, I suppose, that seems like such a natural reaction for Marc to have around Jenny. I mean, I think he would have liked her, back then, and both recognised and respected her importance in Roman's life, but I can't see him ever facing Jennifer Steinkamp – now or then – without that hint of wariness. So in character.

And what a lovely, subtle dance their conversation is – with her prodding and calculating, and him challenging her about being a newcomer, and her almost-conspiratorial concession about doing what you have to do when someone you love asks you too (and I really like how you left it open there whether she's talking about her parents or Lars). And she's so meddling yet indifferent in asking about Roman and giving him the number! Ack, it makes me want to know so much more about their relationship when they were younger. I love these two interacting!

OMG, and the ending! DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST HAVE MARC HIT BY A BUS, OMG YOU MONSTER. AND ALSO, LOL! LOLOLOLOL, HIT BY A BUS! I can't believe you did that! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MADE IT *WORK*!! BECAUSE DAMMIT, THAT SHOULD BE CRACKY AND HILARIOUS, BUT FUCK ME IF IT ISN'T ACTUALLY TOTALLY TRAGIC AND POIGNANT. I have no idea how you pulled that off, but you did. YOU ROCK!


(It's odd, I was reading some of the other comments about how they see a gradual progression that takes us farther away from the possibility of reconnection with every piece, and I find that interesting, because I don't see that. I mean, I see it after they mentioned it, but at the same time, oddly, for me it was *this* piece that I found the most tantalising with possibility, perhaps exactly BECAUSE it makes it so clear that Marc *hasn't* been pining for Roman, that it *isn't* this big gaping hole in his life. And yet I can see him so easily, walking into this competition, or meeting up with Roman later for coffee (AHEM, IF HE HADN'T BEEN HIT BY A FUCKING BUS, THAT IS! [what ifs inside what ifs, it's fucking brilliant!]), and being blindsided just as much by resurgent feelings as he was in canon in the early 900s. Even though ostensibly it seems more unlikely. Even though he's not expecting it or looking for it here. Maybe it's just the physical proximity that made me feel that way, I don't know. But to me, it felt as real a possibility or more so than the previous pieces.)