A little bit late this week, because on top of being a weird goddamn week, I genuinely think I may have swine flu for the second time in my life. Christ, I will actually scream if that’s the case. But anyway. I was feeling well enough today to finally sit down and edit the rest of this, so here it is.
So, let’s start with the apparent. Greg is very different in this chapter. He’s not being horrible, for a start. And when Greg’s in a good mood, Alex is in a good mood. These two are feed off of one another in a way that can only be described as dangerous, I think. Alex is taking every single one of his cues off of Greg, and Greg is taking every single one of his cues off who the hell knows at this point. We’ll find out. But maybe Alex wasn’t completely lying to Tim and Mark when tried to tell them to mind their business in the previous chapter. Maybe this is just how things are, and maybe he does like it this way.
Maybe.
Now. More art. The piece in this chapter isn’t anything specific, but it’s actually based off of an entire collection. The artist is Stuart Semple, whose name I never actually get round to dropping specifically in this chapter for whatever reason. I’m not sure why. It just never seemed to happen. And the series is My Sonic Youth. I love this series in general, but also for a Taskmaster portrait because some of the pieces have a lot of elements that work both thematically for the sorts of portraits that have gone up, but also as a series there are a lot of elements that just feel very much up Greg’s street. There’s a Happy Mondays reference in there with a 24 Hour Party People lyric as the quote, and it has that sort of avant garde slant that he tends to score highly on art tasks in general.
I want to get more into Greg’s hobbies in general, because it seems like as a character, he’s got quite a few of them. As the task writer, a lot of Alex’s hobbies naturally seep into the show, but in the context of the show’s lore, it’s Greg who’s setting these things. I know Alex likes to set tasks that appeal to or deliberately irritate Greg for one reason or another, but I’d love to really dig into Greg’s interests on a character level. I love the idea that the Taskmaster is into art, even if he’s probably not particularly good at it himself. I see him as someone who is well-read, but his tastes are probably quite odd and obscure. I think he does like cinema and theatre, but we know he hates musicals. I’m definitely keeping in how much he hates football. That’s going to remain Alex’s thing. But it’s other things that I want to dig into. Where does he stand on some of the other things that crop up again and again? I’m not sure. I’ll have to really think about it.
And finally, we’re getting closer and closer to series 5. Good grief, it’s taken forever. Alex has hung the Magritte in the cottage, so things are at least taking shape to start getting going. We learn that Ed is the first person in the fic to sort of break the mould, as it were, and retain his actual job in this story. He’s still a comedian here, because it did sort of make sense for his little group to keep to that line of work. And in the context of this AU, not everybody does have to have some other unique job anyway. Greg’s an important person who can have friends from any walk of life he likes, and it sort of makes sense that some of his friends could and would be in the entertainment industry.
It should be obvious who Ed’s stitching up for the series 5 lineup, but in case it isn’t, I’ll save that reveal for the next chapter.
There’s another recurring thread going on that’s sort of been present, but which really starts to become apparent here, that Greg is a lot more obvious about his relationship with Alex than Alex would necessarily like. They aren’t public, exactly, but when it comes to showing Alex off in front of his friends, Greg is perfectly willing to do so, to the point of making it everyone else’s problem. Alex doesn’t mind being shown off when he’s an object of praise or affection, but it takes a different tone later on when Greg’s in a mood right before he leaves for Spain again for Christmas. There’s a tag on this fic for “manufactured sexual attraction,” because I wasn’t quite sure how else to tag whatever the hell is going on in this relationship. I think someone used the word “Gregsexual” in the discord, and that works as well, but it’s a lot more specific. Either way, Alex is less into Greg sexually, and more into the idea of making Greg happy and pleasing him. I don’t know if I’m playing him as fully asexual here, or just woefully inexperienced, but he has certain lines he doesn’t like to cross for one reason or another, and Greg is at least willing to respect those lines, while at the same time wholly disregarding him as a person and a human. Alex is disrespected, degraded, used, and cast aside in short order, and then immediately ridiculed to others. Because of course Rhod knows what’s going on, and of course Greg openly jokes about it with him. Greg probably told him his intentions outright when he left to find Alex. They’re leaving for two weeks, better go get a quickie in before they head out.
At the same time, I wanted Alex to have advocates and allies in as many corners as possible, even if he has no intention of ever taking advantage of them. I think he possibly has even more than he realises, but because he’s so shut off from everyone else around him he’s been trained to see everyone as an antagonist. He’s over here doing his own thing, ignoring people until he can’t ignore them, and then things get awkward and weird and he’s forced to run away.
Going back to the other timeline, Alex knows way more than he ever wanted to, and it’s fucked with his head. He was already off-balance and making bad decisions, and now he finds himself doing things he can’t even rationalise. He may as well be on autopilot at this point. Greg tells him to do something, and he does it without thinking. He’s so close to danger, and he can’t even see it. His only thought is trying to make this man as happy as possible, to the point of nearly damaging himself over it. Greg’s crossing boundaries with him as well, and Alex doesn’t even notice. He’s making demands he has no right to make, getting weirdly physical with him, and Alex just rolls with it, because he’s Alex. There’s no other reason for it, really.
Then, we get to the spanner in the works that is Mark Watson. Mark’s shown up in the application list, and Alex does exactly what he’s supposed to about it and tells Greg. Because Alex knows his place, and he’s not trying to play any games or break any rules. He’s got a job to do, and his idiot friend showing up could get in the way of that. But Greg lets him invite Mark over instead, and maybe he’s digging his own grave, but Alex loses his entire mind and decides to play a prank on not only Mark, but on Greg as well. And we all know how that’s going to end.