#scenes ask.

not to toot my own horn or anything, but that is one line that i’ve wrote that i did actually enjoy! it was inspired by real life arguments i had bc yanno writing is therapy or what have you 

thank you!

i love getting these kind of asks because they really force me to do some sort of digging into the actual facts, and as much i love the notion that these two love birds got engaged quickly and married quicker, i’ve now come to find that marrying in colombia as an american citizen takes a bit of work and time, so i’m gonna readjust the narrative just a tad bit to fit that realistic detail. i gave you much more details than you wanted, but i couldn’t resist

Javi and his wife wanted a Catholic marriage despite that they were not the most religious (and still aren’t), because it’s what both of their parents wanted. Since they couldn’t come to the wedding themselves, Javi and his wife wanted to give them something. Catholic marriages in Colombia required a little more than Javi was prepared for, though, so it took a bit longer than either of them expected. While his wife very much had all of her documents, from her birth certificate to her certified baptism and confirmation certificates, Javi only had what he needed to get in the country and not much else. This fact prompted a messy six week period of scrambling and trying to get it all together so they could just do it. Javi had to make many phone calls back home and he still considers this time period one that represents his father’s love for him the most, because his father went to great lengths to make sure Javi got all those things, despite not being entirely sure this was the best decision. After all, he’d never met this girl and this wasn’t Javi’s first time rushing into something serious before he realized it wasn’t what he wanted. But, after many frantic phone calls and a thousand “Dad, I love her. I know what I did in the past and I understand that you worry, but this is different,” Chucho decided that this wasn’t going to be something he was gonna talk him out of--not that he would ever be able to anyways. Chucho also had to write a letter that stated Javi was single and find another family member to do it, too, and then he had to get all that solemnized by a priest. This was also difficult, considering Javi had more than irked off theirs when he left a woman at the alter. But, Chucho did it, and Javi got all of his papers. 

She had a difficult time too, not so much because she wasn’t prepared, but more because her mother wasn’t entirely sure this was a good idea. She’s a little bit younger than Javi (about five-ish years), and her mom was worried that she was rushing into something she couldn’t comprehend. Much like Javier, she was relentless and stubborn though, and she spent many times on the phone with her mom while Javi sat across from her, giving her the “what’s she saying?” look. In the end, her mother came to understand like Chucho did with Javi. 

After battling their parents and getting all these documents in Spanish, they then had to take part in curso prematrimonial, or a Marriage Course, which they both detested because it was a long day of being told what they could and could not do and just a lot of religious stuff both of them tended to avoid. Then, they had to have an interview with a priest and this was particularly nerve wracking for Javi because although he knows how to be professional, he doesn’t like the pressure the idea of being told no presents. Typically, this is a step he skips, but in this instance, he could not. They had to bring two witnesses, and Javi brought another agent he went out with a lot (not Steve, because Steve hadn’t come yet), and she brought a girl she went to school with for a little when she arrived in Colombia. Everything went well, and for two Sundays, Javi and her sat in the church pews and listened as a the priest announced to the public that they were to be married and ask if anyone had any objections to this union. No one did, unsurprisingly, because no one really knew who they were, and they were set.

Their actual wedding day was a satisfying end to a hectic six weeks. There were only a hand full of people there, because Javi wasn’t keen on the idea of this being public knowledge like that because he worried about her safety, but it didn’t really matter to her at all. She was just happy to be marrying him. He wore a black suit and she wore a simple, conservative-enough white dress. They had no party, and they didn’t ask anyone to come over after. They slid the rings onto each other’s fingers, and then they thanked the people who came, and they went home and called their parents and told them they did it. 

ahhhhhh this ask made my whole night to be honest. i’ve been struggling a little bit confidence wise when it’s come to my writing lately, especially when it comes to scenes (for no really good reason and it’s okay really; i think its just a bit of writer’s block), so this was very nice to read. and to be honest, i’ve tried to include hints of their past in about almost every chapter but i always end up cutting it because the story is very focused on what’s happening in their relationship at that very moment so it just ends up sounding forced in the narrative, so never ever be afraid to ask me questions about that! 

i’m glad you enjoyed the bit about javi seeing her with another man, because i kinda intended for that switch! i love that sort of angst and i will never put down any writer who chooses to do that in their story because damn it’s chef’s kiss, but i don’t know, i think it’s nice for javi to be put in that position. this story sorta changes a very important part about his character (that sleeping around, doing what he pleases, not gonna be tied down to anyone because he doesn’t have the time guy), and so i feel as though i had to make his wife a person important enough for him to change that. i mean, this is still the very same javi who left lorraine at the alter, and the boy who ran away from texas because he wanted more, but now he’s being presented with someone who doesn’t really need him at a time he really needs someone. i mean, he’s only been in colombia for about four months before he meets her, and everything is so new--even the concept of this drug war--and it’s all incredibly rough and she feels like a piece of home in a strange land to him. he has to confront that startling realization in the hallway, and i don’t know, i just thought it’d be cool to approach it like that. 

I just wanted to pop over and say, I finally got caught up on Scenes and I'm in awe of your writing. Your characterization of Javi is so so good, and I love the character you've built in his wife, as well. They've really been on a journey together and I can see how much care you put into every chapter. So thank you for sharing it with us.

💖💕💖💕💖

thank you so much for reading my story, and thank you for coming to my inbox to say such an incredibly nice thing. i love javi to death and its a very compliment to hear that you think i do him any sort of justice. what’s more though, is the fact that you think his wife is neat too. she’s definitely near and dear to my heart because truthfully she’s the first character i’ve ever fleshed out myself like that. thank you for caring so much about my story and for reading every chapter. it’s an honor to share my work with people like you, dear.

first off, thank you so much for following this story since the beginning. i've lost track of how many months this has been going on, but i'm sure it's been a few so i admire your patience and all of your support. this is the first fic that i've ever followed through with, and it's all because of readers like yourself

second off, THIS IS SO KIND. that line meant a lot to write and it felt sort of satisfying because damn i really wrote these two people and they've made it full circle. they went from having sex to forget all the bad stuff, to having sex to remember how much all of it means to them and oh it makes me emotional to think we got here !

you're such a lovely person, thank you for coming to talk to me about this little story of mine <33

WRITING ASKS

THANK YOU FOR SENDING THESE IN CICI I ADORE YOU

💡-What was the motivation behind the story?

well, i really liked the idea of exploring a relationship through scenes of it throughout the years because of the real scenes from a marriage. i had just watched that a little after i got into watching narcos and for some reason, i just thought a character like javier peña would be perfect for something like that. there’s something about him that i think is very interesting and begs to be explored and i really, really wanted to explore these characters, so i ran with it. also, around the same time i saw a post on twitter about drug trafficking or what have from a well known newspaper, and the image they used was of colombian money, even though it had nothing to do at all with colombia. one of the people i follow on twitter pointed this out and i don’t know, i just felt this extreme need to make people understand that places like colombia are so much more than the narcoterrorism that seems to define them. i wanted scenes to not only be an exploration of marriage, but also something that maybe helps people understand the subtle beauty of just surviving in a time where shit was really scary? beauty is in the things like intimacy and family dinners and caring a lot about people even when shit doesn’t feel like it’s gonna get better, and it’s in the culture that continues to thrive even despite the fact that at times the country felt controlled by pablo and his acts of violence and terror. colombia, as much as it is a country that has suffered because of this narco stuff, is also a country that doesn’t give up and it’s a country that is home to a lot more than just pablo escobar. 

🎥- Were there any tv shows, books, or movies that influenced this verse, if any?

there were two main sources of inspiration for this story and the first was, without a doubt, the original scenes from a marriage. i was really taken by how interesting exploring a relationship between two people throughout the years could be, and particularly how cool it could be to make really mundane scenes convey a lot of meaning. like, for instance, in the show something as simple as calling and canceling dinner at a parent’s house was made to be much more than that and we learned why through the interactions and dialogue of the characters, and i just thought that was so neat. the second inspiration for this fic was definitely the novel american pastoral. it didn’t really have any profound impact on the story plot wise, but in american pastoral, there was this sex scene that packed SO much meaning and told the audience an incredible amount about the couple of swede and dawn levov, and i knew as soon as i had read that that i had to write something that incorporated that. thus, you have all the sex scenes in scenes from a marriage lol 

☀️- Was there symbolism/motifs you worked in?