Not only would I have chosen someone different to compete against directly - because of course I have my own personal 'ideal dream finalists' which excite me a lot, and I want both me and halfshellvenus to be up in there. But also I would have written very differently. Writing with someone - working together to make each your stories stronger, working together to tie the stories in to each other so they make a solid pairing, working together to boost each other up - is really, really different than writing a piece you expect to go up against that other person. Yes, I wrote what I think is a competitive thing. But it would have been a different competitive thing had I not worked with someone to write a paired story. And then turning around and facing directly the fact that "hey, my partner or I is going home. Period" is a hard thing. Most weeks there's more flex, you know? There's the possibility that you could both make it, or that neither of you will. Not until now has it been an automatic out for one or the other.

As for who I would have chosen, and why, that is an amazingly hard question to answer. I don't know how that would have worked out - the social aspects of this game are hard, and being all "let's go head to head in a death match" to somoene would be an extremely strange and awkward thing. We have been competing all this time together - there's not a single one of us that I think is an easy choice for that. I just keep thinking of gladiatorial combat images - raising my sword and hoping that the other person is having a bad day and I won't trip and fall in the sand myself.

Anyway, my thoughts are all scattered and I'm probably not expressing myself well at all. I'm super distracted - I need to return to my sweetie, who is taking the day of work today because it's his birthday. Also, there is peanut butter ice cream. Mmmm ice cream.

And I'm still gonna call you a jerk. I think you can take it. So there. :P