Bad Rep? - Blog Posts

For @island-in-the-shadows because

Gavey Haters in the House- I'm not tagging this because like... If you're into him, cool! Don't wanna yuck your yum, you go and share a crunchie with him, good for you.

I don't like Michael Gavey because I was an awkward, quiet, nerdy kid, and I had a Michael Gavey.

I think a lot of awkward, quiet, nerdy kids do- a friend who isn't really a friend. You're together out of circumstance, because they're a dork too, but you don’t have anything in common other than being on the outside. What makes that friend a Gavey is that this friend isn't interested in having you on an even footing; they want you to be the rung lower on the social ladder. To be their bootlicker.

Gavey is a maths genius. That's his thing. Like Oliver, he probably went to Oxford expecting to find people like him and found himself in another popularity contest... And he's pissed about it.

He's not socially oblivious. One of the first things he points out to Oliver is that everyone around them already has friends, that they're all from the same schools, and Oliver is alone. In fact, he's already bitter about it- "so you're a Norman No-Mates too, Oliver Quick?"

Oliver is oblivious, and he tells Gavey as much. So, what does Michael do?

FUCKING ASK ME A SUM, THEN.

That interaction is grim, because Michael knows what he's doing. He forces Oliver into doing what he wants by embarrassing him, on the first night at uni, in front of their assembled peers. Gavey doesn't give a shit if people think he's weird, because he’s already decided that everyone else there is beneath him and his calculator brain... He just hates that they aren't worshipping him for it.

You also see this in the pub scene. Michael complaining about a girl in his tutorial group.

MATE. SHE GOT IN TO DO MATHS AT OXFORD. SHE CAN DO HER FUCKING TIMES TABLES. He’s just pissed that someone else was getting attention, because MICHAEL GAVEY IS RIGHT THERE. WITH HIS SPECIAL GENIUS BRAIN. It's got to be that it's just because this tutor is distracted by some tits, not that the whole Oxford Maths department isn't there specifically to tell him how special he is.

This need to be superior is why Gavey's so invested in Oliver. Their limited interactions aren't good. There's no banter, no jokes- it's just Gavey being bitter and negging Oliver.

This whole fucking interaction sums it up.

Michael interrupts Oliver.

Michael tells Oliver about a way they've been excluded- one Oliver didn't even know about.

Michael knocks Oliver's attempt at being positive in the dirt.

Michael then rubs Oliver's face in it- giving Oliver a tiny little bit of hope (maybe he did get an invite, he could check?) then crushing it.

Would you do that to someone you considered a friend? Fucking doubt it.

Michael Gavey wants Oliver to be his little subordinate. To feed his ego, nod along when he rants about girls who can't do maths and how much the alpha hotties suck. He's the popularity equivalent of a temporarily embarrassed millionaire- rather than admitting that people don't like him for actual reasons and working on that... Instead he tries to turn Oliver into his little whipping boy yes-man.

He doesn't just call Oliver a bootlicker because he's gone over to the rich kids- he calls Oliver a bootlicker because that's all the value he sees in Oliver, and he's mad Ollie isn’t slobbering on his feet.

MIC DROP LEIF OUT