#Flypaper | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fountainpenguin · 9 months

Note

I came across your story "Flypaper" about the superhero convention (Fun read! Highly recommend!) and I was just wondering if you had any other interaction headcanons that didn't make the final draft?

Oh thank you... and oh, yes. I didn't include him because I knew no one would know who he is, but I love one special, incredibly charming boy... King Off-Putting himself... Bruno :)

He is so very... uncomfortable to be around.

I had one line referencing Bruno and Danny in "Flypaper" but hhh... Dead Boy Duo, my beloved... I want them to be friends so bad, I want them to be sassy partners in the field, I want this with all my soul. They're brothers in spirit... Their moms have the same voice actor... Please, they would be so funny together.

I know there are oodles of fictional spy agencies in media, but I've always been a Bruno the Kid fan at heart. Ever since I first watched Danny Phantom, I've loved the idea of Globe getting in touch with Danny post-"Phantom Planet" and inviting him into the agency... Sometimes Bruno's villains canonically die instead of going to jail and I think Bruno and Danny would be a silly pair. Two "dead" (they got better!) cartoon boys goofing off and takin' names.

Specifically, Chick E. Love would have a flippin' field day burning holes in the Ghost Zone, unleashing wave after wave of ghosts into the world, and I just really want Bruno to do his "If I ever use a spy gadget the way it's intended I will die" schtick while Danny keeps dumping all the Fenton ghost-hunting gear on him...

I want the sassy boys to drive everyone up the wall. Bruno tolerated being bullied for about 5 seconds and then ruined that kid's life slkdjf. Cheerfully told Cy what he wanted to put on his tombstone. He does not mess around. I want Bruno to straight-up kill a man again and Danny to lose his mind.

Bruno is the boy who ran gleefully towards an electric fence with intent to climb it. He literally targeted HIMSELF with a missile in an attempt to win a chess game. I want the crossover joy of Danny throwing himself at everything that might kill Bruno and Bruno just Does Not Sweat It... Stupid.

[More under the cut]

Anyway yeah I have very normal feelings about "Dead Boy Walking" as an episode. Bruno's enemies pinning him down and injecting a terminal disease in his system... Bruno stumbling around until he hallucinates his best friend giving him self-care advice... Bruno quietly sitting down and staring into the void, separating himself from the ongoing conversation, instead of engaging in his usual banter... Boy crosses Australia on borrowed time, his legs give out beneath him at the worst moment, he's still wheezing about how he's going to do everything in his power to save others, just a little kid lying on the cold floor alone while Sydney gloats that he only has minutes left to live... His enemies making out over his unmoving body... I am so normal about this episode.

I just want Bruno and Danny to be friends :) I think they would vibe with each other even though they'd both want to bonk the other on the head. I so very badly want to see the first moment Danny realizes "Oh... Oh, this guy's, like... serious. He will kill people if I take my eyes off him." sldkfj Bruno's so intense and I love him. Danny is so tired and I love him. I want to see the first moment Bruno blearily wakes up to realize Danny just saved him from a ghost's revenge attack in the middle of the night. I love the Dead Boy Duo.

I only threw one line about these two hanging out in "Flypaper," but in my heart they spent the whole convention together because they're co-workers... they are buddies, your honor.

I do not think WordGirl would like Bruno at all because he comes off as a smarmy, know-it-all creep to those who aren't familiar with his sense of humor... Kid Math should not be left alone with him because he's very impressionable and Bruno is a terrible influence slkjdf.

Here's a little deleted scene I had:

I also had a loose draft for a scene of WordGirl and Super Why getting milkshakes with some other hero friends when Kid Math finds them again. WordGirl greets him like "Oh, how's your day going?" and Kid Math is just... very overwhelmed from his experience of interacting with two fast-paced sassy kids while he's still struggling to grasp the concept of superhero banter. Like. Bruno and Danny would destroy him. Blow his mind. There's no coming back from that.

So yeah, Bruno was definitely at the convention... I just didn't show him apart from that one-liner about him hanging out with Danny. "Flypaper" was really fun to write. I don't plan to do a crossover like this again any time soon, but the convention was a cool setting to explore and I'm glad you enjoyed! <3

One of my favorite stupid jokes in "Flypaper" is that Romeo was being a troublemaker in the daytime and WordGirl asked if he was "even allowed to do that" since he's supposed to be a "nighttime villain" in the PJ Masks lore... But tbh I watched a lot of Romeo clip compilations before this story and ?? apparently it's just a thing that Romeo regularly commits crime during the day and the PJ Masks literally hang back and wait until nightfall before they fight him?? That's SO funny to me.

(I also don't understand when the PJ Masks sleep and if anyone has the answer, please drop it in my inbox because I'd love to know but I also don't want to binge the series over this, ha ha)

I also wanted to make a joke about Alphapig being 5 years younger than the rest of the Super Readers because the amount I lost my mind when I saw that on the [unsourced] Super Why wiki was indescribable. POV: One of your friends is a princess, at least one is in college, and you're starting high school.

(I'm dying at the idea of three 10-year-olds running around Storybrook Village and there's a 5-year-old tagging along with them. The mental image of 7-year-old Whyatt taking a 3 or 4-year-old pig under his wing as his new friend... Such a good boy.)

After Tobey launched Romeo off his robot, I had WordGirl catch him, but I'd originally hoped to have Kick Buttowski catch him because I thought writing cool skateboard rescue mission would be fun. It seemed like it would just be shoving in an extra character who didn't need to be there, though, and it risked dragging down the scene with introductions and descriptions, but in my heart, Kick was at the convention too. Extreme.

I think another of my fave dumb jokes was just... WordGirl approaching the superhero panel she's supposed to speak on, she looks out into the crowd, but then she's like "Oh no the entire Paw Patrol are watching me, this is so much pressure."

Nothing to see here, just Baby Dog Squad taking notes... I still think about that randomly throughout the day and giggle. I love this 'fic.

#Danny Phantom #Bruno the Kid #WordGirl #Super Why #PJ Masks Romeo #Kid Math #Dead Boy Duo #Flypaper #I have seen the Paw Patrol movie twice with no show context and it's really good and I highly recommend tbh #It's a superhero movie but they get stuck in traffic / have breakdowns / get hurt by falling buildings it's so good #Opening scene is a guy disappointed to be saved by dogs and Chase is like 'You're in shock so I'm not gonna take that personally'#Not to be dramatic but Bruno/Leecy is literally my favorite OTP of all time... they love and support each other SO MUCH #Boy really waited two hours for her to arrive late to a concert and instead of complaining took her hand and bought her ice cream #He called and asked her to hack into secret gov't files and she was down without even knowing he's a spy... I love Leecy #I am so very normal about the series finale hooooooly cow #asks #Anon #ridwriting #Sassy kinderspy and co #Going ghost!#apparently art #Grammar queen #Arithmetic Lad #Main Phantom trio #Recommendation Wednesday #None of these is Wednesday #Read Mores are still glitchy if anyone was wondering :)

12 notes · View notes

fountainpenguin · 10 months

Note

2,3,11,49 for the second ask meme.

[ #ridspoilers - For "Flypaper," which was posted last Friday; just me talking about the prose I liked in a scene near the end]

[Current Ask game]

---

2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?

I've been writing 'fics since I was 7, when I used to write 'fics and print them out and put them in sheet protector folders. Every chapter used to be one page - with no paragraph breaks - written in size 22 font. I also used to handwrite 'fics on little stapled paper books I made.

My passion for storytelling has always been there (as has my obsession with platonic relationships, ha ha) but my skills have definitely come a long way since then :)

My most recent 'fic is "Flypaper," which is a "silly idea treated 100% seriously" cartoon crossover set at a superhero convention. I'm actually really, really happy with it and it took all my energy not to spoil my favorite scenes when I answered that previous Ask about favorite prose.

When I do long one-shots, I try to give myself one or two things to really hone in on. Recently with "Looking Back," that was "seemingly insignificant worldbuilding details" and "talking around the elephant in the room." With "Flypaper," I was focusing on my prose and sensory details the whole way through (so we get lots of descriptions about scalding shower water, greasy crumb-covered fingers, or the way hair blows in your mouth when you're on the beach).

Here's perhaps my favorite scene in the story:

He's still holding out his arm. Tentatively, WordGirl brings her hand to his. Both his palms together wouldn't be enough to cover even one of her fingernails. She does her best to give a firm handshake that won't make him feel like she thinks he's made of glass, but she's well aware of her super strength and, um… his notable lack of invulnerability. "I'm an English major too," she tells him. "Well… I'm planning to double major, but I just keep going back and forth. Two of my friends are going into journalism. I haven't decided if that's my calling too. I'm more interested in creative writing." Super Why whistles and withdraws his hand. He kicks his feet forward, floating back. "Double majoring sounds like a lot of work. That's so cool. I think I'm content chasing my lonely editing degree, but it sounds like there's a lot you want to do with your life. I gotta say, I really admire how you manage to balance your hero work and personal time." "Well, I couldn't do it without Kid Math. He's a lifesaver. I'd crumple like a tissue if he ever moved away." Huggy squeaks in agreement, sliding down from her back. The snack machine rattles, then starts dumping snack bags down the dispenser chute. WordGirl gets up, just glad to get off the floor. Super Why rises with her, using his hover boots to keep a short distance from her face. "Oh yeah," he says. "I'd like to take a look inside his book. I mean, I've gotta check it for triggers first before I get eaten alive, but I've always loved picture books. Graphic novels are basically picture books for big kids." Idly, Super Why spins his pen around his fingers. It clicks and clicks and clacks. It sounds like a train spinning its wheels on rails that lead to freedom. "You're into creative writing too? Are you signing books this weekend?" She looks away. Her blood flares with magma, but her skin stays cold. No pretty metaphor. Just plain old-fashioned cold. It's a good thing she's wearing gloves. Her nails bite through them to her palms, but at least this way, it's a lot less noticeable. "Oh," he says. The word plunks through the air between them. It's the same deep, dark sapphire blue you'd find in the ocean depths before the world fades to black because it's distant. She does not respond. Her chest beats, gnawing at the emptiness around the place her heart should be. And WordGirl does exactly what she always does, which is pluck out her soul, wring it by the throat, and stuff it back inside like she's throwing a casserole in the oven. Sometimes her soul needs a good whack against the wall, but it'll be "as good as new" by the time she's slapped the salt out of it. No one can ever know. They are not allowed to know. She'll wait and she'll wait and she'll wait, gouging gashes in her palms before she ever voices the faintest hint of disappointment. Because she can't just throw a tantrum over the cruel irony of the world.

There's a lot to unpack here. This constant back and forth juggling WordGirl has been doing throughout the story where she's trying to accommodate for Super Why's physical needs (like holding the microphone for him while they were speaking together on their panel) but she's also trying not to talk down to him or hurt him in any way.

WordGirl is such a "go, go, go" character who's always whipping back and forth, and I love the way I showed her actively being cautious and taking her time to make sure she didn't accidentally knock the Super Readers over. Just being around Super Why forces her to slow down and live in the moment, which is exactly what everyone else in the story keeps telling her to do.

When she's out with her friends on the beach and in town, she's still the "big sister." She's still "the mentor figure." "The one in charge." She almost doesn't suggest going to the beach because the mental workload of "getting ready and getting the others ready too" sounds tiresome. Before they went to the beach, she listed off some things she'd like to do (Run, dive, and fly with seagulls) and she doesn't do any of those things.

Even off-duty, WordGirl sees herself as responsible for her friends, and I just... really love this moment where she's talking to Super Why. She's trying so hard to suppress the envy she feels towards Kid Math. She loves him as a friend and coworker, but she's built this wall between herself and him - a wall that's painfully visible when she infodumps her feelings on Tobey and he just sits in silence trying not to criticize her - and I just really like playing with that.

I love this moment because Super Why can see right through her. Earlier, right after the panel ended, someone asked if she was selling books at the convention "like Kid Math" and she faltered and said no. At the end of the story, Super Why asks the same question, but he instantly picks up on her discomfort because he's Whyatt "Communicate With Me Or I Will Die" Beanstalk.

I love this bit where I wrote "And WordGirl does exactly what she always does, which is pluck out her soul, wring it by the throat, and stuff it back inside..." I like how ominous it sounds. It's the first moment she openly admits to her struggles... and she still chooses to stuff them down as much as she can.

I love this entire scene where Super Why is (unintentionally) picking her apart right where her cracks are. Whyatt has always been Mr. Scheduled. He needs to do everything by the book (literally) and he doesn't do a dang thing unless he's thought it through. His show is all about leaving the situation to calm down so you can turn the problem over in your mind and take a breath before you try to deal with it. He's got his life figured out. He knows what he wants to do with his career and he wants to ask about her life.

WordGirl has a vague direction of where she's going, but she hasn't solidified her plans. She's always been flighty and noncommittal, to the point that her friendships strain because of it and she's always pushing off things she wants to do in favor of duty or other people. She has ideas. She can't commit. She doesn't give herself time or permission to enjoy things.

I love this moment because Super Why sees WordGirl as "like me, but with a scarier life" and he's always assumed she's as scheduled and cheerful as he is... up until right here where he's like "... Oh. Oh, you've got THINGS to unpack, let's talk about that."

Earlier in the story, WordGirl does try talking to Rex and he's extremely uncomfortable with it, and she carries this fear that "Talking to Rex is uncomfy and will not make me feel better." But I really wanted to write teen Super Why as this guy who's made a life out of conflict resolution. He really picks up on her feelings and tries to help... They are friends, your honor.

If you've been following me long enough to remember the first time I ever posted WordGirl and Super Why friendship content (that drawing of them reading books in the sky, which I'm so sad I cannot find), then you've known me far too long, ha ha... I've wanted to write about the bookworm superhero kids for like 10 years and I'm happy I finally did. It was tons of fun to age them up, analyze their characterization, and play them off against each other.

I'm really happy with the prose and dialogue in "Flypaper," and it's secured a place as one of my favorite 'fics of all time <3

[More answers under the cut]

49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it?

I don't think so; I don't talk about my fanfics with offline folks. I've recommended a few of my 'fics to online friends over the years, but I'm not sure if they've read them.

---

3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?

This is always a difficult subject to talk about. My tastes as a writer, reader, or even as a fan in a fan space are usually wildly different than popular opinion. I tend not to like the popular ships, I don't like the popular characters, I don't usually enjoy romance, and I don't like writing short one-shots that are just 2 to 3,000 words.

I like tension, drama, and long introspective stories with deep worldbuilding. That's not something I often get to see in my fandoms (or even in the published novels that have been crossing my path in the last few years tbh). It's always weird to me when I remember what some of my more popular stories are, because sometimes I feel like, "?? Really? That's the one that resonated with you?" To each their own.

I gave it some thought and I think if I had to pick one, I'd say I feel my best completed 'fic is "Minion" (the one about H.P. and Sanderson bargaining with the Fairy Elder and Sanderson gets turned by her pheromones and assists her while she's there).

This is a piece that I think any reader could come across out of the blue, even if they know next to nothing about Fairly OddParents, and still pick up on very quickly. I think it's well-written, does an excellent job of being true to character, slots effortlessly in between canon episodes, fits with the quirky humor vibes of the series, I think it's fun and interesting, I think it has a lovely amount of fluff and tension and angst, and it pulls in the worldbuilding without leaving the reader feeling overwhelmed.

We get to see Sanderson's complicated feelings towards H.P. and H.P.'s complicated feelings for Sanderson. We get to meet Jorgen's mom and see an extremely powerful character that all of Fairy World respects (someone who was only namedropped in one episode towards the end of the series, and I think it's fun).

I think it's the best piece I have that shows the pheromone turning lore and it's the major piece that showcases what Sanderson's true personality is like when the pheromones are stripped away. It's often difficult to convey this idea that "Hey, Sanderson is who he is largely because H.P. is influencing him with pheromones, but he's also not a slave... he's just a young adult with eusocial insect genes that direct him to serve whomever the "queen bee" in the area is." I think "Minion" absolutely nailed what I was going for.

I'd love to show more pheromone influences, but it doesn't often come up. We've seen H.P. under Reddinski's influence a few times (he backs away, crouches low, and becomes more agitated in Reddinski's presence). Sanderson acts differently under different authority figures (like Longwood, Smith, and even Anti-Cosmo), but he's ALWAYS still Sanderson.

I really like the way that "Minion" explores this part of his life - and Fairy culture along with it - and also the way it explores how torn Sanderson feels about leaving H.P. in favor of someone else. Sanderson knows H.P.'s getting older and weaker. He also knows that H.P. isn't always kind to him. It's a struggle to think about where he wants his life to go.

Sanderson rarely gets to see himself when the pheromones are washed off. It's a weird sense of exploring his identity. I really like "Minion" and how it plays with the pheromone culture in a way that I think is easy for even outsiders to adjust to, and it's one of my favorite pieces. Nice, simple, and perfectly blends the internal and external plots.

My personal goal is to push Factor It In to be my best 'fic (Trying to stick close to canon, feature characters doing likable things, no major character death, no extreme trauma, feels very middle grade and cartoony and actiony, and doesn't go off the rails with worldbuilding). It's a project I'm genuinely passionate about and I have a lot of fun with, but I'm also trying to give it those "marketable" vibes [like fluff] that I need to practice for my future novels.

Come What May and Pink and Gray were my previous attempts to do what I want to do with Factor. That is, to write something more "middle grade" and trying to hit at least a few "commercial fiction" vibes. They both kind of got away from me when I leaned too far into the supernatural and made them sort of... ?? "sepia-toned" in their feel. They're a bit grim and aren't lively and fun stories.

CWM drags its feet a lot. It's really just a story about Kevin Crocker wandering around interacting with people or local businesses. He has his own weird plot stuff going on with witch magic and the Crocker house, but he's not truly involved with plot and action on a large scale. It's because that's not really his personality: he's guarded and reluctant to get invested, so he's basically "Okay, we'll unpack that later."

The slow, "I know this is going somewhere but I don't feel like readers know it's going somewhere" vibe was one of the reasons it fell by the wayside and I left it on hiatus for so long (that, and because I took some of the upcoming chapters to a writer's group to get critiqued and they got torn apart pretty badly, so that was a motivation killer that haunted me for years). CWM will never achieve that original "vibe of a commercial middle grade novel" goal I had for it, but I've written its next chapter and I want to finish it for what it is. Pink and Gray and 28 Cities have fallen into the same "swung and missed" crevice for me, but I hope that one day I can get back to them and wrap them up even if they've missed the intended mark.

Over the years, I did look at Factor It In a few times and wonder if I should pick it up again, but it was never the right time to give it the attention it needed. I want it to be "marketable" and "commercial" in the sense of "This is my practice story for real-world novel vibes and I want it to serve a specific purpose that will require patience and thoughtfulness." 5 years was a long time to wait, but I'm glad I didn't rush into it. It's going to be exactly what it was always meant to be- the thing that Come What May couldn't be. Whether or not it resonates with others is something that we'll find out over time, but I want it to resonate with me and be an excellent representation of my writing <3

(Also prefacing this with the warning that Factor isn't going to LOOK like a middle grade novel because I'm expecting it to be about 540k words by the time it's done, but it's meant to have middle grade vibes even though "longform content" happens to be the way the characters look in my art style.)

I do love Origin, Knots, and so many of my other stories for being what they are. I think Origin and Knots - which need to juggle pacing and worldbuilding in a peculiar way - are great in the deep dive category they're intended for.

But Factor is special to me because even though I'm still clinging onto things I personally like reading (like long passages of dialogue, slice of life moments that take their time), I'm also pushing it in a way that I don't push Origin and Knots... It has certain rules that it abides by behind the scenes, like how much worldbuilding I allow to leak into it or where I cut things. It has a steady plot and only takes place over 6 to 7 months whereas Origin and Knots take place over hundreds of thousands of years. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with it.

tl;dr - The goal isn't "write the best 'fic in the WordGirl fandom and be sad if it's not popular." The goal is just "write the best middle grade style, publication-adjacent piece I can, and succeed in the places where Come What May failed." That's what I'm trying to do by "making it into my best 'fic."

I have pieces like "Trying Too Hard" or "Looking Back" that I would never DREAM of taking to get critiqued because those are Intentional Bathtub Stories which are doing Very Specific Things You Would Not Normally Publish, because they exist as part of a larger storyline. Factor It In plays closer to publication rules even if it is still longwinded longform content. I like it and I hope others do too :)

(Some of my upcoming story ideas like Pulling Your Puzzles Apart, Francis, and Along the Cherry Lane also fit this "cartoony and skimming the surface without going too deep" vibe I'm aiming for with Factor, so keep your eyes out in the future if that's something that interests you!)

---

11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?

I dooooon't think so... I usually end up with a lot of weird ideas and/or niche favorites who are background characters, so I'm the one writing the content I want to see.

I think the closest I've come to sharing a lot of similar 'fic ideas with someone is just the general vibe of Poof's aged-up character: average little guy who struggles in school and is super brokenhearted when Timmy is no longer part of his life. I feel like that's pretty common (and I support it).

I don't actually read a lot of 'fics in the fandoms I'm most interested in-- I usually browse AO3 for specific tags of relationship dynamics or random settings or adventure tropes because "excellent portrayal of a relationship dynamic I like involving characters I don't recognize" beats "characterization in my own shows that feels OOC and likely isn't a trope I love anyway" any day, ha ha... I'm trying to get better at reading more in my actual fandoms this year, though, and supporting the community with my comments.

(FOP world is very filled with crossovers, though... I am in the market for some good non-crossover 'fics to pursue)

tl;dr - I don't remember writing a 'fic for a specific concept someone else has done before. I do remember that years ago, before Kevin Crocker existed, someone wrote a fic about Denzel's illegitimate grandson ending up in his care and getting assigned Poof as a godparent.

I remember thinking about this story a lot when Kevin's episodes were first coming out and when I was drafting "Come What May," but only 1 chapter was ever written and "Come What May" has a different plot entirely. The general "awkward young relative inside the Crocker house" stuck, though.

[ I went looking and I found it- it's called "Heir to the Throne" <3 ]

[Current Ask game]

#WordGirl #Super Why #FAIRIES!#ridwriting #ridspoilers #asks #Anon #Ask box games #Long post #Grammar queen #Bookworm boy #Arithmetic Lad #Flypaper #Factor It In #Satirical vocab alien child show #Come What May #Director's cut

7 notes · View notes