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popatochisssp · 5 years

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Hello! I hate to bother you but if you don’t mind, could you possible show one of your outlines? Like maybe Fur a Good Time, call... since it wouldn’t be spoiling anything by showing? If you still have it! I just have a really hard time making outlines, and I’d love to see your process on it. Only if it’s not a bother ^^ I hope you have a great week!

Yeah, sure, I could do that!

Forewarning, I didn’t really do any outlining before Chapter 4, so that’s where it starts, and the basic, bare-bones version I have of it was back when I thought there would only be 10 total chapters instead of 15…

Also, it very much is the bare-bones version, right before I write each chapter, I usually try to map that particular segment out with even more detail, so each chunk of this later got expanded into something more intricate. Those are usually a lot longer and include actual bits of dialogue sometimes ‘cause y’know…if I’m outlining it and hearing the perfect dialogue in my head, I gotta write that down so I don’t lose it! Sometimes gets tweaked, but very helpful during the Actual Writing part…

ANYWAY.

I’ll put the rest of this under the cut, but I’ll give you the full bare-bones FGTC outline, and then the (very long) detailed outline of Chapter 4!

Ch 4 - more Papyrus, dinner at theskeleton house, Sans is a cat person, more friendship, road trip/beach episode,okay whoops more than a crush

Ch 5 - The Breakdown, confess your Sans, the bigI care about you

Ch 6 - Papyrus hangout, character development,more Underground backstory, encouraging you to go for it with Sans

Ch 7 - self-deprecation, look I know I don’thave much to offer somebody like you but— cut off because are you serious? Youdon’t really think that do you? You’re so special and important to Sans, youmake him feel like just a person again for the first time in a long time, bothlean in…kiss meets nuzzle, haha no lips sorry? No, it’s nice, I like it,giggly, cuddly couch makeout until Papyrus comes home, FINALLY!!! Now moveover, my soap opera is on. Sans stuffs a pillow in his rib cage to try and getyou to come lay on him and it’s so sweet, how could you say no?

Ch 8 – dating fluff, bed sharing,some stargazing, the schmoopiest schmoop to ever schmoop

Ch 9 - after some time dating, Sans wants totake a big monster step, he wants to share souls with you, it’s super intimate,it’ll be basically no secrets, no important ones anyway, so you don’t have toif you’re not ready…but you are. Sans entire life story/POV up until now. Howmuch did you see? everything. i love you. I love you too! Dog person but catsare really cute line

Ch 10 - epilogue, Papyrus’ graduation, Undyneis allowed to attend with guards, she is solemn and aloof with you but concedesit looks like you’ve been good to these skeletons and you’d better keep it up.Cherish them! Not even a little bit of a problem, they’re practically family.Nod of approval before she’s led away. Papyrus nudges you to go find Sans, hedisappeared when Undyne came over and he PROMISED Papyrus a very specificgraduation present. You find him outside with Buddy and mention Papyrus’present— which turns out to be a bit of a present for you, actually. See, Sansfound a REALLY cool rock that he’s been meaning to give you, he just wasn’tsure when was the right time, human customs are so weird. He shows you a glowingcrystal, from the Waterfall ceiling, rambles a little about stars and wishesand penguins and oh, wait, I’m supposed to be on one knee for this, right? He’sproposing and you say yes without hesitation. You’ve got a skeleton fiancé, abest friend/soon-to-be brother-in-law, and a very good boy: it’s not a bigfamily, but your life feels as full as it’s ever been and you couldn’t behappier.

Thinking of a guest gift(s) –> because hanging out with Papyrus/Buddy & it comes out that you eat mostlygarbage and No Way, Not My Cool Friend! You’re Coming Over For Dinner!

You get a succulent and a rock paperweight (Nothing IsCarved In Stone) and head over

You’re early, Papyrus welcomes you at the door, Buddy’sjazzed to see you, Sans is asleep on the couch but snrks awake when Papyrussays your name

“Sweet dreams?” “nah I don’t dream, whatcha got there?”

The gifts go over GREAT! …and the sight of Sans holding hismakes you remember…

“Oh hey, Papyrus, what can you tell me about Rocky?”

“Oh My God, I Should’ve Known That Would Come Up, Listen, IAssure You, You Have Nothing To Be Worried About! Buddy Is Being Very WellTaken Care Of Here, *I* Am In Charge Of His Mealtimes, And He’s Never AllowedOutside Without A Leash Or In-Yard Supervision, There Will NOT Be A Repeat OfRocky!”

Papyrus goes off to squirrel his gift away somewhere heknows it’ll get good light.

…. OH MY GOD. Sans loses it, even as he pockets his newrock. ROCKY IS REAL??? “I told you he was, you gotta start trustin me more,jeez”

You take your mind off it by fawning over Buddy a littlebit, “hey I’m here too y’know,” “What, you want a belly rub, too? Ear scratch?”“that’d be a neat trick, lemme know if you figure out how to pull that off,”“pass,” “ouch”

Brief small-talk, you both just saw each other at work, notmuch new has come up, but Sans tells you Papyrus has been looking forward tothis all week, thanks for coming, “Of course, like I’m gonna turn down dinnerat my three best friends’ place?”

Oh look, you made Sans blush again. God that’s adorable, heneeds to quit doing that, it’s really not helping that crush you’re trying torepress

Papyrus returns! And he admires and compliments yourearliness but dinner isn’t quite ready yet, would you like to help? You’re notobligated, of course! He only asks because he knows sitting around waitingdrives him crazy as a guest and he wants you to have the best guest-experiencepossible!

You agree with the warning that you’re nowhere near a chefbut if an extra pair of hands would be helpful, you’re his set of ‘em!

Sans flops back onto the couch, practically curled into aloaf-shape, “okay cool lemme know when you’re done,” god what a cat-person

You follow Papyrus into the kitchen where it looks like he’smaking pasta! A pretty easy dish that even you can help with, you ask him whathe’d like for you to do, he wants you to watch the noodles and stiroccasionally, he’s going to throw together the salad—made of veggies from hisown garden!

You alternate watching the noodles and Papyrus. Sans hadsaid Papyrus didn’t cook too often lately, you mention that you’re honored he’sdoing it on your account, but of course Papyrus is going to cook for you! It’sa very important step in friendship building!

Papyrus admits the reason he doesn’t do it much anymore isthat he has, “…Well, The Word My Therapist Used Was ‘Trigger,’ Is That A WordThat’s Used Outside Of Therapy As Well?”

It is.

Well Papyrus has some triggers that seem to bekitchen-related, so he avoids the situation as a whole for the sake of hismental health

You’re concerned that he might be risking said health justto make dinner for you, but he promises that this sort of meal is safe, he’snever had a reaction to vegetables or pasta, which is great because pasta ishis signature dish!

(By process of elimination, you realize it’s probably rawmeat that triggers Papyrus. You don’t need to ask why and you don’t intend to.)

Papyrus doesn’t allow for any awkward silence and tells youhe used to make spaghetti all the time when he was first trying to pick up someculinary skills, he knows it was probably not great but he kept making itanyway. Cooking Underground could be a lot of trial and error (the Undernetdidn’t have much in the way of recipe blogs, you see, it was much betterutilized as a social media platform), so if you wanted to get good at makingsomething you had to practice and get opinions—the only problem was he couldhardly ever find anyone to taste-test for him and Sans was useless, Papyrus hasseen him eat mayonnaise out of the jar, his taste is questionable in theextreme!

You laugh about Sans being disgusting as Papyrus finishes upthe salad and you notice that the noodles seem ready, so Papyrus takes over foryou—since he doesn’t have any of that fragile skin to get scalded by hot water!

Your mind is going though and as you watch him drain thespaghetti you’re thinking about what Pap said about his therapist. It’s gottenyou wondering—Sans doesn’t work every day at the shelter, is that where he goeson the other days? To see a therapist?

You ask about it, gently and leaving Papyrus room not toanswer if he doesn’t want to, you’re just curious, but Papyrus tells you no,Sans doesn’t attend any kind of therapy

Oh. That…sits badly with you. He’s a grown skeleton and youespecially have no authority to tell him what he should or shouldn’t do, but…you saw the news reports. The pictures of what monsters looked like, fresh outof the Underground. It was BAD, for all of them, the fact that Sans isn’tgetting counselling too just feels…not right.

You’re not sure how to express your thoughts withoutsounding pushy or like you’re trying to say you know what’s best for them, soyou decide you probably shouldn’t say anything

Papyrus is too sharp for you, though. “No, I Agree, I WouldLove For Him To See A Therapist, Too. It’s Really Helped Me, It Would Be NiceIf He Could…. But Also…He Has His Reasons For Not Going. I Thought He Was BeingStubborn At First, But His Reasons Are Actually Good Ones. …Would You BeSatisfied If I Told You It Was Private?”

“Of course!”

“Then The Reasons Are Private. But Don’t Worry Too MuchAbout Sans, He’s Almost As Tough As I Am! He’s Been A Lot Better Lately, EvenJust On His Own. Besides, He Has At Least Two Very Cool People Looking Out ForHim If He Needs It!”

That really does make you feel better. You share a moment ofsolidarity with Papyrus before you help him bring the food and dishes to thetable

Papyrus wakes Sans up by kicking the edge of the couch andyelling, “Sans, You Lazybones, Wake Up! Your Friend Is Over For The Very FirstTime And You’re Going To Spend It Snoring On The Couch?”

“nah, I can snore at the table, I’m versatile”

“You’re Impossible, Is What You Are, You Bipedal Snail!”

The bickering is a little jarring from how gentle andconcerned Papyrus was for Sans just a few minutes ago, but the affection inboth moments is obvious enough if you look for it. Little brothers, you thinkwith amusement.

Sans makes eye-contact with you and you feel like he’sprobably thinking the same thing. You share a smile and he shrugs and you allhead to the table for a delicious meal (Papyrus sets Buddy a place at the tabletoo, Buddy hops up into a chair and starts chowing down on his kibble, oh mygod that’s adorable, he eats with the family

At some point, Papyrus talks a bit about his job and thesubject of vacation time comes up—a coworker of his mentioned that she wasactually operating on NEGATIVE time-off and he really feels like that’s a thingthat doesn’t make sense

It’s weird to you too, the last vacation you had was, well,that week your boss MADE you take off, right when Sans had started

This is the first Sans is hearing of that story, “wait, sheMADE you go on vacation? like she told you you HAD to stay home for a week? ohmy god, that’s hilarious, that’s so you”

You can see the humor in the situation and laugh at yourselfa little, while Papyrus says they HE would NEVER take a vacation!

Wait, really? Never?

Not for ANY reason!

Sans chuckles. “you’re so intense, bro, it’s awesome.”

“…Well, now, I want to MAKE you go on vacation,” you admit.You recognize the hypocrisy—you certainly never really wanted to take time offwhen you had so much you felt you needed to do—but you feel like theseskeletons DESERVE a break or a trip or something. Sans especially, but youcould’ve guessed within a day of (really, actually) knowing Sans that he’dnever go anywhere if his brother wasn’t on board. “Isn’t there someplace you’dwant to go? Just to visit? Anywhere at all?”

“None Come To Mind! And I Certainly Wouldn’t Want To RequestTime Off For It!”

The beginnings of an idea start to hatch in your brain.

“You don’t work weekends, do you?”

“No!” Papyrus declares petulantly. “They Wouldn’t LET Me.And I Don’t Have Any Classes Either, Weekends Are The Worst! There’s Only SoMany Weeds I Can Pull In The Garden Until There Aren’t Any More Weeds To Pull,And The Best Soap Operas Are Only During The Week, Which Is Prejudiced Somehow,I’m Sure!”

…And I guess that’s where I stopped outlining and started winging it again, and clearly there’s some bits I changed, added in more stuff, got rid of others because that’s just how it worked out as I was writing but obviously, y’know, that’s a pretty solid base to work off of. Once it’s this detailed, it’s still technically an outline but it’s not quite so much work to go from that to the finished product?

It’s like… instead of Brain –> Finished Chapter, it’s more like Brain –> base outline –> detailed outline –> Finished Chapter, and the steps in between really help me build up to it. Not as much pressure as flying blind like, “HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE BY THE TIME I’M DONE ‘CAUSE IDK WHERE I’M GOING,” if that makes sense? XD

Anyway, I hope this is helpful– or at the very least, interesting for you! ^^

#anonymous #crinkling #fur a good time call

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qez · 7 years

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Hey, @dynamicsymmetry I was the anon who told you I was “TA” but have been thinking over a lot now that I’m doing a re-watch. This is long, I’m sorry, so I’ll post more under the cut.

I’ve on-and-off following your blog since 2014?? I mostly wanted to vent to you because I’ve always enjoyed your commentary and analyses plus I find you understand Daryl really well. So, I would love to hear more from you even if you said some things a million times before. It’s always a fun read.

Anyway in my re-watch I find that I’ve gotten a better grasp of Daryl’s character and have been able to appreciate him more than in the past (most of my attention back then was focused on other faves like Glenn and Michonne for example).

Briefly and broadly, here’s some important points in Daryl’s development over the seasons:

Season 1

Gruff redneck and his brother intend to rob a camp despite the kind people and the children in it.

He is separated from his brother.

Shows outrage and distrust to Rick and the others who handcuffed Merle on the roof.

Despite his brother being gone because of these people, he sticks around.

We see glimpses of his kindness as he helps the people in this camp and stays by their side.

etc;

Season 2

Despite being the “outsider” he becomes more entwined with these people even if he doesn’t fully realize it yet.

We get more glimpses of his kindness. Ex 1: He saves T-Dog despite being the reason for Merle's disappearance. Ex 2: He doesn’t really know Carol but that doesn't stop him from doing his best to find Sofia.

We know once in his life he got lost child and no one came looking for him. He makes sure that same thing doesn’t happen to Sofia.

Chupacabra episode is just loaded with goodies. We learn of his insecurities and self-loathing and more about his relationship with his brother.

Continuously tries to lift Carol’s spirits when she's grieving. He forms a special bond with her, who is seemingly different than himself, but no so different at all.

He becomes a reliable figure that everyone depends on. (Ex: Lori goes to him when Rick/Hershel/Glenn are missing and Beth is suicidal).

Falls into the role of right-hand man when Shane goes off the deep end.

Sticks by the group and helps them throughout the winter.

etc;

Season 3

We open up and learn that the group is his family now. They rely on him, they love him, they trust him.

He’s part of Rick’s council and is relied on for his opinions.

He's still closed off and there's still a lot the audience doesn't know about him.

We see his leadership capabilities. Ex: He steps up for Rick and helps care for Judith.

We see his weaknesses Ex 1: When he thinks he loses Carol and then when he finds out she's alive. Ex 2: When Merle dies.

We learn how important his brother is to him. How important family is to him whether or not they are blood.

We see him try to console Carl when he tells him how he lost his mother.

We learn he’s a child abuse survivor.

We learn he feels that he belongs to the group and they’re his people.

etc;

After all these seasons, he still bottles everything inside. Unless he tells some things to certain people. Ex: His disbelief of Merle’s sacrifice when he’s talking to Carol.

I haven’t re-watched yet but:

Season 4 we see how he is forced to deal with everything he keeps away (I can't wait to re-watch). He learns to survive with a woman so different than he, and he even opens up his heart to her. Despite losing his family, he thinks he can make things work because of her.

Season 5 we see him try to move forward. He is more hopeful for the future and believes he can become a better person. He tells Carol they can move forward and he even gets that self-help book. He tries his hardest and doesn't give up when trying to find Beth because he has hope and she taught him that the good still exists. He tries his damnedest to find her, even when everyone else lost hope.

Then things come crashing down mid-season 5 and for the most part has stayed there.

We saw this tremendous development for him in seasons 1-5A, only for him to be pretty much at a stand still from 5B-7. Why? I’m not at all saying he hasn’t undergone any development, he has. However, we’ve been watching Daryl misery porn for years now. I can’t understand why. What is the point of taking one of the most beloved characters and not utilizing them or developing them if he is intended to remain central to the cast.

Why have other characters (Carol, Maggie). who also have had crises been able to pull themselves up from it but not him? Will he ever be able to? How?

I know for many, the “end all” for his pain is a relationship with another character(s). I can’t rule that out (I’ve seen it happen before in other media) I just can’t see it happening to this character without it being too sudden, out of character, or ignoring the months/years of suffering he’s undergone. Maybe I’m wrong and it could be done well. I just can’t really see it as of my S3 re-watch and from what I remember from other seasons.

It just makes me wonder, why, after several seasons of steadily developing him, do they kick him down and keep him there? The audience and critics have all noticed also. So what gives?

This is basically why I’ve been re-considering a lot lately. It may be useless and wishful thinking, but I just don’t see any other point to it all. It would have been so easy to give him a reason to be hopeful again after he learned of Carol’s survival and recovery. That didn’t happen. So what else is there? I don’t think winning a war with a villain will quite do that either. It has to be something central and important to his character to change him in that way.

Beth was part of his growth. She helped him see good in the world and in people and made him believe he can be like that too. Then she was taken from him. Her teachings eventually too as Dwight ruins that all.

I’m just trying to figure out why others can move toward a positive direction when Daryl can’t? What else would help move forward unless against all odds, she survived? It’s not about romance or shipping at all. For me and for many, it’s about this story and its ability to remind us that even at the worst of times, hope still exists. It just doesn’t make sense to keep him down and keep kicking him with no solution. Unless it’s just poorly executed and a time skip or something magically erases it all. Or a romance helps him out of his despair but I don’t see that happening. Romance should never be about saving anyone. For me, Beth’s survival wouldn’t be romantic. Any romantic aspect of their relationship would be on hold for a long time if she did survive.

The reason why the audience loved Daryl so much to begin with is because we saw him develop as seasons progressed. We got to see him open up and grow. A lot of fans have begun to dislike him for various reasons, but one reason in particular that I noticed was resentment that his character who has been in a pit of despair and is “stagnant in development” got to remain when other characters haven’t. This is definitely more of an issue with the writers keeping him in this place. (I can’t ignore the frustration also lies within racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc when it comes to the writing. As many black characters, a lesbian, and women have unfairly been killed off without further development). These hopeful characters are killed off and we’re left with a character who is nothing but suffering. People don’t like this. People love to see hope and goodness and it’s not fun watching characters you love just bring misery to your screen.

I just hate to say, perhaps you disagree, but I can’t see his character going anywhere else from here unless something big happens to/with his character. Something that forces us to want him to get back to the days of getting that self-help book and not just expect that his character is stuck in this loop of misery.

So here I am, all these years later, kicking myself that I’m even contemplating Beth’s survival. I just can’t make any other sense of Daryl’s character and his progression or lack-there-of as of now. I haven’t even gotten into all the weird things surrounding Beth. This is just as of now, my thoughts on Daryl since I paid a lot more attention to him during this S1-3 re-watch. It has gotten me thinking about him and how strikingly different his development and focus has been in earlier seasons versus later ones. This misery porn can’t be all for nothing, right? At least I hope it can’t. Everyone wants this to end. There’s got to be something. Some little light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, off topic. I still enjoy this show despite all the fuckery that has gone on regarding many unfair deaths. I’m not putting all my money on a survival either, I just can’t make any sense of a lot of things. That’s a huge reason I’m even re-thinking everything in the first place.

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