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whumpcereal · 10 months

Note

i want to see will's eventual rescue!!! :D:D:D

Do you, @hold-him-down? Here you go...

part of the kennel. set a year after will and tommy's disappearance. tommy and annie have been free for nearly six months; will has been sold away to whumper extraordinaire, pat deangelis, whom you'll get to know here. master list here.

content warnings for: extreme dehumanization, depersonalization, derealization, pet whump, references to noncon, noncon body modification, references to organ harvesting, forced nudity, collars, electrocution, captivity whump, creepy whumper, conditioned whumpee, thoughts of death, adult language

will's rescue, he's coming home

There is some awareness. The mutt knows that he exists. He is real. And at the same time, he isn’t real at all. The pain he feels is real. The feeling of Pat’s knife blade against his skin, the grinding pressure of the bolts in his jaw, the wet heat that seeps from deep inside after he’s used; he feels it all. But then, he doesn’t.

He isn’t–he can’t. He isn’t himself. There is no self to be. Not anymore. There is sensation and there is darkness and there is nothing in between. Everything happens to the body that used to belong to someone with a name, someone that people knew, but someone that no one cared very much about. No one will ever care for him again. That much he knows. It’s easier to retreat into the darkness than to entertain the thought that someone might love him. He’s not meant to think anyway. So he doesn’t. He won’t.

There is a man with Pat when feeding time comes. The syringe is full of the usual brown slop, but the mutt doesn’t care. He takes what he can get. When Pat lifts the lid on his tank, he scooches dutifully onto his ruined back. He’s still bleeding from yesterday, but he can’t really feel it; so much of what used to be skin is scar tissue now. His nerves are dead.

He thinks he might be dead soon too. He isn’t sure he knows how to look forward to it, but there’s something comforting, knowing that, soon, the darkness won’t be interrupted by any more pain.

“You got a visitor, pup,” Pat says dryly.

He kneels beside the mutt’s tank and reaches to cradle the boy’s head in preparation for his food. The mutt doesn’t make a sound; he’s not even sure that he can. When he can think, he idly wonders if his vocal cords are swiss cheese beneath the scabs and scars left by Doc’s bark collar. Doc never took it off, even after he’d wired Will’s jaw shut. Pat soldered the collar’s lock permanently closed; he did the same with the little locks that keep the mutt’s mitts in place too.

The mutt hasn’t seen his own hands in he doesn’t know how long. He doesn’t even remember what they look like. But he remembers the white hot shards of molten metal splattering against his skin. He hadn’t screamed, even then. He knew his purpose just as well as he knows it now: to suffer. That’s why Pat bought the mutt in the first place. Perhaps Will had been a whipping boy at Doc’s; here, the mutt is even less than that.

Sometimes, when the mutt comes back to himself for a stretch of time, he misses Tommy, even though he knows it is wrong. He wonders what it would feel like to be used gently again, to know any kind of apology or affection, even at the expense of his body.

He misses Annie even more.

Not that it matters. Not that he can think about it. Just now, there is nothing but the feeling of Pat’s hand beneath his snaggled and greasy hair; nothing but the rubber tubing that Pat shoves between his cracked lips.

The dim outline of another man hovers over Pat’s shoulder. For just a moment, the mutt’s eyes strain to see, but there’s only a faceless body, a voice that he doesn’t recognize. He isn’t sure if that’s good or bad.

“He looks like shit,” the other man says. “There’s nothing to him.”

Pat laughs, and at once, the piston of the syringe shoves forward and a slosh of blended dog food and water hits the mutt’s teeth. The mutt sucks dutifully at the little tube, swallowing whatever he can. There won’t be any more until tomorrow.

“Well, I didn’t think you were after him to win any beauty contests. It’s not his outsides you’re interested in.”

The mutt closes his eyes. His insides hurt. Everything hurts, and the hurt means he’s still alive. He doesn’t know if he wants it to stop. He knows he should roll onto his stomach, that he should let the man feel his insides. He doesn’t have to think to know that.

But the other man drops into a squat next to Pat and peers into the tank. “Lemme see his teeth.”

“His jaw’s bolted–”

“Yeah, I gathered. But I still want to see his teeth.”

Pat pulls the syringe away, and the mutt doesn’t whine. His head falls back against the plastic bottom of the tank, and Pat’s hands reach for him again. Pat uses his dirty thumbs to pull the mutt’s chapped lips backward from his teeth, which are permanently joined by Doc’s wires and bolts.

“I brush them every now and again.”

It’s a lie, of course, but the mutt won’t disagree. If his teeth hurt, he hasn’t noticed. That doesn’t mean they don’t hurt, but what the fuck does it matter either way?

Still, the mutt’s breath picks up. Why? The thought is tiny, like a knifepoint in the back of his mind, but it’s there. Why is this happening? Why won’t it stop? Why?

“I think he likes you,” Pat says with a soft laugh. He rubs his thumb over the mutt’s lips, catching the dry skin with the edge of a callous. “He’s getting all worked up.”

“That’s not what I’m here for,” the guy grumbles back. “If he’s not healthy, it won’t be worth using him for parts. I mean, look at him. He’s fucking gray. He’s, like, two seconds from sepsis. People don’t want kidneys that are already failing, you know?”

The mutt jerks against the floor of the tank. His insides. The man doesn’t want to use him; he wants to gut him. The mutt shouldn’t care. He should just let it happen, let everything fade into darkness for good, but the thought is growing now, slicing through his gray matter. Why? Why me? Why isn’t it ever over?

The mutt can’t breathe.

Pat dangles his arm over the edge of the tank. He’s still laughing. “Well, now! That’s the most excited I’ve seen him in weeks. Guess there’s still someone in there after all.”

Someone. The mutt used to be someone, that’s true. He shakes his head, only just swallowing the moan of protest that he can feel building in his abused throat. He wishes he could open his mouth to gasp for breath. He tries. His jaw stays firmly shut.

“It doesn’t mean he’s healthy,” the guy shoots back.

“And what do you care if he’s healthy? Does it matter to you if he dies on the table? You want the things that are keeping him alive, and damned if he isn’t still kicking. He’s got working lungs, doesn’t he? A heart that’s still beating. Just look at him!”

The mutt closes his eyes and squirms against the plexiglass walls, pulling in as much breath as he can through his nose. He remembers a movie he watched with his father, when he still had a name. In the movie, a man’s beating heart is ripped from his bare chest. The mutt imagines his heart being ripped out; it must be small now, like the rest of him. Tough and ashen.

He can’t feel his heartbeat, though. Maybe it isn’t there at all.

He is drowning. Pat tucks a hand against his throat in warning. The mutt has to get it together. He has to impress the new man. He has to be prepared to suffer and like it.

Pat slaps the mutt across the face, shoving the soft meat of his cheek into Doc’s hardware. The mutt whines without thinking. The collar deploys. His throat snaps and burns. He seizes against the walls of the tank, but when it subsides, he is breathing again. He feels his heartbeat.

He is still alive, and the new man is going to kill him.

Another memory of his father. A book. To die will be an awfully big adventure.

The mutt doesn’t want an adventure; if he could want anything, it would be relief.

The new man leans over the tank. His face looks funny.

“You’ve kept him this way the entire time you’ve had him?” the man asks.

The tank. That’s what he must mean. When the mutt was still Will, he’d laughed when Pat showed him the tank. It set off the collar, but he didn’t care. The whole thing was just ridiculous. Like something you’d put an overgrown lizard in. Glass walls, a mesh top. Just enough room for a body to lay flat. It made Tommy’s dog house look like a motherfucking palace.

It’s a fucking coffin masquerading as a terrarium. It’s a coffin. His coffin. Will’s. Oh, God–

He doesn’t want to think anymore. He wishes he could scream.

“I take him out when the mood strikes me,” Pat replies, and the mutt freezes when Pat’s rough hand cups his face. “He’s still nice and tight, even after all this time. The doc trained him well. I will miss that once you take him to play Operation, but I’m sure I can find another boy somewhere. Maybe one whose jaw has more range of motion, if you know what I mean.”

“I’m not interested in that,” the man snaps.

“You’re pretty touchy for a guy who wants this little fucker’s organs on ice.”

The mutt whines again, before he can stop himself. The collar responds. As he twitches and burns, he looks up at the man who is going to kill him. Their eyes meet. The mutt doesn’t understand the look on the guy’s face.

Derringer winces as the kid’s body stills in the tank. It’s not like he wasn’t prepared for this; it’s not like he’s new. He’s been on the task force for the better part of a decade, and he knows how depraved people can be. But this—everything that’s come out of Barker and his contacts, it’s next level shit.

He looks down at the body in the glass tank. Christ, the kid looks barely human. He’s emaciated—of course he is; according to what the Mahoney boy told them, his jaw’s been wired shut for the better part of a year—and his gray skin stretches too tightly over his bones, some of which have been obviously broken and poorly set. And that’s concerning, but somehow not as concerning as the webwork of thin, deliberate scars that covers most of the boy’s naked body. He’s been defaced. Decorated.

Ruined, Derringer’s mind supplies.

He can’t imagine the pain. The boy must have spent hours under Pat DeAngelis’ knife. And when he wasn’t being slit open like a fish, it was worse. He can see the blood and pearly smudges that line the boy’s inner thighs. Derringer doesn’t want to think of the scars he can’t see.

There’s no question it’s Will Cartwright, but whatever resemblance exists between the photos and videos Derringer’s seen and the broken person in front of him is limited at best. How could it not be, after what the kid’s been through?

Will watches him, brown eyes wide, and Derringer looks back. Their eyes meet for just a second. Hold on, kid, Derringer thinks. It’s almost over. You’re almost home.

He hardens his face again and looks back at DeAngelis.

“I’ll take him.”

“At the price we agreed on?”

Derringer shrugs. He can’t make this seem too easy. “He’s pretty beat up.”

“So you can’t skin him and make a profit,” DeAngelis laughs. “Though I’d buy it back from you if I could. I’m a little disappointed you’re going to destroy all my handiwork when you cut him open.” The jackass rakes his nails over the boy’s chest, opening wounds Derringer hadn’t realized were fresh. The kid flinches but stays silent. DeAngelis nods his approval. “I’ve worked hard on him.”

“I can see that,” Derringer says.

“But he’s outlived his usefulness, and I thought, waste not, want not, you know?”

Will’s eyes slip closed again. Derringer wonders how much the kid really hears, if he even has it in him to be frightened anymore. He hopes not. It will make this next part easier.

“Sure, waste not. But he is in rough shape. And you can’t personally guarantee his health, so—“

DeAngelis’ eyes narrow. “How much?”

“I’ll give you five grand for him as is.”

It’s an insult, and they both know it. Will probably knows it too, if he understands any of what’s going on around him.

“We said ten. And you know you’ll make more off of all his bits and pieces. That’s bullshit.”

“I don’t know that. He might not have anything viable. He might die before our people open him up. He’s practically dead already.” Derringer ignores the twist in his stomach; it’s too close to the truth. “If we can move his heart and lungs at least, I’ll kick you back a percentage.”

Will turns his head suddenly, and a tear slips down his soiled, sunken cheek.

Derringer sucks in a quick breath and forces himself to look away. He’s still in there. The kid is still alive, even if he is in pain.

Just a little bit longer, I promise.

The mutt wants to die, but at the same time, he doesn’t.

He knows what the new man is planning. He understands. And even if he doesn’t quite know why, he knows he doesn’t want it to happen. Staying alive isn’t really worth it, but it is. It is. Because maybe–maybe this isn’t forever.

It’s a stupid thought. He hasn’t had a thought like that in he doesn’t know how long. This is why he shouldn’t think. He should let the darkness take him. He should let the pain slip away.

But the pain that’s going to come before–he can’t stomach it.

Okay, poor choice of words.

Behind his closed eyes, he imagines himself cut open, his scarred skin peeled away from his chest like flaps. He can almost feel hands reaching inside to grab the things that are keeping him alive; he knows he will feel it when the time comes. Fuckers who do things like this, they get off on the pain they inflict. He will feel himself being disassembled piece by piece.

It’s more than he can bear.

“Fifty percent of his proceeds,” Pat is saying.

“Jesus Christ, you must think I was born yesterday. He’s not worth fifty percent.”

The mutt isn’t worth anything. There’s nothing he can do to keep Pat from going through with this.

Except–

“Twenty five,” the man shoots back.

The mutt blushes, but the men aren’t looking at him now.

He doesn’t make a sound–the two shocks he’s already had were plenty–but he starts to rock his body gently back and forth. He’s got to roll over. He isn’t much to look at, he knows, but Pat likes to look at his handiwork, likes to know the mutt is his creation. It excites him. And if the mutt can just get Pat excited, remind him of how good he is–

“Twenty-five? I’m giving you a fucking treasure trove here. You don’t have to hunt for any of the goods; he’s got them all. I should be charging you a fucking finder’s fee, not knocking down the price. I paid a pretty penny for this little mutt; he’s worth more than five grand and a measly twenty-five percent.”

Fuck, the mutt should be touched, shouldn’t he? He’s worth something after all.

“What the fuck is he doing?”

The mutt doesn’t stop moving. He’s almost made it.

Derringer bites back a gasp. This is worse than the Mahoney boy and Barker’s daughter let on. Of course, they don’t know what’s happened since Will was sold away. His back is completely destroyed. The thick, ropey scars from Barker’s bullwhip are as bad as he expected, but what DeAngelis has done–it’s like he’s traced every one of the boy’s veins with his knife. It’s a root system of carnage. It looks like DeAngelis reopens the wounds at will; there are a few still weeping. The smell is gut churning.

DeAngelis laughs. “Awww, pup! You want to show the nice man what else you have to offer, don’t you?”

The kid forces himself onto wobbling hands and knees; Derringer doesn’t know how he manages it. He dips his head and shoves his bony backside a little higher. His hips are a mess of black and blue fingerprints, and a silicone plug swells from between his red-striped buttocks.

“I told you, I’m not interested in that,” Derringer spits. Christ, how is this kid still alive?

DeAngelis sighs and nudges the plug with his fingers, and Will dutifully grinds backward. Derringer has to fight not to look away. The poor fucking kid.

“No, mutt,” DeAngelis says, swatting softly at the boy’s naked ass. “That’s done now. We had a good ride, but it’s getting a little sad, isn’t it? And besides, apparently we’ve got to protect the integrity of the merchandise if I want any return on my investment.”

Derringer has been doing this for years. He sees people at their lowest points on a regular basis. But damn if his heart doesn’t feel like it’s breaking when Will throws his body back against DeAngelis. Will’s dark, greasy head swoons against DeAngelis’ chest, his brown eyes pleading where his mouth cannot. Tears slip down his cheeks, but he only presses himself closer to DeAngelis. It’s a grotesque thing to watch: the kid is begging to be used with every ounce of strength he’s got left.

How do you ever get over that, Derringer wonders? Will is begging for pain because he thinks it will keep him alive. What happens when that stops? When the pain isn’t a memory, but something that’s carved into your skin for everyone to see? Tomorrow, when Will Cartwright is safe in a hospital, how will he live with what Barker and DeAngelis have done to him? How will he live knowing the things he’s had to do?

Will’s hips press backward again—almost instinctively, Derringer thinks—but DeAngelis only shoves him away, letting the boy fall face first into the tank.

“I said no. Don’t fool yourself, mutt. You’re no prize. That’s why you’re here in the first place. If anyone had wanted you, you would never have ended up with me. I don’t want you. I never did. I just needed something to do, and I’ve done all I can with you. Now it’s time to let this nice gentleman do all he can. At least now you’ll be doing something useful, huh?”

Will’s decimated back heaves with a silent sob. Derringer’s hand clenches into a fist at his side.

“If you don’t want him,” Derringer says, “then you should be willing to let him go for five.”

“7500.”

“Six.”

“Seven, and forty percent of whatever you get for his bits and pieces.”

“Seven and thirty.” Even as he says it, Derringer has to remind himself that Will Cartwright will still have a beating heart days from now, that there will be no percentage for his bits and pieces at all.

DeAngelis looks down at the naked boy with impassive eyes; the open wounds on the kid’s back shine under the fluorescent light.

“Fine. Seven and thirty.”

“Done,” Derringer says quickly.

DeAngelis leans over the tank. “Did you hear that, mutt?” he says to Will’s back. “It’s time for you and I to say goodbye.”

And then, Will shrieks. The sound is more animal than human, lodged somewhere deep in the boy’s scarred throat, and when the sensor on his collar picks it up, there’s a cruel snap of electricity. But Will only screams again. And again. And again.

Derringer starts forward. “Hey—“

DeAngelis only shakes his head and heaves the mesh lid back onto the tank. Will’s body thrashes against the glass walls of his prison, and he doesn’t stop screaming, even as the collar pops against his throat.

He thinks he’s fighting for his life. There is a part of Will Cartwright that still believes he’s worth saving, that wants to go on living even if it means being trapped in DeAngelis’ fucking tank until he dies.

Hold onto that, kid. You’re so close. Don’t let go now.

But still, Derringer knows that a part of Will Cartwright will stay trapped here, even when the rest of him is safe. The kid’s real fight is just beginning.

“He’s going to hurt himself,” Derringer says. “His heart—“

DeAngelis kicks the side of the tank. “He’ll pass out soon enough; it’ll save you the trouble of drugging him for the trip.”

Derringer wants to wrap his hands around the fucker’s neck, but it isn’t part of the plan. The others are waiting outside. DeAngelis will be in custody in minutes. He will never be able to hurt anyone like this ever again. He and Barker and all of their disgusting contacts are going to rot in prison. They are going to pay.

But it doesn’t mean Derringer doesn’t want to inflict some pain himself. For the Mahoney boy and Barker’s daughter. For Justin Huang, whose husband is still lost somewhere overseas. For every soul they’ve pulled from the depths of hell since Barker’s operation was blown open—and for the ones they were too late to save.

But right now, all he wants is to make DeAngelis suffer for Will.

But Derringer is a professional. He manages to smile, even as Will’s close-mouthed sobs keep coming.

“Well, thanks.”

Will can’t hear everything they’re saying. He can’t hear anything but his own screams, really—it turns out, when you can’t open your mouth to scream, the sound just echoes in your own head. Still, it feels good to hear some version of his own voice. To know he’s there, even if it’s only for a few more hours.

And he is there. Will is there. The mutt is too, but he’s already slipping into the recesses of Will’s brain, silent where Will is screaming. Will will scream until he can’t. He will scream and he will fight until his heart is cut from his chest, and they cannot stop him.

He doesn’t notice when Pat locks the mesh top on the tank. He doesn’t quite feel it when the tank is hoisted onto a push cart. He doesn’t care when he starts to roll away. He doesn’t stop screaming.

The pain from his collar dulls with every shock. It’s no worse than anything else he’s suffered, and it matters less now. He gurgles against the electric current, but he doesn’t stop himself from making noise. He won’t give Pat the satisfaction. He won’t give the new guy a break. He gets to decide how this goes, even if it’s the last decision he ever makes.

Will rides the electricity until his whole body shakes, and he beats the sides of the tank with his shoulders, his elbows, his heels. They ignore him, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now.

His jaw aches to open, and he feels himself fighting against the bolts and wires that Doc installed all those months ago. Nothing budges, but he pretends that it does. Another throat-shredding scream, another jolt of electricity. Over and over and over again.

With every snap of current, Will lets himself think of the people he’s leaving behind. No one wants him, not like this, and he gets it, he does. But he is himself for the first time in a long time, and he isn’t going to waste it.

He screams and the collar lights up, and when he closes his eyes, he sees Annie. She is smiling at him, her big brown eyes crinkled at their corners. She reaches for him with her little hand, and Will tries to reach back. His mitt brushes the mesh top of the tank. Annie fades, and he screams again.

Tommy is there when the shock comes, wrapped in his favorite hoodie and leaning against something Will can’t see. Tommy’s head tips back, and he laughs. He is happy. But looking at Tommy hurts, and Will screams, and he is relieved when the shock sends Tommy away.

Will’s father takes Tommy’s place, young and a little sad, like he was when Will’s mother took off. Bud? he says, but somehow, he doesn’t say it at all. He looks so tired. Bud, I miss you so much. I’m sorry—

Will screams so long and loud that the shock stops before the sound does. He wilts on his bloody back, exhausted. He’ll go again, he will, he just needs a minute—

“What the fuck?!”

“On the ground! ON THE GROUND!”

The tank isn’t moving anymore. Will can’t see Pat or the new man. All he can see is a metal ceiling beyond the mesh top. It’s dark around him, but there is light, just outside his range of vision. He doesn’t scream again. He stills. He waits. He listens.

“Get his hands behind his back and make sure they’re real fucking tight.”

It’s the man. The man who is going to kill him. Will doesn’t understand. He tenses against the glass bottom of the tank, his bloody skin smooching awkwardly along the smooth surface. His mouth twitches, as if to bite his lip, but too late, he remembers that he can’t. The pain starts to build again, needling at him from every direction. Still, Will strains to hear. He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to focus on the voices, even as the world begins to gray.

“You fucking son of a bitch—you’re a Fed—“

“I’d watch my mouth if I were you, DeAngelis. Turns out, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. Not that it will matter too much once my team sweeps your depraved little Xanadu here. I only wish they’d put you in a fucking tank.”

Will’s brow wrinkles. He doesn’t understand what’s happening. The pain washes over him again, and his atrophied muscles seize. He groans, but the collar doesn’t react.

“Get him in the car. I’ll help the kid. Make sure the ambulance is en route.”

The floor beneath Will stutters a little, and then the man is kneeling over the tank.

“Will?”

Will shakes his head, trying to force his eyes back open, trying to understand. No one’s called him by his name in so long. How does the man know his name?

The mesh disappears from overhead. The man leans over the tank. His face is dark and stubbled in the dim light, and Will presses his body somehow flatter against the bottom of the tank, even though it hurts. Somehow, he finds the strength to scream again, and the snap of the shock flares against his throat.

“Will, no–no, kid, I promise, everything will be okay.”

The man’s voice is suddenly soft. He leans closer, and Will can see that he has blue eyes. The man doesn’t smile, but his face isn’t unkind. It doesn’t make any sense.

“Will, my name is Special Agent Christopher Derringer. I’m here to take you home.”

Home. Will’s eyes sting with fresh tears. It can’t be true. The man is lying. Will doesn’t have a home. No one wants him. How could they? He needs Pat. He needs someone to tell him what to do.

“Will? You’re safe now.”

But Will isn’t safe. Everything hurts so badly, and he is so tired. He knows he should keep fighting, that he shouldn’t believe what this man is saying, but he can’t do this anymore. It’s too much.

His eyes close, and he lets himself go. When they open–if they open–maybe he will understand.

The boy loses consciousness before the paramedics get there.

“Christ almighty,” one whispers under her breath. “The poor kid. How on earth–”

Derringer nods, standing by as they carefully lift Will from the fucking tank. They lay him gently on the gurney. His skeletal body looks too small on the blue sheets. One of the paramedics covers him with a space blanket, and for a moment, the boy looks like he must have as a child; for all that his body bears the marks of Barker’s and DeAngelis’ cruel treatment, his face is untouched, innocent.

Well, almost, Derringer amends, thinking about the bolts and wires that have kept the boy silent for the better part of a year. But like this, it almost looks like he’s just fallen asleep; like maybe, everything that’s happened to him was just some kind of fucked up nightmare.

It isn’t, of course, and when Will wakes, he’ll know it too.

Derringer follows the gurney to the ambulance, and he prays that the kid will stay asleep as long as he can. What comes next might be some kind of relief, but it certainly won’t be easy.

The heavy doors close, and Derringer digs in his pants pocket for his phone. He scrolls for the number, and he ignores the clenching in his gut as it rings.

“Mr. Cartwright? Agent Derringer. We’ve got him. He’s coming home.”

taglist: @darkthingshappen, @oddsconvert, @sparrowsage, @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump, @mylifeisonthebookshelf, @highwaywhump, @squishablesunbeam, @hold-him-down, @whumpsday, @sowhumpful, @termsnconditions-apply, @irishwhiskeygrl, @deltaxxk, @d-cs, @whumpinggrounds, @canislycaon24, @considerablecolors, @starlit-darkness, @scp-1296, @flowersarefreetherapy, @morning-star-whump, @whumpwhittler, @susiequaz12, @whump-world, @hiding-in-the-shadows, @tasteywhumpee, @whumplr-reader, @sad-boys-anonymous, @whumpzone

#the kennel #will cartwright oc #pat deangelis oc #chris derringer oc #tw noncon #please heed all warnings #whump #whump writing #whump series #pet whump #hi it's been a minute and i'm sorry

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bonesbuckleup · 18 days

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Hi, random q. I saw in your tags that you swear by Scrivener for original fic. I’m still plugging away in ye olde Word and now I’m intrigued to know what about Scrivener you like so much. I’ve def heard about it but never used it, so I’m curious :)

YES I would love to tell you about my lord and savior software Scrivener. I hope you don't mind I published this long, long answer publicly.

So. The main issue I have with Word and Google Docs is that you hit a certain length/word count, and it starts to lag and load kind of jerkily. You know? Also, navigating chapter to chapter or scene to scene is awkward for me--you either have to have a whole bunch of individual documents and multiple windows open, or you have to use headers and the table of contents...which is fine for quickly finding chapters but less so for scenes within those chapters.

Messy, basically. Does not spark joy for me.

Enter Scrivener.

Now, before I evangelize a bit, I will say that Windows Scrivener and Mac Scrivener are not 100% created equal. They are both better, I think, than Word or Google docs, but the Mac version is a bit slicker and a little nicer to look at. I only say that for if you're using Windows, because if so my screencaps below won't exactly match what you see if/when you download the program.

ONWARD.

So, the #1 thing that Scrivener has over Word is that it's a one time fee, not a subscription. So while it is a little pricey (Just went and looked, $59.99 USD), it's only the one payment. All updates and such are covered and available as free downloads. I will also say that Scrivener gives you a 30 day free trial. That's not 30 consecutive days, but 30 days of use--if you only use it every other day, you'll have the trial for 60 days. They make it really easy to figure out if it's for you or not.

This is also going to feel like a lot, but there are built in tutorials and it's actually pretty intuitive, depending on how your brain works. Anyway! The basic gist of Scrivener is that it's a digital binder. You can keep all your book stuff in one place:

As you can see, there's the manuscript (aka my book), notes, research, more. Tbh, I mostly just use notes and Manuscript, but if it floats your boat, you can store maps, place names, worldbuilding, playlist links, moodboards, a whole ton of stuff, all in one menu that's easy to access and in a single window. You can organize it however itches your brain the best way.

But like I said, for me, the best is that Manuscript part, which I'm going to go into now. I use a three act structure for books (but break the big ol' middle act into two pieces because it makes my brain happy), so each act gets a folder.

When I click and expand that act, each chapter has it's own folder. However, it also shows quick-reference index cards, so I can have an at-a-glance at what's going down in each chapter. (I'm using a outline system called Save the Cat for this book, which is why all my chapters have titles like 'Catalyst', feel free to ignore those...I also have a very compact timeline, so to help me stay organized, I labeled each chapter with when it happens.)

You can do the same with each individual chapter and the scenes, where when you click on the chapter folder, each scene gets a card. If you don't type in a summary, it'll just auto-populate the start of whatever content you were writing. You can see this in the 'Copper's Candids NEW' card.

And, of course, it is writing software. When you click on the individual scene, it opens the blank document, and you can get cracking.

So. This system is nice for a few reasons. My favorite is that it makes navigating, reorganizing, and/or rewriting scenes extremely easy. It's just point and click, drag and drop. You can also open two docs in the same window at once, like this:

Which is a nice feature for several reasons--you can work on a new version of a scene with the old one pulled up next to it, or if there's something you wrote earlier or that comes later that's important to what you're working on now, you can have them both up for quick referencing.

Another slick thing is each doc has a notes section off to the right side of the screen--which is optional! I use it for future revision notes/descriptions of how I want the scene to go:

My other favorite part of Scrivener is that it makes it very easy to hoard your deleted scenes like a deranged dragon in case you want them later. My garbage looks like this:

There are SO MANY FILES hanging out in my trash, and you know what? I so rarely actually need them, but my god am I glad they're there on the rare occasion that I do. Word, again, can make it more difficult. I always had a massive 'cut' document that was longer than the actual project and again, awful to navigate. This just makes it easier.

Scrivener also makes it easy to compile the manuscript into other doc types--pdf, doc, docx, etc--for easy printing and sharing.

ANYWAY. I'm sure there are approximately 1 million other things I'm missing, but basically Scrivener takes all your book/long project bits, puts them in one centralized file, and makes it super easy to navigate. I've also found that outlining is easier, because I can just make the folders and scenes and drag them around while I noodle through the plot.

10/10, would recommend to any long-form writer. If you have any other questions, please let me know! If anyone has read this far and has a thing about Scrivener to add, please do! I love Scrivener, and a lot of my writing buddies love Scrivener, and it really kinda has revolutionized the way I write original fiction. I'm always happy to yell about how great it is.

#mail #story-monger #long post #Scrivener #free yourselves from the shackles of Word and Google Docs my long-form-writing friends #there is a Better Way #writing

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rdhadastroke · 1 year

Text

So this straw-masked dumbass decided to do a thing and share some personal tips about writing fanfiction/writing someone else's character/writing in general!

Please keep in mind that I am a hobbyist writer, not a professional! These are just suggestions/things that help me that may or may not work for you, please feel free to correct me or add your own anecdotes :)

Tips for getting ready to write:

Make sure that you're in an environment where you can concentrate.

Whether that be in a quiet room, a chatty café, or blasting your eardrums out with music, whatever gets you in the groove is good. Not everybody can focus in the same environment, so your choice of surroundings for when you right aren't going to be the same as everyone else's. I (personally) listen to long video essays, my current favorite song on loop, or a playlist about the story/characters.

Clear a space for where you want to write.

Clear the space of excess clutter and keep only what you need. If what you need to write is a lot, that's fine! Having too much going on at once in your writing space can overwhelm and/or distract you. I know from personal experience.

Have all of your materials at hand.

Character sheets, previous stories, note paper to jot down ideas, rough environment & scene sketches... Whatever references and tools you need, keep them with you! Also, keep a glass of water or some other drink nearby. Hydrate or diedrate, my friends.

Make sure that you won't be interrupted while you're writing.

This may not be an option for those of you living with your parents or a roommate, but it's ideal for your creative flow to go undisturbed, uninterrupted, and unwatched. Is your father really watching you write your fanfic? No, probably not, considering that he's snoring. But it still feels weird to write when he's sitting in his armchair right behind you. No, I am not projecting my experience onto the reader under the cover of an absurd joke, why would you say that?

Now that setup is out of the way, let's go over some actual writing stuff:

Always, always, always block out what you want to write before you actually write it.

By "block out", I mean give a basic summary of the events you want to take place in that chapter or segment. I usually do this event-by-event because I struggle to carry on a story without an outline, but you can do it by chapter or by paragraph if you'd like. Make jokes in your mini-summaries, and phrase things in wacky ways (that convey things to you effectively)! You don't have to be too serious about it. After all, if you're in a lil silly goofy mood, you can get an epic sentence like this:

If you get stuck on a part of a story, move on and save it for later.

If you're anything like me, you understand the screaming, crying, pissing, pants-shittingly frustrating experience of not knowing how to describe something or figure out what should be said next. As angering as it is, it's okay. Just write a mini block-in for what you want to happen, want to describe, or the general tone of what you want to be said. Or use a keyword that you can Ctrl+F for to finish those pesky scenes when you're ready. If your writing software can do it (I have no clue if any one program does this, I only use Google Docs), mark the spot for review to return to it later. If you're one of those frighteningly powerful people who write stories by hand, highlight it and paste what you want to go there over it once you're ready. If you aren't familiar with this infuriating part of writing, you're a lucky bastard and I envy you immensely.

If you have writer's block, there are 8 potential strategies (that I can provide) you can use to alleviate it.

These are NOT surefire fixes for writer's block and are EXTREMELY subjective and results will vary from person to person, but they can potentially help you.

Read a book. Sometimes reading how another author writes (dialogue, scenery, figurative language, etc.) can help you get a better grasp of what you want to write, and how you want to write it. You might even get inspired to make a different story, which bleeds into the next point.

Work on/start a different story. (This isn't always the best way to get out of writer's block, so if you can't get a word down, this probably won't help.) Sometimes changing what you're working on can free up the ink clogged in your pen, for lack of a better phrase, and give you an, "aha!" moment.

Eat and drink something. Brains don't work when they don't have fuel, so feed your machine. Frequent maintenance keeps an engine running smooth, so occasionally get a snack and make sure to keep hydrated.

Take a walk and get some fresh air, and touch some grass for the love of god. Jokes aside, getting your body moving can excite your brain into working and clear some brain fog, since exercise gives your brain a dose of serotonin. As silly as it sounds, sitting in the sun and touching some grass can actually make you feel nice and rejuvenated, it helps me a lot. Even if you don't go outside, moving around is a good way to give your brain a break.

Talk to a friend and get their input. Their ideas can get you through a tough spot and inspire you to get writing again.

Look at pretty pictures and distract yourself from what you're doing. I have pictures of art pieces and doodles I like hanging in front of the desk where I write, and losing myself in pretty stuff helps me work through what I'm struggling with.

Jot down notes by hand on what you're trying to do. Planning things out on pen and paper, despite being tedious, imprints information in your mind and can be useful to your writing needs

If you're writing a fanfiction, look at the source material. Chances are, there's something there that could help you along.

If you don't have the motivation to write anything, don't.

This isn't the best advice for someone who's on a time limit, but works wonders for passion projects and fun stories. Very few do their best work when they force themselves to do it. Besides, there's no point in having a hobby if you don't get joy out of it and overly stress over it.

Writing someone else's character? No problemo, here's some fanfic help:

Always look at the source material, and don't be shy to explore new territory with the character.

It's important to stay true to the personality of a character when you're writing someone else's creation, but don't be afraid to throw in some headcanons and artistic flair. Remember, there's a difference between writing a character unrealistically (pertaining to personality, likes, interests, and universe/world/time period) and changing the circumstances of the original story. Characters are people too, and people react differently to the same thing depending on the world around them. A character may not have [x] trait if [y] event never happened, likewise [y] event never would have happened if this character didn't have [x] trait. Take into consideration the people around the character, as well, as they can also affect what the character does and how they develop. Change up small events in the original source material's story to get a different story and a different reaction out of the character. Experiment, and have fun! It's your story, write it your way!

That's all the advice I have for now, and I hope I was helpful! :)))

#fanfiction tips #writing tips #writing help #writing #fanfiction help #fanfiction #writing advice #fanfiction advice #hobby writer #im not a professional

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sibillascribbles08 · 10 months

Text

Okay ramble that will probably not get anywhere but I will put it here anyway because I saw yet another post about people struggling to get any writing done. And someone in the comments made a good point. You write/draw so much more as a kid because you're less practiced and ergo less worried about the imperfections that may arise from just gunning it.

And this is true! And this is why I want to tell you if you are struggling to write much, learn to write like a kid again.

You know how with a lot of art you see processes and it always starts with really shitty thumbnails that have silly faces or just blobs of color? Then you have an actual sketch (during which the artist likely moves a lot of shit around on a digital canvas) and then possibly the inking phase or just painting which is more blobs that slowly get sharper and sharper the more the images is rendered.

Yeah uh, do that with writing. Going under the cut because long

Writing as a process is something that is unique to an individual, just like there's 800 ways to slap paint on a canvas. If you look at guide books for writing and none of it is sticking it's not cause you're a failure that technique is just not gelling for you.

And as such I can only speak from MY experience with it but like, here's how I generally stay on top of projects

A) Sketch phase! It's outline time baby! "Ughh but outlines suck" listen I know school made the outline phase of an essay the worst fucking thing ever but hear me out on this. Sure some people CAN write by the seat of their pants but in terms of long projects this does not work out for me. I'm inevitably gonna hit a point where idk where to go from there and it's so hard to map all that out in long form

Listen, outlines are not there to be formal. They're not even there to be fancy. This is time to get down the bare bones and if you have to make it only a paragraph long and then extend that paragraph into multiple then DO it.

Like hell, NONE of my outlines are formatted the same! Some are a paragraph per chapter. Others are just endless bullet points that I split up later. I'm sure in one book due to all the plotlines I'm just going to have a storyline for each character laid out in columns so I can draw lines between them. Whatever works.

And again, do not have to be formal, like here is a legit line in one of my outlines

As for the ruined building… Hypno will cover the damages……….. Right? : )

Go crazy.

B) Now that you have your baselines start working on the actual story. Do you like writing shit out of order? Do it, because with an outline you still have your baselines to reference for any important details you don't wanna forget "Remember [character] is supposed to get a scar in chapter five!" Or write shit in order, and every time you hit a lull consult those baselines to say "oh yeah that's where this chapter was going"

And hey, keep writing it like a kid if that's what it takes to get this crap down. Hit a fight scene you don't wanna write? Slap down some brackets. [Insert a fight scene here where [character] gets his head smashed in so he ends up with this concussion later like a dumbass]. Boom, done, worry about it later.

Worried the dialogue isn't flowing well? Slap open another document or grab some paper and write it out in a play format to keep it moving. Add in all the beats, expressions, and details after.

Not sure if this detail you're putting in is historically accurate? Leave an easy to search symbol in the doc so you can go back to it to research later.

Write the sappy shit. Write with poor grammar (but still like, comprehensible you know what I mean). Slip in adverbs to swap out with strong verbs later. Use a run on sentence.

"But it's gonna sound bad" Who cares who tf cares that's what editing is for ! You go back and refine that shit and clean up sentences and add in all the extra research and pull out the repetitive words.

You gotta quit treating writing like you're supposed to just swing your brush on the canvas and suddenly you have some beautiful scenery. There's layers. There's blobs that turn into refined shapes. There's blending and shading. There's fine lines and thick lines. And sometimes there's mistakes that you have to wait until it dries to go back over it again.

It is a process! Let yourself have FUN with the process.

Okay rant over.

#scribs speaks #I will never tell people how they should write #but so many times when I talk to fellow writers who say they haven't touched their WIP in ages #9/10 I ask if they have an outline and they say no #sir you are trying to write a fic that could be like 20 chapters #give yourself some sketch layers

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the-wip-project · 6 months

Text

SloMo WriNo: Outlining and Tracking

it's November Ist! The big day is here!

Hopefully you have your minimum and maximum word count goals set, and have found a good time to fit in your writing. Now it's time to start writing.

I have a few final (well not final, I’ll be making a lot more posts!) suggestions to help you stay on track.

Firstly, regarding outlines. Now you may have noticed that I haven’t really talked about outlines before now. That’s because I am a pure discovery writer, or pantser. That is, I don’t even think about outlining before I start writing. If you are someone who likes having one made in advance, I assume that you have found and used one of the excellent methods that others have created.

That is not what I’m talking about here.

I’m talking about what you do while writing. I believe that building an outline as you write is an absolutely essential part of the process of writing a novel, even if you, like me, never ever prepare one in advance.

What I want you to do is this. Each day after you have written, write a few sentence description of what you’ve written. Do this even if you have an outline already, do this especially if what you’ve written diverges from your previously prepared outline. The goal is to create an outline of what you’ve actually written.

I like to use the index card function on Scrivener for this, because it becomes the chapter and scene titles so my outline in progress is right there in the sidebar of my document and easy to refer to. (Yet another reason I highly recommend Scrivener) But you can do it in whatever function your program has, a separate google doc, or even on physical paper.

I’ve found nothing keeps a novel on track like an ongoing outline. So please give it a go!

Secondly, there's the matter of tracking your word count. Of course all programs will give you an ongoing total word count. Some will also track your daily word counts for you.

Still, I find it helpful to track my daily word count separately. It keeps me honest, and something about the process of manually updating a tracker makes it all feel official. There’s a few ways to do this.

A spreadsheet. (feel free to make a copy of this one to use)

Track yourself in an app (I've been liking this one)

Join the WIP discord and report your word count in the check-in channel.

No matter what method you choose, keeping an eye on your daily progress will help you tweak your schedule to continue making writing most days a priority.

So that’s it! Create an ongoing outline, keep track of your word count and get busy writing your novel!

And don’t forget to keep me updated on your progress. Use the tag #slomowrino on your posts, send me an ask, or @ me on the WIP discord.

#slomowrino #outlining #tracking word count

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jedi-enthusiast · 10 months

Note

For the fanfic ask game: 💖 👀 🥺 🤲 🥰 (sorry I know that's a lot LOL feel free to pick and choose!)

The ask game <3

Oh no don’t apologize! I love people asking a bunch of questions because I love rambling about my fics!

💖- What made you start writing?

I have two answers for this question, since I actually stopped writing a while ago and then got back into it.

I first started writing in general because I was primarily a Wattpad user (I had no idea Ao3 existed, but give me a break I was like 13) and I was reading fan fiction for a manga/anime series called Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler and I just wanted a heroine reader like me.

Most of the "readers" or "ocs" in those fics didn't really stand up for themselves and often let the guy characters walk all over them--or they would be referred to as "badass" but were never really given a chance to be badass. And, at the time, they were also mostly blonde haired/blue eyed.

So I started writing because I wanted a heroine reader that stood up for herself and didn't take anyone's shit and was actually badass on paper--and who had brown hair and eyes like me. I actually still have the full outline of the fic I was working on, and a draft of the prologue, and here are two commissions I bought for my oc:

I did eventually stop writing for a while, though, because I was just tired of writing and rewriting and rewriting (the outline and draft I have currently is my 3rd rewrite of the entire thing, 4th if you count the other completely different version of it--I get very nitpicky with my fics sometimes).

What got me back into writing was actually you. I started reading "Shoulder the Sky" and I saw how much work you had put in and how passionate you were about your fic and I just...got inspired. I already had an outline for The Great War sitting in my Google Docs (from back when I first got into Star Wars) and I basically decided "fuck it, if they can do then so can I, I'm gonna start writing again" and I did, and now I have two fics ongoing and several in the works that I can't wait to get to.

👀- Tell me about an up and coming WIP!

Ok, one of my WIPs that I'm working on (that I hope to start writing soon, once I finish the outline) is a Modern!AU called "Deeper Roots."

Basically Cody and Obi-Wan are high school sweethearts who have had a long-distance relationship for over a decade now, since Obi-Wan had to move away from their town when he got custody of his siblings (Anakin, Ahsoka, and Reva) from their father (Qui-Gon) due to family issues.

Well, Obi-Wan and Cody decide that he should move back to town since Anakin will be starting college soon (he's 21, but took a gap year and then waited since he had an accident that took his arm) and the college of his choice is nearby + Ahsoka wants to go to that same college + they all miss Cody a lot and want to see him more.

Only one problem. Cody hasn't come out to his family and they have no idea he's dating someone, let alone that he has a boyfriend and that he's--for all intents and purposes--technically a father of three. They all try to keep things a secret from his family still, but things obviously get a whole lot more complicated once the two sides of Cody's life start to intermingle.

(also, I think Reva should be incorporated into their family in Modern!AU fics more often, I think she'd make a great youngest child)

🥺- Is there a certain moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Ok, slight spoilers for BCC, but one interaction that always makes me emotional when I start to think about it is this one line that I have planned for the end of BCC.

Basically Obi-Wan and Cody are hiding away in a storage room after a hard battle and Obi-Wan says something about "not wanting to be High General Kenobi."

So Cody says that they don't have to be Commander and General. That, when it's just them, "they can just be Obi-Wan and Cody."

👐- Would you please share a snippet of a WIP?

Nothing else is really written yet, so here's a snippet of the next chapter of Bloodshed, Crimson Clover:

The Force sparked restlessly under Obi-Wan’s skin as he stared at the empty holomap in front of him, eyes searching it for the readouts of a battle that hadn’t happened yet—or, rather, was happening, but just out of reach. He could look away. Attempt to meditate, or finish last mission’s report, or do something more productive with his time, but the near-blinding blue light of the blank screen had already seared itself into his mind and he knew that, even if he walked away, it would follow him.

So he stayed.

Staring.

He hesitantly reached out along his and Anakin’s Force Bond, gently pushing forward the memory of Crys announcing they were only fifteen minutes out and an impression of– you? Them? Safe?

Part of him didn’t expect Anakin to respond, and another part of him dreaded that very fact, but—as always—Anakin was full of surprises. He was quickly hit with a twin pair of waves, harsh impressions of impatience and frustration that burned the back of his throat, and their corresponding memories—one of the 501st’s Star Cruisers disappearing in a flash of fire and smoke, a supply ship they were escorting quickly succumbing to the same fate, Anakin’s admiral informing him that they couldn’t hold out much longer.

The taste of ash felt thick and heavy on his tongue, and it took him a moment to recover from the sheer intensity of it all—although he was careful to keep his expression devoid of any emotion. Anakin was strong in the Force, but that meant he often forgot to take into consideration how his power might affect those around him. Obi-Wan was used to it, however, so he was able to disperse the effects quickly enough, and the emotions that followed were all his own.

🥰- How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

*cough* ahem.

I love getting questions about my fic and I love getting comments and people talking about it--all of it just makes me so happy! I love my fic and I love to see people loving it too!

#thank you so much for the questions!#sending you all my love <3 #ask game #star wars #ao3 fanfic #codywan fanfic #codywan #fanfic #obi wan kenobi #commander cody

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bonesandthebees · 5 months

Note

bee how do u organise your brainstorming for your fics?? bc LORD 😭😭😭 i have like at least three different discord channels and my google notes app that all has brainstorming for one au and it's impossible for me to find anything i feel like i have forgotten so many ideas just bc it'll be in a one off convo with one of my friends crying

im trying to now put it in one doc but like. my brain is so all over the place that i feel like i'll still lose stuff just bc of how random everything is fskjakdfj

oh uhhh it depends

for the most part if it's one of my longfics (which are usually the only ones I need separate brainstorming notes for, otherwise for my one shots and shorter fics I keep it all on just 1-2 docs including the fic itself) I keep it in google docs in a separate folder? like here's an example of what I mean

this is in my mcyt fic folder. you can see I have separate folders for my longer fics (sleepyhead = glass divine, space royalty = stars, roses = under the hanging rose) and everything not in those folders are usually just one shots, random one off au ideas I'm not going to do anything with, or mini multi chapter fics. aka the stuff I don't need to do as much brainstorming for

inside my longer fic folders is where I usually keep more of my notes or references for certain bits, along with the actual fic outlines and the fic docs themselves. however lately I've developed a bad habit of throwing worldbuilding notes into the notes app on my laptop for god knows what reason. there's literally no reason for me to put my notes into the notes app as opposed to just making another google doc for it, but for some reason my brain likes it better for worldbuilding brainstorms.

so right now the rose brainstorming stuff is a bit all over the place as you can see here (going to put it under the cut so the post isn't too long)

I'm still trying to keep things organized, although it is getting really annoying having to constantly dig through my notes app to find my worldbuilding notes so I might give up soon and transfer them over to google docs. we'll see.

oh also you reminded me I do actually have discord planning channels for my stuff but I haven't really used my rose one that much. I did use my discord for planning mostly with stars and sometimes with glass. it was largely just for keeping track of characters

honestly don't know why this worked for tracking my characters over just using a notes app I don't recommend it but if you do make sure to name your brainstorming channels consistently with whatever you're titling your docs so you can find them easily

anyway my advice is to just try to keep it all at least in one folder if you can't keep it all in one doc. and if you do end up making it more scattered, try to keep a consistent naming convention so you can identify docs/notes on the au quickly (unlike me who uses roses on google docs and has still not changed the label from 'hotd inspired' on my notes app)

hope that helps!

#ask #icyfox17 #bones writes

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hrefna-the-raven · 1 year

Text

Star Born

Masterlist

Chapter 1 - Knowhere

Words: 1967

Warnings: Back to the Future reference because those movies fucking rock! Great Scott!

A woman popped up from behind one of the machines, the sight of her made Peter weak, sending him straight back to a part of his mind he'd almost forgotten. She was wearing a black leather jacket crested with studs on the shoulder parts, the same torn light grey long-sleeve like Peter's, ripped from the collar downwards, revealing a small part of her cleavage, messily tugged into a pair of tight black jeans, the earth style finished off in a knee high pair of Doc Martin boots. While shaved off on one side, the shoulder long strains of her wavy amber hair fell down, covering one side of her face. Peter's eyes were glued on her frame, she looked like she emerged from one of his many dreams about home. He couldn't believe he was seeing someone so beautiful and so strangely familiar in a place like this. His heart raced in his chest, and he didn't want to but couldn't help but stare at her.

"Hi, what brings you guys here?" you asked the Guardians, a mischievous glint in your eyes at the sight of this weird bunch of strangers, especially the human.

Rocket stepped passed Peter, kicking him chuckling as he addressed you directly.

"We need parts for our ship, M class spacecraft," he said, trying to keep a straight face at Quill's drooling love struck expression. You nodded, a smirk playing at the corners of your lips.

"I might have just what you need or even more," you said, walking towards a shelf full of mechanical parts.

As you bent down to push a piece of machinery aside, Peter couldn't help but stare at your well formed butt, the outlines perfectly highlighted by the tight fabric of your jeans. He felt ridiculous, staring at you like a hormonal teenager but he felt like he was falling in love with, not just your behind, but also you right then and there. You had this special something, a weird spell engulfing Peter's mind completely, rendering him completely defenseless. He still wasn't sure if you could be the earthling the Ravagers had mistaken him for earlier but everything about your outfit and the music coming from that old radio just screamed Earth to Peter and he would know, he was born there which technically made him the sole expert on this matter. You led them to your little junk yard behind the workshop, sifting through the pile when the two Ravagers emerged from behind a pile of spare parts.

“Earthling who names herself Star Born, you come with us!”, they yelled at you, merely earning a chuckle as you tapped on a device wrapped around your wrist.

“Oh this is gonna be good, watch this”, you cackled as you poked Peter, looking up to the intruders, “hey! Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?”

The song from inside the workshop echoed louder now as the Ravagers ran towards you.

Every time I think that I'm

The only one who's lonely someone calls on me

And every now and then I spend

My time at rhyme and verse and curse those faults in me

As they were almost close enough to fight you, what looked like a glowing pink skateboard flew towards them and hit one of them in the head, before gracefully turning around midair to collide brutally with the other Ravager's face, knocking him out coldly.

And then along comes

MaryMary,

MaryThen along comes Mary

Mary, Mary

You leaped over, activating the rocket attached to your left boot, swinging around in the air, your right foot hitting the last standing Ravager's face hard, throwing him flat on the ground.

“And does she wanna give me kicks”, you sang along to the song as you landed back on your feet, grinning at the Guardians, your hips moving to the tunes.

“Why does this woman remind me of Quill, just with the skills”, Rocket asked, mouth agape in astonished confusion.

“Was that...is that...”, Peter stuttered, walking past you to grab the skateboard, “a flarking hoverboard?!” You laughed, bathing in the glorious moment that someone finally recognised the device you built.

“Yes, I tried to build the exact same as in Back to the Future II”, you beamed, “see it even has the Mattel logo on top. It's just a prototype for now though.”

“Oh my...hang on! There is a second movie?!”, Peter looked up at you, his eyes glowing.

“Oh no... here we go”, Gamora rolled her eyes.

“There are three movies, dude”, you laughed, “have you been living under a rock?”

“I-I-I was abducted when I was eight years old, 88, I-I didn't know”, Quill stammered, nervously fiddling on the edges of the skateboard before handing it back to you.

"Ooooh you missed the best. Sweet 90s baby, hell yeah”, you winked at him, throwing the board on the ground where it hovered a few centimeters above the floor before shoving it away.

You had been a space drifter for years after leaving Earth, trying to make ends meet before you eventually landed on Knowhere. It was a tough life, but it was what felt closest to a home, clinging to what would make it all worthwhile, your earthly treasures, the simple stupid gadgets that reminded you of a more calm time of your life. Neither Peter nor you knew at this very moment how important that connection would be, but the delicate foundations of a very important and fond friendship were laid on the day of this fateful random encounter. You whispered your name into Peter's ears.

“But you can call me Star Born”, your hand playfully tapped his shoulder.

“Peter Quill, also called Star Lord”, he grabbed your hand, swiftly kissing the backside of it.

“Nobody calls him that”, Gamora walked into the workshop, waving her hands dismissively.

“Yeah, nobody even knows his real name”, Rocket cackled, sitting on Groot's shoulder, “we need these wires and relays”, he held up a small box, “how much?”

“You know what?”, a finger moved to your lips, your brows furrowing in a thoughtful expression, “if I can borrow your Earth boy here for the rest of the day, I'll give you the parts for free”, you proposed hesitantly, almost sure that they would never agree to such an offer.

“Yeah alright, you can even keep him forever if you want to”, Gamora laughed, leaving the workshop without even glimpsing at Quill.

“I am Groot”, the tree shrugged and followed them, Rocket still sitting on his shoulder, turning his head to wave a middle finger at Peter.

“The vicious vermin speaks the truth”, Drax patted Quill's shoulder, “I'm sorry Peter Quill, but you will have to stay with the weird lady.”

A chuckle escaped your lips at the sound of Peter's annoyed huff, your fingers wrapping around his wrist, directing him to the desk in the corner of the workshop. You rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a small square electronic device. It somehow reminded Peter of his tape player, but instead of a cassette, a tiny floppy disc stuck inside.

"Check this out," you said proudly, pressing a button on the device, handing the headphones over to him, “waaaay better than your prehistoric device.”

To his amazement, he immediately recognised the track that started playing.

“Footloose?!”, his eyes darted to yours.

“Of course! Best dance movie of all times!”, a smile spread across your lips, “during my years moving from one planet to another, I kept telling others that we have this legend on my home planet where the great hero Kevin Bacon teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is.”

Peter stood in the middle of this messy workshop on Knowhere, feeling utterly abandoned by his crewmates and friends, leaving him behind, without a second thought, to get the parts to repair his ship for free while he was left to fend for himself. And yet he felt ecstatic, finding someone, not only from his home planet, but also someone with a weird humour that matched his own perfectly, you even twisted the plot of his favourite movie into the same silly tale. As the two of you chatted, he couldn't shake off the feeling that this encounter might have been more than mere coincidence. He never wasted any thoughts on the concept of fate or destiny, but this simply seemed too perfect to be a mere chance. As you continued sharing your memories of Earth, realising that, even though you experienced the planet during two completely different yet similar decades, Peter found himself more and more drawn to you. You were smart, obviously smarter than him, although he'd never admit that in front of the racoon, and definitely funny enough to keep up with his jokes, and by the end of the day, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had known you his entire life. He had scoffed at the ridiculous thought of love at first sight before, yet now he couldn't deny the way his heart raced as he looked into your eyes, that seemed like liquid pools of indigo threatening to drown him. As the day wore on, the two of you found yourselves wandering through the many shops and stalls on Knowhere, your giggles mixing into the steady noise of the bustling marketplace. Finally, as the evening grew late and the two of you reached the Milano, you turned to him, your hand resting on his chest, your mind loosing track for a moment as you felt the warmth radiating through the fabric of his long-sleeve. "I have to go now, Star Lord. But I think we should do this again...sometime." Peter's mind to screamed at him, to do something, kiss you, grab you and hold you back, asking you to join the Guardians, traveling through space with them but his body seemed detached, sabotaging every single wish whirling around his busy brain by simply standing there watching you walk away, his heart feeling the heavy crush of an unfair reality. With every other woman he randomly met during his adventures, he managed to hold up his smooth flirty demeanour which not only ended in him waking up in bed next to said woman but very often also in a lot of trouble. But you rendered him defenseless, all his careless flirts suddenly dissolved into thin air around you. You were more to him, his heart already clinging to you for dear life, leaving no room for anything else. He knew he had to see you again. As he made his way back to the Milano, he frowned at the image of you taking up every little space in his mind, ignoring Rocket's taunting as he went straight to his bunk, slumping down on the bed. Days turned into weeks, and Peter asked around in every port they landed at, hoping to find you after Cosmo told him that you left Knowhere one week after him. But it felt all in vain, it was as if you had vanished into thin air. Finally, as he sat alone on the bridge of his ship while the others roamed the local market, his fingers instinctively went into one of the bottom pockets of his jacket where they found a small piece of paper tucked and neatly folded. He unfolded the paper, not remembering when he ever would have put it there, let alone when he ever held real paper in his hands after he was abducted from Earth.

Meet me at the Quarantine zone in the Andromeda galaxy. See you soon Earthling.

Chapter 3

#guardians of the galaxy #gotg #peter quill #star lord #peter quill x reader #star lord x reader #x reader #reader insert #female reader #cosmo the space dog #cosmo #gamora #rocket raccoon #drax the destroyer #groot #knowhere #possible slow burn #peter meets someone else from earth #star born

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eyesorefortheblind · 5 months

Text

Guzma/Eclipse Ideas/Headcanons

Art by Inspector-Valvert <3

Just a whole rambling list I've done of ideas and headcanons between my OC Eclipse and Guzma! OC x Canon forever. Some ideas referenced from YuuriVoice and KinkRadio Guzma audios.

Little context before you jump in, Eclipse is a Pokemon hiding as a human, so that should help you understand things better.

It's long. And it's in no particular order. I didn't realize I had filled out like 18 pages in google docs woOPS.

Lil' disclaimer/trigger warning before you dive in - mentions of death, touches on the topics of abuse and trauma, and mildly spicy at times! Nothing too in depth but just wanted to give that warning. Also swearing.

At first, Eclipse is pretty quiet about where she came from and where she grew up as a kid. She just vaguely mentions that she needed a new place to escape to if anyone asks. Other than that she just lies about where she came from.

She picked up a story about living in the Orre region from a quick fling and passes it off as her own.

Of course if she actually meets anyone from Orre, it's gunna be awkward. She's never heard of Shadow Pokémon so-

She references that she was a bounty hunter and explorer back home. She had an entire team at her back, much like Guzma does now. However, all that fell apart.

She doesn't explain what happened, but Guzma catches a familiar hurt in her eyes. Something happened.

She explains that she used to get bullied as a kid for being different, and her guild used to give people like her a place to go to.

She worked really fucking hard for that guild. She wanted it to be a place for those who are different to escape to. For those who didn't fit into the norm.

The boss notes it's not too off from Team Skull.

Guzma sees that sparkle in her eye whenever she talks about exploring or battling - it was something she was clearly passionate about.

It's weird though, she's so passionate about it but doesn't have a Pokémon of her own.

Sometimes he catches her writing in an old looking journal, but he never sees what she's writing. She never lets her look at the pages.

Guzma has a lot of questions about her past, but Eclipse has just as many secrets.

She mentioned she had just been wandering for about four months around Alola before she found Team Skull's base.

This woman just shows up in Po Town, drenched by the rain, with nothing more than the clothes on her back and the contents of her bag. How did she make it this long in Alola? Sure it wasn't too hard to survive, but… She's a mystery.

Eventually Eclipse opens up enough to explain that she had a Pokémon partner of her own.

An Absol named Soul.

He was her everything. Her second in command. Her partner that helped her start the guild. Her battle companion.

He meant the world to her.

They ran the guild side by side for a few years, but something happened.

Soul died protecting her and it caused a break in Eclipse. She couldn't find it in herself to keep going without him.

Eventually she just left. Up and abandoned everything she had.

Eclipse calls herself a coward for doing it but it's much deeper than she initially lets on.

It explains why Eclipse has been wandering around without Pokémon of her own.

She swore off a companionship with a partner Pokémon because she didn't want anyone else to get hurt for/because of her.

That scarf she wears belonged to Soul. It's why she nearly always has it on her or has to know where it is at all times.

However that little Vinepede was just insistent on following and going with her.

Fuck.

Of course Guzma doesn't open up to her at first either.

He's still recovering a bit from the events of ultra space and the Nihilego.

Guzma always boasts about how he's not scared of anything, but the Ultra Space incident more than shook him up. That was the first time he had felt genuine fear.

If Eclipse looks close enough she can see faint outlines of something across his torso. (Scars maybe from where those weird jellyfish grabbed him?)

Eclipse doesn't know much about Aether it seems, but he notes she is a bit interested in learning about them (for some reason…)

After the events of Ultra Space, Guzma is cold to Aether and Lusamine.

He comes to recognize that she only treated him with respect so that she could use him and Team Skull for her own gain.

They have a run in when Guzma and Eclipse are enjoying a date in Malie City. The two are sitting in Malie Garden when Lusamine approaches them and asks how Guzma is doing. She's surprised to see Guzma actually managed to nab himself a girl.

There's a scowl on Guzma's face as he explains that yes, they are on a date, now buzz off.

Eclipse is confused as all hell. Who is this lady? And why does she smell… familiar?

Lusamine asks her name, and that's it. She just leaves. Aight then.

Eclipse can be pretty prideful and headstrong, a result of her parents raising her to be the best she could be. Though, she did get bullied as a kid.

Because she was born as a hybrid, she got picked on for being different. Like a lot. It wasn't a lot of kids picking on her, mostly just a select few.

Eclipse didn't let it get to her too bad, instead she used the teasing and bullying as fuel to get her guild off the ground.

She desperately wanted to become an explorer like the great rescue teams she had heard of and even met. One or two visited her school to talk about rescue teams and exploration teams occasionally.

Team ACT and Wigglytuff's Guild were huge inspirations to her as a kid and she strived to be like them.

Eclipse let those words instead fuel her desire to start her own guild for those just like her - hybrids that had been teased, shunned, bullied for who they were. She wanted to make her guild a safe haven for those who were different. It was a place to prove that even those who were different could still achieve just as much in life and more.

Team ACT (composed of Alakazam, Charizard, and Tyranitar) were one of the teams that Eclipse looked up to. She had heard of their adventures and influence and wanted to be like them.

During a visit to the school Eclipse attended as a kid, she got to meet her heros and she told them all about how she wanted to be an explorer and part of a rescue team when she got older.

Alakazam noted that look in her eyes. She was determined. It was different, not that light that would flicker and die out when kids grow up.

He told her to continue on in her passions. Should they meet again, he would check on her progress.

They did meet again, Eclipse was a young adult at that point and had just formed a companionship with Soul.

Eclipse came upon Team ACT at a bulletin board and she eagerly asked if they remembered her. Alakazam recognizes her and doesn't even have to ask - he can tell she's been working all these years to achieve her dreams.

The only thing keeping her from starting her guild is a lack of members and funds.

Alakazam makes her a deal - if she can complete a rather tough rescue mission, he will fund her guild.

Eclipse immediately jumps at this and drags Soul off with her. The mission is a struggle and takes her numerous tries, but she manages to rescue a hybrid by the name of Mynder. Mynder joins their team and Alakazam funds their guild, just as he promised.

Team Skull reminds her a lot of her team from back home.

A bunch of headstrong young adults looking for a place in the world.

They don't quite fit in like everyone else, so they make their own place to fit in.

Guzma supports them, gives them a place to stay, makes sure they're fed, the whole nine yards.

It reminds Eclipse a lot of herself. Someone running a whole place with those who don't quite fit in.

And it hurts to see that reminder of what she used to be.

But she has to give him the credit and respect Guzma deserves. He's doing all this for them.

She has massive respect for those taking in and helping in others.

Guzma likes being a little spoon, but he's never gunna admit that. Sometimes they tussle over who gets to be the big spoon but usually Eclipse wins. (Guzma lets her)

It's stupid, but Guzma likes being held. Just knowing someone actually wants to hold onto him and touch him makes him melt a little under that hard shell of his.

In a way, Eclipse grounds him in the sense that she's a solid reminder that there's someone there rooting for him. Yeah, he has the grunts, but this is more personal. There are some things he just can't talk with them about. Hell, some things he can't even talk with Plumeria about. But her… he's reluctant at first but some things he opens up to Eclipse about.

Of course there are times where he needs to be the big spoon. He is the big bad boss who needs to take care of his little love bug, after all. And what if one of the grunts barges in and he's the one being spooned?? Way too embarrassing, the grunts could never see that.

Mostly he does it when the grunts are being especially rowdy some days, that's usually when it's most likely they'll come barging into his room to tell him some punk is messing with them or something like that.

Plumeria caught them once where Eclipse was absolutely latched onto his back (and maybe wearing the Boss' jacket), but Big Sis promised she wouldn't say anything. At least to the grunts. She absolutely gives Guzma shit for it in private, but in a playful way.

Eclipse is reckless as fuck.

Occasional "I crave violence" vibes at times, but only when someone she cares for is in danger.

She's always getting into scraps with some sort of Pokémon or one of the grunts.

Usually it ends up with her getting hurt in some fashion such as a scratch or a bite or bruise.

She can handle it though, it's nothing!

Eclipse likes to snark that she's reckless. It's part of her nature. She's reckless, but she's a tough girl.

She's always telling Guzma she's gunna battle Golisopod one day. This girl doesn't have any Pokémon though, what a dumb idea!

Eclipse doesn't care if Golisopod is a bug type - her weakness. She wants to square up with him.

Sometimes she tries her little fighting escapades with Plumeria, but she's not as likely to entertain her antics.

After a while, Guzma just gives an exasperated sigh or raised eyebrow when Eclipse comes back with a bloody nose or new scratch somewhere on her body.

Sometimes getting Eclipse out of bed is a whole chore. Some mornings she has her fun, other mornings it's more of her emotional/trauma issues.

On the mornings she's just being silly, Eclipse will ask for a smooch, or ask for Guzma's jacket. Generally some sort of bargaining to get her ass out of bed.

Often times Guzma threatens to drag her out by her fucking ankles.

Before he knows, Eclipse will pull a little complaint that the shady house is cold and that she could either stay under the covers or if she had a nice jacket to use… sometimes he gives it to her, sometimes he carries her out of bed.

Not really cold though, it's Alola, after all. Hot and humid. Gross.

After Guzma finds out her little secret, the "it's cold outside" trick doesn't work anymore. He'll snark about her coat and tell her to get up. She still begs for his jacket.

Other mornings though, it's hard for her to get out of bed. Those mornings are the ones where she has home on her mind. She's thinking about her old life and her friends.

Guzma offers words of comfort and holds her for a while. Sometimes they just lay in silence. Just five more minutes. It helps her feel better.

Eclipse really appreciates it.

Eclipse loves playing with Guzma's hair. It's soft and fluffy, and Alola's humidity doesn't help with that. It's just so fun to play with.

She also loves it when Guzma lays his head in her lap. She could sit there for hours just playing with his hair while they're chilling in bed or in Malie Garden.

He likes the head scratches. Again, he's never gunna admit that, but it's so relaxing.

Eclipse absolutely knows he likes it and teases him about how she should be the one who likes to be scratched behind the ear.

At first though, Eclipse was hesitant to play with his hair. She noticed whenever he got frustrated, he would yank and pull at it. Was it a sort of stress relief or something? It took time for her to actually touch it. And when she did, she was gentle.

Guzma flinched at first - other than brushing (or trying to brush it), washing, or dying it, he wasn't used to treating his hair too kindly. Combine that with his past traumas… he wasn't expecting a gentle touch to his head.

Slowly though, he eased into it. The more she did it, the more he found himself enjoying her touch. She would take little tufts and roll them in her fingers to make individual little spikes, or just slowly run her fingers through it.

Of course Eclipse loves having her hair played with too. The two alternate with sitting with their heads in each others' laps.

One of Eclipse's favorite positions is sitting between his legs with her back against his stomach and her head against his chest.

Guzma will absentmindedly run his fingers through her hair and later on teasingly scratch behind her ear. Sometimes he'll catch the sound of a thumping tail and that puts a smirk on his face.

Plumeria has to teach him how to braid hair. Eclipse has a lot of it, but he didn't know how to braid. Like, at all. It looks so confusing!

So, he pulls Plumeria aside and begrudgingly asks her to teach him because he doesn't want to try it on Eclipse and mess up, or embarrass himself trying for the first time.

Eclipse loves the nickname 'lovebug'. It's her favorite. It's just so… him to call her that.

Of course being a bug type trainer, Guzma sort of absentmindedly called her that and it stuck.

Eclipse's face went just about as red as her hair before she got one of those dumb grins on her face.

"The hell you smiling like that for?"

"Didn't know you liked nicknames. I like that one. Keep using it."

She pecks him on the cheek and walks away before he can say anything else.

Eclipse calls Guzma 'boss' a lot, be it formally or teasingly.

The first time he called her that was when there was some odd bickering going on. The usual sass from Eclipse.

She finally relents on whatever it is they're scuffling about and replies with "sure thing, boss."

That. That little snark.

Eclipse had that smirk on her face again.

Guzma just about short-circuited.

She was part of team skull now so- so why did- why did her calling him 'boss' like that- was it the way she said it? Her tone?

Whatever, just- she's being a brat, just a snarky bitch. It's fine-

Spoilers - it's not fine and it flusters the boss.

Eclipse gets sick. Like, more than she should. And it doesn't help that it's raining all the damn time in Po Town.

She was born with a horrible immune system due to being a hybrid. Being a brand new species, she's essentially a test run that hasn't worked out all the errors in the code. And she's got a few errors. Her parents kept a very close eye on her as a pup to keep her as healthy as she could be.

To be fair they had no idea she would turn out the way she did.

Being a kid though, she still got into the usual germy things kids get into and she still got sick. Fighting off illnesses as a kid was hard for her. It left her bedridden for at least a week, usually more.

It steadily got better as she grew up and she doesn't get sick as often, but a cold can still knock her on her ass as an adult.

The first time she caught a cold in Po Town, Guzma thought she had a nasty case of the flu - high fever, shivers, a rough cough, she was very weak, the works. Seeing such a cocky, tough woman laid out by a little cold admittedly freaked him out a little.

At first he thought she was trying to get out of Team Skull duties for the day. Nope, this girl was sick.

Eclipse continued to insist it was just a cold, nothing she couldn't handle, but shit if she didn't look as pale as a ghost type. Eventually she had to explain she has a shit immune system and it's just how it is.

Guzma sends the grunts out for medical supplies from the nearest convenience store so she can recover.

Eclipse didn't take the medicine though, as much as she wanted to. She needed something Pokémon-grade, and she wasn't sure if human-grade medicine was safe for her to take. She just had to tough out the worst of it and continue to assure that she was going to be fine. It would just take some time.

Along with Eclipse's shit-fuck immune system, she can't have her own kids. It's something that just kills her a little on the inside.

Not that the shady house would be a great place for kids anyway. There's broken glass and other stuff laying around. It's a miracle the grunts haven't hurt themselves with everything laying around.

Eclipse's start with the grunts was pretty damn rocky at first. She started out as some stray that just wandered onto their turf.

There was some bickering amongst the grunts as to who left the door open to Po Town but let's worry about that later man we have a runt to catch.

Eclipse was called reckless and stupid for wandering onto Team Skull's grounds without a Pokémon of her own. And an umbrella. Maybe a rain coat too. Scarves don't do much to keep you dry.

Poor girl was soaked.

They were surprised to hear she didn't know much about Team Skull, but they were even more surprised that the boss just let her stay. She didn't seem like Team Skull material, at least not until she started getting a bit mouthy and snarky with their beloved boss.

Word traveled pretty fast there was a new body in the ranks of this bunch of misfits. Though, she was pretty tight lipped about where she came from and why she was there. Something about wandering for a while.

Plumeria had to watch the dumb kids to make sure they didn't get too mouthy with her.

After a while though, a fight broke out between them. A few grunts cornered Eclipse and after some bickering and mouthing from both sides, Eclipse is taking on their Pokémon barehanded. This girl is fucking crazy.

Guzma is pissed when he comes out and sees them picking on the newbie like this. He breaks up the fight and snatches Eclipse to drag her away to tend to her wounds.

Of course he gave an absolute earful to the grunts who picked on her and forced them to apologize to the newbie before he took her away.

Eclipse is apologizing the whole way up to wherever they're going, rambling about how this wasn't the grunts fault, she started it, she grew up with this kind of stuff, it's fine, really! The boss is dead quiet and just asks where they hurt her once they reach his room.

He starts giving her a rather soft but stern earful about how she shouldn't go around starting fights with the others. Eclipse replies that she's reckless, something she's said before. It was quiet, a weak attempt at lightening the mood between them. Guzma sighs and continues to clean up that nasty Yungoos bite and Eclipse whines at the antiseptic spray.

Other than the sting, Eclipse can't help but notice just how careful Guzma is while he's treating her wounds. He's super gentle with her and she's a little surprised. Though at the same time she didn't expect him to be rather rough either.

Guzma tells her that she's part of Team Skull now, and she is his responsibility now. Hearing that she was part of a team made her want to cry, in all honesty.

During the time when Eclipse was getting patched up is when she met Golisopod for the first time.

Eclipse is bewildered when she sees the big, lumbering bug Pokémon. He's a big guy, and he gives off this stoic silence. She's never seen a Pokémon like him before.

That is, until he asks why she's staring at him. Eclipse quickly apologies and looks away, and that's his first hint that she can actually understand him. Guzma doesn't notice anything though, he's too busy taking care of that Yungoos bite.

Once she's all patched up, the boss decides to take a nap in his chair and tells the lumbering bug to keep an eye on Eclipse so she doesn't get into any more trouble. Golisopod is tasked with keeping an eye on her.

This is when the bug strikes up conversation with her.

"You can understand me, can't you?"

"Eyuuup."

Guzma is a biter. Eclipse loves it. It's how he marks his territory.

Of course, Eclipse wasn't as eager to show off those bites on her neck and shoulders at first. The grunts didn't know about their little relationship, and Guzma knew they'd be rather thrown off by him romping with the newbie. Though he didn't really care in all honesty.

Eclipse is worried they'd see it as special treatment and all that. Guzma assures her if they give her shit, he'll take care of it.

She wears her scarf when they're around the grunts, but in public, she's more than happy to show them off.

To no one's surprise, Eclipse snarked at him when he was teasing her about it.

"You know how I mark my territory, right?"

"Spray paint?" queue that dumb little smirk of hers. Maybe an exasperated sigh or cocky smirk back from Guzma.

She bites back.

Speaking of spray paint, tagging places is a favorite pastime of Team Skull.

Usually they spray paint around Po Town (inside and outside) but occasionally they like to tag some places around Ula'Ula island.

Sometimes they spray paint inside the buildings in Po Town. Plumeria has to remind them to open the windows so they're not inhaling all those fumes.

Sometimes the team would take outings in small groups to go tag a specific place.

The first time Eclipse used a can of spray paint, she sprayed the little insignia she wears on her bag on the wall. A PokeBall with wings. It's under the main stairs in the shady house.

A few of the grunts have seen it, but they don't really question it.

They're actually pretty chill about not painting over other people's work. They know how to share a canvas.

He's also protective as hell. No one touches his love bug or they're getting decked. Either that or smashed by one of his Pokémon.

Despite knowing how to handle herself, Eclipse doesn't mind her boss tailing her like a bodyguard. She finds it pretty cute.

Mostly he's keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble, but it's nice to spend time with her too.

Of course there's a lot of whispering around the towns about how this rough and tough boss ended up with someone. Was that possible?

She seems so nice compared to the Team Skull boss, too. Always making sure to say 'please' and 'thank you', not trying to pick fights (most of the time), things like that.

Eclipse notices the stares and whispers, but notes that Guzma is ignoring them as if they're not happening.

Was he used to this?

She wasn't used to the odd looks yet, before she met him she was worried about getting weird glances. It takes her some time but eventually she starts to ignore them. People are more bewildered at the pair than they were about her.

Eclipse isn't the best cook, but she tries her best.

All the cooking was done by her friend back home, Sugar. She made all the dinners and lunches for the guild.

Eclipse can still make basic stuff but nothing extravagant or with too many steps.

It doesn't help that she can't read the labels or instructions. Damn human language being the same spoken-wise but not written-wise.

She has to go off pictures and scents for the most part.

She has learned to make pancakes though, she really likes them.

Any time she makes them, there's always a few grunts that want some too. So she starts making extra whenever she makes some for herself.

There's a shop in Malie City that has really good fluffy pancakes. Sometimes Eclipse begs for Guzma to take her for a late morning breakfast.

Vinepede

That stupid little bug refused to let her go after she rescued him from a clutter of Ariados.

Eclipse and Guz were heading back from a date in Malie Garden one night when she catches the sound of someone crying out for help. Guz hadn't heard anything, he doesn't have those sharp ears like she does.

The pause, that stillness she had like a Boltund catching a scent made Guzma stop and give her a weird look.

"Uh... you good?"

She fuckin' bolts off into the trees and completely drops her leftovers from dinner. Woops. Guz chases off after her but it took no time at all for him to lose sight of her.

Eclipse finds a Vinepede with one of his tails stuck in a web and there are some hungry looking Ariados making their way down the web. He's yelling for help and Eclipse is the one to come to his rescue.

After a small scuffle, Eclipse rescues him and Guzma and Golisopod come through the treeline. He's barking at her about running off without him and asking what the hell she was thinking. She explains what was going on and how she didn't want the little guy to be eaten up.

She goes to head back to the boss' side but she feels something grab her leg.

It's the little guy.

Oh hell no.

Guzma asks what the plan is and if she has a Pokeball to take him with since Vinepede clearly wants to come with her.

She starts sputtering that absolutely not, she does not do Pokemon partnership.

All the while Guz pulls a Pokeball off his belt, walks over to her, and plops it into her hand.

Before she can say anything, Vinepede scurries up her leg and proceeds to wiggle himself in the ball in her hand.

... wtf just happened.

Guzma, in the meantime, is thinking about the time he met Golispod. The little Wimpod had taken it upon himself to cower behind the boy's leg after he had been saved from a flock of Spearow looking to beat up the little Isopod Pokemon.

It reminded him of that time. And Eclipse seemed like she needed a partner.

Eclipse is not happy about this at first. She's not aggressive towards the Vinepede, but she is slightly off-put by having a companion again.

She very slowly warms up to it. Takes some time though.

Also Eclipse promised to pay for breakfast the next morning since they both dropped their leftovers after she took off running and Guz ran after her.

Plumeria

If anyone fucks with Team Skull, they're fucking with Plumeria too. They often refer to her as their 'Big Sis'.

Those are her little brothers and sisters. Sure, they can be dumb… but they're family.

She's not one to back down from beating on anyone who messes with these numbskulls.

Sometimes she has to end some scraps or save them from getting roughed up by the locals. She gives the grunts an earful but mostly tells them to be more careful and patches them up.

She supervises sometimes on tagging days. The grunts will go out and spray paint a few places, and sometimes she gets in on it. She has a little bit of an artistic side to her.

Plumes is the one to dye the grunts hair for those who want it if they don't know how. Guzma may have botched one or two before referring the grunts to her. She fixed it in the end, though.

She is also the only one Guzma can confide in for his personal issues and his past, other than Eclipse.

She'll stand with Guzma through thick and thin, and assures wherever he'll go, she'll go too.

The first time Eclipse is trying to be friendly with some of the grunts is when she meets Plumeria for the first time. They had gotten especially noisy and Plumes has to tell them to pipe down or else they'll wake the boss. Of course she's met with enthusiasm before the grunts disperse to do whatever they usually do around the shady house.

She explains the whole concept of the Island Trials and Kahunas and what not to Eclipse.

Kinda weird this girl's been in Alola for a bit but doesn't know what they are…

She explains that Guzma had tried the Island Trials along with professor Kukui. He continued to fail, so he gave up and formed his own team of rejects that failed the island challenges. That's how Team Skull was formed.

She briefly mentions a bit of Guzma's past with his father, but doesn't go into too much detail. Eclipse doesn't like what she hears though.

Eclipse asks about Aether, and Plumeria explains how they're trying to do good by offering Pokémon rehabilitation and care centers alongside their research, but their president… she's got a few screws loose.

Plumes asks where Eclipse comes from, and she gives her the schpiel how she came from Orre, some dusty place a ways off. Not much too it.

The two get along pretty well. Eventually Plumes let it slip that Guzma asked her to learn how to braid hair for Eclipse's sake. Eclipse is thrown off, but she thanks Plumes for the gesture.

Eclipse's own parental relations is a stark contrast compared to Guzma's.

Eclipse loves her parents. If anyone asks, she'd go on about how her parents are wonderful, the best anyone could ever ask for.

She'd remark how she felt like she had a second pair of parents because of their Pokémon - a Lycanroc and a Zoroark. Her mom has a Lycanroc, and her dad has the Zoroark. Of course, this is just an excuse to talk about them without arousing suspicion.

She's been around Pokémon since the day she was born, it's why she feels she has such a deep connection to them and she feels she gets along better with them than people. (Technically not a lie)

Her parents were supportive of her dreams and ambitions while she grew up. They took care of her the best they could and raised her to be a headstrong girl. So did their Pokémon.

Of course those times where she got sick still worried them to Giratina's hell and back.

Eclipse always seems a bit sad though when she's asked about how they're doing now, or why she's with Team Skull and not them if they're so amazing.

She remarks how they deserve better than her with how her reputation back home is now. She's done things she's not proud of, and she wouldn't blame her parents for being embarrassed of having a daughter like her. They probably don't speak about her anymore, if they act like she never existed she would understand.

What she did though, she doesn't get into. Just some 'fucked up shit', stuff she certainly wished she could undo. But she's learned trying to undo things can get you in more trouble than when you started.

Despite what she imagines they're probably thinking about her, she at least hopes they're doing alright. She misses them a lot.

Eclipse is always looking over her shoulder whenever she's outside the walls of Po Town. Her ears are always perked and her nose is constantly trying to sniff out any scents that just seem too clean and sterile.

The Aether Foundation received reports late one night that an Ultra Wormhole had possibly opened again over Ula' Ula Island. This was a few months past the issue of the Ultra Beasts invading Alola, so it was very odd to hear of another opening.

This one notably doesn't look the same as an Ultra Wormhole. This one is a bit more similar to a phenomenon recorded in Sinnoh years ago.

Lusamine tasks Faba with the research, and the two gather as much information as possible.

Faba comes to find that something came out of that hole in the sky that night and it landed somewhere on Ula' Ula island. A research team is dispersed early the next day to try and find it.

The search team isn't able to find much, but they make note of some footprints and what seems to be broken branches from a possible landing sight. A rainstorm had passed though the area before they could reach it, so there was very little chance of finding a DNA sample.

For the next few months, the team can only go off of blurred pictures they manage to capture, but it was only so long before this creature seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. Not a sign of it anywhere. Where did it go?

What data they could collect was that it wasn't much smaller than the average person. Maybe about 5 feet tall. Lots of red fur. And it can use illusions.

It was hurt as well, it seemed the UB arrived in their world with a pretty nasty wound on its side. What caused it though, they could only guess. Blurred photographs depicted… bandages around its midriff?

Perhaps it is more intelligent than they thought.

It didn't take long for this UB to figure out it was being followed. It became much more scarce and hard to track before it vanished.

Though, after some time, a report from Lusamine gives Faba some information. A woman has been spotted with the Team Skull boss of all people, and her hair is strikingly similar to their UB.

Recalling the UB can use illusions, Faba and Lusamine wonder if this is what they're searching for. An Ultra Beast integrating into human society…?

Faba is tasked with obtaining a DNA sample to confirm this woman isn't human, and a rather perfect string of events not long after leaves a blood sample in his hands.

This UB and one of the grunts of Team Skull have an outing just past Ula' Ula meadow. It just so happens to be near a pack of Midday Lycanroc that call the area home.

These wolf Pokémon can sense something new is in their territory, and a scuffle leaves the supposed UB injured. Faba is able to recover a blood sample after the UB and grunt flee the area.

Faba has to test the sample multiple times because the results just don't make sense. They are given the information that yes, this woman isn't human as they thought.

However, it doesn't appear to be an Ultra Beast either.

It's a Pokémon. A hybrid to be exact. Half Lycanroc, half Zoroark. Faba has to confirm no Midnight Lycanroc are in the pack they have been monitoring, and no sightings have been reported of Zoroark in the area. This rules out the possibility of a contaminated sample.

Things start to make a bit more sense after another look at the photographs, at least what can be made out from the blurry images.

Though, this raises many questions.

How did it come to their world? How did such a genetic anomaly come to happen? Just how intelligent is it if it can live among humans? What caused the injury it came here with? What is it like in its home world?

Does Guzma know the woman he's with is a Pokémon hiding as a human?

Eclipse not only has to protect herself, but she has to protect a residual power she carried from home.

This power is something that clings to her, residual energy she absorbed from the Time Gears.

These artifacts regulate the flow of time in her home lands. By taking them in attempts to complete her goals, she unknowingly absorbs some of their energy and is later able to manipulate time for very short periods.

Not only this, but this energy allows her to access a sort of hidden form. A Dusk Form of herself. This is an actual physical form unlike her illusions. This form is faster and more limber.

However, using this power is taxing on her energy. She can only access this power or form for short periods of time.

She knows if the power was somehow taken from her, it could be disastrous if it fell into the wrong hands.

This is another reason she does her best to steer clear of the Aether Foundation.

Eclipse struggles with nightmares from time to time. Guzma is usually woken by her and he does his best to calm her down.

Usually he's woken by the sounds of whimpers or crying, sometimes she's shifting around on the bed enough to wake him. Sometimes she's got a death grip on him.

Holding her usually helps after he carefully wakes her up. Seeing the terror in her eyes after they snap open does worry him, but he tugs her close and whispers that everything is okay.

Eclipse never tells him what she's dreaming about. Any attempt only causes tears to well up and she chokes, despite her efforts to hide it.

There was one time though, one time Guzma couldn't explain. Eclipse was fidgeting during another nightmare and he reached over and tried to shake her awake. Though, he froze as something flashed in front of his eyes when he touched her - a bright pair of red eyes, red-tipped black tendrils gripping… something red. It was blurry and it all happened so quickly.

Guzma blinked and tried to reason that he was still half asleep. He shook Eclipse awake and she shot up, a hand around her throat as the noise that came from her was definitely one of terror.

He soothes her and pulls her close, trying to calm her down from the dream. Soft whispers and rubbing her back as he presses soft kisses to her head and cheeks.

Because of this power and her interactions with the Time Gears, Eclipse has a heightened sense of detecting sort of abnormalities in the area around her.

Ula' Ula island has a meadow, and not too far from the meadow is the Lake of the Moone/Sunne

Eclipse senses some sort of energy radiating from this place, but she can't figure out what or why. Perhaps it's a place of worship?

It gives her a familiar tingle, much like the same kind of energy she felt when approaching a Time Gear.

Guzma's favorite drink is hot Tapu Cocoa. The grunts usually know to leave some for him, but sometimes they get a little greedy and end up leaving barely anything for Guzma. Of course he gives them an earful for this and sends one of them off to go pick up more.

Because of this, Guzma keeps a pack or two of Tapu Cocoa powder (the good shit, a better version of the instant stuff) hidden away in the kitchen for himself that the grunts won't find.

However, a certain human disguised Pokémon still has one hell of a nose and sniffs it out late one night. She has her companion Pokémon at this point, a little Vinepede she rescued from a group of Ariados.

"No I'm not allergic to chocolate, that's an old Pokémon's tale."

Eclipse is perched up on the counter and enjoying the hot drink when Guzma wanders in after waking up and wondering where his lovebug had gone off to so late at night.

He catches a little bit of conversation between Eclipse and her Vinepede, but he's too tired to register that she was talking with a Pokémon of all things. She's weird, it's late, whatever.

It was like 3 in the morning and he had woken up to an empty bed. He was worried she had been woken up by another nightmare or went to sit outside on the front steps again.

Instead, he finds her in the kitchen drinking from his hidden stash of Tapu Cocoa. He's too tired to be miffed about it, instead he just makes himself a cup and leans on the counter beside her to relax with her before they go back to bed.

There's a little bit of small talk mixed in here and there as they sit in the kitchen.

Of course he tells her not to touch it again and they can get her some of her own from town in the morning. Or afternoon. Whenever they wake up.

Something still nags at the back of his sleepy brain about her talking so casually with her Pokémon.

The tattoos Guzma and Plumeria have are fake.

People really think kids/teens/young adults who don't work/have no income think they can afford tattoos?

Yeah they get some money during their alliance with the Aether Foundation, but it's mostly just enough for food and to keep some of the lights on. Something to keep Guzma and his band of misfits working for Lusamine.

Not enough for something pricey like forearm and stomach tattoos.

Nah, they're just make up.

Also explains how Guz and Plumes don't have them post Sun/Moon/how they didn't have them so quickly.

Plus tattoo removals are also costly. Money Team Skull/post disbanded Team Skull doesn't have.

If Eclipse were to get one, she'd have it between her shoulder blades on her back. Something rarely seen and personal to herself.

Eclipse snags Guzma's jacket any chance she can get. It's baggy and comfortable!

It smells like him too. Eclipse is big on scents.

Like really big on scents.

Sometimes the boss catches her with her nose buried in that scarf of her’s.

The jacket is cozy and comfortable and any time Guzma doesn't have it, it's probably on Eclipse.

The first time she snatched it was when he left it on the throne while he bathed. He went to bed without it and Eclipse snatched it before joining him. He woke up in the morning to see her wearing it and he was in reluctant awe.

She did look… a little cute in it. Just a little.

She's an absolute fucking brat about giving it back; offers to give it back for a kiss, asks what he's gunna do about it, dares him to take it from her himself, etc.

They scuffle for it, and that usually ends up with Guz on top of her.

Leering down at her while she's got her fingers around that gold chain, gently tugging him down for a kiss.

“Give it back.”

“Gunna have to get it off me yourself~”

MMMMM Chin Scragglies

Guz sometimes doesn't shave off all his stubble on his face. He leaves a little bin on his chin and it that doesn't leave Eclipse swooning a bit.

She loves it when he hugs her from behind and he nuzzles into the crook of her shoulder and her neck or leaves kisses on her shoulder (or bites on her neck)

The scratching tickles a bit and she just loves it.

He does the little tickle nuzzle thing on purpose to make her laugh.

Eclipse can take Guzma's jacket, but she's a total hypocrite and she doesn't let anyone touch her scarf.

Clearly this scarf means a lot to her, but she never says just why. She's pretty tight lipped about it, not even Guzma knows why for a while.

Once she lost it somewhere in the shady house and nearly had a breakdown over it. Guzma was pretty worried to find Eclipse making an even bigger mess of his bedroom trying to find the damn thing.

She was on the verge of tears at that point and snapped at him and the grunts that she needed that scarf back.

One of the grunts eventually finds it and if Eclipse didn't damn near take their hand with her when she snatched it back.

It's like a security blanket for her, even more than the boss' jacket. It's hers. No one is allowed to touch it, and Guzma doesn't try to wear it because it's not his style anyway.

Eclipse takes in a little kid and her Mimikyu after the two cause a bit of trouble for a couple of the grunts.

When the two return to Po Town after an outing, Guzma overhears a few of the grunts talking about how some bratty kid snatched Tonya's favorite apple snacks while they were walking through town.

The convenience store in Malie City is the only place on the island that has those snacks, and it's a long walk!

Tonya's griping and huffy about the whole thing and Guzma asks what's up. Eclipse can't help but snort a little that a kid ran by and swiped her snacks.

After some explaining, they find out there's some kid that's been stealing food and other things around the city with her Mimikyu. She's probably about 8 or so.

It's been going on for a couple months now but oddly enough the kid just… vanishes before she can be caught.

During an outing to Malie City for some groceries for the shady house, one of Eclipse's bags is snatched by a kid and her Mimikyu. Guzma goes to yell after her, but Eclipse recognizes it instantly.

The kid is a Zorua.

Eclipse warns him to not chew her out and the two go after her. Just like before, the kid and her Pokémon are just gone.

She sniffs them out though, and the pair are found munching on their freshly stolen goods. Seems they've been living off what food they can steal.

The girl's name is Mimi and the Mimikyu's name is Mimsy.

Quotes:

Eclipse:

"I know they say time heals all wounds, but…why do I still feel like I'm bleeding out?"

"Yeah I said I had fought gods. I never said I won. Well- er, I didn't win all the fights, but I won some!"

(To a Stakataka, probably) "Square up, you stack of shit!"

"Sorry, I'm too busy. Got stuff to do." (Guzma, either in the background or beside her) "I'm stuff."

"Reckless, crazy bitch - what's the difference?"

"Not trying to belittle your dumbfuckery, but I've done worse."

"I'd like to make it clear to everyone present that I am severely unmedicated, so if you have a problem take it up with my fucking therapist."

"I'm measuring the difference between jack shit and fuck all!"

Guzma:

"You fuck with any grunt on Team Skull, you fuck with me."

"Yeah, some of them might be idiots, but they're my idiots."

"No, Plumes got custody of (grunt name here) that weekend. How it works around here."

"Legal? Yeah, it's a hundred percent legal! …ish."

"I'm your favorite idiot, huh?"

"I know if I wanted a kiss I just had to ask, but I'm tryin' to be cute. Can't blame ya boy for tryin', can you?"

"Aight Eclipse, I know you got my jacket. Where you hidin'?"

"Hey, I see you eyeballin' my jacket all the time. I know you want it."

"I swear I can't take you anywhere without you gettin' into some sort of trouble! I'm this close to puttin' your ass on a leash! …. No, no, wipe that smirk off your face, you damn demon."

Random BS:

Eclipse would be one to scroll for hours on end on social media. Quotes specific vines and tiktoks when the chance presents itself. She doesn't have a phone though so-

It's the grunts fault, mostly.

The team plays Mario Kart on the dingy old TV in the downstairs living quarters. Eclipse is shit at it at first, but she manages to learn pretty quick and woops everyone's ass at it.

Only other person who can match her is Plumeria.

Butts - Guzma gropes, Eclipse slaps. It's a little back and forth they have going on after a while.

If Eclipse and Guzma were to play Animal Crossing, they would share a single save file. Guzma catches the bugs and Eclipse does literally everything else.

I promise I'll get the normal Guzma headcanons out at some point, I went to pull some headcanons from this list and it was all down hill from there, sorry-

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n7punk · 7 months

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Okay sooo I’m fully aware the answer to this might just be ‘my brain just works that way’ lol buttt: you post as you write, but surely this must have kicked you in the arse at some point. Like have you ever written anything and then later on realised it’s put you in a sticky situation plot wise but can’t change it bc it’s already posted? Or do you like extensively plan before you start to avoid that? And do you keep notes as you write to make sure you remember key details? My brain cannot comprehend how you can write a story without knowing for sure how it’s gonna end without having the flexibility of changing a few things that happen earlier in the story lol your brain is so impressive.

Lol thank you. So the answer for this actually depends on the project. Usually I know like 3/4th of the story's overall structure and what an end goal would look like it by the time I finish the first chapter. I say the first chapter because a lot of changes or ideas can come from actually stepping into a story/world for the first time. That said, sometimes I just have a few scenes (The Scene™️s) and I fill in between them as I go. It's very common for the end to be a little hazy because I need to write the scenes that will effect it first to truly understand what it needs to be.

As far as writing myself into a corner goes: yeah, GUTT lol. Still don't know what to do about that one. But usually it's only in small ways. In CotC I figured out a scene that would have made the 13th fic work better, but said scene needed to be in the 11th fic and I had already posted up through the 12th, so I just had to let that better idea go. I also added the entire visit home/Winter Fest storyline to AMLAIT after I was like 3-4 chapters in (my initial plan for that fic ended up being 20% of what its total was, with a bunch of ideas coming in the middle), so I realized that hey, Catra's birthday should have been Right at the start of the fic, and then had to condense the timeline in one or two places to make it so her birthday had Just Passed, and then I edited in a single line referencing it into the beginning to make the timeline seem more cohesive to future rereads.

I honestly prefer writing this way because it makes you get more creative (and I hate redrafting lmao), but I do typically have some kind of outline (even if it's just in my head) going into the story. If you look at the fic notes for Superzero, I put the entirety of the written outline for that fic in the Original Outline section at the bottom and it... wasn't much lol.

By contrast, Roses & Thorns I outlined extensively because I was really excited about the idea and basically infodumped it all on my friend in Discord lmao. I will say, though, from the four chapters posted so far that outline included: like three sentences describing Catra's arrival, Adora hyperfocusing on her, and Catra being catty (every single scene up until the confrontation was written off-the-cuff when I sat down to do the fic). Then I had the confrontation with Catra and the discussion in the garden heavily outlined, and then... oh yeah nothing until like chapter six lmao. All that I filled in once I started working on the fic, and in fact I wrote a couple chapters and then went back and filled in scenes to give more depth to the story and world. If I had been posting from the start I would have been really screwed when it came to adding those scenes to chapter 2 (I added stuff to 2, 4, and 5 because I had just reached five when I went back), but I kind of knew I needed that extra time with it so I held off on posting.

As far as notes: also really varies! This is my notes for R&T

the main Roses & Thorns document is a copy-pasted version of the outline I wrote for my friend with a few additional notes added in where later ideas came. The Fic Notes doc contains... the fic notes I'll post later, which I write as I go (the sub-documents there are just blank stubs for fic references or extras since this is from a template), and then this fic has a "special" notes file to keep track of all the girls on the show. It's normal for a fic to have some kind of special notes file like that, like in CotC I had one comparing different endings I could do since I had a lot of ideas. For 'the long way down' I had a special note including how I had described Eternia in previous fics so it wouldn't contradict (even though it didn't matter since none of those fics were canon). Often there will also be a separate file for some kind of detailed outline in a specific scene up ahead, but in this one it's all just in the main one. And then the cut scenes document eeeeeeeevverrryyy fic ends up with. If I decide I want to rewrite a scene, I'll save the original version there so I can go back to it if I decide it's better than my rewrite - or sometimes scenes I think might be better off going completely but aren't sure go there temporarily. I always delete those stubs at the end of a fic (or during, like after I post the chapter said scene was from or am certain the new version is better).

In general, another thing that keeps me from "needing" more notes is the fact I reread a Lot. Like right now I'm working on chapter 9, and when I sit down in the morning it's not uncommon for my to skim from the chapter before, or all the way back to the first thing I haven't posted yet (in this case, chapter five). And when I do edit something to post it (say, chapter four two days ago), I usually then read/skim through what's between there and where I need to continue writing (in that case, chapter 8) before setting off again. It helps with the flow.

Now, I'm unusually ahead on this fic because I was a decent ways into it before I started posting (I took a week off), but one thing that helps with writing into a corner is that my usual rule is still to always be a chapter ahead of what I'm posting. So if I just finished drafting chapter 3, then I'm editing and posting chapter 2. This helps me make sure the flow together, and also just lets me give my writing breathing room. Instead of immediately editing and posting three, I can take a step back from it by working on chapter two instead, go draft chapter four, and then return to chapter three for editing only after that's done so I have fresh eyes on it. I don't have a beta and this is the only way I'm able to catch as many typos as I do with my dyslexia.

That was long a kinda rambly, but hopefully that answers your question! Every fic is a little different, but this is my general idea when it comes to each project.

#writing process #ask #anon

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dandelion-wings · 8 months

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Process & Commentary: Betrayal's Daughter

Being very navel-gazey tonight! I've been thinking about trying to break down some elements of my writing process for a while, in response to a Discord discussion about editing a while back, and another Discord discussion tonight brought the idea back up.

The thing is, despite my tendency to keep old drafts, I don't have a lot of documents that show the non-writing part of my process, because I usually delete in-doc notes as I go along, and my edit notes are usually on paper and get lost easily. But I do have two pieces where, for very different reasons, I did preserve some element of those notes! I may or may not come back and do a similar showing/commentary of Cursed Transformation later; for now, it's going to be Betrayal's Daughter.

This is a mix of 'introductory notes' for each whole draft, here on Tumblr, and in-draft commentary done in comments on a Google Docs. Hopefully it isn't too dire to navigate! I have, if I've set it up right, enabled comments by viewers on the Docs, on the premise that people may want to ask questions about things I didn't commentate. So feel free to do so!

The prompt for this fic was an interesting one to pick up, because while the prompter had a premise I loved, and I adored Kujou Sara as the core character, the additional characters they listed for the prompt were not, for the most part, ones I would have chosen for the premise. Which made it more challenging to write, but also more interesting, since I had to figure out how those characters would interact with Sara on this emotional journey, and I got to go places I didn't expect! But the first draft was, uh, rough, because I had no idea how to put any of that together at first.

I knew from the start that I was going to have to break it into sections, and that what I wanted was what I (because I get very strong visuals for scene structure) call a "folding fan" pattern of scenes--a frame story with two outer framing scenes and a central bridge, with scenes that mirrored each other in some way on either side of the bridge. And while that's what I came out with, I had no idea how to structure it when I started, so this first draft has a 'frame' that leans entirely on Sara's character story 5 and doesn't appear in later drafts.

Draft 1 - Google Doc

The reason my initial outline notes, which I usually delete from a document as I turn them into scenes, remain in this draft is also because of that uncertainty; I knew most of these scenes weren't doing what I wanted yet in this draft, and wanted to be able to refer back to my initial ideas in the second draft, so that I kept track of what I was trying to do. Those initial notes are at the top of each scene I had such notes for.

The second round of notes, my edit notes, are there because I usually write those on paper, but was traveling at the time and knew I would lose them if I did; they are at the bottom of each scene I had such notes for.

As a processes-and-procedures note, I physically rewrote this fic between the first and second draft. I have two computers, and I usually have it open on the desktop and retype in a fresh document on the laptop. This is fairly commonly something I do for something I know I'm going to make big changes to between drafts; it helps me to make the big departures if I'm not deleting text in the text editor to do so, for some reason, and also lets me rethink individual lines as I type them.

By the time I got to the second draft, I had a pretty good idea of my overall structure, and so this draft is much closer to the finished product. The primary difference is the first scene, because I was still struggling with framing (some notes on which are at the bottom of the first draft), and I started this draft thinking I was going to do a frame using scenes with her brothers.

(Oh. Oh that's what "boat framing" meant in those ending notes on the first draft. The pattern I had in mind when I started the second draft was "Masahito - Yoimiya - Ayaka - Yae - Kamaji - Masahito - Yae - Ayaka - Yoimiya - Kamaji"! Why this looked like a boat in my head, I cannot tell you. I come up with some weird fucking visualizations for stuff.)

As you'll note, there is no final Kamaji scene, and there's a middle Yoimiya scene that isn't in that pattern. I realized the actual shape I wanted and went back to the "folding fan" frame pattern mid-second-draft. Because, unlike the first draft, I didn't need to tell myself anything by writing the final scene I didn't want to use anymore, I didn't need to write it just to throw it out.

Draft 2 - Google Doc

There aren't any notes in this draft (that I didn't delete as I was writing as usual), and there's less for me to comment on that I didn't cover in the first draft, but it is a transitional stage between the mess of the first draft and the final product, so I'm still linking it for the purpose of side-by-side comparisons! There is technically a third draft, but it's identical to the final fic posted on AO3, down to the typos, and there was no commentary to make there that wouldn't fit into the second draft, anyway.

#going to steal canonical-transformation's tag:#why write when i can talk about writing #(although also my own relevant tag:)#fic nattering #i haven't been able to make myself write for a while now (for rl reasons i don't want to get into) and this scratched some of the itch #it is genuinely interesting to look back on that first draft more than a year later #and think about why i did what i did

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cherrygorilla · 1 year

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Happy Birthday, Danelle! 🎂

Sadly, thanks to my life being consumed by my degree, I didn't manage to get anything substantial finished writing-wise in time for your big day. However, I didn't want to let it go to waste without doing anything, especially after you'd been lovely enough to put that video together for me at Christmas. But since I'm not nearly as talented as you when it comes to doing that sort of thing, I resorted to what I do best: rambling about our characters, and the apparently endless list of ideas I have for them. Well, not quite endless, but 16 pages of a Google Doc is still pretty insane...

So yeah, this is basically just a total brain-dump of any story concepts, headcanons, random song-inspos, and TikTok references I've got stored up that would likely never have seen the light of day otherwise. They're way too much fun to just keep to myself though, so hopefully they can bring you a little joy today! And even if you think they all suck, at least you can enjoy the fact that your characters are living in my head rent-free pretty much 24/7.

And so, without further ado, enjoy your window into the chaotic, fangirl mess that is my brain…

Story concepts:

First, of all we have: ✨story concepts✨ - aka, actual, substantial ideas of mine that have potential, but likely no means of ever getting written thanks to everything else I have on my plate atm. The first two are big ones, which earned themselves their own moodboards, but the rest are just ideas that are too big to just be considered headcanons lol.

Idea 1: Bridgerton AU

Okay, I've definitely mentioned this one before, and this one at least has some potential of maybe getting written one day, but I would LOVE to do a Bridgerton AU focusing on a Miles & Carrie Enemies-to-Lovers style story. It has been like a year since I watched anything Bridgerton related though, so if the technicalities of this are a little sketchy then that's why lol.

The outline I have is basically: Mrs Murphy works as part of Butchy and Mick's staff, with her sons also taking on roles around the house. Butchy's parents had taken pity on Mrs Murphy when she came asking for a live-in work position since she had three young boys to take care of and the eldest was close in age to their own son. So basically, Butchy and Lela grow up treating Miles, Royce and Bentley like their own siblings, despite the fact that technically they work for them. The Season prior would have been when Butchy fell in love with and married Mick, so this would start with them beginning their new life as a couple, still with the Murphys working for them, and with Lela getting ready for her first Season. She'd be super nervous about it though because she's heard rumours that the prestigious Cole family are going to be entering their precious twins into the Season for the first time this year, and she knows that if that's the case then she's got no chance of getting any attention. Her family try their best to reassure her, but when it comes time for each eligible young lady to be presented to the queen, sure enough, the Coles present their daughter, Caroline, and she totally steals the show. This immediately gives everyone a vendetta against Carrie for crushing Lela's confidence, but at a ball later that evening, when Carrie is once again taking all the attention of any potential suitors, she runs into Miles and in a matter of minutes proves that she's just as much of a spoiled brat as he suspected her to be, if not worse, thus souring his opinion of her even further. They end up arguing out in the garden, since Carrie had gone out to get some air and Miles couldn't bear to be surrounded by the stuffiness of the party, they get caught in the rain, and after Carrie denies Miles' help to get her back inside (because even when he hates her guts, he still has to go and be a nice guy lol), she ends up slipping on a wet paving stone and completely ruining her dress. Their argument gets even worse and before long, Carrie's older brother (literally only a character for this story, so irrelevant otherwise that he doesn't even have a name lmao, I just couldn't have Tanner doing this because he needs to be elsewhere) demands that Miles and his family leave before they cause any further trouble as Carrie has to go and clean herself up, which she is especially not happy about since it cuts into her time of pursuing potential suitors. Butchy tries to help and defend Miles, which he does without question, but ultimately decides that it would be best if they left anyway, much to Lela's dismay since she'd finally been getting some attention from Carrie's brother, Tanner.

Miles' opinion of Carrie gets worse and worse with time, which extends to the rest of his family when they catch wind of what happened, but as Lela starts growing closer to Carrie's brother, the more time they have to spend around one another. Carrie is crowned The Diamond and as a consequence starts courting a duke (Seacat, don't ask me why, I just feel like I picture him being her other love interest in this more than Eric lmao), which Miles and his family are subjected to bear witness to after Lela and Tanner also start courting, and they're invited to spend some time at the Coles' huge estate. In Bridgerton S2 fashion, they all partake in a croquet game, where Carrie and Miles' bickering reaches an ugly head. Sick of listening to them, Mick knocks Carrie's ball off into the woods and, in an act of defiance, Carrie insists that she doesn't need Seacat's help to go and retrieve it. Vivien, a close family friend of Mick's, who is also along for the trip, and takes on the 'Lady Whistledown' type role in this story, knocks Miles' ball in the same direction after Carrie has left to annoy/tease him further, and in an unlikely turn of events, the pair end up helping each other retrieve their balls from rather precarious places, leaving them both giggling like children and covered in mud. This reveals a little insecurity on Seacat's part, however Carrie reassures him it was nothing. But when she catches Miles awake and wandering the house that night, and they get to talking again, they start to realise they might have been wrong about each other after all, and scary, new feelings start to be uncovered. They're caught by Mick before anything can happen, but the can of worms has already been nudged open and the damage has already been done, and she keeps an extra close eye on them from then on as her suspicions start to rise.

I've already gone into way too much detail already, so I'll summarise the rest of it quickly, but basically, as much as they try to deny it, Miles and Carrie start catching feelings for one another, and their unlikely run-ins just keep making it worse, especially when things are supposedly getting serious between Carrie and Seacat - at least from an outsider's perspective anyway. One day, when Miles is out tending to the horses in the stables (because that's the closest job I could think of to match his mechanic skills lmao), Carrie once again gets caught in the rain, and runs there for shelter. One thing leads to another, and in true Miles and Carrie fashion, and in true Bridgerton fashion, they get way too carried away with one another and just start going at it right there in the stables. They're not as careful as they thought they were being though, and Vivien being the nosy little genius she is, immediately figures out what is going on and runs to Royce to fill him in. In a panic, and desperate to stop Miles from ruining his life, praying that if he does everything will just go back to the way it was before, Royce comes up with a plan to use Vivien's Lady Whistledown-esque writing powers to put together an expose on Carrie and her adulterous habits (without revealing the identity of her partner in crime though, obvs), thus ruining her reputation. They don't have the foresight to realise that it will bring down Carrie's family with her though, including Tanner, and then, by association, Lela, since by the time they've sent the draft off to be printed, Tanner and Lela have announced their engagement. With a push from the queen, Seacat and Carrie announce their engagement promptly afterwards, leaving Miles horrified and Mick concerned for him, since she had been suspecting Miles had been developing feelings for a while now, which is then confirmed after getting him to open up to her, and him breaking down about how badly he's messed up by taking things as far as he did with Carrie. With Carrie and Seacat's engagement being the talk of the town, the queen throws together a whirlwind wedding in mere days, and before anyone knows it, Carrie is reciting her vows with her eyes locked on Miles, and Seacat is reciting his with his eyes locked on one of Carrie's bridesmaids. In a display not dissimilar to the bracelet incident in S2, the queen finally sees through the cracks in their charade and calls the wedding off, leaving Carrie and Seacat in a state of shock, and Carrie's reputation in the gutter, which is only made worse by the arrival of Royce and Vivien's Lady Whistledown pamphlets. Cue an utter meltdown inspired by this song from the unofficial Bridgerton musical, where Carrie, who had only agreed to the marriage in the first place to help expand her family's connections, and to help cover for her handmaid, who had slept with Seacat and had ended up pregnant, goes completely off the deep end. Will Royce and Vivien be able to enlist the help of Mick and Butchy to fix their mess, and give Miles the happy ending he deserves? …I guess we'll never know. But it sure is fun to think about!

I know I already mentioned one song from the unofficial Bridgerton musical, which I love btw, but the only other one, besides the opening number, that really makes me think of this AU is If I Were A Man - because how cute would it be for Vivien to sing this when she's hanging out with Royce and Bentley, complaining about how stupid the Season and all this 'courting' business is, only for Royce to be watching her the whole time with the biggest heart eyes imaginable??

And it's not a part of the musical or anything, but every time I listen to this Bridgerton-esque arrangement I think of this AU. I mean it just fits so well! Like the fact that it's a cover of Paparazzi when in her og universe Carrie's a famous actress - it's perfect! And it sounds so good! I feel like I can so clearly picture Miles and Carrie dancing together for the first time with this playing in the background and everyone just watching them like: 👀 ...are they supposed to be doing that??? but he's poor?? and she's supposed to be unlovable?? what's going on??

Idea 2: Star Wars AU

I only thought of this one recently but godddddd it's so fun. Like just picture Miles vibing on some random planet in the middle of nowhere, just trying to mind his own business and get by looking after his little brothers and their handful of a best friend, Vivien, aka a wannabe resistance fighter, who is always getting told by Miles to stay away from that stuff because it's dangerous. And then one day, Miles is unwillingly dragged into helping a runaway evade capture - he doesn't know who she is, he just knows that she's very charismatic, and very pretty - and she has a LOT of hair. He ends up repairing and hijacking an old space cruiser, and, with some prompting from his little brother and Vivien (any maybe Riven too; I feel like he would thrive in this universe), all hungry for a little adventure, he ends up agreeing to take Carrie across the galaxy to where she needs to go.

They run into Butchy and Mick along the way, a pair of resistance fighters working on a mission to steal some plans from the First Order, and they decide to join forces, although Butchy is incredibly reluctant to trust Carrie, despite having no problems with anyone else - he just senses there's something off with her. When they stop on a planet to refuel, the First Order has managed to track down Mick and Butchy thanks to bounties they have from a previous mission where they took down a fleet of First Order Star Destroyers, and a huge fight breaks out, that, despite their lack of experience, Miles and his family are swept up in. Surprisingly, they manage to hold their own quite well, but Miles is soon distracted when he sees that the First Order have taken Carrie. Butchy tries to help him, but his efforts land them both in First Order prison cells after they're both knocked unconscious. Butchy tries his best to reassure Miles that Mick will already have a plan in motion to come and rescue them, and tells him to just stay quiet when the stormtroopers inevitably come to question them. It's not a stormtrooper that comes to interrogate them though, instead, a pair of heels clacks along the polished floors in time to the Imperial March, accompanied by a long, black cape with a hood that is dropped when its owner comes face to face with the boys to reveal a devilish smirk belonging to none other than Carrie, who's actually been working for the First Order the whole time. Miles feels understandably betrayed, Butchy feels frustrated that he didn't trust his gut feeling more, and after some pretty intense Force mind games, not dissimilar to this scene, Carrie reveals her boyfriend Eric's master plan to bring down the Resistance once and for all. There's an obvious back and forth, as Miles tries to talk her around to see sense, but when Eric shows up he's quick to shut him down, and the unhealthy nature of his and Carrie's relationship is quickly exposed. Carrie chooses to ignore Miles' pleas, and leaves with Eric, however, as to be expected, before all hope can be lost, Mick and the others show up and come to their rescue.

On their way to escape, Butchy and Miles run into Carrie yet again and a pretty epic lightsaber battle commences. It's mainly Butchy (blue lightsaber) and Carrie (red lightsaber) to begin with, and it's rather intense since they're both, understandably, super pissed at each other, but when Carrie wounds Butchy pretty badly, Miles, despite his lack of experience and doubt in his ability since he's never even heard of The Force before (apart from through the stories Vivien would tell his brothers, which up until now he'd believed were entirely fictitious), let alone used it, has to step in to defend him. Their feelings for one another make the fight a difficult one, but when Eric finds them and starts taunting Carrie, bossing her around and degrading her right to her face, and Miles starts pleading with her and helping her try to see reason, telling her that it doesn't need to be this way and that she can be happy like she was back on the ship with him and his family, and that despite what Eric says, there is light in her because he's seen it, she finally sees Eric for who he really is, and sees through all the lies he's been telling her about the First Order. Her lightsaber, locked in place by Miles desperately trying to block her latest swing, starts flickering from red to purple (I know lightsaber colours don't work like that, but the symbolism of it shifting from totally red to a mix of red and blue [ie good and bad] is too good, so just let me live) as her allegiance to the dark side starts to waver, until finally she's had enough and turns on Eric, killing him with a final, ruthless display of passion. Miles helps Butchy to safety on the rescue ship as Mick leaves Riven and Vivien in charge of piloting it, in favour of helping tend to Butchy's wounds, before he goes back and convinces Carrie to leave the First Order once and for all. Vivien and Riven navigate the ship through one last First Order attack as they make a break for it, and by the time that the group makes their way back to the Resistance base, the fight has found itself six new soldiers: Miles, Royce, Bentley, Vivien, Riven and, of course, Carrie. Kind of a fun concept, right? Well, maybe, but maybe I just want to see Butchy and Carrie going at it with a pair of lightsabers to Duel of the Fates. Is that too much to ask? lmaooo

Idea 3: The Little Mermaid

Okay, these ones are much shorter now, and this one literally only materialised a few months ago when I started getting excited about the new Little Mermaid live action remake. Tbh, there's not really any substance to it other than the fact that I think Carrie would make SUCH a good mermaid. Like she grew up at the beach spending pretty much all her time in the ocean, she has the voice of an angel and her hair would be SO FUN underwater haha. Also, you know if Carrie was a mermaid, Miles' ass would get dragged out to sea in like two seconds flat lmao. And even before I saw you pinning some mermaid stuff to Kona's Pinterest board, I felt like she would have made such a cute little mermaid companion for Carrie - getting all grumpy about her acting weird and ignoring her (a la She's In Love from The Little Mermaid musical) and then teasing her like crazy about crushing on a human once she's figured out what's wrong and has come around to the idea of it. In a similar way, I think Vivien would also make a great mermaid pal for her, if not for anything other than the fact that her purple hair would look incredible underwater hahaha. Plus, I've always thought it would be cute for, in a totally separate AU, Carrie to start taking some of Vivien and Kona's dance classes to earn some extra cash whilst she tries to book an acting job, and when they find out that Miles is crushing on her big time, they start meddling and trying to get them together, and end up getting super close with Carrie in the process. Obviously that wouldn't work for this concept since idk how mermaids would dance, but the theme of Vivien and Kona teaming up to get Miles and Carrie together, and building a really close bond with Carrie in the process remains lol. There's literally no other substance to this idea, I just like the thought of Carrie singing pretty songs and splashing around underwater with a sparkly mermaid tail, because, let's face it, she would absolutely neail Part Of Your World.

Idea 4: Mrs Murphy meeting Carrie for the first time

Again, no real plot idea for this one, I just really like the thought of Mrs Murphy slowly realising that Miles has a crush on someone and trying to do what she can to encourage him to follow his head and go for it - giving advice here, and fixing his hair before he leaves the house there. And then when she finds out that he finally plucked up the courage to ask her out and it all went well, she's obviously overjoyed, and is always trying to convince him to bring her over for dinner, much to Royce and Bentley's dismay. Eventually, Miles agrees, but when Mrs Murphy opens the door to find that the girl her son had brought over was basically the exact opposite of the one she'd envisioned he'd fall for in her head, she's understandably…confused. Will she start to appreciate the lovably egotistical blonde for who she is with time, or will Carrie's reception at the Murphy house meet the same fate as a certain ship of special interest to none other than the girl that had the Murphys wrapped around her little finger from day one? 😉

Idea 5: The One With The Pregnancy Test

Okay, this one just totally rips off the scene in Friends where Rachel finds out she's pregnant, but it does have its own fun spin, so I'll go ahead and include it anyway. Basically, everyone's at the cabin in New Hampshire, and Mick, Vivien, Carrie and Miles are all chilling in the kitchen. Carrie goes to grab some milk from the fridge but can't stand the smell of it and starts feeling really nauseous. Miles takes it from her and gives it a sniff-test, but says that it smells fine to him. He offers it to Vivien and she says the same thing: it smells fine. Carrie's majorly weirded out, but that confusion soon turns to complete and utter terror when Mick says that the last time milk smelled weird to her was when she was pregnant. At first Miles thinks Mick's just joking because she knows how much the thought of having kids freaks them out, and says that there's no way of that being possible anyway because they're always careful and Carrie's on birth control. But Mick says stuff like that's never fool-proof and starts telling them about how Lela had to go and get a new prescription of her birth control pill because her batch had been recalled due to the dosage being too low. Carrie, knowing that she takes the same brand, instantly starts to panic because she hadn't heard anything about the recall and immediately goes to check her batch number. Miles tries to calm her down and tell her to not jump to conclusions, but when she's gone, starts freaking out in his own right to Mick and Vivien about how this all just has to be a big coincidence because there's no way he can be a dad. They talk him around a little, and say there's no point in worrying about something that might not even be happening, and eventually send him off to go and talk to Butchy and his brothers to help distract him. Mick and Vivien then go and track down Carrie, who is hyperventilating into her purse as she checks her birth control batch number for the hundredth time, praying that the next time she looks at it it'll be different. Mick tries, and fails, to get her to relax and tries asking her if she's had any other symptoms: but the missed period (which she'd previously chalked up to the stress of a busy work schedule), persistent nausea (which she had thought was just because of Bentley's poor cooking skills), and sore boobs (yeah, she had no explanation for that one) were not making things look good.

Mick finds some old pregnancy tests in her bathroom and convinces Carrie to take one so that she can get a concrete answer before she starts having a total meltdown over a hypothetical, but only if her and Vivien wait around to check on the result with her since she's in no fit mental state to find out that kind of news alone, and she's too nervous to get Miles involved yet, knowing that he'd be just as stressed about the result as her, if not more. As they wait, Carrie starts opening up to Mick and Vivien about why she doesn't want kids, why she doesn't think that she'd be a good mom, and how selfish she feels ince most of it revolves around her own vanity. She confirms what the girls had already been suspecting about Miles' view on it all: how his relationship with his dad basically ruined his desire to take on that role in his own life and saddled him with a fear of one day turning into him if he ever did somehow have kids of his own. But she also expresses a fear that she'd be letting him down by continuing to focus on her career if his views on parenthood ever changed, and worries that he'd forfeit that opportunity for her sake when she knows that, if he was to be put in that position, he'd be an amazing dad - which naturally leads on to her venting about how terrible she thinks she would be as a mom because she cares too much about the way she looks and has such a crazy work life and doesn't have a maternal bone in her body, at least in her mind anyway. Mick and Vivien do their best to reassure her and talk her around to the idea, but before they can get a definite read on her feelings towards the situation, the timer for the test goes off. Carrie makes Vivien read out the results to her; she can't bear to look herself, and Viv says that it's negative. Carrie breathes a huge sigh of relief, and says that she feels silly for working herself up over nothing, but it doesn't take long for the enormity of everything to hit her. She'd basically already started mentally preparing herself for how different her life would be because of this baby, and had started considering all the good that could come with it (yes, it was in a bid to counteract the bad, but it was still good in its own right), and part of her, although she didn't want to admit it, was starting to not only come around to the idea, but kind of getting excited about it. And even if the test was negative, she still had the problem of what the hell was going on with her body to deal with. So she asks Vivien to check again to be totally sure, which is when she reveals that it was positive all along, and that she knew Carrie would be happy about it deep down, she just wanted to get her to come to that realisation on her own first - which, thankfully, worked wonders! And after the initial shock wears off, all three girls are thrilled by the news…until they realise they now have to go and tell Miles…

Idea 6: Carrie booking a dream role

Okay, Carrie's acting roles could have their own mega-post entirely, because I have a LOT of plans for storylines she's involved in on Find Your Voice, as well as other projects like Broken Shadows and Chasing Down Chelsea, and a whole slew of other things. One of the big and pretty important Find Your Voice ones is her character's Season 2 romance with Tyrone though, which comes off the back of her Season 1 breakup with Scott (Eric's character). The reason why it's so important is because, in a similar way to how Glee was pretty monumental in the portrayal of gay relationships in TV shows aimed at teens back in the early 2010s, I wanted Find Your Voice to be one of the first mainstream TV shows to properly explore interracial relationships. And like how Kurt and Blaine and Santana and Brittany were a huge deal for Glee, Candace and Tyrone telling the story of a white girl and a black guy falling in love like any of the other couples on the show was a huge deal in the 60s. Carrie's managers were reluctant to let her accept the storyline because of what it might do to her public image, and several of her co-stars had turned it down for fear of being blacklisted from the industry, but Carrie stuck by her beliefs and her and Donny (the guy who plays Tyrone) put their all into their performances, and as a result, they won over the majority. Sure, there were naysayers and protests about them 'corrupting the youth', but most people fell in love with the couple's love story as hard as the characters fell for each other, and cemented their position as series favourites. They made TV history with their on-screen romance, paved the way for generations to come, and won a bunch of TV awards for their performances as they went - but most of all, they became super good friends in the process. That all being said, this idea doesn't involve any of that lmao. It's just important context for her career-wise, and it needed a home somewhere, so I dumped it here haha.

Now, you may remember a brief Metalex and Ultraviolet comic being mentioned in Drive My Car Part 6 (don't worry if you don't, I just hyperfixate on these things lol), and if you do, you may also recall Miles saying that he thought Ultraviolet was one of the most badass superheroes of all time. Well, this idea basically revolves around Miles having a long history with reading these Metalex comics growing up - loving the stories and becoming obsessed with the characters. So when he hears that the studio Carrie works for have bought the rights to turn the franchise into a series of movies, naturally he starts freaking out and begging her for any information she can get, which is only made worse when she finds out that her agent also manages the guy who they've cast as the lead. What she doesn't tell Miles though is that, knowing how much he adores this franchise, she decided to audition for the part of Ultraviolet. By some miracle, after a pretty rigorous audition process, she books the role, and confides in the first person she finds in the house after she's given the news (idk why I picture it being Royce, it could be anyone lol), who is equally as excited about Miles' imminent reaction, knowing that he'll lose his mind when he finds out. She ends up surprising him for his birthday by saying that she managed to talk her agent into giving her one of the promotional posters before the cast list is officially announced, and wrapping it up for him to open. And as I'm sure you can imagine, unrolling that poster to find that his childhood crush is being played on the big screen by his girlfriend, is a pretty huge deal for him. Profanities may have been shouted, tears may have been shed, shits may have been lost. All in all, a pretty successful birthday surprise if you ask me.

Idea 7: Vivien and Carrie's ✨Girl Day✨

I don't know why small-town America fascinates me so much, but I would just love to read about Vivien showing Carrie around her hometown and doing the most mundane everyday stuff you could imagine with her. Like that little snippet of them at the mall in one of your Christmas stories? Drinking boba? I need more of that. I love itttttt. Like them going through a drive-thru and then having a picnic in Vivien's car as she fills Carrie in on all the gossip from her school to get her take on it? How cute and iconic is that? I'm obsessed.

Idea 8: Pampering Session

This was going to be one of my Christmas one-shots but, as is the theme with me lately, I ran out of time. Buuut, basically it was just going to be a little culmination of a few random little self-care based headcanons I had. Like a major one is Carrie having a super extensive skin-care routine that The Murphys tease her to no end about, but she doesn't care because she loves all her random little lotions and potions and tying her hair back and setting to work on her face every morning and night - it's like her definition of 'me time' lmao. And part of that headcanon is Miles lovingly teasing her about it, but also low-key getting pulled in once she starts introducing him to his own products that he can use too. And whilst at first it's super basic stuff like: look here's some ✨moisturiser✨, it goes on your ✨face✨ to stop it looking like the sAhaRa DeSerT 🤩 and Miles looking at her like: 🤨 ...you sure about that? It progresses to him taking more of an interest - it's only slight, but he at least has a little corner of the bathroom dedicated to his handful of nice products he uses to take care of himself. And, it's mostly to humour Carrie, but there have been a few instances where she's convinced him to do facials with her - it's largely influenced by her teasing him about getting wrinkles, and he always drags his feet at first, but as soon as she starts slathering it on and it feels all nice and cooling he tooooootally relaxes and enjoys it haha. And I loved the little mention of Carrie helping Vivien dye her hair purple in Through The Valley, so I was going to have her barge in on them mid-facial chill-out-time at the cabin, likely watching some trashy reality tv show together (because I feel like they would get so invested in that kind of thing, especially if it's a really shitty one where they could make fun of it together lmao), and ask her for help re-dyeing her hair because Royce is proving to be ✨incompetent✨. Of course Royce and Vivi would tease Miles to death about the facial - but because he was in his ✨relaxation mode✨ he'd be too chilled out to care and would just laugh along with them. And knowing Carrie, as soon as she started working on Vivien's hair and fixing the mess Royce made of it she'd start grilling him about how he thought he was capable of doing this when he can't even take care of his own hair properly. After a lot of protestation, they finally convince Royce to give Carrie's hair care routine a go, with Carrie shouting instructions to him through the bathroom door as he washes his hair lol. And, much to Royce's initial disgruntlement, by the time his hair's dry it looks healthier than it ever has. He grows to appreciate the advice in the long-run though because of how much more defined and silky it makes his curls look once he starts looking after them properly, and because of how crazy his hair now drives Vivien as a consequence lol. Cute, right? If only I'd had more time over Christmas lmaoooo.

Idea 9: Ghost Mrs Murphy

This one probably sounds more ominous than it actually is, but I keep seeing TikToks about people on the verge of death being comforted by loved ones, and then afterwards realising that they weren't actually there because they died x number of years ago. And whilst I don't think there would be any sort of complications surrounding Maisy's birth (because Carrie and Miles are already stressed out enough at the thought of a baby alone, I don't want to put them through anything else lmao), I did have an idea where Carrie starts haemorrhaging and is super out of it, but all she can focus on is this really nice 'nurse' who keeps talking to her and keeping her calm. She reassures her that she's okay and that she's doing great and that her daughter is beautiful, and just basically stops her freaking out until she drifts off to sleep (i.e. passes out lol). When Carrie eventually comes around though, this 'nurse' can't be found, and none of the other nurses or doctors she speaks to seem to know who she's talking about. Miles obviously can't know for sure, because he didn't see what she did, but when he listens to Carrie's description of her, he can't help but have a sneaking suspicion (or at least a fleeting hope) that it might have been his mom :')

Headcanons:

AKA, all the other random little ideas that I have that aren't enough to warrent a full story of their own, but I still wanted to share...

Okay, I feel like this is such a random little thing for me to have latched onto, but I love the fact that Mick loves blistering hot showers. And whilst I feel as though sometimes Mick and Carrie struggle to see eye to eye (at least in TMM they do anyway haha), one thing they can both bond over is their love of lava showers. If they don't leave the bathroom looking like freshly cooked lobsters then what's the point?

Whilst I feel that generally Carrie gets along better with Bentley, her and Royce have a really similar wicked sense of humour, and if they catch each other in the right mood then they can set each other off laughing for hours. But one thing that both Royce and Bentley can agree on is that Carrie is INCREDIBLY fun to tease, and they do so ruthlessly, at every opportunity possible. Thankfully, she has a good sense of humour though and, even if she doesn't think so in the moment, she'll always be able to see the funny side eventually.

Royce and Bentley LOVE all the different accents and impressions Carrie can do, they're always so entertained when she whips a new one out of her back pocket, especially if it's unprompted.

When Carrie's pregnant, especially the first time around, she gets really bad morning sickness, like to the point where almost everything makes her at least gag, and Royce (in true sibling-esque-bullying fashion) finds this HILARIOUS, and pushes it to its very limit. Again, thankfully Carrie can also see the funny side of it and entertains the game for a while, but when they discover that the sight colour green alone is enough to make her nauseous it's game over for Royce; he's laughing so hard he needs his inhaler.

The concept of Carrie giving Bentley singing lessons is literally the cutest thing ever to me holy shit. Like little Bentley doing a cover of The Climb like the version in HSMTMTS? Brb I'm crying.

Once Royce and Carrie's relationship starts to become not terrible, he develops a weird sort of familial protectiveness over her, especially when it comes to stuff people say about her. I only say it's 'weird' because it's not like how he's protective over Vivien or Miles or Bentley, or anyone else in his family, it's like its own entity. And sometimes he doesn't even know why he cares, because both Carrie and Miles got used to ignoring it pretty quickly, but he just can't stand it. Sometimes it's just because the kids in his class are being racist pieces of shit talking about her on-screen relationships, but it's mostly gross, vulgar stuff the guys say about her body or her more 'adult' scenes in certain shows and the stuff they come out with literally makes him sick to his stomach. Maybe it could manifest as Carrie catching him defending her, or maybe he just vents to her about it one day after school, idk. But the weird protectiveness of her that neither of them really understands is such a funny, but well-intentioned little notion to me lmao.

On a different note, Miles was PETRIFIED at the very thought of meeting Carrie's parents for the first time, and obsessed about it for weeks, but they both absolutely adored him pretty much as soon as he walked through the door, and just immediately jumped to treating him as if he was already part of the family

And if anything the bond only grows stronger with time - like when Maisy is born, and Carrie's parents visit the hospital for the first time, Carrie's dad goes over to check on Miles and give him a hug before he even thinks about looking at his granddaughter lmao

And although Royce and Bentley feel super awkward about it at first, Carrie's mom is such a motherly person that she can't help but want to take them under her wing when she first meets them. They're pretty reluctant to open up to her for a while, more so than Miles was anyway, which is totally understandable, but over time, as they get more familiar with her (and she bakes them more and more birthday cakes) they start seeing her as another mother figure (after Aunt Mack though, of course lol)

Miles and Carrie's mom become low-key besties though, like she's always asking Carrie where he is if he's not with her, she's forever baking little treats for Carrie to pass on to him, and she loves filling him on all the drama she has to deal with at her catering gigs because the way he humours her by getting so invested literally makes her day

Carrie does not handle pain well at all. She trapped her finger in her car door once and from the way she reacted Miles thought that her entire hand had been ripped off lmao. But I guess that's to be expected when she's such a drama queen.

On a similar note, she hates any sort of creepy crawlies, especially spiders - and don't even get me started on her reaction to finding out that Riven has a pet lizard. She thinks he's certifiably insane.

And to round off Carrie's dramaticness - she is SUCH a cryer. Like she's such an emotional wreck that she can be laughing her head off one minute and then bawling her eyes out the next. Movies are normally the worst culprit since she's almost guaranteed to cry at something over the course of the 90 mins, which Bentley is incredibly entertained by, but as she spends more and more time in the modern world, TikToks of old people are really proving to be her new downfall.

I love the thought of Miles and Carrie both loving to cook, and both loving to cook for each other, but really struggling to cook together because they both keep wanting to take charge. Usually they can work out a compromise, but sometimes, especially with Carrie's temper as volatile as it is, stubborn bickering can escalate into chaos.

I've definitely mentioned this before but I can SO see Royce owning a cat. He's just a boy who needs a kitty to snuggle with whilst he reads, it's a necessity.

And I think you maybe mentioned this in your Christmas stories, or maybe it was your Hocus Pocus AU, it was definitely one of the two, but I LOVE the idea of Miles driving an old Jeep/truck. Like it's one that's kind of a heap of junk when he buys it, but he loves it to death anyway because he saved up all his own money to get it, and spends hours upon hours fixing it up and making it look like new again hehe.

Idk but I feel like Royce would really be into taking photos. Like he's not quite as artistic as Bentley or Miles, and he can't draw or paint very well, so he turns to taking photographs instead. That, and I feel like he's really sentimental, so I the thought of capturing memories like that would really appeal to him.

I know in your character info posts you mention Vivien getting her appendix out, but idk why I can just so vividly picture Miles getting appendicitis. Like at first he just tries to power through and insists he's fine because he's a 'man', but he taps out after like an hour and can barely move. And then maybe because Viv's been through it before she's like "this is an awful lot like when my appendix went 'boom'" lol, and suddenly everyone's like: hospital. NOW. Idk why I love the thought of that; it's so random. And the thought of Carrie and all the others taking it in turns looking after him afterwards? Ugh. Adorable.

Omg and speaking of your character info posts: I love the thought of, a couple of years down the line, once he's not feeling as financially responsible for Royce and Bentley, Miles being convinced by the others to go back to school to pursue one of the careers he always thought he'd go into. Because Miles as a teacher is such a perfect fit! And Carrie is like soooo not about school for herself, but she'd be super proud of Miles if he went back. Like at his college graduation ceremony she'd be cheering SO loud haha.

Musicals:

Okay, this section is literally just for all the roles I'd love to see our characters play/roles I just think they'd nail, which I feel like is fun because we both love musicals, so why not indulge that a little bit here?

Eponine - whilst I could totally see Carrie nailing On My Own, I really think that Vivien would be a brilliant Eponine if her school were to ever put on Les Mis, especially if Carrie was there to help her. Also, the thought of Vivien and Royce singing A Little Fall of Rain together, especially when I'm still riding the high of all that angst you put them through in Scattered Screams? SO GOOD. And if Vivien is Eponine, Carrie would make a great Fantine, don't you think? Omg and if Viv is Eponine, and Royce is Marius, then wouldn't Riven be perfect for Enjolras? Aaaah, and you could have someone like Erica or Jade playing Cosette and having a running joke with Royce about having to play each other's love interest when they'd both sooner go off with Eponine lmao. Is Scattered Screams influencing this too much? Maybe, but idc it just shows how good it was haha.

Belle - in a similar sort of vein, I feel like Vivien would be a perfect Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Like smart and brave and kind? That is so her! I feel like Carrie's character in Find Your Voice (Candace) would also be a really good Belle because she's a little braniac bookworm, and I've toyed around before with the idea of them putting it on through the show (HSMTMTS-style), but as is the theme with this post, idk where what would ever fit in a story lol. Still, I think this role would be perfect for Vivi if she was ever going to be a leading lady again after Acting School Dropout haha. And I'm sure Carrie would be more than happy to offer up her coaching expertise again haha.

Elle Woods - this will probably be a short one, because I don't feel like I really even need to explain myself but I feel like if Carrie was ever destined to play any role on stage, it would be Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. Ditzy and girly, but determined enough to put her mind to something and succeed with flying colours? That's Carrie all over! And Miles would literally never do it, but how perfect would he be as her Emmett? And with Eric as Warner? Oh my god I could die.

Regina George - purely for the iconic vocals and how good she would be at playing a bitchy villain like this, Carrie would kill it as Regina George.

Elphaba & Glinda - Mick & Carrie are such a good match for these two, and whilst I feel like Carrie would make a great Elphaba vocal-wise, the only person that I feel could be the Glinda opposite her Elphie would be Juliet

Evan & Zoe - this one only really came to me as I was putting this post together but how good would Royce and Vivien be for these roles?

Heather Chandler, Heather Duke, and Heather McNamara - played by Carrie, Molly and Juliet respectively, especially in the context of TMM; they give me major Heathers vibes there, but that's never happening in that AU lmao

And just to tag this on the end here, the thought of Kona, Vivien & Carrie singing each of the three Fionas through the ages in I Know It's Today makes me so happy

Fancy dress costumes:

Again, I have no idea how I'd fit any of these fancy dress ideas into stories, especially the first two since they're for my TMM AU and there is no excuse for the characters to dress up in that plot, but these ideas are too good not to share…

Concept 1: The Mystery Gang from Scooby Doo

Just picture this: it's Halloween at All Skate and these guys are working their shift dressed like this: Ethan is Shaggy, Mick is Velma, Miles is Fred, Carrie is Daphne and Midge is Scooby (yes, Midge, not Barney, it'll make sense later on, I promise). How perfect is that?! I literally could have screamed when I first thought of this and how much potential is wasted by a lack of a Halloween plot. But hopefully the mental image is entertaining enough on its own haha.

Concept 2: The Wizard of Oz

Again, picture it's Halloween at All Skate and the group are attempting yet another group costume with: Mick as Dorothy, Ethan as the scarecrow, Miles as the tin man, Carrie as the cowardly lion and Midge in a little basket as Toto.

Was this mostly fuelled by me realising that Mick would pull off a Dorothy costume ridiculously well? Maybe. But how well does it work for all the others too? Like Ethan might as well have straw for brains anyway, Miles is so stressed about his brothers he always struggles to loosen up and have any fun, and Carrie's huge mane of curls was practically destined for this costume. It's PERFECT.

Concept 3: Miles and Carrie

And then I just have a few couples costume ideas for Miles and Carrie, because I feel like with Carrie being an actress and practically dressing up on the daily anyway, she'd take Halloween very seriously. First of all, and quite possibly my favourite, how good would they be as Kermit and Miss Piggy??? I CAN'T BREATHE, even their dynamic is perfect for it! And it's such a fun, silly concept, I love it. Perhaps a prettier and a little more normal option would be Rapunzel and Flynn Rider because Miles' floppy brown hair and Carrie's insane blonde hair are just screaming for it lmao. But also, because they're both always down for fun above all else, they're not afraid to rock up in outfits as iconic as this too.

Concept 4: Carrie and Eric

Okay, I'll admit that this was heavily influenced by the new Barbie movie trailer that was released, but how iconic would Carrie and Eric be as Barbie and Ken? They'd be perfect! And I know based on what I've already written about Eric, he hasn't been painted in the best light, but his relationship with Carrie up until their break-up was actually pretty good - and with where the story is atm in TMM, it's actuually pretty healthy as well (I just don't know if I've done a good enough job at showing that yet lmao). They really did genuinely care a lot about each other, and had a bunch of fun together since they're naturally both pretty goofy characters (as you would expect from two actors who specialise in comedic roles). It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances really with the whole cheating scandal and Eric being a dumb, reckless twenty year-old. He never meant to hurt Carrie in the way he did, the fame just got to his head from all his newfound attention and, because he thought he was invincible, he stopped thinking about the consequences to his actions. That mentality soon came back to bite him though haha. Anyway, tangent over! I think I'm probably the only person that cares about that anyway lol. But back to my main point: they would have 100% killed a Barbie and Ken costume - Eric is perfect himbo material for Ken and Carrie would have such a fun ditzy, but super determined, take on Barbie. Whether it was for a couples costume, or as actual roles in a movie back in their universe, they're nailing it in my mind lmao.

Songs:

Here's just a bunch of songs that I have saved on my story inspo playlist that either make me think of our characters, or have entire little scenarios planned around them, that otherwise would sit in my head forever…

Doomsday - Okay, this one freaked me out when I first heard it because of how perfectly this fits, but literally every time I listen to it it makes me think of Vivien in your Through The Valley story, but specifically in that period at the end where she's waiting for Mick and Royce and the others to come back from Canada and slowly losing her hope of them ever returning. Like I always picture Vivien just trying to go about her daily life, listening to this to get her through, and her and Carrie belting out the bridge as they drive across these big, barren, open roads to get out their frustration about being left behind. And the fact that she literally says 'you did it on Halloween' when they left at the end of October??? It. Fits. So. Well.

No Time To Die - I don't know why this gives me such Scattered Screams vibes, but it just does. Like the intrigue but the promise of danger idk, I love it. I've got an idea for where I could use Skyfall, but that involves Carrie and her Chasing Down Chelsea show, which is so niche I won't even bother explaining it, but just the thought of her slinking around a party full of dangerous, wealthy people in a silky dress with a hit on someone to fulfil before she's hunted down by an intelligence agent she knows for a fact is also a guest there - ugh, it's so cool. I just love the concept of someone being dressed up so glamorously but being so badass at the same time haha

Taylor Swift: There are SO many Taylor Swift songs that I feel would work so well for Carrie (like Bejeweled, Karma and Anti-Hero all fit her vibe perfectly), but also Miles and Carrie's relationship too…

Style is one, particularly the chorus, that just makes me think of them both instantly. Like you can't tell me that chorus doesn't fit them both to a T. Plus it feeds into my headcanon that Miles' sense of style and confidence in the way he dresses sky-rocketed after he started dating Carrie, so I love it hehe.

Red is one that will be VERY important in a story I have yet to mention in this post, because I'm still holding out hope that I'll get to write it one day. But this song features heavily and proves to be a pretty pivotal moment in their relationship. And again, every time I listen to it, those two are immediately who I think of. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and All Out Of Love also play big roles in that story, but like I said, I'm still hoping that I'll get around to writing it one day, so I don't want to give too much away too early. But that might at least give you a bit of a vibe of the theme lol.

Paper Rings is one that I first listened to after you said that you had a prompt in mind for it and holy shit, idk if the prompt was about Miles and Carrie, but they are ALL I can think of when I listen to it now. It fits Carrie's adoration of him, and her willingness to give up her flashy/dressy lifestyle in the blink of an eye if he needed her to brilliantly. God, it's so cute, I love it.

Burning Love - There's no real story behind this one, I just love the thought of Vivien visiting the Wet Side Story world and stepping out of the machine for the first time, and immediately being hit by the scent of the beach, the sound of the waves, and this song floating along on the breeze from nowhere, simply because it's one big musical lmao. Like a little montage of her discovering their world and seeing everyone going about their daily business (spotting the surfers waxing their boards, seeing Butchy working on his bike, watching Kona playing volleyball with her friends, waving to Carrie and Miles as they catch some rays, running into Royce and Bentley riding their bicycles down the boardwalk), all set to this song, would be so cute.

Keep Driving - I've definitely already mentioned my idea to do a series of Carrie and Miles one-shots based on the lyrics of this song, but I thought I'd throw it in here anyway, because I love it so much and wanted it to have a good home haha.

Mine & Landslide - I'll keep it simple with these two, because I can't elaborate just yet. But picture this: an AU of Carrie singing these to/with someone, where 📢spoiler alert📢 it's not Miles lmao. For extra context, there's a reason why they're the Glee versions of the songs lol.

Freak - I have no idea how I'd work this into any story, but every time I listen to this song I think of Carrie in some sort of Hunger Games/dystopian-esque AU where she has this picture-perfect image, and she's all sweet and nice one minute, and then as soon as she loses her temper/shit hits the fan she flips a switch and her nasty side comes out. Maybe she's provoked, maybe she doesn't know she's doing it (like some sort of Peeta situation in Mockingjay, where the Capitol are controlling him), idk, I just have not nearly utilised her insane temper enough, and the prospect is so tempting.

Uninvited - I thought I'd throw this in here because it was almost included in Drive My Car part 6, right after Carrie's let Seacat down but before Miles plucks up the courage to go over to talk to her. And it was basically just going to be Miles imagining her singing this to him to sort of test his feelings for her, but I cut it to stop myself from dragging the damn thing out to be even longer than it already was. I love the song, it just didn't need to be in there, you know? But I thought it'd still be fun to include here so that the idea isn't completely lost to time haha.

Maybe This Time & Cabaret - I've got no real concept for these songs either, other than them being used in a story that's set, again, in some sort of dystopian-esque AU where Carrie has this perfect image to upkeep, but as the life she always knew starts crumbling around her, that perfect facade starts to crack as she starts to go off the deep end…

Green Green Dress - Another very rough concept for this one, but just picture Miles and Carrie (a little tipsy) singing this together before they go out for the night. It can be before a date, before some premiere for Carrie's job, or even a party, it doesn't matter to me. I just love the thought of them goofing around all love-drunk and actual-drunk, singing this to each other.

What Do You Know About Love? - Okay, I actually have somewhat of an idea for this one, as weird as it may be. It's an AU where Miles meets Carrie stranded by the side of the road after a huge snowstorm where her car skidded into a snowbank and is now stuck there. She's not even remotely dressed for the weather because the beach is all she's ever known, and she's trying to get to a tv studio to continue the promo tour for some new show she's on, where she stars opposite some guy she's basically been shoe-horned into a fake relationship with. She naively believes it, but she barely knows anything about the guy, and he never wants to spend any time with her unless there are cameras around. Miles tries to get through to her, despite thinking she's a total spoilt airhead, and after digging out her car to no avail, failing to fix it, and then trekking through the snow for hours, when Mrs Murphy, Royce and Bentley finally come to the rescue, and Mrs Murphy offers to take Carrie where she needs to go, Miles all too quickly finds out that he's become awfully attached to the ditzy diva…And isn't quite ready to say goodbye.

You Oughta Know - I don't quite know how I'd set this up in any story, but I just love the concept of Carrie trying her best to keep her cool around Eric and Molly once they start officially dating, but then ultimately losing her temper with him and just belting this in his face. Maybe like backstage at an awards show or something for some extra drama? I've got no clue. Like I said before, I just like the thought of angry Carrie and I have not utilised her enough thus far lmao.

Supermassive Black Hole - You probably thought that I'd forgotten all about your Ordinary Human AU, but every time I hear this song I think about how cool a superhero montage would be set to this. And since one of Carrie's powers in that story was manipulating sound, I just love the thought of her grabbing random songs and using them as backing music in her practice battles at the training centre, especially because it pisses Butchy off since he thinks she's not taking it seriously. But like how cool would this be? She could bounce the audio back and forth between her opponent's ears, make the lights start strobing through the chorus, and then if she's teaming up with Miles he could start manipulating time and shit to speed things up or slow things down to fit with the music, or start conjuring stuff to make their opponents think they're seeing things. Random, I know. But it's what I think of every time I hear the song lmao, and I thought you might appreciate knowing that.

Lay All Your Love on Me - I just would love to see Miles and Carrie recreate this in the early days of their relationship, like when people at the beach start realising that there's something going on between them. At first they don't let on that something's up, no matter how much everyon tries to get it out of them, but by the end they can't keep their hands off each other (as usual lmao). So fun!

Ain't No Doubt About It - This is cheesy as hell, but how cute would it be for Miles and Carrie to flaunt their movie musical universe roots when visiting Mick's world and just burst into a rendition of this when asked by Vivien if they're aware of/worried about Royce and Bentley's determination to break them up?

At Last - There is very little else to this idea other than I love the thought of Carrie and Miles singing this at Mick and Butchy's wedding, especially if Miles had flat-out refused to sing anything when they had initially asked him, only for him to turn around and surprise them with this.

I Want It All - Basically I just really want Carrie to sing this with someone, but in the current AU I'm working most of this from, I think the only person I could see it making sense with would be Juliet. I could see it happening, and I could totally make it work, I just don't know where I'd ever put it lmao. But it's too over-the-top and cheesy for Carrie not to perform, like come onnnnn.

TikToks:

And finally, here's basically all the tiktoks I've saved as potential story ideas that will never meet their full potential, or ones that just remind me of our characters. I thought this might be a fun way to round the post out hehe...

Okay, idk if you've ever seen this guy on TikTok but literally every time he pops up he reminds me of Miles, and I don't even fully know why. I feel like ever since I first noticed it I've been subconsciously been making my take on his character more and more interested in playing the guitar, to the point now where it's becoming one of his defining characteristics. Like I just imagine him jamming out like this to random songs all the time. And on top of that - I feel like he kind of looks like Miles too - at least how I imagine him anyway with the blue eyes and floppy light brown hair. I know you already have a bunch of faceclaims for Miles, but I think he has the right vibes to slot somewhere onto the list lmao. Either way, just know that every time this guy pops up on my fyp, Miles is the first person I think of, without fail haha. Similarly, this is Royce once he starts getting good at the guitar. And I know Ethan is my OC, and he's only appeared in the few parts of TMM I've posted so far, so you might not really care about this - but he is OBSESSED with music, especially the electric guitar, and this kid is EXACTLY how I imagine Ethan would have played this at his age - he still would now tbh lmao, he's just that invested in the music. Moving on from guitars, lol, just imagine a modern All-Skate-esque AU with Carrie and Ethan goofing off at work and surprising Vivien with this after they find out she's obsessed with the Titanic. Again, super random, but this is what's bouncing around in my head all day lmao.

Concept behind this one: in true Sam Evans from Glee style, when faced with the prospect of being lonely while Carrie is away on long shoots across country/abroad, Miles decides to adopt a puppy to keep him company, and in this case, that puppy just so happens to be the canine version of the very girlfriend he's worried about missing - OR, as an alternative to this, Miles just gets the canine version of himself.

This is very Butchy/Miles-core with them both being mechanics lmao

This is so Bentley with his niece and nephews when Miles and Carrie start having kids (at least in my universe of them anyway lol). He always has the best intentions when babysitting them, but every time they start misbehaving he just panics and stares at them like: 👁️👄👁️ what. are. you. doing???

Staying in that same AU, this is 100% Miles with Maisie. And it's already cute and very on-brand with the video being Dirty Dancing, but just imagine how much cuter it could be if she was making him reenact something like this with her but it was Carrie on the TV instead. OUCH!

idk where my headcanon for Kona being insanely good at martial arts came from (at least in my TMM AU anyway), but I'm pretty sure this tiktok is partially to blame. Like she can be all cute and innocent and make you a friendship bracelet one minute, and then the next she can flip you over her shoulder like you're made of paper. I love to think that she gets Miles to help her practice too because I'm still not over how cute their bond was in Glory & Gore - but also, I can't stop thinking about Ethan hearing about it one day and totally underestimating her, leading to him making a bet with Miles that he doesn't think Kona would be able to get him on the ground - cue Kona taking literally one look at him and knocking him flat on his ass in about three seconds, leaving Miles laughing his ass off.

Again, staying in the TMM AU, Ethan 100% showed Bentley this when he was a little kid and got the exact same reaction

Carrie and Ethan's interactions with each other because they have such a hilariously chaotic dynamic - and by the end of TMM 1, sort of Mick and Ethan's interactions too (kind of a spoiler, kind of not, but we move - anyway, it's your birthday, you deserve it lmao)

Continuing with the TMM theme, as a way of summarising Miles and Ethan's friendship, coming up with shit like this is EXACTLY what they do when they're bored at work

In some AU somewhere, Vivien would SO do this for Miles with Carrie lmao

Since I never really explore Tanner and Carrie's relationship, here's a little window into it where, in true twin sibling fashion, they have been forced by their mom to be nice to one another for one

Okay, I've seen a bunch of compilations of these guys on TikTok and maybe it's just the fact that they're three brothers but every time I see them goofing off like this I always think that this is how unhinged Miles, Royce and Bentley would get if they were left alone together for too long lmao. Like they love each other to death but oh my god they can get on each other's nerves and be stupid like any other siblings.

Again, another multi-example one because my fyp is FULL of these guys, but the dynamic they have gives me such Miles and Ethan vibes - Miles is Joe, Ethan is Frank, and whilst most of the time Miles is just in despair at how Ethan has made it this far in life being the way he is, there are way too many instances where they both just revel in being absolute idiots together.

Suuuuper random headcanon but ever since Vivien showed her an ASMR video like this on her phone, Carrie became OBSESSED with them. I like to think it's because she's so in tune with her hearing because of all her music stuff she does, but she is just so fascinated by it that she could watch them for hours. And she gets so excited and tries to show them to Miles when they're just laying in bed together or chilling out on the sofa and he's always just like: 🤨 ...and???? But she LOVES the little brain tingles it gives her, and Vivien finds it hilarious. Maybe Royce is the only one that can kind of understand where she's coming from because he's got his sensitive hearing, but it has to be the right kind of video or he has to rip his headphones out. Like if it's someone whispering into the microphone and they have that whistle thing going on? Absolutely not, he's yeeting that phone across the room.

Miles with Carrie's Velvet Sunrise friends. That will make sense after Acting School Dropout part 3, I promise lol.

Okay, this works SO well if you stick with the idea from WAY back where Mick and Butchy name their son after Miles. BUT, even though they don't name any of their kids after family members besides Miles' mom, I could totally just see this being Bentley meeting Miles and Carrie's first kid.

Concept here: Miles cheering Carrie up whilst she's on her period having super bad cramps and when she's finally been doped up on enough pain meds to not be curled into a lifeless heap on the couch, they start goofing around like this as she tries to explain to him what she's having to go through because Miles is CLUELESS. Or, this is just one of their many random lunchtime activities back when they car-shared before dating, and would find any excuse whatsoever to go hangout together. Like Carrie gets wind that Miles doesn't know what a tampon does and just drops all her plans for the day to go show him lmao.

Very Carrie-coded.

Miles and Carrie's relationship in a nutshell.

More will come from Carrie's downtown apartment in Acting School Dropout but as a little insight, she would totally have a cool, fancy ice drawer like this (which leaves Royce and Bentley bAfFLeD) - and the decor is very this & this because she needs an escape from all the testosterone in the Murphys' house, and just because she has a really fun, colourful sense of style anyway haha.

Okay, I'll leave it here with this one, because I'm itching so badly to get back to working on TMM, but just imagine this transition with Royce, Vivien, Bentley and Kona on one side and Miles, Carrie, Mick and Ethan on the other. UGHHHHH. I LOVE IT.

So yeah, I know it might not be the most interesting of posts, but hopefully it was still a nice little surprise to help you celebrate and make you smile today!

Also, I'm so sorry about this being late, I stayed up editing it until like 2:30am, and I was 14/16 pages deep when my laptop decided to spontaneously shut down. 🤦 And to save me rushing through it again and being all grumpy and half-assing it, I thought I'd get some sleep and try again in the morning. And it worked because I had so much more fun coming back to this with fresh eyes lol.

But yes, that's finally it! I might come back and add stuff to this as and when I get any new ideas, but for now I'd love to hear what you think of what I've got so far if anything peaks your interest haha. And like I said before, because you always bring me so much joy with your stories, I hope I was able to do the same for you today with this ridiculous jumble of the inner-workings of my imagination haha. Happy belated birthday! 🎉

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acertainmoshke · 9 months

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Happy STS! What are your go-to/preferred writing tools? Favorite pen types, notebooks, keyboards, etc, but it doesn't have to be limited to just those things. Writing programs, favorite reference books, thesauruses, dictionaries, TTS software, whiteboards, corkboards, flash cards, encyclopedias, anything goes!

Nooooooooooo Nopal you don't know what you've done! How could you know I have an actual special interest in this??

So I am obsessed with notebooks but also REALLY picky about them. My handwriting is teeny so I don't like big lines, and I think it looks neater and prettier with smaller lines anyway. The covers can have a cool pattern or be plain if it's a nice color and high-quality enough. I do occasionally make exceptions; my current journal is fairly cheap with large lines, but it's a rare older Batman one in my favorite color with bat-tech designs on all the pages and a light-up bat signal on the color, so it was worth it. My newly discovered favorite notebook aspect is ones that are designed so the pages lay flat and it's easier to write. Oh, and I LOATHE spiral notebooks. The big school-style ones are ok for random notes or anything unimportant, but the smaller little ones that are normal book size are absolutely worthless. The spirals always come undone before I'm done with them.

I'm also picky about writing utensils. I keep a journal strictly in pen so it can't fade and I can't get embarrassed and erase it. I write stories strictly in pencil because I WILL need to erase and try out lines. But, although I'm using one currently for my big-lined Batman journal, in general I can't stand large ballpoints. By which I mean 0.7, which is pretty standard. 0.5 is ok, but I much prefer the rarer smaller pens. I used to have a Japanese friend who I would get to send me 0.35 pens because they are normal there but expensive over here. In pencils anything under 0.5 is impractical, but I like the fancy mechanical pencils with a nice grip and a dent that lets you dig out the eraser even after it's erased down. My current one is teal.

None of that answered your question but it was necessary anyway. And this is getting too long so the actual answer is going under a cut.

We'll see how long I can keep it going, but I like to write my stories on paper. Of course, it's not worth starting a nice new notebook if I'm unlikely to finish it and it's impractical if I don't have a clear idea of the basic story, because jumping around out of order is impossible. I like it though because it forces me to slow down and think about each scene; I can't rush the way I do when typing. It also gives me a built-in edit when I copy it up, so by the time I'm editing a full draft it's already technically a second draft. And it's convenient because I can take it to work and write on my breaks, or if I'm waiting in line at the post office, or anywhere I happen to find myself.

I do still write on the computer, of course, for fanfiction or just-for-fun things I'll never finish or stories I'm still figuring out. When I do truly long-form things I like to use work because I hate the way Google docs looks (controversial, I know). But for short things, or worldbuilding, or fanfic, I like to use Notion. I like that I can nest pages within each other endlessly. It makes my autistic organizing brain buzz.

I recently discovered that I enjoy using actual notecards pinned to a corkboard for initial plot planning. I can't always do this, and I make outlines too for more detail, but being able to physically move stuff around in real space helps my brain focus on what is actually important to include.

Thank you sooooo much for giving me a chance to ramble about this!!

#moshke writes #writeblr #storyteller saturday

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asimplearchivist · 4 days

Note

What’s your preferred way to write? On a PC, laptop, phone, in a hardcover notebook? Something else entirely?

Also, how do you organize worldbuilding, references, outlines, and other stuff for your projects?

Don’t mind me, just taking notes… 📝 👀

Hi, Sofie!😊Thank you for popping into my inbox!

I almost exclusively write on laptop/PC/iPad/even my phone when I get the chance. (When I was a waitress I was in my Dragon Age kick and would write on my tickets front and back so I wouldn’t “be on my phone” the whole time. I have the majority of the future scenes of The Smallest of Deeds transposed from those tickets, and I still have them in an envelope tucked away.) Otherwise I’m a tech/cloud enthusiast haha. I have enough blank notebooks that I want so very badly to get into the habit of actually using them, though…one day!🙏🏻

As far as my notes…they’re usually chaos lol. Most of the time they end up just being billeted lists at the start of my documents. Plot points and twists, character details, etc, all lined up so I can check them easily. I add them as I think of new things, like snippets of dialogue or scene ideas and the like.

I am currently in the process of transferring all of my Docs to a platform called Dabble, which is also cloud compatible, since Google decided to allow AI to delve into that space. I need to save a bunch of my old college/uni assignments into my Word Documents, but my PC is still out of commission for the time being so that process has been on hold for a while, unfortunately.

(I digress.) Dabble has character cast, plot grid, and worldbuilding notes features that help me to organize a lot more effectively, which is why I like using it so much. You can pull up your “notecards” within whatever chapter or scene you’re writing in at the time, and it’s enough of a blank slate that I don’t get overwhelmed with feeling like I have to fill everything out. (I swear I’m sponsored lol, but it really is nice if you can afford to pay its subscription fee. It just feels a lot more secure than Docs, runs more efficiently without lagging, and has features that allow for importation and exportation. It structures the document itself like a manuscript for easier transferral, and it has cloud syncing and allows for others to comment and access for beta reading and the like. I’d highly recommend checking it out!)

In the Morning Light (or, currently, That Poison, Reconciliation) is the first fic that I’ve really invested in organizing since I’ve had a bunch of different documents over the span of ten years keeping track of all my ideas. I’m exclusively writing it in Dabble rn.

Speaking of which…I’m a week late for an update, huh🥲I have some free time tonight, so I’ll try to work on the next chapter!

#fisara’s answers #writing #fanfiction #my asks #ao3: the smallest of deeds #ao3: in the morning light

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fountainpenguin · 8 months

Note

Can you share some of what your planning process for long fics is like? What kind of outlines do you do or what prep do you do to get in the zone?

Thanks for the ask! [Tagging #ridspoilers for minor plot outline, birthday, and alien planet calendar spoilers for Origin of the Pixies, Frayed Knots, and Factor It In]

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I write on Google Docs; it might not be for everyone but it's what I've found to work well for me after a lifetime of writing (Ex: When I was a kid, I used WordPerfect and Dropbox and it would take hours to sync my documents before a long road trip... I travel between two locations a lot, so these days I just pop open the Google Docs app on my phone or use the Edit Offline extension on my laptop and it's always up to date, which works great for me!)

I also like Google Docs because I can link between documents and have lots of open tabs [along the top of the browser] in "one tab" [along the bottom bar], which isn't something I was able to do as a kid or with Microsoft Word, and it just helps me feel clean.

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Masterlist Doc [1 per fandom]

I keep all my Fairly OddParents 'fics in a doc titled FOP 'Fic Masterlist. I have my most important resources at the top and they're all broken down with clear labels and doc links.

This way, even if I haven't accessed a doc in a while [meaning it doesn't come up when I type its name in the URL search bar], I always know where I can find it. Also, thanks to my edit offline extension, all I need is this one link and I know I'll be able to open any doc I need.

I have a lot of 'fics, so this doc is several pages. If you've ever read my FFN or AO3 bios and saw that note about how I keep a queued Tumblr post containing links to my unfinished 'fics in case I unexpectedly die, that queued post links to this doc!

You'll also notice that I have distinct scrap docs for Origin, Knots, and the 130 Prompts. I change or cut a lot of stuff and it's nice to keep the old WIPs in case I ever want to look back on them (each of those docs is 25k words just of scraps). Sometimes those scenes get recycled, but usually they just sit there. It's a lot easier to cut things from a story when you have a place to put them and you're not deleting them forever.

[Cnt'd under the cut]

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Table of Contents Doc [1 per long 'fic]

All my long 'fics have a table of contents doc, which I highly recommend for anyone doing a large multi-chapter project. I always slap the cover image, a height chart, or a character reference on top to make it pretty, then the doc will contain some notes I might need. For example, Origin's doc has two height charts:

and this-

Makes it easy to know where to find things. Also, you don't have to draw your own height charts, but I recommend keeping a list of heights on hand. Even if you don't tell the reader someone's exact measurements, it's always nice to get a feel for how characters compare to others and whether they should be looking up or down.

Come What May's doc has this screenshot comparison on it, which I put together by measuring different characters who appear next to each other as carefully as I could, and it works too:

Obviously Kevin and Molly never appear in the same episode, but since they're about to become step-siblings in Come What May, it was important to me that I knew how tall they were, so I measured Molly against Timmy and then Timmy against Kevin. Same for Mrs. Crocker, who I measured against Timmy to get a feel for how tall Kevin is compared to his grandma.

I know it's a fanfic so it doesn't really matter, but you have to do self-indulgent things sometimes :)

Frayed Knots also has Sunnie's character reference [i.e. Anti-Cosmo's patron nature spirit, the water dude], which I just want to show off because this is still really good art for something I drew in 2017:

Other things I keep in my table of contents docs are lists of episodes where certain characters appear, random notes that I need to keep track of (like any canonized character addresses or allergies), and chapter title ideas. I also keep track of the starlight levels [i.e. which season it's bright outside vs. dark], school year reminders, and Anti-Fairy migration season.

I keep my Vatajasa name chart in Knots too:

Factor It In's table doc contains a list of villains who appear in the 'fic (Red for ones who don't appear, green for those who do). It also links to the Wiki page for the Evil Villains Association so I can remember which villains are and aren't in it. It also has my timeline details:

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Timeline Notes

Factor It In is set in 1998, and my table doc has all the notes I used to narrow down to that date (ex: I originally planned to set it in 1987 because I felt that the late 80s fit the technology level we see in the show before I re-watched the episode "There's No V In Team," which specifically refers to the year 1987 as having happened in the past).

One of the reasons I liked using 1987 originally was because Factor It In is a story about Kid Math training under WordGirl, and it takes place shortly after the Kid Math episode, which aired in 2014. Factor It In opens in early January, so I like the Easter egg that the 2015 calendar would be the same even if we took its airdate literally. 1998 was the only year in the 90s that also matched the calendar, so that's what I ended up with.

I like keeping my timeline notes around so if I take a hiatus, I can always come back and remind myself why I picked stuff. Also it's way easier to expand your worldbuilding if you kept your notes... it's awful if you threw your math away and have to start over (I once redid an entire timeline because someone said I'd messed up the dates on my chart, and I believed them and redid it all, only to realize several months later when I ran into a timeline problem that my math had actually been right all along :') Don't be like me. Record your work and leave notes explaining why.)

[I always use THIS calendar website when I'm planning timelines. It tracks moon phases, which was important when @zachbrightside and I were working on the FOP timeline and heavily relying on moon phases as a guide, and you can easily type any year and month into the URL bar so it's super easy to navigate.]

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Birthday Notes

I also kept all my notes on determining birthdays (very important for long 'fics with lots of characters that take place over several months! One of my FOP resource docs is specifically for birthdays and annual events, ranging from parades to anniversaries to carnivals).

My headcanon for Becky Botsford's birthday is July 28th. We know she starts the series at age 9 and has a birthday in Season 1 episode 4, meaning she's 10 for much of the series. There are at least two episodes where she cites her ages as "10 and a half," and we saw that in her next birthday episode ("A World Without WordGirl"), her cake had 11 candles on it.

Show canon implies that time IS passing and that the show doesn't exist in a timeless void (see also, Timmy Turner wishing to freeze time for 50 years), so it was important to me that I nail down her birthday. I knew I wanted it to take place after Rhyme and Reason if possible since there are no more birthday episodes, though I would also be fine with having "Rhyme and Reason" shortly after her birthday [to ensure she stays 10 and 11 for the majority of show canon].

Here are some of my notes on her birthday for anyone interested (Hopefully they're not too squished):

^ Like I said, I switched 1987 to 1998, but yeah. Rex's birthday comes out to June 13th, 1989 and Becky's is July 28th, 1986.

Clickable links for Rex and Becky on the age calculator if you're curious... Important for me since one of Rex's math powers is to always know how old someone is to the day.

Fun Fact - I deliberately gave Rex June 13th as a birthday so he would share a birthday with Foop, who is also a Season 7 Episode 1 debut kid over in Fairly OddParents :)

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Having birthdays planned is also nice for when I want to write multiple 'fics in the same world, even if they're not the same 'fic. In my story "Flypaper," which takes place in early June, Rex is eagerly awaiting his 17th birthday and Becky muses on how she'll be turning 20 at the end of the summer... Just a nice detail not only to set the scene, but also to help the story feel grounded and realistic since one of the themes of "Flypaper" was that Becky felt time was slipping away from her.

It's also important to note that Rex and Becky are always among the youngest in their school years since they have summer birthdays. Tobey is 12 for most of the time Becky is 11... Little details that don't take a long time to plan for, but can really help a story feel like the author put effort into the world.

Again, I highly recommend leaving clear notes to yourself about why you're doing certain timeline things. I much prefer having the breakdown of the episodes I looked at over simply leaving a note to myself that Becky's birthday is July 28th!

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Character Arc Notes

Before planning the events of the story, it helps to get an idea for what themes and character traits you want to focus on. Frayed Knots is about love and betrayal- it's about Anti-Cosmo pushing for what he wants even though it hurts his loved ones (appropriate theme for a villain backstory 'fic).

I want to show some notes I have for Factor It In because I think they're interesting. Factor It In is my first attempt at doing a story that deliberately focuses around two protagonists and their separate but equally important character arcs, and I'm excited :)

Everything that's in my doc is the "tell" part of "show don't tell." The story tries to show what I have in my notes:

Rex arc - Lack of Stability / Lack of Control - Failing, getting tricked, being unwanted, not good enough, not understanding things. Being in foster care is scary. Unfamiliar planet is scary Show Kid Math always being super inquisitive. He always wants to learn. He knows the most, he is the best, he gets upset when he's fooled or when he fails. He was 2nd best in school. He feels lost when he doesn't know what's happening in his future. Gets upset when WordGirl doubts his decisions. In the opening scene of Factor, he's mind controlled by Mr. Big. Literally has no control Kid Math clings to his superhero certification / Hexagonian education. He was raised by his aunts and has basically no relationship with his parents (though he tries to hide the fact that this hurts him). He feels like a burden; he feels like his mom considered him "too much work" and that his father considers him "not worth bothering to visit." Rex constantly struggles under this fear that he's a burden. He wants to prove himself a good superhero so that his education (and life) aren't "a waste." Conflict: Kid Math has already spent his entire life feeling like he's no one's first choice; that he's only "second best" (because he was second to top of his class in school). He understands that he and WordGirl are sharing the city, but it's important to him that he's considered an equal. He wants people to like him. It hurts when WordGirl comes on too strong and makes it obvious she lacks faith in him, because he feels like a burden: his worst nightmare. Throughout the story, Rex internalizes his successes and failures. He cannot separate his superhero identity from his civilian identity. He always sees himself as "Rex, who trained to become a superhero." He calls himself Rex and has no distinction in his mind. His secrets slip, he uses his powers when he's Rex, and he expects people to attribute KM's failures to Rex (Ex: school kids laugh at how he falls for tricks as Kid Math and it upsets him as Rex). Rex values control, and will do all he can to avoid losing control. His deadly sin is Wrath, but he has a lot of emotional control and will try to remove himself from the situation. As long as he has his safe space and his comfort things, he's okay. We get several scenes of him wanting to break stuff when he's upset but he holds back... with the underlying tension of wondering how long he'll last before he snaps (pitting his nightmare of losing control against Becky's nightmare of losing his friendship).

I want to highlight the part about how Rex cannot separate his two identities. This is something I showed even back in "AlgoRhythm" - Rex always calls himself "Rex" inside his head, even when he's dressed as Kid Math. However, when I write from Becky's POV, the third-person writing swaps between calling her "Becky" or "WordGirl" depending on how she's dressed.

I also have notes about how Rex's character arc relates to the story's finale, but that's spoilers. Since Rex's character arc is about how he hates not having control, then the worst thing that could happen to him is not having a say in things: hence why the plot about bouncing between foster families is such a hard thing for him to go through. Eventually, he'll also be put in a position where he needs to think about who he is as Rex vs. who he is as Kid Math, and we'll see that in the story climax.

Becky has a fun arc too:

Becky arc - Loss / Change - People being hurt, losing her friends, hurting or losing her family. Fear of change. Show WordGirl being upset when relationships fracture, even with people who aren't super close to her. She struggles with the idea of Kid Math befriending her villains or losing her position as a hero and getting replaced by Kid Math. Put simply, WordGirl is a control freak who refuses to admit this to herself. WordGirl struggles to relinquish control to Kid Math (which is where they come in conflict since he ALSO feels stressed when he doesn't have control). WordGirl is a bit of a helicopter mentor; she hovers around Rex, interferes with his work, and just generally gets in his way (which is pretty funny imo since Rex never got in her way during "Kid Math"- he's capable, he just causes problems with social interaction and not with the actual fighting... WordGirl gets the social interaction part but definitely gets in the way). Conflict: WordGirl doesn't enjoy having Rex around, but she can't tell him that because it might hurt his feelings and that would cause her "loss and change" pain. She would feel guilty and sad. Rex being Exposition Guy's foster kid is a big source of conflict between them, as Rex believes he should "get dibs" on info EG shares. WordGirl stresses when Rex doesn't do things "her way" and Rex gets frustrated that she doesn't trust him. Tensions keep rising because WordGirl starts seeing "the bad" in Rex; she keeps seeing Miss Power traits in him and she worries that Miss Power might have been his teacher back on Hexagon. Her nosiness strains Rex's trust in her and he starts pulling away emotionally... sending her into a spiral about change and loss (especially as more and more villains and civilians grow familiar with Kid Math and start to think he's cool). Lots of resentment towards Kid Math for "replacing her" even though she NEVER admits that to herself; she still has trace amounts of jealousy towards him in later stories like "Flypaper..." WordGirl doesn't mean to be jealous or greedy, but it's always been one of her flaws (i.e. someone else getting a key to the city, or when she snapped during Miss Power special about Chuck getting a collectible unicorn, wanting to show off a bit during "Invisible Hand"). She's a very nice person but Envy is absolutely her deadly sin.

So yeah! Fun times ahead; I'm excited.

We've already started seeing cracks form between her and Chuck... In Chapter 4, Chuck confronts her, asking if WordGirl is retiring and if he'll still get to see her. Chuck has his own little character arc in the background, which is that he broke his foot a few days before the story starts- he has to sit on the sidelines watching the other villains get "WordGirl time" while he has to watch Kid Math go through hero training.

A lot of other characters have small arcs too, though Chuck's and Victor Best's are probably the most notable-- Chuck and Victor are both characters who struggle with being "the second best" compared to a more successful sibling, so they resonate heavily with Rex's character arc.

WordGirl's arc is about control, so Mr. Big and Tobey (mind control and robots) are pretty obvious choices for her, along with Dr. Two-Brains... but actually, Granny May and Eileen are two villains I really wanted to look at in Factor It In. Granny May's life hinges around being a "people person" (to the point that she had an episode about how she could be way more successful with a different schtick; she just likes talking to people too much to trade that for success).

Granny May is super calculating and manipulative and she also struggles with little losses of control in her daily life (getting on in years, mobility issues, and the episode "Granny's Book Club" where the Evil Villains Association tried to force her to retire). I like Granny May because she looks like this sweet old lady but she also, like. can fly and has a robot suit, which is SO funny.

With her cold, calculating patience and her manipulative ways, Granny May represents the worst of Rex AND Becky at the same time, which is great. I'm excited to get to her chapters. Eileen is also a fun villain to juxtapose Becky because she's the embodiment of envy, which Becky struggles with, so I'm looking forward to that too.

A lot of characters are also working on school projects, so they always have "something to do" or "something that is causing them stress." Mapping out the background character arcs and conflicts can help the story feel more alive, and I think that's a useful part of outlining :)

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Once you know your character arcs ["What is my character's biggest fear, what is something my character will do wrong, what event forces them to face their fear, and how do they resolve this situation in a way that shows them growing as a person?"] then the story sort of writes itself :)

Make sure you have a goal or a problem and make sure there's a reason they can't achieve the goal or solve their problem in the first chapter. Here are some examples from 3 of my long 'fics:

Origin of the Pixies - Fergus (i.e. H.P.) fears being responsible for others... His father wants him to study psychology and take over the family therapy business (Wish Fixers) even though carrying the weight of others' emotional problems sounds like the worst fate imaginable... so Fergus cuts ties with Dad, drops out of the Fairy Academy and runs away from home. Now he only looks out for himself, can start his own business if he wants to, and he can drink and party all the time. What could be better than that?

Fergus's nightmare of being responsible becomes unavoidable when he (a pixie) starts reproducing asexually... during a time when no one really knows what pixies are and Fairy World has a baby ban in place. Fergus pursues a life of business and money-making, fighting to provide for Sanderson and the rest of his clone offspring (some of whom are predisposed by their genetics to kill him when they come of age, which is fun). Things get even worse when Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World go to war... Being responsible for kids during a time of peace was hard enough, but war? Forget it.

After successfully navigating the chaos of war, Fergus is ready to settle back into a peaceful life, but tumultuous politics keep him on his toes. His best friend - the leader of Anti-Fairy World - gets overthrown by hotshot Anti-Cosmo, and Fergus is forced to re-evaluate his friendships, priorities, political alignments, and personal needs if he wants to maintain political piece between the Pixies and Anti-Fairies.

While raising his pixie clones, Fergus has always kept them at arm's length and called them "interns" or "employees" or even "nephews" to avoid calling them his sons. The older he gets, the less he's able to do the things he liked to do in his younger years - goof off, wrestle, attend parties - and the more he needs to think about putting his pixies first. As death looms nearer and nearer, Fergus grows increasingly desperate to ensure his pixies will still thrive without him... and he'll do anything, regardless of who it hurts or how badly he endangers the magical world, to ensure they do.

Frayed Knots - Anti-Cosmo fears being unloved; his father isn't in the picture, his older brother is aloof, and his mother isn't kind to him. He's desperate to not grow old without a soulmate by his side. When he fails to match with a partner during a betrothal ceremony, he lies his way through it and tricks his peers into believing Anti-Saffron is his fated match.

As the centuries pass, it becomes more difficult to maintain the lie and Anti-Cosmo begins questioning whether maintaining his relationship with Anti-Saffron is even worth it. Breaking things off in a society that believes in luck and fate, however, is incredibly risky and could get him labeled as an outcast for the rest of his life.

Anti-Cosmo struggles to balance his dying feelings for Anti-Saffron with his growing feelings for Anti-Wanda, and things get trickier and trickier as his friends realize he's been lying all his life and start pushing him away. Finally, Anti-Cosmo has to choose between his comfy lies and his betrothed or else throw away everything so he can chase after Anti-Wanda... who might abandon him too, just like his friends did, and leave him alone and unloved.

Anti-Cosmo maintains his lies as long as he can, hurting his loved ones in the process, and struggles to pick up the pieces left behind. Even if no one else forgives him, he can't keep living in the past; he has to learn to forgive himself if he hopes to be approachable and trustworthy again. Being an evil villain, though, I guess whether or not he grows as a person is up for some debate...

Factor It In (Rex) - Rex values his personal achievements; he finds joy in superhero work and regularly brags about himself, his schooling, and his home planet Hexagon in general (right down to the fact that his planet has "the tastiest raisins in the universe.") Unfortunately, he's stuck in a cycle of giving his all but never feeling satisfied with his achievements because he's "never the best." One of his greatest fears is being confronted with evidence that he really is a burden and a failure, which would absolutely crush his spirit.

Rex doesn't love the way that Becky pushes him around; she's not mean, she just tries to guide him towards foster care even though he doesn't want to go. He doesn't speak up about it because he wants to put his faith in her and believe that he can learn from her and become a better person (since "being a good person" is the one thing he values above personal pride). He still feels inexperienced and overwhelmed in the early chapters, so he's hesitant to speak up and explain why he doesn't like what Becky's doing... up until she starts crossing his boundaries and then he has to draw the line.

Rex's desire for independence leads him to trust very easily. He puts his faith in Victor, Tobey, Chuck, and Granny May, who steer him down a wobbly path of moral grays. Becky keeps pushing him further away, so Rex continues bonding with the villains because he feels safe with them. Obviously this doesn't end well and he has to face the consequences of choosing the villains over his friendship with WordGirl.

In his determination to mend things with WordGirl, Rex accidentally lands both of them in a terrible situation and puts them (and therefore the rest of the city) in danger. In order to fix this, he has to push through his personal pride (Ow), accept his mistake (Double ow), and go against his training (which became useless while Bad Situation is in effect) so he can find a new way to save the day.

Factor It In (Becky) - Becky values her identity as a superhero and how much work she puts into protecting the city. She fears that Kid Math will be a worse hero than her (endangering people) but also fears Kid Math will be a better hero than her (blow to her self-confidence).

She can't resolve this problem in Chapter 1 because she's scared of hurting his feelings and would rather try other options to avoid direct confrontation; instead, she deals with her concerns by trying to "fix" Kid Math. She trains him and pushes him towards foster care. As long as she feels like she's helping him, she's assuaging both fears: she's proving she's "better" and she's helping him not be worse. Ergo, she "no longer has a problem."

Becky's already on a path that puts her in conflict with Rex, who desires control over his own life and has to deal with her pushing him around until he can't take it any more. Conflict arises when Becky oversteps boundaries and breaks Rex's trust in her. Things get worse when she makes a mistake that sours the city's attitude towards her. Her worst nightmare is coming true: she's "not as good as Kid Math" and people might get hurt without her.

As things keep getting worse for the city and Rex is struggling, it's obvious that she and Kid Math need to team up again. That means repairing their friendship... which she can only do if she proves that she really does trust Rex to do things by himself. Therein lies the pickle...

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Anyway, I really rambled on there, but... Point being, a lot of fun stuff goes in my table docs, and this is the type of outlining I like to do for characters and story plots.

I highly recommend having a table of contents doc for long 'fics. You don't need to bog it down with all your worldbuilding notes (Hopefully you have a separate place you can put those, like a Tumblr blog or other docs), but for things that you know you'll definitely need and are worried you might not be able to find again, I highly recommend keeping them in the table doc.

You shouldn't normally be editing your table doc after you've done your outlining, which means you're less likely to accidentally delete important notes (compared to keeping them in a story doc) and you won't bog your story doc down with stuff you need to scroll past.

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Chapter Docs [1 per chapter]

I have links to all my individual chapter docs (important to me since my chapters are normally 10k+ words... Can't fit everything in one doc or it would be a pain to navigate and take an age to load).

Here are some snippets of my outlines. As you can see, the descriptions I have in my table docs are loose and vague:

This is from Come What May:

Come What May is special because it takes place over just a few days (while my long 'fics span months or even thousands of years). It's based around Kevin's appearances in Fairly OddParents Season 10.

I wanted to share this because even though my notes for "Cold Shadow" are basically nothing, it still gives the info that's actually important for me to know when returning to this project after a hiatus: "Here's exactly what day it is in the timeline. This episodes shows kids turning in a homework assignment on the founding fathers, which means we need to see Kevin doing this homework assignment (or at least acknowledging it) in prior chapters.

Regardless of the weird supernatural stuff Kevin is dealing with in this 'fic, it's still intended to be canon compliant, and I know that's a detail Future Me could easily forget but would want to know. It's like what I said earlier about birthdays and timelines: leave yourself clear notes. You'll never regret having too many notes, especially if you intend to return to a project after a long hiatus.

Origin - I unfortunately scrapped my descriptions for all previous chapters of Origin and Knots so forgive the "spoilers," ha ha

Origin was originally drafted in a single document, which I later split into separate chapter docs. That's why I have notes like "Hawkins hand scene." I know exactly what that's referring to and my table of contents doc helps me remember which chapter it got moved to.

Knots - I wanted to show these to emphasize how vague some of these are:

Even though they're vague, you can get a good sense of the direction the story is going. Outlining doesn't have to be a painful, in-depth process. You can knock out the basics in a single afternoon if you just sit down and do it.

I picked one chapter and opened it at random ("Fox's Folly") and it has 8k words in its draft right now. "Tipping Scales" has 15k. At the time of making this post, Frayed Knots only has 34 chapters posted in public, so we're at least 1 or 2 years away from getting to this point, yet there's already a lot of draft info I can go back to. I've added a lot of bits and pieces to these chapters over the years and sometimes I just open them when I'm in the mood for reading something fun.

Having the documents already set up in advance brings you one step closer to opening them and throwing stuff in them and I highly recommend that.

Factor - These chapter outlines are more detailed (minus the early ones... the first 3 chapters were drafted as 1 chapter originally). If you've actually read Factor thus far, however, you'll notice that the scenes in my outline don't match perfectly with the finally chapters. And that's okay! The outlines are just guidelines and the final chapter can be different:

Lots of screenshots but I feel like my Factor doc is the most authentic look at my outline process (since it's recent while Origin and Knots were outlined like 7 years ago). I use black on my initial draft and red for things I change on a later sweep.

There are little notes to myself and sometimes I switch the order of things around. Also, "Torus" was written from scratch (no outline) since I came up with ideas for it later, and the nice thing is that I felt comfortable doing that without feeling like I'll write myself into a corner or wreck the pacing.

Having a story outline and all these separate docs means I already know where the story is going and I can jump in and write from anywhere in the timeline when the mood strikes. I think having a lot of options on what to write is the best way to fight writer's block, so this system works well for me.

Origin was drafted in 2016 and Knots in 2017. I create new scenes all the time (and scrap others), but a lot of the early story beats are still the same.

That about covers what I do in my outline process :) Thanks for asking and hopefully this was a fun and interesting read!

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