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khaleesiofalicante · 3 years ago

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HI, IT'S ME! YOUR LOCAL CHAOTIC WEIRDO!!!!! I'M BACK AGAIN LIKE I AM TWICE EVERY WEEK

IT'S MY BOY DAVID THIS TIME! WHY AM I SO HYPER! MAYBE BECAUSE THEY KISSED! AND I HAD TO SUPPRESS MY SCREAMS BCAUSE IM IN CLASS AND THE REST OF MY FAMILY IS OUTSIDE MY DOOR (NOT LITERALLY OFC)

OK OK OK OK OK OK

MAX AND DAVID ARE AT THE LONDON INSTITUTE YESYESYESYES

He rather liked that part in a story – when the hero fell, and everything seemed bleak. It always meant that hope was just around the corner. Because darkness never lasted. It was always followed by light. There was nothing more beautiful than that kind of sunrise.

THIS

I literally live my life by this analogy

AHHH DAVID IS ON HIS TRAVEL YEAR AND MAX IS WITH HIM

SCREAM

well i can't scream because my mom is sitting right there and I have class in 4 minutes so imma smile really wide

“Are you planning to read the entire library during your travel year?” Max chuckled.

“Of course not,” David replied. “I will need longer than a year to accomplish that goal.”

Me.

Wait

does max not being able to make portals have something to do with his lineage?

demon parent

ok so my programming class started 2 minutes early but screw programming I'm gonna be studying minds not this shit

ok that's a very bad attitude for someone who needs good grades in this year

Max was always hungry.

this is so me

KIT

THEY MENTIONED TY

also if David doesn't become an institute head in the future THEN WHAT'S THE POINT

“Where is the kitchen?” Max interrupted.

max is such a mood

He had told Max that he had centuries to perfect his magic, that there was no need to rush it. Max had given him a noncommittal nod and nothing more.

HE'S GONNA MAKE THE BEST PORTALS YOU'LL SEE

“I won’t tell the Consul,” Kit winked.

At the mention of the Consul, David straightened up. He had been trying to get into Alec Lightwood’s good graces for years now. He didn’t think sharing a room with his son would do him any favors.

DAVID UDUCDFUHKDUHVUHSDH

PLEASE IF WE DON'T GET A CUTE ALEC AND DAVID SCENE SOON

KIT CALLED TESSA MOM

oh my god

Word was that Mr. Herondale had gone back to his obsession with brewing tea.

JACE

I have so many emotions right now but all I'm gonna say is that I'm so so proud of Rafael

“Do you not want to sleep with me?” Max asked.

UH-

WELL-

DAVID STOP THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE AND ALL THE SHIT

STOP IT

OH MY GOD THE ONE BED TROPE

MAX IS IN HIS ARMS I'M ABOUT TO-

takes a deep breath don't scream. everyone outside this door thinks you're taking programming class

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE JUST GET TOGETHER ALREADY

AWW JULIAN PAINTED PORTRAITS FOR THE INSTITUTE

The one of Will Herondale and Tessa Gray – A love that had transcended reality and lasted a lifetime.

The one of James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs – A love that had started with a lie and then blossomed into nothing but happiness and devotion.

The one of Lucie Herondale and Jesse Blackthorn – A love that had been so powerful that it rewrote the past.

The one of Jace Herondale and Clary Fairchild – A love that had walked through hell and shaken up the heavens.

And then there the final one. The one of Kit Herondale and Tiberius Blackthorn – A love that had survived distance and darkness and doom.

This omg...

He wanted a love story. The kind he read in the books. The kind he saw in these portraits.

But he wasn’t a Herondale. He wasn’t sure if he was destined for that kind of love.

HEY

DON'T THINK LIKE THAT

The first part though

same

He might have been a little too excited. It was biologically impossible to control yourself when you find a stranger reading your favorite book in the whole world.

SO TRUE

“I see you already made a new friend,” Max said.

He sounded a little…odd. As if he was not pleased that David had made a new friend.

honey...

take a guess

can I jump in and bash their heads together?

“You are thinking of conjuring chocolate syrup, aren’t you?” David chuckled.

“How do you always know what’s on my mind?” Max chuckled back.

Because I know you, David wanted to say. I just wish I knew what’s in your heart too.

OH MY GOD I CANT WITH THIS

“You get chocolate syrup! You get chocolate syrup! You get chocolate syrup!” Max was yelling, standing on the chair.

They residents laughed harder, and David shook his head fondly. He hoped one day Max would pursue a career in theatre. He was a born showman.

can I have chocolate syrup?

also, the way David is just so fond of him like DYUSDGYJCDYUJM

“By the angel, do you have to be a drama queen about everything?” the boy next to them muttered – not so quietly.

David blinked. That was uncalled for.

But Max being Max was completely unfazed. “Of course I do. My Bapa would be personally offended otherwise.”

exactly you rude little shit

Max often pretended like people’s words didn’t hurt him - just as he pretend that fire doesn’t burn or wounds don’t bleed.

wow ok stop calling me out

Is max jealous??????

is he??????

how are people so good at languages like damn

“Oh my god,” Max groaned. “Is he already telling people to check on me?”

LMAO

using mundane medicine...

that's risky

but it's also something that WILL help

can't warlocks tamper with the blood samples?

A part of him wondered if that’s why he had agreed to send Max away to London – at least for a week. Because sometimes you didn’t want other people to see you were hurting.

alec I really goddamn hope you're dealing with this well

some of whom had even decided to die than get help from a warlock.

alright then gets my knives but you chose this :D

Nobody brought a book down for breakfast if they didn't like to read.

yes but sometimes also to seem busy so people won't bother you or you won't look alone.

“I know,” the boy said as he walked past them to the gate. “I sat on the stairs and thought about life for a few good minutes.”

his family is the one who took over David's previous institute (i can't spell that. marse- marselli- wat??) methinks.

The gang always visited whenever all of them were in the city together. They would have so much fun! Of course, the 'fun' mostly entailed Rafael stopping Georgia from drinking random potions she found in the stalls, Selena stopping Lexi from opening a psychic booth to help people talk to Raziel and of course David stopping Max from running to the gambling booths.

LMAO, I CANT WITH THIS-

Rafe: I am anxiety.

me at any given moment

EW TESTICLES HE'S EATING THOSE-

ok maybe I'm the only person who's really picky when it comes to food and doesn't eat the majority of things

“Anything on Magnus Bane?” Max asked.

“No,” the woman snapped and shoved some of the letters into a bag and hide it under the table. “Leave Magnus Bane alone!”

“Appreciate your loyalty,” Max winked at her and started examining a diary.

I like her.

"Everyone should be participating in this" -my programming teacher

me, an intellectual: participating in what?? goes to the class web THE FUCK IS THAT

“Something for the shadowhunter?” the woman smiled. “Perhaps an unpublished snippet from the Beautiful Cordelia?”

“Do you have any love letters?” David asked.

“Hmmm,” the woman went through the pages. “I do have a correspondence between an Iblis demon and Christopher Lightwood? Would you be interested in that?”

if u don't mind I would love to see both of those-

you know I just remembered I have a computer assignment I need to submit by the end of this week fml

“Never fall in love with an immortal,” she giggled again. “We don’t like staying in one place.”

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

MAX WHERE ARE YOU

why are we using x and 3 in programming class what the heck is going on

“I’m not just some warlock,” Max said, his voice low. “I’m Magnus Bane’s son.”

GIVE HIM THAT NECKLACE BACK

we usually have programming once a week on our physical school days and those are fun because my and my friend are continuously passing notes and talking to each other through writing

The scene where Max fought off all the evil people who tried to steal his valuable belonging. He would fight without breaking a sweat and throw magic fireballs at everyone and then get his necklace back. And then he would kiss David in front of everyone and it would somehow rain all of a sudden.

But life wasn’t a movie or a book. Life was just life.

life's boring

fuck life

I just heard a student ask "why are we not taking out the values of b and c" BESTIE I THOUGHT WE WERE DOING PROGRAMMING AND NOT ALGEBRA?????

“I know there wasn’t anyone to protect you before,” Magnus Bane had said. “But we are here now. We will protect you. This will protect you.”

He hadn’t wanted it back then. He didn't even want it even now.

He didn’t want something to protect him. Most importantly, he didn’t want to cover his scar. He didn’t want to hide it. He wasn’t ashamed of it. It wasn’t a mark of a victim. It was the mark of a survivor.

So, David had smiled and given the bracelet back.

“I never wanted to be protected,” David had replied. “I only ever wanted to be loved.”

The warlock had smiled at that and given David a hug. It had felt different than other hugs he had experienced since he had come to New York.

It wasn’t just the magic. Magnus Bane carried so much love inside himself you could literally feel it through him.

I'm gonna cry during my programming class (where we're doing variables apparently all of a sudden??)

this is so beautiful

“I wasn’t talking about Bapa,” Max said now. “I was talking about the other one.”

David chuckled at that. “Oh, yeah. He is definitely going to kill you.”

what flowers would you like at your funeral?

so Jackson has family troubles

I've definitely got that

yeah I know what it's like to be jealous of someone else's perfect family

JACKSON WTF

Is he trying to ruin max's relationship with his family???

oh hell no

JACKSON THE AUDACITY

“One stolen necklace, One broken nose and One bruised cheek,” he said. “And you’ve been in London for less than a day.”

kit seriously? but is he wrong though?

“This is what I get for falling for a Lightwood-Bane,” David sighed and walked through the portal.

WELL AT LEAST HE'S SELF AWARE

Jackson...

in some ways, I can empathize with him. my younger self anyway. but Jackson this is not how you do things

There was a moment of silence and then Magnus Bane giggled.

“I do love it when the quiet ones go feral,” the warlock grinned.

MAGNUS

NOT.THE.TIME

(me too)

“David!” Mr Herondale gasped. “Is your hand okay?”

yup that's Jace y'all

David hated violence. He hated fighting – which he was often not allowed to say out loud considering he was a shadowhunter.

But it was the truth. He hated hurting people – or even things. It made him feel sick.

“It’s alright, Chouchou,” Mr Herondale ran a hand through David’s hair. “Next time, just-”

“Use my words?” David asked.

“Just don’t get caught,” the man winked.

and that is why I would never want to be a shadowhunter.

I know saying that doesn't do anything but when I first read tsc I wanted to be a shadowhunter really badly and damn that was some time ago but now...violence of any kind is my biggest trigger idek why. and I hate that so much because what kind of a person gets triggered by loud voices and fighting EVEN ON SCREEN??? I usually just push myself to watch stuff because it's dumb. I refuse to see trigger warnings before reading a book or watching a show because damn it, I should be able to stand those things I'm, not a child. and it may be doing me more harm than good but I shouldn't feel like this in the first place

okay...that was long

ANYWAY

“David, I appreciate you standing up for Max,” the Consul said. “But next time, please try not to punch anyone in the face.”

“Yes, sir,” David nodded. “Because it’s wrong.”

“Because it means more paperwork for me,” the Consul groaned and then straightened up. “But yes. Absolutely. Very wrong. No punching people!”

LMAO ALEC

Jackson...

I was wrong then

He was grinning. Magnus Bane must have raised hell in the shadow market.

that must have been fun

Max was doing that thing where he was not trying to pout but he was mostly definitely pouting. It made David want to kiss him. But then the Consul spoke, and David reminded himself he didn’t want to be the third person to get punched in the face this evening.

well-

“I understand that Jackson has been through a lot. But that’s not an excuse for him to hurt those around him. I learned that lesson the hard way. So, you shouldn’t excuse his behaviour.”

someone's trauma and pain is never an excuse to hurt others

but that doesn't mean we should invalidate their trauma either

“You can stay back and try to help him. I won’t stop you,” the man got up now. “But if he tries to hurt you-”

“You will unleash hell?” David chuckled.

“Worse,” the other man grinned. “I will unleash Lexi.”

that is much much worse

Books brought him comfort in so many ways. Just holding one in his hands automatically made him feel better.

oh my god

he gets it

I always have a book with me when I'm out even if I'm not gonna get the time to read it because just the weight and comfort of it in my hands or in my backpack brings me so much comfort and helps with my social anxiety so much

no one understands when I try to tell them that

you get it...

someone gets it finally

AYYY IRENE

“David, it’s very sweet that you want to protect Jackson,” Kit pointed out. “But literally no one is buying that. Not even Irene.”

The lynx purred on his lap as if she agreed with Kit.

“I could break into a liquor cabinet,” David said a little indignantly.

David is the nicest you can get

David wouldn’t. Apparently, everyone already seemed to know that - even the lynx he had met five minutes ago.

we are solving something in class and it's really quiet because we're all doing our work (I'm reading the fic so-) and this one person had their mic open and they kept on whispering their steps and it was so weird I cant-

BUT YES DAVID IS A CINNAMON ROLL. EVEN THE LYNX KNOWS

“We were talking about shitty fathers,” Jackson pointed out. “You’re welcome to stay.”

“I’m gonna need something stronger than red wine for this conversation,” Kit chuckled.

I remember that bitch

David used to do it when he was a child. He used to pretend his life was a story. He used to pretend everything that happened to him was happening to some other boy – a boy who wasn’t real. A boy who lived inside a book. Because it hurt a little less when you pretend like it wasn’t happening to you.

But the pain was still very real.

OK YOU CAN STOP CALLING ME OUT NOW

“I fucking hate ogres,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Was your father an ogre too?” Jackson asked.

“He was more like a harpy,” Kit snorted. “He was always flying and fleeing. I didn’t know how deep his talons were in my head until it was too late.”

you really like traumatizing all your characters, don't you?

I really fucking hope the ogre got what he deserved

and if the angel is dead then fuck everyone

“I mean, there was that time when Sebastian Morgenstern turned my father into the endarkened, and then he went around killing people. So, I would say he was more like a zombie,” the man was explaining now. “The zombie father tried to kill me but my brother killed him first.”

“Good lord!” Jackson said in shock.

Kit chuckled softly. “Boy do shadowhunters need therapy.”

they really do

He knew about those from New York. He knew Mr Herondale and Miss Fairchild went for one together.

YES GET THEM THERAPY

“Yikes,” Kit chuckled. “I’d prefer something classier. How about London Boys?”

“None of us are from London though,” Tiberius pointed out.

“The Beatles are not actually beetles, Ty,” Kit chuckled. “It’s just for pizazz.”

damn guys

Then the idea of a band turned into a possible YouTube channel where they would react to cute animal videos.

YS DO IT

“When people do awful things, really awful things, at one point we stop being surprised. Like what Valentine did to his children or what our fathers did to us or what those women did to Rafael. We might have been shocked or disgusted. But it wasn’t unrealistic, was it?”

“I guess not,” the boy said.

“Even when they did the most unimaginable acts of cruelty, it somehow managed to fit into our imagination. We accepted that the world can be unrealistically cruel. The kind of cruelty we will never understand. But why isn’t it the same for kindness? Why is that when someone is too kind, we automatically feel uncomfortable? We judge their intensions or think they are just pretending to be nice. We think they are being unrealistic. Why is that?”

we get so used to cruelty that kindness feels weird

“But that’s how our life works, doesn’t it? It’s a giant ball of what ifs and could have beens and if nots. What if my father had loved me instead of hurt me? Could I have been kinder if I was hugged instead of being abused? Would have I been a different person if not for my trauma? Our lives are an endless collection of theories about our real selves. The one didn’t we never had the chance to become.”

THIS

I used to spend a bunch of time on the what-ifs but those are useless. so screw the what-ifs and live in the present

“I guess we’ll never know, Jackson. None of us will never know how we would have turned out if things had been different for us. We never got the chance to be who were meant to be. Instead, we became who we had to become to survive what we went through. We will never know our true selves. We only know the version of us that made it through all the trauma.”

“Christ, that’s depressing,” Jackson said.

“It is,” David nodded. “But we made it through. We survived. I think we should focus on that.”

you survived. that's what matters

“There is nothing wrong with wanting to be rescued,” David smiled.

I wish I had heard this before...

maybe I don't always have to be strong. maybe it's ok sometimes just want to be saved.

I'm so happy that both Jackson and David found each other

David had learned Gaelic. Jackson had learned how to play the piano.

They had laughed and lived and loved and learned.

And they had survived – one day at a time. The London Boys.

they survived.

I know I'm always key smashing and screaming but these words, these lines, all these chapters mean so so much to me.

“You’ll write to me, won’t you?” David asked, hugging Jackson closely.

“No,” Jackson replied. “I will FaceTime you like a normal person, you weirdo!”

David laughed at that. “I prefer letters. They are more emotional.”

“I’ll text you,” Jackson countered. “With emojis.”

oh to have someone write me letters.

I love writing letters

once at the end of a school year, I wrote little letters to everyone in my class anonymously. even the people who had been mean to me. that was like 1-2 years after my transfer to that school and everyone practically hated me but I wanted to do something nice because who knows what someone is going through. I ended up not putting them in people's desks...

I threw them all away :)

but writing letters is superior

I often write my feelings down and give the letter to someone rather than talk to someone

if you receive a letter from me or a custom-made gift...you have reached my ultimate friendship

oh my god. THIS IS HOW I SHOULD TALK TO ONE OF MY FRIENDS ABOUT MY FEELINGS

It's kind of been a mess between us and I want to talk to her but I didn't know how to.

this is why i shouldn't send asks-

JACKSON CATCHING UP ON MAX AND DAVID

“You know what it means,” Jackson grinned harder. “Also, if that wanker tries to break your heart, I will break his face.”

“You know he is the Consul’s son?” David giggled.

“I’ve done it once and I will do it again,” Jackson shrugged. “He better treat you right.”

"wanker"

I HAVE A BRITISH ONLINE FRIEND AND THEY CALLED OUR AMERICAN ONLINE FRIEND A WANKER

AND OUR OTHER BRITISH FRIEND JOINED IN

WHILE ALL THE NON-BRITISH PEOPLE WERE LIKE "huh"

Lexi had cut her hair even shorter. Her girlfriend apparently got something called an undercut.

“Just in case someone dared to assume we were straight,” she had winked at him.

how many years has this fake dating been going on...

CENTURION SELENA

fterA the twins went to bed, David stepped out of the institute and went looking for his heart.

"went looking for his heart"

OH FUCK I FORGOT TO JOIN MY CLASS

MAX STOP DEPLETING YOUR SELF GODDAMN

And then somewhere along the way, Max’s heartbeat had become the steadiest thing in David’s life.

Max, with all his chaos and drama and danger, had become the steadiest thing in David’s life.

oh my god that's a parallel from canon

“Tell me why.”

“Ain't nothing but a heart break!!"

Max-

Max could make fireballs that killed demons on the spot. He could summon things from anywhere. He could heal people with his eyes closed. He was one of the youngest warlocks allowed to visit the spiral labyrinth.

Max was a warlock in every sense. A good one. A great one even.

he is so talented...

Only idiots would underestimate Magnus Bane’s power.

EXACTLY

He is probably going to be Consul like next week.”

David chuckled. “Next week?”

next week????

“Yeah, his smoking habits,” Max rolled his eyes.

Rafael wasn’t the smoker in the family. He knew who it was, but David would never open his mouth. It wasn’t his secret to tell.

this keeps on getting better

“It’s my hair!” David laughed.

“And you’re my David!” Max argued. “I say you are not allowed to grow your hair.”

MY DAVID

“I don’t want to downworld-splain it to you.”

Max blinked and then laughed. “You don’t want to what?”

“Downworld-splain,” David mumbled. “It’s when shadowhunters explain downworlders how to be downworlders.”

they were SO close to kissing

I'm gonna get in there and lock them in a closet together and tell them to FUCKING GET WITH IT

Remember who you are. Remember where you stand.

remember who you are. remember where you stand...

I know this is supposed to be about portals.

OH MY GOD THEY KISSED

THEY KISSED

IM SO CLOSE TO SCREAMING CLASS AND EVERYONE OUTSIDE THIS ROOM BE DAMNED

OH MY GOD DAVID FELL

reminds me of when alec fell down the stairs-

OH MY GOD I'M GONNA SCREAM

WE'RE GONNA GET MORE MAVID CONTENT SOON I'M SCREAMING INTERNALLY UYDRVFY7VSDU7UYVFSDUYGCADUYIGJCDSHJKGDVCSUGISDVHVF

ok, I have a computer assignment to get to and tests to study for. BUT I LOVED THIS CHAPTER SO SO MUCH!! THEY FINALLY KISSED I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!

Also I know I tend to go off track and you can totally ignore that. i just go crazy. BYEE

This live blog gives me so much life you don't even know. I am go glad you enjoyed the chapter. I love hearing you rant about it. It's refreshing lol.

And I looooooove the lil anecdotes you share in between. Also wtf is a programming class like nobody wants to learn programme what kind of hetero nonsense I-

FINISH YOUR ASSIGNMENTS AND STUDY FOR YOUR TESTS I'LL SEE YOU SOON :)

#lbaf

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rockshortage · 4 years ago

Text

SKILLS - Fallout OC Ask Prompt

Here it is, everything in one place. The questions I haven’t answered already in a different post are in bold so you can easily skip to those if you want.

now all in bold because it’s been a while since I posted this

Barter

1. How important is making money or acquiring wealth to your character? Do they even need it?

Hector generally makes do with what he has, but he sure as hell enjoys the monetary benefits to being Overboss. Finally he can indulge a bit, get a semblance of pre-war comforts back and invest the surplus to get the rest of Nuka World to that stage too. And also buy a bunch of shit he doesn’t need because he thinks it’s cool. And since part of the Overboss’ job is to flex on everyone once in a while, he allows himself to be a bit excessive sometimes.

2. Is your character quick to take care of others in need, or do they look out for themselves first and foremost?

If they’re a good friend, they almost always come first. With strangers/acquaintances, it depends a lot on the situation and on what people expect of him. He has trouble saying no, so if someone asks him for help, he’s not likely to leave them hanging. If not specifically asked, he’Il try to just kinda slip away undetected (which often works well because he doesn’t have much of a presence). Nothing is his business unless people make it so. He will feel bad about his inaction in various situations though.

3. What is something other than money that could make your character do something they otherwise wouldn’t want to do? What about something they otherwise really, really, really wouldn’t want to do?

He does a lot of things he doesn’t want to due to peer pressure or expectations people have of the Overboss.

For the latter, if his own safety or the safety of someone or something he really cares about is seriously threatened. Blackmail, basically. Or if it’s something that someone he cares about would really appreciate. Like this is their lifelong dream and Hector can make it reality if he just does this thing that he absolutely does not want to do. He’d do that.

Energy Weapons

4. Does your character prefer high-tech or low-tech solutions to problems?

High-tech if there is time for it, as that usually takes longer than the equivalent of hitting the problem with a rock. He’s a techy guy, solving problems using his field of expertise is fun and rewarding, so that’s what he’ll usually try to do. But sometimes he can’t argue with the simplest solution often being the best.

5. What does your character think about pre-war society?

Hard to say since I haven’t really worked out what the heck he was doing pre-war and how much he remembers of it. But he’s always been rather isolated, whether that be of his own choice or a result of his conditions. Which means he doesn’t care all that much about society and whatever it’s up to again. He’s just trying to vibe in his own little space. I can’t imagine him being happy that they started a war though. He doesn’t regret the loss of society as much as he regrets the loss of the comforts and luxuries it brought him. Existential dread about the world ending bad but not worrying about more immediate threats to his life in the form of wasteland inhabitants good.

6. Is your character easily exhaustible? Are they normally an energetic person or more lethargic? If the former, what would reduce them to the latter; if the latter, what would excite them into the former?

It’s not that he’s easily exhaustible, he’s got rather good endurance and drive. It’s just that he is exhausted most of the time, due to his sleep issues. So his default state is generally on the lethargic side, but he has bursts of energy. Be that finding the fun in clearing the parks and destroying shit, or less noticeably when he’s engrossed in a project.

Explosives

7. How does your character express anger? Do they have a short temper, do they bury their rage until they burst, or can they handle it well?

He usually buries it, at least for the moment. Put on a pokerface and then release his anger later with the help of loud music or going out into the wastes and destroying some shit. There are exceptions, where he loses his shit on the spot, the main one being someone ‘hurting’ MAAK.

8. Does your character have any particular pet peeves that irritate them?

Way too fucking many to list – once he notices that is. The only reason he doesn’t spend every second of being around other people angry is that he’s often kind of oblivious or anxious, which makes him self-centered and not notice the little things people are doing around him.

I think I named a few examples in another ask meme, such as excessive public displays of affection and loud/open mouthed chewing. Here’s another one: when someone uses a lot abbreviations and acronyms and assumes everyone will just know what they mean. It’s often a cultural thing and therefore most if not all people around him will know, but Hector can’t ask ‘what does this mean’ 7 times in one conversation because then he’ll look stupid but he literally cannot follow this conversation anymore which will also make him look stupid if someone catches onto it and this could have all been avoided if they said actual words instead of nonsensical amalgamations of letters and ARGH.

9. Is there anything that anyone who knows better should avoid bringing up to your character (i.e., any conversational landmines)?

I was gonna say criticism about MAAK, but if I’m getting this right, ‘anyone who knows better’ means they have some form of positive relationship with Hector. So I’m not sure this applies all that well. They’d still have to be careful around the subject because he takes this kind of thing personally very quickly, but if they are an acquaintance or friend, he will be a bit more lenient instead of like… trying to fistfight them on the spot. Maybe he’ll let a comment slide or calmly remind them to Not Speak Their Mind about this. Seriously. Back Off From This Topic And We Won’t Have A Problem.

Can’t think of any better examples right now, file it under pending character development :V

Guns

10. What is your character’s weapon of choice? Are they good in a fight, whether armed or not?

He prefers to be far away from his target and pick them off before a fight can really break out, so his go to is a sniper rifle. Though he hasn’t (or rather I haven’t) found ‘the one’ yet. It’s a dilemma between ballistics, which are more fun to shoot, and energy weapons, which have little to no recoil and are therefore much easier to handle (and because technology cool). It’s probably going to be a heavily modified laser/plasma/gauss rifle of some kind.

He’s not very good when it gets to close range. He has to end the fight as quickly as he can, put some distance between himself and his opponent, or just try to outlast them by dodging/absorbing hits until they tire themselves out.

11. Has your character ever killed anyone purely in cold blood?

I might just be dumb but I’m having genuine trouble deciding what counts as cold blood and what doesn’t. Since Hector frequents raider circles where murder is almost normalized, I feel like the definition of it gets much more narrowed down, which means there’s a chance he’s never actually killed someone by strict definition of ‘cold blood’ (without emotion or mercy). From a non-raider, upstanding citizen viewpoint though? All the fucking time.

(Technically obsolete since I rewrote the answer, but I’ll leave this here anyway: Say, he has to lead a raid on a settlement – the people there have done nothing wrong, but they’re on turf that one of the gangs really wants, and Hector hasn’t been able to convince them to just leave. So they have to die, and Hector has to set an example to keep the respect of the gangs. He’ll do it, but it’s shitty and he’ll feel awful, their terrified faces and dying breaths haunt him for a while. From an outside perspective, he killed them in cold blood. But on the inside, Hector isn’t emotionless about it at all, it doesn’t feel good, it wasn’t fun, he’s full of regret and he dreads the next time he has to do this again.)

12. What are your character’s opinions on war? Is it something necessary or barbaric, or both? Do they believe in noble conflict or the existence of “a good war?”

As with many things, he can be swayed in either direction, depending on the circumstances, the people around him, and his own memories. Sometimes he thinks it’s a necessary means to an end, might even go as far as to glorify certain aspects of it – as long as he has the outside perspective. When he’s actually involved himself and everything gets too close for comfort, he’ll see how ugly of an affair it really is and regret that he ever condoned any of it. …until he forgets again.

Lockpick

13. Does your character prefer careful finesse or brute force in most situations?

Careful finesse, definitely. It really frustrates him to watch people trying to brute force something that would be solved so much easier if they just showed a little care.

14. How greedy is your character? Would they scavenge anything and everything they can carry from someplace “just in case”, or only ever take what they know they need?

By that definition, very greedy. But like, why go out to scavenge ruins and not take everything you see? Are you really gonna leave half the stuff just in case some other scavenger maybe comes across it at some point later? Nah, you take that shit and then have Gage pressure you into selling the surplus later even though you wanna keep it, there’s still a little bit of room in the storage, come on, Porter don’t be like this

15. What is your character’s most prized possession, and where do they keep it?

Does MAAK count? Because MAAK definitely is his pride and joy. He keeps MAAK with him as much as he can. And most likely his preferred weapon, once I figure out what it is exactly.

Medicine

16. How does your character tolerate pain? How do they handle stress and trauma?

He tolerates pain very well in the moment it happens initially. It’s not always out of survival instinct and such like I’ve specified previously, sometimes it’s just sheer embarrassment / anxiety. When he gets hurt while people see, his immediate instinct is “it’s fine, i’m fine, nothing to see here” and then he’ll go hide somewhere and decide for real if it’s actually fine or not.

He handles the aftermath of injuries a lot less well. You know the cliché of men being much more sensitive to pain/sickness than women and just being very noticeable in their misery? That’s Hector once he’s back in the safety of his home and recovering from his injuries. (usually MAAK is on the receiving end of his suffering but unfortunately for Gage it’s more satisfying to lament at someone who can actually react)

17. Does your character have any habits? Any tics, fixations, rituals, superstitions, or dependencies?

Totally. Hector is very much a creature of habit and it takes real effort to get him out of his comfort zone. He’d absolutely have a tic or two but I can’t come up with anything specific that isn’t just randomly made up. I’m thinking something along the lines of fixing his clothing a lot, like pulling at his gloves checking his collar, etc. But it’s nothing solid, so I’ll leave that aside for now.

A daily (if possible) ritual is writing in his journal. It helps him retain information and gives him some peace of mind that even if he forgets, he’ll be able to look it up again.

No superstitions (or none that I can think of). He loves to challenge superstitions actually, because it’s all complete and utter bullshit to him. This is actually one of the rare cases he does not care to think of people’s feelings first and can be a total dick on purpose. Oh you’re scared bad things will happen if I do this? Haha fuck you, not only will I open this umbrella inside, I will also smash a mirror with it and specifically point out to you that I am not knocking on wood.

18. What’s something that always makes your character feel better (physically, emotionally, mentally)?

A nice warm shower and sleeping in a clean bed afterwards. Being outside at night when it’s a little chilly and dark enough so he can take off his mask or other clothing items. Bonus points when there’s a campfire, so the lighting is nice and it’s just a little bit spooky, and he’s able to feel warmth on his skin without being burned. Being around MAAK, baby talking to him, cleaning his chassis, feeding him some trash. Listening and singing along to his favorite music.

Melee Weapons

19. What does it take to motivate your character to violence? Do they try to avoid violence as much as possible, are they willing and able to instigate violence, or are they even outright bloodthirsty?

Necessity is his main motivator. He tries to avoid violence as much as he can (in most scenarios), but he also won’t always bend over backwards to find a peaceful solution to everything. Instigating it is kinda difficult for him though, it’s so much easier if the other one attacks first and he can react in self defense.

20. How resourceful is your character? How adept are they at improvising with things around them or repurposing random junk into valuables, weapons, or tools?

Now this is something he excels at, mostly when there’s tech involved. Don’t just destroy turrets and robots, change their targeting parameters so they fight for him instead. Rig one up to explode and let it run into crowds of enemies. Have a speaker emit a frequency that either attracts or repels wildlife and ferals. Use that highly dangerous power line to electrocute a gatorclaw. Set up a whole grid that’ll fry the ferals or bloodworms. So many options.

21. Does your character have any comfort objects that they prefer to keep on their person as much as possible, or frequently hold in their hand just to hold it?

MAAK unfortunately does not fit in his pocket, so keeping him around at all times is more complicated. Maybe I’ll figure out some small comfort object at some point because I like the idea, but for now it’s just good old impractical emotional support robot MAAK.

Repair

22. What is your character’s single most handy trait or skill?

Engineering/robotics.

23. How concerned is your character with practicality? Are they more down-to-earth, grounded, or focused on necessity, or are they more of a dreamer, indulgent, or reckless?

More of the latter. Simple and practical things are good and all, and he’s often satisfied enough with them. But what really sparks joy is going above and beyond and just kinda off the wall sometimes. He has the resources now instead of having to just scrape by on the bare necessities, so why wouldn’t he take that opportunity??

24. How quick is your character to forgive? Are they able to earn forgiveness from others easily?

In theory, he’s the type to hold grudges. In practice, he has bad memory and sometimes forgets who wronged him or why.

Earning forgiveness doesn’t come super easy because he’s bad at communication. He shoves problems and issues aside because confronting them is uncomfortable. Even if he feels bad about X thing he did to Y person and he could just apologize.

Science

25. What kind(s) of intelligence would you say that your character does and does not have?

Thanks to a different meme I learned of the nine types of intelligence, so I’ll use those here:

High: Logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial

Medium: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic

Low: intrapersonal, interpersonal, existential

26. What kinds of things fascinate your character? Do they have any personal interests that aren’t necessarily practical, but that they just like?

A whole lot of things he’s interested in aren’t exactly practical. Those things are generally in the realm of book smarts, which can be useful, but often don’t have direct applications to his job or survival in general. e.g. knowing how nuclear fusion works on an atomic level is great and all but that deathclaw does not care and only wants to eat you

27. Does your character appreciate a good puzzle, or any other kind of intellectual or strategic challenge (e.g. Sudoku, chess)?

Yeah! Mostly the things he can do on his own though or things that are at least cooperative. There’s a considerable inhibition level when it comes to competitive strategy games like chess, but if ‘forced’ into a round he’d probably end up enjoying it.

Sneak

28. How does your character handle being alone in a wide-open space, being one of many in a large crowd, and being stuck with someone else one-on-one?

Alone in wide-open spaces: hell yeah

Large crowds: hell no please get him out of there asap

One-on-one: this is ok, he can deal with this. If it’s the right person he’ll even enjoy himself.

29. How does your character behave when nobody else is around? How does this differ from how they act around strangers, friends, or lovers?

When no one is around and no one can hear him, he tends to be the most energetic, coming out of his shell. He’ll turn up the music, sing along loudly, dance around, do theatrics. Have in depth discussions about this or that with MAAK, an inanimate object, or himself. Or on the flip side just vibing quietly and comfortably.

Some of that carries over once high enough friendship levels are gained. Strangers on the other hand are not allowed to see that side of him, no, he’s just a quiet and uninteresting guy, nothing to see here.

Lovers? What’s that

30. Suppose your character just wants to disappear; where would they want to disappear to?

Far Harbor looks tempting.

Speech

31. What does your OC sound like? What is the tone of their voice, their cadence, and their vocabulary; are they particularly profane or eloquent? Are they funny, and if so, what’s their sense of humor? Are they long-winded or do they speak little, and if it’s the latter, is that only because they’re concise or is it because they have genuine trouble speaking?

His voice is on the deep side but not remarkably so. He generally speaks in a soft manner, but he can get surprisingly loud for a man of his stature. Vocabulary is all over the place. He has a tendency to be formal and use big words, but then the next moment he’s trying to describe the thingy and the stuff with the some such and whatever, like fuck man, speaking hard.

He has a case of the dad humor. Some people will find that funny, some will not find it funny but a bit endearing, and others will find it not funny and incredibly aggravating. His jokes are generally innocent enough, but he can get dark too. Usually rather dry.

How little or how much he speaks depends entirely on the situation and the topic. He rattles on endlessly about Science and has an unfortunate tendency to mansplain. But when he’s not super passionate about something, it’s just whatever. If he doesn’t feel like he has anything of value to add, he just keeps quiet.

32. Is your character a good liar, or can they manipulate people well? Are they able to conceal what they mean or what they’re feeling, or are they an open book whether they mean to be or not?

He’s quite good at withholding information, but not at straight up lying to someone’s face. His entire attire helps a lot with concealing his feelings or intent. Having no visible facial expressions and a robotic modulated voice allow him to come across as cold and distant, downright emotionless to people who don’t know him or don’t know him well (with a bit of practice). That said, he wouldn’t even know where to start at attempting to manipulate someone.

Hector can be hard to figure out, but once you invest some time and effort into doing that (like Gage was forced to), he’s pretty much an open book in most situations.

33. What is something that could be said to your character that would be unforgivable, either by someone in general or by someone specific? How would they respond?

This is hard. Hector gets insulted / hurt fairly easily and tends to hold onto that negativity longer than he should, but all that mostly stems from his low self-esteem. And it’s rarely stuff that cuts so deep that a continued relationship / association is unthinkable. If Gage was to make it clear to Hector that making him Overboss was actually a horrible mistake and he almost wishes he had Colter back? Oof, ouch, that hurts a lot, but like… he’s not wrong. Gage knows what he’s talking about and Hector never was the perfect man for the job, nor did he want it. Yeah he was trying really hard and maybe he thought he was making good progress, but if Gage says it’s not enough, then it’s not enough.

Before I go too far off track – I’m not sure there’s really one thing someone can say that would be unforgivable. If there is, it would definitely have to be someone Hector trusts / trusted. But actions speak much louder than words. Gage saying he wishes for a different boss is one thing. It hurts but it’s a fair sentiment and doesn’t change the fact that they still have to work together. But Gage actively replacing him, spitting on all their hard work and throwing whatever relationship they had into the trash in the process? There’s no going back to normal after that.

Survival

34. How well does your character take care of themselves in the wilderness? Do they feel most at home in the wilderness, small settlements, or densely inhabited areas? Are there any particular reasons why that is?

As much as Hector likes keeping to himself, he’s not the type of survivor to go out into the deepest wilderness. He could survive out there, but his quality of life would probably be pretty bad. His ideal place would be near a small settlement, within comfortable enough walking distance but not really part of it. He can go into town maybe once a week for supplies and just be alone in his humble abode the rest of the time.

35. What kind of diet does your character keep? Is it more indiscriminate, or picky or particular? Are they good cooks, whether in a kitchen or by a fire? Do they think of food as simple sustenance, or do they appreciate indulgent dishes and finer flavors? Do they have a favorite food?

He's not a picky eater by any means. He will eat what’s on the table and not complain, unless it’s like actually rotting. His cooking is fine, of course until he gets creative with it and makes questionable combinations happen. But what I didn’t mention there is that he only rarely gets the chance to do some train wreck cooking. Usually he does have to treat food as just fuel that lets him go about his day due to the impracticality of having to wear a mask and not being able to take it off during the daytime. And it’s rather difficult to find an interior that reliably lets no sunlight in among all the ruins of the wasteland. When he’s on the road, he quite often just has to go find a reasonably dark corner in which to crouch down and cram in a nutrient bar like some kind of feral man who hasn’t eaten in a week.

36. What keeps your character going? What is the one thing that they have that could motivate them to keep persisting if they lost literally everything else?

There is not one sole thing. Hector has to find drive and motivation in anything at all, because what other choice does he have? There’s no real sense of purpose or meaning to life for someone like him, and he prefers not to think about it too much (or rather not at all). Currently, it’s the friendships he’s made. His responsibilities as Overboss. Whatever little project is on his mind right now. And when all is lost, he has to bide his time, wait until he forgets whatever or whoever he’s grieving. Then it’s back to the same old.

Unarmed

37. How good is your character with their hands or fingers? Do they have a light, gentle touch, or are they hard or uncoordinated? Does your character have any dexterous talents?

Light and gentle, his manual dexterity is above average but nothing outlandish. Just someone who works with his hands a lot and developed his skill accordingly.

38. Is your character physically expressive or do they make a lot of gestures (i.e. do they “talk with their hands”), and if so, what kinds of gestures do they make?

He’s fairly expressive with his hands – less when he’s in an uncomfortable social situation and more when he’s going off about science. It’s a way for him to compensate for the lack of facial expressions. Can’t go that deep yet to name specific actions.

39. Does your character like to be touched or touch others? How does your character value personal space? What kinds of boundaries, physical and otherwise, are important to your character?

In general, no, no touching, keep away, personal space radius is higher than most people’s. Also don’t like, ask him about his day or feelings too much. He’s open about his feelings on his own volition but shrivels up in ‘I don’t know how to communicate’ when specifically prompted. I can imagine there’s a situation of him being severely touch starved going on here, but I’m unsure how much it would take to get him to accept / feel comfortable with physical touch, let alone crave it. In the meantime, he can go hug an animal. Mason always knows when Hector’s particularly sad/emotional because that’s when he comes to the zoo to hug a furry creature. Yes MAAK is his emotional support robot and absolutely his number 1 go-to for that, but sometimes the cold metal of a robot just doesn’t cut it. Sometimes he needs something that’s equally pure of heart but warm and alive

#ask meme #yeet it is done #after this has been up for a while #i'll probably bold all the questions #or none #if i remember to do it #hector messerli #hector ref

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comicteaparty · 5 years ago

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January 11th-January 17th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from January 11th, 2020 to January 17th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

What’s an unplanned idea you had through your story part way through that forced you to change things? How did everything go?

eli [a winged tale]

After my beta feedback there were some characters that needed further fleshing out with stakes and relationships. Therefore I had to change some backstories to make certain interactions impactful. Thankfully im at the start so nothing i had to go back and fix. I did think of some alternative openings should the comic goes to print but that can be future me’s worries

snuffysam

simultaneously very little and a huge amount, lol. in terms of big story beats, they've pretty much all stayed the same since i first started planning the comic. the twists have been set up and paid off and the like. but there's a bunch of things i've improv'd at the last minute. one notable example that was pretty well-received - in book 2 chapter 4, taci has a fear of puns (basically only shown in facial expressions and a single comment from mizuki towards the end of the fight). this was added because... otherwise the fight at the end of that chapter is just a bunch of walking around in near-identical dark tunnels. the way the fight ends is fun, but the fight itself isn't really anything. with taci having a reason to be afraid of coruby, the fight has more stakes & entertainment value, and it makes coruby feel much more interesting as a character. another huge example is the love triangle in book 1 - in that in the script, it was non-existent. mizuki being into girls was originally only gonna be introduced in book 2 (guess where), and the relationship between cahe and pejiba was going to advance with no real competition (besides bullets). it was gonna be mentioned in like book 3 that she had a thing for pejiba, but nothing in book 1 itself. (similarly to the pun thing, you may notice that mizuki being into pejiba isn't referenced at all in the dialogue besides pejiba saying "i know what mizuki thinks of me" which is kinda vague. i... don't like changing scripts last-minute lol.)

Mei

Not gonna lie, everything I do is entirely unplanned. I focus a lot on improvised comedy and what feels right 'at the moment', and considering I write scripts way in advance, sometimes it leads to jokes falling flat when I read them again a few months later. Which is all fine, honestly, it's part of the process. The main unplanned idea for My Husband is a Cultist was turning it from a 12 page one-shot into a fully fledged webcomic, now with 3 chapters and more to come. It was very 'on a whim', and from that very first chapter I came up with more silly ideas. And the more I talked to friends, the more ideas I had for chapters. So the biggest change personally was going from a pure slice-of-life comedy and spending time actually building the world around it so that there was structure to the chaos. I'm still working on it all. I now have an underlying plot that I'm hoping to explore, and I have the arcs planned out way in advance. So it's wild that I went from 'random ideas spewed on a document' to 'I now have a plot and several arcs to cover'. That being said, I still come up with a lot of things on the fly, so I'm changing things constantly as I go and hoping that there aren't too many inconsistencies!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

One of the most important story elements of Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) came up early in the second chapter, when I was asking myself some more questions about the world - and came upon a crucial opportunity. Luckily I didn’t have to change too much to make it work, and while it didn’t really change the plot, it upped the emotional stakes 100-fold. Which is just what I wanted. In this world, I have a big naval force, of which my heroine is (was?) the future leader - but with relative peace and cooperation between the different island nations, who the heck does the navy fight? Pirates? Eh, maybe. But vanilla pirates have been done to death, and while they can be awesome, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to tie them into the world’s supernatural element - while strongly avoiding the Pirates of the Caribbean cursed-buccaneer aesthetic. I decided to tie them to a particular blight that affects some of the characters - so as to up their stakes and better convey why they’re societal outcasts. And finally, I wanted to give them a freaking awesome name, something both nautical and supernatural. Thus, for those reading - the Fata Morgana. What didn’t even exist at the beginning of the second chapter is now an absolutely crucial story element, and I’m so happy they came into the picture. They’ve changed everything for the better. This is one reason why I resigned myself to revealing the world in bits and pieces - I’m revealing it to myself as I go along, too. It helps to be slow sometimes

eli [a winged tale]

The Fata Morgana introduction in the story was A W E S O M E! I’m so glad you have them in the story and looking forward to that amped up stakes!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I think the biggest example would be the last-minute inclusion of Jonathan as a main character in my comic Dark Wings: Eryl (https://www.flowerlarkstudios.com/dark-wings-2/). I had originally planned for him to be a temporary character that we said goodbye to at the end of Chapter 5. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised the main travelling party needed another character to balance things out. I was really struggling with planning future scenes because the pool of characters felt too small. I also realised that I had developed Jonathan’s character quite a lot for him to be dropped so early. So halfway through drawing chapter 5, I rewrote the second half and he’s now a major part of the cast.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

A second example is Anor in my other comic, Children of Shadow: Ashes (https://www.flowerlarkstudios.com/cos/). He was originally written as a far less sympathetic character. In fact, he was going to be a borderline antagonist who only became sympathetic close to the end. But my characters often do things I don’t expect, and as I was planning the story, he and one of the other main characters, Rava, started falling for each other. I honestly loved this, and so I reworked the entire story to make Anor part of the main cast and much more sympathetic. He’s still a tsundere, and at the point where the story is now, still in constant friction with Rava, but I feel he’s now a much stronger character and is contributing a great deal more to the story than when he was a vaguely ominous frenemy in the original draft.

varethane

ooooo I am intrigued by this factoid about Anor

re: unplanned story elements, in Chirault..... [spoilers obviously] Ridriel and Trillia being sisters was something that hit me out of the blue about halfway through the story, and I immediately reworked a lot of things to make it happen http://chirault.sevensmith.net/(edited)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

In ghost Junk... We actually avoided a major character death and had revised it literally a chapter before it happened!! We had everything written out right the the very end, but were seeing the readers reactions and reflected on the importance/and if it was absolutely necessary! So with that said, we saved the character, and kept the necessary impact and growth that it was to bring, and honestly- I'm so happy we did it

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

@varethane Yeah, Anor’s character has evolved a LOT since the first draft.

Phu

With Blackblood, we actually created the 2nd and 3rd chapters and then thought we wanted a chapter ahead of those as sort of a prologue to give some world building and lore elements haha. Worked out well i think! https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/blackblood/list?title_no=300252(edited)

Erin Ptah (BICP 🎄 Leif & Thorn)

This is kind of the opposite, since I did the "include a new thing in the story" part first, and that's what forced me to come up with a previously-unplanned idea to explain it... In Leif & Thorn, I had a character drop a reference to "that country doesn't allow interspecies marriages" before there's any canon reference to nonhuman species that human characters might want to marry. ...and even I didn't know what that species was going to be. Had some vague idea about revealing that mermaids existed, but in my head I never managed to integrate them with the rest of the plot or the worldbuilding real well. A few months later, I finally remember that I like drawing Tiny People (not like hobbit-size, think Borrowers-size), and realize this is the perfect setting to have a Tiny People Species! Now I get to come up with plot-based excuses to draw them wherever/however I want. Plus it opens up a whole new mine of jokes: https://leifandthorn.com/comic/somethings-cooking-26-29/

Can't for the life of me remember where I got this quote from, but there's an author who, when readers would ask for details about future developments in her books, would only give answers with the disclaimer "I reserve the right to have a better idea." Words to live by.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Damn, I love that quote.

DanitheCarutor

Admittedly there isn't a whole lot I've changed, maybe a couple small things here and there, but major stuff has been the same since I started. During the very beginning of the planning phase Daniel wasn't even going to be in the story and Julian was going to be homeless, but I wasn't quite satisfied with it. The story would have been too short, contrived and the resolution didn't feel satisfying. After some brainstorming and reflection on my feelings on certain experiences I've had, I added Daniel and 'The Guide to a Healthy Relationship' as it is kinda fell into place. It's weird thinking about how important Daniel is in spite of how new a character he is. Usually it takes me a little time to build one up before throwing them into a story, they gotta age like a fine wine first, but he popped out all ready to use like one week hooch.

Not sure if it counts, but I've also made changes to future parts of my comic. Like recently, even though I know what the ending is, I put a more final image in my head on what the final frame will look like. Also I changed an event that will happen at some point revolving around Apollo and his friends. Originally something skeevy was going to happen with Brandon and Apollo involving video uploads, and a homemade contract that was signed with Apollo was drunk. I thought it was too... I dunno, stupid? impractical? So I changed it to Julian was going to (unwillingly) attend a party at Brandon's (Apollo's friend) apartment, then some big, jealousy induced fight happens where Julian gets kicked out and Apollo feels bad. I didn't like that either, felt too reaching, so I'm going with another event that is a little out there but does happen in real life and something I have done some good research on.

Gonna be as vague as possible because it's spoilers.

keii4ii

Surprising myself is pretty much every step of my writing process. For good or bad.

I do plan things in advance, but find that sometimes things aren't what they seemed from 15 chapters ago.

I think what it is is this particular comic is such a visual story. I could plan out my previous comic with far greater accuracy. That comic was more dialog-driven; you could convert it into an audio drama with minimal changes, and it would still make sense. Whereas my current comic, you can't turn it into an audio drama without very VERY extensive changes (not even sure if possible... Many silent scenes). So I need to actually draw the pages to feel it out. And I can't draw out of order. Brain just won't that way.(edited)

carcarchu

totally agree with you @keii4ii sometimes u have to actually draw it out to get a feel for it. when i write out all the dialogue for my chapters i feel like it always ends up coming out so stiff, thats why i prefer to let it flow naturally and if something happens that i didnt account for just roll with it and adjust the story accordingly

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I'm kind of weird about always needing to know exactly how many pages a chapter is going to have, so I script right down to the panel. It can create flow problems on occasion, so I wish sometimes I could plan my pages more visually, but my brain just doesn't work that way. >< It's a good thing my stories mostly rely on dialogue because they're pretty much novels in comic form.(edited)

Cronaj

When planning a scene at the end of Chapter 3 of Whispers of the Past (https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/whispers-of-the-past/list?title_no=191366), I was having a hard time writing the dialogue. I had the images of my lead characters, Agatha and Izrekiel, talking by the docks in the moonlight, and I knew generally what they talked about, but I couldn't script it. And then, one day while walking to work, my characters straight up had the conversation in my head! And as the dialogue unraveled, the characters (mostly Izrekiel) did something completely unplanned (which I won't reveal because spoilers). This unplanned change has completely upped the drama and sexual tension for the entirety of the future story. The second event of this is in Chapter 2, where Izrekiel is helping out on Kelan's farm. Initially, there was going to be some dialogue that mostly served as world-building, but when actually writing the scene, it occurred to me that they would likely not talk too much, too absorbed by the work of harvest. And then, I suddenly visualized/heard Kelan and the other farmhands SINGING. I don't know why it popped in my head that way, but they began singing a working song. Now, I am not a musician, but I used to sing in choir and do musicals and such, and like half my family members are musicians, so I have a bit of a musical background. Anyway, all this to say that the characters started singing, and in response, Izrekiel (who has amnesia) has a flashback to some repressed memory of men marching and singing the same song, with altered lyrics. This can get extra spoilery, so I won't delve too deep into what his memory means, but.... The lyrics go as such: Oh earth, oh rain, Oh sun in the sky, You grant me with your fruit In this land. And they are directly mirrored in the flashback with: Oh strength, oh grace, I'll raise my sword, With victory in mind In this land.(edited)

Deo101

For me, I totally changed the ending! I was going to make it a tragedy, and then at some point I realized I didnt NEED to... that a story can be happy and good. So, I rewrote a ton of stuff, and actually ended up adding in some new characters! I'd say It's gone very well ^^ I'm much happier with everything now (for one, I can think about the ending without crying!!) I've changed a lot of other little things as i've gone along too. too many things to count, really.

Tuyetnhi

Initially I was writing the story timeline to 5 days but it spanned to something about a year. Which means I had a chance to develop it further than trying to rush plot points. Used to be like 3 chapters originally but now its like ....I guess 20 chapters? I don't remember the full count but lmao I'm ready to endure.(edited)

varethane

most of the biggest changes to Chirault were decided on during the first 3 years of me making it..... I completely threw out the first plan I had made, lol. There was no specific trigger for this, except maybe for 'I don't like this, actually'

keii4ii

Oh! I remembered something specific. My tiger character used to have a 'generic lean-ripped' build. Kinda like the rabbit from Juuni Taisen. Then I posted a random beach day picture, and someone (who wasn't used to seeing characters with visible leg muscles... A lot of comics they read have characters who suffer from Skipped All The Leg Days syndrome) pointed out how insanely muscular his legs were. I ran with it. Today his legs are 2x bigger than they were in that beach day pic, and it's all muscle. Also while this character stays very lean throughout the story, I as the author guarantee you that if he were to put on fat, his thighs will be the first to expand, and the most. 8)

Tuyetnhi

omg

Cronaj

@keii4ii I'm so glad for this change. Lu's legs are majestic

Capitania do Azar

Interesting replies here

In o Sarilho https://www.sarilho.net/en/, I have avoided one major character death in the first part of the story because I grow super fond of them and also because it wasn't really going to build up to anything... Which felt really unfair. So now I had to come up with narrative lines for them and I'm quite enjoying that. Furthermore, I was halfway through chapter 3 when I figured out Eurico's looks but especially his role in the story. It involved drawing a lot of trucks (and there will be more trucks in the future) but I'm really excited for him as a character

Desnik

As I was writing my comic I was trying really hard to keep the POV limited to one character, but that character doesn't have enough perspective to set up the plot very well at the beginning. This meant hopping POVs to some other characters and now I'm gently trying to squash a lot of these subplots before they go completely out of control...

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble

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yuniesan · 6 years ago

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Girl Meets Season 6 - Episode Thirteen – Girl Meets Winter Break

Synopsis: The Journey from High School and into College will test everything Riley knew about her life, her friendships and her love. What life lessons will she learn in her first year of college?

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A/N: Originally this chapter had only been about 4K, and was only supposed to cover Christmas week.... that changed as I wrote it and then got angry at it and rewrote it and now it's over 7K because of course I wrote the whole freaking break. I'm really trying to update faster, but I had 2 job interviews this week and of course I had my girl problem (because of the stress) and it made it harder to write, only for my internet to stop working... my life is such a clusterfuck I swear.

Episode Thirteen – Girl Meets Winter Break

Week One

Riley had been home for two days before everything went to hell, and that was only because she had forgotten to call Maya the day after they had gotten back from school. Riley knew that no matter how many emails she had sent, how many times she had seen Maya, eventually something would happen between the two of them. The semester had been four months, they had been leading separate lives for the most part because Riley was in one department and Maya was in another. Their dorms were far away from one another, and they both had boyfriends. But the day after they had returned, Riley had been so tired that she ended up sleeping twelve hours and by the time she had woken up, it had been three in the morning, and that was not the time to be texting or calling, especially since Maya normally fell asleep around one and sometimes slept well into late morning.

“Of course, you didn’t call,” Maya had said the moment they had entered Riley’s room. “You spent six and a half weeks without me, hanging out with your new friends. You never called me once during that time, you don’t even need me, so I don’t know why I bother, you should go out and be with your new friends.”

“Maya they’re your friends too you know,” Riley had said as she sat down at the bay window, watching Maya pace back and forth in front of her, ranting to her even though Riley had tried constantly to be there for her best friend. Apparently making new ones wasn’t an option.

“No, Zay and Huckleberry are my friends, your roommate and Charlie aren’t,” Maya said before stopping and turning to face her. “Are you trying to replace me?”

“No Maya, I just know how busy you were, and I thought hey Maya’s actually liking school for once, so I wrote the emails because I wanted you to know I was thinking about you,” she said and felt like slamming her head into the window. She knew that this was going to be a conversation they would end up having over and over again until Maya was comfortable being around new people, even if one of those people she had known in middle school.

“But you didn’t come find me, you didn’t look for me,” Maya yelled back at her, before grabbing on of the pillows on the edge of Riley’s bed and throwing it towards the headboard.

“I did you big dummy,” Riley yelled back, she needed to get the tension out as much as Maya did, Maya didn’t know what had happened during those weeks. It wasn’t just up to Riley to seek her out, Maya should have tried as well. “And every time I did you weren’t in your room, and then I’d get a message from Josh telling me where you were. So, don’t go blaming this only on me when you could have come to my room and found me.”

“But you went out and got new friends,” Maya yelled out as if she was ignoring what Riley had said and at this point Riley couldn’t understand why they were yelling, but she was certain that Maya needed to get through this and yell it out just to get it out of her system. “You got new friends and you didn’t care about me anymore.”

“Maya, damn it I never stopped caring, but we were going to live separate lives at some time, we’re not attached at the hip, I’m allowed to make more friends,” Riley said to her, realizing that the main problem in all of this was that Maya was afraid of being abandoned except, in the end of all of this the one who had been abandoned was Riley. She tried her best, but sometimes, a lot of the time lately, her best with Maya wasn’t possible.

“But it wasn’t supposed to happen now?” Riley could hear the hurt in her best friend’s voice, and she knew that at some point she was going to have to work on making sure that Maya would be alright without her, even when Riley was right next to her.

“And when did you think it was going to happen huh? When we’re fifty and you live in some commune and I move to some far-off place?” she said without thinking, she was angry that Maya could even think that she hadn’t been trying, their relationship had been based on Riley always being there, they barely had fights. Maybe it was inevitable that this one would happen.

��No,” Maya said back before sitting down on the bench next to Riley. “I just didn’t expect it, and then yesterday you didn’t call, and I guess I felt like you didn’t need me anymore.” Maya looked deflated, Riley felt awful, they were a pair of angsty teenagers trying to figure out how to survive college, how to survive the last of their teenage years.

“Aww Peaches,” Riley put her arms around her best friend and held her close. “This was bound to happen, but in the end you’re still my best friend in all of the world. We just grew in different ways,” she said knowing that there were going to have to have this conversation a couple of times before Maya realized that Riley wasn’t going anywhere even if they didn’t see each other for a few days. “And I didn’t call yesterday because I actually slept the day away and didn’t wake up until late at night, and I know how much you love to sleep.”

“I do like sleeping,” Maya said wiping tears off her face, Riley never mentions them falling, she knows that Maya hates it when people see her cry at any point in her life. “Do you like Sam more than me?”

“No,” Riley answers automatically, she’s still getting to know her roommate, and they have a shared history with the same bully in their lives, but the relationship is still new. “I mean I do like her, but you’re my sister Peaches, no one else compares. It’s just that Sam is a new friend and I’m still getting to know her, and I think that you need to get to know her too, I mean you two have a lot in common you know.”

“Yeah right, what could I have in common with her, she went to Einstein Academy,” Riley watched as Maya rolled her eyes at the thought of her having anything in common with someone who’s smart.

“Well, you both like really bad horror movies, she’s becoming a doctor, but she sometimes likes to make videos, like those gory videos you watch on YouTube when you think no one is watching, and you’d like them, heck you could probably help her with them.”

“Well I do like watching them,” Maya said staring out into Riley’s room. “What kind does she like to make? There’s whole genres of gore to watch, especially in horror movies.”

“Well,” Riley said smiling, knowing that if she found something that would get them together it would be a step forward, and maybe it would mean that Maya would have a new friend. “She joined some club on campus that’s making a horror movie in the tunnels under the buildings around the quad, she works with them to make sure everything is realistic, maybe if you joined her you could help them with set design and things like that.”

“I do like mixing art and horror,” Maya said smiling at the thought, which only made Riley shiver. Somehow, she knew that this was a bad idea, and whatever the two of them got around to making, well Riley would never watch it because it would give her nightmares.

“Now I’m just afraid of the two of you getting together,” she said feeling squeamish just thinking about it.

“Your fault,” Maya yelled out before laughing. “What’s up with soufflé?”

“Charlie, Maya, his name is CHARLIE,” Riley sounded out his name on purpose, because she didn’t want Maya to hurt the guy’s feelings.

“Whatever,” Maya said but then her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Fine what is up with Charlie?”

“Nothing, I think he likes having friends that have known him for a while, he came here without anyone he knew from high school. Plus, him and Zay both went through break ups so they’re dealing with it together.” Thinking about Zay made Riley’s heart hurt even more, because while Maya knew about the breakup she didn’t know about the extent of Zay’s pain over the last few months, and Riley wasn’t going to break his confidence by telling someone about what had happened either.

“And you and Lucas?” Maya asked pulling Riley out of her thoughts.

“Um, well,” she started but she wasn’t sure if she should talk about it because he parents were in the house and she knew that her father would have one of his freak out moments if he knew anything was happening between her and Lucas even if it was something innocent.

“Spill,” Maya said before holding out her right hand, pointing at her ring for the first time since she had walked into Riley’s room.

Riley groaned to herself before getting up and closing her door, she didn’t want the chance of her father listening in on anything in regards to Lucas because he would never let her boyfriend in the house ever again.

“This must be good if you’re closing the door,” Maya said watching as Riley moved to make sure that the door was secure, putting towels on the floor in front of the door.

“It’s nothing scandalous, it’s just that I think whenever I’m home my dad can hear everything, and I don’t want Lucas to get kicked out forever,” Riley took a deep breath before confessing to her best friend about her relationship’s recent developments. “Most nights, I sleep over at Lucas’s dorm or he sleeps over at mine, it’s innocent, all we do is cuddle… and sometimes we make out, but nothing more than that.”

“That’s more than I would have thought, I would swear that you would never get to any step pass handholding with him.”

“We make out, we’re a normal couple and everything,” Riley said defending her relationship with Lucas, yes they’ve been together for years, and while most couples have moved onto more physical parts of their relationships, like Farkle and Smackle, Riley just wasn’t ready for that, she was happy with the little bubble that she had created with Lucas.

“Yes, yes you are sweetie, but your father has severely stunted your relationship from the beginning, but I’m glad that you two are happy.”

“Thanks,” Riley smiled. “How about you and Josh?” she asked knowing that Josh had told her a lot already, but there were things that only Maya could tell her.

“Riles, you talk to Josh all of the time, you probably know more about my relationship than my own parents do,” Maya said to her and Riley knew that her best friend was wrong about that.

“I know a lot of things about your relationship yes, but I guess we should still talk about it, because while I know about it, I only know Josh’s part of the relationship.”

“You just want me to talk about my feelings,” Maya huffed before leaning against the windows. “Fine I’ll talk about my feelings, I love him okay, he’s nice and kind, and he’s my boing,” Maya said in a rush, but Riley could see something more in her best friend’s eyes, on the rising blush on her face.

“Awww,” Riley said as she held her hands against her chest, smiling at her best friend. “That’s what I like to hear, it’s still weird because I don’t want you to be my aunt, because it creepy and weird, but you’re happy… have you told him that yet? That you know you love him?”

“No,” Maya choked out, as if tell Josh was the biggest no no in the world. “Actually, I haven’t said that much,” her voice got quiet and Riley thought it was cute to see Maya acting all flustered about her relationship. “But I want to do it at New Years, so that we can start the new years on a happy note.”

“Awwwww,” Riley threw her arms around her best friend already planning New Year’s on the roof, with her friends and family.

The two of them spent the rest of the day catching up with one another, planning New Year’s, planning their trip, and trying to find ways for the two of them to hang out more. They spent the week leading up to Christmas at each other’s houses, Riley trying to find ways to get Maya to tell Josh she loves him, without waiting for New Years, while Maya planned her perfect New Years kiss with her boyfriend.

They were sitting at Topanga’s in their favorite seats, the day before Christmas, as Riley pulled out the secret Santa box. Sam and Charlie had joined them, their group clustered together. As Riley put the box at the center of the table before sitting on Lucas’s lap and giving him a quick kiss. The sound of a cup breaking made her jump until she was sitting in between him and Maya. One look at the counter and she saw her dad with a look on his face, that reminded Riley that she wasn’t at school, and any form of public displays weren’t allowed anymore.

“You know he’s crazy,” Maya said looking over at Riley’s dad before laughing. “You’re eighteen years old, he can’t do anything.”

“Yeah but it’s a reflex at this point,” Lucas said before taking the box and shaking it only to notice that it was empty. “Didn’t you put the names in?”

“No,” Riley said with a smile. “We’re not going to do secret Santa this year, instead I’m inviting everyone over for Christmas, we’re going to watch Christmas movies and talk, because that’s what we need to do this year. That way some of us can get to know our new friends and reconnect with those we’ve known for years. It’s the best present of all.”

“Where is this happening?” Sam asked since she the newest of her friends.

“My house,” Riley said with a smile. “My parents are going to Philly after we open presents, and I asked if I could stay here, since Josh is staying too, they said yes.”

“You’re not visiting your parents?” Maya said looking over at her boyfriend. “But you always visit them.”

“They’re coming up for New Years, and I’m working the day after, so the drive would make it impossible for me to stay awake,” he said before kissing Maya on the head and walking back to the counter to get their drinks.

“He’s staying because he wants to spend the holiday with his girl,” Zay said smiling, it was genuine, which meant that he was happy, and Riley was glad that he had found his peace.

That’s how the nine of them found themselves in Riley’s living room watching A Christmas Story with bags and bags of candy, popcorn, and somehow a bucket of fried chicken in front of them. Maya and Sam were plotting some crazy thing for the movie Sam was working on, that now had Maya as a set designer, while Josh put in his two cents in on whenever the two had gone off the deep end. Lucas was talking with Farkle and Smackle, they were catching up on what they had all missed out on. Riley kept going back and forth to the kitchen, she couldn’t help but feel like something was missing until Lucas handed her a bag of her favorite gummy bears, and some popcorn with chocolate in it.

It had taken all night just for her to settle in, but after a while when they were all quiet and watching the movie, even when Maya threw popcorn at the screen whenever there was something that she hated, usually something dumb. Riley had noticed something happening between Zay and Charlie, they were having a hushed conversation, or they were poking fun at something. Riley wondered if maybe they liked each other as more than friends, but she didn’t want to meddle, she wanted them to find it for themselves.

Week Two

When New Year’s Eve, came rolling around, Riley found herself working on the roof, hoping that the heaters worked properly so that no one would have to wear more than a sweater while they watched the fireworks happen as the ball dropped. Farkle had helped her get them, and helped her set them up, both of them quiet while they worked. It wasn’t until they had put the tables together and set up the drink station that she turned to him.

“You’ve been… quiet,” she said wondering if anything was wrong. “I hope this isn’t going to end up like the fight I had with Maya.” She didn’t want another fight, she just wanted everyone to be happy and healthy, no drama, just friends, except they had this weird thing hanging over their heads and they needed to get through it.

“No,” he said to her, and she could almost feel herself sigh in relief before Farkle started talking again. “Nothing like that really, it’s just I feel awful.”

“No,” she said putting her hand out to stop him from saying anything else, she doesn’t want anyone to feel bad for anything, they all lived and moved on from feeling bad. “It happened, we’ll survive, please I don’t think I can handle another person freaking out.” She really couldn’t not after the fight with Maya the week before. It was heartbreaking and sad, and while it helped out their relationship, Riley really hated fighting with people.

“But Riley, I didn’t say or do anything, I let myself get caught up in all of my classes, classes that by the way were up to par with everything I’ve been studying my whole life,” he said trying to reason with her, but she knew it was better for him to feel happy with where his life was going.

“Yes, and that’s good, plus according to Josh and Maya, you took Smackle out all of the time, all that matters is that we all find our way back to one another,” she said smiling at him hoping that it would take the strain off what her genius best friend was feeling.

Farkle nodded at her before sitting down on one of the nearby chairs. “Zay told me about what happened,” he said before looking up at her with sadness in his eyes. She knew that Zay telling anyone other than Riley and Lucas was a big step for him, but the fact that Farkle had to learn about it after the fact was probably hurting the genius. “He told me about how you and Lucas, and Charlie, and even Sam helped pull him out of where his head was taking him.”

She sighed before walking over to where he had sat down and kneeled in front of him. “It’s not your fault, it’s not any of our fault, it happened and it’s over.” It wasn’t anyone’s fault, people go through things, she knew this more than most because she had lived through a lot of hard moments, some she had help from her friends to getting over them, while others she still lived with, because her insecurities weren’t going to go away overnight.

“But that’s the thing, I wasn’t there for him either, he’s one of my best friends in the whole world and I felt like I abandoned him.”

“Farkle, honestly you didn’t, the same way that Maya and I will always come back to one another, because we’re all family, but anyway, things happen. I know what happened with Zay was just too much for anyone to handle, but honestly, he’s actually happier now. He had therapy once a week at school, he’s raising hell with Sam and Charlie, and maybe one day he’ll move on from what had happened with Cassie.” It was all the truth, Zay was getting better, and him talking to Farkle about it was a part of that.

“But,” he started but Riley put her hand on his mouth.

“No buts, it happened it’s over and all you need to do is be there for him, be his friend again, and don’t blow anything up.”

Farkle sighed before nodding, he looked defeated for a moment, by his inability to help when his friend needed him the most. “I feel like I missed so much,” he said his voice just above a whisper. She knew she needed to get him to understand that even though he missed it there’s still so much more that will happen in the future and all that mattered was that they were there for one another.

“Hey just think about it this way,” she said as the idea took root in her mind. “The day you and Smackle win the Nobel, we’ll be there for you guys, just like when Lucas gets his license to be a Vet, or Maya has an opening at some huge gallery, or Zay finally gets to be a detective, or wherever I’ll be.” All of it was the truth about their lives, that while they went through things on their own, they will always find a way to celebrate to good moments together.

“Probably wherever Lucas is,” he said with a smile.

“Yes, but knowing Lucas he’s going to make sure we never leave New York fearing the wrath of my father if he even thinks of taking me away,” she told him with a smile. Lucas knew that she would probably never leave the city she had grown up in, even though she wouldn’t mind going somewhere different.

“I hope you get to go somewhere amazing Riley Matthews.”

“I hope so too, but honestly I would love to stay here, it’s my home and it’s where we’ll always find each other, our little stitched up family” she said with a smile. “Now let’s finish setting up and get this party started, and please no more heart to heart talks, at least until next year.”

They finished the set up in time for Charlie and Zay to bring up all of the food, most of which had been made by Zay who had learned to love cooking after spending one too many weekends at cooking classes with Riley. Lucas and Josh brought up the drinks as Smackle stood by setting up the plates and cups. Riley was waiting for the moment where Smackle would say something, would bring up the weeks of not talking. It hadn’t happened yet, the genius had been waiting until Riley was alone in the kitchen wrapping up the last of the platters before walking up to her and giving her a hug.

It was awkward, and it reminded Riley of the hugs Smackle used to give her years ago before she became comfortable with being her friend. But Riley wouldn’t trade it in for anything in the world because it felt right.

“I know everyone is apologizing for something that naturally happened,” Smackle said once she had separated from Riley. “I on the other hand want to thank you, I know that you were the one who suggested all of the dates and all of the things that your Uncle Boing took us out too, and I also read all of the emails you sent and found them encouraging.”

“Only the best for my best friends,” Riley said with a smile.

“I needed them Riley,” Smackle said looking up at her, the awkwardness gone from her eyes. “I didn’t tell this to Farkle in the beginning, but I felt lost for a while there, I mean I could understand my classes and my new life, but there was always this fear that I wouldn’t measure up, and your emails encouraged me to try anyway. Just like how the outings helped me feel slightly more normal in my relationship, it grounded me and I’m glad for them. I hope you can continue to write them for me, even if we’re always standing next to one another.”

Riley pulled Smackle back into a tight hug, and the genius hugged her back with all of her heart, “Isadora you are a diamond in a sea of coal, and I will write you as many emails as you want if it means that you never change who you are.”

“Thank you,” Smackle whispered into Riley’s hair. They hugged for a little longer before separating, a smile on each of their faces, because Riley knew that as long as she’s helping her friends, they would always be happy, even if they’re not next to one another.

While at the party hours later, Riley realized that she hadn’t seen her boyfriend at all, only ever in passing, as their friends from high school and middle school surrounded them. Constantly pulling them in one direction or another, everyone was happy, which only made Riley happy to be there with them.

The only time Riley had stopped to look around was when she had seen Maya standing awkwardly next to Josh. Riley watched as her best friend told her boyfriend that she loved him, and that the new year would be better than ever because they were together. It was cute and adorable to watch them, because they both deserved the best in the world. The two of them were glowing, in their own little bubble and as much as the whole aunt thing weirded Riley out, she wouldn’t begrudge them their moments. They had been tip toeing over this moment for such a long time, and in the end it was the best possible outcome to watch them find their place in each other’s hearts.

That was how Lucas found her, and wrapped his arms around her waist, “Hey there princess,” Lucas whispered in her ear, making her shiver, even though it was impossible with the heaters and all of the people they knew around them. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” she said as she turned around to face him. This was the closest they had been to one another since they had gotten back from school. They were always looking out for her father now, because Riley was sure he would pop up and ruin the moment. That’s how she found herself looking around to see where her parents were.

“Don’t worry, your mom is keeping him distracted,” Lucas said before wrapping his arms around her waist and slowly dancing with her, as everyone around them jumped to the music. Lucas pulled her towards the area behind the doorway where no one could actually see them before he kissed her. The world around them counting down to midnight, while Riley was safely in his arms. They didn’t separate until the fireworks had stopped and everyone was cheering around them.

“Happy New Year,” she said to him before kissing him again.

Riley wasn’t sure how it had happened, all that she remembered was someone yanking her away from Lucas, and of course the moment she saw her father chasing her boyfriend, she knew that her life would never really change, even if she didn’t speak to her friends for weeks. They always had a way of making it back to one another. Just like how her father was going to keep chasing Lucas away because it was the only way to protect his daughter’s virtue.

“You know it’s nice to know that somethings don’t change around here,” Maya said standing next to Riley while they watched Riley’s father chase Lucas around for daring to kiss his daughter in front of him, or even try to hide the kiss at all.

“Why is this my life,” Riley groaned before covering her face in her best friend’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, one day your dad would old and slow and he wouldn’t have the ability to chase after Lucas,” Maya said with glee in her voice.

“Lies,” Riley said as she pulled away from Maya’s shoulder. “He’ll get one of those motorized scooters and chase him down the street with it, screaming about kids these days.”

That was the start of her new year, sadly it was the same as any other, and it left Riley hoping for the day when her father would stop chasing Lucas and let them be a couple without the worry.

Week Three

The first weekend after New Year’s, found the group of nine in two cars driving almost six hours to East Bethany, because Riley had made the mistake of letting everyone else pick where they were going to do the ghost tour, and of course it was after Sam, Zay, and Maya had watched the episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved on Rolling Hills Asylum. The three of them wanted to meet Roy, the seven-foot-tall inmate of the asylum. Riley regretted her decision to do this after that, because while she could act like she was strong, she was everything but strong when it came to the scary creepy things.

So, Riley and Lucas, along with Farkle and Smackle were in Lucas’s car, while Maya, Charlie, Zay, and Sam were driving with Josh in his car. The reason why they had decided on this set up for the journey all had to do with Riley trying to avoid any talk about blood, gore, and anything creepy. She wanted to enjoy the drive up, considering how long it was, especially since the Asylum was close to Niagara Falls. Riley wanted to get her friends to go there instead, but since Farkle’s dad helped them arrange the overnight trip, Riley was trapped in a scary nightmare of her own making.

“There it is,” Farkle said to Lucas before they had missed the turn off and fulfilling Riley’s dream of not having to do this haunted disaster.

Maya was honking Josh’s horn as they drove up the driveway towards their destination, the group in the other car excited about the trip.

“Don’t worry,” Lucas said once Smackle and Farkle had left the car. “I’ve got you.”

Riley couldn’t help but smile at her boyfriend, especially since she still had nightmares about them getting separated in a place like the one they were about to go into. She could be strong, they wouldn’t stop her from trying would they. Somewhere deep inside of her heart she wished that one of them had said that she didn’t have to go. But she had been dumb enough to trying and defend herself to the group and now her heart was pounding and she felt like she was going to crawl out of her skin.

“Okay,” Smackle said as they all gathered up in front of the cars. “Farkle and I are going to be conducting an experiment while we’re here, so you all have to wear these monitors. As well as these body cameras, because Maya and Sam want footage of what we do for what I don’t know, and I don’t really care.”

Smackle and Farkle handed out a few containers, one for each of them, and inside were everything they were going to need, including a spirt box, because Maya had wanted to see if she would be able to talk to ghost, even though she was skeptical about them existing, she just wanted her chance.

“Everyone, grab your sleeping bags, and let’s go meet with the caretaker,” Farkle said to the group.

Riley stood at the back with Lucas holding her hand, she knew that he could feel the sweat accumulating from her hand and she was embarrassed about it. Several times she tried and failed to pull away, the last time she tried he pulled her close and put her hand near his heart.

“I’ve got you,” he said as they walked forward.

That night had been a restless sleepless disaster for Riley, one that she honestly couldn’t remember much of, and what she did remember was stuck in her nightmares for the days after. There had been a moment where Maya and Sam and jumped out of a dark corner, scaring Riley so bad that she had tripped and fallen into a dark hallway, where she could swear she heard someone screaming. There was also a time in the middle of the night when Lucas had gone to the bathroom leaving Riley alone, which freaked her out even more when she heard moaning coming from somewhere, only to run screaming into the hallway and finding Maya and Josh furiously making out.

Instead of going back to sleep after that, Lucas took her for a walk to try and calm her down, only for a bat to come flying out of some dark corner, freaking her out so much that she had pulled a piece of wood from the floor and flung it across the room, while she ran the other way. The problem with that was that she had accidentally hit Lucas instead of the bat and left him behind. He found her down the hallway five minutes later crying because the zombies were going to get her, and she didn’t want that to happen.

By morning she was a complete wreck and she hadn’t slept at all, so of course when they were walking towards the car she tripped and fell down, spraining her ankle on the way to the ground. Lucas drove them to the nearby hospital and for what felt like the millionth time in her life, her foot was in a boot and she was told to keep off of it for two weeks.

So, of course this meant having her friends play the video of Riley’s journey through the asylum when they got back, laughing when she had wacked Lucas with the two by four.

“It’s not funny you guys,” Riley said moping in her bed while everyone else sat around her. Lucas was rubbing her arms and kissing her head until she felt safe enough to fall asleep again.

Even though she hadn’t really liked the trip she was glad that everyone had had a fun time, because they had done it together, and it felt normal for them. It wasn’t until she had seen the statistics of Smackle and Farkle’s study, that Riley had realized that she hadn’t been the only one who had been scared that night. Lucas’s heart freaked out whenever there was a rat around, because as much as he loves animals he doesn’t like rats. The footage of Zay showed him walking around with Charlie, both of them holding out water guns, that Riley later found out had been filled with holy water. Maya had been immune to it, her heart had only jumped when she had been making out with Josh, which to Riley meant that they had been way too into their make out session, since they had been in a haunted asylum. Smackle and Farkle had been too into their research that they hadn’t registered anything that had happened. And Sam had been filming a million things, so she hadn’t really thought about what had been happening, she had just wanted extra material for the movie she was filming.

It was nice to know that her friends had had fun, even she hadn’t, and it had only gone and cemented their friendships more because it had been an experience they had had together.

Week Four

Riley had been stuck at home for the last two weeks of her winter break, Lucas visited until he had to go on vacation with his parents to Texas, leaving her alone without him. Maya and Josh had been planning a date slash birthday celebration for Maya’s 19th birthday, because Josh had wanted to take her out on a special dinner. The only one who visited her was Zay because he had been trying to find his center in all of the madness. Smackle and Farkle had finally gotten a date night that they had planned, with Riley’s help, to celebrate Smackle getting the unsolvable problem solved, earning the genius a hefty prize.

“I miss Lucas,” Riley had told Zay as they started watching The Notebook, it was one of Zay’s favorite movies, and while Riley loved a good romance, she didn’t have the heart to watch it at the moment.

“I know sugar, but don’t worry he’ll be back,” Zay said as he used her nail polish on her toes. He had grabbed every color and painted each toe a different one, it was something he did with his mother, and he had wanted to cheer Riley up so he did it for her too.

“I know,” she said sigh to herself before she remembered the looks that Charlie and Zay had been sending one another. “By the way, is there anyone you like right now?”

“Riley,” he said looking up at her. “I don’t know if I want to be in a relationship right now.”

“I didn’t say that, it’s just that sometimes it’s good to have a crush on someone, to find a way of moving on from what had happened,” she said looking down at her hands because she was afraid of meddling again.

“Yeah, but it might be breaking the bro code,” he mumbled, and Riley’s head shot up looking at him.

“I’m not getting involved,” she said to him before changing the subject to safer topics. Zay had to go through this on his own, and Riley couldn’t get involved, she was only wishing for his happiness and that’s all that mattered to her.

Zay finished her toes, and out of boredom let her paint his, but she only painted them one color, which surprisingly cheered him up a bit. They talked, and her father checked in on her every once and a while, he was fine with Zay being there, or Farkle but if it had been Lucas forget it.

When she woke up the next day she thanked Zay for keeping her company, and then wrote that the bro code doesn’t exist between them. She didn’t elaborate, she didn’t hint at whether she knew who Zay liked, she kept it simple. She got an ‘Ok’ as a reply and went about her day once again, only to be pulled towards the bay window by Maya two hours later.

“Well something happened on your date with Josh,” Riley said smiling at her best friend, who for some reason was all smiles and blushes. “Oh god I don’t want to know.” Riley did her best to cover her ears because honestly, she didn’t want to hear about where this conversation was about to go, except Maya held out her hand.

“Ring power to the tenth degree,” Maya said forcing Riley to uncover her ears. “You promised me if we ever went to that next step we would talk about it.”

“Maya that had been before seventh grade, we had talked about that before you and Josh got together, we talked about what it would be like to find someone we loved, but this… this maybe too much,” Riley said thinking back to those preteen years, when she had wanted to be like Maya, only to find herself and be happy.

“Well it happened, and I need my best friend to talk about it with,” Maya said looking at her, giving Riley a pleading look.

“Fine, but the day it happens to me I’m locking myself away and never telling you,” Riley said leaning back against the bay window before turning and putting her foot on Maya’s lap. “Now spill.”

“You’re going to tell me, I already know you are because we share our experiences with each other,” Maya said before tickling Riley’s toes. “Nice paint job by the way.”

“Yeah well Zay was bored so I let him, now spill.”

Maya went into detail about how special the night had been, and how they had ended up back at Josh’s place, he was a total gentleman, and they had only decided on making out.

“But I told him that I was ready, and even brought a condom and everything, because a girl has to be prepared, and he had been my first for a lot of things, and it felt perfect, so of course he lit some candles,” Maya said with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Oh god I’m not ready for this conversation,” Riley said wanting to cover her ears, only to have Maya continue her story. “How do you feel?” Riley asked once her best friend was done.

“A little sore, he was so sweet to me the whole time, and then he said he was scared too because it was his first time, which surprise the hell out of me.”

“Maya you two have been together for almost two years now, he never really dated anyone other than you, I should know because he used to talk about you all of the time. I mean he’s kissed other girls, and tried to be a normal guy, but it had always been you who he had gravitated towards.”

“That’s sweet,” Maya said to her. “I always wondered about what it would have felt like the first time around.”

“Did it live up to your expectations?”

“Yes and no,” Maya said leaning back onto the window, “I mean it felt perfect, but I hadn’t expected the pain, which means you have to expect it too.”

“Nope, I swear my wedding night is going to be the only time that happens, well not the only time, but the first time.”

“You want to walk down that road? Not trying before then?”

“Yes, plus it gives my father less ammunition against Lucas,” Riley said before she could yawn. “I think we need to celebrate this moment, and I say we do it by eating pancakes and watching some teen movie where the same thing happens to the couple.”

“I hear you,” Maya said standing up and pulling out her phone, they ordered breakfast from the only place nearby that delivers, making sure to order pancakes and sausage, because Maya thought there should be sausages as a euphemism, adding an omelet and bacon for them to split while they watched a random movie that had nothing to do with the moment, but it felt nice to just do something just the two of them.

Week Five

When the last week of their break came around Riley was exhausted because of everything that had happened with everyone that she hid in her room, curtains closed and slept for two days, only to find out later that she had caught a cold and that’s why she had been so tired. Lucas had shown up with a cup of soup and a warm fleece blanket that he had gotten her from Texas, tucking her in and feeding her soup.

“Don’t worry too much,” he had said to her before the medication had lulled her to sleep.

The cold had lasted until the day she had her boot taken off which was the day before she had to go back to school. She was fully rested and happy, because her friends were there with her, her dad was still the same, and her boyfriend, while not perfect, was still the one who helped hold her together.

#girl meets season 6 #rucas fanfic #rucas #riley matthews #lucas friar #joshaya #maya hart #josh matthews #smarkle #isadora smackle #farkle minkus #zay babineaux #charlie gardner

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