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hallowgracie · 1 month ago

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Short Story: "Alternate Universe, Slow Burn"

Author's Note: The storyline for Starfall Sleuth developed when I was creating a fictional fandom for a short story about two young adults deep into fandom spaces (cosplay, edits, and fanfic) whose catalyst for realizing they've been in love with each other is that they're about to meet at a convention for their favorite fandom in-person.

I thought it might be fun to share that story, so we might learn where certain ideas came from--and what might have changed between the version of the story depicted in this short versus what suits my writing sensibilities.

...

Sonya didn’t even bother turning on the lights in her dorm. Instead, she toed off her shoes and headed to the rigid standard desk in the trance of a routine. She slung her backpack to the unswept floor and removed her most precious possession—the laptop gifted to her by her parents for her high school graduation. Stickers covered every inch of the laptop’s translucent turquoise shell, with little chibi characters on both sides of the mousepad.

Sonya booted it up, revealing a desktop screen with a wallpaper set to a movie poster with those same characters in live action. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she entered in her password and pulled up Discord.

Her breath hitched. This was it. The message that had her soaring all the way home in anticipation.

nightshadewisdom : just got to the hotel w Will and Sam and the others. The Phantom Thieves are here!

She pushed her circular golden glasses up her nose as she took in the words on the screen. So simple, so short—only seventeen words. Seventeen words that were the culmination of five years.

agardenofstars : Glad to hear you got here safe. I totally thought with the rain there’d be a delay to the flight.

There was no green light next to his profile icon, an anime depiction of the character with a domino mask, a top hat, and a great purple cloak with a rose broach fastening it. So Sonya clicked to open a tab—he’d be back online eventually.

There were several new comments in her inbox at Archive Of Our Own, all on the latest chapter of her newest fanfic. That was distraction enough, to keep her from repeatedly checking Discord and refreshing in futility.

playinghergame : I absolutely love it! This is the ending Seele and James should have gotten!!

seele-is-queen : What is there to say? Ugh, I love the line about the pointlessness of self-sacrifice. That’s what the writers of season 4 deserve, having James die like that and Seele end up alone.

the-okay-detective : Oh, that scene in the tower is so beautiful, and the art by nightshadewisdom is just gorgeous, as always. I love seeing what you two come up with for my favorite ship!

The last one had Sonya’s cheeks go warm as she found herself smiling. It was only on the last two or three stories that they’d collaborated like this, posting art meant to go directly with a totally planned-out story.

She decided to respond to that one first.

agardenofstars : @the-okay-deective, thank you so much! Yeah, I love nightshadewisdom’s work, when he showed me that, I had to actually rewrite the scene to do it more justice. I’m so glad that you love it, we always love seeing you in the comments

agardenofstars : @seele-is-queen The season 4 finale was such bullshit, I had to bite my thumb at it. Thanks for reading and reviewing, as always!

agardenofstars : @playinghergame Thanks! Seele x James forever!

As she finished the last response, the distinct chime of a new Discord message rang out. She clicked to see several new messages from Jay.

nightshadewisdom : Yeah, I thought so too. But we’re here, getting our wigs and everything ready for tomorrow.

nightshadewisdom : I hope the rain wasn’t too much trouble on your campus.

Sonya’s fingers flew across the board like she was sure her heart would, in a Snow White kind of way.

agardenofstars : It wasn’t too bad, I live on campus, so it’s not like I ever had to walk long in the rain. Still, I hate when it gets all dark and gray like this, it’s so depressing.

agardenofstars : It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow, though, so at least your wigs won’t be in danger!

She added a little chibi winking face, styled after the character in his icon.

nightshadewisdom : Maybe we should meet up for coffee or something before we go to the convention hall.

nightshadewisdom : Know any good places?

agardenofstars : I mean, I guess there’s always the Starbucks on campus. But I’ve heard really good things about the coffee shop in the convention center. Might be worth waiting to check it out.

nightshadewisdom : That’s fair. I guess I was just hoping to see you sooner.

Sonya leaned back and frowned. What exactly did Jay mean by that? The phrasing was strangely sentimental, it had a feeling of almost. . .yearning to it? Then again, it was always hard to tell in the written word.

It was funny, she’d spent so long learning how to write all kinds of emotions though characters that meant everything to her. And yet she still could not discern the intentions of a stupid text message on Discord.

agardenofstars : That’s fair. It is weird, isn’t it? We’ll see each other in person for the first time tomorrow.

agardenofstars : You, Will, Sam, all of your friends. And yet I feel like we know each other so well already.

nightshadewisdom : Because we do know each other so well. We’ve been talking like this for what, five years?

Sonya bit her lip and thought of the date circled on her calendar, one that she only noted three or so years ago, when the feeling of sentimentality hit her.

agardenofstars : Yeah, five years. Pretty close to today, too. I remember I was watching the livestreams of the con panels and wishing I could be there.

nightshadewisdom : That would have been around season 2, right?

agardenofstars : Yeah, right before season 2. I think I saw your fanart of the waterfall scene with Seele and James and I just had to write something for it. . .

nightshadewisdom : You tagged me in it, and I was still small enough then that I could keep up with everyone tagging me in stuff

agardenofstars : And the rest is history ;)

agardenofstars : And you were plenty popular then! The fandom for the reboot wasn’t that big yet.

nightshadewisdom : Okay, you got me

nightshadewisdom : I’d actually seen your fics before that point

By nature, Sonya was a storyteller. She lived and breathed a narrative, a romanticized sequence of events. And she prided herself in knowing her stories well, keeping track of all the miniscule details, like whether Seele Gardner’s eyes were blue or green (somewhere in-between).

This was a detail unbeknownst to her, one that she couldn’t have known. And yet it was one that changed the narrative. A chance meeting was less than chance. The moon and the earth had been circling each other in orbit long before they could see each other.

She sat back in her chair, considering it a moment. Then her hands hovered tentatively over the keyboards as she struggled to decode her own whirling thoughts.

agardenofstars : Really? I wasn’t really writing anything good yet. Or getting that many hits on my work.

nightshadewisdom : That’s true, but you were also one of the only ones writing Jaseele fic.

nightshadewisdom : I always wanted to post some of the work I’d done based on that earlier stuff but I never got up the courage.

nightshadewisdom : You never know how that kind of thing will be received

agardenofstars : Ha, I would’ve worried about that for your stuff, if you didn’t always post it with a caption saying it was okay.

nightshadewisdom : It’s funny, isn’t it? We both were so shy then, it would have been so easy for us to never meet

nightshadewisdom : And tomorrow would be very different. Maybe it wouldn’t happen this way at all.

nightshadewisdom : I don’t know. Sorry, guess I’ve been thinking about things. I don’t know why.

agardenofstars : It’s okay. I’ve been thinking about it too. Hard not to, I guess.

She knew that she would just be waiting in the silence, hanging on the edge of her seat as she waited for the things that neither of them wanted to say. She couldn’t dare to bridge that gap herself. So she got up—she’d come back to this later.

Besides, there were things to do to get ready for the Starfall Sleuth convention tomorrow. She had to get her cosplay out, double-check the wig, and give one last once-over for all of the details. She also needed to retrieve the tickets from her email and get them onto her phone, and pull some cash from the ATM in the basement of her dorm building. Then there was dinner, and a thousand other excuses she could make.

But she’d come back to Discord eventually.

She always did, when it came to Jay.

If there were two things that always came back to her, it was Jay and Starfall Sleuth.

It was an hour later when Sonya returned to her computer, ready to brave the messages on Discord with a bowl of Kraft Mac and Cheese, courtesy of the microwave in the dorm’s rec room.

“Alright, Jay,” she murmured to herself aloud. “What’cha got for me?”

nightshadewisdom : How did you get into Starfall Sleuth, btw?

Sonya blinked. She hadn’t expected him to take the conversation in that direction. Still, she faithfully began to type out a reply.

agardenofstars : It’s funny, I guess it never came up before. My mom was into Starfall Sleuth back in the 80s, when the first show came out. I watched parts of it as a toddler, and when I was in like, fifth grade, I saw the books in my school library.

agardenofstars : I was more into them than the original show, although I liked the first show okay. But then when the reboot came out, there was so much hype and it was hard not to get swept up in it, you know?

nightshadewisdom : Yeah, I know the feeling.

agardenofstars : How about you, then? I know you were doing art when the reboot was announced, but I don’t think you ever told me your origin story either.

nightshadewisdom : Really? That’s funny, it’s always seemed obvious to me.

nightshadewisdom : But now that I think about it, I never told you my full name. It’s James.

agardenofstars : OH LIKE JAMES STARFALL SLEUTH

agardenofstars : You’re shitting me

agardenofstars : HOW HAVE I NEVER PUT THAT TOGETHER BEFORE?

agardenofstars : I feel so stupid now

nightshadewisdom : It’s okay, I actually feel better knowing that you never put that together

nightshadewisdom : So yeah, my dad ALSO liked the show in the 80s and then when he had me, what else was he going to name his kid?

nightshadewisdom : It could have been worse though. He also liked the original Voltron, so I could’ve been a Keith.

nightshadewisdom : And growing up in a house full of old nerdy stuff, it’s no wonder I ended up the same way

agardenofstars : You have no idea how much is clicking into place for me

agardenofstars : That’s kind of cool, though. I take it you and your dad were close? Before. . . you know

nightshadewisdom : We were. And it’s okay. I don’t mind talking about it with you.

nightshadewisdom : I mean, you were there, when it happened. Or there for me, since we couldn’t meet up yet

agardenofstars : Yeah. God I wanted to buy a ticket to fly to you then, even though my mom would have never let me fly to meet some guy I met online.

nightshadewisdom : You know, I think sometimes that it’s a good thing Dad didn’t make it to see the last season.

agardenofstars : What do you mean?

nightshadewisdom : Dad’s favorite character was always James Atelier, and he really liked how the first show ended, compared to the books

nightshadewisdom : But he hoped that since they made so many changes in the reboot that they might make James’s ending a little more happy.

agardenofstars : Like that he and Seele would get together this time?

nightshadewisdom : Exactly.

nightshadewisdom : He thought even the ending in the TV show, where James wanders the world and is all alone

nightshadewisdom : That was too cruel for someone who always wanted to try and do the right thing and cared about his friends

nightshadewisdom : Even if he went about it the wrong way sometimes

nightshadewisdom : Maybe if Seele hadn’t just gone on her way after he friggin sacrificed himself for her

nightshadewisdom : Maybe if she just cared or acted like she loved him at all

nightshadewisdom : Then maybe I’d be okay with how they ended the whole thing

nightshadewisdom : But my dad would’ve hated it regardless

nightshadewisdom : he hated unhappy endings

agardenofstars : So do I.

agardenofstars : The ending absolutely crushed me. I really loved reading about Seele Gardner as a kid, she was the smart and almost unlikeable kind of girl I was

agardenofstars : And she was so alone in the world because of it, at least at first

agardenofstars : Throughout so much of the stories, she got to have adventures and to make friends and to have someone like James Atelier, someone who really understood her.

agardenofstars : He was like, basically her soulmate, the Gentleman Thief to her Great Detective

agardenofstars : And then he just DIES?!

agardenofstars : like wtf?

nightshadewisdom : exactly!

nightshadewisdom : and you know what’s weird?

agardenofstars : what?

nightshadewisdom : I don’t think any ships I’ve had in the past few years had a happy ending

agardenofstars : OMG YOU’RE RIGHT

Sonya added a chibi image of a steampunk girl with red hair with her little hands on her oversized shocked face.

agardenofstars : It feels like only unhappy endings are what you get right now when it comes to love

agardenofstars : Especially for female protagonists.

agardenofstars : I mean, I think I kind of get why, since a female character doesn’t NEED a love interest but. . .

nightshadewisdom : it makes you feel like love is dead

agardenofstars : EXACTLY!! THIS!!!

nightshadewisdom : it definitely makes you wonder. . .

nightshadewisdom : What about you?

agardenofstars : What do you mean?

nightshadewisdom : Do you believe in love?

What the hell kind of question is that?

agardenofstars : Of course I do. *gestures at AO3 backlog* I’d be kinda hypocrite if I didn’t

nightshadewisdom : I’m sorry, I don’t know why I asked you something like that

nightshadewisdom : I’ll stop being weird, I promise

agardenofstars : That’s a fucking lie and you know it, Jay

agardenofstars : When have either of us not been at least a little bit weird??

agardenofstars : Are you thinking about Jenny again, then?

That seemed the most logical reason. He’d gotten oddly philosophical, in the wake of the breakup. Sonya had always been the writer between the two of them, but the words he typed in their late night chats after Jenny disappeared out of his life were practically poetry.

Sonya only knew Jenny as a shadow, a mere image. She’d heard the name in some chats, saw the pictures on Jay’s Instagram, but not much more. But she did remember how one of the pictures had branded itself into her memory.

It was taken on a school trip, at a zoo or something, and one of his friends must’ve taken it for him, because Jay was in the picture. He wore the Starfall Sleuth hoodie that was in a lot of his photos, an arm around Jenny’s shoulders.

Sonya remembered seeing that photo while sitting on the couch, re-watching a Season 1 episode of Starfall Sleuth for one of her works in progress, and being overcome with a sense of longing. She wanted, in that moment, more than anything, to be Jenny. She wanted Jenny’s sunny smile, her shiny, glorious hair blowing gracefully in the breeze, and most of all she wanted to be standing where Jenny was.

And then she felt quite cold on the couch. Ice crept through her veins, as she wondered what had given her the nerve, the desire, the feelings she didn’t want to explain.

She’d felt it all again when Jay told her that they’d broken up and Sonya felt like the worst person in the world.

Didn’t she want one of her best friends to be happy? To live a life in the real world?

Like I’m not real? Like Starfall Sleuth and all the things we’ve made aren’t?

Sonya shook her head and dismissed the thoughts as mere exhaustion, or nervousness, or any other excuse she could come up with to deny what she was feeling.

She decided to get up and put her empty bowl in the sink. She’d clean it later, at some point. By the time she got back, Jay had written back.

nightshadewisdom : No, not exactly.

nightshadewisdom : Forget about it. Want to see the Phantom Thieves unite?

Sonya grinned.

agardenofstars : Of course—although, isn’t it a little like seeing the bride before the wedding?

Her cheeks heated up and she wished she could have taken it back. What on Earth had given her such an idea?

nightshadewisdom : haha maybe

He then attached a photo—a quick mirror selfie showing Jay and his two close friends in the costumes without wigs or makeup. All were in varying states of quality, but the love shone through.

agardenofstars : You guys look great!

agardenofstars : I can’t wait to see you guys at the convention center tomorrow

nightshadewisdom : Me too.

nightshadewisdom : anyway, we’re going to turn in, since long day tomorrow

nightshadewisdom : goodnight!

The light next to his Discord icon dimmed, and Sonya was left alone in the blue light of her laptop screen. She found herself reaching out, her fingertips brushing against the words on the screen, Me too.

They felt like a vow, somehow. An oath.

The realization hit her like a bolt of lightning, as the thunder rolled outside of her dorm window.

She closed Discord and opened her word processor. A few keystrokes, and her YouTube playlist for Jaseele drowned out the rain. She would start a new story, a modern AU, enemies-to-lovers of course, where James and Seele had met online and were about to be in person for the first time, the catalyst to their immortal love of course.

And maybe they could show her how to say “I love you” tomorrow.

...

Saturday morning on Sonya’s campus was uncharacteristically quiet and idyllic. She strolled under the pink and white apple blooms planted around the college’s main avenue as the birds sang and the sun passed through the fluffy white clouds, giving the mid-morning a pale blue glow. Only a few other students were out and about, and they were mainly keeping to themselves.

That said, curious eyes drifted all to Sonya in her cosplay. With the periwinkle Edwardian-inspired dress, white-blonde wig, and elaborate straw hat with fake flowers in pink, white, and aqua-green pinned to the brim, she looked eccentric, at least.

Not that she paid them too much notice. Her mind was racing with thoughts, all about the epiphany she had had last night, tangled in with the five-thousand words of Jaseele fanfic she’d drafted last night in a frenzy.

Today, Sonya would meet Jay for the first time.

Too quickly, her steps had carried her to the outside of the convention center, hardly a block from her campus. The modern marvel of architecture towered over her in steel and glass. The large digital sign over the great front entrance declared that SleuthCon would take place inside—the local branch of the convention dedicated solely to Starfall Sleuth. The last time one of these had been held in Sonya’s city, she’d been thirteen. It was funny, to think how much had changed since then.

The trip through the security queue outside was short, especially as Sonya had no prop weapons on her, only a small backpack purse that was easy to check. Within a few minutes, she was through and she was inside of the convention.

Already the cosplays caught her attention as she entered the lobby of the convention center. So many costumes from the series had been brought to life before her very eyes. Several young women donned red wigs and goggles characteristic of Victoria Kestrel, Seele’s mechanic friend who was a known flirt and a fan favorite. Jay and his friends wouldn’t be the only Phantom Thieves cosplay group: several people were dressed as James Atelier and his friends. Seele could even spot one of the complicated costumes from the 80s version of Princess Emmaline ascending the stairs to the main floor.

There was so much to do—Seele had to grab her badge and the ticket pre-order goodies, then she needed to check the final convention schedule to figure out what she was going to do today. But she didn’t do any of that first.

Rather, first she headed toward the coffee shop near the front, a location that did not require for Seele to acquire a badge first. That was where, according to the Discord that she’d received earlier that morning, Jay and his friends would be waiting for her.

She thought she might have to search a bit for him, especially given that many people were wearing the same costume—James was the deuteragonist of the franchise, after all.

But she locked her eyes onto his as soon as she entered the room. Her breath caught in her throat as brown and brown met. She thought her heart might beat faster, but it didn’t—it slowed. She found herself smiling as she floated toward him.

This felt right, like coming home.

He’d smiled when he caught sight of her too, she could see that as she weaved between patrons and tables.

“Sonya, you look great!” One of his friends, Will, turned around and waved as she approached.

“So do you guys.” Seeing the picture last night of the unfinished, thrown-together version were one thing. But this was with the proper preparation, the wigs in place and the right makeup—and the effect was arresting. One of Sonya’s favorite stories had come alive, and she was a part of it.

“I got a birthday cake-latte for you.” Jay placed a coffee cup with her name scrawled on the side in front of the chair left open for Sonya. “I remember you mentioned that you’d tried it a month or two and you really liked it.”

“I can’t believe you would remember something like that.” Sonya sat down gingerly, careful not to crush the white under-layers of the dress. “Thank you.”

Jay shrugged and opted to take a sip out of his coffee cup instead.

Sonya took advantage of the moment to pull out her phone and send off a text to both her roommate and her other friend on campus, Alix.

Got to the convention ok. Let you know when I’m heading back, but don’t expect that til late.

She then turned on the camera and put it on selfie mode, holding it high above the round table.

“Smile!”

Everyone held up their drinks and made a goofy expression.

With a snap, the moment was immortalized. Not that Sonya needed a photograph to remember how this felt. Like watching lightning strike the pond at her grandmother’s from the front porch when she was eight, the moment might have only been for.a second: but the memory was seared into her brain for forever.

There was so much to talk about, so much to say. But the epiphany remained at the forefront. It was the pink elephant, the thing she could not talk about no matter what. After all, it wouldn’t be worth it, for all of her fantasies entwined with fan fiction last night to tell him what she thought. After all, the risk of ruining such a long friendship was too big to ruin with possibly unrequited romantic feelings.

“So, did you guys see the convention schedule?” Robin asked as he scrolled on his phone. “The panels all look kinda lame, not gonna lie—they couldn’t get anyone good to come here.”

“Didn’t they get the actress for 80s Elodia to come?” Will tilted his head.

“Eh, she was only in one episode.” Robin shrugged. “Kinda overrated, if you ask me.”

“Well, I want to go see the costume designer’s panel,” Will said.

“What do you want to do, Sonya?”

Sonya turned her head to Jay—there was an urgency of sorts in his eyes, the kind that indicated an attempt at communication without words. She glanced down, and that was when she realized that she had slipped her hand into his.

“Whatever you want to do,” she declared. “I’ll follow you anywhere.”

The way he nodded, without looking away from her, she felt as if they’d exchanged a vow.

#writeblr #my writing #short stories #alternate universe slow burn #starfall sleuth #wip: starfall sleuth

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