#wip: Nightingale & Peregrine

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Blood red, morning grey? -tabbydrafts

Thanks for the ask @tabbydrafts

Blood Red: Favourite piece of dialogue from your wip

Recently found this piece in Nightingale and Peregrine

“You’re a saint.” “I’m a person.” “Saints are just people who decide to be better. Are you going to try telling me you haven’t made that choice?”

Morning Grey: Do you still want people to join your taglist?

Yes. If you want to be on any of my taglists, just ask.

[perditism]

I'm revamping my romance WIP Nightingale & Peregrine for my NaNo project, and should probably start calling myself a planner because I wrote a chapter by chapter summary that is already finished!

first of all YOUR WIP NAME IS GORGEOUS?? from a writer who can never name their wips, you’re my hero. Also congrats on finishing you planning!!! I'm a planner tooo but sometimes my plans are so all over the place it barely counts  😔 i would love to hear more about the plot, your wip sounds amazing already!! 

tell me about your nano / current wip <3

[toboldlywrite]

So I have 3 WIPs I'm willing to talk about on this website so I'm going to sum up each of them. Apprentices: 12 teenage nerds with overlap in interests and skills have to save the world from an evil sorceress. Monstrosities: A special girl accidentally ends up spending time with people who are targets of the supernatural. Nightingale & Peregrine: One dude has three identities and falls in love with the girl he's trying to trick. Bonus: these are all in the same universe.

Oooo these all sound cool separately but then they’re also part of the same universe? That’s awesome! Do they connect in any ways besides that? Any characters from other ones make cameos? Do events in one affect any others? Either way these all sound intriguing in their different ways!

[cwritesfiction]

And from Nightingale and Peregrine: “You’re eight, you have to be at least ten to be a superhero.”

I mean, that’s a fair rule. From mine:

This was classic August: act first, think later.

Send an out of context quote from your WIP and I’ll send an out of context quote from mine!

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Been thinking about how it makes the most sense for Nightingale and Spade to have interacted before (many times, with some kind of dynamic going on), but Mandie and Moses to have never met each other, or only meeting in passing, which will basically give me an interesting two person love pentagon thanks to Moses having three identities (Moses, Peregrine, Ace of Spades), which means I might just need to make a chart.

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how did nightingale and peregrine decide on the names of their alter egos?

Thanks so much for asking. I'm sorry I didn't answer earlier, but we were cleaning our house for father's day.

Mandie chose the name Nightingale from her mother, who called Mandie and her sister, Catherine, her little nightingales. They'd play their own family variant of hide and seek where their mom would ask for a hint, and the girls would hum or whistle from wherever they were hidden. It's a memory she holds close all these years later.

Moses actually chose his name in the book itself, so I'll share that excerpt under the cut.

“Oh! I’m…” Who was he? He hadn’t been given a name as far as he was aware, “Someone who didn’t come up with a name.”

Her mask hid her eyes, so he had no idea if her little smile was genuine, but it seemed to be.

“Take your time.”

He was finding her fascinating, like last time, but with a lot less peril. He was almost admiring her. It didn’t really make sense. Maybe that’s where his name could come from though, hers.

“Do you mind if I use your name for inspiration?” He asked, trying to read for any reaction in her expression, “I don’t want to be a man stealing your whole thing, but—”

“Go right ahead. Then I have an excuse to call you my protege when you move on to somewhere else.”

Did she actually feel that way. The mask just made her impossible to read.

“Alright, if you’re Nightingale, then I’ll be…” what was a kind of bird that felt right. He liked that fast one. What was it called? “Peregrine?” He said it aloud. “Does that sound good?”

“Good enough,” she said, “I’m hardly in a position to judge. How many heroes do you know that named themselves after small birds? At least you’re a raptor.”

None of that sounded genuine except for the first part.

“Please don’t debase yourself on my account.”

“Fine,” she seemed to squirm a bit, “Your names up to snuff, says the best named hero in the whole world”

He asked for it.

“Thank you.”

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Mandie & Nightingale

I used this Picrew to build Separate looks for Mandie and her Alter Ego for your pleasure, also explaining some of the differences. (Thanks @incandescent-creativity​ for posting the picrew on her blog)

Mandie

Reputation of being innocent

Thick, long hair that she keeps down

In comparison to Nightingale, her personality can seem kind of “customer service voice”.

She doesn’t feel like she’s putting on that much of an act though.

Wears about knee-length dresses, either sleeveless or short sleeves.

It’s supposed to be a sort of exposure therapy for superhuman senses to leave her more able to handle everything.

At this point it’s just a habit from her teenage years.

Gray eyes most often compared to Athena, Goddess of weaving.

Since she’s a seamstress/designer

Little to no makeup due to superhuman senses making it feel very gross to her.

Always ready to lend a helping hand.

Nightingale

Reputation of Scary

Kind to most bystanders though

Pulls hair back, typically in a braid.

Mandie lets out a lot more fury with the mask on.

Righteous Fury

A bit more sarcastic too.

Wears all white, covering most of her skin, as well as a mask (represented by glasses here). Removable skirt worn over white pants.

Is occasionally called the Bride of Justice.

Gray eyes rarely seen, but occasionally compared to Athena, Goddess of War.

Fairly Low-tech compared to other heroes, even forgoing a communication device while out.

Seen as the one to call when a fellow hero needs more muscle.

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Nightingale and Peregrine new WIP introduction

Amanda Piec has been the hero Nightingale for over a decade, and now her whole life revolves around heroes, especially her day-job as a designer of superhero costumes. She’s tired, and she’s now fostering a genetic experiment because where else is the girl going to go? And now she’s got a new thief in town who just confuses her.

Moses Casbourough wanted to leave mercenary life behind, but his new employer, Spectrum, has other plans. He needs to do as Spectrum says, or his former team, his family, goes to prison, where Empowereds don’t typically last long. He’s Ace of Spades now, and he steals things for reasons he doesn’t need to know apparently, but he’s also Spectrum, a vigilante meant to earn Nightingale’s trust. There’s also the problems of being a newly minted Telepath.

These two collide by accident and with interference, finding a connection, but what ending do they get?

Superheroes! Romance! Drama!

My NaNoWriMo project! *pulls out a confetti popper and struggles to pop it*

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👀 Describe your OC through the eyes of another person! (bonus + specify who)

Could you have Nightingale describe Peregrine and vice versa?

Thanks for the ask!

I have many descriptions of these people thinking about how the other looks, but I’ve felt a bit like rewriting their second in-book meeting, (While Moses/Peregrine is in the guise of the Ace of Spades). Especially since I want to switch the whole book to 1st person.

Nightingale

The first thing was the voice: Crisp, confident, intentional. I knew he’d use a different voice if he didn’t have that mask on. This was Spade, except this time he was missing his black color scheme in exchange for a ridiculous gangster outfit. A hat was hiding his hair, but I could still see the black dyed color. He held himself differently, scared of something. Me?

“That you, Songbird?”

Peregrine

The hair. The only piece of color in her whole look, just a step brighter than a natural redhead. I always wondered if that was the real reason Diamond hated her, a natural version of the look she’d been going for. She held herself tall. She wasn’t very large outside of that, but I knew from experience that her arms hid muscle, or some kind of enhanced strength. Then the skirt, almost floor length, making her look like a school marm even with her shirt built for combat, and not a classroom. She was going to kill me.

“That you, Songbird?”

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I've decided that Moses is an empath but isn't aware of it because it is 1000% more entertaining for me.

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Within a minute of Mandie kissing him for the first time, Moses punches his boss for her honor, which is more an example of how much he wanted to punch his boss than anything about Mandie.

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Mandie and Moses’ meet-cute has changed from “Strange man gives unwarranted medical advice” to “Strange man gets run over by nine(ish) year old foster daughter” which I feel is a vast improvement.

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Meant to post this earlier but I was just entertained by my own writing because

Moses’ twin sister:

[“I wasn’t. I just got a dizzy spell because you haven’t been feeding yourself, you piece of shit.”]

Mandie’s twin sister:

[“Why the macadamia nut did you think I know Morse Code!?”]

That’s all

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The way I ended Mandie’s last chapter means that the next chapter will heavily feature Mandie’s twin sister and favorite feral science lady: Catherine!

And they’re probably going to discuss something emotional while setting potential sleeves for a wedding dress on fire.

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"I would probably kiss anyone back at this point, I’m a little touch-starved."

Moses Casbourough, nailing the vibes of quarantine

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I need to write Deleted Scenes more often

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” “No.”