What are you doing right now?

[EndOfTheEarth]

Besides posting on here and replying to this thread. Original credit for this goes back to Fate and Nathan on MX.

[o0_flying high_0o]

And it's so drawn out and torturous, not only for Jeb who made stupid, however innocent, mistake, but for the poor little boy caught in the crossfire. If he somehow managed to not learn his lesson and pull the same kin of stuff again he would fully deserve any attempted murders coming his way.

*gives tea to your broken heart* :( But good chapter, though.

(Unhealthily sweet fluff? Psh, there's no such thing.)

[nathan_p]

Which makes it especially a gut-punch. With characters who brought their own doom upon themselves, it's still sad, but they had something to do with it. Ari did absolutely nothing to deserve the shit that gets dumped on his head. Jeb can be kinda dumb sometimes, but I don't think he's quite that dumb. 'Cause he'd have to seriously fuck up to get Roland "The Chilled-Out One" ter Borcht trying to kill him. (Although I would bet that when/if Roland kills people, "try" doesn't come into the equation at all. He kills people, end of story.)

Yeah... there's some pretty sweet stuff in here nonetheless, but still. Ow.

(With Ari... yeah, there's no such thing as too much fluff :D Boy deserves all he can get.)

[o0_flying high_0o]

*nods* Ari... is quite possibly the biggest tragedy of the whole series. Not quite possibly, definitely. I almost liked Max for a minute when she was able to see that. He's not that dumb, or he better not be. I agree on the whole, Roland doesn't try thing.

When you know where it's going to end, the sweet stuff can only ever be brief and slightly bitter v.v

Yes. If every single fanfiction written was devoted to Ari fluff he'd still probably deserve more. I'd be sick of it, but it would still be less than he deserved.

[nathan_p]

And it actually made a few chapters of TFW -- yeah, Train-Fuckin'-Wreck -- bearable. Ari's funeral scene is the only part of that book I accept as canon. And admittedly, his death scene in STW... yes, JP's style is made of pressed suck, but that scene made me go all ";_; oh jesus I have something in my eye". Especially when it comes to protecting his family. Fuck with his family and you bring down the wrath of God on your head. Well, if God is a seriously pissed-off mad scientist...

That's part of the reason why I'm kind of stalling on it. It hurts, man. I've only written a few chapters with Ari -- I barely know him as a character -- and I'm still just like "y'know what, man, I just can't do this".

It makes me very happy that Ari's role in fandom turned around after STW. Before that, he was lots of people's first choice for a stock villain, and now... it's great to see him finally getting some (or a lot, depending) love.

[o0_flying high_0o]

It was an incredibly sweet funeral and so simple and perfect, but God, I wanted Fang out of there. I don't care how touching it was that he able to admit he was wrong, but... *annoyed* Ari deserved the perfect funeral. He hated Fang and Fang hated him, and... eh. The death scene was like that too... it was Oh, God, not Ari, not now. And then it just grated somewhat. I can imagine. In a, can I please have the wrath of God instead? kinda way

*gives tea* But there's fluff to look forward to. You get to write the happy chapters as well.

*nods* But he does make the perfect arch-rival for Max, and most of the time against Max makes them evil.

And sorry for randomly disappearing

[nathan_p]

I was just like "Patterson, your writing kills me :C" Though I did kind of feel like Jeb managed to say quite a lot by remaining silent. That's one scene I'm... not terribly looking forward to rewriting, since there's not much I can do. *snort* Which is an oddly entertaining thought...

Yeah, I guess.

True. I'm also happy that that era's behind us 'cause Jeb often featured as a villain back then too, and the writing was quite often really bad.

It's okay, I'm struggling with Jeb's bit right now.

[o0_flying high_0o]

You could just leave it. Or maybe go with one of the characters, like Roland or Elsa who aren't there, but are connected are care about Jeb... sort of thing. And it might just be interesting to here what Jeb's actually thinking at the time. I don't think Roland would be all that merciful when it came to messing with his family... like at all.

Although most of the time the writing is still quite bad now. It's just bad with somewhat sympathetic attitudes towards Jeb and Ari.

[nathan_p]

I would like to explore what Jeb was thinking then. Would be fun. (And I have plans for Roland and Elsa around that timeframe, as well.) That's what I thought. He's a nice guy and all, but... mess with his family, he'll fuck you up.

Which is a step in the right direction :D It's very, very nice to see Jeb's name come up and he isn't portrayed as the Devil.

[o0_flying high_0o]

*nods* Jeb's thoughts are always interesting and very rarely explored. And he'd be cruelly efficient about it to. He seems like the meticulous sort of guy that has his established boundaries and once you cross them, that's it. Messing with his family? Definitely crossing a boundary

Well, a step sure. Still, actually writing coherently would be nice too...

[nathan_p]

That, and I haven't gotten the opportunity to write really good angst in a long time. o.o Dude, you're a mind-reader. That's what I thought of him, too. He's fairly laid-back a lot of the time, but once you step over the line... you are dead. Or you'll wish you were.

Yeah... which is why I flip into auto-squee mode when I find a well-written Jeb fic.

[o0_flying high_0o]

Angst is actually kind of fun to write. I find, at least. And so much easier than most other kinds. Well you are responsible for a great deal of my thoughts on Roland, and the fact I know his first name, so it makes sense we ended up with a similar view

I'd do the same, 'cept I don't really spend that much time looking any more.

[nathan_p]

I was addicted to angst when I was about twelve or so, but I kind of left that phase behind and shifted to writing things going more into other aspects of the characters. More like, that particular aspect of his character doesn't come up for quite a while yet, and I don't remember having expressed how I felt about it.

Mine is a sad addiction v.v