Babz [She/They]

Like, don't get me wrong, I love TV Time, but after 100th hour it gets kinda dull.

Tell us a hc YOU have that you plan to include in that long fic of yours

I'm gonna go with my most famdom-y and least canon compliant one, since you asked:

Although Bulbasaur is the most whimsical of the three, and Charmander the one with the most fervent imagination, they never quite seem to have the focus necessary to create a story with a beginning, middle and end. They always get side-tracked for one reason or another or, in Charmander's case, tend to make it needlessly violent.

Squirtle, however, is quite good at it. Sure, the little tales he comes up with are rarely exciting, and often come packed with a moral lesson no one really asked for, but he's very good at planning things. Good at hooking one point to another.

So, during their lab days, when the outside was loud and scary, be it through storms or just because their young mind's would overreact over strange shapes in the darkness, it wasn't all that uncommon for Squirtle to tell Bulbasaur bedtime stories. The practice started out because the grass type would usually keep everyone awake through his whining, but actually became something Squirtle actually enjoyed doing as time went on.

Charmander would pretend to hate it, but would rarely actually interrupt. Sometimes, he'd go as far as to wake Squirtle up HIMSELF if the tale got particularly interesting and the poor turtle had the misfortune of falling asleep as he told it.

Squirtle was actually disappointed when Bulbasaur's fear of the dark and stormy nights faded. It was something he looked foward to doing, actually thinking of stories and specific phrases whenever he saw clouds approaching in the horizon, just to make that night's story more interesting.

But then one thundering night came where no stories were requested. And then another, and another and another. And suddenly, the little unspoken agreement they seemed to have just became a thing of the past.

But, well, it wasn't like Squirtle could ever admit to enjoy doing it. That's silly, right? Why would be disappointed, or worse, sad, that he was finally able to sleep at night, uninterrupted by his friend's fear? Why would he ever tell a soul that after a certain point, being shaken awake with the small request for a story stopped being a chore and started being the best part of his week?

Besides, it's not like it matters, right? They're all gonna be chosen by trainers eventually. One day, their time in the lab, their time together, will be a thing of the past too. It's good to have less strings attached.

They're obviously going to have similarities. Both are post 11. Both work on continuing what was already established, and that makes sense, but there's a ton of minute similarities that's really interesting. It feels like I'm doing a lot of the same things you're doing, just slightly to the left.

You're having Squirtle struggle with realizing the timeline stuff; I'm writing Charmander figuring it out. We're both having Charmander unable to separate being almost mortally injured from being weak, and we're both having Charmander pissed at Squirtle over internal self esteem issues stemming from that. The only difference there is which injuries we're really focusing on, since I focus more on the ones from the Whiskers fight. Even then, I also play with the confusion over where the stab wound is from, but I have it reversed where Charmander states it's from Captain and Squirtle makes the correction.

I know most of that can be explained as just writing about the same series, but the most bizarre connection is the song lyrics. You use lyrics as chapter titles and summaries. For years, now, my signature has been naming chapters after songs, and using the lyrics to introduce individual scenes.

I don't have anywhere to go with this. I just wanted to share because I couldn't get it out of my head while reading. Honestly, I'm half worried you'll think I copied you if I don't say something first.

Hi! Regarding your worry, I just wanted to let you know that I have never, for even a second, considered that you copied me in any way shape or form. Like, I was genuinely surprised when you even brought it up as a possibility! The series we both write for is short and most of our similarities come from a similar understanding of the characters, which is kind of inevitable under these circumstances. I have never, in any way shape or form, looked at your writing and thought that you were trying to copy my work. Especially when you already have quite the library under your belt! If anything, it's nice to see that there are others out there that share a lot of my opinions of the series! I hardly see people discussing about the characters deeply, so seeing others not just do it, but also come to very similar conclusions than me is very cool! It's kinda like when you get out of a difficult quiz and discuss the answers, only to find very similar results. This is very common in fandom! I'm sure you've also gone through ao3 in a bigger community and found like, 5 fics that are similar in character beats and choices before, or something. It's completely and utterly normal! I think it's just a bit more jarring because this fandom is so, so small that it's a bit more noticeable when things share any sort of similarity lol And about song lyrics, I think a very significant amount of writers use them tbh. I still remember back in the fanfiction.net days when poeple used to put the lyrics IN THE STORY ITSELF like it was some sort of amv lol! And like, there's a very good reason why so many of us do this: song lyrics, in it of themselves, are fun and poetic! They resonate with us! They make us feel things! So no need to worry about that similarity either! I think it'd be hard to find an avid writer who doesn't use their personal playlists to their advantage! Also (this part is for everyone btw) if anyone ever sees my work and draws inspiration from it, I will, at worst, not mind and at best, find it very rewarding! So even if I actually believed this about anyone (which I don't, I wanna make this very clear), I would not think of them as any less of a writer in any way.

In the tags of your latest fic, you said that while platonic, the story could be read as charmantle. But like do you mean that it is FULLY platonic or is it just you trying to be as close to canon as possible?

Hi!

Well, I personally wrote it with the mentality that "this is not romantic, but is the building blocks for a romantic relationship in the future" in regards to charmantle.

I see them/write them to be around the age of 12 in human years in the canon, so they'd still be in that awkward stage where they KNOW they care about each-other in a different way, but they can't exactly pinpoint why bc of both a lack of maturity, but also bc romance is simply not their priority right now.

So like, platonic as in "they are just friends RIGHT NOW, but are starting to have the base for something else in the future", if that makes sense.

Hi! Oh my goodness, I don't think I've ever been called an inspiration before! Thank you so, so much! I'll try to answer your questions the best I can with what I've learned over the years :) So, first off, I think the most important piece of advice I can give is to write what you know. Not in the literal sense, where you only explore things that have happened to you one on one, but instead in the sense that you need to be able to empathize with the characters, not just sympathize.

For example, I've never hidden in a dark, dangerous cave with my closest friends after almost dying in a battle that almost costed everyone their lives, BUT! I do know what it was like to be small and scared. To be a kid whose world is contorting itself too fast, to feel overwhelmed over the loss of a status quo that I believed to be some sort of unspoken agreement of the universe. In my case, it was through trauma, yes, but also with the smaller, inevitable things in life. A pet dying; a friend moving away; someone not believing you when a rumor in your school pops up; your grades inexplicably falling, ... Those are all things most people go through at least once, and they can be great sources of inspiration. Think of a moment that impacted you, be it big or small, good or bad. How did it make you feel on a somatic level? What did it make you think? Did it make you act irrationally in some way? Out of character? Did it make you do something, or restrict you from doing something, that you now regret? The thing is, human emotions, and especially human suffering, is very predictable. Boring even. While different people can REACT to their suffering, or even their emotions, in different ways, the core of the whole thing tends to be very simple. So if you can get a good idea of this CORE sensation/emotion, the rest can come in more naturally. It's kinda like making a beautiful dress, in a way. There's no actual "one size fits all" hack. You need to know the person's shape, their height, their size, etc. Maybe even make it with different colors, or pairing it with different accessories. But at the end of the day, the dress ITSELF still has the same overall design, even if it can look vastly different in different people. So, let's say I want to write a scene where a character, let's say Charmander, is scared. What are the things that scare him? What does he expect to have at the end of every adventure? How does he view himself? Or, if we're gonna get more philosophical, but also more objective, we can think of these 3 different points (which are what I personally believe to be at the center of every person) 1) Who you think you are. 2) Who you want to be. 3) Who you actually are. You can really play around with this a lot, real good for that whole "show don't tell" aspect of characterization. Especially since you can flip it around and use it for their perception of other characters, which can build organic miscommunication that doesn't feel contrived. Since I have a very obvious example of this second one in this chapter, I'm gonna show it:

“Charmander, I can’t solve a problem if I don’t know what it is.”

“I don’t–” The fire-type clicks his tongue, his frame curling up tighter. “Guhh don’t make me say it.”

Squirtle doesn’t quite know when it started – years of unwilling companionship made certain chains of behavior morph too seamlessly for him to properly trace – but somewhere along the line, Charmander appeared to have come to the assumption that Squirtle was some sort of mind-reader. That no matter how convoluted the fire-type’s behavior was, his know-it-all friend would be able to just know things as if their connection was beyond language.

Or, more-so, beyond the need for Charmander to use language.

The problem is very simple: it’s bullshit. Squirtle might have thought the same sometimes, sure – that he understood his companion more than anyone else could – but if recent events had taught him anything is that he didn’t. At best, he knows certain parameters based on Charmander’s conduct, but that’s about it.

Squirtle shifts closer, shell scratching against rough stone. He doesn't push – gods know pushing is bound to make Charmander dig his heels deeper than a digglet – so he waits. Stares. Lets the silence stretch until the fire-type's own pressure cooker of a brain bursts into something. Anything, at this point.

Charmander clenches his teeth.

“Just because you’re stronger than me now doesn’t mean you get to look at me like I’m some–” He stops, teeth clicking shut. Swallows. “Some– some pathetic kid!”

Furrowing his brow, the water-type leans to the side, trying to get a glimpse of his friend’s expression. He needs all the clues he can get in order to even start unpacking any of that.

“Charmander, you are a kid. We’re both kids.”

“You know what I mean!”

Squirtle, in fact, does not.

Charmander thinks that Squirtle is accustomed to him enough to just understand him regardless of the situation. Charmander WANTS Squirtle to use that perceived knowledge to stop 'rubbing it in' (in his eyes) But in reality, Squirtle has no fucking clue what's going on. -- Okay, now for the descriptive writing: it's mostly just experience. Despite me not posting here in a long time, I have remained writing in private. The only reason those pieces are not here is because they're not fanfiction (and a lot of it is either very vulnerable and/or in another language). So practice makes perfect. But okay, aside from that very vague piece of advice, one thing that helped me what finding stories that really impacted me and analyzing them. What did I like? The characterization? The dialogue? The humor? The way it made my chest ache? And I just go from there. Another thing is to find a field you really enjoy and just... Integrating it to your writing. For example, I'm a med-student, so I've learned a lot about human anatomy, physiology, and overall sickness. I've analyzed parasites under microscopes, just as I've pulled cadavers' vagus nerves in a lab. Since it's part of my day-to-day, it's a lot easier to integrate it in my art! What I think is a big first step, however, is to write your pieces in layers. You wouldn't expect an artist to make the head of their drawing absolutely perfect before even positioning the body, yeah? So why do that with your written work? Decide a core idea, a beginning and an end. Then, make a general step by step as to how they get there. After that, I usually begin writing the dialogue. Something that helps me keep the whole thing organic is reading it out-loud several times. That way I can get the tone I want ingrained in my head. A website that really helps me later put those specifics on paper is this one: https://www.spwickstrom.com/said/ Then, I think of the specifics. Introspection, atmosphere, body language, etc. Obviously, if you think of a particular sentence you really want to include, write it down somewhere. Even if you don't use it in THAT story, you still have a joker card for a possible future one! For example, the "I forgot what it was like to feel lonely, but then (insert thing here) happened and I remembered it all over again was originally meant for Squirtle in another story yearss back. I found it in my little notebook and was like "wait a minute, I can use this!" Now a little hack I recommend for this last portion is to think of a metaphor for that atmosphere, or at least a simile. Like the campfire in the dark cave, it shows small comforts in unfamiliar, dangerous places. Or even the fire itself. I describe it a lot in that chapter, showing what it consumes, how it moves, what it does for Squirtle in the narrative. I didn't put it there to be artistic, I just reallyyyy wanted something to cut back to so the dialogue didn't feel too rushed + because I really didn't just want to repeat "x character went quiet" over and over. So I though of a simile for the campfire. Squirtle describes it similarly o how he has seen Charmander throughout the series (and their relationship, which are both described as a sort of dance): as destructive and unpredictable, but later as a protective warmth. I connected that to how I thought he'd be uncomfortable with fire after episode 9 and BAM! Cheat code that worked mostly well for what I wanted to achieve!