Mari

MARCH 23RD NOW HAS A BONUS SURPRISE SECOND CHAPTER!

(y'all can thank @mmaricarmen23 for that 😉)

March 23rd - Chapter 2 - FrozenWings - Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019) [Archive of Our Own]

Triggers: Carmen post kidnapping & PTSD

He could still feel the burn of his lock screen staring him down. In wait behind the 03:28AM groan, was a smile he’d never know again. An image that hurt to have but even moreso to replace—because that used to be normal, that used to be him—them. That was them. She was his wallpaper.

Her lips are divided when he faces her again. He blinks. She shuts them.

He might have imagined it. She breaks away from his eyes and inhales sharply.

“It’s okay.” Lurches out of him. He shakes his head but the fever grows, “Y-you don’t have to.”

It would’ve been safer to just walk away from the idea of this woman still being his Red. Many had warned him how time changes people, friends grow apart, victims never recover. He’s read the brochures—but this wasn’t one of those. Those would never define them—right?

…but that look in her eyes, however troubling, becomes his new wallpaper.

Ohhhhhhhhhh wowwwwww.....I just love this so much! Especially how you bookended it with the whole wallpaper motif, something commonplace, chosen because it brought joy, then twisted into a source of pain.

Whoops, my hand slipped 😉

---

Player never thought about them much, but phone wallpapers were a little like a- well, he's not gonna say 'talisman,' but as close to it as you can maybe get to one. You open your phone and you're back, if only for a fleeting millisecond, to a time and place where, for the fleeting second it took for the shutter to click, the world was perfect.

He remembers taking his. Red had been visiting, and after a day of sightseeing around Niagara they decompressed out back, under the oak tree his mother hated for the acorns but loved for the shade and crimson autumn splendor. They'd been playing twenty questions, Red laughing as she bested him time and again in that enigmatic way he never could figure out. Then-

"Is...it...a..."

"This is your last guess." Carmen smirked. "Best get it over with."

"Fine!" Player threw up his hands in exasperation, resigned to his loss. "Kumquat?"

It was like watching the power to the Las Vegas Strip be cut, Carmen's expression dropped from triumphant to stunned that quickly.

"Wait." Player rounded on her, unable to check his grin. "That was it!?!"

"Um..."

"It is!" Player crowed, correctly reading her lack of concrete response. "Ha! Finally!"

"Fine fine." Carmen huffed, but from the way her eyes glinted it was clear the annoyance was only surface level (or, well, mostly surface level). "You get ten more seconds to enjoy the moment, then I'm calling for a rematch."

"In that case-" Player pulled out his phone and wagged a brow at Carmen. "Pics or it didn't happen."

Carmen rolled her eyes (the amount of things she knew happened but didn't have a 'pic' of), but scooted closer to get in the frame and joined Player in smiling at the camera.

It'd been saved to that holy place of honor that night, so every time he opened his phone, for a fleeting second he was back there in the yard, teasing Carmen under the oak.

He looked at it again now, carefully tracing his eyes over every long-memorized line, the fabric folds in Carmen's hoodie, the glint of sun on her earrings, the way every line of her body seemed to gravitate towards him even though he was pretty sure if one of them had a gravitational pull, it was her.

A happy photo.

But his heart hung heavier in his chest the longer he stared at it.

Opposite him, Carmen sat on the couch, sullen, gaze distant and lost in some private horror she still couldn't bring herself to share.

Any smiles from her were now costume jewelry, a cheap imitation of dazzling glory.

First of all wow, I’m so sorry for your new year luck 😭 you really do have yet to catch a break. Wishing a speedy recovery!! 🩷🩷

Second: AHHHH?? HI!!

This is canon to the au now for sure. Gawwwd I’d only half heartedly thought about what the background behind the image was and now it’s just yesssss

Especially this ‘his heart hung heavier in his chest the longer he stared at it’ completely captures the idea. The joy overwhelming the past cutting closed (as the phone screen might turn off) to the dark and detached present

SPOILER WARNING FOR CARMEN SANDIEGO AND HAMILTON

Okay, so I've been a little interested in the musical Hamilton recently and I got hooked to the final song "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells your story" - specifically what Eliza did after Alexander's death.

One of them being setting up an orphanage in New York.

Now - HEAR ME OUT

What if not only did Carlotta set up the orphanage to find her daughter - but maybe in Dexter Wolfe's memory as well?

Think about it - surely after a certain amount of time would have passed for her to think of a better way to find her daughter or could have stuck with a better way to begin with? (I'm sorry if this is insensitive) But I understand one would argue that Carlotta has the determination of a saint and wouldn't dare give up.

So in addition to finding her daughter, she did it to remember Wolfe. I am guessing that Wolfe may have been an orphan or has told so many stories of orphans being preyed on by VILE.

If that is the case, she may be doing the entire orphanage thing to steer kids away from her lover's fate. She might also feel like if Wolfe had lived, he would have learned to steer kids and teenagers away from the life he lived. So in a way, she is doing what she feels Wolfe might want.

Also, the Hamilton song in question even has the lyrics:

I help to raise hundreds of children I get to see them growing up In their eyes I see you, Alexander I see you every time

I guess it makes it bittersweet that when Carlotta finally meets Carmen after so many years and learns about the things her daughter did (dismantle VILE and help kids avoid turning out like her dad), Carlotta would have felt the biggest "This was worth it" in her life.

But that was my thoughts - let me know yours!

I really like the idea of Carlotta going the orphanage route to try and break the cycle that ultimately doomed her lover. Dexter told her some about the others who comprised VILE, the operatives he worked alongside and the students he taught; she understands the patterns VILE looks for in recruits, and she can't help but feel bad for the young men and women who set foot on VILE's shores.

They are people who learned too young the toll of tragedy and loneliness on a human soul, how the scales are weighted against them, how cruel the world can be.

And who decide the best way to survive is to become cruel in turn.

At some point it stopped being just about her baby, because all the ninos who came through her door became hers, and while there's a quarter of her heart that is for her lost daughter alone, the rest of it is filled, knowing that these children, at least, will be spared Dex's fate.

OR!!! CONSIDER!!! ANOTHER LAYER!!!

The orphanage had always been her and Dex's plan.

They had talked about it, in velvet whispers on those nights when they couldn't sleep and felt...like they needed to look beyond The Plan (because looking beyond Dex's grand escape made it easier for her to share his confidence and believe they would be alright). Once the heat cooled off and they felt safe and steady in their new life, they both wanted to help children who were lost in life find a better way than the one he had followed.

She would curl into his side, head nestled in the crook of his neck, and watch his face glow as his silver tongue painted a picture that still shone in her mind's eye: the casa with the fence around a yard holding a swingset, the picnic tables in the back for birthdays and holidays and just any days, and the children- so many children!- all theirs in some way or other, laughing and playing and...having the childhood neither of them really got to have.

"And they will never go to bed hungry," he would say, voice grown solemn. "They will never have to turn to the gangs for una familia."

"Because we'll love them," she would hum, nestling closer. "Every last one."

"Si." She could still feel his voice brushing against her cheek. "Like how we'll love our princesa."

It was a good dream. Too good to die with Dex.

So, with the pieces of her heart rattling painfully in her chest, she started the orphanage, with the fence and swingset, the picnic tables and- and the laughter (even though two voices were missing).

It was good.

She prayed one day their daughter could see.

And then, one day, the Lord answers.

"It's really cool you did all this, Mom." Carmen says, sidling closer as they sit on the stoop and watch the ninos on the swings and dropping her head on Carlotta's shoulder, nestling close. She grins up at her. "Makes me feel like I'm slacking off."

She chuckles, kisses her hair, digs her fingers into her ribs to check if- si, she's still ticklish there. "Si, dismantling a criminal empire hardly counts for anything."

"Seriously," Carmen laughs, pushing away the tickle onslaught before cuddling even closer. She looks out at the children, not forsaken like Fate designed but loved, and her expression softens. "You did this all on your own and...you saved all these kids."

And Carlotta never did this for recognition or praise or anything more than knowing she was helping the children, but when her daughter looks up at her with Dex's eyes and says "I'm really proud of you..."

No heavenly reward could ever be sweeter.

(danging now I'm crying... 😭)

And this is why I have managed to save it as. just a summary. and it's for my one shot one and I'm getting really frustrated I'm getting a new computer because every single time it does that is when my computer crashes but I will be getting a new computer and hopefully it's probably not I need help because now I don't remember what was on it and then. please help me.

Summary: black sheep grapples with the thought of realizing that she had just left the only home that she had ever known and whether or not she will even make it out fully.

This is what I have left I feel weirdly disappointed in myself because I don't think it looks good.

I did hear about google docs doing that to a handful of people a while ago, it could be the app and not your laptop. Maybe try another program like Ellipsus if it helps? That’s what I use. It’s anti-AI and designed for fanfic writers! Froz is actually indirectly the reason I use it. It can be slow during peak traffic & doesn’t have a mobile app yet but I still like it

SPOILER WARNING FOR CARMEN SANDIEGO AND HAMILTON

Okay, so I've been a little interested in the musical Hamilton recently and I got hooked to the final song "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells your story" - specifically what Eliza did after Alexander's death.

One of them being setting up an orphanage in New York.

Now - HEAR ME OUT

What if not only did Carlotta set up the orphanage to find her daughter - but maybe in Dexter Wolfe's memory as well?

Think about it - surely after a certain amount of time would have passed for her to think of a better way to find her daughter or could have stuck with a better way to begin with? (I'm sorry if this is insensitive) But I understand one would argue that Carlotta has the determination of a saint and wouldn't dare give up.

So in addition to finding her daughter, she did it to remember Wolfe. I am guessing that Wolfe may have been an orphan or has told so many stories of orphans being preyed on by VILE.

If that is the case, she may be doing the entire orphanage thing to steer kids away from her lover's fate. She might also feel like if Wolfe had lived, he would have learned to steer kids and teenagers away from the life he lived. So in a way, she is doing what she feels Wolfe might want.

Also, the Hamilton song in question even has the lyrics:

I help to raise hundreds of children I get to see them growing up In their eyes I see you, Alexander I see you every time

I guess it makes it bittersweet that when Carlotta finally meets Carmen after so many years and learns about the things her daughter did (dismantle VILE and help kids avoid turning out like her dad), Carlotta would have felt the biggest "This was worth it" in her life.

But that was my thoughts - let me know yours!

as obvious as it is that these are all bots/scam, I believe there are still people who believe they are legit and fall victims to these trolls. so if you get a comment like these, don’t panic, don’t delete your works. they are all bots. you’re fine.