~ @sammys-magical-au 💖

Thank you so much, Sammy! It's been FOREVER since I got an ask about characters or stories! (I'm pretty sure this is only the third creative-focused ask I've gotten this year. 🥲)

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There Are Some Cons to Being an Archeologist…

2 — What scene did you first put down?

The start of recent-flashback-scenes; where Penn and Illinois were chatting in their hotel room, the day before they set out to explore the underground cave. I didn't come up with the opening scene of LevianthanPat circling the jeep and tapping at its windows until a few days after I started writing the story.

Since half of the story is made up of those recent flashbacks, I decided that I wanted to start it off with present events to keep readers curious.

9 — Were there any alternative versions of this fic?

Sort of? Y'know the middle of the plot, where Penn and Illinois find a certain chamber in the underground cave? They examine it, Penn gets some weird vibes, and the two of them decide to leave...only for Illinois' nemesis of a boulder to crash in?

Originally, I had planned to write the duo actually leaving the chamber, only to encounter the boulder further along and find themselves in an entire slapstick chase sequence until they were eventually driven back to that one chamber and the boulder finally broke the petrified mass at the center.

However, while I was writing, the story got much, much longer than I'd anticipated, so I had to make some cuts to the plot here and there.

13 — What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Well, writing rituals are a bit all over the place for me. Half of the time I do enjoy having some background noise, but other times I need it quiet in order to focus.

The time I spent on this story was the latter. However, I think “Seven Devils” by Florence and The Machines would be a somewhat fitting song for certain themes later in the story. (Due to LevianthanPat being involved, lol.)

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A Couple Nights Later…

2 — What scene did you first put down?

The scene where Murdock, Caliban, and Azalea stopped to visit Sparky's and Ness was the one to wait their table. Mainly because I'd been holding onto the exchange of technical puns between Ness and Cal for SO DAMN LONG and was just so eager to finally get it out, lol

9 — Were there any alternative versions of this fic?

I think one initial idea was for the story to not involve Murdock, but I decided to bring him in because...well, I want to write about him more and more often as I continue developing The Pentas Family's lore/stories.

Along with that, another thing that didn't make the cut was for Illinois to be much more active in convincing Penn to talk with Caliban and Azalea. As in, Illinois basically pushing Penn over to the other table, or just approaching the other table to introduce himself and explain what Penn told him about his estranged cousins.

Obviously, I didn't go with that, because I really wanted to show how Illinois can respect boundaries. Although you've gotta admit, he does kinda give off the vibes of a headstrong friend who might up and drag his buddies into something they're avoiding/procrastinating on.

13 — What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Didn't actually listen to any music during the writing process. But, if I had to pick a song to be playing in the background, I think I'd go with “bury a friend” by Billie Eilish. (Yes, I know, I'm so old-fashioned, har-har.) Especially for the scene where Penn realizes that he recognizes Caliban and Azalea...as well as how he can see them subtly recognizing him as well...

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It Might as Well Happen! Life is Already So (Old) God(s)damn Weird!

2 — What scene did you first put down?

This was one of the stories that I just wrote from start-to-finish. (Which, in hindsight, might be why I ended up in a time-crunch and pretty much just wrote from noon to nighttime in order to post it on time for your birthday 😅)

Still trying to go back to my old tricks of just jumping around and getting the big/important scenes out first so I can be inspired to write stuff around them, thus filling up the story a bit faster.

9 — Were there any alternative versions of this fic?

Nope, not really. I was honestly kinda surprised at myself; I usually have a bunch of ideas and end up needing to just settle with one for a single story (unless, of course, I can find a way to convert the extra ideas into scenes and have them lead into one another nicely enough).

13 — What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Lol, like you said before, I mentioned “Mx. Sinister” in fic for a reason. I was already planning on having Cruz play his violin in a scene or two, but I didn't want to just say that he was playing. I wanted to reference a real song so readers could imagine the music. Plus, I'd looked it up on YouTube, and it seems like there aren't any violin covers of “Mx. Sinister”; really, all I found were piano covers.

(A little extra trivia here: IDKHOW is one of my favorite bands...but there's this up-and-coming singer on YouTube who I discovered by random chance, and I honestly like his cover of “Mx. Sinister” more than the original. His name is Clem Turner, and I highly recommend checking out his channel and all his other covers! He has the voice of an angel!)