10g & h for NOGLY?
Thank you @irrigone! 😊 From the Mix & Match Writer Requests...
Using my longfic No One's Gonna Love You... but really both are about chapter four, which was also referenced in the previous answer lmao. What can I say? That chapter contains multitudes.
g. Which section was most difficult to write?
The recap of the attack on Mikoshi at the beginning of chapter four. I rehashed most of the earlier parts of The Star ending in chapters one and three, either by condensing the events or glossing over them entirely, except for ones that I felt were relevant to the narrative. But sooo much happens during the attack on Mikoshi — Bobby and Teddy dead before the first part is complete; Mitch and the rest of the family's fate unknown while V, Panam, and Saul break into Arasaka Tower; and that's just getting into the Tower!
I didn't want to rehash all of that; it's so much. But I didn't know that when I started writing the chapter. At some point I realized that I wanted to present the events in a different way, but I needed to write it all out for my own reference, so I knew how Val would react to everything. I still didn't have a lot of understanding of her at that point, but working through the ending gave me a lot of insight.
At the time I was only playing on PS4. I played that ending over and over until I had almost 2k words that never saw the light of day. In the end, I'm really happy with how it turned out. Instead of forcing the reader through all of it, I made Val tell the story to Vik and Misty.
Here's an excerpt:
“The Aldecaldos put together this plan. Found a construction site less than a mile from Arasaka Tower with this big drill that could get us the rest of the way. Militech security guarding the site, but nothing we couldn’t handle with the panzer. “So we get there, and the panzer dies, all systems shutdown. We get swarmed by drones and I’m trying to take ’em all out but I can’t—” Overwatch bucks in her hands. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, reload. Bob yells for backup seconds before the explosion. Mitch’s voice on the radio: “Jesus Christ... Bobby?! Bobby, do you read?” “One got through, got Bob,” she says, her voice quivers and Misty reaches for her hand. “But we keep going. Panam gets the panzer running, we take out the troops guarding the gates to the site, and then the fucking piece of shit dies again. We get out and clear out the rest of the forces so I can escort Mitch and Carol to hack the drill, but more troops show up, and then an AV.” “V! Gonna need you to cover us,” Mitch yells, soft eyes belying the sharpness in his voice. She wants to rewind to last night, to his arms and assurances that everything’s gonna be okay.
h. Which section was the easiest to write?
The dialogue between the vets at the end of chapter four. I had sooo much fun writing them, and the whole scene just kinda wrote itself. I feel like I just "got" Carol after I saw what happens when you take Judy along with you in The Star ending and Cassidy, well, he's basically the Narrator from The Big Lebowski lmao. Had no trouble with him.
Anyway, now you can read it!
Mitch heads for Panam’s truck. Cassidy and Carol are both leaning against it, and Cassidy’s eyebrows leap into his cowboy hat at his approach. “I see you’ve been awarded a red badge of passion.” Mitch laughs and scratches at the beard on his jaw, his grin spreading along with the flush on his cheeks. “Yeah, she’s feisty, what can I say?” “Smell like pussy, babe. What’d you do, take a shower in it?” “Jesus, Carol!” he exclaims, his cheeks blazing hot, and she throws her head back and howls with laughter while Cass chuckles. “Does he? I hadn’t noticed.” “You wouldn’t. When was the last time you were close enough to smell a pussy, anyway?” “Vegas, October ’73,” he says, and a smile spreads across his face, sweet and slow as molasses. “Remember that run we did?” “You remember the date?” she teases. “She was a beaut. Dolores, her name was.” Cassidy falls quiet for a moment while he recalls Dolores’s beauty, then he cocks an eyebrow at Carol. “You even remember the name of your dock from last week?” “Legs, least that’s the name I gave her.” Cassidy shakes his head. “Someone oughta warn those poor women.” “They know what they’re getting—a night they’ll never forget.” “At least one of you won’t.”
Ask me about my fics! Mix & Match Writer Requests
