⇆ Mother Knows and In The Course of Destiny, ☹ Dal Segno al Fine, ↻ the end of Three Inch Heels, ✄ Only Happy When It Rains, ♬ Hierarchy of Misery
EUEHUEUEHUE! Thank you! This was fun :D
⇆ Mother Knows and In The Course of Destiny
(SLIDING DOORS: pick a character from one fic to drop into another!)
Hahaha… damn. This one’s tough because there’s multiple ways to interpret this prompt and in what manner to fuse or combine the worlds (e.g, replacement or addition?) …
Anyway (cheating a little because we never met Carmen in ItCoD so this is more like MK set in ItCoD rather than dropping a character over) (Also I realised AFTER I wrote this snippet that this Q doesn’t actually require any scene writing. In that case ☝🏼🧐 I choose to drop MK’s post-canon Chico with a mustache into the 2nd world for maximum chaos… but also he gets to return to his own world after offering young Miguel and Carmy some vague relationship advice. And also being like Whaaat are you talking about when Carmy asks about Miguel. MK!Chico’s Miguel is not Carmy’s first Miguel but he made it through Oz alright, so there’s some closure in that thought…) (Here’s the snippet anyway):
Mother Knows the Course of Destiny
(EVIL TWIN: send me a fic or scene and I’ll give you the unhappy ending version of it!)
Murder/suicide any way you slice it, imo. I think besides negating the premise (that Miguel survives), the unhappy/angsty version of this fic is one where Miguel continues to plot his revenge, not caring or not giving heed to the whole soulmate thing, whereas, feeling all Complicated about it after the soulmark’s appearance, Chico attempts to honor it (or listen to Enrique/El Norte, anyway).
I think a good revenge plot should be one where the person seeking revenge just keeps going beyond reason so I could see the long game unhappy ending where things follow more or less the same plotline (obviously, a few things would have to be subtly changed) all the way up to Green Ranch, where Miguel determinedly follows through with his plan only to realise too late that it Wasn’t Worth It. If I wrote it this way, I’d tweak the first Miguel POV to dig more into him loathing the soulmark and then change the subsequent POVs to obscure things and make the main couple/story more of a mystery and outsider POV situation to keep our understanding of Miguel more vague/distant… Probably make it more something like…. Chico, Miguel, Jaime, Enrique, Tim, Carmen (with tonal/plot tweaks)… and then instead of the 3 Chico chapters, Carmen again for the meeting, then Lisa for the interview, then Enrique again, then Chico for the car ride, then Pat, Miguel, and Said for the epilogue. I’m thinking mmm… Miguel plays along until the crew leaves and then, having successfully deceived Chico, lures him in with a kiss while they’re in the kitchen—immediately and unceremoniously jabs him in the jugular with a knife from the drawer. It should be bloodier and messier than Miguel thought and Chico should die in his arms right as the back of his untattooed hand begins to weep blood and ink, Chico’s name appearing 🙂↕️They both see it! Regret hits, too late! Soon, the house is too still. Miguel makes a break for it! Cuts his anklet and trips alarms, running past the perimeter. Panic attack trying to run away—he doesn’t know if he has another escape attempt in him. He’ll end up back at Oz for life for this and suddenly Nothing Seems Worth It. Another stupid decision he can’t take back. The name on his hand is grayed out. He stops running. (🤔Said POV back at Oz would probably reveal the cottage burned down with Miguel and Chico inside of it, no mention of any stabbings; powers that be would choose to cover it up as a freak accident—the new Great Tragedy!—and throw randos under the bus rather than let news out that it was a soulmate murder/suicide. That would be bad for PR all around 😱… But Said intends to get to the truth or at least reveal the cover-up and how Devlin and others are capitalizing on this moment. Perhaps it’s hinted he’ll be allying with Lisa who has been shouldered with some of the blame somehow).
Another unhappy version, really, could just be that they go through with calling things off and the story progresses closer to the canon with the soulmark awkwardly hanging over them/haunting them, unfulfilled, potential wasted. Baggage!
↻ the end of Three Inch Heels
(FLIP FLOP: send me a scene from one of my fics and I’ll describe or write it from another character’s POV!)
✄ Only Happy When It Rains
(DVD BONUS: pick a fic and I’ll describe or write a deleted scene!)
…Imagine my confusion at the fact that my fic is not actually titled “Only Happy When It Rains” like I’d remembered, but rather “Only When It Rains”. Should I just change it? 😂
(THEME SONG: pick a fic and I’ll share a song that reminds me of it (and why!))
Hmm, hard to narrow a longfic down to one song, but I guess if there was one song that always makes me think of this fic/wip when I listen to it, it's "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star. It's a song that I feel like is relevant to multiple points in each of the characters' storylines… Like, even if we don't see Miguel or Alonzo's POVs, I feel like this song applies in all directions between all the characters.
To me, and hopefully readers (???), a recurring theme in Misery is a yearning for connection, which I feel like is represented in the wist musically and lyrically with "Fade Into You". A question of identity and how that is warped by the various wants/needs of the characters also makes this song feel very much like the theme song to me.
vaporwave
gummygunk
2087
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
areudirty
turnnoffyourmind
