For @flashfictionfridayofficial FF301 "Talk To Me"!
Juni has some night terrors :>
Word count: 434
Anna stirred from sleep to the sound of breathing, harsh and raspy and coming so fast the breaths nearly blended into each other. She blinked in the darkness, the red numbers on the bedside clock the only light in the room. Tossing the blankets off herself and swinging her legs onto the floor, she padded across the room to the closet. He'd insisted on it, when they first moved to this house. Her brother had spent weeks finding a two-bedroom cheap enough for them to afford, but Juni refused to sleep alone. The walls - the confinement - made him feel safer, he'd said.
Familiar, maybe - better to know the danger than to have to guess.
The sliding door was slightly ajar, and in the darkness she could just make out his curled up form, knees up against his chest, hands fisted against his head. His teeth were clenched so hard they'd chip eventually, eyes screwed shut.
Still asleep.
She knelt down near his feet, his muscles twitching against some unseen assault.
"Juni? Juni..." she called softly, to no avail.
"Juni, Juniper, come on, you're okay," she said, a little louder. She hated to startle him. All that coiled tension had to go somewhere.
After a minute of calling his name, all the way to a speaking voice, he still lay coiled, twitching, breathing so fast he was going to hyperventilate. She frowned and scooted closer to him, reaching out a hand to touch his leg, bracing herself.
At once his eyes shot open. He lunged upwards, hands flying out, connecting with her lip. She cried out and fell backwards as he scrambled over her, getting to his feet and scrambling out the door.
"Juni!" She cried, getting to her own and running after him. He was already down the hallway, crashing into the front door and scrabbling against the lock.
"Juni- Juni, no!" She grabbed him by the shoulders, trying to pull him away.
"Talk to me! Juni, you're okay!"
He managed to flip the deadbolt and yank open the door, the flying wood narrowly missing her forehead as he slid down the front steps.
She was out after him in a second but he was faster, blind survival-driven panic sending him down the sidewalk and quickly out of reach. She watched him disappear into the distance, bare feet on the cold cement. She swore, loud enough that the worry of waking the neighbors briefly crossed her mind.
She glanced in the direction he had gone, then at the empty carport. She swore again and hurried inside. She needed to call her brother.
What's your favorite thing about your character, what makes them Blorbo? Is it a personality thing, a design thing, something in their backstory or character arc? Please elaborate on the things you love!
Hello!!
Something I've noticed that's the throughline through all my favorite characters is that -- they have such good intentions. They always just want to help, just want to be supportive, just want to make the world a better place, and either through their own misguidedness or from the world being more complex and immovable than that, things go wrong anyways!!
Like, Anna. She wants to help and protect people. At all times (unless you're in the Bad Person Category), she just wants the world to be safer, the people cared for, everything to be kumbaya.
Except. She was raised by a fascist authoritarian. She only knows how to solve things through violence. You punch the problem until it yields, and staying still and waiting to see what happens is for cowards and incompetents. Her issues arise when she acts before she has all the information, or gets so excited with her own plan that she bulldozes over a better one.
The government is corrupt? Better kill those guys! Oh, the rot spreads further than you anticipated? I bet more assassinations and violence will solve that. Except now everything that made your city/country tick and function is a bloody husk and there's nowhere to get food and no leadership and also your political enemies are licking their chops.
She does her best!! But she doesn't know how to not make things worse :3
What is your favorite romantic relationship that exists within your cast (main characters or otherwise). What is it like and why do you love it so much?
Bonus: will it work long term, or is it destined to end in tragedy?
I'M FINALLY ANSWERING THESE!!
My favorite romance is Thomas and his girlfriend/fiance/wife Elizabeth!!
When I was first making ocs, I liked the idea of a guy who's just *clenches fist* so in love with his wife. He was constantly running off to see her or being upset that he's getting dragged into some other shenanigans and couldn't be with her.
As he developed, he became very devoted to his siblings. He became the one to make dinner when the single parent was away, walk the younger siblings to school, chase everyone around and make sure they're staying out of trouble. He's incredibly devoted to his family, which doesn't make it easy to have a relationship elsewhere from that.
His younger sister is constantly getting into trouble and needing bailed out. She drags him into illegal things and he follows her because he wants to make sure she's safe. He pays her rent because she refuses/can't get a job (only kicking her out to her own place after she jacked the car insurance up $500/month).
And Elizabeth!! Is supportive! He's been that way the entire time they've known each other, it's one of the things she loves about him. But if he's constantly away or constantly picking up extra shifts to bankroll his siblings, they can't super have a relationship. His devotion to his family is getting in the way of starting a family.
She'd never sit him down and go "okay, it's me or your siblings" but if something doesn't change, it will come to that. They're not really in a relationship, they're people who care very deeply about each other but can only grab 10 minutes of coffee every once in a while or text throughout the day.
In some worlds, he is able to put his foot down and go "no, you're an adult, I love you and want to support you, but I need to live my own life," and then he and Elizabeth have a very wholesome loving relationship. They have a kid or several, they support and respect each other, it's great.
(Of course, the Shenanigans don't stop just because you have a kid)
The fathers of my ocs (my ocs who are fathers) tend to be doomed by the narrative a lot. They do their absolute best, they make good decisions and do what's right, but the universe conspires to drag them away from where they're needed. Business trips or fascist governments or sisters who cannot grow up and settle down.
Matthew (Thomas' dad) loved him very much but was always away. He often dies or disappears in the middle of Thomas' childhood. He wanted to be there and he wanted to support his son, but there are so many fires to put out and Thomas was a very self-sufficient kid. His attention was drawn elsewhere, his loyalties split.
As an adult, she lives in the Canadian Rockies in a cabin she built herself, eating vegetables she grows herself and eating meat she hunts herself (all of which is...questionably legal).
How does a person become like that? Her mom died horrifically when she was (between 8 and 11 depending on the universe), and that could definitely put someone off human connections for a while, but she would then legally have to stay with her parent and siblings for another `7 to 10 years, and that would soothe that urge to reject all people and live alone.
Unless!
Abigail's sibling, Anna, is my main oc. I made her first, and most things are about her. If that continues into the oc verse, I could see that adding onto the trauma for Abigail.
Like. Mom burns to death in a fire, and all their dad cares about is her sister. (I'm super into Grey's Anatomy right now, so Anna has a brain tumor that takes up most of their dad's time).
So far, the dad (Matthew) has been Super Dad who always does everything right, handles Anna's Main-Character-ness with grace and clever solutions. Things fit together better (and are more realistic) if he's not. He's overwhelmed, managing seven children by himself, one of whom needs dangerous and expensive surgery and is constantly getting into trouble about it, of course the quiet and convenient child slips through the cracks.
(Most of the children leave as soon as possible, actually. I'm realizing now.
Anthony goes to law school. Alexander goes to med school. Thomas joins the peace corps, micheal (who is also underdeveloped) goes to MIT I think (oh he could work on the robot dogs for the military, the rest of the family would HATE that), Steele is a music prodigy and goes early admission to Juliard, Anna stays home, Abigail leaves for the forest, and Maia just. Cannot with all of them. (she needs a life ambition.) )
Anyway. Abigail. Loses her mom and then retreats from the rest of her family and No One Notices.
happy storyteller saturday! if your characters had tumblr blogs what would they post about and what would their usernames be?
Thank you!
Oh gosh thats a hard one.
I feel like Juni's would be like, an art blog for his sketches, but interspersed with pictures of half-naked bears he finds in the middle of the night.
Anna's would be, I'm almost thinking WarriorMale. Weapons appreciation and a lot of "Stand and Fight" "Your Biggest Obstacle Is Yourself" "If You Believe In It You Can Do It!"
Hhhh I have oc brainrot and this is my house so I'm going to say things about it
(Long post below)
So, I've posted before about Anna and Juni and the thing about them is that they have no cannon. I made Anna to fight off the monsters from horror shows I was too young to watch and Juni because I was uncomfortable putting Anna through any horrors.
What I posted last week on sts was my ongoing attempt to force them into a coherent canon but I almost don't like it? It's a little hollow and almost doesn't fit the underlying core of the characters I have in my brain.
Why not use the progression they went through as I grew up? I insert them into *everything*, that's why I struggle to obsess over fandom characters, because my special-est guys are already there.
To make it short, I was obsessed with Oblivion growing up and Anna was part of the Dark Brotherhood.
(Juni is still nebulous at this point so we're focusing on her)
(If anyone has not played through the DB quest of Oblivion and would like a rundown, I would be so happy to talk about my favorite part of my favorite video game)
I like to think that she still watched her bio-dad (Matthew) "die" and then teleported to Cyrodil, where she immediately stumbles upon/is contacted by/interacts with somehow Lucien and latches onto him like a baby duckling.
She THRIVES in the Dark Brotherhood. This is why the solider story doesn't fit for me, because as much as she and I both want her to be a good person, a *hero*, she is not. She is someone who gleefully decapitates a guy in an alley and then goes home to brag about it to her buddies.
She is not the player in this AU. I like to think she and the player have a mirrored track, joining at the same time and being spared from the Cheydinal masacre.
(I like to think she was sent off to Skyrim or just the other side of the map for a contract, all happy (LEGITIMATELY the happiest she has ever been or will be again) and then comes home to nearly her entire family in pieces on the ground, and she CANT BE MAD AT THE GUY WHO DID IT)
She latches on even harder to Lucien at that point. One thing that's been constant is that she is someone who leaves claw marks in things. Never letting them go.
She and the player are both put on the dead drop system, and I like to imagine she notices that the higher ups are getting murdered, but Lucien is already off trying to solve that problem so she's on her own.
(Also PLEASE ask me my thoughts on how Obsidian handled that quest/reveal, I love it so much)
She's always one step behind both the player and Lucien, though she's in the players spot when she busts into Applewatch.
Just in time to see the remaining leaders deliver the final blow to Lucien's mutilated, nearly unrecognizable body.
"Hey! We found the traitor! Isn't that wonderful? Aren't you happy!"
I feel like describing it takes away the impact, so let's say that she locks the door behind them and emerged several hours later, coat a darker shade of black.
(At least two of those hours were dedicated to sobbing over Luciens' corpse and then stabbing the player's several hundred more times)
Technically the Brotherhood limps on from Applewatch, slowly growing into what it is in Skyrim, but for me it ended there. She killed it. The Final Listener.
I remember crying about this to my sister and her going "well that's what happens when you join the murder cult".
I think Anna internalized that. This happened because of the darkness. This happened because you weren't good enough to save them.
Maybe if I am good.
Maybe if I save people.
Maybe if I'm a hero.
Maybe I can save them all.
~~~
I have more but this post is long enough lmao. Send me a message if you want to talk about your ocs with mine (or just want to talk, I'm very friendly)
