#continental divides

[wildbootsappeared]

I kept forgetting to post this. Natalie got a gif, so Mark gets to have one, too. I don’t think I’ll get around to doing his team at scale anymore--busy with other things!!--but there is a partial character sheet of him with some key objects over here, just for fun.

[wildbootsappeared]

An Announcement About Continental Divides

It's been a tumultuous but exciting month for me. I've talked to a few of y'all about this privately, but since Flaze touched on this in his last review, I thought now might be a good time to talk in a more official capacity about what's happening. I spend enough time and energy on this story that I've started to rethink what I want from it and what I want it to be. There are some changes coming for Mark and Nat! They're changes that I think will serve the story (and me!) overall ... but also change is never easy, and that means I've got good news and bad news. Bad news: I am probably not updating Continental Divides anytime soon. It's possible that I still will at some point--never say never--but I'm not anticipating it right now. Good news: I'm not done with the story. In fact, I'm so excited about it that I'm working on it as an original fantasy story instead. One that doesn't require me to sheepishly explain why there are pokemon in it But Not Like You Think  . One that's wholly mine. And maybe! With a little luck!! One I can share with a much broader audience. Part of me is sad to leave Hoenn behind ... but a bigger part of me is excited for the new direction. Taking out the pokemon lets me get much closer to some of the points I want to make (and also removes some of the ethical weirdness around owning your friends). And, like, let's be real: this story has had one foot out the door of fandom from the beginning. I've already pushed the canon far enough that simply renaming a handful of characters and places solves like 70% of it. It might've been a hockey stick at one point, but I've bent the thing into a boomerang and now I don't feel bad putting my own logos on it. So, no, I'm not dead, but I have been pretty busy with non-fic things lately, and likely will be for some time.   I do feel bad for leaving folks in the lurch, and I apologize that so many things will have to remain unresolved. (Though, honestly, this is a better place to stop than after Chapter 17, which would have been an aggressive cliffhanger. ... Possibly literally, actually.) I might post a crude "here's some stuff I expected to happen" later if folks are interested in that. I hope it's some comfort that *a* version of this story will continue, because I want to know what's going to happen to Mark and his cat, too. The cat just isn't purple anymore is all.   I'm still really appreciative of all the feedback I've gotten so far--the story is all the better for it! I'm not putting energy towards making corrections to this draft right now, but I'm still open to feedback and interested to hear what folks think. I'll definitely keep any comments in mind as I make my way through draft 2. That said, if you wanted to read it and haven't yet, you should ... do that. Eventually, I'm probably going to start taking it down from the internet. Thank you all for reading and for joining me on this ride! Stay tuned, I guess? 

[wildbootsappeared]

I recently commissioned @sablingart because I love her style. (Her pokemon redraws are so clever and charming!) 

Please enjoy with me this cute rendition of Mark and Natalie from Continental Divides. This little scene reminds me of Chapter 4, a moment when they’re still kinda friends (?), trying to negotiate whether or not they’re on the same team. Or! Perhaps! A future moment that has yet to come? 

Someday we’ll get a happy kitty again. Someday.

Thanks so much for taking a crack at my wretched goblin children. <3

[wildbootsappeared]

Continental Divides

Summary:

“You could make a difference if you really wanted to.”

Natalie and Mark quickly find themselves on opposite sides of a deadly turf war, and more than their own lives are at stake.

Rating: language, alcohol & tobacco, implied (off-screen) sex, and violence. It’s also very much a story about politics and civil unrest. And felonies.

Chapter 16: Salvage

As soon as Pearl was out of earshot, Shelly folded her arms and said, "I need to know you won't cause trouble with Scarlet today."

Natalie crossed her arms, too. Staying out of each other's way would be easy while she was underwa—and then she realized what Shelly was saying. "She's coming on the dive?" She had assumed Scarlet had come aboard to work on the Riveter's engine or something like that, never once considering she might be joining their mission. Her mission.

"Well, she's the one who knows the most about the rig. She'll have the best idea of what else down there is worth bringing up." She waited a moment, watching Natalie's face. "And I don't want a repeat of the other night."

Natalie winced. "I didn't mean—I just drank too much." Thinking about drinking even now made her stomach quaver.

"So did I. So did Pearl. So did a lot of people who didn't get into huge, stupid fights."

Like it had all been Natalie's fault. She scowled down at her shoes, wondering if Scarlet had also gotten this lecture or if it was just her.

"I mean it," Shelly said. "If you don't think you can handle it, I'll pull you from the mission. This is too important."

Read on FFN or AO3.

[wildbootsappeared]

Continental Divides Chapter Discussion #15: Daddy Issues

Absent dads are a big theme in pokemon in general and in my work specifically, and  Continental Divides is no different. I think every major character has a slightly different flavor of Daddy issues: Steven is getting pressure from dad to take on the family business when all he wants to do is play with rocks, Brendan has big shoes to fill as the son of Professor Birch, Natalie’s politics are quickly diverting from her conservative dad’s (and he and Archie already had a massive falling out) ... and, of course, Marky Mark.

From Chapter 5:

She smirked. “So how’s Dad?”

“He says not to let you burn the house down while I’m gone.”

From Chapter 9:

Meanwhile, Dad had insisted he’d be happy to support Kathy getting a degree in a “practical” field, as if it had anything to do with him, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to prove it. Or fail to.

From Chapter 15:

He understood that stuck had never only been about Virbank. It was the reason she’d made sure there’d been a box of condoms in his bedside drawer long before he started dating. It was the reason Dad had sent the package from Driftveil with a note that read, This is your ticket to go anywhere you want. You can even visit me sometime! And under that, a pokeball for each of them. Kathy had taken the lillipup and Mark had taken—

The loss crashed over him again, still as fresh as the moment Mark had first realized his pokeball was missing. Gibs hadn’t intended to leave. 

Previous drafts of some chapters had more about Mark and his dad stuff, but I’ve cut a lot of it for flow. I expect it will come back up in more detail eventually. Until then, I thought I’d unpack a bit of the subtext here, because it was very relevant in my mind while writing Chapter 15.

I see Mark’s disillusionment with Unova as partly being about policy and partly about Disappointing Dad. Blink and you might’ve missed it, but Chapter 15 links Dad to Driftveil, which we learned in Chapter 13 is where Mark was radicalized by Magma in response to protests against Clay’s mining projects. Enter Maxie: surrogate father figure with A Plan(TM). 

My rendition of Maxie is inspired by my favorite professor from undergrad who, yeah, was definitely like a surrogate dad for me in some ways. (And we’re still in touch, which is lovely!) My professor has less dubious politics than Maxie and isn’t, uh, gaslighting, but he does do that thing of asking questions to make you become more invested in your own answers and he has that deathstare that makes you want to shrivel up and die. And that shit motivates the hell out of me! I always worked harder and did better in my classes taught by demanding professors. It’s a major reason I identify with Magma, not because I think their actions are good or wise but because I would be totally swayed by Montag if I were Mark, and I’d be swayed by Mark if I were Natalie. I have been both of them before.

And it’s tough when someone you look up to fails to meet your expectations! Mark is suddenly out of father figures. So now what?

It’s messy because Dad left him & Kathy & Mom, and that’s clearly something that weighs on all of them ... but also Mark has now left, too. Whoops. He sends money home, but I think everyone involved knows that what they really want is for him to come the fuck home and visit them. That’s definitely something he’s going to have to unpack more as the story continues--is he a person who takes a stand or a runner?

A few Chapter 15 songs (links to Spotify):

Pet - A Perfect Circle Weight of Love - The Black Keys I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep - Ghostpoet

(Forgot these last time, oops! I’ll do a post about music soon!)

[wildbootsappeared]

Following up on the animatic from the other day with a few of the sketches that went into it. (Didn’t all fit into the finished image!)

[wildbootsappeared]

Just some happy little air pollutants.

[wildbootsappeared]

Aaaaand here are Archie’s quarters aboard the Ultimatum in Continental Divides. I both really hate drawing things with straight edges and yet also am strangely enjoying these little interiors???