@escarlatafox hi thanks for the suggestion :) bobby fullbright himself was also mentioned, hence why he's in there, but I totally forgot that the phantom was mentioned as well. i'll add it now
@escarlatafox said: oh i would love to hear about them
oh! ah. well, he’s an OC for a story i called code pink. the story at first is that he wakes up in an abandoned school with some monsters roaming around inside it, aha
he’s eventually told that turning the lights back on will make them all go away, so that’s what he sets out to do. much later in the story tho it’s revealed that he was the first companion a lonely god created and has been left alone for the time being for. Complicated Reasons, partly his own doing, and the monsters roaming about the school (as well as the eventual villains) are other companions which were created for him by the same god
uhhhh he starts the story as kind of a blank slate and seems kind of numb and emotionally blunted, doing mostly whatever he’s told since he has no memories of his own to go off of in order to make sense of what he’s woken up into thinking emoji
but of course as it progresses, he begins to show more personality and question what he’s doing and whether it’s what he really wants `D`;;
2. what fandoms were a part of that you aren’t any longer?
football fandom (? if you can call this a fandom), sherlock; i rarely interact with marvel, gotham, a series of unfortunate events and hannibal fandoms
3. characters you would marry in an instant?
here’s the thing, i probably wouldnt want to marry many of my favourite characters as i feel we would annoy each other :D but maybe phoenix wright or yosuke hanamura?
5. what is your favorite overused trope?
when a character pretends to not care about anyone because they have trust issues but other people that care about them help them realize they are wanted and worthy of love :)
10. characters that deserved worse? >:]
severus snape didnt deserve his redemption arc 🤷
17. are there any tropes you wished were used less often?
love triangles? and when comic relief characters are just insensitive and discriminating instead of soft, stupid and in love with their friends
11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?i have probably written more fic than i’ve actually read, so, no. i’ve found out in retrospect that i’ve used similar concepts to other people though, for example, me and my ex charlie both wrote a phant-mquill road trip fic at around the same time, and i’ve gotten accused of stealing the concept of a blackbr-ght fic before (which i, to this day, have not read).
18. What’s your most underrated fic?ummm idk! i don’t keep up with kudos and so on at all, so i wouldn’t even know which of my fics are popular and which aren’t. if you’ve played turnabout storyteller though please read 4 variations on a chat, because i’m very proud of that one and i just reread it and i still like the dialogue a lot.
31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?i cannot write simon bl-ckquill for the life of me LMAO i do anyway because... i love me some dualed destinies but i think even after literally all of the fic i’ve written w/ simon i still don’t have a feel for it. for most of it i’ve had to actively go back and rewrite all dialogue several times to make it feel even remotely ic because it’s so much more over the top than what feels natural to me!!! i also cannot write godot well for similar reasons, but i also have only written the dude like twice.
32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?i love writing the phantom because i’d really have to do like the equivalent of backflipping through a flaming hoop before i could write something that’d be ooc of them. for you know. obvious reasons.
i also really enjoy writing april and geiru (who i’d argue are just the same character in and out of a clown costume) because i feel like i’ve got a pretty good handle on their personality, and i also just enjoy writing women.
LISTEN I LOVE THE PHANTOM HE IS JUST, TO ME, SO COMPELLING AS A VILLAIN AND A CHARACTER AND I WISH WE COULD HAVE LEARNED A BIT MORE ABOUT HIS BACKSTORY AND ALL THAT. Like I love the idea of a villain who is not sadistically motivated, but instead has trouble with even feeling basic emotions and who is driven by a need to survive in the world that he lives in. He has had such an impact on our protags while being (legit) a phantom, unable to be caught until the last minute.
And since I thrive on angst and hurt and all that, he just fuels that for me, due to his interactions especially with Simon. He was able to play everyone so well and got into so many people’s heads in such a twisted sort of way I just love him.
Why I don’t
He did kill Bobby Fulbright, which will always upset me. I would have really liked it if he had just maybe imprisoned/captured Fulbright, and in my own AUs, that is what he did. I did really love Fulbright as a character, especially sitting next to Simon, so it hurt a lot to find out that he was dead all along and that I would not see him again in future games.
(cut for length!)
Favorite Episode (also combining with season/movie bc they all blend?)
WELL I GUESS TURNABOUT FOR TOMORROW IS THE OBVIOUS CHOICE since it is the only one where he appears as himself, but also I do love Turnabout for Tomorrow, soooo, yes.
Favorite Line
"............Aww. Look what you did to my mask.“
I love this line because it was where he finally had to let go of his Fulbright persona and it was kind of the beginning of the end. Plus the delivery of the line, even in text, was so eerie and chilling and I just loved it.
Also, when speaking to Simon, “Ha ha ha! That's the spirit! Justice must be swift and true. I see it in your eyes! There IS hope for your rehabilitation and return to society! I will never give up on you!”
Post reveal, this line goes from being a supportive message to something really fucked - he implanted this idea in Simon’s head about being someone who truly believed in him and wanted to think the best of him, but was actually just playing with him the whole time, and I just love that coming from my villains.
Favorite Outfit
So I love him in his Fulbright outfit/persona, but I also love him with the Gyaxa jacket and the mask (tw in link for phantomquill stuffs) because it kind of hits the phantom persona home and makes him seem more like a spectre and less like a human being.
OTP
WE ALL KNOW I’M A SLUT FOR PHANTOMQUILL <3
But seriously, phantomquill is just so fucked up and wonderful to me. Like it is not one of those OTPs where I’m like “relationship goals!” because ships don’t need to be like that, but instead just need to have an interesting dynamic, and that is what the Phantom and Simon have in droves, in my opinion. They are so intertwined and obsessed with each other unhealthily, and definitely have that “only one allowed to defeat you” mentality happening between them. I like to think that Simon stirs some weird emotions in the Phantom before his breakdown; he knows something is happening but cannot really describe it other than saying that he finds Simon “interesting.” Even after his arrest, the Phantom has such an impact on Simon and vice-versa, and Phantom walks that fine line between obsessive love and hatred when dealing with Prosecutor Blackquill.
Brotp
I don’t know if I really have one for him? I have seen a lot of awesome stuff with him and Calisto Yew - both in the same organization and being trained together and stuff - and I totally can get behind that, but I think it is hard for him to form any sort of emotional attachments. Plus, since I definitely see him as becoming obsessed with Simon, I don’t see him as having much room outside of that to form any sort of connections with anyone else, even on a semi-friendly level.
Headcanon
He was brought into his organization when he was a child; his parents were poor and sold him into it for money for their other children. He showcased signs of psychopathy when he was young, so his parents honestly believed this would be better for everyone; the organization would train him and would be able to take care of him better than they would have, and they would get the resources needed to support their other kids.
He endured a lot of suffering in his training in the organization, since they had to work to undo any sort of identity he had - he became one of their top agents, but not without a cost. He has zero memory of his past life but sometimes dreams of a young girl smiling at him (his sister).
Unpopular Opinion
I guess just really liking him is unpopular? I find him to be such an interesting villain because his motivation is not necessarily sinister, and I personally am not so into interpretations of him where he is sadistic or anything like that. His whole persona is not having many emotions - he needs to fake them in order to completely encompass the character he is playing, and he is so detached from himself and others that he cannot really have the sadistic motivations of, say, Matt (for example). I also liked his reveal, as tragic as it was for me because I loved Fulbright, but I definitely screamed “NOOOOO” when I realized who he was and it hurt me.
But I like both him and real!Fulbright, and I guess that is unpopular too? Like I don’t need to choose one over the other (same thing with blackbright vs phantomquill; I can and do like both).
A wish
For us to return to the whole idea of his organization as a global spy network. I doubt we will, but I really like the whole idea of his organization being involved in something greater, and us needing to use him or return to him somehow for help.
An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen
Please don’t ever have him escape and kill Simon I would be so upset.
5 words to best describe him
Obsessive, emotionless, spy, organized, actor
My nickname for him
I don’t have one for him, actually! I just call him Phantom or ‘the’ Phantom!
