ok this is a little ridiculous and out of the blue but I am so so inspired by your fics as a whole and i wanted to write a short bit of fanfiction for your fanfiction? The most recent chapter in particular spurred my brain like nothing other haha I just have so many thoughts on your Angel <333 hope you enjoy!
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It would be so easy to tell them. That’s the worst part.
The thought appears less and less these days, not nearly as much as it had when their mouth was first unshackled the previous chapter and they could for the first time speak freely with their friends. When the immersion became absolute and fiction became a form of reality in of itself.
It would be so easy. Every time a weak answer could be clarified with what exactly their vague allusions and metaphors truly referred to, every time they got questioned even further when trying to cover the extent of what the truth’s shape could even resemble. The idea had been so blindingly tempting that they could hardly think of anything else sometimes, but they managed without much hesitation to choke it down every time. Not when it would hurt their friends more than they were aware was possible. Not when the fallout of such a revelation would crumble even the unshakable prophecy in how it gets recontextualized. Their attempting to leave early had rocked the boat enough as is.
They could hear it now. A moment where Susie pushed again as to where they went when they were not a part of this world and them truthfully answering ‘away from my computer.’ Showing Ralsei just how little a distinction lightner is from darkner from their perspective where both were equally fiction. Pointing out to Kris how their only true contribution to the wider whole is forcing their role as the protagonist, and even that was narrative in origin, not their own free will.
How easy it would be to show this possibility in front of them all and offer each in turn to bask in horror at its implications, to feel the shiver of the universe they thought they knew around them - and then pluck it out neatly from each of their heads by loading the previous save. Getting to keep that knowledge of the looks in all their eyes just to themself.
And then they see their friends talking to one another. They see the excited chatter between Noelle and Susie at the faire; they see the meandering Kris does in and out of visual range; they see the slow settling quiet around Ralsei as text boxes showing his thoughts continue to ask only about their own wellbeing even as he experiences the light world for the very first time as the stars and moon twinkle brightly behind a cloudy sky they cannot ever see, a truth as unmutable as the concept of staying after the end of the story.
And the thought is put back into its mental box and not considered for at least another hour of playtime.
They could stay immersed once more for that long at least. For their friends.
AWAAWAWWAWA THANK YOU???? THIS IS VERY AWESOME AND A FUN TAKE ON THE PLAYER PERSPECTIVE THAT I NEVER GIVE WHEN THE ANGEL IS "OUTSIDE" OF THE WORLD.
It is an interesting perspective to follow to. You brought in the meta-words to stress just how shattering it would be to just outright say things. It almost minimizes all of the experiences the characters have (and is why I depict the Angel as never using them). It would be easy to break someone else, and they have no will to do so.
AFWT was strange in the fact that I was blurring the lines of that tragedy of never being able to stay, but I felt like 3 fics with a "bittersweet" ending did enough to encapsulate the tragedy. Bringing it back into AFWT in a flashback was showing how things have changed, and yet was it really for the better?
This little fic is awesome I'm so glad that people are latching onto the Angel and Fun Gang dynamic even though it has been quite a while since we have seen it in practice.
Thank you very much for making it!
