⭐ Talk to me about any section of a fic that you're dying to talk to someone about. Writing is my sport and I would LOVE to hear anything about it.
Also, tell me about the way you wrote Jok for "A Little Help." I love the switch from "Joker" to "Nikola;" what was the inspiration behind that?
There's a scene I wrote recently that I can't talk about because it's right at the near of my latest Mal/Jok/AG fic which is being posted onto ao3 bit by bit. So we'll park that one 😁
I've always been fond of the dialogue in the penultimate chapter of "Mine" after Jok & CB have had their "come to Jesus" moment and CB starts to lose his marbles by Jok acting normal afterwards. Jok then goes into "ok you want to talk about this more? let's talk about this more" and nearly sends CB into system shut-down. "Mine" is the second Nuggets fic I wrote (altho I went back and added the last chapter a little bit later) but felt like I was really starting to click in understanding how to write Jok in a way that matched to traits in him that I like. Being a bit pedantic, funny in both a teasing and silly way.
This section tickles me even now:
“I am a lot. A lot to deal with. It’s - it gets to be too much.”
“Jok.” CB dropped his hands to his lap, half-whispered “Are you saying your dick is huge?”
A great wheezing laugh erupted. Giggling helplessly, Jok lifted both hands over his face, shoulders shaking. CB watched with growing indignation.
“Jok.” CB hissed.
Jok dropped his hands halfway down his face. He was an alarming pink, still giggling. He fought through his hysteria for a half leer, incapable of letting the opportunity for a joke pass by “I have no complaints.”
“You’ve no complaints???”
“I’m not talking about my dick Christian.” Jok waved his hand around in a choppy motion, and CB rapidly tried to re-orient the conversation.
“So - you’re a lot?”
Another helpless giggle
Re: "A Little Help", because it's set in nearly present day, and there's no major alternate backstory like a fair chunk of my other Jok/Mal fic, it was very much "write him as he is" and just anchor it in the relationship with Mal. I was inspired by the "only one of us gets angry at a time" info, so that helped ground that Jok stayed relatively even tempered throughout, because Mal was the one pinging all over the place. I also really enjoyed writing their non-verbal communication the last chapter of "Super", which I'd finished right before "A Little Help", and wanted to play around in that swimming pool for a bit longer. So it became fun to use non-verbal body language as they talked. I watch full games when the Nuggets are playing plus lots of media so there's a gold-mine of tics and mannerisms I draw inspiration from.
The transition from Joker to Nikola was Jamal crossing into a slightly more vulnerable state during their conversation, and dropping the mental barrier he has enacted through use of the nickname. The thing that made him shift was Jok rubbing his hand up and down Mal's back and Mal, being touch-starved, having a strong reaction to it. The eagle-eyed will notice that Jok spots the reaction. It's part of the evidence trail Jok follows that makes him end up deciding that, yes, Mal needs "A little help." And not long after Jok has his epiphany about who can. I don't recall any specific inspiration for writing it that way other than wanting to demonstrate a mental flip from being at a slight remove to not.
