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cherrygorilla · 4 years

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Time for me to be nosy as heck for the fanfic author thing! Hope you don't mind if I ask a lot like you did to me! Here you are: 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 40 A bunch are the same ones you asked me, but I'm really curious as to what your answers would be. If there's anything you'd like to answer that I didn't ask you, then feel free to add it on if you feel up to it! 💖

Okay, I'm known to ramble at the best of times but I really ran away with myself here. You may want to grab a snack or something first; it's hella long. You've been warned!

4. What made you start writing fanfiction?

When I was like 11/12 I was obsessed with the musical Starlight Express and after trying to google just about everything I could about it I think I stumbled across some fanfiction for it. Well, instantly my little english-class-loving brain grabbed this concept and ran with it. I remember writing my own stories in this cheap little notebook I would hide in my bedside table drawer and it was around this time that TBM came out, so naturally I decided to see if that had any fanfiction too. Turns out it did, and significantly more than Starlight Express might I add, so my creativity ran away with itself and next thing I knew I was setting up my own account and getting properly involved this time. And I guess, as they say, the rest is history...

5. Favourite pairing?

This is pretty tricky for me. Most of the pairings that I have set up are littered with little flaws and things that make them more interesting to write about (and hopefully read about lol) and more realistic. And the already established pairings that I use (i.e. Mack & Brady in old stories or Lela & Tanner) just feel too bland for me to really connect with them, which is probably why I always struggle so much to write for them. I suppose Lela & Tanner can be cute, or at least their potential is; I don't feel like the movies did them justice lol. But for my stuff, at the moment I just feel so out of practice with writing and at such an early stage in the story with Wheels and Waves that I'm not really attached to any of the pairings yet. And besides, the only one I've really established so far is Butchy & Giggles, but if you've read my last chapter then you'll know that that's not exactly doing so hot atm. So, since I can pick holes and find flaws in everyone's relationships too much to pick a favourite, I think I'll pick one I'm excited about that has some of the biggest flaws imaginable: Coral & Hyde. And that's all I'm going to say. Unless you're curious, then ask away lmao.

6. Least favourite pairing?

Okay, I may be a bit controversial here- Actually, this is probably really controversial judging by some of the reviews on my old stories that I was just reading. But I don't really like Mack & Brady… Hear me out! Maybe it's just because I haven't watched the movies for ages and I haven't been thinking about them writing-wise since I abandoned my old stuff but they just seem really bland to me. Don't get me wrong, they're super sweet, but I like giving my characters a bit of grit to work with and make them a little more interesting beneath their 'perfect movie character in an idyllic world' surface and I just could never seem to do that with Mack & Brady. I could never manage to give them any depth and because of that I feel like I just grew to resent them haha. Other people can write for them much better than I can, let's just put it that way. Apart from them though, non-canon-wise in my stories it's got to be Butchy & Coral. Hands down. Honestly, what was I thinking? It was cringey. It was basic. And I think because of it Coral became super one-dimensional and kept losing her way as a character because my whole focus was trying to get them to work as a couple. Spoiler alert: they don't. And since I ditched them I think I was really able to get her to come into her own and develop a much more interesting, albeit worse, side of her.

7. Favourite type of au?

This is probably going to be a quick one because I don't do a lot of au stuff but modern day/high school aus are always a lot of fun. I feel like TBM2 could have done so much cool stuff with that premise but then they went and dumbed down all the characters and really ruined their chance but I think the concept in general is so cute. I'm actually working on something in this vein for my sims blog, but that's not what we're talking about so let's move on.

14. Do the people in your life know you write fic? How do they feel about it?

Nope. I haven't ever mentioned it to my family because I just don't think that they'd 'get' it. I think I mentioned it to one of my best friends ages ago because she also read/casually wrote fanfics but I don't think that she still knows that I've kept it up; she probably just assumes that it was something we both just did when we were 13/14. So they don't really think anything of it; they don't know and probably never will lol. So I just struggle over chapters and ideas and things by myself.

17. What's the harshest criticism you've ever gotten on a fic?

To be honest, I don't think that I've ever really had any super harsh criticism. None that I can remember, anyway. I was reading through the reviews on one story recently and someone told me that I should work on my dialogue for Mack & Brady because it wasn't true enough to their characters and tbh they probably weren't wrong. That's barely criticism but it was the closest that I could find to it in my five minutes of looking and nothing else stood out in my memory so I guess that's what I'll go with. I know that probably sounds super cocky like "omg i'm amazing i never get any criticism from anyone because i'm amazingggg!!!1!!" but honestly all the reviews on my old stuff were just people being nice to me because I was friendly to them and I get next to no reviews on my current stuff, so there's no real opportunity for criticism if there's no interaction in the first place lmao.

20. What's your biggest struggle when it comes to writing fic?

Actually finding the time to write it when I have uni work, family life, stuff with friends and a somewhat healthy sleep schedule to balance as well. I just don't have enough hours in a day. Besides that, when it actually comes to writing I guess I find it hard to stick solely to ideas that progress the plot. I've been trying to work on that a lot more lately and be more ruthless with my planning but sometimes I just get inspired by something fun and in sheer creative desperation I just wedge it into the plot somewhere. And I think that for the reader's sake I need to stop doing this.

21. Your biggest strength?

I don't know if this is what anyone else would consider my biggest strength but I personally really like the way that I can develop the characters beyond what little personality we get to see in the movies. I love working on their story arcs and experimenting with how they 'exist' in my head, like finding out who the quiet souls are, who the loud mouths are and why they act like that. From the snippets we actually see of them in the movies and how basic they are, I'm pretty proud of the characters I've rounded them into in my stories; they feel a lot more real now, to me at least.

22. Which do you do more: read fic or write fic?

I know it's hard to believe, but probably write. I only really keep up with a handful of stories now and I always find I'm more actively thinking about kicking my butt into gear and writing something myself instead of setting out to read someone else's stuff.

24. What's your process?

Daydream and plan out future plot lines for most of the waking hours of the day. Find the fleeting shred of time available in said day to sit down and work on something if both inspiration and motivation are working in my favour. Actually sit down and open up a google doc, perhaps with a cup of tea if I'm feeling particularly adventurous and fancy treating myself for doing something productive. Painfully struggle through the first ten minutes of warming up my writing muscles and getting my creative juices flowing again. Settle into a good rhythm and just let my fingers and the words work their magic until something boring from the real world interrupts me and drags me away from my fictional one. Then repeat.

25. Of all the fics you've written, which is your favourite?

I know it's not necessarily a single fic but I really liked when I was writing the one-shots for Surf, Sun, Sand because I knew that I was writing the things people wanted to read, so I knew there was more of a chance that they'd enjoy them. And it was nice not being constrained to one timeline, I could jump around and play with different pairings, ideas and settings as much as I, well, the requests, wanted. I also really liked my Twelve Days of Cruisin' for a Bruisin' Christmas story, but I can't put that at the top spot because I'm so frustrated that I never got that final chapter up. It was really fun to write though and that's one of the few things that I've written that I'm still happy with to this day lmao. I just think it's sweet and I like how I wrote all the characters, so I'd say that's a win for me.

27. What's your most popular fic? Do you think the popularity is warranted, or is there another fic that you think deserves it more?

Statistics-wise it's Paper Flowers, by a long-shot. 77,485 views and 331 reviews. Now, I think that the fact that there are about a million chapters and I wrote it back when the fandom was thriving has quite a lot to do with that, if not all of it, because I'm almost certain that it can't be the writing, character quality or whatever crap I threw into the plot back then. But for nostalgia's sake, I'll allow it. And to be fair, it was probably alright at the time. I do think, however, that I've developed and improved my writing style over the years, so it would be nice if Wheels and Waves could get a little more popularity (since it's something I'm actually semi-proud of lol). But I just don't have the audience, so what can you do?

29. Which of your fics was the hardest to write?

Just Like Me. By a country mile. Like I mentioned earlier, I really struggle when it comes to writing for Mack & Brady and although I liked the concept (and a few other people did too) I just wasn't ever happy with what I ended up with. The chapters felt boring (which probably had something to do with the fact that I wrote them in my phone notes at 11:30pm), their relationship felt bland and the plot felt like it was going nowhere. I sort of had a vague structure of where I wanted to take it, but when I couldn't seem to get the hang of writing for them every chapter felt like such a challenge.

30. Favourite fic writers?

You, girl! I literally don't even bother to keep up with anyone else anymore because I just don't have the time (uni will do that to a bitch, lol) but I never miss a post of yours and will frequently go and re-read your stuff (especially if it's in preparation for a crossover lmao) if I need a pick-me-up. And like you said, we're practically family now and what kind of internet sister would I be if I didn't support my fam?!

31. Do you write just for fun, or would you ever consider pursuing writing?

I don't think I'd ever actually pursue it as a job. I'm in dentistry school atm so I'm pretty set on becoming a dentist, but even if that wasn't the case, I don't think I have the creativity to create my own unique story with original characters and a whole universe under my control. I just think it's fun to expand on other ideas and grow my own ideas from them.

33. Fanfiction pet peeves?

Bad grammar is really frustrating. But I also just think it's really boring when people will basically re-write the whole movie/story pretty much word-for-word with only the slightest of alterations. Like, I've already watched/read this once, why would I want to do it again? I came here for creativity and fun stories with my fave characters, not the flat-out plot all over again with a cookie-cutter, paper doll inserted into the mix to steal a few lines. It just bored me.

34. First person, second person or third person?

I'd probably put second person last because I just find reader-insert things weird and cringey. Like they legit make me feel uncomfortable sometimes. And then I'd go with first person because although I don't really have a problem with it, it's just never a style I'd choose to write in; I just can't really get the hang of it and I prefer to be able to see and show everyone's perspective on a situation from the outside, which is why good old third person has to be my favourite.

35. OCs, reader inserts or canon pairings?

Like I said, reader inserts creep me out a bit so definitely not those. Canon pairings are a pretty safe bet and can be cute most of the time (I just personally seem to struggle with them lol) and if they're done well (i.e. not basic bitches with no personality that just double as weird reader inserts *cough cough* Coral in Paper Flowers smh 12 year old me) then I think OCs can be really fun and can add another layer to fanfics that takes them beyond the bubble of what's canon.

37. Which character is your favourite to write for?

Saying Coral would be too easy because she's literally my own character, so of course I'm going to enjoy writing for her. So, other than that I'm going to have to say Seacat. I feel much more comfortable writing for the surfers than the bikers anyway, so that definitely plays into it. But I really like the version of him I've created. I really leaned into his sort of fiesty, stubborn side that occasionally showed itself in the movies, which created a super interesting dynamic with his inherent relaxed nature that all the surfers have. He's a really fun character to work with and I've got lots of fun things planned for him, so I think he's earned that top spot. But I'll mention Giggles too because it's been fun developing her character more deeply for Wheels and Waves. I just like a bit more drama, which Seacat can deliver more than my sweet bby G.

40. Imagine yourself 10 years in the future, do you still think you'll be writing fic?

Honestly, who knows? Back when I started I never thought I'd still be writing it at 18, so never say never, I guess.

And since you said I could choose another one, I'll go for 38. From where do you draw inspiration?

I wanted to include this one because I'm literally listening to my Wheels and Waves playlist as I write this to try to get me into that #writingmood. A few different things influence me but music has always been my biggest inspiration. I'm constantly adding new songs to my playlist and finding songs I want to use so badly that I'll rearrange and shift around plot points to work them into the story. For example, that Coral & Hyde relationship I mentioned earlier? Grown entirely from songs. But yeah, I'm always getting inspired by songs, which is why I'm really trying to get a general plan of Wheels and Waves set in stone so that I'll stop being tempted to switch things around and ruin the plot with convoluted ideas I get on a whim because I heard a fun song. On another note though, if you have any song suggestions then hit me up lmao; I'm always looking for more haha.

#if you made it to the end then you're a saint lmao

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i-am-snowils-admiral · 6 years

Text

Train Tracks and Ice Cream

This is another original story! I wrote it for a fiction writing class. It’s fun I like it. Feedback is always great (I know it’s a little long to ask you guys to read seeing as it’s not fanfiction, but I’d appreciate it).

(For those who know my ocs, just know that although the story started out with it being about Eli and Milo, they didn’t fit the roles so I shifted it around. I couldn’t bring myself to change Milo’s name though, so the Milo in this story is not necessarily connected with my oc Milo)

Words: 3812

Samuel Cain had hoped, initially, that he would find a nice quiet field somewhere to set up his picnic blanket. He had been most excited when he first found the picnic blanket in the corner of the garage, because it was white with red perpendicular stripes, and fit perfectly into his fantasies of hot summer days and laughing children playing in the grass while happy parents sat and gossiped about kindergarten teachers. He was almost certain that his family had been on one of those outings, but had neither pictures nor stories to confirm it. Sometimes he wondered if seventeen was old enough that his chances of being one of the playing children were gone.

He had found himself not with a quiet field but with a smallish park - Burlington Park, according to a nearby sign - right next to the railroad tracks in the historic downtown of Hinsdale, Illinois. There was grass in the park, but it came in narrow strips in-between concrete walkways, and Samuel knew that he would feel rather silly setting up a picnic blanket there. As it was, he wasn’t sure he had the energy to set up a picnic blanket. Northern Illinois was going through the first real heat wave of the summer, and the power of it was leeching the strength from his limbs. The air was humid, the cicadas screaming the heat from their hiding places in the trees, and his slacks were sticking to the backs of his legs where he had been sitting on the train for the better part of the day. There was a rather nice looking fountain with some benches surrounding it, and so Samuel figured that that would have to do.

Hinsdale was not Samuel’s final destination. In fact, he was going to Chicago, and was going to have to make a number of train transfers, though Hinsdale was not one of them. He had chosen to stop here partially because he knew that when his parents got the bill for a new train ticket at a town he wasn’t supposed to stop at, they would call him, which they wouldn’t have done otherwise, and partially because he knew that he needed to take some time to think about the summer in front of him.

Samuel Cain was a well-behaved, mellow sort of boy, who gave off the vibe of being significantly older than he actually was. He did well in school, had a number of other well-behaved friends, and had not complained when his parents suggested that he spend the summer before his senior year of high school as what was effectively a garbage boy at the bank where his uncle worked. Samuel was clever enough to know that this was a scheme to get him out of the house so his parents could argue with his older brother in relative peace, but had stuck to the plan without complaint because he was determined to not turn down opportunities, as that was what his parents always accused his older brother of doing. There was also the issue that the previous summer’s scheme had consisted mostly of dumping Samuel at his friends’ houses for days at a time, which was fun at times but resulted in a number of raised eyebrows and difficult questions.

Many young men of Samuel’s age might have been thankful for the relative failure of an older sibling. Older siblings set the bar, after all, and if the bar was set low, pleasing parents enough to keep them off your back was fairly easy. Samuel, however, considered his brother’s incompetence not as a lowering of the bar but as a heightening of it. Every moment of weakness or failure he showed to his parents was to them a threat of falling into the same habits as the older son.

Following this conclusion, Samuel had built up his own character with the nervous apathy of a child stacking blocks at the doctor’s office in lieu of thinking about an imminent shot. He would get along better with his teachers than his fellow students (which he knew was a sign of maturity to most adults), would do all of his homework in neat handwriting at a desk facing the wall rather than the window, and would excel in both Math and English. If he were to be honest with himself, Samuel would admit that he preferred History to Math and English, really enjoyed the view from his bedroom window, and found several of his teachers to be exceedingly dull. However, Samuel was rarely honest with himself, and remained completely oblivious to his own opinions. He was happy, he supposed, not necessarily because he actually felt happy but because he wasn’t aware of any particular feelings of unhappiness. He wasn’t completely denying himself as a person, and his actions lessened the stress on his weary parents, whom he loved very much and wanted to cause as little trouble as possible. In another year, he would be going to college, and then perhaps he could branch out a bit more.

As it was, he was stuck here in this tiny midwestern town, sweat dripping from his dark hair, eating a ham and cheese sandwich he couldn’t really taste, suffocating on the smell of hot, damp grass, and waiting for the next train to arrive so he could continue on to Chicago.

Distracted as he was thinking about his destination, it was really a miracle that he noticed the boy on the train tracks at all. The tracks were close by, but not that close, and it took him a while to notice that the boy was on the tracks themselves instead of the sidewalk.

Peeling himself off the bench, Samuel walked closer to the tracks and watched the boy for a while, feeling quite sure that the boy’s mother would eventually notice and pull him off the tracks herself, most likely crying and screaming and kicking up such a fuss that the boy himself would probably start crying as well, and there’d be a big scene. However, as time went on and no one seemed to notice the boy, Samuel began to wonder if it was up to him to intervene.

The boy, who appeared on closer inspection to be wearing a stiff plastic backpack, a faded yellow shirt and bright red rain boots that matched the sunburn smattered across his nose, was watching his own feet with intense concentration, placing each foot with purpose. Although there wasn’t a train in sight, Samuel couldn’t help but feel a sense of urgency as he rushed out of the park and onto the tracks, grabbed the kid under the arms, and practically dragged him back towards the relative safety of the sidewalk.

The most alarming thing about dragging a random kid with no mother in sight off of the train tracks was definitely the fact that he did not struggle or yell. Hadn’t this kid ever been taught about basic stranger danger? Samuel had just dragged him away by the arms, for goodness sake! The least the kid could have done was look frightened.

Instead, the boy wavered on his feet for a brief moment, scrunched up his sunburned nose in concentration, and focused on Samuel as if he had just noticed him.

“Hi!” the boy exclaimed with a kind of hazy enthusiasm. “I’m Milo. I’m running away.”

Samuel fought the urge to scream in frustration. He actually took several moments to just stare at Milo in complete disbelief, trying to figure out if his age would account for the complete stupidity of informing a stranger of his name and current lack of supervision. The kid was what, seven, maybe? Samuel wasn’t sure. He wasn’t very good with ages, and was even worse trying to figure out maturity levels. He was terrible with kids.

Samuel was just considering the question of whether it would be hypocritical to tell the kid that he shouldn’t be talking to strangers when he realized that Milo was swaying on his feet, and that the sunburn on his cheeks wasn’t the only thing causing his face to flush. The blue eyes peeking out from under straw-colored hair had a slightly glazed look to them, and the boy’s lips were chapped and peeling. The kid was clearly dehydrated, and was well on his way to heatstroke.

Sighing in frustration, and wondering vaguely how a kid his age had managed to keep walking for so long in such a condition, Samuel grabbed the kid’s arm again and dragged him towards a nearby line of shops. He didn’t want to deal with an ambulance, and the fact that the kid hadn’t passed out yet and wasn’t slurring his speech told him that although he was close to heatstroke, he hadn’t actually gotten it yet. Samuel was pretty sure that there was an ice cream store nearby, which would have water and would be well air-conditioned.

Milo came along pretty willingly, and sipped at his water obediently when seated at a small table in the ice cream store. He was beginning to look more alert already, and Samuel was slightly nervous about what would happen when the kid really noticed where he was and who was with him.

“So,” Samuel started, a little awkwardly, glancing around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “How long have you been running away?”

Milo stared at him blankly for a moment, kicking his legs against the chair. “Since this morning,” he finally admitted.

Samuel let out a sigh of relief. Milo couldn’t be that far from home. “Have you run away before?”

“Nope! This is the first time. Sadie said it would be fun.” Milo stopped and narrowed his eyes at his companion. “Who are you, again?”

Samuel rested his head on his hand and raised an eyebrow at the kid. “I’m the guy who got you off the train tracks. My name’s Samuel. You probably would have died had I not been there.” Realistically, Samuel knew that someone else probably would have gotten Milo off the tracks eventually, but he felt honor bound to impress upon the kid just how dangerous his little escapade had been. “Who’s Sadie? Did she run away, too?”

Milo’s eyes had widened slightly at the mention of his potential demise, but he seemed to dismiss his brush with death fairly easily at the mention of Sadie. “Sadie’s my sister. She didn’t run away with me, but she said that I should. She said that I should get on the train tracks and keep walking until I got caught. She’s super cool and knows all sorts of things!”

Samuel didn’t trust himself to answer that without saying something not very flattering about the types of things that Milo’s sister knew, and so he changed the subject by suggesting that they actually buy some ice cream. The store had been a good idea for fending off the heat, but the smell of the ice cream was hard to resist. He also couldn’t help but be amused at the irony of a stranger offering to buy a lost child ice cream. Ice cream seemed to show up in every kidnapping story he’d ever heard. Ice cream and puppies. Sometimes there were balloons involved. He’d have to look into finding some balloons.

Now with ice cream, the unlikely pair settled back down in their seats, chatting aimlessly about subjects unrelated to running away and the potential negative influence of older sisters. Samuel learned that Milo was from the next town over, that he liked frogs better than salamanders, and that the stiff plastic backpack had been a birthday present from his aunt. The contents of the backpack (which was lime green with race cars on it, a questionable choice by anyone’s standards) turned out to be a flashlight, a picture book about dinosaurs, and a stack of newspaper, which Milo informed him was to make his bed, since Sadie had said that all runaways slept on newspaper.

Samuel was beginning to feel severely exasperated with Milo’s sister, and was starting to be truly thankful that his brother had never managed to drag him into any of his rebellious activities the way Sadie had dragged Milo. From his limited ability to judge the situation, Samuel had come to the conclusion that Milo had been goaded into running away by an irresponsible older sister who wanted to cause trouble for her overprotective parents. After a little digging, Samuel was able to discover that Sadie had recently been very upset about her parent’s interference in her relationship with a boy whose name Milo didn’t remember. Milo did remember that the boy smelled funny, was older than his sister, and that there had been a lot of yelling the day after he had come to visit.

Samuel thought that he could commiserate with the story in a certain way. Perhaps he could help this boy in ways beyond saving him from heatstroke. After all, Samuel himself had had to discover ways of dealing with troublesome older siblings and stressed out parents by himself, and here before him was a boy who was just beginning to understand the troubles awaiting him in the future. Samuel was just about to interrupt Milo’s story about what had happened to his last backpack to begin instructing him in the ways of being a mediator and a non-problematic child when he was struck with such a strong sensation of shameful revulsion that he was momentarily shocked that he had ever even considered destroying the potential of such an enthusiastic child and turning him into the same type of miserable, submissive person that Samuel himself had become.

“I’m not miserable,” he said aloud, and then blushed furiously, thanking his lucky stars that Milo had been too distracted by his own story to notice the outburst. Shocked out of the moment by his sudden exclamation, he took his attention off of Milo completely. He wasn’t miserable, right? He led a perfectly good life. He had nothing to complain about. Nothing made him unhappy.

And yet, he had automatically been repulsed by the idea of Milo following in his footsteps. As if his own path had somehow been faulty. As if encouraging the boy to mimic him would cause more harm than leaving him to figure it out himself.

Milo was asking him something, and Samuel pulled himself from the introspection with a jolt.

“What?”

Milo rolled his eyes. “Do you want to see my dinosaur book?” he asked, clearly repeating a previously ignored question.

Samuel agreed absently, bending over the dinosaur book with fake enthusiasm, asking questions to keep the kid happy while his mind swirled with confusion.

It was a miracle, really, that Samuel noticed the time. The next train would be arriving in five minutes, and there wasn’t another one until an hour after that. He tucked the dinosaur book under his arm and grabbed his suitcase, glad that he hadn’t left it by the park bench. He took Milo’s hand in his free one, and led him out the door.

“It’s time we got you home, Milo,” he explained briefly, relieved when the boy didn’t fight him on it. After the brief bout of almost-heatstroke and the thrilling adventures of the day away from home, the boy was sure to be exhausted.

He paid for the tickets with cash, somehow no longer wanting to goad his parents into calling by using the credit card. He could always call them first, after all. Somehow managing to keep a hold on the book, the suitcase, and the runaway child, Samuel managed to get the whole party on board the train, and settled them both down in some seats on the first floor of the double-decker passenger train. He tucked the dinosaur book into a sleeve on his suitcase. No need to distract the kid with it now. He had something to say.

“Milo,” he began, not entirely sure how to broach the subject. “Do you think that running away today was the right thing to do?”

It was a bit of a gamble, he knew, and it wasn’t exactly his job to instruct the kid, but he somehow felt that anything Milo’s parents said wouldn’t stand up to the temptation of the older sister’s approval, and something told him that the advice of a relative stranger may actually make more of an impression than the inevitable alarm of the parents. He felt he ought to teach the boy something, anyway, seeing as he couldn’t bring himself to do so earlier.

“The right thing?” Milo repeated, chewing on his lower lip in concentration.

Samuel could tell that his phrasing had been confusing, and figured that Milo was probably too tired to play a part in his question-and-answer teaching technique anyway.

“I mean that you probably scared your parents a lot,” he clarified, “and I think they’re going to be very unhappy. It’s dangerous, too. If I hadn’t been the one who found you, someone bad could have taken you away. And then you’d never see your parents or Sadie again.”

Probably a little harsh, he thought to himself as Milo’s eyes turned a little misty and his lip started to tremble. But it was necessary, really. Anyone could have found him. He could have been kidnapped. For one terrible moment, Samuel considered the fact that he could just keep the kid on the train with him and disappear into Chicago, Milo in tow. They wouldn’t last long, Samuel wasn’t well connected enough for a clean kidnapping, but the option was there. They could run away properly, vanish into the streets of the city, and escape from older siblings and concerned parents. He could take Milo to the natural history museum and show him the dinosaur bones. They could sit by the lake and eat ice cream.

But that wasn’t realistic. A daydream, really, and it would benefit Samuel more than it would Milo, anyway. He shook his head slightly as if to dislodge the thought, and looked out the window to where they were already approaching Milo’s station. Despite the length of his journey, the boy really hadn’t travelled far.

Taking a hold of his now-silent companion, Samuel got them both off of the train once more, and headed off in a random direction before realizing that outside the town name, he had no idea where Milo lived. One quiet conversation and an inquiry with the railway assistant later and they were headed in the right direction, Milo strangely subdued next to him.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” Samuel said suddenly. “I was just worried is all. This is a safe area, but you really shouldn’t be all by yourself.”

Milo nodded silently, and Samuel wondered if it was more the exhaustion that was causing him to be so quiet.

If Samuel had been unsure about the address, he needn’t have worried, for he had just turned the corner of a street apparently a few blocks from Milo’s when a car that had been driving past them swerved halfway into a driveway and screeched to a stop. Three people, all of whom looked a bit like Milo, clambered out of the car and ran towards them with a yell. Milo, seeming to reach his limit, burst into tears and broke away from Samuel’s hold, throwing himself, backpack and all, into the arms of a woman Samuel could only assume was his mother.

A man who was probably Milo’s father and a girl of about Samuel’s age who must have been Sadie arrived moments later and all draped themselves over Milo in a giant tearful embrace. Sadie was nearly hysterical, and looked as if she had been crying all day. With each gasping sob, she stammered out an apology, clutching to Milo as if he had returned from the dead.

Perhaps Samuel had been too quick to judge her.

Observing the small huddle for a while, Samuel wondered if he was overstaying his welcome, and turned to go, but was stopped by a strong arm on his shoulder. He turned and was met by the tear-filled but suspicious eyes of Milo’s father. The man looked as though he couldn’t decide whether to hug Samuel as well or hit him, and Samuel suddenly realized that they didn’t know whether he had taken the boy or was escorting him home.

“I found him in Hinsdale,” he explained, hoping that the man would believe him. “He was walking on the railroad tracks. He looked like he was about to pass out from heatstroke so I got him some water and then took him home.”

The man seemed to pale at the news, and closed his eyes for a moment, surely imagining his son collapsed on the tracks, oblivious to an oncoming train. He opened his eyes once more and studied Samuel closely, searching for deception, then turned to hear the tail end of Milo’s own explanation. The boy seemed to have regained some of his previous energy, and was choking out between tears something that must have matched Samuel’s story, because the father turned and enveloped Samuel in a sudden hug.

The heat, which had been unbearable before, seemed to escalate with the added contact and smell of hot, terrified man, but Samuel couldn’t help but return the embrace, feeling his own eyes smart unexpectedly at the simple act of thanks.

The man pulled away and patted Samuel on the shoulder, nodding but not saying a word, before turning back to his son.

After the initial thrill of the return, there were actual words of thanks, invitations to dinner, and, upon his refusal, a demand that Samuel call them once he arrived safely in Chicago. Sadie held back, her fingers running through Milo’s hair in a protective gesture, as if she had only recently discovered how precious he was. Judging by her wide, shame-filled eyes, Samuel figured that she had.

He bade the family farewell, giving Milo’s hair an affectionate ruffle of his own, and renewed his promise to call when he had arrived at his Uncle’s, tucking the hastily-scribbled phone number into the sleeve of his suitcase. He turned back towards the train station, a spring in his step that he couldn’t quite explain. When he had put away the phone number, his hand had brushed up against the dinosaur book, but he hadn’t said anything or attempted to return it. Depending on how important the book was to the boy, it might give him an excuse to come back and visit sometime, to return it. Maybe Milo could even come to Chicago. They could make a whole day of it, getting ice cream and going to see the dinosaur bones. The summer suddenly seemed quite exciting, though for the life of him, Samuel couldn’t remember why it had seemed so bleak before.

#my writing #my ocs #sort of #I mean I guess they are ocs though not official ones

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theravenouswriter514 · 3 years

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Day Eighteen of the 30 Day Writing Challenge

The prompt today is actually a more difficult one for me, because I don’t think a lot about myself. The prompt today is, “Write 30 facts about yourself.”

1. I’ll start with physical features. I have blue eyes.

2. My natural hair color is sandy blonde, but I dye it to a brown-red color.

3. I wear glasses because my left eye is significantly weaker than my right eye, making it difficult to see things far away. It also screws with my depth perception.

4. This one is kind of funny, my nose is slightly crooked. When I was born my mom told me I looked like I had been into a fist fight. It straightened over time, but it still is slightly crooked. No one can tell unless I come out and tell them.

5. I have two tattoos. The one on my left forearm is an opening set of quotation marks. My best friend has the closing set on her right arm. We got them when we turned eighteen. Then I have a sail boat on my right wrist. My two best friends and I went on a girls’ trip in 2019, during which we all got tattoos pertaining to the ocean. One friend got an anchor, one got waves under the sun, and I got a sailboat. Corny right?

6. This one is known already by my previous posts, but it is a fact that I am proud of. I have a two-year-old Corgi named Sirius. He is tri-colored, meaning he is black, white, and tan. I’ll put a picture to show him off.

7. I have two favorite authors. One classic and one modern. They are Ernest Hemingway and Rainbow Rowell.

8. My favorite flower is a Tiger Lily. They grow outside my old house every summer.

9. I live in a rural town in Tennessee. It’s home and I’m a proud Tennessean.

10. My favorite super hero has always been Iron Man, even before I knew about the movies. It’s actually for a funny reason. Tony Stark is known to have that great facial hair, in the comics as well as in the movies. Growing up, and even now, my dad always kept a beard and mustache. I associated facial hair with trustworthiness, because I was a kid and I didn’t know any better. I saw that Iron Man had facial hair, and he just became my favorite. I could trust him.

10. I used to collect snow globes as a kid. My collection wasn’t very big, but I was proud of it.

11. I’m not a musical fanatic, but my favorite is “Oklahoma”.

12. I played the marimba in high school marching and concert band. Our percussion section won first place state championship in competition my junior year.

13. The farthest I’ve ever been from home is when I went on a band trip to Chicago.

14. I got my first college degree in August of 2020. I have an A.A. in English.

15. My writing pseudonym is J.H.Hope. Hope is actually my middle name.

16. I had braces for almost two years when I was 12 and 13. My mouth was too small for all the teeth in my head. I had to have seven pulled out all at once before I could get braces put in.

17. I was in my friend’s wedding as a bride’s maid in 2019. I’m also going to be a bride’s maid in another friend’s wedding later this year.

18. My favorite color is olive green. That’s also what color my car is.

19. My sense of style can be described as casual t-shirt and jeans mixed with 80s. I’ll let my readers imagination try and figure out what I mean by that.

20. When I last got my hair cut, I showed my hair dresser pictures of Brooke Shields from the 80s, so now I have feathered bangs that resemble young Brooke.

21. My friends sometimes think I’m crazy because I give myself essay assignments. I’m not in any classes right now, but I genuinely enjoy writing research and persuasive essays. I’ve written a few essays just for my own pleasure.

22. I have not fallen victim to the plague on Earth that is Tik Tok. You can disagree with me, that’s fine, but Tik Tok (along with other forms of social media) has turned people into mindless, thoughtless, conforming, zombies. Social media has caused so many people to just stop thinking for themselves. If they see that one train of thought is popular in the media, then they adopt that thought as their own, even if they don’t understand it. We have become the generation of reading headlines and taking them for truth. Do your own research! Stop mindlessly jumping on bandwagons! Another thing is that we now have a whole generation of “celebrities” who are famous for no reason. I’m sorry, but showing your ass on the internet and calling it talent is not a reason to be famous. I have an ass too, but you won’t catch me flaunting it on the internet and begging for people to make me viral. It used to be just the Kardashians who were famous for absolutely no reason, but now that has grown into a whole generation! Lets go back to making people with real talent famous, shall we?

23. My friend and I have a blog where we post writing advice and feature writers and their stories to help them gain reads. We haven’t been as active lately because we have both been busy with other things, but we will hopefully update it soon. You can find it here: https://writingandtips.com/#site-header

24. One of my all time favorite Disney movies, if not my top favorite, is “Oliver and Company.” Mostly because Billy Joel voices Dodger the dog, and he is my favorite singer.

25. I love the “X-Files” tv series from the 90s. I rewatch it from the beginning all the time. I even picked up chewing on sunflower seeds like Mulder does while I’m writing.

26. I have a collectible action figure of Jareth, David Bowie’s character in the film “Labyrinth,” hanging on my wall. I also have a retro poster of Harrison Ford, a picture of River Phoenix printed on a page from a dictionary, a picture of “Joe Cool” Snoopy also printed on a page from a dictionary, and an antique tin advertisement poster of James Dean advertising “Kist Kola” for five cents all hanging on the walls of my room.

27. I love Red Pandas. They are the cutest animals on the planet, aside from dogs of course.

28. My sister and I love watching paranormal and ghost hunting shows. We sort of believe in ghosts, but we love to watch them mostly to laugh at and make fun of them. Our favorite is Ghost Adventures.

29. This one seems like self promotion, but it’s an important fact about me. I am not a huge fan of the Wattpad platform anymore, because the community has turned into only promoting super popular authors or fanfiction. It has gotten increasingly difficult to get any reads on your stories if you don’t write popular fanfiction or your story isn’t already popular. But since it is the only platform with any sort of following, I post there in hopes that my stories will get read. So far I haven’t had much luck. But I post my stories over there, if you like my writing here and want to read what I am actually super passionate about. You can find me at the username J_H_Hope. my pride and joy story is called “Grim’s Cliff” and I would appreciate anyone who reads it or any of my works. https://www.wattpad.com/user/J_H_Hope

30. I love writing, even if no one reads what I’ve written. I write and write in hopes that at least one person finds it and enjoys it. This one is obvious, but a fact none-the-less. Writing makes up an important part of my life. It is the reason I work so hard in other aspects of my life.

There you have thirty facts about me. I was really struggling all the way through this one. I wanted to make them interesting, but I’m just not all that interesting of a person. I also don’t enjoy writing so much about specific things pertaining to me. Some of these, especially number 22, make me sound like an old lady. Am I turning 21 or 61 soon? Either way maybe this list was informative and at the least entertaining. Happy reading!

#writing #My writing #my thoughts #writing challenge #30 day writing challenge #facts about me #stories #reading

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