When Parallel Lines Diverge / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page When Parallel Lines Diverge.

Author Post?

Jacob Conwell 16 Jun 2019 03:57

Author Post!

So this has been a long time in the making, having originally been proposed as a collab between myself and GreenWolf back in March. It got backburnered for a bit while GW worked on their excellent The Phoenix, The Nightingale, and The Magpies. Unfortunatley due to IRL time constraints on my end, we had to post this before that series was finished, but that doesn't mean you should not check it out as well.

Our goal here was to highlight the parallels routes these two characters (GW's Florence Thorne and my Sasha Merlo [Sasha Grimmer here]), as well as to delve a bit into the relationship they had as fellow UIU agents that has been hinted at in a few stories in both Third Law and Those Twisted Pines so far.

For those of you wondering, this tale does fall into both those canons. Yay canon-crossing.

Special thanks to Mortos, The Great Hippo, ch00bakka, and Elogee FishTruck does not match any existing user name for their feedback on my components.

Extra special thanks to GreenWolf for collabing on this with me, as well as letting me tinker with yet another one of his characters, as well as for coming up with that slick title.

Enjoy the read.

JC

Co-Author Post

GreenWolf 16 Jun 2019 20:10

Conwell mentioned that this has been in the works since March, but what he didn't say is that PNM started out as my half of this tale. Obviously, it grew just a wee bit, but that's fine, since it gives Florence some firmer background to stand on. Obviously it's not as voluminous as the growing canon of Merlo tales, but still. At least now this isn't her first appearance as an actual character.

Huge thanks to ch00bakka, who ran crit on my half as I cobbled it together at the last minute from a dozen disparate pages of handwritten fragments. Conwell also deserves some additional praise for putting up with my easily sidetracked ass while I wandered off to write the equivalent of two novels of prose in the last two 3 months (and only one of those was SCP related).

+ show block

One advantage of writing my part after Conwell's was that I was able to tailor Florence's arc to parallel and mirror Sasha's: joining the UIU; working with a veteran agent; running into interference from the Foundation; getting frustrated at the limits of the UIU; talking with Holman. And then, in the end, their paths diverge: Kartal retires while Florence stays with the UIU, while in Sasha's arc, she's the one who leaves. (It's also meant to be implied that Florence's efforts to turn the UIU into a Power may be partially behind the Foundation poaching more of their agents.)

(As an aside, if you're wondering about MOOT, it's the Mobile Occult Operations Team, sort of the UIU's equivalent of a wizard SWAT team. Canonically, Florence was responsible for its formation—which happens off-screen here sometime in the mid 90s—and was its first commander. Given that Florence is essentially a walking bomb when she lets loose, that should give you some idea about the power level of the wizards that are part of MOOT. The UIU doesn't have that many big guns, but putting them all together lets them punch above their weight-class.)

Like Conwell said, this was meant to go up after I finished PNM, but I ran into a few hangups while working on the last tale. As a result, there's a bit of an interesting gap in Flo's story where I know what happened and the characters know what happened, but you, the readers, don't know what happened. Hopefully you can infer the most important events from what's presented here and in PNM. Rest assured that the final installment of Florence's 9-part origin story will be completed as soon as I can do so.

Also, just for fun, here are some other titles that we considered and rejected for this tale:

• How Did It Come To This — This was back when we thought that my half of the tale was going to be about Flo's funeral. That will have to wait for its own 9-part tale series now.
• The Blackbird and the Phoenix — Continuing on with the increasingly tortured bird motif that has worked its way into Twisted Pines and Third Law. Fun fact, I also came up with the title for The Blackbird and the Falcon, the original capstone tale for the Anderson storyline, after pointing out to Conwell that Merlo is an Italian last name that means "blackbird". Since then, we've been doubling down on the bird theming. (Kartal's last name is Turkish for "eagle", and yes, I did name an FBI agent Virginia Eagle.)
• In A Mirror, Weirdly — Referencing the famous Star Trek: Enterprise episode that was so good I actually forgot it was from Enterprise, and playing off 3Ports' nickname of "The Weird City".
• Crossing Paths — I was not really trying on this one.

As a courtesy to our readers on mobile devices, please collapse long posts. ~Zyn

Last edited on 17 Jun 2019 06:27 by Zyn Show more

Re: Co-Author Post

Jacob Conwell 17 Jun 2019 03:46

The Blackbird and the Phoenix — Continuing on with the increasingly tortured bird motif that has worked its way into Twisted Pines and Third Law. Fun fact, I also came up with the title for The Blackbird and the Falcon, the original capstone tale for the Anderson storyline, after pointing out to Conwell that Merlo is an Italian last name that means "blackbird". Since then, we've been doubling down on the bird theming. (Kartal's last name is Turkish for "eagle", and yes, I did name an FBI agent Virginia Eagle.)

Everybody's heard…

About the bird…

Genshed 16 Jun 2019 19:22

Excellent dialogue and characterization!

As a former career civil servant, I especially liked the detail of not knowing things above your pay grade, until and unless they fall on you like an Acme safe.

Jacob Conwell 18 Jun 2019 18:37

Excellent dialogue and characterization!

Never let it be said we don't have these characters down to a science at this point.

ADream 16 Jun 2019 19:37

Amazing stuff!

It's nice to see Sasha working with the UIU and to finally have her interact with Florence. I also really liked seeing Florence's life with the UIU, which I was a bit worried her main series wouldn't show that much of. And the parallel dynamic between the two is, of course, fantastic.

YAY!

SEC_the acronym 05 Oct 2021 01:57

This needs more attention as I did as a child. Good character descriptions and other stuff, my good sir!

+1

+1

Ralliston 25 Dec 2021 11:52

That's one fuckin' solid tale and a half that really shows the absolute best out of the two of your as authors. Really strong crossover with some very solid characterization and a great use of a format I absolutely adore. Seeing Flo return was the cherry on top. You two outdid yourselves.

My-Off-Day 29 Aug 2022 17:58

Good tale, very good pacing, and dialogue to match it all. Fun to see where Florence ended up.

I'm gonna put it on record here and say she needs some WWS crossover stat. Fae Wilson/Thorne team up when

+1