No Good Deed / Discussion

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Jacob Conwell 09 Jan 2017 19:07

This has been a tale that’s been in my sandbox since way back in November. I ended up putting it off to work on finishing the Wayfarers series of tales, and to work on Xmas Exchange projects. Now, however, it is finally here.

Inspired in part by the song I’m Going to Change Your Life by The Thermals, I wanted to write a tale that explored Vincent Anderson’s life as both an employer and as a member of a (now broken) family in comparison to the personal life of his SCPF nemesis Agent Sasha Merlo.

Special thanks are in order for Taffeta, Greenwolf, Agent MacLeod, Roget, TyGently, TwistedGears, A Random Day, Randomini, Zyn, Decibelle, Orionbasher, Rimple, minmin, AbsentmindedNihilist, ProcyonLotor, LurkD, and Cyantreuse, all of whom provided great feedback when I pestered them with this as a draft.

Double Secret Special Thanks to Decibelle for use of her character Rose Labelle.

Hope you enjoy the tale.

JC

Last edited on 30 Aug 2017 00:48 by Jacob Conwell Show more

Re: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

(account deleted) 09 Jan 2017 19:16

Special thanks are in order for AidenEldritch, Greenwolf, Agent MacLeod, Roget, TyGently, TwistedGears, A Random Day, Randomini, Zyn, Decibelle, Orionbasher, Rimple, minmin, AbsentmindedNihilist, ProcyonLotor, LurkD, and Cyantreuse

i see you saved the best for last Holy shit this is the longest list of reviewers I have ever seen. Well, it paid off; this tale is great and I'll probably read it again tonight just for fun even though I had already read it twice in draft stages.

Re: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Jacob Conwell 09 Jan 2017 19:20

Feedback is love. Feedback is life.

(account deleted) 09 Jan 2017 20:36

Obligatory 'better than the movie' comment.

Y'all do good work making me feel sorry for a evil robot wizard.

Jacob Conwell 09 Jan 2017 20:49

Villains are nuanced creatures, after all.

Taffeta 09 Jan 2017 23:15

YOU MADE ME FEEL BAD FOR THE ROBOT, CONWELL

Seeing Anderson slip from facade to facade as easily as this — and then get rightfully (if a little hypocritically…) kicked upside the face by Phineas — swings between "tearjerking" and "pants-shittingly terrifying." Overall, this is a pretty well-done depiction of a twisted moral balancing act that somehow made me feel bad for him. Which is probably the point of the exercise…

Jacob Conwell 09 Jan 2017 23:30

To be fair, if I was Anderson's best friend, and he did to me what he did to Phineas, I would probably kick Anderson upside the face too, hypocrisy aside.

TL333s 10 Jan 2017 00:02

Oh man. I think I've missed a few dozen tales leading up to this, if the crosslinks are any indicator, but this was superb, and not hard to follow despite that. I don't think I've ever seen Anderson himself written about before, and this was a great way to show him off.

Jacob Conwell 10 Jan 2017 05:46

While this isn't the first time Anderson has made an appearance in person in a tale, this is by far the most Anderson-centric tale I've written, so I'm glad you think it pays off.

I'm also glad that this can stand by itself. Part of the goal was to create a tale that those who haven't been on the Anderson Robotics ride for too long could jump in on, so to hear that despite all the building off previous work that this is easy to follow says that the mission was largely accomplished.

(account deleted) 10 Jan 2017 00:11

Anderson Robotics has become one of the more fully-realized concepts on the site, in terms of portrayal of a consistent set of characters over multiple storylines and time periods. And as noted by TL333s above, it strikes me as a good standalone piece that's comprehensible on its own (though knowledge of the previous stories definitely adds to it).

The intersection between a Silicon Valley-like culture and the Foundation has been explored before, I think, but it's pretty fertile ground for writing, and this is probably the prime example of it on the site. Good work.

Genshed 10 Jan 2017 01:31

I see that I'm not alone.

You had me feeling for Vincent Anderson.

You made him a real* person.

Bravely done.

*For a given value of real.

Zyn 10 Jan 2017 08:24

/BAWLS EYES OUT

This was a great read. I felt for the guy. A lot. And also a bunch of the other characters because damn those are some relatable scenarios and I am a huge sucker for slice-of-life and vignettes and let me just say that I really enjoyed reading this in draft form, and I'm very happy to see it on the mainsite _{brb going to go cry errytiem some more}

Jacob Conwell 10 Jan 2017 08:30

Glad the other characters have wormed their way into your heart too. XD

(account deleted) 06 Dec 2020 13:59

Ayyyy, the Thermals! Always nice to see them, although I definitely had another song going through my head as I read this.

At this point "well-written and compelling" goes without saying, but I'll say it again. Maybe it's just me reading these in relatively quick succession, but I have to say that I didn't really feel bad for Anderson. Like, this certainly humanized him and provided him with more characterization, but Phineas is right. He's a hypocrite who demands loyalty and adoration, but repeatedly transgresses against people if it's convenient, only to try to make it up with presents. So, fully realized character, yes. Worthy of sympathy, not really.

DarkStuff 15 Dec 2020 02:25

This and All Hallows' are the best things you've written that I have read thus far. I already felt like Anderson wasn't fully a villain. Now you've explored that aspect of him. (Not that he's a good guy, just that you are successful in portraying him as a multi-faceted person enough that I picked up on it before this tale.) You've hit a certain bar that assures that I have warmed up to a character forever; whenever a scene cuts off, I instinctively stop reading and imagine the continuation, or implications as they sprawl. In this case, I had a lot of faux-conversations between Anderson and others, like when he enters Merlo's house, when he says he'll "mull things over" to Shaw, or when he asks again where his brother would like to go. Good, good stuff. Really loving this character.

+1

Ralliston 15 Mar 2022 17:47

Just like DarkStuff said above, this is my second-favorite TTP article next only to All Hallows'. Just a simply brilliant expansion of Anderson as a character. What I felt like he was missing before was a little relationships between people other than Phineas and him, and this fulfills literally everything I could've ever wanted. Loooove it.

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