Paging Doctor Sparkle: One-Year Anniversary! · 4:53am Apr 11th, 2018
WARNING: Spoilers for the latest part ahead!
Technically, I was set to release the part and this blog a few days ago, but better late than never, right? Anyway, last April 8 was a day I'll probably never forget; not only did I release the first Paging Doctor Sparkle part, but I also got accepted into library school! (And then, on April 9, I managed to get on the second slot of the Featured List, beating out Pen Stroke's latest story and losing only to The Donutier. Legends still speak of the weekend of snarky Twilight/Twilight-resembling figures...)
In any case, I always like to do something special for anniversaries, and I honestly can't think of anything better than this. That's right, folks: after a year of waiting, S.S. TwilightHeart is ready to set sail! Since the show I based Paging Doctor Sparkle on (Doc Martin) was a huge slow burn, I figured I'd wait a bit for the couple to finally get together. And rest assured, CanterCon is going to be their first date.
(Also realize that, compared to some of the other ships I've worked on, a year is an extremely short wait. If there are any CocoScene shippers out there, try talking to them once in a while. They'll tell you stories. 
)
Anyway, after that huge cliffhanger in the last part, I figured I'd give you a bit of look into the way I wrote this thing to make you all feel a bit better. So, without further ado, here are some random facts!
* The story was originally going to follow Doc Martin a ton more, which meant that since the resident snarky doctor was in love with the teacher in that British TV show, it was originally going to be a Twirilee fic. I nixed that idea largely because I wanted Paging to stand on its own and therefore didn't really want to copy its romance plotline. For anyone disappointed by this change, please know that Twirilee is apparently a big enough ship to have a group on this site with 27 fanfics. Knock yourself out.
* While I normally take plot ideas from the show these days (anytime ponies could have gotten sick is fair game), I told myself when I first started the fic that there's one Doc Martin plotline that I would never do in a million years. It involves the town pharmacist stealing the doctor's newborn baby, and I only placed a moratorium on that plotline because...I was running an IYGALL arc at the same time with a very similar plot. xP
* From the beginning, I wanted Redheart and Twilight to have a buddy cop-like dynamic, or as much as they could have one as doctors. For this reason, I count Gakuen Polizi as perhaps the second influence on Paging. It's a short, fairly unremarkable yuri manga, but the idea of hostile rival cops-to-lovers was an interesting enough dynamic for me to explore.
* There was supposed to be a Paging Doctor Glimmer spinoff, but if you know me, you know I make my villains too unforgivable for my own good. So what was meant to start off as a misguided character who'd find the error of her ways...turned into everything bad about the health system. Therefore, she won't be reformed. This says nothing about the way I feel towards the show's reformation arc. I'm cool with it in canon, it just won't happen in the AU. Don't think too hard on it.
* So little thought was placed into Scarlet's name that it's almost embarrassing. I wish I had some amazing story about how much it means to the story, but for the most part, it was because I was completely stumped about what her first name was...and the book I was reading at the time happened to be Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. It's a Red Riding Hood retelling with wolf mutants from the moon, tons of political intrigue, and a high-strung/easily angered Red Riding Hood named Scarlet. I figured it sounded good enough with "Redheart" and book Scarlet shared a few small traits with my Scarlet, so *shrug*.
Huh. Scarlet as Redheart's first name just sounded really appropriate I didn't think you got it from anywhere.
4837860
And ironically enough, I'm reading the last book in that series a year later.
I'm glad to hear it didn't seem too strange or redundant for you.
Now I kinda want to try drawing/commission Nurse Redheart in a Red Riding Hood costume someday because of that association.Happy Anniversary!
Happy anniversary.