Sea Swirl loves Sassaflash.
Sassaflash loves Caramel. Caramel loves Sassaflash.
It'd be so much easier if Caramel was a jerk. It'd be so much easier if Sassaflash really loved Sea Swirl all along. It'd be so, so, so very much easier if Sea Swirl didn't have a mind as wide and vacant as a deserted seabed.
The trouble is: love is like life, and both are like the sea. As simple as they look on the surface, they're so mind-bogglingly strange and complicated underneath that it's easy to get lost without a guide.
Life, love, and the endless sea: Sea Swirl herself can only manage one of those three. But she's always trying her best. And sadly, her best might not be good enough, not when it comes to the one thing that matters most:
A happily ever after.
I've only read up to the first horizontal line so far.
I like this alliteration.
Here's some food for thought: in later seasons, Sassaflash and Caramel stop appearing together, and he's shown with Shoeshine in "The Break Up Break Down".
Also, your characterisation of Sea Swirl being smart and Sassaflash being an airhead with a heart is similar to mine, though I've never written Sassaflash as snarky.
The characters in your stories always have such distinct voices and perspectives that bleed into the prose. I love it
Poor Sea Swirl; what she did was sweet and selfless, yet tragic. At least there will always be plenty of fish in the sea.
I've got to agree with Lionpaw315 that how you write each character makes them feel quite unique and real. I looked up the characters on the trusty fan wiki, and I can tell you did your research here. It's amazing how much of a character you can get out of a few trivial lines or scenes from the show. I assume this story was partially inspired by the cover image?
Thank you very much for the comments.
Getting featured and drawing in readers is all well and nice, but the real prize is seeing them engage with it, like you have. So thank you again for the enjoyable contribution.
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That episode you mentioned would be from the eighth season, right? When I looked things up for this fic, I didn't use info that far ahead in the show, but it certainly would give the current story an extra tragic twist.
Really? That's interesting, though I didn't think of them that way. Sea Swirl here is a bit too spacy, ponderous, and officially uneducated to be all that smart, and Sassaflash I was mainly making an emotional type, plus the sass in her name.
But in truth, there wasn't a lot to go on canonically: when you've got the likes of Lyra and Bon Bon, and Octavia and Vinyl, getting much more attention, it's easy to overlook the other ponies who often show up together like these two do. Still, that's what makes the challenge of writing them all the more fun.
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Why, thank you very much!
Characters are always my favourite part of writing. And it's one of my goals to expand upon background ponies enough that they could become as interesting a bunch of major players as the Main Six... in my own fics, of course. It's also good practice, trying out different character types, quirks, backstories, and combos.
I don't know if I should be kicking myself or patting myself on the back for not including that joke.
It's a sort of halfway mark between dealing with main characters and dealing with original characters: you get some of the former's official stamp to help you, and you get some of the latter's flexibility and sense of personal discovery.
Aye, the wiki certainly helps: it saves a lot of trawling through episodes upon episodes just to find something interesting, though not owning all the media, some of it I have to take on trust. And sometimes there's nothing for it but to look at their name, appearance, and cutie mark, and just do your best.
The top half, definitely. The bottom half just caught my eye while I was searching, and I'm especially pleased with the accidental symbolism of having Sea Swirl eclipsed by Caramel in it.
10534817 In my writing, Sassaflash was always the more emotional one... to be honest, I could never think of a personality for Sea Swirl.
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I started with "Don't make a copy of Minuette" and worked from there.
Actually, the ocean connection helped a lot, because I could use that to reverse-engineer a sort of metaphor for Sea Swirl's personality: big, vacant, yet full of secrets and wonders, and a lot deeper than it lets on.
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Rereading it recently (I tend to keep checking for tweaks and spelling errors), I did wonder if it felt a bit dense, in some respects? Sure, I like to delve into the mindset of e.g. Sea Swirl to get a feel for her experiences, but I don't know if I'd say a lot actually happens, plot-wise. Might be something for me to consider in future projects, you see.
Oh, I shall, I shall. Psychology's still the watchword.
It's just a fine balancing act I like to re-examine, sometimes...
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Don't know if I'd say "selfish", but "maladjusted" would be a good word. Sassaflash is temperamental, jealous, and self-absorbed at times, but I wanted to convey that she can break out of it from time to time long enough to notice/care about Sea Swirl. I also wanted to make clear they do have a genuine friendship between them (hence Sassaflash sticking by Sea Swirl and trusting her as a confidante).
As for Caramel... I'd say he's a bumbler handling his self-made mistakes (like making up stuff about his Royal Guard connections to impress Sassaflash) very badly, but he's not necessarily malicious about it and is at least aware of his own shortcomings.
Overall, I wanted to imply that they have been getting better under Sea Swirl's guidance and were worse in the past, though I also wanted to imply that their relationship probably wouldn't have survived this long without her either. I was trying to convey that they were flawed and had work to do, but could still make the relationship work.
Me finding this story:
- well, there has to be at least one fanfic of every character ever shown! ^^ a cute little.....
1 second later
- 12.thousand words!?? Holy Moly O_O
Good story
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Thanks!