Sparkatale

Sorry for taking so long to get to this :( I’ve been meaning to comment all week but things just seem to keep popping up. Anyway, overall this was a really interesting chapter/interquel (I have no idea if that’s a real word and if it is then I don’t know if I’m using it correctly, but it was the first thing to pop into my head :P) and definitely leaves me with a lot to think about before you post A Dangerous Game. Firstly, it was really interesting to see this from Nikki’s POV, since she was the only one of the girls not to get POV in Snowfall. It was sad to see her thoughts on her parents not showing up to see if she was okay – especially since I’d imagine the main reason they’re not there is because they’re currently holed up with Tony and Co. in that lodge. At least, I assume that’s where they are, although I’m not 100% certain of the timeline :P Anyway, although I don’t deny that Nikki and her parents don’t have a good relationship, it’s clear they care for her more than she knows since Randy (I still can’t get over his name xD) said they were involved in Tony and Co.’s (I really need to think of a better nickname for them) scheme was to protect Nikki. Still, I felt really bad for her when they didn’t show up and she was saying she wished she’d been adopted :( It really added a layer of vulnerability to her character that we’d only seen glimpses of before, and I really liked that.

Anyway, I found it interesting that the event that made Jackson realise that Steven wasn’t working alone was that time during the storm. Just because that was the main thing that kept me from being dead sure that JTG was Steven, even when I was very suspicious of him. I couldn’t figure out how JTG attacking Snow fitted in with Steven and Jackson hanging around the football pitch all that time. Moving on from that, I also liked the interrogation scene, especially that we got to learn a little bit more about Steven. I very much want to meet these mysterious parents of his :P

And lastly, I have to talk about that ending :P That was probably my favourite part of the chapter and I’m really curious to see where this storyline with Agent Morales goes. I mean, we don’t get to see much of him in this chapter but from what we do get he seems interesting and I feel like he is a good person, even though he’s rather antagonistic towards the girls. But then, from his point of view he’s talking to four potential murderesses, so I cant really blame him for that right now :P I’m also wondering if JTG has contacted him directly already rather than just contacting Sophia, with his comment about the girls having a “complicated relationship” with Miranda and his general suspiciousness. It seems like he found about that very quickly, and with the music starting right after he spoke to them it makes me wonder if JTG is the person who told him about that. Or maybe he’s just super keen on his job and already questioned people and discovered about their relationship with Miranda that way xD Anyway, overall, this was a good chapter and definitely leaves me with lots to think about while I wait for the sequel. Sorry again for taking so long :’( 

No worries about taking a while :) Stuff comes up, trust me I understand. I’ve been trying to reply to your last message for something quickly approaching two months now and every time I think I’ll have a free night something else comes up. Don’t even get me started on the poor state of ADG. I’d planned on having the first chapter well and truly finished by this point. Yeah, I don’t :P But anyway, this… yeah, interquel sounds good so let’s go with that. This interquel started out as the opening scene to ADG. I’d planned on picking up right where I left off, but things changed and a couple of other scenes came about that sort of made this one feel out of place. That and the first chapter of ADG is setting up to be very long indeed (I'm at almost 10,000 words and I'm not even close to being finished :P) so I tried to trim some fat but I still wanted to use all of this so here it is. It also gave me the opportunity to experiment with writing in first person, which I’m still really bad at but this was a vast improvement over most of my previous attempts, so I suppose that’s a good thing. Switching to Nikki’s POV for this was interesting to write because up until this point I’d never really gotten to get too deep inside Nikki’s head before. I mean, I knew how she felt about certain things but I’d never really delved too deeply into her innermost thoughts before. And considering Nikki is being promoted to POV character, I figured I ought to explore her a little bit. Yes, Nikki’s parents are up at the lodge with Tony and Co. (For some horrible reason I’ve been calling them the Dirty Half-Dozen myself, but I really should stop because that’s terrible :P) while this is happening. The timeline isn’t really as clear as I’d like it to be, but essentially the meeting at the lodge begins around the same time that Snow arrives at the mine, so Nikki’s parents are still there by the time all this is happening. And you’re right; Nikki’s parents would be there if they weren’t at the lodge. Of course, she doesn’t know that so she assumes that they know what’s going on and just don’t care enough to be there for her. She has perfectly valid reasons to think that’s the case considering how she’s been treated by them in the past, but in this case she’s wrong. I’m glad you picked up on Nikki’s vulnerability because that’s kind of a major thing for her moving forward. She’s a girl that’s never felt loved by her family and that’s had a pretty big effect on her.

Heh, that bit with Jackson and Steven on the football field was admittedly some intentional misdirection to lure people away from thinking Steven was JTG :P Apparently it worked at least a little bit if that kept you from being completely sure about Steven. As for Steven’s parents, we’ll definitely be meeting them soon. I think Carmel might have an interest in talking with them. Meanwhile, Mary still doesn’t have parents :/ It’s practically a running joke at this point, isn’t it?

Ah, the ending :P Although nothing about Morales is similar, I recommend watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEVgYj64UH4 That’s the last couple minutes of the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars. I’d been looking for a way to pay homage to my favorite scene from that show and Agent Morales coming into the story was the perfect opportunity. Seeing as that scene inspired this whole series, Warehouse notwithstanding, it seemed only right to include a version of it where I could. Anyway, you’re right that Morales is overall a good person. He’s a cop at heart and he’s fully dedicated to upholding the law. So yeah, he’s aggressive with the girls because they’re high up on his list of suspects. He’s not a villain or a bad guy, he just wants to solve the crime. Which is bad news for the girls because they’re guilty. Otherwise, I’m just going to leave it at that and I’ll say no more about Morales for now except that he’s yet another antagonist that is almost certain to make the girls lives hell for the foreseeable future. Thanks for commenting! :D Oh, btw I’ve already read the latest chapter of Cursed and I’m hoping to comment on it this week. I’m not promising any such thing because… well, you know what I’m like :P I can’t keep to a schedule even if I try.