For all your Andy-related info-dumping needs. If there's information you'd like to archive, please post it here, and feel free to link to it from the main post if you'd like to discuss it.
So, now that you've spent a week behind the curtain on my Facebook, Tumblr, and Livejournal and seen the super secret inner workings of the koolaid drinking goosestepping absolute control brainwash cult of the Daydians, has it lived up to your expectations, or have I sadly disappointed you with my criminal mastermindedry?
Your criminal mastermindery, alas, is NOT up to the heights I'd been led to suspect. Not only that, but you have completely failed to attempt to brainwash me or induct me into a sinister cult. Tsk, tsk. (Unless you're being evil and culty on Tumblr, which I freely admit I forget to log into most days, but I won't get my hopes up. :P
Andrew Blake 15/11/2011 11:03 Andrew Blake
Where do you stand so far on wanting to know more of the Great Saga from my side?
Well, I'm dithering about asking you about money. On the one hand, that seems incredibly rude; on the other, I've worked out logically that you CAN'T owe Turi "tens of thousands" of dollars (yes, I've seen that actual phrase bandied about), so I'm somewhat curious as to what the other side of that whole...thing is.
Andrew Blake 15/11/2011 11:18 Andrew Blake
Check your email (the one listed on your Facebook) and we'll start there. It's not the money parts, but it gives you the framework, and I am more than happy to answer money questions...those are actually the ridiculously easy ones.
Andrew Blake 15/11/2011 11:46 Andrew Blake
Sent it a while ago. Awaiting your reply and questions.
(And no, it is not to be discussed with Cfc or the other Daydians, if you'd please)
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
1/2011 13:18 Andrew Blake Thank you. I admit that there is a certain amount of hostility towards Abbey, but it's mostly based in WTF. As in WTF kind of 23 year old woman with a degree in psychology and gender studies meets a 17 year old kid like that and instead of trying to get them help, starts an affair with them, moves them out to live with her, cuts them off from family and friends, helps them fake their death, demands he make all her dreams come true, then abandons him completely after 7 years with 25K in her debt, sends him letters and packages promising she still loves him if he'll work hard enough, then dumps him utterly and two years later turns him in to a woman whom she knows has a deranged vendetta only loosely based in reality and thinks he's the antichrist?
Carla 15/11/2011 13:50 Carla
And now for something COMPLETELY different: I can't figure out how to reply on Tumblr, but what DO you charge for commissions, and how do you accept payment? (I mean: paypal, or something else?) And roughly what would it cost to ship something to Canada?
Andrew Blake 15/11/2011 13:55 Andrew Blake
My rates depend on medium and style, but vary between $10-$300 per figure (with digital black and white line art on the low end and oil paint on the high end) unless you're looking at the 25, 50, or 80% off sales I have going on right now. To ship, it needs to be manual, not digital, and the rates are whatever the client wants it shipped (insured, super-protected certified overnight vs standard first class mail for example). You can look up prices for your preferred shipping method on usps.com, ups.com, or fedex.com
Did I mention thank you for being a decent human being about all this? Because there are too, too few of them.
Carla 15/11/2011 14:05 Carla
You're welcome, really. You seem like someone I'd like; I can barely be arsed to bash people I hate, so I'm certainly not going to be harsh to anyone I might sort of like.
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
[These ones were in reference to a character that I had loosely based off Andy, and which he painted for me. I've taken out a few of my replies; they're mostly just me thanking him, saying yes I'd like to hear that, etc. In retrospect, I think he was setting bait I was failing to pick up... ~C]
Andrew Blake
Ok. The contact lenses statement threw me.
Is the build right, or do I need to tweak that? It's one thing to see it in sketch, another as it's coming together in paint.
Carla 05/12/2011 08:00 Carla
The build looks good. I've always seen him as in good shape, but not the kind of person who works out--more the kind who might do hiking or rockclimbing, but not "going to a gym and lifting weights," ever, unless he had some specific reason to bulk up for a particular scheme--so that looks good.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 08:00 Andrew Blake
Gotcha. Starting painting now.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 08:03 Andrew Blake
BTW, I take it this is the character you loosely based off of the fandom perception of me? How far along are you/how interested in getting more info on some of the actual practicalities of trying to live with unusual abilities/disabilities of the paranormal nature, and/or living quasi-off the grid?
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 08:08 Andrew Blake
I figured you've never exactly lived either outside "the system" nor in any kind of a life where you have to think on your feet to the extent of trying to hide something like that. Give me what you have of the mechanics/rules of this character that are necessary for your story/already set in stone, and I'll give you the "ok, this is how it would work" version. Sort of like telling a military consultant "this is the team I have and this is the terrain, and we need to rescue the damsel from there, how do I write my assault?"
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 08:48 Andrew Blake
Ok, three biggest questions first: has he actually done/does he actually do anything wrong? In other words, is he really a conman? And if so, how/why? (Because if he actually CAN contact dead grandma, he's not a con artist if that's what they're paying for, no matter how much showmanship or how much he charges. And if he COULD contact dead grandma but CAN'T, why the fuck doesn't he and how do you expect readers to forgive that?) Second, how famous is he? Third; resources?
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 09:28 Andrew Blake
The bottom line is that for an innocent person to not fight back, they have to have something they're afraid of, and you haven't given him motive enough for that. Likewise, for someone to not take an opportunity in front of them, there has to be a good reason (I'm embarrassed about my parents wouldn't cut it if HE is legit) and for someone to have something incredible and not the power that accompanies it, there has to be a reason.
Regardless of what the actual capabilities of forensics, your readership reads mystery novels and watches CSI. Unless you're going to go to incredible lengths to really, REALLY frame him, just "seen leaving his room" doesn't nail you any more.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 09:29 Andrew Blake
We can keep him innocent, but the "Turi" character is exactly your saving grace here. If I may...?
Carla 05/12/2011 09:29 Carla
Yes?
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 09:34 Andrew Blake
Let's say he's grown up with these shyster parents, but they're struggling more and more as the carnival dies and the internet grows, and he's always hidden that he's the real deal because he doesn't want to be used by them and is ashamed of what they do. There is a "last straw" moment when they really, really take someone to the cleaners who can't afford it...like an old person or a single mother or someone mentally disabled. He runs away - takes the sister or not, it's up to you - but he quickly finds out he has no marketable skills or educational credentials - as a carnie kid, he's been loosely homeschooled - and after failing to even get hired at WalMart and completely out of money, he starts quietly selling his gift, though he doesn't have the resources to do the flash and dazzle at first, and he's careful to keep it completely above-board. Because he IS the real deal, he starts to make enough money to survive, but because he's not willing to promote or push for fear of Being Like Them, it's not much more than that. (to be continued after I pee....)
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 09:41 Andrew Blake
Word of mouth, he gets referred to someone who is basically a BNF - they've got a good-sized blog, they're upper middle class, they have a respected occupation such as doctor or lawyer, but they're not in a position of Actual Power like a police officer or senator - and that person is both very skeptical and very desperate to find out something about their recently deceased parent. They're also, when they meet the teens, VERY into the sister, but again, still skeptical. Money is BAD at the moment, as it's just before the holidays and no one is spending on readings, and Our Hero gives a small reading of a lesser dead relative that knocks the socks off BNF. BNF is amazed, and not only are their hopes of finding out the Thing They Need To Know through the roof, they get sudden stars in their eyes that This Kid Is Gonna Be Huge...and they want to be Colonel Parker to this Elvis. Also, the idea of Making Your Brother The Success He Deserves To Be is getting him what he at least sees as headway with the sister. They throw every bit of their BNF status and a sizable but not devastating amount of money ($3,000-10,000 maybe?) into a big live event with TV and webcast and all the media coverage they can, basically putting together a combination reading/press conference. Our Hero is incredibly uncomfortable with it, especially when the professionals brought in for the event are setting up a lot of very familiar trappings, but broke is broke is I will not be telling my sister we're spending Christmas in a homeless shelter. (tbc)
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
Now, when he does this, it can range from it sounds like voices in another room all the way to they basically take him over. Regrettably, this winds up being the latter, and hoo boy, does he EVER get in touch with Dead Mommy. Except it goes horribly, horribly wrong. Dead Mommy does not do the standard John Edwards "I love you, baby, and just want you to move on and live your life and take care of yourself." She reams him out for all manner of terrible dark secrets, up to an including that he's had a hidden camera (the siblings have been staying at his house while things are set up) and filming the sister in the shower. She tells him she's disgusted and ashamed of him, no, she won't tell him where the XYZ is, and she only wishes she'd gotten around to changing her will. And then our hero is back, and the BNF is staring at him with a very bad look on his face as the entire audience gapes in shock. (tbc)
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 09:49 Andrew Blake
Basically, he has two choices with everyone watching and everything on the line: burst into tears and say "yes, it's all true," or scream IT'S A SCAM YOU MONSTER HOW DARE YOU LIE LIKE THAT! And the thing is, even as he knows he's protecting his ass, he makes himself believe it because either this asshole kid found out his darkest secrets and shamed him with them because he's a monstrous con artist who gets his kicks hurting people...or his mother really did feel that way about him. (tbc)
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:00 Andrew Blake
He goes Full Turimel - the self-published "expose" book, the media tour, the whole nine yards, but bump it up to a bigger audience for dramatic effect. With the history of seance scams, the parents, embellishment, and putting the worst possible spin on everything, he paints Our Hero as a psycopathic fraud preying on the grieving and borders on stalker in trying to ruin his life/prevent him from having one/get him arrested (when the cops say he's not done anything wrong, the cops, of course, are lazy incompetents again ala Turi). His name, in short, is mud, and when he DOES try to change it, there's huge stink made that he's trying to run and re-establish his Big Scam. The cam, he insists, was put there by the sister to make money at amateur porn (while in the decent hospitality of his home, the horror!) and he uploads the footage to an amateur porn site to bolster this. Our Hero tries to head down push through just ignore it in the security that he isn't what they say he is, but the sister is more affected, and when BNF comes to her workplace (she's gotten a job as a nanny) and gets her fired as a Porn Star (and then tries to convince her that it can all stop if she leaves Evil Brother, stops Perpetrating The Con, and moves in with BNF as his girlfriend), she attempts suicide and winds up committed to a mental hospital. (tbc)
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
[More of his plot ideas for my book (which, as you can probably guess, hadn't started out ANYTHING like what he's suggesting here except for the psychic, the murder, and a guy with a grudge against the psychic. By the way, this set and the one above are as is; I didn't have to remove any replies because I DIDN'T MAKE ANY and he still kept going. I could literally have been dead at the keyboard. ~C]
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:02 Andrew Blake
Even the suicide attempt is presented as more evidence of His Evil, much like I was blamed for Brittany's death. None of his old clients or friends will touch him, not sure what to believe and feeling fairly betrayed if he is in fact what it certainly seems he is. He's desperate, does wind up spending a couple of nights on the streets, and finally, he confides the WHOLE truth (complete with demonstration reading) to a childhood best friend who has a secret of his own. (tbc)
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:09 Andrew Blake
The best friend is secretly transgendered, but his father is a pastor of a very conservative church, and he's terrified of what would happen if he came out to his family. She (MtF) has a plan. She is supposed to be going to law school out of state starting in a month. If she takes part of the school fund, moves out, and starts the transition under her new name while he takes her old ID (the resemblance is passing enough in crappy ID photos) goes to a cheap community college, and sends occasional updates home, they can both make a new start of it. The idea is to make excuses for a year about coming home, and within 18 months if he takes a heavy course load, Our Hero will have an associate's degree, can have changed his name legally to that of the old childhood friend, and the old childhood friend can have gotten far enough in transition - including a name change of her own - that she can feel confident in going home long enough to say "I'm sorry, but this is who I am and I'm leaving now" and they can go their separate ways. The friend's birth name is generic enough (Like Michael Johnson or something) that it isn't even as if it'll be a big deal that now he carries the friend's old name, except the last place BNF will be looking for him is as a paralegal going to community college in Nowheresville. (tbc)
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:15 Andrew Blake
Our Hero takes her up on it, they make the switch, and he thinks things might be ok. Then he gets word from someone in BNF's inner circle who thinks BNF is going too far that BNF has managed to find him anyway and is on his way to town to "blow up the latest con." Our Hero goes to the hotel room to beg BNF to please, please just leave him alone, but it winds up a fight. Things are said about the sister, and Our Hero punches BNF out and leaves...with his fingerprints all over the room, witnesses in other rooms having heard a fight, BNF's blood on his shirt, and one hell of a motive when BNF is found dead by the maid the next morning. The cops investigate him at first, and are satisfied that he didn't do it because of security camera footage vs time of death and his level of cooperation, but the media have already picked up the story and to them, he's damned and the cops are continuing to let this monster walk free and play the system. He's also in deep trouble over the "Identity Theft," and when he DOES manage to plea-bargain that with a fine and an LGBT-friendly officer, it only furthers the appearance that he is a master manipulator who can slip out of any police trap, and his friend, horrified at having her secret exposed, turns her back on him utterly. Now he DOES have to use false identities and make money by whatever means necessary to survive, and when his new friend from BNF's inner circle is implicated in the murder, he feels obligated to find the real killer before one more life is ruined.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:15 Andrew Blake
Does that hold a little more water yet still work for your plot?
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:21 Andrew Blake
And of course, the usual "medium can solve the case because he can talk to the dead guy" is moot here, because the dead guy hates his fucking guts and would love nothing more than to see him go to jail for the murder whether he committed it or not. Better yet if BNF didn't actually see who killed him and truly believes that Our Hero was the killer and is determined to haunt him for all eternity, so he's got that nasty ghostie hanging around while he tries to solve the ungrateful bastard's murder.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:34 Andrew Blake
And of course, things like "he lied about his parents!" who WERE con artists and WERE wanted in several states doesn't help, nor things like "he lied about having epilepsy!" (an excuse he used to explain his occasional 'zoning out' as petit mal seizures) etc. are just fodder for the Colonel, and it's those grains of truth about lies and cons that form the backbone of it. And it makes sense that he doesn't feel like he can really confront the Colonel in public because a) the cornerstone of his argument is a power most people automatically believe is of course a lie no matter how much proof he'd give, and the proof itself would just be screamed down because of course EVERYTHING HE SAYS IS A DAMNED DIRTY LIE, and even if he says the sky is blue, SEE, that's just PROOF what an AMAZING MASTER MANIPULATOR he is that you THINK it's blue when you look up when really it's just a trick of refracted light through the atmosphere, HA! CAUGHT HIM IN ANOTHER ONE!
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
[I thanked him, assured him I didn't mind acknowledging him in spite of his detractors, and this was the final message of that conversation, which suddenly veered off in a completely different direction. I'm redacting two names. You'll see why. ~C]
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:48 Andrew Blake
Though if you don't mind a little flak for something that stays fully within fandom and LJ - vs what I am assuming is going to be a published book that you don't want that kind of attention drawn to - I would be very grateful for a "hey, if anyone wants art, he's fast, his prices are reasonable, he NEEDS the money badly, and it's not like this shit can be 'photoshop trickery' when I have WIP photos of it being done by hand" shoutout.
For the book, I'd be fine with just a "Special thanks to A. for untangling some plot holes" or something like that.
Actually, ironically, I damned near dragged [redacted] by the hair to Planned Parenthood (you'll note they're one of our sponsors) and got her on birth control before the hike even started. She was insisting she didn't even LIKE [redacted] and that she was a virgin, I was insisting they were going to be spending two months in a tent and would either hate each other or be fucking by the end of it.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:48 Andrew Blake
I've got her patch renewals programmed into my phone so I can remind her.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:50 Andrew Blake
I also headdesked a hole in a wall when they said they wanted to swing by Vegas and get married on the way back, but I put being supportive of friends over being right and at least tried to help them make sure the paperwork got done properly, even as I tried to suggest all manner of awesome wedding ideas in the hopes that it would make [redacted] want to wait.
Andrew Blake 05/12/2011 10:50 Andrew Blake
But young and In Love is its own special kind of headstrong.
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Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)15/11/2011 10:41
Andrew Blake
So, now that you've spent a week behind the curtain on my Facebook, Tumblr, and Livejournal and seen the super secret inner workings of the koolaid drinking goosestepping absolute control brainwash cult of the Daydians, has it lived up to your expectations, or have I sadly disappointed you with my criminal mastermindedry?
Carla [redacted]
15/11/2011 10:51
Carla [redacted]
Your criminal mastermindery, alas, is NOT up to the heights I'd been led to suspect. Not only that, but you have completely failed to attempt to brainwash me or induct me into a sinister cult. Tsk, tsk. (Unless you're being evil and culty on Tumblr, which I freely admit I forget to log into most days, but I won't get my hopes up. :P
Andrew Blake
15/11/2011 11:03
Andrew Blake
Where do you stand so far on wanting to know more of the Great Saga from my side?
Carla [redacted]
15/11/2011 11:10
Carla [redacted]
Well, I'm dithering about asking you about money. On the one hand, that seems incredibly rude; on the other, I've worked out logically that you CAN'T owe Turi "tens of thousands" of dollars (yes, I've seen that actual phrase bandied about), so I'm somewhat curious as to what the other side of that whole...thing is.
Andrew Blake
15/11/2011 11:18
Andrew Blake
Check your email (the one listed on your Facebook) and we'll start there. It's not the money parts, but it gives you the framework, and I am more than happy to answer money questions...those are actually the ridiculously easy ones.
Andrew Blake
15/11/2011 11:46
Andrew Blake
Sent it a while ago. Awaiting your reply and questions.
(And no, it is not to be discussed with Cfc or the other Daydians, if you'd please)
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)Andrew Blake
Thank you. I admit that there is a certain amount of hostility towards Abbey, but it's mostly based in WTF. As in WTF kind of 23 year old woman with a degree in psychology and gender studies meets a 17 year old kid like that and instead of trying to get them help, starts an affair with them, moves them out to live with her, cuts them off from family and friends, helps them fake their death, demands he make all her dreams come true, then abandons him completely after 7 years with 25K in her debt, sends him letters and packages promising she still loves him if he'll work hard enough, then dumps him utterly and two years later turns him in to a woman whom she knows has a deranged vendetta only loosely based in reality and thinks he's the antichrist?
Carla
15/11/2011 13:50
Carla
And now for something COMPLETELY different: I can't figure out how to reply on Tumblr, but what DO you charge for commissions, and how do you accept payment? (I mean: paypal, or something else?) And roughly what would it cost to ship something to Canada?
Andrew Blake
15/11/2011 13:55
Andrew Blake
My rates depend on medium and style, but vary between $10-$300 per figure (with digital black and white line art on the low end and oil paint on the high end) unless you're looking at the 25, 50, or 80% off sales I have going on right now. To ship, it needs to be manual, not digital, and the rates are whatever the client wants it shipped (insured, super-protected certified overnight vs standard first class mail for example). You can look up prices for your preferred shipping method on usps.com, ups.com, or fedex.com
Did I mention thank you for being a decent human being about all this? Because there are too, too few of them.
Carla
15/11/2011 14:05
Carla
You're welcome, really. You seem like someone I'd like; I can barely be arsed to bash people I hate, so I'm certainly not going to be harsh to anyone I might sort of like.
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)In retrospect, I think he was setting bait I was failing to pick up... ~C]
Andrew Blake
Ok. The contact lenses statement threw me.
Is the build right, or do I need to tweak that? It's one thing to see it in sketch, another as it's coming together in paint.
Carla
05/12/2011 08:00
Carla
The build looks good. I've always seen him as in good shape, but not the kind of person who works out--more the kind who might do hiking or rockclimbing, but not "going to a gym and lifting weights," ever, unless he had some specific reason to bulk up for a particular scheme--so that looks good.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 08:00
Andrew Blake
Gotcha. Starting painting now.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 08:03
Andrew Blake
BTW, I take it this is the character you loosely based off of the fandom perception of me? How far along are you/how interested in getting more info on some of the actual practicalities of trying to live with unusual abilities/disabilities of the paranormal nature, and/or living quasi-off the grid?
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 08:08
Andrew Blake
I figured you've never exactly lived either outside "the system" nor in any kind of a life where you have to think on your feet to the extent of trying to hide something like that. Give me what you have of the mechanics/rules of this character that are necessary for your story/already set in stone, and I'll give you the "ok, this is how it would work" version. Sort of like telling a military consultant "this is the team I have and this is the terrain, and we need to rescue the damsel from there, how do I write my assault?"
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 08:48
Andrew Blake
Ok, three biggest questions first: has he actually done/does he actually do anything wrong? In other words, is he really a conman? And if so, how/why? (Because if he actually CAN contact dead grandma, he's not a con artist if that's what they're paying for, no matter how much showmanship or how much he charges. And if he COULD contact dead grandma but CAN'T, why the fuck doesn't he and how do you expect readers to forgive that?) Second, how famous is he? Third; resources?
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 09:28
Andrew Blake
The bottom line is that for an innocent person to not fight back, they have to have something they're afraid of, and you haven't given him motive enough for that. Likewise, for someone to not take an opportunity in front of them, there has to be a good reason (I'm embarrassed about my parents wouldn't cut it if HE is legit) and for someone to have something incredible and not the power that accompanies it, there has to be a reason.
Regardless of what the actual capabilities of forensics, your readership reads mystery novels and watches CSI. Unless you're going to go to incredible lengths to really, REALLY frame him, just "seen leaving his room" doesn't nail you any more.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 09:29
Andrew Blake
We can keep him innocent, but the "Turi" character is exactly your saving grace here. If I may...?
Carla
05/12/2011 09:29
Carla
Yes?
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 09:34
Andrew Blake
Let's say he's grown up with these shyster parents, but they're struggling more and more as the carnival dies and the internet grows, and he's always hidden that he's the real deal because he doesn't want to be used by them and is ashamed of what they do. There is a "last straw" moment when they really, really take someone to the cleaners who can't afford it...like an old person or a single mother or someone mentally disabled. He runs away - takes the sister or not, it's up to you - but he quickly finds out he has no marketable skills or educational credentials - as a carnie kid, he's been loosely homeschooled - and after failing to even get hired at WalMart and completely out of money, he starts quietly selling his gift, though he doesn't have the resources to do the flash and dazzle at first, and he's careful to keep it completely above-board. Because he IS the real deal, he starts to make enough money to survive, but because he's not willing to promote or push for fear of Being Like Them, it's not much more than that.
(to be continued after I pee....)
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 09:41
Andrew Blake
Word of mouth, he gets referred to someone who is basically a BNF - they've got a good-sized blog, they're upper middle class, they have a respected occupation such as doctor or lawyer, but they're not in a position of Actual Power like a police officer or senator - and that person is both very skeptical and very desperate to find out something about their recently deceased parent. They're also, when they meet the teens, VERY into the sister, but again, still skeptical. Money is BAD at the moment, as it's just before the holidays and no one is spending on readings, and Our Hero gives a small reading of a lesser dead relative that knocks the socks off BNF. BNF is amazed, and not only are their hopes of finding out the Thing They Need To Know through the roof, they get sudden stars in their eyes that This Kid Is Gonna Be Huge...and they want to be Colonel Parker to this Elvis. Also, the idea of Making Your Brother The Success He Deserves To Be is getting him what he at least sees as headway with the sister. They throw every bit of their BNF status and a sizable but not devastating amount of money ($3,000-10,000 maybe?) into a big live event with TV and webcast and all the media coverage they can, basically putting together a combination reading/press conference. Our Hero is incredibly uncomfortable with it, especially when the professionals brought in for the event are setting up a lot of very familiar trappings, but broke is broke is I will not be telling my sister we're spending Christmas in a homeless shelter.
(tbc)
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)05/12/2011 09:47
Andrew Blake
Now, when he does this, it can range from it sounds like voices in another room all the way to they basically take him over. Regrettably, this winds up being the latter, and hoo boy, does he EVER get in touch with Dead Mommy. Except it goes horribly, horribly wrong. Dead Mommy does not do the standard John Edwards "I love you, baby, and just want you to move on and live your life and take care of yourself." She reams him out for all manner of terrible dark secrets, up to an including that he's had a hidden camera (the siblings have been staying at his house while things are set up) and filming the sister in the shower. She tells him she's disgusted and ashamed of him, no, she won't tell him where the XYZ is, and she only wishes she'd gotten around to changing her will. And then our hero is back, and the BNF is staring at him with a very bad look on his face as the entire audience gapes in shock.
(tbc)
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 09:49
Andrew Blake
Basically, he has two choices with everyone watching and everything on the line: burst into tears and say "yes, it's all true," or scream IT'S A SCAM YOU MONSTER HOW DARE YOU LIE LIKE THAT! And the thing is, even as he knows he's protecting his ass, he makes himself believe it because either this asshole kid found out his darkest secrets and shamed him with them because he's a monstrous con artist who gets his kicks hurting people...or his mother really did feel that way about him.
(tbc)
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:00
Andrew Blake
He goes Full Turimel - the self-published "expose" book, the media tour, the whole nine yards, but bump it up to a bigger audience for dramatic effect. With the history of seance scams, the parents, embellishment, and putting the worst possible spin on everything, he paints Our Hero as a psycopathic fraud preying on the grieving and borders on stalker in trying to ruin his life/prevent him from having one/get him arrested (when the cops say he's not done anything wrong, the cops, of course, are lazy incompetents again ala Turi). His name, in short, is mud, and when he DOES try to change it, there's huge stink made that he's trying to run and re-establish his Big Scam. The cam, he insists, was put there by the sister to make money at amateur porn (while in the decent hospitality of his home, the horror!) and he uploads the footage to an amateur porn site to bolster this. Our Hero tries to head down push through just ignore it in the security that he isn't what they say he is, but the sister is more affected, and when BNF comes to her workplace (she's gotten a job as a nanny) and gets her fired as a Porn Star (and then tries to convince her that it can all stop if she leaves Evil Brother, stops Perpetrating The Con, and moves in with BNF as his girlfriend), she attempts suicide and winds up committed to a mental hospital.
(tbc)
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)By the way, this set and the one above are as is; I didn't have to remove any replies because I DIDN'T MAKE ANY and he still kept going. I could literally have been dead at the keyboard. ~C]
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:02
Andrew Blake
Even the suicide attempt is presented as more evidence of His Evil, much like I was blamed for Brittany's death. None of his old clients or friends will touch him, not sure what to believe and feeling fairly betrayed if he is in fact what it certainly seems he is. He's desperate, does wind up spending a couple of nights on the streets, and finally, he confides the WHOLE truth (complete with demonstration reading) to a childhood best friend who has a secret of his own.
(tbc)
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:09
Andrew Blake
The best friend is secretly transgendered, but his father is a pastor of a very conservative church, and he's terrified of what would happen if he came out to his family. She (MtF) has a plan. She is supposed to be going to law school out of state starting in a month. If she takes part of the school fund, moves out, and starts the transition under her new name while he takes her old ID (the resemblance is passing enough in crappy ID photos) goes to a cheap community college, and sends occasional updates home, they can both make a new start of it. The idea is to make excuses for a year about coming home, and within 18 months if he takes a heavy course load, Our Hero will have an associate's degree, can have changed his name legally to that of the old childhood friend, and the old childhood friend can have gotten far enough in transition - including a name change of her own - that she can feel confident in going home long enough to say "I'm sorry, but this is who I am and I'm leaving now" and they can go their separate ways. The friend's birth name is generic enough (Like Michael Johnson or something) that it isn't even as if it'll be a big deal that now he carries the friend's old name, except the last place BNF will be looking for him is as a paralegal going to community college in Nowheresville.
(tbc)
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:15
Andrew Blake
Our Hero takes her up on it, they make the switch, and he thinks things might be ok. Then he gets word from someone in BNF's inner circle who thinks BNF is going too far that BNF has managed to find him anyway and is on his way to town to "blow up the latest con." Our Hero goes to the hotel room to beg BNF to please, please just leave him alone, but it winds up a fight. Things are said about the sister, and Our Hero punches BNF out and leaves...with his fingerprints all over the room, witnesses in other rooms having heard a fight, BNF's blood on his shirt, and one hell of a motive when BNF is found dead by the maid the next morning. The cops investigate him at first, and are satisfied that he didn't do it because of security camera footage vs time of death and his level of cooperation, but the media have already picked up the story and to them, he's damned and the cops are continuing to let this monster walk free and play the system. He's also in deep trouble over the "Identity Theft," and when he DOES manage to plea-bargain that with a fine and an LGBT-friendly officer, it only furthers the appearance that he is a master manipulator who can slip out of any police trap, and his friend, horrified at having her secret exposed, turns her back on him utterly. Now he DOES have to use false identities and make money by whatever means necessary to survive, and when his new friend from BNF's inner circle is implicated in the murder, he feels obligated to find the real killer before one more life is ruined.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:15
Andrew Blake
Does that hold a little more water yet still work for your plot?
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:21
Andrew Blake
And of course, the usual "medium can solve the case because he can talk to the dead guy" is moot here, because the dead guy hates his fucking guts and would love nothing more than to see him go to jail for the murder whether he committed it or not. Better yet if BNF didn't actually see who killed him and truly believes that Our Hero was the killer and is determined to haunt him for all eternity, so he's got that nasty ghostie hanging around while he tries to solve the ungrateful bastard's murder.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:34
Andrew Blake
And of course, things like "he lied about his parents!" who WERE con artists and WERE wanted in several states doesn't help, nor things like "he lied about having epilepsy!" (an excuse he used to explain his occasional 'zoning out' as petit mal seizures) etc. are just fodder for the Colonel, and it's those grains of truth about lies and cons that form the backbone of it. And it makes sense that he doesn't feel like he can really confront the Colonel in public because a) the cornerstone of his argument is a power most people automatically believe is of course a lie no matter how much proof he'd give, and the proof itself would just be screamed down because of course EVERYTHING HE SAYS IS A DAMNED DIRTY LIE, and even if he says the sky is blue, SEE, that's just PROOF what an AMAZING MASTER MANIPULATOR he is that you THINK it's blue when you look up when really it's just a trick of refracted light through the atmosphere, HA! CAUGHT HIM IN ANOTHER ONE!
Re: Facebook messages: Carlanime/Necromommycon and Andy
(Anonymous) 2015-04-16 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:48
Andrew Blake
Though if you don't mind a little flak for something that stays fully within fandom and LJ - vs what I am assuming is going to be a published book that you don't want that kind of attention drawn to - I would be very grateful for a "hey, if anyone wants art, he's fast, his prices are reasonable, he NEEDS the money badly, and it's not like this shit can be 'photoshop trickery' when I have WIP photos of it being done by hand" shoutout.
For the book, I'd be fine with just a "Special thanks to A. for untangling some plot holes" or something like that.
Actually, ironically, I damned near dragged [redacted] by the hair to Planned Parenthood (you'll note they're one of our sponsors) and got her on birth control before the hike even started. She was insisting she didn't even LIKE [redacted] and that she was a virgin, I was insisting they were going to be spending two months in a tent and would either hate each other or be fucking by the end of it.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:48
Andrew Blake
I've got her patch renewals programmed into my phone so I can remind her.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:50
Andrew Blake
I also headdesked a hole in a wall when they said they wanted to swing by Vegas and get married on the way back, but I put being supportive of friends over being right and at least tried to help them make sure the paperwork got done properly, even as I tried to suggest all manner of awesome wedding ideas in the hopes that it would make [redacted] want to wait.
Andrew Blake
05/12/2011 10:50
Andrew Blake
But young and In Love is its own special kind of headstrong.