Oh, this is so sweet and so sad. Poor Karen. You already know how much I enjoy your adorable take on human nothlit Aftran, but it’s impressive that you’ve also maintained this deep awareness of how fucked-up what she did actually was. Like, she wasn’t the only one to do it, and sure, she felt bad about it, but. It was still Real Fucked-Up.
Myself, I tend to latch onto one interpretation of a character and hold on at all costs, so I have something to learn from a writer like you who can hold multiple versions of Aftran in her head at the same time. She’s both the sympathetic character who cried over Cassie’s caterpillar body and saved Ax from death by brain appendicitis and talks on the phone through a mouthful of maple ginger oatmeal AND the nightmare Karen may never stop having. And Karen sees her as both of those things, too (well, minus the maple ginger oatmeal part), which is so good and so mature for a kid her age.
I like how this fic paints a hopeful picture of Karen’s future (#YesHappyEndings, sorry Matt) without ignoring or glossing over the realities of her trauma. I also like how your writing in this fic feels authentically kid-like without being simplistic or limited. The best writers are those that can really slip into a character’s head (Aftran-style, badum tsh) and show us the world through their eyes, and I think you’ve accomplished that here.
Also, whale Caftran is everything. I’m super sad that your human Aftran can’t somehow retain her morphing powers so that she and Cassie can have whale dates like in this fic. Come on, Toomin, make yourself useful for once.
#YesHappyEndings!! Hell yeah. Or at least hopeful ones. This is still Animorphs.
I'm so glad that you like how I wrote Karen. She barely gets to speak for herself in her brief canon appearance, which sucked for her but also made me especially curious to explore her POV myself—even though this fic is set years later.
And about Aftran—you're totally right about her having multiple sides. I really like characters like her who have to put in a lot of hard work to become better people, and who still have to face that doing good things now can't erase the bad that they did before. After meeting Cassie, Aftran did a lot of good, but she was pretty monstrous before that, and that's the only Aftran that Karen knew. Cool redemption arc, but you still totally tortured a child for a while there, huh.
Human nothlit AU Aftran can still have whale dates with Cassie! As long as Cassie's really, really careful. And stays close to the surface. I actually feel like human Aftran would have fun hanging out with dolphin or whale-morphed Cassie in the ocean. She misses swimming.
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silverapples Fri 16 Nov 2018 07:26PM UTC
Last Edited Fri 16 Nov 2018 07:31PM UTC
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c_rowles Sat 17 Nov 2018 07:06PM UTC
Last Edited Sat 17 Nov 2018 07:13PM UTC
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