#vssanandres

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WIP Reintroduction: The People vs San Andres

16 years after being acquitted for the grisly murder of his father, León San Andres keeps a low profile. He spends his days wholeheartedly dedicated to three simple things: his job as a criminal defense lawyer, supplementing his private library, and his relationship with Vicente Rivera, a tired business executive for a boat manufacturing company. With his ghosts confined to his past, León thinks he’s finally found the peace that eluded his childhood.

When León takes on a new client associated with the Hagonoy Cartel, a growing syndicate responsible for ultraviolent turf wars along America’s west coast, León’s peaceful illusions begin to crack. Uncovering that Vicente is the heir to the Hagonoy Cartel is only the beginning. Everyone is keeping secrets, and not all of them are dead like León’s.

Under the pressure of becoming the cartel’s main defense lawyer in the States, Leon’s life begins to unhinge, revealing the fate of his own ghosts while determining the future of the Hagonoy Cartel.

Genres: Adult; Contemporary (dark, literary); Thriller (legal); Romance (LGBT+); Status: Second draft [23,000 / 80,000]  POV: First person Setting: Portland, OR; California; Manila; Hagonoy || 2017 ⇢ onward Characters:

León, 34: criminal defense lawyer; anxiety is the only thing stopping him from being a true bastard; probably a goblin in a past life

Vicente, 32: executive acquisition officer; redacted; obsessed with documentaries about the Medellin Cartel; fantastic hair

Benjie, 18: redacted; Doing His Best; just wants to feed his siblings (and sleep for another two lifetimes to make up for this abhorrent one)

more: WIP page || WIP tag

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Character Posters ⇝ León San Andres

Laws are merely rules. Rules cannot care about justice or morals or the monstrous tenderness of the human condition. Rules do not care that of the tens of thousands who died in this war, the man I killed--the only one--was the one who most deserved it. The rules only care that I broke them--they want to break me in return. 

more: León’s tag || about The People vs San Andres

Taglist (please let me know if you’d like to be added/removed!): @thegreyboywrites @idreamonpaper @possibledreamswriting

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Last Line Tag

I was tagged by @ratracechronicler and @ardawyn, thanks lovelies! 💖 I’ve missed the last few times I got tagged, so have, uh, several lines? This is from The People vs San Andres, where shit’s currently going down:

There is no memory to this. I heard nothing of the body as it fell to the ground, saw nothing of the blood as it leaked. I roamed over the stains on my knees and watched the nothingness of my thoughts, waiting for Vicente to come back and reassure me that everything was taken care of. I was not, at the time, a witness to murder. Yet—there was murder, and I was a witness to the bullet’s song.

Tagging (feel free to ignore!): @possibledreamswriting @junglewrites @pinespittinink to share your last line(s) 💖 And, of course, if anyone else would like to join in then please do! 

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Getting rid of the Lolita-esque formatting in The People vs San Andres might kill me, but it’s also what will set me free

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Pallet Tag 💖

Rules: Make a color pallet for your characters, post em, then tag your friends

I was tagged by the lovely @owlsofstarlight, thanks so much hun! 💖 I did this for The People vs San Andres, so in order--

León, Vicente

Violeta, Seven

Sylvia, Ana

Tagging (feel free to ignore): @homesteadhorner @possibledreamswriting @relevy @roselinproductions @sydwrites-things @c-g-nyx-writes and anyone else who’d like to jump in! 

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Hi I have a weakness for lawyer characters can you please tell me some fun facts about León??!!!!

Thank you for the ask!! 💖💖💖 I’m sorry this is long omg, I got a bit excited... My only comprehensive thought for a long time was just OH BOY CAN I 

ISFJ-T, true neutral

Both a Romantic and a romantic… if you told him you’re his soul mate he’d immediately go weak in the knees. Bring the boy a rose and he’d swoon

Has the worst sweet tooth–would at least give serious consideration to it if you offered him a bag of chocolates to commit murder

“Did you say free food?”

Hoards notebooks and probably writes overly dramatic poetry but never shows anyone

His ideal way to spend a day off is to order $90 of Thai take out and then spend the day at home with some beer, a pile of books (he’s currently reading a horror anthology or the latest Literary Masterpiece™), a bag of ube rolls, and playing the same two songs on repeat in the background (his playlist is pretty gdamn accurate)

LOVES the rain and is obsessed with the aesthetic of water

Really enjoys spicy food even though he can’t handle it very well. yes this is my nice way of outing him as a masochist

No one expected him to become a lawyer, including himself. León was never very competitive in school and also he was a high school drop out because he was on trial for murder from ages 16-18!! soo He got his GED and entered college, planning on taking some gen-ed classes and considering going to culinary school, and ended up loving this IP + patent law course he took. This boy wanted to be a patent attorney until he got to law school where someone helped his two brain cells collide and realize his experiences might make him an indispensable criminal defense lawyer instead. As an overly excitable bundle of empathy and ambition, that’s really all the career guidance it took. 

León is… actually smart. Like I forget this all the time bc I’m constantly breaking him, but he’s genuinely a rational guy whose history and emotions overrun him. He makes bad decisions but he acknowledges them as being bad even in the moment of making them. He’s constantly fighting between his heart and head. Truly a wreck. 

Addicted to peppermint + dark chocolate? ...Maybe so

more: León’s tag || The People vs San Andres Reintroduction || WIP Page

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I’m at this point in Ocean where everything’s kind of set up but León needs to interact with a lot of people, over a lot of time, for only so much information. It’s like--you know those parts of dating sims where the plot isn’t really progressing and you’re just grinding for specific affection points? It’s that but novelized, with way more legal mumbo jumbo and one (1) pair of handcuffs. 

So instead of painfully dragging things out, I’ve been wanting to write a montage--ie instead of writing entire chapters for different interactions (that’s how I personally like to break chapters up--this chapter León is interacting with x, this chapter with y and z, etc), I can just write the specific scenes and give them fluidity by taking the last line of the previous scene and incorporating it into the first of the next scene. It’ll probably only come out to two chapters worth, somewhere between 4k-7k, instead of the like, 15k it’d be if I insisted everything was formal chapters and had to cram real transitions in. Plus while it speeds everything up reading-wise, a lot of time still gets to progress in the story itself, which is pretty cool. 

ANYWAY the problem is that I keep... coming up with more scene ideas to throw in... and I can no longer keep it mentally organized... sooo I had to drag out my old whiteboard and I’m now up to my elbows in ink, but honestly, I’m so damn excited to write this. 

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After about 7 hours of messing around yesterday, I patched my plot hole!

Pros: 

Stronger main arc; 

Cohesive timeline, complete with (”official”--the alleged numbers vary too much for me to use, though I’m sure I’ll bring it up) Philippine drug war death counts up to June ‘18;

Identifiable goals improved on for 5 major characters; 

Family names and ages identified for all major characters; 

Benjie’s arc strengthened, potential sentencing drastically increased

Cons: 

I have to change Violeta’s family name again as I’ve changed her ethnicity ((Japanese --> Chinese Filipina) this decision was, for once in my life, not arbitrary);

Altering federal drug policy (U.S.) starting c. February 2016 will probably require me to use my brain cells; 

I am concerned that altering/dramatizing conditions in the US will lead my American audience to assuming that I’ve dramatized the Philippine drug war, despite my intentions to use the “official” death counts (until I surpass real time)

Have to research & include a lot about the Sinaloa Cartel which makes me kinda nervous idk why

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Ohh I love your leon facts post! Could you give facts about Vincente?

Thank you for the ask!! 💖💖💖 I’m thrilled to give you some facts about my trash compactor boy favorite cartel heir!!

ENTJ-A, chaotic neutral 

Hairy™

Wants kids and would actually make a good father!! Vicente is admittedly a selfish guy, but his sense of self is surprisingly broad, so it encompasses people like Seven, León, Sylvia, etc. and would absolutely cover his kids

Workaholic: hasn’t formally taken a day off in over a decade and quite possibly would have a breakdown if someone forced him to

Will only buy mangoes grown in the Philippines

He’s a trash compactor. He’ll eat anything, and I mean anything. He’ll insist he has taste and pretends to be a snob and all that but those are lies

Does he own actual clothes? I’m not sure. I’ve had him for almost a year and I’m still not sure. I’m fairly convinced that Vicente only owns business clothing and then spends his evenings in various states of undress.

His ideal evening is going out to dinner with friends and León (Seafood? Seafood), taking a walk, drinking a bottle of red wine, and then gambling with mahjong until either a fight breaks out or they lose enough tiles trying (and failing) to cheat that they give up and go to bed. Alternatively: lots of wine, cheap pizza, and binge watching documentaries about the Medellin Cartel.

Everyone expected Vicente to be more ambitious and violent than he is, especially since he’s taking over the Hagonoy Cartel. He surprised everybody by transferring more of their assets into legal businesses and trying to minimize their turf violence in the US. Vicente’s mindful of his relationship with the law, and while he has no respect for it, he doesn’t want to pay for his crimes, either. The only thing stronger than his ambition is his self-preservation instinct. 

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Bright for the word ? :0

Thanks for the ask! This is from The People vs San Andres:

"You'dmake a fantastic motivational speaker," I laughed. He smiled--a hint ofcrinkling at the corner of his eyes as he took another bite. Even seventhousand miles away, the sun was so bright behind Vicente--casting a darkshadow, bathing him aglow--that it warmed me. If I tried, thought about itpathetically, I could feel him--the callouses of his fingers, the tangles inhis hair, the texture of his loosened tie. 

The yearning is embarrassingly strong with this one--it’s an early scene where Vicente and León are video chatting while Vicente’s back in the Philippines. 

Send me a random word and I’ll share a line from my WIP, and explain the context! 

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Word (for the ask game, if I'm not too late lol): "rain"!

Never too late! Thanks for sending in ask--this is from The People vs San Andres:

How much bleach does it take to clear a bloodstain?How do you wash blood from gravel? How much rain does it take for the red to seep between the grit?

León is having a fantastic time trying to keep himself calm while he waits in a car for someone else to be shot just outside 😊 

Send me a random word and I’ll share a line from my WIP, and explain the context!

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10 Things Tag

I was tagged by the lovely @ally-thorne, thanks hon! 💖 I’m doing this for Ocean

Rules: Tag 10 words or phrases that have something to do with your WIP and tag people to do the same! 

Dictionaries 

Smog

Victims

Victors

Trauma

Found family

Rose bushes

Ambition

Insomnia

Mahjong

I’m tagging (feel free to ignore) @possibledreamswriting @homesteadhorner @klywrites​ @madmoonink​ 💖

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Character Moodboard: BENJIE || Give My Love to the Ocean

The gaunt-faced boy was little more than a ghoul, white knuckles bouncing on his bony knees, sitting diligently in front of my desk. Calling Benjie a boy was misleading--he was pushing 19, had more fake IDs than I did student loan debtors, and undoubtedly had more experience with a gun than I did despite all the hours of hoop-jumping and training my carrying permit required. 

He usually looked like this: sickly and trembling. Benjie had perfected the frightened, trembling composure of a mouse tangled in the lion's jaws. Not to say the mouse was defenseless--just that it did a good job of putting on a show, which is all you can ask of prey. In all the times I saw Benjie over the years, and there were many, I was never certain whether he was actually that pitiable, or if he was one of Hollywood's missing stars.

He mumbled something. Too quiet to make out: barely more than a rasp of breath. It sounded a bit like ‘I fucked up’. 

Maybe that was me being hopeful. Maybe my smile was the thing trembling. Maybe I just didn't want to hear him say 'You fucked up'. Maybe if I looked up, I'd see the lion's teeth. 

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on one hand I’m ecstatic to include little bits of Filipino/Filipino-American foods & culture in Ocean but on the other hand shrimp paste grosses me out and even mentioning it in passing makes my stomach twist a little

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Are there any songs that always make you think of a specific OC or scene in one of your WIPs?

Omg, thank you for the ask!! 💖 Oh, there are so many songs that are perfect. My Spotify account has about 8 playlists for me personally and then about 80 for all my WIPs, OCs, and ships. I like to hoard inspiration smh

All of these are about The People vs San Andres (formerly Ocean) just because it’s what I’ve been focusing on lately! 💖🌊

Betterman by Honors never fails to remind me of León! [everything that I want’s gonna harm me, shame on me, shame on me]

Actually, all of León’s playlist is accurate–I’m really pleased with the songs in there so far. 

Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea by MISSIO is the song I always think of as playing during the second chapter (it was the first chapter until, like, 2 days ago), when Seven’s throwing a party and Vicente and León go upstairs to catch up. During the first draft I practically only listened to the Loner album on repeat the whole time, so I like to think this whole album is what’s playing, muffled, in the background during that chapter. [locked and loaded, where the hell is peace of mind?]

Lost Angels by Troi Irons is perfect for the first scene that takes place in LA; it’s a high-energy scene, full of confidence and smoke, and I feel like this song captures that. [bang-bang, bullet as a contract, who put that wolf in a suit?]

Shoutout to Ice King by Annella for just being the most thematically on point song I’ve encountered [yes, I am the one who can live with all your shades; yes, I forgive all your mistakes]

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blossom 🌸 (i hope ;;;__;;)

Thanks for sending an ask! I don’t have blossom in my WIP, which honestly shocked me 😭 But I do have flower, so, ta-da, from The People vs San Andres: 

“Youbecame a lawyer to give a voice to the voiceless. That’s a noble goal in and ofitself. Silent victims lurk in every corner of the world.”

“Noblework would be helping them before they got to the point that landed them in myoffice. I’m—a guise of nobility. It’s like putting flowers on graves and sayingI was the obstetrician who was at their birth.”

It’s just an early conversation between Vicente and León ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Send me a word and I’ll share a line from my WIP and explain the context!