#what about vanny? what did you want with this character? you clearly had something in mind

[emdotcom]

*remembers what they did to Vanny* 500 FUCKING PIPEBOMB ATTACK.

[yellowskarmory]

Assemble GGY

more short fics! woo! torturing characters! maybe that doesn't need an exclamation point... (first thing i've posted in like half a year lol, it was mostly written when i was very exhausted but i think it's good enough to read, this is also in my drabbles post on ao3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gregory panted, close to tears, as he ran into the room. Freddy had somehow kept his signal alive, able to send a message to him as he ran up to the catwalks.

Come in, Gregory. Can you hear me? I still have a signal. Get to the Fazer Blast booth, use the security desk. Turn them against VANNY.

He didn’t know how he was supposed to do that, but he would figure it out, no matter what. Vanny hadn’t been on the catwalks when he got on them.

As he ran into the room, he didn’t actively hear any footsteps, which was good. If he could figure out something… Oh! There was a button detached from the desk! That had to be it! Then– “Hee hee hee!” Gregory whipped his head around, grabbing the button, and there stood Vanny. Not now! I’m so close! She was laughing maniacally at him, and Gregory backed up, quickly backing into a corner. Vanny was treating this like a game, and it gave Gregory time to think. He felt the button in his palm, and remembered what Vanny had done to summon the S.T.A.F.F. bots.

Vanny had the high ground, and in her hand, she had a button? Freddy was on the bridge, ahead of him, and neither knew what to say. The bunny lady gave them a cartoonish wave, before pressing the button and ordering the bots to “Disassemble Freddy.”

The memory was vivid, despite having to play through his mind in an instant. He knew what he had to do now. As Vanny slowly stepped forwards, he hit the button, making the only order he knew would work.

“Disassemble Vanny.”

Vanny instantly panicked, as STAFF bots swarmed her.

The screams were horrifying. Gregory never wanted to hear them again.

However, Gregory was finally safe, at least physically. Mentally, he’d be scarred for a long time after seeing someone get ripped to pieces in front of him (even if they were trying to kill him), but he would be okay.

Or, he would’ve been, had the arcade machine not been in the office. A voice suddenly came from it, glitchy and not quite human or robotic.

“Back to your old ways, I see.”

Gregory startled, looking around for the source of the voice. It took a bit for the meaning of whatever had spoken to kick in, but when it did… he was mad. Too mad to pay attention to the fact that the arcade machine had flickered on.

“What do you mean my old ways? I’m not a murderer!” “Oh, but you are… I suppose you have forgotten those therapists you had? All five of them?” Tendrils of purple light snaked from the arcade machine towards Gregory, but he was too angry at the voice to notice.

“What therapists? I didn’t need any therapists!” Gregory retorted, still angry, but also confused.

”Hmm, no memory of that. Do you remember Tony? A curious kid, investigating the arcade machines here.”

“Why would I forget about Tony? He’s my friend.” Gregory’s anger was turning to confusion as he forgot the initial reason behind these questions.

“What about your parents?” “Why would I tell you?” Irritation rose in Gregory, arising from confusion about what this voice was and the constant questions it asked him.

“What is the last thing you remember from before today?” The voice spoke up again, clearly satisfied with the question it asked. Gregory tried to think back to what he’d done yesterday, but… he didn’t remember any of yesterday. Or the day before that. Or the day before that. Actively racking his brain, the most he’d remembered across the past two years were random flashes of memories, and that was it.

“Why are you asking this?” Gregory tried to sound confident, but his voice came out shaky.

“Oh, I’m just trying to figure out how successful the possession was.” The voice laughed afterwards, as if it admitting to controlling Gregory was something funny it could do with no repercussions.

And, if Gregory stayed frozen in place out of shock like he was now, there would be no repercussions, and it’d be right. Unfortunately, the very clear danger signs going off in his mind weren’t enough to get him to unfreeze, not even when the tendrils of light made contact with him.

“You know, while controlled, you did murder five therapists. You did kill your friend Tony. And you killed your own parents. Now, you have nothing to go back to, and nobody to come and save you, with Freddy destroyed and at our whim to be fixed. It’s not like you’d have any hope to be okay again, but that’s fine, because you’re coming with me again.”

OR “You know, while you were controlled, you did murder five therapists. You did kill your friend Tony. And you killed your own parents. Now, you have nobody to go back to, and nobody to come and save you, with Freddy destroyed and at our whim to be fixed, and it’s all your fault. You will never be okay again; your best option would be to come with me anyway, but it’s not a choice.”

And with that, Gregory’s mind went purple, then blank, as he passed out on the floor.

[notsodailycake]

Controversial take here:

I’ve given it some thought, and I’ve decided I can’t like Luis. It seems they’ve talked a few times over email, but that’s as far as it went. Luis should’ve recognized she wasn’t interested and stopped asking her out. My main gripe with him, however, isn’t over what he did, but what he DIDN’T do. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Vanessa hacked into the Pizzaplex. If it was literally anyone else on the planet, he would’ve reported them right away. But he let his feelings get in the way, and chose not to intervene.

When someone you like, or even love, is in a situation like this, you don’t bury your head in the sand. You intervene. I know he tried to talk to her, but that should’ve been the last straw. He should’ve acknowledged it was now a major work related issue after she never responded, and done his job. Not to mention everything else he let her get away with, or just didn’t notice. I feel confident anyone else wouldn’t have been given that much leeway with the red flag searches, or been brushed off like that. I mean, she LITERALLY typed “help” and he just moved on. That, to me at least, is very nearly unforgivable.

Because here’s the thing: if Vanessa was stopped then and there, that would’ve been that. I’m pretty sure they could run the hack back once it was uncovered and actually fix it. And, at the very least, Vanessa wouldn’t have killed any kids. Furthermore, with the glitch identified, I’m sure they could stop any other beta testers influenced by Afton. They might’ve been able to purge the virus from Vanessa after studying it. And it’s not like Burntrap was the real problem anyway. GLITCHtrap is the real threat. We can clearly see that Vanny’s been down in the basement, even sleeping there, so it’s entirely possible he wouldn’t even exist if not for her.

That’s not to say that all of the suffering is his fault, though. Hell, he’s a bit of victim, to. After their first in person conversation, in which he talks about her being interested in IT stuff, Vanessa created that fake ID to hack into the system. Vanessa, or rather Afton, used Luis for information.

I guess this is my own simping for Vanessa, expressing my anger at the one person who was in a position to see her descent into a very dark pit, and yet, for whatever reason, failed to stop her fall.

Maybe I could like Luis if the three star ending was the true one, with Vanessa getting freed and gaining a family in the process. But as far as the story, she’s still trapped in a living hell, with very little chance of escape. And the flames will only get hotter for her.

In my mind, the lesson contained in those emails and what follows is this: when you choose to ignore that someone you care about is in trouble, you will only make it far worse for THEM.

Wow there buddy, that's alot of words for a luis enjoyer like me- /j

Seriously tho, heh, sorry it took so long to reply to this. I was actually excited to get it, and wanted to form a proper reply/argument to this, so i had to get my facts straight. Bc i honestly dont like to just blindly defend a character (and this bit will be explained further into my argument)

So this one is gonna be a long one folks ;)

I'll start off and say that, i agree with your statement really.

To an extent. I still have my own points to argue obviously, i wouldn't be writing a whole analysis if not XD

Now this isn't something to make you change your mind on Luis, but my own views and opinions on it

I will share some stuff that i personally think before i go to your argument about Luis, just so you can maybe see my perspective of it all. And it inevitably will involve Vanessa and Gregory (and quite possibly Freddy)

I'll state that, i like flawed characters. I like characters with flaw. They are fun to write, and it makes them feel more human.

I don't belive in the good or bad, i belive that some characters are in a darker spectrum and others are on a lighter spectrum, but never black and white

Only characters who are insane would be so dark, and even then, I'd see some lighter shade to it

And purely white characters are annoying as hell, perfect doesn't make it good

And now this is probably a take of mine that you will probably not like, but it isn't an attack on you either I'm not mad at you for it lol, but, i dislike the purification of Vanessa that I've realised you've been doing throughout this. I like the fact that Vanessa is flawed, my view on her is that she isn't some perfect victim that needs constant protection (and this inevitably will probably be my own projection of myself onto her, since i was a victim of verbal abuse and some sort of manipulation as a kid), but she also needs help obviously

I don't think she deserved what she went through at all, if that's what you think, but that doesn't make it right to give her everything when she wasn't the only victim. I dislike the fact that everything seems to have to cater to her needs, when others where affected as well. She needs help, and so does the rest. Like Gregory

As much as i love and enjoy the sibling dynamic for them, i dont want to undermine what Gregory went through with her. Sure it wasn't her fualt, but Gregory is just a kid, and he almost died by her hands, he has his rights to be scared of her and avoid her, and that's why i don't like the idea of him imitatedly falling in on opening up to her or helping her, it takes time. Healing takes time, and it's something you'll see me explore more throughout the next parts (this probably is also me projecting, since i myself could never feel hurt or let myself heal bc the person who hurt me was also going through shit, probably worse then me, and I was the one helping them, even if they were the adult and i was a child, 9, i was 9. And it sucks bc it still affects me. So i am a little sensitive about this topic). And with that Vanessa also has every right to not want to be with Gregory bc of her inevitable trauma about killing kids

Both were hurt, and now they have to learn how to put the pieces back together. And I'll add as well about Freddy, even if the issue is small. Gregory hurt his friends, and upgraded him with his Friend's body parts. That, to a sentient robot, is horrible. But i know he can understand the kid's pov. But he's still hurt by it

And it's something they will have to work it out together

So general idea. I like the flaws of the characters, and i dont plan on defending them, but i also dont blame them or am happy they suffered. I want them to heal, i want to show how much actually healing takes time and effort for both parties

I like to look into every perspective. From the victim, from the outsider and from the abuser.

And now this lead to my reply to the Luis part

I will say, as i re read the emails from luis, yeah maybe so, he should have stopped, and my only reason to defend in this are possibly not even canon. But to me, I'd say she did show interest on him, if going by the therapy CDs, when she mentioned Luis you could practically see her twirling her hair by the tone of her voice

Or maybe it's just me-- but she sounded genuinely interested

But yeah, i do agree that maybe he pushed it more then he needed to, but it wasn't anything bad, he was subtle about it and just really trying a shot but to shy to actually make a move. Plus as furter down her descent, he actually stops asking, and is genuinely concerned for her well being and wanting to help but not knowing what to do since he's never seen something like this. Plus it seemed like he didn't wanna push her to talk when she didn't want to

It was still quite unnecessary for him to further insist. But hey, you can be kinda dense when you like someone >_>

Now him reporting her. Through a discussion i had with a mutual about Luis, it seems like they were already somewhat aquatinted with each other. I'd presume they considered each other close mutuals, but not friends.

And in my experience, that would make it so you kinda just, justify said persons actions, as you are not close enough to know everything, but close enough to kinda build an explanation as to why they are acting weird

Cuz as per Luis, if he did he would probably not see her anymore bc she will be moved out, and she has been working hard for her position, and sure maybe bc he liked her. But even if he didn't, it be the same light if they were friends, which seems to be a close case for them as well. As humans, or just genuinel living creatures, we can be quite selfish and be it friends or a crush, you wouldn't want to have them leave your side (and from what I've gathered they are in the same department, being able to pass by each other's work stations)

Was it still wrong of him? Oh yes definitely, but like i said, there is more sides then one to a story. It doesn't make him a bad person, but just a human being with a bias and the benefit of the doubt

And yeah, idealisticly, if you love someone dearly, you wouldn't bury your head in the sand. But unfortunately, that isn't always the case. I deeply care for my sister, love her more then ANYTHING (and dont you dare say anything otherwise💢💢), but I'll be lying if i say i sometimes i wouldn't do that if i didn't know better

In which in this case he didn't. He mentioned to be an isolated kid, he doesn't know social cues as well (which is something I've experienced with my sister, and hell even myself), so with that, he wouldn't fully acknowledge it. It is human of him to be like that. Not right sure, but since when was it human to always be right?

And i will add that, we dont fully know how their relationship was, we just know they talked with each other. And by how Vanessa is about Luis in the CDs, they seem closer to each other then with the other workers

Also, i kinda feel bad for the typing "help" part, as i, a complete dense human being, wouldn't have imitatedly picked up on it either. Bc i am dumb, and even as when i first read the email, i didn't pick up on that part until you pointed it out💀💀

And for that i deeply apologise, but also yeah- gives me the reason to say it wasn't so unrealistic for him to be this dense

And i agree, i can see this seems to come from your bias of Vanessa. And it's completely understandable- you're in your rights to dislike Luis. As much as any victim is to dislike what happened to them and the people around them who inevitably caused the problem

It's probably also something i might explore on my story ;)

And the lesson is correct, it's a matter of actually acknowledging the issue your loved one has and do something about it. But unfortunately that is not something everyone does, even of they and I'm sure afterwards the guilt lingers.

But in a general summary. Your feelings towards him are valid, and i can understand your point of view on this. But that's exactly what i like about his character

I dont defend his actions, i simply give an explanation to them and a view to this different side

[masterofmaagnetism]

11 and 28? I would give an f/o but idk who these would fit

[ ohoho fake dating + enemies to lovers i can’t resist ]

[ “Please just pretend to be my date.” (11) and “Please tell me this is a joke.” (28) ]

[ Characters: William Afton, Keegs Arrowood ]

[ warnings: pining and repressed feelings lol ]

“Please just pretend to be my date.”

Keegs stared at his boss, processing what the man just said to him. Did he seriously just ask for Keegs, arguably his worst enemy, to be his date? For a fucking office party that Fazbear Entertainment was holding for restaurant owners? Why couldn’t he just ask Henry???

“Please tell me this is a joke,” the mechanic finally replied, his answer gaining a groan from William. Apparently, it was not.

“We both know I don’t joke with you,” William responded, confirming Keegs’s fears. What kind of stupid, fruity hell had he descended into? What did he do to deserve this? Well, he probably knew.

Keegs let out a long sigh, about to tell him to fuck off before William spoke again. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re my last hope. Henry said no, Scrap would have killed me if I asked, not even your idiot friend Wrath wanted to go.”

Of course he didn’t want to go, Wrath was in love with Splice and would have considered it cheating even if he still hadn’t told the animatronic his feelings.

“I hate you...” Keegs muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why don’t you just go alone? No one will judge you for it, if you even care about that. And the rumour that you’re dating your employee would be worse!”

That seemed to make William think for a moment, opening his mouth for a rebuttal but closing it soon after. His gaze even drifted away- he clearly hadn’t thought about those consequences. After a moment, he shook his head.

“Being alone is more embarrassing.” Keegs let out a loud groan at this, running his hands over his hand and clasping them behind his neck as he turned away from that british fuck.

What made it worse is that he actually kinda wanted to go. Not because he wanted to go with William, but because he hadn’t had an excuse to dress up the entire time he’d been active. A big office party like this? It would be perfect. And it would give him the chance to scope out the other restaurant owners, and test their animatronic knowledge.

He finally turned to face William again, surprised to find the brunette still standing there. He had to admit, it was amusing to see him so desperate. He let out a huff a breath, giving in to the desire to wear a suit.

“Fine,” he said, not missing how his boss immediately lit up (while also somehow seeming disappointed- probably because he officially had to take his most hated employee to a function with him). “One condition.”

Of course he had a fucking condition. William just nodded, not wanting to push his luck. “Do not send anybody my way so they can talk to your “partner”. Tell them I’m socially anxious if you have to, but I will straight up tell them the horrors of this place.”

William’s face scrunched up in discomfort, but relaxed when he realized this was the best he was gonna get. “Deal.”

And so, it was set in stone.

---

Keegs straightened his jacket for what seemed like the hundredth time as he looked in the mirror in his bedroom. He’d have to leave soon; he didn’t want William to know where he lived, so they’d agreed that they’d meet at the Afton house instead.

The suit he wore fit perfectly, and was the same pink shade as his hair. Well, the jacket and slack were. His shoes were black, his shirt a light shade of lavender (to match William’s inevitably purple suit), and the little bowtie he wore was a rainbow eyesore.

With a quick glance at the clock, he ran a hand over his hair, said goodbye to Vanny, and headed out.

William’s house actually wasn’t too far from the apartment Keegs shared with Vanny, but he only came over at midnight and 2am, so it wasn’t like he could be tracked back there, so he never worried. This was the first time he’d ever driven there though, usually just walking.

He paused upon reaching the doorway. Did he really want to do this? And, more importantly, why was he excited to do it? He knew it was more than just a chance to dress up or interrogate some assholes. He didn’t like the metaphorical butterflies in his... well, he doesn’t really have a stomach. His intake?

....

He didn’t like the flutter in his chest when knocked on the door, and heard a familiar voice call out, “coming!” from inside. He especially didn’t like the extra flutter in his chest when the door opened and revealed William, dressed in a purple suit like he thought he’d be, but still surprising him nonetheless.

Apparently, Afton had the same idea Keegs did and was wearing a light pink dress shirt under his dark purple suit jacket, a shade that went perfect with the shade of Keegs’s own jacket.

Neither of them said anything about it, but Keegs couldn’t help but notice the pleased, and surprised, smile on his boss’s face.

“Let’s go,” he quickly said, turning on his heel and heading right back to his car.

---

William looked hilarious with his long limbs folded into Keegs’s volkswagen beetle, the car clearly not built for men as tall as him. It was a sight Keegs would treasure for the rest of his robotic life.

“Comfortable?” Keegs teased, snickering at the glare William shot at him. Thank god they were back to bullying each other, he wasn’t going to acknowledge whatever the fuck happened earlier without dying first.

“Laugh it up Arrowood, I doubt you’ll feel the same way when you’re out of your element,” William replied, narrowing his eyes at Keegs.

Unfortunately, and he’d never admit this, the bastard was right. Social functions weren’t Keegs’s thing. He’d never been good at feigning interest, and that was pretty important at shit like this.

But he just rolled his eyes. At least they’d be out of the car soon.

---

It wasn’t better out of the car.

The building the party was being held in was... crowded. Uncomfortable. Keegs ended up having to stick far closer to William that he’d planned, and whatever fucked up reaction his false human heart was having never let him forget it.

The only up side was that William seemed just as uncomfortable as he was. Not with the people around them, he spoke to them just fine and even seemed to forget about his fake date. That is, until Keegs bumped into him.

Of course he noticed that Afton’s face turned red whenever they touched, but he had no idea why. At first he thought he was angry, but William didn’t look like that when he got angry. Unfortunately, Keegs hadn’t reached the “human bodily reactions” part of his research yet, so it merely served to confuse him.

Finally, after three or four hours, he grabbed William’s arm to get his attention, ignoring the red on the man’s face. “I need a break. I’ll be out back. I probably won’t run.” 

There was a short pause, before William took Keegs’s car keys and pocketed them. “You won’t escape me that easily,” the man joked, only because there were people watching. He even threw in a wink for effect.

Keegs just rolled his eyes, and escaped to through the backdoor. He was quick to pull his jacket off, relishing the cool breeze. Once realizing he wouldn’t be going back in for a while, he also untied his tie and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt.

Once satisfied, he sat down on the bottom step of the little stairs, holding his palm against his forehead to cool it down to help with his headache. It wasn’t long before he heard the backdoor open and close.

There was a pause, before the man (undoubtedly William, based on the footsteps) made his way down the stairs and sat down next to Keegs. The android looked over at him, not at all surprised to find he’d also taken off his own jacket, and loosened his tie.

“Getting too much for even you? I’m glad I left when I did,” Keegs said, returning to his goal of soothing his brain. He heard William chuckle. It was a soft sound, clearly from his chest. But it was also... not rude? It was actually kind of sweet.

And then he sighed, and the sound brought that flutter back. “I would seem so, yes. I forgot how draining it is to talk to idiots.” He meant people who weren’t handy with animatronics, something Keegs had learned from observation (eavesdropping).

Keegs just nodded. He understood. Animatronics were his whole life, it was hard to talk about anything but them.

“Thank you for coming with me,” William spoke up after a while, making Keegs look up at him again. “I know we don’t always get along, but I’ve... enjoyed it. Getting along, I mean.”

The mechanic just stared at him, surprised. He opened his mouth to presumably reply, but William leaned forward quickly and caught him in a gentle, cautious kiss.

Keegs shocked himself by returning it.

William’s lips were soft, and easy to lean into. Keegs suddenly understood how this man had ended up with a wife. He felt a hand in his hair, and leaned into it without breaking the kiss, unwilling to break the moment.

He’d noticed the tinge of alcohol on Afton’s lips the second they’d connected with his own, but he didn’t care all that much. 

Finally, William broke it by leaning back, looking down at Keegs with slightly pink lips. “Between us?” he asked, his voice low and quiet, a small smile on his face. ‘Between us’ was a fun little thing they’d started the first time Keegs found the man covered in blood.

But this one was different. This one meant a lot more, and couldn’t be used at evidence against the man Keegs was supposed to eventually kill.

“Between us,” Keegs replied just as softly, and this time... he meant it.

[turbomun]

Ghost Boy revamp -- all alterations & changes

I’ve had a few commenters mention that they’re wondering what, specifically, changed between the current and former versions of Ghost Boy; they could tell that it was different but weren’t sure how. Well, wonder no more, because I’m about to tell you exactly what I did and why!

CHARACTERIZATION

Turbo His personality is more or less the same as it was in the original, but I pushed one element a little further. It’s no secret that I relate to Turbo the most out of all the WIR characters, so back in 2012, I applied a lot of my own experiences towards my portrayal of him (“hmm, I engage in attention-seeking behaviors for X reason, maybe Turbo also engages in attention-seeking behaviors for X reason”). However, in 2012, I had not yet been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, which I later discovered was actually a huge part of my personality. IMO, you could definitely make a case for Turbo being autistic-coded in the original Ghost Boy, but I definitely made it more overt in the new version. This has the additional benefit of making it clear that, pre-RoadBlasters, he was mainly teased for his behavior and not his appearance. (In the original, it was supposed to be more like he thought he was being made fun of for the way he looked, and only later figured out that it was more because of the way he acted, but I’m not sure how clear that was.)

Vanellope She was definitely always the biggest characterization casualty in the first version of the fic -- way too cutesy, cried too much, didn’t stand up for herself nearly often enough. I’m going to partially excuse this by mentioning that 1) Ghost Boy was originally based on a roleplay and roleplays tend to have a lot of wangst in them because it’s more fun that way, and 2) the movie had literally just come out in theatres and I hadn’t watched it 999999999 times to get a better handle on how all of the characters acted. But make no mistake, the way I wrote her has been bothering me for ages. In the end, this wasn’t a difficult fix; all I had to do was add her to some scenes where she was absent before, replace most of the being afraid and/or crying scenes with more courageous behavior, and make it unambiguously her decision to reset Turbo. Having a better grasp on her dialogue and mannerisms also helped.

King Candy Mostly I felt that he was a bit too “generic evil” in his appearances. Obviously I wanted him to be threatening, but in the original Ghost Boy, he didn’t have a lot of the traits that made King Candy such an eerie and charming villain in the first place. I have to give a big shout-out to my former RP partner @thekingofkarts for giving me a model of how to write him better, ESPECIALLY his dialogue. Also, I emphasized his canonical tendency to try manipulation tactics before resorting to violence; yes, he’s a little more maniacal than his film counterpart due to being malware, but he at least makes an attempt to achieve his goals with the minimum amount of physical force, mostly in chapter 12 when he tries smooth-talking Turbo to get him out of the way.

Other characters I swapped out or edited certain lines of dialogue to make sure that everyone sounded like themselves. There are various other minor edits that come from seeing the movie about 200 times and being much more familiar with each character’s personality.

STORY

Removal of confusing, unnecessary details As mentioned previously, Ghost Boy started out as a roleplay, which went on for a good chunk of time before we got to the part about Turbo. Some of those previous events played into resurrecting him, and when I wrote the fic, I couldn’t think of a good way to extract him from those events (which were also going to be detailed in my unfinished first WIR fanfic, If It Ain’t Broke). So I kept them in at the time, only to realize years later what I could have done instead. The main thing I got rid of was Fix-It Felix Jr. being unplugged, because literally everyone who read the fic rightfully hated that part, and the confusing-ass Elvira subplot. And yes, that means that King Candy can no longer fire energy spheres out of his hands. What a loss.

Wangst cleanup If you go on the tvtropes page for Ghost Boy, the YMMV section mentions how the amount of crying scenes in the story can be a little exhausting. I didn’t write that entry, but I completely agree with it. On one hand, there’s a lot of emotional moments by virtue of what the story actually is, but on the other, it makes the story drag and your sympathy for the characters wears thin after a while. Hell, this even turned at least one person off the fic completely, as mentioned in a tvtropes review that was removed a while ago. So I did my best to emphasize that the characters are feeling strong emotions, but also expressing this in ways besides crying (Vanellope getting angry with Turbo when he accuses her of lying, Turbo essentially going into shock after the Rainbow Bridge confrontation, Turbo screaming at Ralph after hearing the whole story, etc.). A lot of this also comes from Vanellope being less of a Helpless Child(TM).

Scene swaps/removals

These mostly came about when, over the years, I suddenly realized that there was a more effective and/or interesting way to get across a certain point than what I’d actually written in the original fic. Writing the revised version, I finally had a chance to use these ideas:

Most prominently, the prologue (originally a flash-forward to Turbo learning the truth via watching a race video, because I just couldn’t wait to write that scene) is now completely different and much shorter.

Similarly, Turbo’s first nightmare is not a straight-up written version of the Turbo Reveal scene from the film, and instead consists of King Candy harassing Turbo from a mirror -- based on a pre-movie oneshot I wrote in which the exact opposite thing happened. 

I also repurposed an old oneshot that nobody remembers in the scene where Vanellope takes Turbo to Diet Cola Mountain; that scene started out as a pretty pointless close call with some Sugar Rush racers, but I decided that it would be a good opportunity to set up some foreshadowing without everything being in a dream.

Ironically, the Turbo reveal scene, which appeared a grand total of three times in the original Ghost Boy (it’s almost like that’s my favorite scene or something) only appears once, as a dream sequence in chapter 10, replacing the wangstier one where Turbo dreams of flying into boiling diet cola.

The scene in the viewing room where Turbo watches the reveal scene was scrapped in favor of an argument with Vanellope (as part of the Give Vanny More Agency 2k17 initiative).

Almost all of chapter 13 was rewritten for characterization and wangst-purging purposes.

There are other, minor edits that don’t exactly replace entire scenes, but change the flow of the story overall, such as: the “I’m a monster” motif being taken out because it’s a cliche (Frozen was what really killed this for me); Vanellope standing up to King Candy in chapter 15; the family discussion in that same chapter taking place in the forest; and Vanellope and Turbo activating the beacon themselves in chapter 17, rather than asking the adults to do it.

OTHER ALTERATIONS

Writing style Somehow, my years of writing practice have resulted in my developing a very wordy prose style. (I think I just like to show off my vocabulary. I honestly cannot emphasize enough how similar I am to Turbo.) I didn’t completely fix this in the new Ghost Boy because 1) it’s not necessarily always a bad thing, 2) it would have required a full rewrite, and 3) this is something that I’ve only just now started to address in my most recent works. However, I did take the liberty of going back and rephrasing awkwardly worded sections, giving you that smooth and silky reading experience that you so obviously crave.

Edits for canonical accuracy This was just addressing minor errors, such as mistakes in the way I described Sugar Rush’s architecture, as well as straightening out the timeline of what got plugged in and when. For the curious:

Turbo Time -- plugged in 1981, unplugged 1987 (based on Rally-X, its obvious design inspiration)

Fix-It Felix Jr. -- plugged in 1982 (based on the movie)

Tapper -- plugged in 1984 (based on the original Tapper rather than the Root Beer Tapper clone, because if you look at the design, the one in WIR is pretty clearly the alcoholic version no matter how much Disney tries to convince you otherwise)

RoadBlasters -- plugged in 1987, unplugged shortly afterwards (based on its actual release date)

Sugar Rush -- plugged in 1997 (based on the bonus commercial created to promote the movie)

The events of WIR take place in November 2012 (1982 + 30 years). Ghost Boy takes place slightly over a year later, in November/December of 2013; Turbo’s reset day is November 20, and the fic ends around December 14-15. (I didn’t even realize it took place right around Christmas until I sat down and hashed this out.)

I think that’s pretty much everything. On the off chance that you have any questions, you can of course feel free to ask. Anyway, I had a blast with the new Ghost Boy and I’m quite happy with how it turned out!