Hoo boy...

You know how with every Extended Thoughts, I talk about more and more serious topics instead of just telling you how I wrote the character? Well this one's a doozy... But I don't think I'll get into any of it; this ain't a middle-schooler's diary. If I wanted to write hot takes and mopey complaining, I'd return to Twitter. So instead I'm gonna talk about the positives I took away from this character.

...Which is hard, because the two takeaways are C-PTSD and cultural appropriation, but I'm still gonna try!

So I dragged my feet a lot during this commission, even moreso than the last one. Three weeks in, and I'd had ~15 stages written. Then a bunch of bad triggery stuff happened that I won't get into, and my monthly deadline that I gave myself wasn't looking too likely.

So I holed myself up in a shed with a coffee machine, and wrote. Pretty much all day. Looking back, it was a very romanticised version of The Author: locking myself in a shack in the middle of the night and chugging coffee. I'm happy that, once enough time passes, that will be the memories I take from this. Not the crunch or the missed deadlines or all the redacted stuff.

And what about that character? I tell ya, as not-fun as this month's been, writing Malcolm 'Moneybags' Montalvo was FUN. This isn't to say writing these isn't fun; I've been very lucky in that my past few characters have been fun and interesting to write, but... this really was a blast, even at my worst. I think it's two things: the story, and the subject matter. On the story, I love a good twist, so it's weird that I didn't include one in this character. I included a few subpar twists though, so maybe that counts. And on the subject matter... okay, we're getting into this.

I've written a lot of erotica that deal with cultural/race changes, some of which are pretty dang bad. So I wanted to put Louisiana Voodoo in a good light, while also acknowledging that this is a niche porno character that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Even so, all the research and Wikipedia articles in the world wouldn't change the fact that the furthest south I've gone is Ohio and once thought Louisiana was in the middle of the US. No, I think what it comes down to is, as I might've said before, power. All of my characters lose some of their power, on account of the whole identity death thing. But I never want to frame the loss of power occurring because of a change in race or gender or religion. It's easier with this character, since Mama Florastine is maybe one of the most powerful characters I've written (which is why I kinda had to nerf her a bit), but it applies to her whole personality, which also happens to work as a foil for the starting form. Malcolm is well-spoken, but has a limited vocabulary; there's a few instances where he just straight-up doesn't know what a word means. Florastine's words, meanwhile, even with her thick accent, are more erudite in comparison. And hey, I ended up learning a bunch of really cool things about other cultures that I might never have known about otherwise. I see that as a win, and it made this character very fun to research and write.

...Jesus fuck, I did it again. I must really like reading myself talk. And I hope you do too, cuz here comes the trivia!

- Names are first, as always. Montalvo has murky origins, and while it's now more of an Italian surname, it has roots in France, which ties well with the French Cajun stuff. Fantôme literally means ghost in French, cuz I'm not very clever. But what I do think is sort of clever is the meaning behind the initials. Malcolm goes from MtF, so his initials do too. Also, the fact that 'Flora' kept her last name should be a big red flag that the game isn't over yet.
- Speaking of the false end, I'm kinda sorta thrilled at how that turned out. The epilogues for MtF characters are in pink, so the false end had to be, too! And as my commissioner pointed out, the fact that the 'yous' are a different colour gives a bit of a hint that not everything's as it seems...
- Of course I had to use weasel words when describing a weaselly voice. It's a law of hack writing, a book which I follow and also wrote.
- Coding time! The cool font I used for the spirit was the last thing I did for this character. Thing is... the character files don't let you use semicolons, which I have been told is very dumb. Thankfully, an awesome coder friend gave me the code for it, though she had to use some trick that she seemed very distraught in using. I felt a little guilty, ngl... but it worked!
- You would not believe the mix of emotions I had when I realised I could legitimately reference the infamous 'your vagina is haunted' meme.
- I do not feel equipped to properly explain who loa or Maman Brigitte are, but... loa are Haitian spirits, and Maman Brigitte is a loa of death and fertility, representing Malcolm's 'death' and Florastine's fertility. But please please please don't take my word for it, lol
- The language the spirit/Florastine speaks in, Kuri-Vini, is an awesome language that is sadly very endangered. If you know even a smattering of French, I'm sure you'll find it super interesting; give it a look! When I saw how soir is spelled in Kuri-Vini, I swear my face looked like that meme with the neckbeard dude with his jaw agape (how do you do, fellow kids!).
- The range of music I listened to while writing this was... eclectic. From Post Malone to Squarepusher to Throbbing Gristle to Lil Nas X. 80's J-Pop albums. Distorted videogame tracks. That Flaming Lips song that's 24 hours long. Everything. I ended with Joji though, as is tradition.

My question for you is... how are you? Really? It's been a rough year, and I hope you're doing okay.

Tune in next time, where I'll probably be detailing the many victims of nuclear warfare:
- Yoshielder