There was an earlier chapter entitled "Tempers" (the one where our four MCs got together & also Riven and Sprite fought a bit) but I renamed it to "Viewpoints" because 23 is all about the Tempers too, haha. When Vulpine's finished, I prolly should go back and edit some of the titles, 'cause they suck. Usually I don't title a chapter until it's done, since then I generally have some sort of main idea to pull from, but half the time the chapter is just too unfocused/busy to latch onto any one binding thread in particular. Definitely something to work on if Vulpine goes through revisions.
Anyway, another week has come and gone! Trick's chapter is all that remains to us now (although of course saying that I was planning on pausing everything soon has kicked my brain into Vulpine-gear again, so the plot-chartering bit is coming along well, haha) until the pause is over. Sadly, that means it'll be a long time until we figure out just what Sage intends to chat about with Sprite in private (hint, it's about his sneaky goings-on after she ran off, haha. Also backstory juiciness). Hopefully the wait won't be too awful!
I don't think there's too much I need to go over for this chapter - but I do kinda want to ramble about the characters some more, so I think I will. Skip over this bit if it bores you!
Basically one of the things I'm enjoying about Vulpine thus far is that the mix of POVs means that we get a lot of foxes who are on different levels of the morality scale. It also means we get to play around with their developmental arcs quite a bit. One of the things that bugs me with fiction is how quickly characters tend to change their core beliefs. Like, oh, the minion is shown kindness (like a MC gives him a cupcake or something dumb) and he's suddenly good! The Big Bad's sexy villainess feels a moment of passion for the hero, and decides to change alignments! Bob is a bit of a racist, but one encounter with the race/being that he hates totally converts him! Julian doesn't understand The Power Of Love until he sees some sexy young thing walking around, and then he's suddenly all over it (once the Big Misunderstandings and Awkward Sexual Tension have played out, of course). That's probably why my stories tend to run long - characters need time to develop. They need more than one scene to make them change their entire belief system/core feelings/etc. One scene should not be enough to shake up their foundations so badly that they'e someone completely new in a few chapters. It takes multiple scenes to create real change, multiple stagings and impacts to nudge a character down a differing path - and even then, they're going to stumble. They're going to falter. They're going to make a big of progress, then suffer some sort of setback and fall back to where they were. They're going to mess up. So many authors seem to skip that idea, and it really bothers me. Yes, Riven started out as a twat - and today, I would still consider him to be one. He's pigheaded, he's stuck in his ways, he's reluctant to alter his viewpoints to suit others, especially those he does not respect - and he does not really respect anyone. Yes, he cares about Sprite - but he also thinks she's a bit of an idiot (and he's not exactly wrong). Yes, he does have his moments of doubt, but those aren't going to suddenly propel him into Down-With-The-Skulk declarations. Yes, he does have some nagging feeling that he might not be quite good enough to come home, and that he doesn't really want to die, but he's not going to suddenly spring onto Faun and Trick's side. It just doesn't happen that way for real people, and it shouldn't happen for characters, either. You don't just wake up and become a different person - not with some great catalyst, and usually with more than one...and even then, it might not be permanent. You might continue to doubt your decisions, or cling to your old beliefs and just re-purpose them so they fit your new feelings. That's natural, and characterization should feel natural, above all else. Riven will not become a cuddly teddybear just because he has a lil gal to pal around with.
Faun and Trick are good examples of this, too. Faun was introduced as a feeble mouse unable to speak up for/defend himself. It was the slow grind of being beaten-down and punished that shaped him into someone resentful and standoffish - but that's not where his characterization has ended. He still thinks he's a good little dude. He still wants to make an impact, like anyone else. He's tried being selfless, like when he signed on to help Trick; the main idea of their little rebellion is that they might die, but in doing so they will help spark change for others. That's a pretty good idea - but of course, his current plan is just to kill everyone he doesn't like, and scrape by. He doesn't see anything wrong with something like that; in his mind, it's perfectly justified, as a result of all his experiences, not just one or two. Whether that will remain constant, we will have to see; after all, Trick's completely rejected his idea, and Sprite would if she ever heard about it. We don't know what Grint will think (will he be on board and help, or turn Faun away?), or the other foxes Faun might need to recruit to make his plan a reality. We don't know whether their feelings will turn his mind one way or the other - but they will turn somehow, because no matter how Faun's plan turns out, it will impact his reality and his relationship to every other character (alive or dead). He'll continue growing and changing. (On a side note, what I like about him is that his arc is not the typical tiny-bullied-character-finds-inner-strength-and-saves-everyone thing. Like Lynxeye mentioned in her review, his viewpoint is pretty twisted. He hasn't really become a better fox through struggle and suffering; he's become worse. If we had a morality scale of the group, he would be pushed decently far to the 'Bad' side, because not only does his plan hinge on murdering at least five foxes that have gotten in his way, but it also poses an extreme danger to even the ones he likes. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting such a dramatic shift from him when things started out, but I've liked where they've gone.)
Heck, let's throw a Trick paragraph in there too. She started out as the most mysterious of the group, I think; her feelings aren't all that clear even to herself. She would like to be a cold manipulator, but she has moments of compassion. Out of all of them, her arc seems the most zig-zaggy. She helps Faun only to twist a favor out of him, then turns him in to Riven as soon as it benefits her - but follows up that heartless act by coming back to save Faun at the last moment. She bonds with Holly and Mote (and later Iole), but plans on tearing down the Skulk, which would leave the three of them adrift in a sea of uncertainty, without any obvious purpose/safety. She manipulates and twists everyone for her own purposes (she's lied to all the other POV characters more than once), which aren't even good purposes; she just wants to end the Skulk once and for all. Part of this arises out of feelings for her own family, as the Skulk destroyed it, but part of it is selfishness and bitterness, which she acknowledges. She thinks of Tamber as a heartless manipulator, when she herself practices many of the same strategies. She's threatened Sprite (the only character who is mostly innocent), and it is uncertain whether she would go through with her threat or not (if she and Faun were certain to die at Musk's paws, would she get her final revenge on Riven by turning Sprite in, with the knowledge that Musk would hunt both solitaires down? Or is her deal with Riven merely a bluff?). All in all, she is really not a heroic character (her main mission is to kill even more foxes than Faun, and her worry about who is caught in the crossfire is considerably less) but she does have those she fears for and wants to protect, which is in itself heroic. She weaves back and forth between these two feelings, and is willfully ignoring the fact that they clash; if she and Faun do manage to shake things up in the Skulk, good foxes will die, and at least one of the foxes she is close to will probably be among them, just because of the chaos that will ensue. It's yet to be seen which of the two factors will manage to outweigh the others, in the end - and one event is not large enough to tip the scales one way or the other. It's the culmination of events/scenes that will determine Trick's ultimate fate.
Sadly, Sprite doesn't get her own babble, because she is a lot simpler than the other three. She has a much smaller character arc than the other three, which stems more from trying to find her place in the world, both with reconciling her own personal beliefs with an unfamiliar society's, and figuring out the lengths by which she can trust others, and herself. Provided Sprite survives everything that is going to happen, and barring any wham epiphanies or whatever (ick, no), she will probably change the least - hopefully becoming wiser and more open-minded, but not much else. Her role is more to encourage change in others, rather than herself (although she is by no means perfect, the silly thing) through showing them a viewpoint they have not before seen (and lecturing them, although hopefully I've done a decent enough job of pointing out the flaws and gaps in her logic...and her lectures haven't been so effective with Riven anyway, haha), and being exposed to new ones in return. She has basic questions about the world that she wants answered, and the answers she finds will change her (if they are found at all) but if such a change were to occur, it would not be as large a one as Riven/Faun/Trick have already undergone or are working towards.
This was really long (but I did warn you I would ramble!), so sorry! I just like over-analysising things. Especially silly things about foxes planning to murder each other all the time. Vulpine has been a pretty fun exercise in subverting typical character arcs/messing with a variety of viewpoints/morality spheres (I don't think that's a thing but it should be), and I've enjoyed it.
Anyway, reviews!
@Lynxeye: I've already gone on a bit about your review's main point, but I think it's a good one! Faun is a far cry from the ideal poor-bullied-hero, and his transformation has been an interesting one, at least for me. He's in anti-hero territory right now, I think, and if he goes through with his plan, it could push him into outright anti-villain mode (as it would not be as squeaky-clean as he would like to believe, not to mention that setting up your enemies to be eaten by dogs or whatever is pretty horrible). I think his desire to protect the other runts stems not only from his identification with them (as they've been victimized as much as he has...although, he really wishes some of them would grow a backbone), but also as a sort of pacifier to his conscience; after all, he's not really a bad person if he makes sure that only the bad guys get killed. Getting innocents caught up in everything would be a strict no-no, but douches like Riven and Reyes? Totally inbounds. And thanks for the good-luck-wishes!
@Doge person: Thanks!
@Bookworm: Great to see you again! That's what happens when you miss a few chapters, haha. Crazy shenanigans. I don't really like the size that Vulpine is getting to - but at least stuff is always evolving, right? There's not really too much filler floating around, as all the relationships have a purpose and the characters are changing as they go. It's just a bit of a sprawling plot. Trimming things like this down is something I really need to get better at, but I'll count it as a bit of a triumph if Vulpine ends at least 70k shorter than Shattered. :P
I think that's all for now! Sorry about my wandering, again...things like that happen when I stay up late, since I'm not used to it anymore (darn it, college!). Cheers, and I'll see you all again next Sunday. :)
