Subject: Aaaah, fair point.
Author:
Posted on: 2019-12-19 12:45:00 UTC
I very foolishly confused adulthood with maturity for a moment there. Supernumerary is more adult than Luxury—but adults aren't always mature.
—doctorlit, hopefully more mature than adult
I think it may be unprecedented for me to publish a story with a previous one still on the front page of the Board. Wow! This one's been sitting at "nearly done" for a long time. I've finally got it all the way done and polished to my satisfaction.
"The Long Night of Agent Supernumerary"
What: In which an agent recovers a lost mini, pet, or child in his care. (You may recognize this as one of the random Permission prompts.)
When: July 2015.
Where: On AO3 and introducing Neshomeh's Archive on Neocities, because I'm fed up with Tripod not letting me do smart quotes even though I'm pretty sure I have the encoding right. I don't have everything transferred over yet (working on getting the Songbook done for this month!), but the main spin-offs are there. {= D
~Neshomeh
P.S. This story also has Lux in it. ^_^
I have an odd affection for Nume and his many trials. XD
Would you believe me if I said while I was reading this, I couldn't help but think how much Henry's behavior reminded me of my own nanny charges? And then I got to the end and saw your author's note... :P
Poor Nume. He could have definitely handled that better, but I'd be cranky having to look after a kid I hadn't signed up to watch—and I say that as someone who loves kids. I could feel his pain while reading this. And I loved cuddly Luxury! We should see more of that.
All in all—well done. :)
I believe you. ^_^ I don't recall if any particular bit is based directly on any particular comment of yours, but I've definitely gotten the sense that the kids you watch are the sort of kid Henry is. It's affirming to hear, now and before!
(The part based directly on my niece is the part where Henry gets caught exaggerating his knowledge and tries to wriggle out of it by going "I don't want to tell you." Last year, she was "reading" Harry Potter by herself, and my attempts to have a conversation about what had happened in the latest chapter and what she liked about it went precisely nowhere. {X D Bonus of taking forever to finish this piece!)
I'm loving the mixed reactions to Nume.
I might write the story of Lux and Jenni meeting eventually, since I've now thought about it and figured out how it happened. We'll see. ^_^
Thanks!
~Neshomeh
The notes are fun--I had a good time looking through the song parodies.
A quick note on the new website: clicking on FicPsych leads you to Derik and Gall's RC, which is especially odd since the URL says 'FicPsych'! (Also: autocorrect thinks Derik should be "d'Erik", which, uh, that's interesting!) Clicking on Phobos' Lair leads to..."error error divide by cheese! This page is in an alternate universe!" which is a pretty neat error message, all told.
RCs 999 and 1110 do lead to their respective pages, and I haven't checked anything else.
~Z, with impromptu troubleshooting
I somehow managed to load the wrong index page into FicPsych's folder. Actually, I had loaded everything into FicPsych's folder. O.o It's fixed now.
Phobos' Lair just hasn't been moved over yet. That'll probably be next after the Songbook.
~Neshomeh
Oh my. Supernumerary. I'm not sure I've ever appreciated just how complex he is before now. I'm also a little torn on how I view him in this story. On the one hand, putting him in charge of Henry really shows how awful he is about taking other people's feelings into account, and his utter lack of any bedside manner with a child is pretty cringe-y, and I see why his general attitude makes it difficult for him to get along with others. But at the exact same time, I feel heavy sympathy for Nume, because if I suddenly had a small child thrust into my home, able to interact with my possessions, requiring me to divert my attention away from the activities I want to work on, and throwing off my standard routine, I would feel pretty moody and annoyed, too. Does this mean . . . Does this mean that I'm as much of a jerk as Supernumerary is? Oh dear.
I very much approve of nuanced Luxury! If only because it would make her a lot easier for me to write, if I ever feel a need to include her somewhere. It's interesting to see the contrast between her and Nume, because while Nume is undeniably the more mature of the two, he's completely at a loss at interacting with Henry, while that comes naturally to Luxury. Yet Nume continues to call her a ditz in his mental narration, even as she takes better control of the Henry situation than he ever had.
I had to reread the paragraph that starts, "In an Escher room, pursuing a kid he hadn’t wanted to babysit . . ." about three times, because the parallels with Labyrinth are almost too magical and beautiful to be believed. The Jareth cameo makes it all the more amazing . . . the narrative laws are in full force in this story, possibly more so than in other PPC story I can recall reading! The busy hallway, the jello, the glass, the Escher room . . . poor Nume!
—doctorlit, a jerk like Supernumerary
I highly doubt you're a jerk like Nume. Not liking to have your space invaded and your routine thrown off is fine, just don't take it out on the little kid. {= P
I might debate who's more mature between Nume and Lux! What's the measure of maturity? I'd say the ability to put yourself aside and recognize when others come first is a fairly important quality there. Nume is very bad at it. He's responsible, for sure, but he makes absolutely no effort to disguise the fact that he's motivated chiefly by self-interested fear of the consequences should he fail. Lux is a ditz, but she is also genuinely interested in other people. I'm pretty sure she would've helped even without the promise of a reward, if Nume hadn't offered any, just because it was a nice thing to do. I believe making it a transaction put Nume at ease, if ever so slightly. I give Lux the point for emotional maturity. ^_^
I'm glad you liked the Escher room bit. With all the ingredients right there, I couldn't resist. {= D
~Neshomeh should probably add a note about the provenance of Jof and Jareth. Lux, too.
I very foolishly confused adulthood with maturity for a moment there. Supernumerary is more adult than Luxury—but adults aren't always mature.
—doctorlit, hopefully more mature than adult