Fanart - SHWC - Post 6

[leskuh]

ART

Fandom/Universe: Strangetown, Here We Come
Character(s): Ripp, Johnny and Ophelia









a/n: BEST CHAPTER EVER.

I had 'Have You Seen Me Lately' by the Counting Crows on repeat the WHOLE TIME I was working on this. I-I'm not sure why.

Comments

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You know how I mentioned that it wasn't my original intention to have them all try to stay together? Well, it was the suggestions of readers like you that first planted the seed in my head. Madame Ugly also said something about it really early on, after she misinterpreted a comment I made about a future unconventional marriage - I was actually thinking about Jill and how she would probably hyphenate her name if ever she did get married, but Madame took what I said and saw the potential for a polyamorus relationship there. She should know all about that sort of thing, since she writes about a trio of her own in her Peculiar stories. You were one of the first, and strongest supporters, of this idea, and I've surely been influenced by your vision of them. Your reactions to the story in your writing and artwork really feeds back into it, and I get inspired by it. Madame gets a lot of credit for inspiring me too.

After some of those comments, I went in to test out the possibilities of a three way relationship in the game (jealousy has to be turned off... that's a given). I have discovered that you can even set up a three-way marriage with InSIM. There's a happy little cloned family in another neighbourhood called the Grunt-Nigmos-Smith family, testing this out right now. Whether the trio ever gets to that point in the story remains to be seen, but you would die from how sweet they are in that hood. They have some children too, and everyone pitches in, regardless of who the biological parents are. Ripp never lets any sleeping child go untucked. It's so sweet. I really need to see him with kids in the story some day.

The thing about the Johnny/Ripp thing is that they don't NEED to be romantically/sexually involved with each other for this to be a working three-way relationship. As long as everyone is romantically linked to someone in the triad, then it can still work. Most menage a trois throughout history have actually been a married couple, and one of their lovers (with or without sexual contact between the two members of the same sex). Yes, I have been doing my research on this. I'm pretty fascinated by it. Johnny and Ripp might not be sexually attracted to each other (or they might be... I haven't actually gone there in the story), but they do share a very intimate relationship, and that could be enough.

Part of what draws me to the situation is how complicated it is and how tricky it will be to make it work out for them. It makes for a very interesting subject to write about.

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I do believe I remember and I do believe that had me VERY FREAKED OUT for forever. It was like watching a slow motion train wreck.

I think it's awesome that you take things from your readers and the characters themselves. It's so cool to know that I may have had a little bit of a hand in it all working out this way. I don't actually remember when I started wanting them all together, because I was actually a little bit Ripp/Ophelia I think. But it's just one of my favorite story things, a love triangle between very good friends that turns into it's own separate thing. I'm also a big fan of harry/ron/hermione, because it's the only thing that really makes sense to me. They made it through seven years as a trio, why wouldn't they keep it going?

And AWWWWWW!!! I've got a trio in my own sims game (my own characters), that was full of a lot of drama for a long time (didn't have jealousy off for awhile), but has finally settled down. They're actually a foursome though now and are all approaching elderhood and quite content in their oddness.

Your Grunt-Nigmos-Smith family sounds so ridiculously charming. I hope that the trio can make it there one day.

You're right that they don't NEED to be that way with one another, but I- I'm kind of hoping they will be at least a little. I'd love to see Johnny realizing that he's JEALOUS when he sees Ripp flirting with women. And at least one Johnny/Ripp kiss, because those two have this weird under the radar chemistry with one another that keeps popping up. I love that you're really looking into their situation!

I'm looking forward to the complexities of their relationship and how the trio decides to continue. They've gone past the breaking point and came out battered but still intact. I can't wait to see where they go from here.