Vegas Kornwit Theerapanyakun - Tumblr Posts

vegaspete texts

Pete: I'm hungry ;_;

Pete: please send noods Vegas: unsure whether Pete is hungry, horny, or sad

Analyzing VegasPete as a Writer, Pt 1: Vegas

Warning: This is very long. Last count in Word was 1600 words and it's definitely longer now. I don't know if this will interest anyone or not but I had to get it out of my own head so I might as well share.

As a writer I like to study my favorite stories to understand how they work, and how I can use that to make my own writing stronger. I can’t stop thinking about Vegas and Pete because they work so well for me. I’m currently working on creating characters for two projects so this has been on my mind a lot.

So the usual introductions, disclaimers. This is character analysis from a writer’s point of view, and with a specific approach. I don’t claim that this is the approach that was used by the original novel writers or tv series writers to create and develop the characters. I use an approach extremely common now in western, English-language fiction, especially genre fiction. Because I do it to help me as a writer, and accuracy isn't the most important thing in that process.

If you've read or watched writing advice you're probably familiar with the idea of a False Belief or Lie, and a character's Fear. After studying a lot of advice and doing a lot of my own writing, I have particular way of understanding these aspects of characters, along with Wants and Needs, that helps me as a writer. So that's what I"m looking at here!

Just to be clear, these things can often be interpreted in well developed, psychologically realistic characters no matter how the writers approached it. I’m also not saying that makes this universal, there’s no such thing, this is just one tool for analysis.

And, one last thing. This is all subjective. I’m bringing my own point of view and experiences to this. There are usually different ways to express similar things. Different ways to break things down. So if this doesn’t feel right to you, that’s cool. I'm basing this on the English translation so there might also nuances that don't match the original intention. If there is anything here that isn't quite right because of language issues I'm sorry for that.

Okay? Let’s get to the fun stuff. Creating characters with a False Belief, a Fear, and Want and Need, and why Vegas and Pete are such fascinating characters to analyze in this way.

First, some definitions.

False Belief

A False Belief is a lie a character believes about themselves and/or the world. This comes from something that happened in their past, or many things that happened in their past, or things they were told about themselves. They come to believe this as the absolute truth.

The false belief is harmful. It’s the thing that will hold them back from a positive character arc. It’s what makes them fail to overcome a lot of obstacles along the way.

The conflict in their story is what forces them to deal with this false belief. 

Fear

The character’s backstory and false belief creates a particular fear. This fear motivates them, it drives them to act in certain ways. Their fear and how they cope with it is why they fail to overcome obstacles.

Want

What the character wants during the story also comes from their false belief and their fear. They want something they believe will prevent what they fear from happening, even though it won’t. What they want is probably bad for them, actually.

Need

What the character actually needs is what will help them overcome their fear and false belief. It is what will give them a better life or make them a better person. It doesn’t have to make them perfect, or a hero, or have huge success. It’s something that, if a character earns it and gets it in the end, the reader will feel satisfied.  Want and Need are often in conflict with each other.

Usually, if a character doesn't overcome their fear and false belief, they don't get what they need.

How does this apply to VegasPete? What can we learn from how they're written?

Vegas

I’m going to start with Vegas because he says many of these things explicitly to Pete, which makes it a lot easier. Still, this is subjective so you might disagree on how I phrased this, or how I broke it down, any of it really, that’s fine!

False Belief

I define Vegas’s False Belief is “I will always fail to take care of the people (and pets) I love.”

You might think, isn’t his False Belief that he will always fail to beat Kinn/The main family? Or that he will never have his father’s approval? And that’s fair. I thought a lot about that. But I think those things are the result of his False Belief and his Fear, not the root of them. In looking at his full character arc, I felt that it was ultimately his lack of trust in himself to take care of others that held him back. I'll explain in some of the other sections, but this False Belief actually keeps him tied emotionally to his father, who doesn't need to be taken care of.

The choice to tell the story about the hedgehogs dying is important. We know that he's been reprimanded for failing in his mafia responsibilities. But the hedgehog story is older. It's backstory. If we're using this particular approach to create a character, we want an event that creates the False Belief in the first place. It stands in for the many events that probably also happened, the other people Vegas lost, that led to such a strong belief.

It's important that the False Belief is FALSE. It is a lie. It's like depression brain telling you you're worthless. It's like anxiety brain telling you terrible things will happen if you go outside. So it's important that the audience or reader understands that it's false. So the pet is a hedgehog, which only lives a few years so of COURSE they're going to die! It has nothing to do with how well Vegas has cared for them.

we see glimpses of the truth that Vegas is actually good at taking care of others. Once he decides to do it, he's diligent and gentle about bandaging Pete's wounds. He takes a lot of time to make Pete food that he likes. He takes pride in it. Early on, he's the one who's going to take Macau to get his head wound taken care of.

The False Belief is contrary to the Truth. In this case, that Vegas is (or can be) good at taking care of others. It's a core part of him that has been damaged through trauma.

The False Belief hurts so much because we see what the character can be when they can let go of it.

Fear

Vegas is afraid that everyone he loves will leave him. (“Everyone I love will leave me” can also be a False Belief but I think here it's best expressed as Vegas's Fear).

People always have more than one fear. But in creating a character, we're talking about the fear that is deepest, the kind that will drive someone to do almost anything to avoid facing it. Vegas’s story is very strong in my opinion because in the end, it’s easy to see how everything he does can be traced back to this fear.

How does this fear come from Vegas's False Belief? If he believes he will always fail to take care of the people (or pets) he loves, then he will always be losing them, whether that means someone leaves him or dies as a result of Vegas's failure.

This is where Vegas’s need for his father’s love and approval and his need to beat Kinn and the main family come in. These are how he copes with his fear. He is terrified that his father, one of the maybe two people he actually loves (until Pete), will leave him (either literally or emotionally). He is motivated to do anything to keep his father from leaving, which is what ultimately drives him to want to beat Kinn and the main family. Because this is the price his father has placed on his approval and love. He has some other coping mechanisms as well that stem from his false belief and fear, and this is part of what starts to make a character unique. False Beliefs and Fears can be pretty generic before all these other layers are added.

For example, not only do we not see Vegas develop any meaningful relationships, he goes out of his way to actively hurt people he doesn't love. Acceptable targets that the mafia life gives him. This could feel very freeing in the moment because it releases him from the responsibility to take care of that person at all.

There should be multiple times a character is given the chance to overcome their fear, and they fail. They're not ready. One of the big moments for Vegas in his relationship with Pete is when he is willing to let him go from the cuffs, but he still begs Pete to promise not to leave him. It is a slight step forward, but his demands aren't fair. There's no reason Pete can trust Vegas yet. (Pete similarly has a moment of failure here while also doing the right thing, i love it when shit's complicated). It's partly because Vegas is NOT ready to overcome his fear that Pete needs to leave, which causes what Vegas fears to happen. It's all so beautifully tragic.

Want

Vegas wants his father’s love and approval. It is something that is unattainable. He never had it because his father was incapable of giving it to him in any way that is good for Vegas. In the end, he will never achieve it because his father is dead.

It's really great when what the character wants is

what they think will make them feel safe from their fear AND

does not challenge their false belief. It’s definitely the case with Vegas. I think it makes for a cohesive character.

As a writer, it helps to identify this because it will keep a character active in a story. Withholding this thing the character wants from them can help drive them to act. We see this 100% in Vegas. All of his schemes, all his actions (until Pete) are motivated by Vegas trying to get what he wants: his father’s approval. And it all goes back to how he copes with his Fear. The story keeps preventing Vegas from getting what he wants and so he keeps acting in ways that are absolutely TERRIBLE for him and fantastic for the story.

Some of his schemes weren’t approved by his father, but they were attempts to beat the main family and that was entirely motivated by trying to earn his father’s love and approval. (As a writer, this reminds me that sometimes what people do isn’t a logical A to B step, people are complicated. The obvious thing to do for a character who wants to win their parent’s approval is for them to obey their parent in everything. There are other things going on with Vegas that lead him to take more initiative and that makes him more interesting).

Going back to the False Belief, Vegas can want his father's love without challenging his false belief. Vegas's father doesn't need to be taken care of. This makes it feel safer than wanting love from anyone else.

Need

What Vegas actually needs isn’t his father’s love. It’s Pete’s love, because Pete loves Vegas for Vegas. Vegas doesn’t have to jump through hoops to earn it. It’s freely given. Narratively, Vegas earns Pete’s love just by accepting it (though there's nothing simple about that acceptance).

It feels satisfying and earned to readers when a character gets what they need by overcoming their False Belief and their Fear, and often by giving up the thing they wanted. In the end, Vegas thinks he has nothing.  His false belief, that he will fail to take care of people he loves, is compounded by the fact that now, he has nothing to offer, no power, no protection. He has nothing but himself. If he can’t take care of Pete, Pete will leave, just like everyone else he loves (possibly even through death).

And when he turns around to face Pete, when he starts to accept that he, himself, is enough, he is overcoming his Fear and his False Belief. (He is, in turn, Pete’s need as well and that’s what makes this especially good food for the audience).

He believes that he will always fail to take care of people he loves and now he has none of his crutches like power or authority. His own fate is in the hands of the person he holds responsible for making his life a misery in the first place. How could he take care of anyone else?

Remember when I said that Gun feels safe because he's not someone Vegas has to take care of? Well that person he thought he didn't have to take care of has just, actually, died because of his failure to win this battle. It's all proof to him that his False Belief is true! But here is Pete, asking to be taken care of. That only Vegas can take care of him the way he needs.

That's why Pete asking to be taken care of finally breaks through to Vegas.

Vegas is confronting all of that and facing his deepest fear to accept Pete's love here. The brilliance of the writing is that this makes us want to root for him because we understand how hard that is even if we don’t share the same fears.

This is why the climax of Vegas’s story is this scene with Pete, not a confrontation with his father. This is why Vegas doesn’t need to be the one who kills his father, in a narrative sense. His big moment to decide whether he will succeed in overcoming his Fear is whether he will accept Pete’s love and trust that Pete won’t leave him. And finally, he accepts the risk that he might lose Pete someday because what he gets (PETE’S LOVE) is worth it.

This simple act kills the old Vegas, allowing him to be reborn as someone who has learned this particular lesson, a common trope in heroic arcs.

So that's it for Vegas (for now). If anyone reads this far, thank you lol. If people like this I'll continue with Pete. Otherwise it will stay locked away in my story journal for eternity.

Analyzing VegasPete as a Writer, Pt 2: Pete

Please check out the Part 1: Vegas post. I define some of the terms I’ll use here in that post. It also covers all the introductory stuff and usual disclaimers (my anxiety about sharing my opinions).

I’m excited and nervous to get to Pete. He doesn’t come out and say a lot of stuff the way that Vegas does. We don’t know as much about Pete. He’s also more self-aware than Vegas, which I discovered made his want and need a little more nuanced. So this took more interpretation and sometimes just speculation. A lot of room for different opinions. There are some things I’m less sure of here, but I’ve done my best to see how I can make the puzzle pieces fit.

Pete’s Character Arc

COMFORT ZONE

I want to talk about Pete’s character arc in general, first. I wanted to see if I could fit it into Dan Harmon’s Plot Embryo, which is a modified version of the Hero’s Journey that I really like. It doesn’t fit perfectly. It was never intended to. But I always find this exercise helpful in gaining insight into the characters. It has also helps me as a writer understand how to use a formulas as a tool, not as a strict, literal outline. The Plot Embryo is helpful because it’s a big picture template and different kinds of structures can fit within it, but has limitations since it was designed by someone who mostly writes formula-driven episodic tv shows.

At the start of a character’s arc, they’re in their comfort zone. They’re living with their False Belief and their Fear. The coping mechanisms they’ve developed are basically working for them. They can succeed in this environment with those coping mechanisms. It works for the character, but only up to a point, because they’ll never grapple with their False Belief or overcome their Fear if they stay here.

For the first 9 episodes, Pete is in his comfort zone as a bodyguard for the main family. It’s the status quo for his life. The status quo is also stagnancy, which is why characters need to be pushed out of it so they can change. Pete is fine here, but he’s not GOOD. It’s just comfortable. Unchallenging. Why? Because everything he knows how to do to get by works for him here without pushing him to grow. That’s what a character’s comfort zone is. They’ve learned to deal with life in this place.

Pete is well-liked, respected, he’s a good bodyguard for the main family. Nothing here, in and of itself, will force him to change. No one really wants to see deeper than surface level. Pete wears a mask with everyone, using his big smile and cheerful demeanor to hide other parts of himself. It’s beneficial to him in this context, where there is an air of professional distance even among friends, and Tankhun (bless him) isn’t interested in or capable of pushing Pete into showing more of his genuine self. They all clearly care about each other, but it’s not an environment that encourages digging any deeper.

This is one thing I look at when I’m trying to articulate a character’s False Belief. What is it that’s working for Pete? He doesn’t reveal a lot of himself to others. He covers up a lot with a smile. We see that in a lot of different contexts so we understand that it’s not quite 100% genuine even when it isn’t 100% fake. He is hiding a lot of his real thoughts and feelings from others. So his False Belief has to be connected to why he hides himself. It has created a fear related to showing his real thoughts and emotions.

Michael Hauge refers to this as a character living in their Identity. Their identity is the version of themselves that they use to protect themselves from getting hurt (as opposed to their Essence, which is who they really are). It’s “emotional armor.” Pete’s Identity has two aspects: first, that he is a bodyguard, and second the mask that he is always happy, optimistic, cheerful. To understand a character’s Fear and False Belief, we have to try to understand how their Identity is protecting them. It’s another clue for our analysis.

INCITING INCIDENT, TRANSITION INTO CONFLICT ZONE

In episode 10 we get the inciting incident that pushes Pete out of his comfort zone and forces him to enter the conflict zone. For the character’s emotional arc, the important thing is that their coping mechanisms, their Identity, don’t work here. They will fail to achieve their goal if they stay in their Identity. If they cling to their False Belief, if they don’t overcome their Fear, they will fail to change and they remain stagnant. They won’t get what they need. The conflict zone isn’t a physical place. In a romance arc this zone is usually their relationship with the romantic interest. The conflict zone for Pete is his relationship with Vegas. This is the context in which he will face his Fear and change so that this conflict zone will become part of his new comfort zone in the end.

For Pete, the torture scene is the transition into the conflict zone. Dan Harmon originally called these zones Order vs Chaos. Pete has a sense of order in his life as a bodyguard. But when he is at the safe house with Vegas, he’s no longer there as a bodyguard. Vegas forces him out of that role by going outside the accepted rules of engagement. A bodyguard can be tortured for information, can be killed. Pete knows this and is prepared.  When Vegas takes him to the safe house for his own personal gratification (disobeying his father’s orders), he’s going outside the system that Pete has felt secure in, where there is a sense of order. Where Pete knew how to survive and cope in his Identity.

THE STRUGGLE/SEARCH

The next phase of the character arc is the struggle or the search. The character is searching for the thing that they want (knowing this will help identify what Pete wants vs what he needs when I talk about that later). The character has to adapt to the conflict zone, but they will fail while they still fall back on their old false belief and give in to their fear. Or while they still live in their Identity. For Pete, this is in episode 11, when we see him struggling as Vegas’s prisoner. The inciting incident has given him the goal to either escape or die. That is what his Motive Goal, the thing he wants, the thing that drives him to act after his inciting incident. He tries different strategies to achieve this, but he will always fail as long as he is still in his Identity.

We see how Pete’s bodyguard skills don’t help him with Vegas. He tries to escape, but Vegas is just playing with him. He tries refusing to cooperate. He’s acting like a prisoner, the way a bodyguard should be acting. This gets him punished and severely injured but kept alive for Vegas to use to vent his anger.

The beauty of how Pete’s character arc works within the VegasPete romance arc, is that his Identity as a bodyguard, doesn’t work here because it’s exactly what will help keep Vegas in HIS emotional armor. Pete putting up the bodyguard front is exactly the excuse Vegas needs to keep taking out his pain on Pete. To use him for “emotional projection.” This is what I love about great romantic arcs. This is what I always loved about the romance genre. To show how two people are going to be perfect for each other, we also see that they are the worst for each other if they stay in their Identity. Their Identities complement each other, reinforce each other, and without change they could stay right here indefinitely.

ADAPTING

The character now has to start adapting to Chaos or the Conflict Zone. A couple things help this along for Pete. First, Gun keeps visiting to slap his son around and call him a failure. And Pete’s health deteriorates which prompts Vegas to make the choice to take care of him. Pete’s health prevents Vegas from using his usual level of physical violence for a while. This gives both of them some space to actually deal with one another. Pete learns more about Vegas, which allows him to adapt and start to have some success in the Conflict Zone (his relationship with Vegas).

Pete has obviously already dropped the pretense of being cheerful in the face of the abuse Vegas is inflicting on him. That’s one reason I know that particular mask isn’t the Identity he’s really hiding behind. It’s just one aspect of it. It’s one of the masks he wears. It’s the first he drops because it serves no purpose here. That’s part of why this conflict zone is so difficult and frightening.

The first real success is when Pete can also start to drop his Identity as a bodyguard. Vegas shows a little bit of his own vulnerability. In this scene, he connects with Vegas as a person and shares something personal about himself. He’s not The Bodyguard Prisoner or Smiling, Harmless Pete. It helps Vegas gain more insight into his own situation and starts to help him connect to Pete emotionally over their similar experiences. We see that this will also help Pete contextualize the way Vegas is treating him. I think most importantly for their relationship, Vegas is also receiving Pete’s empathy, the sort of understanding that he probably hasn’t experienced before.

CHANGE OF HEART

This isn’t enough, though. We know Pete has already been able to reach out to people this way because he does the same with Porsche a few times. This isn’t growth for Pete, though it is the start of his adapting to the Conflict Zone.  Throughout the rest of the time in the safe house, Pete continues to drop more of his mask. When he gives up the opportunity to escape and chooses to stay with Vegas, he is taking a huge step forward away from his Identity and into his Essence. He isn’t acting as a bodyguard here. His responsibility, his duty, is to return to the main family and tell them where to find Vegas. He’s starting to move away from what he wants and toward what he needs.

About halfway through a character arc, the character finds what they want and they either get it, or realize that they no longer want it. They have adapted to the Conflict Zone and learned how to survive there. They are still in the Conflict Zone, but this is when they transition from False Belief into a New Truth.  I’ve also seen this called a Change of Heart. In the Hero’s Journey this is called Meeting the Goddess. If we throw out the outdated gender stuff in the Hero’s Journey, the core of this is that the character finds the other half of themselves that give them something to make them whole. In the Plot Embryo, the Change of Heart is a moment when the character gives up their False Belief and comes to understand it was a lie. They’re able to embrace the truth. They can then start to have successes in the Conflict Zone. This is when the character stops losing to an antagonist, stops reacting to what the antagonist is doing, and starts being proactive. They win at least some of their battles now.

For Pete, this is when he chooses to stay with Vegas despite the opportunity to escape. They have a moment of connection and then they literally join together as two opposite energies, whether you want to call it dominant and submissive, or active and receptive, masculine and feminine, etc. In the Hero’s Journey terms, you could say that Pete is actually serving as the Goddess archetype for Vegas’s character arc, because he is the one providing a moment of nurturing and wisdom.  But since this is a romance story arc, it’s important that Vegas is doing something for Pete, too. Pete is joining with HIS opposite, the one who will help him see that his False Belief is a lie and will allow him to be his true self.

THE FALSE BELIEF AND THE FEAR

Now that we’re halfway through Pete’s character arc and over 2k words into this meta, what is Pete’s False Belief and his Fear?

Pete’s False Belief: My true self will not be accepted and loved by others.

Pete’s Fear: If I am useless, I won't have a place to belong because I won't be loved just for myself. What is it that Pete believes about himself that works for him with the main family but not with Vegas? It’s the way he guards himself from being known and understood with the main family. He drops the superficial part of that mask with Vegas. At first it’s not because he’s realized his False Belief is a lie, or because he’s gotten over his fear. That would be too quick. It’s because he has no need to be accepted and loved by Vegas (not yet). His goal changed when he entered the conflict zone. But he still relied on his Identity as a bodyguard to meet his goal.

The way Pete’s backstory contributes to his False Belief is more subtle than Vegas’s. We only get a hint at it.  Pete was never loved for who he was by his father. Whether Pete won or lost at boxing, his father took his anger and self-hatred out on him. We can guess that this violent childhood is what made Pete the way he is, that he probably had to be very cautious and observant to avoid his father’s anger to the extent that he could. We can speculate that he had to hide the abuse, too, behind a cheerful smile. And that he became afraid that if anyone saw what he was really like, what was really happening, they wouldn’t like what they saw. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to handle it. This eventually solidified into his False Belief.

FEAR

The False Belief leads to a specific fear. Pete gives us a hint about his fear when he tells Vegas that he feels useless. That he’s always been useless. If you have a character who doesn’t think his real self will be loved or accepted, being useful is one way for that character to secure a sense of belonging with others, especially if they are looking for the safety of a stable life. And it’s part of Pete’s nature to want to belong. Pete could never gain his father’s love and acceptance, even if he was useful, so at some point he became a bodyguard for the Theerapanyakul family. There, being useful was exactly what helped him succeed.

I think that with these deep fears, they are so frightening because part of us thinks that our fear is already reality. Pete is obviously not useless as a bodyguard, but he grew up feeling useless to his father. Some part of him will always feel useless, and it makes him afraid because that will lead to the loss of the relationships and stability he’s found in his life.  This is the problem a character has when they continue to believe in their False Belief. They live in this fear.

Pete’s change of heart is handled subtly. What indicates that he’s finally seeing his False Belief as a lie? I think it’s mostly symbolized in the actions he takes. First, he gives up his Identity to act in his Essence – his true self – when he stays to comfort Vegas instead of escaping. How does he show that he’s realizing the lie of “My true self will not be accepted and loved by others?” By giving his true self to Vegas. The side of him Vegas wants to see (“How do you like it?”). The self he presents to the world wouldn’t kiss Vegas, mafia’s most canceled problematic person. He definitely wouldn’t so enthusiastically give himself to Vegas, known bad person. But he does. He shows Vegas his real feelings in his desire for him. Symbolically, giving Vegas the rope to tie his wrists, letting Vegas bind his ankles with chains, his eager gripping of the chains, is Pete giving Vegas his real self, being completely vulnerable to the rejection he fears most. He trusts that Vegas, at least, will accept him.

Want & Need

At the start of his character arc, Pete wants to belong with the main family. At the start of the show, his want is actually being met, but it’s taken away when he leaves his comfort zone. Unlike Vegas, Pete had what he wanted and could have it again after he escapes. But what Pete wanted wasn’t what he needed. Think about the way food is used in Pete’s story – he breaks the rules to eat food from his Grandmother. Food that he loves. From someone he loves, who loves him. It’s food for him. Contrast with food provided by the main family to the bodyguards. Purely functional. Pete accepts it, but doesn’t enjoy it. Then Vegas is the one to give him food that he loves. Made for him, to care for him. Food as an expression of love is something that Pete values and something he lacks with the main family. He gets basic nourishment from the main family but he’s not really nourished.

What Pete actually needs is Vegas’s love, just like Vegas needs Pete’s love. (We know this partly because it’s a very good romance plot and that’s just how they do). Pete doesn’t have to be useful to have Vegas’s love (again, just like Vegas doesn’t have to earn Pete’s love). Pete can belong to Vegas, because Vegas needs someone to take care of. Each needs to have what the other is finally capable of giving once they’ve left behind their Identity.  Getting this need met is now in sight for Pete.

SACRIFICE

But Pete’s story isn’t over yet. The next section of the Plot Embryo is Sacrifice. Our character has had their revelation they have to pay a cost for their final victory. This is where the hero in the Hero’s Journey often has a symbolic (or literal) death. Think of every time the hero of a movie appears to die to achieve their final victory and then turns out to actually be alive. This is the symbolic death the journey requires for true growth.

This is where it gets really interesting for Pete. Pete has a sort of false sacrifice when he finally leaves Vegas and the safe house. He’s giving in to his fear of being useless (he has nothing to offer Vegas except himself, and Vegas’s emotional abuse is taking a toll on his ability to do even that). He fails to truly shed his bodyguard Identity. He tries to return to it. It’s a setback.

But it’s the right thing to do.

Because as I said in Part 1, Vegas isn’t ready to overcome his fear either. Vegas is panicked at the thought that Pete will leave him. And while he starts to take a step to allow Pete his freedom anyway, he’s obviously too fragile to allow Pete true choice. In a way, Pete goes through an emotional death here, as he sacrifices the self he can be with Vegas to try to return to his Identity. But he isn’t instantly reborn like Indiana Jones climbing back up from the cliff, alive after all. Pete spends enough time in this death to realize what he’s lost, and he isn’t reborn until he resigns as a bodyguard.

Resigning will be his true sacrifice. The cost of having Vegas will be giving up his life with the Theerapanyakul family.

NEW NORMAL

The Plot Embryo is a circle. A cycle. The hero returns to the comfort zone from the conflict zone. But once the hero has achieved their goal and gotten what they need, their comfort zone has changed. It now includes what used to be the conflict zone. Because a story like this is about a character learning how to adapt and succeed in the conflict zone. Think of it like learning to swim. A deep pool is a conflict zone for someone who can’t swim. Going into the water is going into this conflict zone. But once they learn how to swim, their comfort zone includes deep pools. It doesn’t mean they don’t have any more problems. But they have a higher quality of problem. Like: the ocean.

In the Hero’s Journey, this is often called The Road Back. It’s not an easy path. There are consequences of going through their ordeal in the conflict zone.

Pete is on this path when he escapes from the safe house.  He does know how to succeed in the conflict zone, in his relationship with Vegas. He knows that being himself, letting go of his Identity, and being real with Vegas is what will work with him. But there are external forces working against them as well as their emotional conflict. They just don’t have the opportunity to choose one another yet, but when they meet behind the bar I think Pete  moves into his new normal. They won’t kill each other. There is an acknowledgement of their feelings, their desire for one another. Only external forces (the man taking garbage out from the bar) can interfere. They might still have some things to sort out but they want to.

RESURRECTION (FINAL SACRIFICE)

The Plot Embryo simplifies and smooshes down some of this back half of the Hero’s Journey, but Pete doesn’t take any shortcuts so I had to go back to the original. Here there is one final test of the hero. They have to prove they learned what they needed to learn in their conflict zone. Pete proves that here by resigning his position and using what he learned to connect with Vegas as only he could. He gave up his Identity as a bodyguard because he learned it wasn’t what he needed. He overcame his fear when he asked Vegas to take care of him. He couldn’t truly connect with Vegas by being useful (“I’m here, Vegas”). Instead, he had to give up his reliance on being useful and ask Vegas to take care of him.

FLOURISH

The hospital scene. We get one final moment for Pete to officially tell Vegas he wants to stay with him. And we get a view of the way the story has all been worthwhile. Here the character is in a happy period. There will be new problems, but not yet. For now they get to enjoy the rewards they earned by overcoming their fears and letting go of their Identity.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS (MY SOAPBOX)

On first viewing, I understood that they had constructed an incredible romance plot but it wasn’t until fully diving into it that I saw just how beautiful the story is.

This is why calling a fictional relationship PROBLEMATIC, or toxic, or talking about it in terms that would apply to real life people fails to get at what a story is actually doing.

The torture and abuse Pete goes through symbolically represents the breaking down of his emotional armor to allow him to confront his False Belief. Yes, the story uses dark, violent imagery for this. But that’s often how it can feel when someone is pushing past the defense mechanisms we have in place. Changing ourselves, growth, letting others in to see us, all of that is absolutely terrifying. It can feel just as frightening as physical violence.

Stories are not real life. Characters are not real people. Even entertaining, “silly” stories can be vehicles for writers to share ideas about human nature, what it means to be challenged, to face our fears, to grow, to have relationships. We do learn from fiction, but not simple moral lessons. By experiencing what a character experiences, we are also, in a way, helping ourselves to deal with our own conflict zones. By seeing how a character faces their False Belief, we can get a glimpse of our own. Stories can help us learn a lot about ourselves and about other people. But not through surface-level declarations that something is problematic or has toxic relationships.

End of soapbox rant.

Finally, here is a picture of some horny VegasPete kissing as thank you for reading down to the end.

Dark, sexy VegasPete FMV

Song: Poison by Felicity

FULL VIDEO

Dark VegasPete FMV

Song: Poison by Felicity

I look in your eyes and I'm numb to the touch A taste of your venom it's all just too much You're like poison, you're my poison

Random Vegas gifs ( 26 / ? )

All I want for Christmas is fic where the assassin lady and Pete become best friends.

So no one's gonna talk about this vegas introduction scene

does anyone else think about the scene when vegas starts hitting himself after the hedgehog dies

does anyone else think about how if that had happened one episode before it would have been pete he was hitting instead

does anyone else think about vegas's instinct to hurt someone else when he's hurting, or how he decided to stop hurting pete, or how often he must have turned on himself when there was no one else there, or how pete stopped him from turning on himself, or--

yea alright I couldn't resist

The balancing of two as one

Rating: Explicit

WC: 8756

Summary: Vegas doesn't have patience for much these days, but he'll always have patience for Pete, and that much is evident in the way he chooses to silently fume rather than demand an answer outright. Once parked, Pete simply turns a smile on him. All dimples, pure innocence, as if he hasn't walked Vegas into a challenge with the same energy as pressing a revolver at his back and telling him to move.

OR: Vegas needs release, Pete takes them to a sex club and takes the lead for once.

Read Here

🥀 You can do it. 🥀

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 2601

Pairing: Vegas/Pete

Additional Tags: Post-Canon, introspection, angst, hopeful ending

fic authors self rec! when you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love~<333333

I'm not going to tell you how long this sat in my inbox because I completely missed its existence - but I have seen it now!

And you know what, I have had a really hard time loving my own creations lately, so maybe it's time I exercise some hecking self love through the medium of some self-promo.

So here's my favourite five fics I've written (in no particular order):

won't be pretty, won't be sweet

Rating: Explicit

Chapters: 10/14

Word Count: 62,910

Summary:

"Oh. I'm sorry," Hands clasped before him, Fruit bows his head. Because that's what you’re supposed to do for an older Omega. You show respect. It scrapes against Pete’s nerves like sandpaper though, and he almost reaches out to pull Fruit back to standing and insist he never do that again, but he pops back up all on his own. "I thought you were– I've never smelt any Omega like–" Fruit's stuttering halts abruptly, and he bows again. "Forgive me, Kaan."

The boy hurries into the bathroom, cheeks bright pink, and Pete redirects his gaze to the wall opposite. He focuses on doing his job. On protecting. On searching for danger.

He does not think about how Fruit had mistaken him for an Alpha. Because Omegas don't smell like how Pete smells.

He does not think about the title that haunts him through his every waking moment. Kaan Pete.

I obviously had to put Kaan Pete on here. This is one of a few fics that I have been working on for well over a year. It initially started as a small idea, an older omega 'past their prime' and a young cocky alpha that wants them anyway and then it exploded into a whole AU. I love this fic for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I got to put my own spin on a lot of aspects of Omegaverse tropes and build a bit of evolutionary lore around why things are the way they are. Also, for anyone who doesn't already know, this fic is part of a much wider verse that covers multiple pairings from KinnPorsche, so even when this fic ends, I will still be writing for it!

take a hit and close your eyes (I know what you fantasize about)

Rating: Explicit

Chapters: 2/3

Word Count: 18,690

Summary:

The box means nothing.

And yet, it means everything. Representing the last remaining obstacle between Kim and his deepest desires. Dramatic or not, it’s the only way to frame it in Kim’s mind. A means to an end. A tool. A key that fits the lock currently strapped around Kim’s insides. Kim has been waiting so long for the right moment to take this step, because as much as he doesn’t buy into society’s twisted view on how one should measure the milestones in their life, this feels like something he will never be able to come back from. Things will not be the same once he goes through with this.

A stupid little box containing the makings of Kim's future. All that power in something so small.

Another long fic I continue to be obsessed with. This one was a gift as part of a winter exchange I ran in a discord server and the prompt involved the idea of the sex pollen trope and of course because I'm me, I immediately turned this into a character study. This is one of my favourite fics because of how I get to pick apart Kim and his issues with vulnerability, intimacy, and how he approaches those things with Chay. He's a person who wants so deeply to show every layer of his psyche to Porchay but doesn't know how to do that, so of course he goes to the most insane solution - aphrodisiacs! This fic I feel is a really nice balance of silly, angst, and smutty, but I'll let you judge that!

I've lost control and I don't want it back

Rating: Mature

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 13,938

Summary:

Pete and what he needs is at the bottom of the priority list. Vegas will always be at the top, and by proxy, Vegas’s little brother will come immediately afterwards. So Pete doesn’t voice how anxious it makes him to be banished to the sofa on the other side of the room where he can still see Vegas but his view of the window isn’t as clear and he’s a little too far away from the only exit. He doesn’t intervene when Macau climbs all over Vegas even if he can see how the man goes pale and winces, how his muscles tense like he might try to squirm away.

Pete doesn’t protest when he’s regularly and unsubtly shooed from the room so the brothers can spend time together alone.

He doesn’t say a damn thing even if he wants to. Even if he’s realising that he’s not entirely sure who he is anymore when he’s not in Vegas’s direct eyeline.

Another VegasPete fic! This one might be one of my favourite VP works I have ever worked on. I am a sucker for exploring the post cannon relationship between Vegas and Pete, and how they get from A to B. There's still so much for them to come to terms with about themselves and each other and it's such a crunchy topic to get into. So that's what this fic was, a whole 14k words of Pete figuring out who Vegas is, and who he himself even is and how that's something Vegas can love. Just a lot of angst and a hopeful ending for them both!

even diamonds here don't shine

Rating: Mature

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 7,759

Summary:

Chay is about to ask someone what’s going on when two policemen step through the door. Min suddenly reappears, rushing right to them and talking hurriedly and… and she’s pointing right at Chay. “Officers,” Chay bows his head in polite greeting, but doesn’t let his eyes leave the pair of them. He tries to stand tall, the way Big has been teaching him to do, to not look intimidated. But he knows his fingers are twisting together in front of him as he asks, “Is there something wrong?” The men look at each other. The one on the left, slightly taller, and who’s chest reads Port, frowns down at Chay sternly. “We’ve been made aware you’re in possession of a credit card that isn’t yours.”

This one (according to stats) is my most popular fic on my whole page, and I am so glad people love whumped characters as much as I do. I love this fic so much. I love hurting characters and then making them better after and that was the whole point of this fic. I also got to explore a little bit of a darker side of Kim, in the sense that, I think Kim can be an inherently violent and dark person, just because of the environment he was raised in, but I don't think he likes or wants to be that person. And Chay doesn't want him to be that either. So it's really fascinating to play with Kim who defaults to that mindset when his loved ones are threatened because that's who he has been taught to be, he has been taught that's the best way to keep people safe, and on the other side there's Chay enjoying being protected but hating the fact Kim has to resort to this mindset - like a cornered animal, and yeah it's just so crunchy and chewy and they're so nuanced as characters!

painting stars on our hearts

Rating: Teen

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 2,588

Series Link

Summary:

Historically, Raon does not do well with rules. They’re constricting, rigid, and in his experience, unnecessarily stunting. Rules are the reason he had found himself high-tailing it from the only home he’d ever known with Hachi squealing deliriously in the passenger side of his stolen ship, and a pocket full of currency he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to use where he was headed. Because rules have followed Raon wherever he has gone in life, from the moment he entered the world. “Don’t touch that!”

I may be cheating with this final one a bit. Because in actuality it's the whole series that I'm promoting.

This is my Wuju Bakery series. And it's one of the fics I'm most proudest of because it's really given me a chance to flex my imagination when it comes to lore and world building. This whole series started the day we had a couple of pictures leaked of Jeff and Barcode in their costumes filming, and shortly after my imagination went crazy. There's I believe 5 fics in this series in total already, with at least 3 more planned. I know none of what I've written will become cannon, but at this point since we don't HAVE cannon, I am calling it my version of the show!

And that's it. Sorry for the really long post, I hope you enjoy some of these fics if you haven't read them before, or if you have, enjoy them again. I'm working really hard on now just the wips on my account but also some really long form AUs that have been in progress since KP was actively airing so! Hopefully I can share all those soon!

So no one's gonna talk about this vegas introduction scene

i guess this is it, folks.

what happened in Vegas, stays in Vegas

gonna miss this psychotic maniac with extreme traumas who loves to cook, read, and had a baby hedgehog as his sidekick❤️‍🩹

bonus, the man behind it all - Wichapas Sumettikul