Scars

[zphal_girl87]

http://zphalgirl87.deviantart.com/art/L4D2-Scars-Part-25-195224408

Oh, and I've decided to go ahead and edit this to include a discussion, cuz why the heck not, it's on my mind.

Comments

[elphabachan]

Welp, I has a sad now. :-(

But it's a good kind of sad, because you evoked so much emotion within this chapter. Dreams deferred are hard anyway, but when it happens to someone as sweet as Ellis it's especially sad. I just want him to be happy, like I'm sure we all do.

You sure know how to write tenderness. <3

[zphal_girl87]

Thank you for the comment; it's helped improve a rather apathetic day. ^_^;;

Maybe El will get his chance one day. =)

[elphabachan]

Well heck, I'm more than happy to clear up apathy. Always pleased to help, of course. :-)

And oooooh, cryptic. I approve.

[zphal_girl87]

Haha, almost anything can be used as foreshadowing. XD Or not! *wiggles fingers*

[elphabachan]

Oh, discussion now! Good thing I re-visted my friends page.

I don't know if I've ever seen Ellis as a klutzy kind of guy. I can't remember if I've written him as such, and I don't think that whether he's clumsy or not has really entered my mind. Perhaps those who DO write him that way think that it makes him more endearing that way? Or maybe that being clumsy is co-morbid with being adorable and lighthearted? lulz, or the idea that klutzes run in herds and he, Dave, and Keith are a Walking Disaster when together....?

I believe there's no reason to think that he couldn't be a good surgeon. It takes a lot of spatial sense and know-how to put things back together, be they cars or people. It's not too farfetched to make that assumption.

[shifturbulls]

Sorry for dropping by with the muse account but honestly, people who write him like a klutz are emphasizing the uke/submissive factor. I generally avoid fics like that because the author's including a fault that clearly doesn't belong to an (quite) adept mechanic whose friend is a walking national disaster.

[zphal_girl87]

A quite reasonable point. Making him clumsy sways the 'power' balance, taking it from him and giving it to Nick.

I wonder in other fics, non-Nellis (be it another pairing or simply a story adaption), if he is written as being clumsy as well? I certainly haven't read much of anything that isn't Nellis, so I wouldn't know, lol.

[shifturbulls]

They don't actually but they do take away a few IQ points.

[zphal_girl87]

Oh man, El needs all the IQ points he can get. XD Poor guy.

[reaperrain]

I never saw Ellis as clumsy, myself; you'd make a pretty poor mechanic if you weren't good with your hands. I think it's a seme/uke thing (blurgh, stopped using those words when I was 13), to make him seem more adorkable and submissive, and make Nick seem cooler, more in control.

I was a bit iffy at the surgeon thing because any kind of medical profession takes a LOT of academic studying, and El never came across as the academic type to me. He's a kinetic - he learns by doing, not by reading, hence being into physical things like cars rather than metaphorical things like words.

Granted, I see the similarities between fixing cars and fixing people, and maybe by taking a different approach he could be a very good surgeon indeed - but it's about how you go about becoming a surgeon that throws me.

However, you're an excellent writer, and excellent writers can make just about anything work, so I'm sure you'll convince me.

[zphal_girl87]

Eeek, pressure. I will endeavor!

Yeah, I can see Ellis almost failing certain classes and excelling at others. XD

[dr_buttons]

...I approve of this very much

Am I the only one who in the middle of Nick talking saw the "you're really talented with your hands." line and got a smirk a mile wide out of nowhere?

Calling it that he has to put his hands to use, attempt to stitch someone up or keep them alive and fails. Or almost fails. *hit with a bat*

[dr_buttons]

But yeah discussion, He seems more like he'd get into bad situations by not paying attention or getting cocky, not due to being a klutz. Less of a trip over painted lines guy and more of a "Dude this is awesome check this ou- Shit! I didn't think there was a zombie in here!"

Thus being a happy guy or just being younger is the same as being a "oh save me Nick! Oh no! Help!" character to most of the younger fans. (Personally, I'd love to see someone write it where Nick is a klutz, just for the laughs.)

[getwiggly]

This! was trying to articulate how I see Ellis as not very.. careful, but for some reason I couldn't think of how to word it. You pretty much said exactly what I was thinking, lolol.

[dr_buttons]

ADHD is a wonderful and horrible thing. I speak from a lifetime of getting lost at cool places, ignoring that there's steps due to seeing a cool thing I want to mess with and even forgetting that, in fact, a victory yell in paintball will get you splattered.

However it makes you think faster than some people, you can find ways to keep busy and some of us can even get hyper-focused if we're really into what we're doing.

But yeah, I got nothing on Ellis. He must have run out of ADHD meds during the apocalypse too. The sheer HORROR of not being able to shut up even if you try is bad in normal life! D=