2006 Month Two

[Ashnod]

The girl gets around, and has connections to almost every nova on the forums. She's coming to your home this month, and you'd best beware, because where she goes, trouble inevitably follows.

February is Carver's month.

Carver stories accepted Feb 1st through midnight March 1st. What this means, to clarify the confusion of last month, is that Feb 28th at 23:59 is the last acceptable minute of the timeframe. Once it becomes March 1st, deadline is over.

Happy writing!

[Stormwarden]

Woot!!!! And I already have an idea!

[z-Carver]

Wow... I guess I'm on the chopping block now.

BTW, thanks for the great introduction, Ashnod. Ohh, wait... you only did it this month because it's Valentine's! Bad Ashnod... no chocolate-covered strawberry.

Let me open the floor by asking what do you guys need in my write-up? A lot of people know a lot about Carver - do I still need to provide general information on her or not? Or should I get more esoteric?

[Timeslip]

This is what I like about Carver - endless wonderful storyhooks!

And now begins the long, long wait....

[Vixen]

Since Carver is in fact, the editor, I'd like to hear about what kinda stories she wants out of us. Then I want to see if I can stay within those boundaries yet still bring a surprise.

I could use general information about her too, since I haven't been involved in many of the threads she has been in.

[z-Carver]

What would I like to see? Hmm... I like AUs, possible canon stories, anything, really. Helpful, no?

If you have questions about any of the following, I can point you to the right fiction for more details. Here, I hope, if Carver in a nutshell: She erupted during the tradegy in Ibiza earlier this year. After wandering aimlessly, she became involved in the banishing of Shen Kahn. Based on some of the friendships that she made during that incident, she gradually moved to Chicago and took up residence in a house with Amped, which is when things got weird.

She spent the next few months of her life fighting Michaelites who had targeted due to an encounter she had with them in Phoenix. At the same time, she began to train with Jager to learn control issues. It is at this time that she discovered that she has a dual nature: her true self was subdued earlier in life by her psychologist and was replaced with a meek, submissive persona, who took Carver's middle name as her own. She also had run-ins with several other novas, including Wakinyan and hired assassins.

Carver also became involved with Harold "Mythic" Anderson, an XWF wrestler. After wavering on her feelings for him, she finally accepted that she loved him and had a brief period of happiness before her past caught up with her.

A Harvester named Arachne telepathically manlipulated Carver, rewriting her memories so that she believed that her friends were her enemies. In retaliation for these implanted wrongs, Carver donned the guise of Ghost and began a crusade of vengence. She attacked many people, but her most vicious attacks were against Mythic.

Guilt for her actions led her a final showdown; she attacked Mythic just after Christmas with the intention of killing him. She couldn't fell the killing blow, and her programming was disrupted long enough for Mythic to seek help for her. They are back together now that she has recovered her true memories, and they are starting to build a life together.

Carver has begun to make amends for what she's done, but it's a long road. Part of what she is doing for the world at large is to start the Chicago Foundation, a non-for-profit that helps people whose lives have been disrupted by novas.

What is less known information (even among those who know her to be Ghost) is that Carver hears inanimate objects speaking to her. While she has shared this with some people, she understandably doesn't want this to be public knowledge. She also doesn't realize (thanks to her mental aberration) that her pretercognition and intution both work through these "talking" objects.

Her character sheet (in PDF) is at the top of this entry. It details her powers. If you have any questions specifically about how they work, let me know.

[z-Carver]

First off, to all who submitted fictions: thank you. They were all wonderful, and some of them came through at really dark spots in a dark month. I’m honored by all the care and effort that everyone put into these. So without further ado, the individual attention:

Timeslip: I laughed. I laughed until I cried. I laughed until I choked. Then I burned with envy for not having come up with that idea myself. In short, you did a great job exploring an aspect of Carver that I should have considered. Good job!

Vixen: You put together another fiction that explored an aspect of Carver’s pretercognition that I hadn’t thought of, as I am not as well grounded in history as I should be. So again, I am envious that you had such a good idea! Good job!

Jager: Yay!! The first AU! And it was a good one. I really enjoyed reading about what was an original world (or at least one that I didn’t recognize). I also like the alternate look at her relationship with both Harry and Jager. Good story!

Alchemist: Another excellent AU that looked at the aspect of creepy Carver the artist. As I really like that aspect of her, I really enjoyed reading a fiction that focused so strongly on that part of her. Of all the fictions, I think you managed to focus on the largest part of her hereto revealed concept, and drew it together in a great way. Good story!

Long: This story seemed so familiar to me, but I couldn’t decide if I’d seen something very familiar or if you’d just hit on something timeless in your story. Perhaps a little of both. At any rate, I like that, like Alchemist exploring one aspect of Carver, you focused on her relationship with Mythic, and did so through the veil of an AU. Good story!

Quanta: Another story that made me laugh out loud! This was a good “everyday Carver” story… my only real complaint is that it was too short! I understand why you stopped it there, but I was still going, “More!” at the end. Good story!

Singularity: You tricked me, you squirrelly bastard! I thought it was an AU, right up until the twist at the end. That said, on a second reading, it was so obvious… and the sweet ending was the icing. You looked at Carver without looking at her as anything or maybe as everything without emphasizing one over the other. Good story!

Wakinyan: Thank you for bringing up a part of Carver’s life that is very important to her, but seldom mentioned. It is a good reminder of where she came from, especially as I start her down a new path in the near future (whoops, spoiler!). Anyway, it was a good story, and I enjoyed it very much.

I wish that everyone could have won, because they were all good, quality stories. And as good as these all were, there can be only one. And for February, that one will be: Timeslip! Great, fun story!

Thanks again to all who submitted stories!