What the Fic

Hello again! Thank you for waiting - you are incredibly sweet and I can’t thank you enough for leaving these asks. I really do appreicate them <3

I think my favorite part of writing Product Placement was crafting a fleshed out character from something gimmicky / one note. It’s what I love about writing ALL minor characters as main characters in stories, honestly. I mean what we know from the show is extremely limited. Butch tells a bunch of scary stories, shadows people to get info, and is all about the Dramatic Reveal ™. HK’s real name is Francis, he’s part of a hustler network, and he is a little bit of a swindler but does have a soft spot for marbles. That’s it, basically. I like being able to fill in the whys and hows, the backstory and motivation and goals. 

As far as scenes I had wanted to write but hadn’t yet - I think that’s in part why Product Placement is in this limbo. I wrote all the scenes I wanted to write already. The connective tissue that hold them together is what I haven’t written. 

Aside from the first chapters being… laughable (to me, I say, ten years removed fro the place I wrote them) they are largely disjointed. the thinnest thread of character growth holds them together. I wrote, and still largely do write, in a  one-shot-one-deal format. They’re longer, sure. But I write in episodes. I’ve done some multi-chapter work, yeah - but it’s stupid hard for me personally. I think it’s in part that I run though the story in my head, and when I sit down to write, I’m angry that it’s not already connected, that I have to write it all together in a way that makes sense. With one shots, and with the way Product Placement was written, I did just that. Skipped over the ’boring’ shit. In doing so, the story suffers, and older me looking back on younger me just skipping over a lot of stuff is frustrating. I’ve been tempted to delete the whole thing and start over - but the length and depth and breadth is daunting, and I ultimately give up before I get started. 

But that doesn’t really answer your question. I’m gonna adjust it, just a little. The favorite things that I haven’t posted yet, instead. And, spoilers, but not really, because this story was always gonna have a happy ending, even if it got a little dark.  

I liked the bittersweetness of the night before Butch went off to college. Saying goodbye, but not forever. 
I liked when they grew up. Got older. Got a place of their own. A pet (and an owl because Butch is, again, Dramatic, but that’s illegal and hard and morally not great, so that’s probably not going to be)
And I liked that they got hep. HK, specifically. Because he needs it. Even if he has to be nagged into it, even if he’s resistant. Because he needs it and deserves it.

There’s more, obviously. Chapters on chapters of things unconnected, one shots thrown together in universe that might have made sense before. But these come to mind without even opening that old file, so I know, even in concept, they’re still good and would have a place in the story final. 

Hello again!!
Of course I can :D

This is by no means exhaustive but here’s the ones I’ve thought of in the time it took to get back to you (sorry again)

• Butch’s extended family is largely HOH. As a result, he knows sign language. I wanted this to play a bigger part in later chapters of Product Placement, but I’m not sure if I remember where or how. 
  
  
• Because of his extended family, Butch is amazing with babies. Because he’s a giant nerd who tells spooky stories, he’d great with all kids, tbh. He’s the “Weird Cousin” but in like a cool way. 
  
  
• Having lived in Arkansas, Butch was sent to the guidance counclor for his ‘outrageous and troubling’ stories many times until everyone realized he was gaming the system and they made him go back to class.
   
• Butch doesn’t have much fo a sweet tooth, but when he (eventually) quits smoking he replaces them with the occasional lollipop along side his toothpicks. 
  
  
• I’m not sure if I mentioned this in OG Product Placement, but Butch smokes in large part due to his Uncle Don, who taught him how to tell scary stories, and left him with several stories on his passing. Uncle Don was a rampant cigar smoker, but Butch couldn’t find or afford the cigar brand he used, so cigarettes were as close as he could get. 
  
  
• Also not sure if I mentioned this in OG Product Placement, but once Butch outgrew his black jacket he wears in the show, he replaced it with a doctored-up green one. I’m no sure if there was a distinct reason for this, but it’s so in a lot of fanart @tazzes drew. I mean it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since he still shadow-lurks, but whatever. (HK got a nicer grey trench coat for his redesign if you’re wondering)
  
  
• This is less of an HC and more of like a fun fact, but all of Butch’s stories are nods to tales from Are You Afraid of the Dark. It didn’t play a huge part, but there are shades in some chapters if you squint. I’m an unoriginal hack
  
  
• Working off that, I intended to have Butch be published when he was older. Basically he was going to novelize Are You Afraid of the Dark and agree to let his work be adapted into a TV / Netflix show. (I know I’m unoriginal and that makes no goddamned sense let me have this weird crossover)
  
  
• Butch likes well written horror writing, and loves terrible horror movies Terrible adaptations of excellent written fiction are a double edged sword of guilty pleasure for him. 
  
  
• Butch wound up going to college. He went less for the degree and more for the experience (I am willfully ignoring the horrible idea irl this would be). HK went up to visit him frequently, as he skipped that bandwagon to grow his business. 

That’s all I can think of rn but hit me up again if you’ve got more questions or thoughts :D