Double Cross Scene Compilation - CH3 Pgs 10-19

Hey, y'all!

Time for another scene compilation with "DVD-style" commentary, which I'll be posting weekly until I start getting the completed pages from Gabriel and Vero for Fallen Chapter Two iater this month.

Personally, things are OK with me. There's still a lot of Mom stuff on my plate, but for the moment her health appears stable, so that's good. In terms of my writing, there's only one chapter left for me to draft of my MM urban fantasy novel, and that feels very good. Things are unfortunately moving along slower with the art of Fallen than I thought it would, but I hope to have something to show to you with that soonish. Last but not least, my husband and I finally got around to watching The Haunting of Hill House, and I can whole-heartedly say it lived up to the hype. Not especially great on the gay front (it's a little straight male gaze-y/stereotypical with the one main queer character being a hot, angry lesbian), but she's still three-dimensional and compelling, and overall it's a very well done family drama, with exceptional acting, writing, cinematography, etc. I'm not actually a horror fan, but it's far more spooky than outright scary. So if you aren't completely over Halloween yet, and could (ahem) use several hours of distraction at this moment, I highly recommend it.

And in this scene comp, Chapter 3 continues when Flyboy wakes up shirtless in a strange bed!

Check out what happens under the fold!

These pages were first published way back in May 2020 - June 2020. If you want to read the previous scene compilations (and, even better, read the whole first two chapters all at once), you can find them on the TYP:DC Scene Compilation Collection page. 

My DVD-style commentary is below the comic pages. And the pages themselves are full-resolution here on Patreon, so feel free to zoom-in!

Let's wake up and smell the bagels!

 Cut to a watery grave!

Scene and Sequel

So, a classic shorthand a lot of writers use to describe how they pace out their stories is the concept of "scene and sequel." The names are actually super misleading in my opinion, but here's the gist. A "scene" is a scene or chapter of high stakes. For a story like Double Cross, that would traditionally be an action scene, but it could also be a scene of high personal drama. These scenes are typically very exciting, but if you just wrote them out back-to-back-to-back, not only would that be exhausting, but the tension would lose its impact. That's why it's common to follow these action "Scenes" with what's called a "Sequel," which is typically a quieter scene where the heroes have a chance to react to what just happened and regroup/plan what to do next. It's not uncommon to always follow an action scene with one of these more reflective scenes, Scene and Sequel, back and forth, tick and tock.

This scene (small letter "s") is a Sequel. And one of my favorites in all of Double Cross. I love how these characters interact, now that they are all in a room together. I think the dialogue really works, too. Even though it's not a big action scene, there are still lots of interesting moments of microtension between our heroes. It's another one of those rare times when I re-read my own work and can just enjoy it.

Compressing Time

Because there isn't a lot of action going on in a Sequel like this, it's important to compress as much as you can. So i start this scene with the voices Flyboy hears as he comes in and out of consciousness. We establish he's been healed, that the glowing rope made it impossible for Spooky to use his magic, that Spooky thinks the explosion was caused by Shades, and that Amanda is all caught up.

Just fading in the word balloons over black is an interesting, comics-friendly effect, and I think it leads in well to the dialogue-heavy scene that follows.

We meet Young Amanda!

Adding her to the mix brings all kinds of fun to the dynamics here. Cassidy so far has been presented as nothing but cool. Amanda, a much more serious person at any age, has a very different take. What's your reaction? Is she being fair or unfair?

Flyboy, of course, looks up to Amanda even more than Adult Spooky, so he's both glad to see her and prepared to defer to whatever she thinks is best (even though she's only a couple years older here, at most.)

And we get to see her relationship with Teen Spooky. Definite older sister-younger brother vibes which has made her growing feelings for her friend increasingly complicated...

Flyboy is dying

Just because the scene itself isn't "high-stakes" doesn't mean we can't raise the stakes for the story overall. Flyboy finds out he only has a couple weeks to live unless he gets sent home, and that means if ExSec gets their hands on him, it's curtains for our flying hero. But he'll always put the needs of others ahead of his own so

He gets a chance to try on his new maturity

This scene most clearly introduces the dynamic and conflict between Flyboy and Teen Spooky that will drive a lot of the tension between them through the rest of the story. After realizing how young this Spooky is, Flyboy has decided he needs to be the mature one. Also, after Amanda discovered his communicator, he realizes that he could really mess with his friends' futures if he does the wrong thing here.

And so, not only is he willing to sacrifice himself, he sides with Amanda in trying to protect Teen Spooky from himself. But Spooky is just as much of a hero as Mitch, and he'll never choose the easy way out if other people's lives are on the line. If you're read the later pages, I'm sure you can see how this continues to play out between them. It's a big engine for the story.

Amanda also steps up

At this point in time, Teen Spooky has been both working with ExSec (unsuccessfully) and heroing on his own (much more successfully). But while Amanda has consistently been training to hone her skills, she hasn't actually "gone out into the field." But she's wanted to, especially after seeing the good that Teen Spooky has done. She even has an idea about forming her own team of young heroes someday...

So, once she truly understands who Mitch is and what's at stake, she decides to throw her hat in the ring and join the adventure. She's not 100% certain it's the right thing, and at this point, thinks she might still change her mind, but part of the fun of Double Cross is getting to see Amanda become the hero she was always meant to be. This is the start of that.

Finally, the girl is real, and Ambrosia is in distress

More stakes raising here, that locks our heroes into the story, and kicks us off into the next Scene. Flyboy has two weeks to live, and he can't just let a kid die, if he can help it!

Odds and Ends

• Adult Spooky has no filter, so I try to look for ways to show that with Teen Spooky. He doesn't hesitate to point out Mitch is built like an underwear model. (And I also like showing that he, himself, is completely comfortable in his much softer body.)

• I introduced the Kontari in Engaging the Enemy and I didn't want to miss a chance to reincorporate them, so I made them the ones who created the device Amanda uses to diagnose Flyboy. Someday maybe we'll even get an actual scene with them. (In the meantime, I need to fix the typo in their name here! Doh!)

• This won't be the only time we see Mitch wake up without his shirt in this story. I swear, I just think it's funny. :) (In fact, I realize I have some similar humor in my current novel. Hmm.)

• That communications device might just be important later... (which is why I hung a lamp on it here, reminding folks that Flyboy has one)

• Amanda has Mom's password that she can use to access off-limits stuff, which she knows not because she read her mother's mind, but because as a teenager, she's 10x as tech-savvy and crafty.

• That binoculars panel on the last page was something I had my heart set on, and it took a fair amount of back and forth to get it how I wanted it. But I feel it was totally worth it. :)

Let me know what you think!

So, those were the things I was thinking about when I was writing this scene. I hope you enjoyed revisiting it along with my own memories.

Please let me know your own thoughts below. It's your feedback that makes it fun for me to create these, so please jump in and share!

And thank you, as always, for making this comic possible. Sharing these scenes with you helps remind me of how much I love creating this story. And it's only possible because of your support.

Y'all totally rock. I'll post the next set of pages next week! I hope to see you there! :D