hey... didja miss me?

for this round of hiatus notes, i thought i'd try something a little different! this time, we're doing a good old fashioned q&a/faq! whoo!

i'll be taking questions and comments i've received throughout the duration of this fic and compiling them here, finally with concrete answers! and if there's anything specific you want to know, feel free to leave it in the comments and i'll do my best to answer, either in a reply or as an addition to this chapter.

without further ado, let the games begin!

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trigger warning for mentions of things that have already received trigger warnings in the past, such as suicide and other dark themes.

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q: why does everyone hate noel? including the sheriff?

a: honestly i'm kinda shocked how many times i saw this comment, especially in episodes 1x04 and 1x05! that's probably why i'm answering it first, it totally caught me off guard.
noel is an outcast. he always has been. the sheriff and just about everyone else in town has heard his story, of his dad's battle with illness and his mother's suicide, his life living with the whittemores, the life he's lived so far overall, they're all aware. and sometimes it's just typical for people to kick someone while they're down.
and that's not to say noel deserves it, of course. he doesn't, but honestly it's just something that's followed him since childhood. he was always the kid that was bullied, and he used to have jackson to protect him from that, but as they grow up the protection stops but the bullying continues. it spreads so far that even parents know about it, and maybe they listen a little too closely when their kids say mean made up things about another kid. and even with that explanation, sometimes people are just mean. sometimes people just follow the crowd and do as others do. not everyone is mean to noel, because not everyone knows the status quo around beacon hills (for example, allison).
a less satisfying answer is simply this- it's a teen drama, and teen dramas need conflict. is there any real reason an innocent character gets ceaselessly picked on in media besides for the drama of it all? sorry that's an unsatisfying answer, but that's just part of how it is!

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q: why is this fic written in such a strange pov?

a: i began this story as a personal project. i started typing this out exclusively for myself, and maybe i would let a few friends who knew about noel see it too. it wasn't my intention initially to put noel out there for the world to see on this kind of level, so i just wrote the story in a way that was easy for me to understand as i rewatched through the show to insert him.
but when i realized he had more potential than i thought, i decided to share him with you all, but i had already gotten pretty far along in his development under this strange pov. it worked for me because i understood it and it was the quickest way to do it all, but i realized it wasn't the easiest to swallow and understand.
that's why in my 'word of advice and disclaimer' chapter, you can read where i explain that this pov can get confusing and you can see that i suggest reading along with this fic as you rewatch the show yourselves. it really does help to do so, i promise!

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q: well, if the pov was confusing and you knew it, why didn't you just rewrite it in an easier to digest style before you posted it?

a: honestly, it's mostly because i didn't think he'd get this popular.
i'm not opposed to rewriting and offering a different perspective at a later date, but for now expect this style for as long as i have the muse to keep updating this story.

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q: why didn't noel go to london with jackson and his family if he was only staying to be treated this badly?

a: well we wouldn't have a story then, would we?
;)

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q: why noel and derek?

a: short answer, i see a lot of myself in noel and i would totally date derek.
long answer, i was a hardcore sterek shipper back when the show was still airing. i still am a sterek shipper. stiles and derek were one of my first otp's, along with johnlock from sherlock, romione from harry potter, and brittana from glee.
because of this, i know a thing or two about meta and subtext. and if you were to ask me, derek hale TOTALLY likes boys. not exclusively, but he's not straight, and i feel as though he was deprived of a loving relationship with someone of the same sex. so how was i to fix this problem?
well, i could either rewrite the entire series but make sterek canon (but i'm sure SOMEBODY has to have done this already) or i could write my own character with his own story and have him and derek share the love story i feel he never got.
that one sounded best to me, and here we are years later!

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q: is it weird that i ship noel and [insert character here]?

a: not at all! ship away! just please be aware that if they aren't listed as a love interest in the biography chapter, i have no intentions to make that ship a reality. if i write them in a way that suggests they're a ship, it was probably a deeply emotional moment for both characters that i wrote in a way that suggested something that wasn't really there. and that's totally my fault! i don't mind at all who you ship my oc with, as long as you accept that at the end of the day, if they aren't on the list of love interests, they will NOT be made canon. but please, feel free to root for them from afar, or share your thoughts on them in the comments! i love seeing what you guys see in my writing.

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q: are there any plotlines and ideas you've had that you didn't go with in the end? like the alternate characters you had in the beginning?

a: yes! tons! i have a whole alternate version of season two episode three, the one where noel gets bitten. i ended up having him get bitten at the end of the episode, but in my first draft, him being bitten was the very first scene of the episode after the credits. the result would have been the same, him siding with derek at the end of the episode, but i decided to use the second draft to showcase more of noel's struggle with which pack he would choose to be loyal to: mccall or hale.
i also have quite a few alternate versions of scenes and dialogue, but none that are as noteworthy as an entire episode like 2x03.

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q: how did you come up with noel's whole laura storyline, and how it came to a close? and has it come to a complete close or will we see more of laura in season 3b?

a: something i've learned while writing this story is that often times, things in tv shows seem planned and calculated and set up from day one and are so satisfyingly and expertly resolved at some point that you know it just had to be the plan from season one episode one.
i can tell you now with complete and total confidence that that is not at all how it works.
big warning, the rest of this answer may totally ruin some world building and how you see me as an author. so please read at your own risk?
when it came to giving noel and laura a bond like the one they share, it was just an idea i had and liked at first. i wanted to see more laura, and i wanted to give a reason and motivation as to why noel and derek are so drawn to each other. so i decided to roll with it, and at the end of season one, you can clearly see that i wrapped the story up completely. laura was coherent and fulfilled and her ghost walked away into the woods/the symbolic afterlife. hooray, completed arc!
but then season two started, and i saw even more opportunities to include and incorporate laura. i missed writing for her, i missed her and noel's relationship, i missed having that thing that pulled noel and derek together. so, i brought her back. and i didn't let her go.
by the time season three came, i knew i had to explain why laura was still around. it didn't make an awful lot of sense for her to still be lingering, so i decided to give them a soul bond formed by laura when she died. and when i finally accepted that laura's arc in this story needed to end and she needed to be let go, i somehow completely randomly found the best possible way to do that- cast her out to heal cora the same way derek was letting go of his alpha powers.
now, from an outside perspective, all of this probably seemed very planned and calculated from day one. laura and noel attach to one another, laura regains her consciousness and sticks around to help noel, she starts unknowingly taking over his body because of their bond, and he finally expels her in a ritual. but in reality, it was more of a process of jumping on stepping stones than driving down a straight path. i found little ways to include her and little ways to develop the idea that her being there this long was hurting noel, and from there it was easy enough to figure out how to get her out.
with all that being said, i can tell you with absolute certainty, no matter how much i may miss writing her, laura is officially gone. i won't play the coy director wiggling his eyebrows and giving a sly "never say never" with a wink and a nudge, because with the ritual complete, laura is no longer part of noel. it's implied (and i'm confirming it here) that any part of laura that was still lingering in noel has either completely vanished, or the good parts that won't cause any problems have gone into cora. you will not be seeing any more laura from noel's perspective or red eyes on noel because of laura. i'll miss her so much, but it was finally time to say goodbye to her and hello to noel having to figure everything out on his own!

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q: why are you so adamant about the way noel's name is pronounced? and how, exactly, is it pronounced?

a: alright, kiddos. here's the end all be all guide to the pronunciation of noel's name.
while "noel" (pronounced phonetically, no-el) is a word commonly associated with christmas (because it literally means christmas, with a secondary definition of a christmas carol), noel's name has nothing to do with christmas or the pronunciation of the word "noel" used when talking about christmas.
noel whittemore is partly named for an actor you may know, noel fisher, who's best known for playing mickey milkovich on shameless. there's no real connection between the two, noel fisher just introduced me to the name and i fell in love with it. he's my noel's namesake, and it's pronounced the same way for both.
now, concrete pronunciation and why i'm so adamant about it: firstly, i don't think i'm the only one who likes names to be pronounced right. most people in real life would be pretty bummed if their name was pronounced wrong consistently, or pronounced wrong out of spite. so i don't think it's mean of me to give little reminders as to how his name is said on occasion.
to set things to rest completely, here is a comprehensive list on all the ways you can learn how to pronounce noel's name:

1. think of how you say the christmas word. got it in your head? good. now shove it out a window. no christmas to be found in this fic.
2. look up the word "knoll" on google. have google read the word out loud to you. this is the main, single-syllabled, proper way to pronounce his name.
3. say the word "know" and add an "ul" to the end. know-ul. this is a secondary, double-syllabled, but still correct way to pronounce his name.
4. say the following words: bowl. soul. roll. pole. toll. goal. role. mole. stroll. his name rhymes with all of these.
5. look up noel fisher on youtube. check out some videos to hear how he, his co-stars, and interviewers pronounce it.

in no time, you'll be pronouncing noel with ease!

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q: can i write my own fic with noel in it/draw fanart/make a manip/compile a playlist/etc?

a: nothing would make me happier!! if you do, just be sure to link back to this fic and state clearly that noel was made by me. and please send it my way, i'd love to see it!
also, on the subject of art, you wouldn't be the first to draw halemore. the following is a piece drawn by my friend todd, who you can find on instagram @sweeneytoddst !

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with all that said and done, it's my pleasure to announce that finally, after so long spent waiting, noel returns october first!! i know that's quite a while away, but i have a few other things that i need to work on before i can promise consistent updates. i appreciate each and every one of you and how patient you are when it comes to this story (i really don't deserve you guys) and i hope you can continue to have that patience with me.

feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you're looking forward to seeing in the coming episodes, or ask all the questions you want! i'll do my absolute best to answer each and every one.

♡,
noah.