I wasn’t going to do it, but Bunnycritters’ comments on Bebop Soul gave me the idea that maybe we SHOULD think about what comes next. The guys have some things they need to deal with, and what about the Bebop?
I thought about it and this is the result. Thanks, Bunnycritters!
I kept rewriting things, especially figuring out how to end it. I figure that at some point one has to throw one’s hands up and declare ‘fini!’ I also have to rewrite the text on the fanfic page. Oh dear.
Presenting what is most likely to be the VERY end of the story that I’ll be telling (but still stuff to tell about their early time), Coda.
I feel special that I inspired such a great fic and even though I’d be pleased as punch if the story continued forever, I think this is a satisfying and fitting end to the story. I loved it!
It really is a more satisfying end, I think. Really, thanks for the suggestion!
There were things in there that I was having questions about when I was writing it, like “would Jet really be so blase about losing the Bebop? Wouldn’t he be just a touch angry with Spike about what happened?”
But then I got thinking about how poorly things had been going for them, and after that terrible day and after everything that happened in the series (Jet having resolved his past and all), maybe he’d be ready to settle down and rejoin society. Go back to Ganymede to live.
I’m thinking too about Faye. I imagine she’ll come back to the Bebop at some point (she always does) and find Jet gone (she wouldn’t be looking for Spike, thinking he’s dead) – the Hammerhead not being in the landing bay, she’d probably guess he left. Maybe she’ll pack up her stuff, maybe she’d go looking for him. She was a bounty hunter too, but was she experienced or skilled enough to track someone down like Jet was?
If she DOES manage to find Jet and Spike is still with him, what would she do? Probably glom onto them again, don’t know.
I really like the idea of the guys going into business, either a bar and grill (someone on Adult Swim message board said it could be a hang out for cowboys called the ‘House of Bebop and Blues’ (which I LOVE!!) or even as private investigators. Spike hates the investigative work, but he’s good at going out and finding people. How long will he want to do that though? How long will he stay? I think he’d want to pay Jet back for what happened to the Bebop, so he’d probably stick around even if just for that reason and his friendship with Jet, moreso than because he really likes the work. He really DOESN’T have any place to go.
This is funny. I got a pit in my stomach when Spike told Jet he should get at least one of his bonsai to take with him. I thought “oh no, Jet’s not going to make it out!” Wouldn’t that be awful? I just kept typing though and he didn’t die, but it still scared me. LOL
This was truly wonderful. I’m so glad you ended it on a sort-of-high, I’m sick of all the wangsty post-RFB fics that’re out there lol. I can easily imagine those two going into business and being really good at it. Spike and Jet are the perfect team and I think that everything will always work out for the crew in the end – even Faye.
Lmao when Jet went back to get his bonsai I was screaming at the screen. “Spooks, you can’t kill off Jet! Jeeetttt ;_;…” I’m glad you didn’t
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So glad you liked it!
ROFL about Jet!! I KNOW!! I’was typing it and got THE worst pit in my stomach that he wasn’t going to make it out. I keep reading it (still finding typos, grrr) and I get that same feeling every time. I’m glad I didn’t too, that would suck big time, and I think doing that would have made me a jerk.
I know what you mean about all the wangsty post-RFB fics that are out there. I tried looking for Cowboy Bebop fanfics and that was all I’d see, or slash, or fantasies using the Bebop characters (like that one you told me about where Spike’s a lawyer married to Julia where Faye is a single mother working for them). You said that was good and it probably was, but it’s not what I’m looking for.
Now I have to get back to the one I interrupted to write this one. I got to a point and now I just sit and stare at it. I really love how it’s gone up to this point, but the words aren’t coming. Been this way for more than a week. sigh.
Not seeing what you want? Write it yourself! This is good, I’m writing about Spike and Jet’s early days, you’re writing about Spike Julia and Vicious in their younger days. I don’t know if anyone is writing fics that cover the period of time during the series. Sometimes I think I should write some of those, but I don’t know if I could write Faye. No, scratch that…. I can write her, just not sure at this point if I want to. Still a lot to write about before she entered the picture.
It’d be great if you covered the entire time from Spike & Jet to post RFB with some fics set during the series as well. I’ve got a couple of those I’m working on, but as ever I’m failing at plot lines lol. The amount of Spike/Faye on fanfiction.net is almost unbearable, and out of 112 pages of fics only FOUR of those are based around Julia (either by herself or /Spike or Vicious) v_v;. For me pre-Bebop is probably the most interesting time, I LOVE the pics of Spike and Vicious when they’re friends and it’s such an exciting thing to write about. I’d quite like to do a pre-Bebop Jet too at some point
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Pre-Bebop Jet would be cool too! I have a few pre-Bebop Spike stories, but what about Jet? Maybe do one or two about his time in the ISSP, or when he left the ISSP, decided to be a bounty hunter and bought the Bebop. YEAH, that’s a good idea!
I’ll have to give that one some thought. It won’t be a long one, but should be cool. Jet’s innocent days, before he met Spike. LOL!
Yeah, if I were to write fics based on the time during the series, I would NOT be shipping Spike and Faye. They were so obviously NOT romantically inclined towards each other. EDIT: That is, she was obviously attracted to him, but it was not a mutual thing until much later, and even then they were too stubborn to recognize or act on it. I mean, during the course of the show the relationship evolved, and I think starting with Jupiter Jazz Spike may have been realizing an attraction despite himself, but any proto-shipping would have to be set towards the end of the series. I’m trying to keep the characters at least somewhat true to what we saw in the show, you know? Shipping them is just playtime. I guess I take my fics a bit more seriously than that.
My problem seems to be that my stories are starting to get a little more involved, which makes them longer. I’m trying to keep the one I’m working on now from turning into a novel. It’s not that long yet, but I’m trying to find a way to resolve this quickly – keep it from going beyond 5 or 6 web pages. Sigh. I may have to resort to Zealous again. LOL. Poor guy, but he IS a goldmine for plot bunnies. He’ll just make an offhand comment and I’m like “OOOOooooo” then I start typing furiously. I had a terrible time thinking of what Svetlana was carrying in her hold – had to be something horrible. He came up with that. It was my idea to have the baby in there.
I’ve recently read a lot of your fanfiction on this site, and I noticed something that I haven’t seen explained. At the end of ‘Aftermath Twostep’ we see Bob talking to someone, presumably his parents, but he’s speaking mostly of Spike, as if the other person knows him and cares about him. Here in ‘Coda’ someone’s already paid Yao Ping to look over the Bebop’s damage…I was curious if they were connected. Although to be honest, my minds already jumped to conclusions. You say this is most likely the last piece of the puzzle, but I wondered if you were going to take the thought anywhere, maybe even with a piece from the past…
I was wondering if anyone noticed that and if someone would actually ask about it. xD I’m delighted that you did. Ha ha ha ha!!
Yes, I do have a fantasy, as it were, about where Spike came from and how he came to be in Mao’s possession and what happened then. It’s sad and tragic and really dark (sometimes I like to pour on the angst when thinking about my favorite characters, you know?).
Every once in a while I think I should write it up and share it along with the rest of the drabbles I have on the page. Maybe I should. Just throw it out there with a ‘here, this is what I’m thinking’ keeping in mind that it wouldn’t even be CLOSE to canon. Hey, Hajime Yatate didn’t say anything about it, so we can come up with whatever stories we want, right?
It wouldn’t be in the form of a fic or anything, just detailing some of what I think about where Spike came from, and maybe what he might be doing after Coda.
Thanks for asking! I thought if someone caught that and mentioned it, and if there was any interest, I would write up the BS I came up with and post it.
Well, I for one, am most certainly interested in seeing a different perspective on his past. You hinted at it so wonderfully in the stories, to be honest I thought I was going to explode if I didn’t ask about it.
Spike is such a wonderful character; he’s so simple and yet you know his past is immensely complex…the anime showed just enough to make his history something you wanted to know…but then they left so much to the watcher’s imagination and interpretation.
Please post it. =]
Cool! Yeah, I thought it would be funny to put hints in there, glad you caught it. xD
Ok I will type it up. Of course it will be disclaimed out the wazoo that I came up with this stuff for my own amusement and that I do NOT really think this is how things went down when Mao first found spike, blah blah freakin’ blah.
Don’t know when I’ll have it done – it shouldn’t be too long – but I’m shooting for having it up within a week.
But you know… part of me thinks it would be much cooler to just leave that stuff as a mystery (Watanabe-san and company aren’t the ONLY ones who can leave mysteries), but then again, is that entirely fair to the readers? This is the inner argument I’ve been having with myself.
I might be a bit biased, but leaving it a mystery is just torture! I suppose if you want to keep it a secret you can…but only after you tell me! XD Please, let me know if you post it. I’ll be waiting in eager anticipation!