{"id":707,"date":"2021-10-11T19:33:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T00:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/?p=707"},"modified":"2021-10-17T22:36:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T03:36:36","slug":"00carter-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/00carter-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"00Carter is BACK! (Alright!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, it’s been a long time since we’ve posted anything here!\u00a0 *brushes the dust off our “shiny new site”*\u00a0 But we come bearing good news:\u00a0 00Carter<\/em> is back<\/em>!\u00a0 It’s been almost ten years since we posted our last episode, “A 00Carter Christmas.”\u00a0 After that, we all got busy with other stories, work, family, and life in general.\u00a0 00Carter<\/em> became less of a priority, and no one seemed to have the time or energy to try to rally the troops to revive it.\u00a0 Rose and I (Julie) still cared about it and always said we would continue it someday, even if it was just the two of us writing it, but we never made it happen.<\/p>\n

Then the pandemic hit, and one of our original co-writers, Dee, came back to the fandom after a long hiatus.\u00a0 As we caught up with each other and renewed our friendship, we talked a lot about fanfiction, and inevitably 00Carter<\/em> came up.\u00a0 When Dee expressed an interest in writing it again, Rose and I took it as a sign that the time was finally right to revive it.\u00a0 We’ve been working on doing so for the past couple months and have already finished two new episodes!\u00a0 We’ve also done some editing on the old episodes — not changing any plot details, just polishing up the grammar and word choice.\u00a0 In honor of the upcoming fifteenth anniversary of when 00Carter<\/em> was conceived (January 2, 2007), we decided to repost one old episode each week leading up to the anniversary, when we will debut the new Episode 11: “Mr. Body Beautiful.”<\/p>\n

We will also be writing a series of retrospective blogs to go with each episode. We hope our readers who are still around will enjoy rereading the old episodes as they look forward to a new one. We also hope this will help us attract some new readers! So whether you’re here for the first time or coming back after a long time, thanks for being here and reading!<\/p>\n

With that being said, today we reposted Episode 1: Carter… Nick Carter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Our first retrospective blog comes from 00Carter<\/em>‘s creator, Rose, with Dee and I also contributing our thoughts in a little Q&A.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span>
\nWhen I think about 00Carter<\/em>, I smile. Because this idea was one that pretty much came out of nowhere. And while I\u2019m somewhat infamous for having these lightbulb moments inspired by seemingly nothing? 00Carter<\/em> is by far my most random one. I mean it started as a joke<\/a>. All because the Mission: Impossible<\/em> theme came up during an attempt to try and get this horribly stubborn forum to remove some plagiarized stories from Absolute Chaos<\/em>. Next thing I heard in my off the wall brain was Nick\u2019s voice going \u201cCarter… Nick Carter\u201d and that was the beginning of it. I don\u2019t know why I immediately dubbed it 00Carter. I think just because it had the same flow as when you say 007 out loud. And I used to be a hard core collaboration whore, I thrived bouncing off of other people. Partly because I\u2019ve always been my own worst critic so I felt if I wrote with others, I could be a better writer. I wasn\u2019t exactly the most confident back then despite posting what I wanted when I wanted.<\/p>\n

And this project was huge in my brain. I knew I wanted it in the \u201cstyle\u201d of a TV show, similar to a collaboration I\u2019d previously joined in on with Julie – Code Blue<\/em>. I knew there were going to be loads of characters which meant plenty of room to let anyone who wanted in to \u201ccreate\u201d their own, along with plenty of celebrities to throw in and parody. I felt like I couldn\u2019t do this alone. And I\u2019m pretty happy I didn\u2019t have to, to be honest.<\/p>\n

To sum it up, despite the long hiatus and the breaks in between episodes, and my own long breaks from writing fic? 00Carter<\/em> has a pretty special place in my fanfic writing heart that keeps me from ever letting it go and I\u2019m happy that in a year that\u2019s had some highs and lows, this is the story that has me slowly dipping my toes back into the fanfic world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What were your initial thoughts when you saw Rose\u2019s idea to write a story about Nick as a secret agent?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> I was 90% certain that it was something like, \u201cWhy hot cocoa?\u201d for his signature beverage, so I looked it up and that was fairly accurate. Preceded by: \u201cThat\u2019s an awesome idea,\u201d and followed shortly by: \u201cCan I be a Carter girl in your story?\u201d As we all know, \u201ccan I be\u201d very quickly turned into us writing it together and the rest (as they say) is history. I’m really glad, though, because 00Carter<\/em> was really how I became friends with Rose and Julie; I think together we have a brand of creativity that feeds off each other for something great. So I’m very happy that we’re reviving this a decade after it went on hiatus.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> Literally the \u201cshaken, not stirred\u201d hot cocoa was my one sticking point and we\u2019ve only used it once in the damn story so far lmao. What a fail on my end.<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> Yeah, I can\u2019t believe it took us until Episode 9 to even get that line in once!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s not Nick\u2019s fault that drinking hot cocoa in Nevada would be silly and he\u2019s usually really busy the other places he goes.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> Hey I live in Nevada and I love drinking hot cocoa!<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> Me too! The cocoa part, not the Nevada part. But like both of you, I\u2019m so happy we\u2019re finally working on this story again! It\u2019s been so much fun to write and definitely brought the three of us closer together. To think I almost didn\u2019t do it…<\/p>\n

My initial reaction to Rose\u2019s idea was, in the infamous words of Nick\u2019s ex-girlfriend, \u201cThat\u2019s hot.\u201d Nick as a secret agent? Sexy. When Rose referred to him as \u201c00Carter\u201d (a name that stuck, although I don\u2019t think she originally intended it to be the actual title of the story), I joked, \u201cCan I be a Carter Girl?\u201d At that point, no one was talking about it being a collaboration yet. I thought it was a cute idea for Rose to write, but not something I personally was interested in writing with her. I had only seen one James Bond movie, The World is Not Enough<\/em>, which I didn\u2019t even like, and hadn\u2019t watched any Mission: Impossible<\/em> movies or episodes either. Espionage was not my thing. But as the conversation continued, I had fun contributing ideas, like Howie as the villain. I even photoshopped the first picture of Nick as Bond. As more people came on board, some of whom were Bond fans, I offered to beta read, run the 00Carter<\/em> website, and make a Flash video — anything but actually write. But of course, I eventually got sucked into doing that, too, and I ended up loving it! I\u2019m still not a Bond fan, although I have watched several more 007 movies for inspiration since we started this story. If anything, 00Carter<\/em> is more like Get Smart<\/em> or Austin Powers<\/em> than Bond anyway.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> Remember how Rose bribed you, Julie, to try and get you to do it? That was my favorite, lol. I’m glad you eventually caved.<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> LOL I believe she tried bribing me with \u201ca young unmarried Brian who’s showing his fit tummy.\u201d This was years before the \u201cShow \u2018Em (What You\u2019re Made Of)\u201d video, when shirtless Brian was like a rare unicorn, so she knew that would get my attention. I don\u2019t think that was what convinced me, but I\u2019m glad I eventually caved, too! By the way, we should really have The Rok take off his shirt more often in this story. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> I knew if I wanted you, Brian was the way to go!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> I think there\u2019s some future storylines that could support a shirtless Rok, lol!<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> Hell none of them show enough skin in this story yet!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> Except for Nick in Canada! LMFAO<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We each created a female character to be one of Nick\u2019s \u201cCarter Girls.\u201d Tell us about yours.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> As I mentioned before, the whole Carter Girl thing started out as a joke. But, like all our best collab ideas, the more we joked about it, the more it became a real part of the story. During our initial conversation, Rose came up with the name Red Jewel for \u201cmy\u201d character as a reference to Julie, and the name stuck. She was our original Carter Girl. Her real name, Julianne Llewellyn, is obviously a play off my pen name. I don\u2019t have red hair like her, but her personality is similar to mine. She is more reserved than the other Carter Girls, but her calm demeanor comes in handy in a crisis. We made her the resident doctor of Himitsu Takana because of my love of medical drama. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever really delved deeply into Red\u2019s backstory, but I imagine she trained in emergency medicine before HimTak recruited her. This would give her experience in handling a wide variety of injuries and ailments, which she would need when working with secret agents who are sent on all kinds of dangerous missions.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> I loved how we called them all \u201cI\u201d in the beginning. So narcissistic of us, lol.\u00a0 I think Red was the perfect addition to the team! It makes sense that not everyone in the story is a secret agent and a Secret Agency (?) would have lots of different employees. You really need to delve into her backstory more; it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> Don\u2019t forget that all the gem names came because I liked the idea of Red Jewel too much to deviate LOL.<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> That\u2019s also how we came up with the name Himitsu Takana for the agency, remember? It means \u201cHidden Gem\u201d in Japanese.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> So many of the basic things in this story came from building off of something small.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s true! And so many of the small things we had planned in the beginning ended up in the story eventually. The attention to detail in 00Carter is crazy. I\u2019m glad we went with gemstones and not sex puns. That\u2019s the kind of wholesome at the root of 00Carter<\/em>, really. Speaking of sex puns\u2026<\/p>\n

So my contribution to the Carter Girl lineup probably stemmed from the \u201cNick has a rival agent that\u2019s a girl\u201d idea we had at one point, except I\u2019m pretty sure he wasn\u2019t supposed to know that agent was a girl until a big reveal at some point\u2026 That\u2019s not my favorite trope by any means. Why can\u2019t the girl actively kick ass as a girl? I digress, anyway we scrapped that particular idea, but Diamond stayed on as a Carter Girl and an agent. I think it was Rose who initially suggested she have a \u201cD\u201d code name, for me (Dee) and chose \u201cDiamond.\u201d (Though I may have been leaning that way as well?)<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> Diamond is tied with Emerald Ecstasy for my favorite Carter Girl! I love that she\u2019s a badass agent like Emerald who also happens to be super girly — it\u2019s a nice contrast.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> Agreed. And it\u2019s funny because she\u2019s definitely an \u201canti-Rose\u201d character. I\u2019m not remotely girly, or flirty LOL. But she\u2019s so fun and breaks the blonde stereotype while embracing it at the same time. So thanks for creating her Dee!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> Happy to help contribute to something, lol. I like all the main HimTak female characters. I think they all compliment each other. The character interactions are the real fun!<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t how much else y\u2019all want to know about Diamond (I\u2019ve always had a lot of ideas, but we can probably talk more in the next episode since it\u2019s Nick and Diamond as the main agents on the mission), but I think the original bare bones vision was that she was a flirt, good with a gun, and a social butterfly (constantly texting on her phone and whatnot\u2026 I think at one point, I mentioned she needed a QWERTY phone to save her poor thumbs from T9 — like a sidekick, lol… our tech is so outdated for a revival).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a fun fact, I came up with her last name before her first name. It\u2019s a funny story (assuming I\u2019m allowed to tell a story with swearing in your sanctuary, Julie). So I took French in high school and my third\/fourth year teacher would always help us edit our writing projects if we came to office hours (a godsend, really). I\u2019d written the verb \u201cto kiss\u201d in one of my papers for some reason (I can\u2019t remember why, that was almost twenty years ago) and had stumbled upon \u201cbaiser\u201d instead of \u201cembrasser\u201d in my verb translation book (because this was the early \u201800s and google translate wasn\u2019t really a thing). Come to find out \u201cbaiser\u201d was an archaic version of \u201cto kiss,\u201d but had become slang for \u201cfucking,\u201d lmao!<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> LMAO! I don’t think I’ve ever heard this whole story before. That’s hilarious!<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> You HAVE been holding out. I hadn\u2019t heard this either but I love it!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> You hadn’t?! I apologize for withholding this all these years. Technically, my French teacher did say \u201cslang for \u2018sexual intercourse\u2019,\u201d don\u2019t worry, but I knew what that meant, lol. I turned twelve hundred shades of red with my teacher, but clearly squirreled that knowledge away to use for Diamond later, apparently. As a lover of puns, I thought \u201cDuBaiser\u201d was a clever joke (\u201cfucks anyone,\u201d basically). And with a clearly French last name, she needed a French first name, so I lazily chose the name I\u2019d picked personally in French class (in high school, they made you choose pretend names from the language, a stark contrast from when I took Japanese in college and was just \u201cmy last name\u201d-san), which was Desir\u00e9e\u2026 I think we all got lazy at some point (or it was an AC formatting nightmare), because I know I never include the accent over the \u201ce\u201d and I don\u2019t think anyone else does either.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> So it\u2019s funny because Pearl was always my girl, yet in many ways has the least connections to me? Kitana is the name of one of my favorite Mortal Kombat characters and I always liked the name. In real life, I have a very Mary Sue-esque name. (My last name is pronounced \u201cSmiley\u201d yes as in smiley face though it\u2019s not spelled that way. Combine that with Rose and boom an instant Mary Sue.) And her last name Pierson I tacked on because once it was figured out that Pearl would be the brains, it sounded like the name of a scientist. She\u2019s definitely got some of my quirks, (Nick does too) like musing on songs, a love of bright colors, and a snarky sense of humor. She chooses her friends carefully, more carefully than I do. And I\u2019m no genius!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more to her backstory that I\u2019ve known for awhile and recently even started evolving even more though I haven\u2019t really shown it in the story beyond the occasional hint. It might be eventually but really I like having it so it explains her actions even if we never delve into it. I\u2019m definitely an introvert though not on her level. But hey, we both have blonde hair and blue eyes? LOL.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> I didn\u2019t realize \u201cKitana\u201d came from Mortal Kombat! Fatality! lol I also enjoy that a scientist got added to the group. Overall, I think the initial Carter girls were very well rounded, whereas later additions got too hung up on the \u201cCarter\u201d part of that.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s funny but it was your idea Dee, that the then unnamed Pearl became the scientist. Originally I\u2019d been thinking about another agent but I\u2019m really glad we didn\u2019t go that route. I mean, coming up with her gadgets and ways they can be used plot wise, and to poke fun at Nick? I love it. And yeah I\u2019d have to agree on that, even though the original three were…sort of self inserts, they\u2019re not Mary Sues. At least not in the terrible sense. It\u2019s funny to me that the geek of the group is named after a video game character. How fitting!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> It was me? You\u2019re welcome everyone. There\u2019s probably one of two reasons I suggested that, either the selfish \u201cbut Diamond is already the agent, can\u2019t let Rose harp in on that\u201d or the funny \u201cbut you\u2019re the brains of this operation, Rose, she should be the scientist,\u201d lol. I\u2019m willing to bet I thought the former, but reasoned it away with the latter. Sorry I was an asshole in my youth.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> Either way it worked out for the best! LOL<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> I love that our agency\u2019s head scientist is a woman! Great example of what STEAM education can produce, LOL.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> Same with Red being head of the medical department! You know, despite being a Backstreet Boys fanfic, 00Carter is pretty decent at passing the Bechdel test, representation, etcetera.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s something you love about this story that you didn\u2019t expect to back when we first started it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> Well, correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but I think we all thought (maybe not Rose) it would be this semi-serious Bond homage rather than what it is.<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> Yeah, that was part of my initial hesitation to join in. I don\u2019t think I would have enjoyed writing it much if it was all serious or if we had stuck to just emulating James Bond. That may have been our starting point, but I love that we branched out and made it our own.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> I think I knew that wasn\u2019t going to be the case once we did the first episode about finding a pizza LMAO.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> No, obviously your main character\u2019s first mission can\u2019t be about finding a pizza if it\u2019s a semi-serious homage. Especially if he\u2019s running around calling it a \u201cPrecious,\u201d lol. That\u2019s my favorite thing about 00Carter though, the idea that \u201cmost entertaining idea wins\u201d and we just find a way to make it work.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> That tends to be my motto for writing 00Carter<\/em>, \u201cthe idea that makes me laugh the most wins\u201d. It fits my terrifying brain perfectly because you guys know I just spit out random shit expecting you guys to make it work.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> I\u2019m pretty sure writing a 00Carter outline for an episode goes something like this:
\n1. Rose or Dee makes a stupid joke.
\n2. The other one says \u201cNo that\u2019s genius because\u2026 [reason].\u201d
\n3. Julie laughs hysterically, then makes us figure out the logic for it in the context of the rest of the story.
\nI realize explaining it this way makes Julie sound like the least fun and this is not the case. Her funny ideas just usually come out coherent.<\/p>\n

Rose:<\/strong><\/span> LMAO She\u2019s usually the one making it work or…yeah her random as hell ideas already have logic behind them because she thinks it through.<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> That\u2019s our problem, we just say the first funny thing we think of to get everyone else to laugh. The drawings I did for “Mr. Body Beautiful” are probably up there in my favorites of these moments, lol.<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> I like to credit South Park<\/em> for my sense of humor. I appreciate a good parody and a certain degree of randomness, but it still has to work together and make sense. We don\u2019t want it to look like our story was written by manatees pushing around idea balls<\/a>. I think we\u2019ve all honed our ability to piece together seemingly random jokes and events into coherent plots. That\u2019s what I love most about 00Carter. Plotting it together is as much fun as actually writing it!<\/p>\n

Dee:<\/strong><\/span> LMAO! Manatees pushing idea balls around (I love that episode). Didn\u2019t we used to joke that we came up with our ideas like that, except that they were idea ferrets and penguins? lol I think other than a few times, we\u2019ve had a fairly easy time making the most entertaining or weirdest idea work, but I honestly can\u2019t think of the hard ones right now. Also the single-episode parody homages are great. They\u2019ve given us so many inside jokes.<\/p>\n

Julie:<\/strong><\/span> That\u2019s where it helps to have other people to bounce around ideas (or, yes, \u201cplot ferrets\u201d LOL). I don\u2019t think any one of us would have been able to write this story by ourselves (definitely not me), but together, we make it work!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, it’s been a long time since we’ve posted anything here!\u00a0 *brushes the dust off our “shiny new site”*\u00a0 But we come bearing good news:\u00a0 00Carter is back!\u00a0 It’s been almost ten years since we posted our last episode, “A 00Carter Christmas.”\u00a0 After that, we all got busy with other\u2026<\/p>\n

Read more<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5xaHX-bp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/00carter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}