Okay, here's the next part that I promised around a week ago! I'm sorry, it's just that I was kinda waiting for feedback/favs before I went on... I guess that's actually a pretty jerk-y thing to do. Well, this is a pretty long part because it's mostly a flashback, and it's a very sad story at that. (In fact, I put it under General Fiction rather than humor because of that)
And you get to find out who the girl in this picture is: [link] (I shall be updating the info on that one)
Previous parts in case you need to catch up: [link]
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(Since details are a big spoiler, I'll put my behind-the-scenes notes down lower in case you're somehow managing to read the description first)










I know some of you might be critical of the story told in Rod's flashback (or not, considering hardly anyone reads these things ), relying on the old "hero's wife/girlfriend dies and gives him motivation" trope (aka Women In Fridges), but you know what? I don't really see it that way. I wanted to make Gem a well-rounded character and I have her appearing in later stories to round her out even more (too bad they're a looooooong time coming, but anyway). I do want to say at first I wanted to avoid that whole deal, not because of that trope actually but because of the whole Robin Willams/dead wife deal (seriously, it's in a whole bunch of his movies). Remember who Rod is based on now! But one day I was going on in my mind about how Meg spelled backwards is "Gem", and thought of using the name for another character, one whose personality is basically hers inverted (still an outcast, but a self-confidant one who doesn't give a fuck what people think of her). And then I got it in my crazy little head to make her Rod's first love. This also caused me to think up Megumi in the Japan flashback, and basically have this whole deal that Rod keeps running into girls who are just like like Connie and Meg (although I should say the other way around given the timeline), as to say "This sort of thing happens in every school, in every generation. Something should be done about it". Okay, so maybe that's a bit cheesy, but it's true. How many outcasts have to die before people stop treating bullying as a fact of life or a rite of passage? And I'm not just talking girls like Meg, but gay teens, POC, autistic kids etc. I digress, but god damn that attitude pisses me off. I was a victim of bullying all my life and now that we're in the internet age, I'm not sure it's going to stop. Anyway, now even if Rod had never met Gem (or, indeed, never lost her), he still would have worked hard to protect Meg since he's that kinda guy... he just wouldn't have resorted to murder to do it. Still, I think Connie got what she deserved. Don't worry, so will her 1988 predecessor eventually, for I hate Karma Houdini bullies.

Now that I've addressed all possible controversy over this one, I hope you truly did get moved by it. I cry every goddamn time I read Gem's death scene. Seriously, it's horrifying, but it had to be. Being in a small-time fanfic, Rod and Gem aren't going to go down in history as one of fiction's greatest tragic love stories... but goddamn, they deserve to. (How is it I, one who can write better and healthier romances than Stephanie Meyer and many others and yet
1) Not able to get myself into professional writing and
2) Still not able to get the courage to be in a relationship myself? It's like a paradox.)

Sadly, this is the last finished part I have for a while. At least I gave it my all on this one. Thing is, the next part is supposed to have an original song number, and unfortunately that's the one thing the canon FG writers do better than I do. I hope this leaves you wanting more, but at the same time not so much that you'll keep spamming my page with "WHERES THE NEXT PART DAMMIT!". Please do not do that, I have enough trouble as it is.

All Family Guy characters© FOX/Seth MacFarlane
Rodney Weaver and Rebecca "Gem" Jameson © Me (yeah, yeah, she's technically a Meg doppleganger...but who says she'll stay that way if I ever use her elsewhere?)