Line #87 Literature/FindingSnowflakes


1	[[quoteright:282:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2893_0.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:282: He wished he could start by saying, "Once upon a time lived a boy who had nothing, and a girl who had everything..." but life, as it turns out, wasn't that easy.]]
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5	Enter Eliott, a presumed delinquent with the face of a murderer and social life of a recluse. Enter Carrie, a happy-go-lucky girl who always seems to be surrounded by people. All that's needed now is a meeting, right? Wrong.
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7	Set up to be a deconstruction of the happy girl/gloomy boy pairing, this story follows the lives of a socially awkward loner and a girl who hides behind a happy mask, how they met, how they grow and how they're slowly crawling out their shells.
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9	Carrie helps Eliott make up some social skills and he becomes her confidante, but as always there's more than meets the eye. What if there's some truth to his scary reputation and what if her happiness is but a facade? A truth in life is that before accepting others one must accept oneself--and for that, we must also confront our uglier side.
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11	Started in 2013, it is still ongoing. [[https://www.quotev.com/story/7117949/Finding-Snowflakes Read it here.]]
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15	!! This story provides examples of:
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18	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Invoked InUniverse when Carrie tried to get Eliott a girlfriend by exploiting this trope. It didn't work.
19	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Eliott loves making these and he doesn't even realize it. Part of his InnocentlyInsensitive nature.
20	* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' call Carrie fat. Ever.
21	* BeYourself: A major theme, especially for [[{{StepfordSmiler}} Carrie]], who hides everything behind a happy mask to avoid rejection.
22	* {{Bookworm}}: Eliott is never seen without a book around, even if he has to hide it.
23	* BetaBitch: Samantha, who keeps trying to climb her way up to the very top by befriending the AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse. However, there's a certain GenkiGirl standing in her way...
24	* BirdsOfAFeather: Carrie and Charlie. Both are social, genki people hiding behind a smile. On the other side of the spectrum, both Marley and Eliott stray far from the rest of the class, have {{Cloudcuckoolander}} traits and are mostly socially inept.
25	* BlackAndNerdy: Subverted with Charlie. While he does have good grades, he's also pretty social and up high on the social pyramid.
26	* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Eliott and Carrie often share this routine, with the former as the tsukkomi and the latter as the boke. They occasionally flip roles, however.
27	* BookDumb: Carrie. As an example, she thought China's capital was Hong Kong. Eliott is always correcting her grammar, too.
28	* BoyMeetsGirl
29	* BrilliantButLazy: Eliott has quite a vast range of knowledge, most notably [[GrammarNazi grammar]], literature and music. His grades are still terrible, quite possibly because he routinely forgets bringing his homework and usually naps or reads during class.
30	%%* BrokenBird: Carrie.
31	* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Subverted. Eliott, who is usually stoic and reserved, has a relatively positive outlook towards life while Carrie, the resident GenkiGirl, is actually really a closet cynic.
32	%%* BrutalHonesty: Unintentionally, Eliott.
33	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Somehow, Charlie manages to be a compulsive Netflix user, sleep half the class periods and associate absolutely everything with ducks whilst also being part of the student council and getting the highest grades in his class.
34	* CelibateHero: [[spoiler: Notably averted with Eliott, who apparently dated—and slept with—a girl prior to Carrie.]]
35	* CharacterDevelopment: Presumably, one of the story's major features.
36	* CharacterTics: When nervous, Eliott drums his fingers onto whatever he can find. [[AccidentalPervert Even people.]]
37	%%* ChildhoodFriends: Violet and Carrie.
38	* ClassicalAntiHero: Eliott may seem aloof and intimidating, but he's actually really insecure and has little to no social skills.
39	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Marley. She walked around half the school give give someone a pencil despite being perfectly able to give it to him later (he sits next to her). Most of her conversations get progressively weirder as they go on, too. In one instance, the original topic was Carrie, but then she moved on to contemplating whether or not she would date herself and if doing so would make her bi. And then she said God was a potato.
40	* ClusterFBomb: The narration 'switches' according to the character it's focusing on throughout the chapter. Eliott has a sizeable amount of cursing in his. He swears out loud a lot, too.
41	%%* CrashIntoHello: Kind of. More like snowball-into-face-hello.
42	* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Carrie has the same honey-brown color for her hair and eyes.
43	%%* TheCynic: Carrie. Eliott has his moments, too.
44	* DeadpanSnarker: Due to his InnocentlyInsensitive nature, Eliott is prone to snarking. This becomes much more present during his side of the narration.
45	* DeathGlare: Subverted with Eliott. While this may be his default expression, it is actually ''his'' doing more than just having an outright FaceOfAThug. This comes to bite him in the ass very often.
46	* {{Deconstruction}}: Of many high-school romance clichés, particularly in YA. For example, the two main leads don't suddenly turn love into their priority; they had lives before, and these do not disappear once the romance kicks in. There's a notable lack of contrived coincidences (aside from, conversely, the story's beginning itself).
47	** Carrie deconstructs the ManicPixieDreamGirl in that she may cheer the main character up, but she's rather sad herself. In fact, Eliott ends up helping her up as much as—if not more—she helps him.
48	** Eliott himself is more than the typical MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold. The world did not randomly decide to turn against him one day. His loneliness has only worse over time due to his own social ineptitude and aversion to crowds. At one point, he calls it a "self-imposed isolation".
49	* DisorganizedOutlineSpeech: Most of Eliott's dialogue, when not confined to one-liners.
50	* EatingLunchAlone: Eliott, though he'll insist fictional characters ''technically'' count as companions. Marley plays this straight.
51	* {{Escapism}}: Eliott is almost never seen without books due to him using fiction as a way to escape from his current reality. However, this turns out to be a double-edged sword more often than not, as his real life keeps slipping away and he'd rather ignore his problems than try to fix them.
52	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: During Eliott and Carrie's first meeting, the former stayed silent—if not outright hostile—while the latter seemed to pay this no mind... at least at first. When she apologizes and vows to shut up, Eliott suddenly bursts into a rant about [[NoSocialSkills how he kept trying to talk to her, but didn't know how to do it.]]
53	* {{Fangirl}}: Marley, especially present when she witnesses Paris [[YaoiFangirl and Eliott's]] interactions.
54	* FalseFriend: It is implied that Carrie's ''whole'' group of friends is actually this towards each other.
55	* {{Foil}}: Marley to Eliott and viceversa. They both are the class outcasts—sitting next to each other, no less—with NoSocialSkills and character quirks that could weird a person or two out, but Eliott is much more withdrawn and limits himself to using books as escapism while Marley actively tries to improve her social life, and her weirdness isn't as much of her lack of conversational skills as it is her just being plain eccentric.
56	* FriendToAllChildren: Carrie's quite fond of them and viceversa. [[GenkiGirl It's not hard to see why.]] Averted with Eliott, who claims to despise them.
57	* FirstPersonSmartass: Eliott's side of the narration.
58	* FourTemperamentEnsemble:
59	** Eliott is Melancholic.
60	** Carrie us Sanguine.
61	** Paris is Choleric.
62	** Marley is Phlegmatic.
63	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The ending line of the first chapter. "And while they did begin to walk, in many ways they stayed there."
64	* GamerChick: Surprisingly, both Carrie and her ''mom'' (which has a tendency to RageQuit and [[ManChild eat Carrie's snacks if she loses]].)
65	* GenkiGirl: Carrie, big time. This is subverted, however, as it is implied many—if not most—of her antics are due to her StepfordSmiler tendencies.
66	* GenkiGuy: Charlie.
67	* GentleGiant: Eliott stands at 6'7 and is generally peaceful... [[BewareTheNiceOnes unless you somehow manage to get to his bad side.]]
68	* GrowingUpSucks: Throughout the story, Carrie's main motivation—according to her—is to 'find the cure for adulthood'.
69	* GuiltyPleasures: Despite himself, Eliott has a soft spot towards YA romances, out of all things. To him, in fact, [[{{Escapism}} the more unrealistic, hammy and melodramatic, the better.]]
70	* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Eliott, mostly via inner monologue.
71	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: It's not as much as Carrie being "short" (she's 5'6), but Eliott being a giant (6'7).
72	* ImagineSpot: Courtesy of Eliott and Marley, mostly. Usually, these sequences feature contrived, absurd situations in which they suddenly become popular/noticed and make a lot of friends/aren't social outcasts anymore. In Eliott's case, this fantasies usually involve [[LoveInterest Carrie]] in some way.
73	* InsaneTrollLogic: As an example, despite appearances, Marley seems to possess quite a high self-esteem, which she backs up with the claim that she would marry herself is he could, but she's straight.
74	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Paris treats his brother like trash and hangs out with a group of people that made fun of [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Marley]], and while he participates in trying to kick her off the cafeteria table she was "hogging for herself" (even though she was just EatingLunchAlone as usual), he ends up defending her after one of his friends crosses the line. Even when they go away, due to him realizing she's just there because she has no other friends, he ends up sitting with her for the lunch break's duration.
75	* KidsAreCruel: At least according to Eliott.
76	* LargeHam: Carrie, bigger time.
77	--> '''Carrie''': Did you meet the girl? How was she? Was she pretty? Did you fall in love? Did sparkles come out nowhere while the birds sang and flowers bloomed and things exploded and Frank Sinatra danced in the background!?
78	* LonersAreFreaks: Subverted. Both Marley and Eliott suffer this to varying degrees, but the class doesn't really obstracize them that much. They're the ones isolating themselves. Especially Eliott.
79	* ManChild: Carrie's mother borders on {{Cloudcuckoolander}} sometimes.
80	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Deconstructed. Carrie at first glance might come across as that energetic girl trying to cheer the moody boy up, she's actually got a few issues herself. In fact, deep inside, she's much more cynical and bitter than the boy. She, indeed, is a StepfordSmiler, putting a smile up all the time to bottle everything inside.
81	* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Eliott isn't a bad person. He just really, really looks like one.
82	* MotorMouth: Carrie, during her [[LargeHam hammier]] moments.
83	* NoSocialSkills: When talking, more often than not, Eliott either limits himself to one-liners or breaks into long, confusing rambles until he runs out of breath. There is not in-between. He freaks out during phone conversations and has a distinctive lack of tact when speaking.
84	* OddFriendship: Marley, pretty much with everyone she "befriends".
85	* OppositesAttract:
86	** Eliott: Quiet, reserved, socially-inept. Has a tendency to rant about off-topic stuff and gets irritated with ease. Brutally honest.
87	** Carrie: Outgoing, carefree, easy to talk to, hard to get mad (unless you mention her weight). A huge liar.
88	* PrettyBoy: Paris, Eliott's younger brother.
89	* RandomEventsPlot
90	* RedOniBlueOni: Carrie is red to Eliott's blue.
91	* RuleOfSymbolism: The snowy, 'dead' path Eliott and Carrie walk through every day, the changing seasons, and the themes of the chapter titles/quotes all symbolize character growth in one way or another.
92	** This isn't always for the better.
93	* SadClown: Carrie is implied to be this.
94	* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Eliott and Carrie.
95	* ShipperOnDeck: When Marley and Carrie first met, the latter told the former she'd only marry a guy with the last name 'White'. [[{{Tempting Fate}} Guess what Eliott's last name is.]] Upon finding this out, Marley went... wild.
96	* ShrinkingViolet: Eliott plays this straight. In Marley's case, it's not of a NoSocialSkills case than anything else.
97	* SingleTargetSexuality: Eliott is Carriesexual.
98	* SirSwearsALot: Eliott, to the point of driving Carrie uncomfortable during his worst instances of this. After a while, he manages to tones it down. At least around her.
99	* SlasherSmile: Whenever he forces a smile, Eliott usually ends up with this. [[FaceOfAThug It's been noted to be the only thing scarier than his usual expression.]]
100	* SnowMeansLove: The two main leads meet under a snowfall.
101	%%* SociallyAwkwardHero: Eliott. ''Big time''.
102	%%* StepfordSmiler: Carrie is the Depressed type.
103	* TakeThatMe: Usually, during Eliott's narration, he'll end up fantasizing about completely unrealistic situations (often involving him getting out of his "self-imposed isolation" in some contrived, stupid way) only to quickly lampshade it by thinking something along the lines of, "That only happens in badly-written romances, anyway..."
104	** And then they happen.
105	%%* TheCasanova: Paris.
106	* TheGadfly: Carrie, who's not above pulling long, elaborate pranks just to amuse herself. Eliott and Marley are her main targets, mostly due to their obliviousness about social cues and the like.
107	* ThePhilosopher: Eliott tends to think ''deep'' into things, ranging from the nature of humanity to whether zebras have white stripes and a black body or viceversa. He's also prone to giving cryptic one-liners and going completely off-topic if the topic interests him enough.
108	* TheStoic: Sadly for Eliott, while he's not precisely emotionless, his expression tends to change very little, often looking like he's [[FaceOfAThug glaring instead.]]
109	%%* TallDarkAndSnarky: Eliott.
110	%%* UsedToBeMoreSocial: Implied to have happened to Eliott.
111	* WhenHeSmiles: To Carrie, getting Eliott to smile is the equivalent of a musician acing a partiture after months of practice—as hard and rewarding.
112	%%* YouAreNotAlone

Context Literature / FindingSnowflakes