A Secret Resolution
is a Carmen Sandiego one-shot fic written by LetItFlow0992
The place: Times Square, New York City. The time: 11:50pm. Date: December 31st.
Following evidence from witness reports that Carmen Sandiego is in the city, Chase Devineaux takes himself and Julia Argent up to the roof of Four Times Square and sets up a lookout, thinking she will be appearing there. A perplexed Julia is curious and unsure about his hunch, given that VILE has not been reported anywhere New York. Chase reveals to her that at the end of every year, Carmen sets up a prank at a public New Years Eve celebration.
Is his hunch correct? Will Carmen appear? And just what is her scheme if she does?
The story consists of the following tropes:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Julia for Carmen.
- Bait-and-Switch: Devineaux is expecting Carmen to pull her annual New Years Eve prank at Times Square, believing it might have something to do with the iconic Ball Drop.
- Batman Gambit: Implied. Carmen appears on the roof of Four Times Square, confident that Devineaux will be unable to interfere with what she has planned.
- Big Damn Kiss: “Oh, and it’s tradition.”
- Bilingual Bonus: The second half of Carmen’s message to Julia is entirely in French, as is Julia’s response.
- Subverted with Julia’s new nickname for Carmen. While it is not translated or explained in the first scene it is used, Carmen alludes to it in English later.
- Children Are Innocent: Invoked by Player when he records an audio message for Carmen that she wants sent to Julia and the words sound too adult for him.Player: Whoa, whoa, whoa, Red. Save that kind of talk for the bedroom. These ears are still innocent and delicate.
- Crush Blush: Julia, when Carmen winks slyly at her upon her arrival.
- Dating Catwoman: Julia’s relationship with Carmen has progressed this far.
- Devoted to You: Carmen puts her annual prank aside to be with Julia when midnight strikes.
- Exact Words: In their confrontation, Carmen promises Devineaux she’s not at Times Square to pull a new prank, that she’s around to mark the New Year with a much more serious manner. The haughty agent doesn’t believe her.
- Failed a Spot Check: Devineaux, thinking it’s her own, does not notice the so-called smudges on Julia’s pale pink lips are kiss marks from someone wearing red lipstick.
- Foreshadowing: Carmen promises Chase there will be no pranks and that she’s only there to carry out something she takes more seriously and holds very close to her heart.
- Holiday Episode: The story takes place on New Year’s Eve and the first hour or so of New Year’s Day.
- Hope Spot: Although he was not anticipating it at first, Chase Devineaux entertains the idea of arresting Carmen should she break down if her prank failed.
- Large Ham: Chase Devineaux responds to Carmen's arrival with his usual bombastic claims that he will deter her from enacting her schemes.
- Love Letter: Carmen sends Julia a short but sweet audio one.
- Noodle Incident: Carmen has previously committed her New Year’s Eve pranks at Disneyland California, London, Sydney Harbour, Tokyo and Beijing.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Julia does not know anything about Carmen’s prankish nature
- Carmen herself when it transpires she is not at Times Square to pull a prank.
- Oh, Crap!: Towards the end of their confrontation, Devineaux starts to think Carmen is using herself as a distraction to keep him from finding out what the alleged prank is. By the time this happens, he decides it’s too late to risk going on an alternate course.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Devineaux appears to take Carmen’s escape lightly. It doesn’t last long.
- Patriotic Fervor: When distracted by the midnight fireworks, Devineaux is reminded of his childhood and teenage years growing up with an evolving loyalty to his home country of France.
- Pet the Dog: Devineaux treats Julia nicely on a couple of occasions, even agreeing with her on a theory at one point.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Julia is left incredibly stunned after Carmen kisses her and doesn’t come to until Chase is halfway down to the elevator.
- The Reveal: Because the story largely follows Devineaux’s perspective, we have no real indication of what Carmen was up to until after the fireworks are over. He finds a riddle from Carmen taped to his coat and turns around, finding Julia in a daze and noticing she has lipstick smudged in several places over her mouth.
- Say My Name: When she surprises the two, Chase and Julia spin around to face her.Chase: La Femme Rouge!Julia: Carmen.
- Shipper on Deck: Player helps Carmen with her New Year's surprise and later he records and sends an audio love letter to Julia from Carmen.
- Switching P.O.V.: Chase is the main character for much of the one-shot, then it temporarily switches to Julia, then to Carmen for a single scene, and finally to Julia again for the remainder of the narrative.
- Third Wheel: Played For Laughs after it’s revealed that while an unknowing Devineaux was watching the fireworks with proud glee, Carmen and Julia were a metre behind him, making out.
