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If you are concerned about the virus, first thing's first. Please make sure you are getting correct information to keep yourself and your community safe. There is a LOT of panic-driven and just mean-spirited misinformation going around social media lately. It seems to be spreading even faster than the virus itself, and that could put a lot of vulnerable people at risk.
The best place to find accurate and trust-worthy information would be the WHO and CDC websites. Here, I'll even leave you with the links to the pages specifically designated for COVID-19 facts.
Please, keep yourselves properly informed. Be cautious and take this disease seriously, but try not to panic. DO NOT HOARD; get only what you need for about 2weeks, and leave the rest for others who also need it. Social distance yourself, and self-isolate if you are capable of doing both. I know this is tricky, but it really helps a LOT if you are privileged enough to follow through.
A great way to see an overly simplified visualization of the importance of social distancing is showcased in this Washington Post article.
For those of you that have to still be out in public, please be careful. Remember that you don't need a facemask if you are currently healthy and are not taking care of someone who is sick and cannot wear a mask. Just be mindful of the surfaces you touch - disinfect as much and as often as possible - wash your hands properly and for at least 20sec, and keep your hands away from your face unless they have been freshly washed (and make sure to properly disinfect your hands again after facial touching).
Good health to all of you, dear friends. Please look out for each other.
Let's say you ARE stuck at home though, and you've already blown through your To Do list. What's next to keep yourself from going insane?
Well, seems the answer for a lot of people has been
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| Old meme is old X all the Y meme originated on Hyperbole and a Half |
So, naturally, I'm still stuck with writing burnout/writers block.... perfect.
Ya know what would have been amazing to have completed in time to post right about now? How about One and the Same, instead of it going on the second FULL FRIGGEN YEAR in writing limbo...? Or, maybe my initial desire for the break between seasons 3 and 4: When Love Matters. Heck, I'd even settle for finishing my gosh-dang Fluff Week stories!
At least, thanks to a major assist from ChibiSunnie, I managed to get my Plagg Appreciation Day story written. We'll ignore the fact that I didn't actually publish it until nearly midnight on the 13th, and even then it was only on DA and Tumblr. The story wasn't edited and published on FFN and AO3 - as well as polished on DA and Tumblr - until Saturday afternoon. Whooo... way to go, me!
Anyway, if you haven't yet, you can read the story in those normal four spots.
"The Truest of Friends"
In truth, I was still completely stumped on what to write for this past Friday 13th. Then I got a mini-list of potential writing prompts from Chibi. She's not even in the fandom, but based on what I've told her about Plagg, and based on what I've said here in my blog, she came up with a couple of awesome ideas. I have a handful of new plot bunnies growing on my Plunny Farm thanks to her suggestions.Summary: It's the second day of the new school year, which also means it's been a year since Stoneheart first attacked Paris. Adrien wonders how he could best celebrate the anniversary of becoming Chat Noir, and how to properly showcase how much he cares for someone very special in his life.
Word Count: 3307
Rating: General Audience
The winning idea though? It was largely due to this image she sent me.
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| Created by Kristin Bolling |
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| Created by Kristin Bolling |
Same issue with Chibi's other suggestion of Marinette NOT knowing what she's helping Adrien do when either a) she runs into him in the grocery store trying to buy the ingredients, or b) he asks her to help him make it. It would be fun to see him try to explain his way out of the cake without revealing his kwami. Problem though is that the story then circles around the Adrienette dynamic, or MariChat one, if Adrien has Marinette assist him while he's Chat Noir so he can explain who the cake is for. That has its own complications, though, beyond focusing on the wrong character(s).
I had the basic idea though, thanks to Chibi, so I started running with it to see what came up.
What came up was about four more false-start stories that ended up focusing more on Adrien's dynamic with Marinette then the Plagg-focused story it SHOULD have been.
In fact, even the finished product of The Truest of Friends felt like it was too heavy with the LadyNoir ship as opposed to Plagg Appreciation. I mean, it DID get there, and people seem to have enjoyed it, but it kept longer to reach where I wanted it to be than I would have liked.
Oh well. It was that story or nothing by the time I decided to commit to it.
Like I said, though, it seems to have done well... ish... It's been up for roughly 3 days and already has these stats.
I had tagged Chibi to give her credit for the prompt idea, but the story is out of her normal fandoms, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that she had the time to read it. Especially with her busy schedule and tons of fics within her fandom(s) I'm sure she has backlogged.FFN: 225 views, 10 faves, 6 followers, and 3 reviews
AO3: 161 hits, 29 kudos, 4 bookmarks, and 6 comments
DA: 32 views, 1 fave, but no comments
Total Results: 418 views, 40 faves, 10 followers, and 9 reviews
Tumblr Notes: 20 notes; 14 likes, and 6 reblogs
FFN reviews:
1. AWWWW... You're right...Plagg need all the appreciations. And nice appreciation date there. And Adrien is such a sunshine...haaaaaa
2. You made me tear up a little. I don't do that often for fiction. :) Thanks for the sweet and wonderful story.
3. Ahhh. Super sweet!. I loved it.. Plagg is such a great kwami and Adrien making the cheeseball was great. Thank you for the great read.
AO3 reviews:
1. Wow! I love the idea. Of course Adrien would want to do something like this.
2. This is amazingly sweet! I love it, Plagg really does deserve more love.
3. <33!!!! this is so sweet, plagg deserves so much love and appreciation <33 T^T
4. OH THIS IS SO ADORABLE AND SWEET AND NICE AND NEEDED! Adrien loves Plagg, and Plagg loves Adrien! These two NEED each other, and they love and appreciate each other, and will make DAMN sure the other knows it.
5. Yes! Way to go, Plagg! And way to go, Adrien, for showing his appreciation. Fantastic job of writing on this!
6. [A review from ChibiSunnie; see below]
Still, the amazing ChibiSunnie did take the time to read my story, and left me this lovely comment.
Chibi, you are pure, undiluted awesome sauce! Thank you so much for the idea, for the inspiring picture, and for taking the time to read and review my work!Chibi: Awwwwww this is so sweet and adorable!!! ^_^ Adrien's speech to Plagg made me tear up, and I'm not even in this fandom! <3 I'm so glad my plot bunny and the pic I sent you was able to help spark your own plot bunny to write this story! ^_^
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I mean, to be fair, my Plagg story has already started petering off with the views, just getting a couple trickling in here and there. With the demand for content so great, a LOT of creators are gladly complying. A bunch of them are doing so as a stress reliever for this whole coronavirus crisis; something I'll talk about more in a bit. Due to the high demand and high output to meet it, I'm sure my story is already buried under newer content, and all of my stories would suffer the same fate. Still, I want to try. If I'm going to grab new readers, now's the time, right? Especially since a lot of people now have the free time to actually consume my much larger/longer works.
IF ONLY I COULD FIGURE OUT WHAT TO WRITE!
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| Hey, stop touching your face! Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc. |
I started writing up all of the ideas I've had - in bullet-list plot breakdowns - and why they won't work for what I need for the prompt. Hopefully that will help me weed the ideas out of my head so I can stop circling back to them, and my mind can finally find something that works.
As of right now, I'm still fixated on a trust obstacle course, but I can't think of why Marinette wouldn't have a turn to be blindfolded. Maybe she is, and ALSO starts to pick up that Adrien and Chat Noir sound similar - especially after already suspecting they're the same guy - but have the story told in Adrien's POV since Marinette's realization isn't the focus on what I want to say in this story?????? Instead, bring up Marinette's realization in that final 'Reveal' prompt story??????
Trying to figure this story out is getting exhausting.
So, I'm still at the drawing board for that, and I haven't thought of OatS in MONTHS, so I'm debating if I should try switching gears and working on that again instead of finishing the Fluff Week stories since I'm way past the deadline anyway???? Or do I start on When Love Matters since I can post each chapter as I complete it, and people have the time for long-content at this point????
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| Tanuki Facebook sticker by Yanare Ku |
I thought maybe reading other stories might help, because that's a general rule of thumb for writers: you also need to be avid readers.
The decision to read was kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I was filled with amazing fluffy feels and I loved the words I consumed. On the other hand, it just seemed to spotlight that I'm NOT writing, and that I'm NOT getting the readers I could be right now.
Also, there's a story in particular that I just KEEP seeing pop up on my dash with comments like "Read this!" and "Do yourself a favor and stop what you're doing to read this" and "THIS IS PERFECTION!" and... while I did enjoy the fic, and I will share it in a minute, it also kind of stung constantly seeing it on my dash.
You guys are amazing, and I love each and every one of you. You guys pick me up and keep me going. But....
My stories have never received a "OMG YOU NEED TO READ THIS RIGHT NOW, IT IS SO GOOOOOOOOD!" reblog or share. And, to be fully honest, that hurts.
Not to guilt trip any of you to start doing that of course.
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| Gaaah! Wait, no! What am I saying!?!?! Hacker Girl Facebook stickers by Birdman, Inc. |
I'm just.... I dunno, I'm feeling super insecure about my writing ability again, I guess. I don't know if it's because I write too long, or not often enough, or my stories aren't fluffy enough, or - ironically - not angsty enough, or if they are TOO close to canon instead of being new and exciting, or if there isn't enough overtly romantic content, or what the deal is. I'm still just this obscure writer in the fandom, despite adding content to the fandom for months - and even years - longer than some of these writers that are getting all of this love and promotion.
Not to say that they DON'T deserve the love. They do. Like I said, I'm planning on sharing one of the stories here myself. By no means am I trying to take anything away from these amazing writers. I am enjoying their content, and I'm elated they are adding to the fandom content. I just... I dunno... I want some of the pie too?
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| Hacker Girl Facebook sticker by Birdman, Inc |
BAH! Don't mind me. Sorry. Like I said, I'm just in a mood right now. Once I get out of this writing funk I'll be fine.
So, let's instead focus on these stories that either ARE getting that love I've just talked about, or they totally SHOULD be.
The story in question that has been getting all of that love? Well, seems one of the artists I follow - Yunyin - had her birthday the other day, and so a relatively new content creator - chatnoirinette - wrote yunyin a story for her birthday, based on chatnoir's favorite piece of fanart yunyin has done. The image is of Future Chat Noir coming back in time to yell at Adrien for being a moron; drawn after the episode "Stormy Weather 2" aired last year. I have also absolutely loved the artwork, but I never thought to write a story based off it.
The story is amusing. First, it's fantastic to watch Older Chat Noir and Plagg both be so exasperated with the teenage Adrien. Second, the way that even Older Chat Noir is confused on how time travel works is equally amusing. Third, there are just these real sweet moments as Older Chat Noir leaves breadcrumbs for Teen Adrien without actually giving away the kid's future. On top of that, the interactions between Older Chat Noir and Older Ladybug are adorable. Finally, Bunnyx adds her own level of humor which is greatly appreciated.Summary: An older Chat Noir shows up in the middle of a class field trip with a special mission for his younger self.
Word Count: 4315
Rating: General Audiences
Also, considering where the story left off, while it is complete as-is, it DOES leave an opening for more story. So it will be interesting to see if chatnoirinette continues, and if so, how the story will further develop.
Like I said, people are GUSHING over this story; at least, in my little corner of the fandom. So if you haven't gotten to this story yet, seems now is the time.
Now, early on in this post I mentioned that a lot of content creators seem to be using their art and writing as a means to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. I've seen some amusing bits of fanart based on the virus, such as this fanart where Nathalie refuses to let Hawkmoth use the despair in the world to create an army of akumatized supervillains. The little knocks on the panic that has sprung up from the pandemic, and things like social distancing and self-isolation, are amusing to see in these much more lighthearted bits of work. I love that content creators are trying to lighten the mood with their respective craft.
One such content creator actually caught my attention based on their title.
I've mentioned this in past blog posts, but I follow a Tumblr page that posts promotional links to Love Square content an algorithm finds on FFN, AO3, and Wattpad. Oddly enough, even though I didn't list The Truest of Friends as love square, since I think I did tag LadyNoir for the opening of the story, my Plagg-centric story did pop up in the feed.
ANYWAY! My point is, since I was trying to find artwork, and the like, in order to see if it could help inspire my own writing, I wasn't in the mindset to actually read anything the other day. I saw the icon for the story-promotion Tumblr, and I just quickly scrolled along. I breezed past quite a few stories - because, as I've mentioned, people are dumping content online to help ease the pain of the isolation - and I wasn't really paying any attention to any of the stories I scrolled past. Then something caught my eye: the title "The Toilet Paper Crisis."
Considering how RIDICULOUS this whole toilet paper hoarding has become, I had a nice chuckle at the title. I was then going to move along again until I noticed the author: writeringoodfaith, a repeat reader of mine that I've been talking to a bit in the FFN PMs. I'm always a fan of sending love back to those who share it with me, and the story itself was fairly short - I could read it on my lunch break - so I dove right in.
Watching Adrien and Marinette flirt in an empty toilet paper aisle is just adorable. Adrien's flirty puns are terrible, but Marinette's response to them is perfect. These two dorks truly are made for each other. Also, since WIGF was mostly concerned about the spread of misinformation, Marinette gives some real-talk advice to Adrien as to what he should do to keep himself safe during the pandemic.Summary: It may have been Adrien's first time getting groceries but don't judge, ok? He's been busy gaining financial independence from his father, moving out of home, and guiltily ignoring daily news updates from Nathalie. Only one task remains between him and true independence: locating toilet paper. Maybe the girl laughing at him in this empty aisle can help?
[AU, covid-19 references]
Word Count: 1478
Rating: K+, Suitable for more mature childen, 9 years and older
It's just a cute little piece. Why not give one of my lovely readers some love in return?
Fastforward to yesterday. I was again struggling to figure out what to write, and was kind of obsessively checking my email, getting those sweet sweet endorphins from seeing another email telling me I had a review, or a new fave. There were no such messages in my mailbox around my work lunch break, but there WAS an email alerting me to a new fanfic written by zenmisery. You might remember me gushing about her and mostlovedgirl / chanceuseladynoire over their Fluff Week story Two Hundred Seventeen Days.
Well, I've been a failure of a fan when it comes to going back to read their previous works, but I was too tempted to NOT read Zen's newest story. I was killing time over lunch anyway. I needed something to inspire my own writing. Let's plow through the 6600+ words!
Apparently there were a lot of birthdays this week for content creators I follow....Summary: Ladybug tells Chat he needs to finally move on. He does. She has mixed feelings.
A birthday gift for mostlovedgirl
Word Count: 6687
Rating: Teen and older
This story is just fantastic! It's a little angsty with Ladybug telling Chat Noir that they just cannot be together, and Chat Noir struggling to move on, and Marinette having conflicting feelings when she finds out that Chat Noir has a legit crush on someone other than Ladybug.... GAAAH! So good! Also, I might have an extra connection to this story because it hit so close to home in a couple of elements.
First, Ladybug's reasoning behind telling Chat Noir to give up on her is very reminiscent of why I had Arnold break up with Helga in my sadly unofficially abandoned "Hey, Arnold!" story What Is Truly Meant To Be. So, that interaction rang true on a whole different level than I feel it did for most of the readers. Second was later in the story when Marinette realizes she's torn between Adrien and Chat Noir, and feels like she's cheating on both of them because her heart can't decide between them. I have the same exact sentiment laced throughout One and the Same, complete with
But don't fret, readers, because the story isn't just angst. Oh no! No, this is a rollercoaster of a story with plenty of highs as well.
Sure, the moment Chat Noir says goodbye to Marinette after confessing to her that he's moving on from Ladybug, and Marinette strongly encourages him to ask the new crush out, is bittersweet. However, the interactions between the two of them leading up to that point is comforting and adorable. Plus, the MariChat moment at the end of the story is FANTASTIC and steamy and Adrien is such a Good Boy. I love them. I love these two beans so much! The Adrienette moments are pure fluff, and I ADORE watching Adrien bring out his more Chat Noir side in order to flirt with Marinette.
THAT. IS. MY. JAM!
I also love the tag-team of POV between Adrien and Marinette. It works so well together; seeing both halves of the puzzle before they can piece them together. I was on edge the whole time, and - as bad as this sounds - I was glad coronavirus has made customers a touch scarce, because it gave me time post-lunch break to finish this awesome story.
My only qualm is that it ends on SUUUUUUUCH a glorious cliffhanger! The story is complete as-is, and it's amazing as-is, and I love the "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!?" way of closing out stories. There's a reason I love The Lady or the Tiger so much. At the same time, though? I WANT MORE! Zen has a long list of WIPs though, so if she does continue the story, it probably won't be for a while. Still, I am DOWN for continuing to read this story the second she posts another chapter.
I know that Zen and MLG are like me in the fact that they like to respond to every comment they get on their works. With that in mind, I was back in my email this morning checking to see if a) Zen had replied to me, and if so, b) if there was anything to reply back to in return. The answer to both was yes, FYI, but that's not the point.
The point was that a different email caught my eye.
Just after midnight this morning, MLG uploaded a new story as well! As far as I know, this wasn't a response to Zen's story for her. It was just coincidental that she also uploaded so shortly after.
I knew I should have just started straight into this blog post so I could actually be done by noon, but it was only about 1000 words. I HAD to see what MLG had posted. So, I had breakfast and read a cute little fic.Summary: “I promised myself I wouldn’t wait to do this a second longer than I had to.”
“Adrien, what are you talking… about…” The last word died on her lips as she turned around.
Word Count: 1036
Rating: General Audiences
ALL. THE. FLUUUUUUUUUUFFFFFFFFFF.
Adrien's proposal was just perfection for the kid. It was so sweet and sincere and had nods to their meeting. And there was the Rule of Three used in reference to him referring to her as his friend, his princess, and his partner.
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Regardless of if there's artwork that comes out of it, you should totally read this story for happy feels to carry you though this trying time.
So.... yeah. Those are my fic recs for this week, I guess. They're all fairly short reads, which works for me since my days run pretty much the same as they always have.
OH! I also absorbed some non-Miraculous Ladybug story content this week when Hubby and I went to see Disney/Pixar's Onward. I knew the premise of the movie - two elf brothers go on a quest to find the last traces of magic in order to bring back their deceased father - I even made a Fullmetal Alchemist joke when I found out about the premise. So, I knew this movie would be a touch hard on me. For those who don't know, my father died of cancer when I was 13. I didn't care how rough this would be, I was still determined to watch this movie anyway... and I was a wreck!
Oddly enough, the desire of the brothers to get their dad back, and the limited interactions with him they did have wasn't the emotional part for me. The bonding between the brothers, and the regrets they had about not having enough time with their dad was what killed me. I'm choking up again just thinking about the movie.
Between this and Coco, Pixar is trying to kill me with these Dead Father movies.... and between Onward and Frozen, Disney is trying to kill me with these Disconnected Siblings Bond movies...
I LOVE YA, SIS!
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Well, I hope this epic helped ease your boredom while cooped up with these self-isolation mandates. Stay well, my friends. I'll catch ya next week.
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