This Delay Brought to You by Insurance Shenanigans

So, things got a little bit derailed for me this week.

And by 'derailed' I mean:

I'm fine, the guy who hit me is fine - although I did nearly strangle him... - and the car WAS drivable still... sorta. At least, it was until I went to get quotes from different collision centers. The repetitive opening of the hood ended up shifting the already dislodged headlight, and now the hood won't latch closed... Soooooo, I'm letting it just kinda sit and wait until I'm ready to drive it to the body center...

In the meantime, Hubby's one friend has a loaner car we're borrowing. Back to driving stick, and boy howdy is this car LOUD! Not only the engine itself - because it has one of those sports car spoilers on the hood or whatever - but the inside of the car itself sounds like a wind tunnel! But, the car runs well, I still remember how to drive standard, and it's a way for us to go from point A to point B safely. That's all I care about right now.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the accident, and a few other insurance complications - which I won't get into - getting my poor Cruze fixed up within a reasonable amount of time and within my budget may prove more challenging than originally thought.

That being said, it should be fairly obvious that I've been a bit... distracted this past week while trying to sort this out. I'm even late to publishing this week's post because I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday running around trying to get all of my ducks lined up. I'm just mentally exhausted right now, trying to handle this nightmare of a claim.


Thankfully, there were also PLEASANT distractions for me this past weekend. So it wasn't ALL doom and gloom.

First of all, a new "Miraculous Ladybug" episode dropped last Thursday. On top of that, all of the previous episodes that originally had only French dubbing were finally released in English. So Wolfhearted swung by Friday night - after my accident - and we ate Camembert and quiche and watched the latest four episodes: Silencer, Bakerix, Onichan, and Miraculer.

Friday also had an update for EdenDaphne's story Discordant Sonata. It was a lovely conclusion to her akuma attack chapter. A bit of a game-changer chapter, actually. So, if you're into Miraculous Ladybug, want to check out a neat Enemy AU where Chat Noir is allies with Hawk Moth instead of Ladybug, and want a story elevated with mood music cues and illustrations, go check out her story.

Now circling back to Silencer for a moment. Back when the episode first aired, I made an observation about the character Luka. Actually, I made MULTIPLE observations about Luka. One of them included excitement over the fact that Luka finally has distinct eyelashes!

Luka in his introductory
episode Captain Hardrock. 

Luka in his most recent
episode Silencer

Another compare and contrast
L: Silencer
R: Captain Hardrock

Anyway the observation I wanted to actually talk about here is the fact that we got to see how much Luka truly loves Marinette in Silencer. I did up a quick micro-essay about it over on Tumblr, and it kind of blew up a little.

As of this writing, my post - Luka Defends - is up to 1581 notes! That's WAAAAAY more than any other original content I have posted on Tumblr!

It's good to see my boy Luka getting the love and respect he deserves.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

It's been kinda cool to watch my Tumblr dash flood with "so-and-so liked your post Luka Defends" or "so-and-so reblogged your post Luka Defends" over the past month.

Another big post this past week was my answer to an ask Cyhyr sent me on Tumblr. She and I each shared a Tumblr game where 26 fanfiction-based questions are listed: A through Z. Your followers are supposed to ask you to answer the prompts/questions by sending you the corresponding letter.

Cy's ask for me was U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

It kept me a minute to really narrow down to three fic writers, but even so, I couldn't stop there. I included seven in total, as well as gave myself a self-promotion at the end. Now, when I talked about each writer, I tagged their Tumblr accounts. Both Baneismydragon and Edendaphne reblogged my promotions of them, along with gushing thank-yous that made me tear up a touch.

Now, naturally, if each of those ladies have large followings, their followers will like and/or reblog from Bane or Eden, which would still show up on my dash since I was the originator of the post. Either way, after a week, the post is up to 176 notes, 24 of those being reblogs. I've also seen notes along the lines of "I haven't heard of everyone on this list, but if they're grouped in with [insert favorite writer here] then I'll have to make sure to check them out."

And, really, that's how it should be.

I know I was able to get a few new readers out of my self-promotion, so I hope that also means the other authors were able to find an uptick in their writings as well.

If you're into Miraculous Ladybug and wanted to see who I included in that ask, feel free to check out my answer here.

Another original post I threw up on Tumblr this week is actually a touch old for you fine folks. With the English airing of Silencer, and the popularity of my Luka Defends post, I figured I'd see what kind of response I'd get for the story I wrote for Taurus Pixie. It's a relatively short one-shot, so I went ahead and posted the full story onto Tumblr. I also included links to my FFN, AO3, and DA postings. This way people could read the story on the site they preferred, but they now also knew where else they could find my work.

My posting of I Was Thinking Of You on Tumblr has 67 notes, including 10 reblogs; one of which included the added comment of "Ahhh this killed me."

So, not much by way of new content this week, but I did do a lot of promotion for myself on Friday, which seems to be working at least a little. Since Friday, I've had 5 new likes/kudos on Peeping Tomcat, 4 new likes/kudos for Woven Heartstrings, 2 for Build Your Own Luck, and a whopping 11 for I Was Thinking of You, along with one fave of the story. I've also received 3 new comments on my stories. Now, I have no proof that any of those were because of the posts I put on Tumblr this weekend, but it's possible that they are.

One of the new comments on my fanfics was for PT, and it asked me if I would be posting "One and the Same" soon. The question is probably in part due to genuine interest in the story, which is cool, but it was also probably in part because I wrote in my closing notes of the story that OatS should be out in March...

Me as a Bitmoji

I haven't had the heart to message the person back yet to say that it's still going to be a while. I should probably use my guilt to motivate me to stop procrastinating with other projects, and just work on OatS again finally! It's been roughly a month. I need to stop dragging my feet.

That didn't stop me from ONE bit of new(ish) content on Sunday, and the intention of doing a daily-update series of about 17 posts.

That is, before the whole car accident thing...


Anyway, I have wanted to introduce the People of Tumblr to my original characters for MONTHS now, and this weekend I finally had the motivation to start writing up bios for everyone. Well, sorta. As I was working on the first bio, I realized that not everyone knows the Real World history for the inspiration of each character, or the worlds they belong in: Gyateara and Glitches. So my first task was to introduce them to the worlds.

It hasn't really had much love, and I kinda get it. I'm talking about my inspiration for world-builds for stories my followers aren't invested in because there's no actual story to read yet. I did mean to keep going with my series by explaining the Real World backstories to the creation of my characters. Then I would get into the actual character bios.

Buuuut, the car thing has been draining me, and I haven't had time to write this blog before now, let alone work on more of my Meet My OCs series.

Maybe I'll turn it into a weekly thing and post the next one on Sunday....

Anyway, if you'd like to follow along, the first post in the series can be found here: Who Wants To Meet My OCs? (Part 1)

So, between now and Sunday, I should work on that next post in the series. I should also REALLY work on OatS some more. We'll see where my head is at while I keep battling insurances and whatnot.

With any luck, I'll be back on schedule this upcoming Tuesday. So I'll catch ya then!

In the meantime, I'd like to wish my father a belated birthday.

Love you, Dad. Miss you.

Happy Birthday, Pixie!

Welcome everyone, to the final day of Camp NaNo!

I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I SUCKED at writing this month. If I wasn't FINALLY going to watch "Avengers: End Game" tonight - so I obviously have to wear my Captain America shirt today - I would totally be sporting this baby all day.

Such major fail...

Thinking positively, though. I DID manage to surpass 5000 words, which means I have 5000 more words for "One and the Same" than I had last month. That's not nothing, right? I also have more of my plotline figured out, with those two key scenes finally sorted. So that's also a bit of a win. Right?

Hacker Boy Facebook Sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

According to Camp NaNo, at the pace I'm going, I should have OatS FINALLY done by September! Whooo!

Also, you may have noticed that my total monthly count is actually 8660 words. Although 3500+ of those words are NOT for OatS.

See, this past weekend was a whirlwind of birthdays. My aunt's was Friday, my mom's was Saturday, and Taurus Pixie's was Sunday.

So let's give a brief pause to wish them all a happy belated!

Back when I wanted to write a Christmas story for Pixie as a return gift for "Twelve Days of Chatmas," I had asked her what kind of stories she really liked reading. One of the suggestions she made was watching Chat Noir nurse Marinette/Ladybug back to health. I was originally going to go that route. I even had a basic story plotted out for it, but the further I went with the story the more I realized it wasn't really "Christmas-y" so I made a hard left on my MariChat story, and ended up with "Woven Heartstrings" instead. I think I made the right decision.

I then decided that I was going to put Nurse Chat Noir on the back burner until Pixie's birthday. Well, guess what? That meant back burner until this past weekend! Whoot!

Eeeeeeeexcept.... Pixie had gone on writing hiatus a few months back in order to re-center herself. Feeling better, she got back into working on her blog and fanfiction about two weeks ago. She was all excited to get back into the swing of things, but didn't take into consideration how she had to work herself back up into the rhythm she once had.

And that includes being inspired.

The girl has four stories going at the same time right now! I can't even finish figuring out ONE and she has FOUR: Madness Within, Destiny's Dance, Chat Vert, and Immortal Bond.

I, sadly, haven't had time to get into the massive undertakings that is reading "Madness Within" or "Destiny's Dance" quite yet, although I did read the first chapter or two of DD, and I did enjoy the set up.

"Madness Within" seems to be her main focus, as this is the one that tends to get updated the most frequently, and she has a sequel mentally in the works for it as well. "Destiny's Dance" seems to be mostly going through some clean-up edits. She'll update a more polished chapter on FFN and then post that same chapter as a "new" one on AO3 now that she's slowly trickling her works over there as well. It's a MASSIVE epic of a story though, so if you haven't started reading it yet - like me - then the fact that she's polishing it more than updating it should give you time to catch up before a new chapter gets published.

"Immortal Bond" was the first one of her stories that I read, and I greatly enjoyed it. However, this story seems to be the bane of her existence right now. She discovered a few months back that she had written herself into a corner that she couldn't get back out of, so she scrapped the project in favor of starting over from scratch. Much like my ongoing battle with OatS, it seems "Immortal Bond" is being just as frustrating to build for her. She's powering through, though, and I have faith that the end result we get will be amazing for it.

How does all of this relate to her birthday? Well, that's where her most recent story "Chat Vert" comes in. The story starts off with Marinette believing there's no hope for her and Adrien to be together because of his "crush" on Kagami. Her sadness results in an akuma, but thankfully our resident musician Luka is nearby to cheer her up. Sadly, this means the akuma instead "evilized" a woman who just found out her husband was cheating on her.

While that's where the story was left off - for now - we can still assume, based on Luka being in the story and the title hinting at a jealous Chat Noir, that there will be Lukanette goodness. It is also probably safe to assume that said Luka and Marinette pairing will make Adrien/Chat Noir jealous somehow, and I am super excited to see that unfold.

Unfortunately, after months away from the story while on her hiatus, poor Pixie is a bit tapped dry in inspiration for "Chat Vert." There is a Luka-centric episode out called "Silencer" which will 100% re-inspire her for this story. However, it's only out with the French voice over, and she tries to wait for the English dub so she can watch it with her boyfriend for the first time.

Kind of like how I don't mind subtitles, but I try to wait for English dubs of the episodes so I can watch them with Wolfhearted for the first time.

Anyway, knowing that Lukanette episode is out there, but she can't watch it yet, and knowing that her well is a bit tapped dry, I decided that what Pixie truly needed for her birthday was some Lukanette goodness to help her out.

Yes, it is a bit self-serving because it helps get another chapter of a story I read, but isn't most creative like that? We build from each other in hopes to see our mutuals grow?

Also... don't judge, it's a good story and I need more of it!


Long and short? The Chat Noir Nursing Marinette story was thrown to the back burner a second time in favor of a Luka and Marinette story instead. Problem there, though, was that I made this decision ON her birthday, on my way to work. Which means it was already the afternoon of her birthday before I even got started writing. If I was able to have a full day to just write, and get it polished and ready to post by the time I got home, that would STILL be about 9:30 at night on her birthday!

It would be cutting it close, but it was worth the effort.

And then the story didn't want to properly form. I got side-tracked easily. I couldn't decide on where I wanted to go with the story. Did I want just HINTS at their crushes, as there were in the episodes Captain Hardrock and Frozer? The way I hinted at a potential future relationship between Chat Noir and Marinette by the end of "Woven Heartstrings"? Should they already be dating, as they were in my first ever Lukanette fanfic: "Kisses"? What about a "get together" story where they finally realize their feelings? Or should it be a sort of "half reveal" of their own in which Luka officially confesses his love for Marinette, but she doesn't necessarily respond/reciprocate, because... Adrien?

By the time I got home from work I just barely had the start of a story done. I was able to do a little bit more writing while waiting for Hubby to get off of work, but not enough to finish. Then... well... Game of Thrones happened.
   

I was tapped after that episode, and it was about 4am Pixie's time anyway, so I waved my white flag.

So my focus yesterday, since I had a rare Monday off again, was to finish my story. It STILL kept me until 4pm my time to do it though! There goes my day off being productive....

Still! I got the story done! And it was "only" 9pm her time... so I was technically still only a day late with my gift.

NuaNia Facebook sticker
by PRANEAT

Based on her review... I think she liked it. What do you guys think? Hehe.

Oh...my...god! I literally had to keep pausing as I was reading because I just couldn't handle all of the amazing cuteness and fluff! I was rolling around on my bed squealing like some crazy person. I have never been more in love with two characters than what I am now! Eeeek, they were just so damn adorable! I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!

You know how much I love my Lukanette, and the fact that you captured their characters so well in this story made it all the more better. I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! Of course I love my love square ships, but I do love Lukanette as well, but I can never find many decent stories that keep my attention, so I'm so glad that I have this one now! Not only that, but it's dedicated to ME! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

You are the most amazing writer and the most amazing friend! Thank you so much for helping me with inspiration with Chat Vert! This story has certainly helped reignite that spark and the rusty cogs inside my head began to turn again. Thank you so much for that! This is one of the most amazing one-shots that I have ever read and I really can't thank you enough.

YOU'RE THE BEST!

LOL, she's adorable, right?

Anyway, you can also read her belated birthday gift at my normal three sites.

"I Was Thinking Of You"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

It's a completed one-shot of "only" 3500-some words. So it should be a relatively quick read this go.

Also, apparently Pixie isn't the only one who believes it's hard to find decent Lukanette stories, which actually surprises me considering the love Luka has been getting lately.... Then again, it's been forever since I've attempted to find fanfiction to read soooooo....

Anyway, at least one other review I received also claimed the same.

FFN Reviews:

• I LOVE this! It was so sweet! And I'm not even really a Lukanette fan... but YES! This was awesome!
• This was beautiful and I loved it. It's really hard finding decent Lukanette stories, so I'm glad this one exists! It was a truly wonderful read.
• ...Now I just really wanna watch that fictional movie :P

AO3 Reviews:

• This is fantastic and sweet, and I enjoyed it very much.
  I'm so glad Luka made it clear that he doesn't just want to be friends with her (since that was a concern of hers in Frozer). And I love how her friends were so supportive (and had been eagerly awaiting this).
• Awww this was precious!

I think the most amusing thing was that last AO3 review - "Awww this was precious!" - because it was immediately followed by this review:

LOL wow I Just realized who wrote this fic! I guess it always seems like your fics appeal to me!

Also as a sidetone, I'm in the middle of reading Pepping Tomcat and its really great so far!!

How awesome is that!? This isn't the first time this person has done this either. They read a story, like it, and THEN realize I was the one who wrote it. Amuses me each time they realize that.

Another thing that amuses me is the stats I have over on DeviantArt for this story. Somehow, I only have one view of the story, but two different users favoriting it....

Um.... sure... I'll take it, I guess.

Actually, what ARE my stats thus far for this story? Keep in mind, it's not up for 24hrs yet.

FFN: 141 views, 8 faves, 4 followers, and 4 reviews
AO3: 227 views, 22 kudos, 0 bookmarks, and 3* comments
DA: 1 view (?), 2 faves, and no comments

Total Results: 369 views, 32 faves, 4 followers, and 7 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 6 notes: 3 likes, 1 reblog, and 2 comments - me and Pixie talking

I have to admit, I'm loving the reviews I'm getting. I'm so happy other people are also enjoying this gift for Pixie. Especially since I talk about Chat Vert as my reason for writing a Lukanette story in the first place. So perhaps that means she'll get more love for her story as well.

Also, fun bonus: it's a completed story in the month of April! Score! Mark another one off my check-list. I still missed writing/completing a story in February - what did I do in February??? - but at least I have "Woven Heartstrings" for January, and "Prescription for Love" for March, and now "I Was Thinking Of You" for April.

A big bit of inspiration for the story was actually a song I was re-introduced to via a throw-back radio station I listen to. I had enjoyed the song when it first came out in 2009, and I was reminded of that about a week ago.

"Two is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls; 

featuring Taylor Swift

I had that song on loop for most of my writing. It really got me in the proper mood for the story. It worked, for the most part, but then I got to the main scene with Luka, who is, of course, playing his guitar. I needed inspiration for the songs he was playing as well. After a quick search on YouTube, I discovered the composer Ryini Beats.

He was pretty perfect for finding guitar-only instrumental songs to help inspire me for Luka's own compositions. There are four songs he plays for Marinette.

The first one is a bit sad, and Marinette even calls him out on how sorrowful it sounds.

That soft electric echo of the guitar in that song was even more perfect since Luka always strums on an unplugged electric guitar.

After Marinette calls Luka out on the sadness of that first song, he switches it up a little to something a bit more upbeat, but still has some melancholy to it.

After some more conversation, Luka switches up the music a little bit more, and we transition into a song inspired by this one from Ryini Beats.

Finally, Luka switches gears one last time. I wanted something super plucky and cheerful for that last song. Sadly, the one I found that I thought was perfect is also one of the few songs Ryini Beats does not have marked as Free. So the audio equivalent of a watermark comes in every couple of seconds. Still, it should be enough to give you the basic idea.

Long and short? Now you have a sort of "soundtrack" for "I Was Thinking Of You", and if you enjoy the songs I picked from Ryini Beats, feel free to support the guy. Even if that means watches on his YouTube channel. The songs are all so good.

...

Okay, wow! Yeah... this post went STUPID long, resulting it being nearly 90min late to publish. So I'm going to call it here.

Just... ya know... read Pixie's stuff. Listen to Ryini's stuff. Support creators. And also, feel free to let me know what you think of my latest story.

Catch ya next week!

*Sigh* Order is Important, Guys

Camp hasn't been going too well so far. As of last night, I'm up to 1,686 words out of my 50,000 word goal. Granted, if I go through everything I wrote during November's NaNo and since, I'm actually up to 34,385 words. Not all THAT bad, but still, this story is coming together SOOOOOOOO slowly compared to “Peeping Tomcat”.

Most of my progress this past week was re-reading chapter scenes I wrote months ago, in order to get re-acquainted with my story. I've been doing tweaks and edits, but mostly, I've been trying to structure everything as a whole. Trying to thread these scenes together, and wondering what other scenes need to go in between.

The next few paragraphs contain oh-so-minor spoilers for "One and the Same," but if you want to go into the story completely cold, you might want to scroll for a bit.
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The two main scenes I wrote for the middle of my story, the parts that are all MariChat goodness as Marinette and Chat Noir build up their own friendship, involves the bracelet Marinette gave Adrien in the episode "Gamer", and the fact that Marinette's room is coated in pictures of Adrien.

For those who don't know the show, Marinette's bedroom evolved thusly. In the beginning of the series, she had her screensaver and/or her computer desktop decorated with a collage she made of some of Adrien's fashion ads. A few episodes in, we see that she also has a copy of his schedule for the year, and a framed picture of him - again, from an ad - resting on her desk. By the episode "Gamer" we discover that she's basically wallpapering her bedroom with pictures of Adrien. These pictures are mostly from his ads, but there's also some candid shots from just hanging out with a friend. Still, they're taped up all over her walls. Late in season 1, in the episode "The Puppeteer", the pictures are still up on her walls, but Chat Noir has to enter Marinette's bedroom to stop an akumatized villain. Marinette, as Ladybug, gets very nervous about the possibility of Chat Noir seeing the pictures. Keep in mind that Chat Noir doesn't know who Ladybug is, and Marinette doesn't know that Chat Noir is Adrien. Still, she clearly doesn't want anyone aside from her family and her female friends knowing about her crush. Even if, as far as Ladybug knows, Chat Noir only knows Marinette in passing, she still doesn't want him to know of Marinette's crush. This is important for my story.

In the season 2 episode "Glaciator", we see that the pictures aren't covering her room as much, and she now has a corkboard by her bed, and THAT is where she has a whole collection of Adrien pictures. She even has a magazine cover he was on posted next to the board. About mid-season 2, in the episode "Troublemaker", we are shown a comedic explosion of Adrien pictures in Marinette's room as Ladybug and Chat Noir battle a supervillain in it. Nearly everywhere Chat Noir looks, he has pictures of his civilian form literally thrown in his face.

Now, in the season 3 episode "Silencer" that just aired, I noticed that Marinette didn't have her pictures of Adrien up as she normally did. I thought it was because her male friend Ivan, and her other crush Luka, were in her room, so she hid the pictures of Adrien. However, when I noted this on Tumblr, someone pointed out that the pictures went away after the embarrassment of "Troublemaker." I didn't notice that, and I haven't gone back to double check, but I know I'm probably going to take some time to do so this week.

Anyway, even if the person is right, and the photos are gone after "Troublemaker", my stories "Peeping Tomcat" and "One and the Same" are sort of an alternate telling of season 2. All the canon facts presented in season 1, and in the season 2 premiere "The Collector" - because it finishes off the plot of the season 1 finale "Volpina" - are the only things I follow to the letter. After "The Collector", I ignore seasons 2 or 3 exist. However, I do still use generic knowledge we gather from those episodes.

Information, such as Adrien always carrying around the bracelet Marinette gave him in his pocket, or Marinette having pictures of Adrien EVERYWHERE - at least, for a time, or that Marinette's paternal grandmother is Italian and a perpetual traveler, or that Juleka has an older brother named Luka, or that Chloe's mother is a fashion critic who lives in NYC so she can run a fashion magazine, etc. These elements would still be true, regardless of events that happen in the show, so I consider them fair game. Elements, like Marinette potentially taking down her photos out of embarrassment, or because she's getting close enough to Adrien that she doesn't need to obsess or idolize him anymore, or because she also has a crush on Luka and might not want to focus her room solely on Adrien anymore, won't show up in my story. They are reactions to events that happen within the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the show, and if those events don't happen in my universe, then the affects won't happen.

Make sense?

Anyway, back to my story, and this part gets a bit more spoiler-y, so I'm going to throw up another spoiler warning here.
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So, you're now caught up on the important elements of the show: Marinette basically wallpapers her bedroom with Adrien pictures, and she gets embarrassed when anyone outside a select few people sees this obsession. She even gets embarrassed when Chat Noir sees them, even though she doesn't know Chat Noir is Adrien. We also know, thanks to season 2, that Adrien carries around the bracelet Marinette gave him.

In the episode "Gamer", Adrien and Marinette were paired up to represent their school in a video gaming tournament. He went to her house in order to practice their team-up skills in the game, however, she was almost single-handedly beating each game boss. Adrien gets upset that he wasn't much help, which, honestly, I think had an extra level of sting because he saw a parallel with his partnership with Ladybug. Marinette cheered him up by offering a charm bracelet she just happened to have in her pocket. She claimed it gave her luck, which helped her win her matches, and told Adrien to see if it would work for him.

He never got the chance to give the bracelet back to her, and now carries it around with him wherever he goes. In the second season episode "Befana" he pretty much claims that the bracelet is his now, because he makes a replacement for Marinette as a birthday gift. This replacement bracelet won't show up in my story, because I don't want to officially put my version of the story after Marinette's birthday.

Anyway, months ago, in writing group, I read "Build Your Own Luck" which tells my headcanon of where the bracelet came from in the first place: Marinette's father made it to cheer her up when she was 5. Then, around November, I read snippets of OatS, which included Adrien and Plagg talking about the bracelet. Adrien wondered if Marinette could ever like him back, and Plagg asked about the bracelet, almost noting it as proof that she might like him already. That was when the other members of the writing group wondered if Adrien knew that Marinette's dad made the bracelet. Since that isn't canon, I told them that Adrien didn't.

But... why couldn't he?

So, one of my scenes is Adrien, as Chat Noir, finding out where the bracelet came from, and the significance of Marinette gifting it to Adrien.

In another scene, Marinette's klutziness causes her to cover Chat Noir in a sticky icing, so she hurriedly offers that he gets washed up in the sink she has in her bedroom vanity. She's not even thinking about the Adrien pictures throughout her room. At least, not until after he sees them.

Herein lies the problem that I've been trying to tackle throughout the week.

I want both scenes in the story. I think they both are great, and each have their own impact on Marinette's and Chat Noir's friendship, as well as introduce something different into the whole Adrien/Marinette dynamic. However, both scenes are also perfect times for Marinette to either confess to Chat Noir that she loves Adrien, or for Chat Noir/Adrien to figure it out himself.

I can't have that "ah-ha moment" in BOTH scenes, however. So I have to decide which one is the "gateway scene", as it were, to hint that there's more than just friendship there, and which one actually confirms the crush.

Now, in the show, Adrien does indeed see all the pictures in the episode "Troublemaker." Before the supervillain attacks, Marinette's bedroom - pictures of Adrien and all - accidentally gets aired on a live reality show, so Marinette knows ADRIEN specifically saw them. Adrien also saw them as Chat Noir, so I have that as a good base on what his reaction would be upon seeing them.

By the end of the episode, though, Marinette claims she just has the photos so she could study fashion. Adrien teases her a little about being an obsessive fan, but quickly counters with how glad he is that she's a fan, and offers for her to come to a photo shoot in order to help her study fashion more.

So... it's possible that the photos are the "gateway" scene.

Alternatively, Marinette could talk about the bracelet with Chat Noir while they are on her balcony, before he's granted access to her bedroom. As she tells the story of the bracelet, it could just be showcased how selfless Marinette was, but implied that maybe she wouldn't have been so kind as to give the bracelet away if it were anyone but Adrien.

So.... is THIS the "gateway" scene?

Which way would be more impactful? Adrien, as Chat Noir, seeing how selfless Marinette is by hearing about her bracelet, and then seeing the pictures, and putting two-and-two together so that he knows she loves Adrien? Or would it be better if he finds out about the pictures, and just thinks she's an obsessive fan, only to hear the true significance of the bracelet and have THAT be the point where he realizes she's not just a fan but in love with him?

I keep writing both scenes in both orders, and let me tell you.... it's hard to adjust them for the alternate orders. I have to re-write most of the scene depending on which order they're in. But in the end, I can only keep one set. And the other 10,000 words or so are trash....

Hubby votes for knowing about the bracelet first since it seems more "friendly" and easier to justify without romance attached to it. Also, if Adrien thinks of Marinette as an obsessive fan first, it might affect how he acts around her. But the more I write, the more I think the evolution of Adrien's realization that Marinette isn't a fan but in love might be the way to go?

Alternatively, what if Marinette's crush is revealed with the pictures, and the bracelet is still the second scene, but this time it shows Adrien that it's more than just a crush; she's actually in love with him... should I do that?

I DON'T KNOW! I CAN'T DECIDE!!!!!
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OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!

The long and short, for any who scrolled past what turned out to be the top half of my post, I have two scenes that I definitely want in the story. They are pretty much ALL I have for the middle of the story. The struggle, however, is that I can't decide which one I want to go first in the story, because the order impacts the significance of each scene, and I can't decide which impact I like better.

Trying to figure out which order I prefer, so I know how to write the scenes so they can coincide within the same story, I figured I'd attack the plot outline again.

I was able to tweak it a LIIIIIITTLE, but I still don't have the middle at all. This evolution of the MariChat relationship, and having Marinette fall for Chat Noir is not coming to me. Which is weird, considering how I seem to stumble into that kind of emotional character development.

"Woven Heartstrings" had a growing MariChat dynamic that I didn't intend to have at the level it ended up becoming by the end of the story. If I can "accidentally stumble" into a dynamic MariChat friendship/relationship in a story I was writing on the fly, why can't I do it for a story that has been brewing for nearly two years now?

I need to figure out another way to try to attack this story, because writing out an outline isn't working. Writing out of order isn't working. Just sitting and writing the thing, and letting it develop on its own isn't working.

Under normal circumstances, I'd say the story just isn't working and abandon it, but I WANT to tell this story. I know where I want to start. I know where I want to end. I have, what I believe to be, a compelling ending.

BUT HOW DO YOU MIDDLE!?!?!

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I'm going to just cheer myself up by looking at pictures of Marinette's other love interest Luka. This boy makes me happy, and their dynamic isn't nearly as frustrating as Marinette and Adrien.

I'm so glad they finally added black outlines to the kid's eyes. He actually looks human now that he has eyelashes. Please compare the above image from the latest episode "Silencer" to the first appearance of Luka in the season 2 episode "Captain Hardrock."

Or, more accurately, how about the middle shot of Luka from "Captain Hardrock" verses the long shot of him in "Silencer"?

In that long shot his eyes are so well-defined compared to his first appearance on the show. Either the animators improved on their craft, or "Silencer" was given to the superior of the two studios the show uses for their episodes. I'm kinda thinking the latter happened since Luka's hair also changed from black with teal tips to dark blue with electric blue tips.

This kid makes me happy, and I'll probably fangirl about him for another week or so. While there were a few dud episodes this season - the season opener "Chameleon" and the episode "Chris Master" were kind of irritatingly meh for me - the majority of this season has been amazing! "Weredad" where Marinette tries to hide that she's Ladybug by distracting Chat Noir with a love confession? "Animaestro" where the show creator Thomas Astruc has a whole self-indulgent, self-insert episode where his original PV becomes canonically an in-universe movie about the superheroes? "Oblivio" where we get to see Marinette and Adrien's dynamic if they didn't get hung up on their own awkwardness around the other? "Silencer" where we have a wonderful Luka-centric episode? "Backwarder" where we find out more about Master Fu, and get a delightful Comedy of Errors and the most convoluted Lucky Charm solution to an akuma? Plus, "Backwarder" inspired me to write "Prescription for Love," so there's that.

Then there's the episode "Stormy Weather 2" which was equal parts "meh; clip show" and "this episode is amazing!" because it gave us more of the Nathalie/Gabriel dynamic, showed us more of Nooroo, had Marinette try to be less obsessive of Adrien, and had Adrien potentially show that he has feelings for Marinette as well.

Even the "meh" ones like "Chameleon" and "Chris Master" had good moments. "Chameleon" showed how much of an ally Adrien was to Marinette, and had the first true hints that he sees her as more than just a friend after she kissed his cheek in "Mayura." Then "Chris Master" FINALLY introduced us to ANYONE within Nino's family. He's one of the main support characters, and yet we knew nothing about his family: where he lives, how large his family is, who his parents are, does he live with both parents, etc. Meanwhile, we've been in Alya's home multiple times, and have met all six members of her family, Alya included. Juleka is a more minor character, but we've met her mother and brother - Luka - and have visited her home a few times. Mylene is another more minor character, but we have at least met her father. Same with Sabrina. Alix was one of the first side-characters, aside from Chloe, where we meet her father and older brother.

True, there are still tons of characters where we know nothing about their family and/or home-life: Max, Kim, Rose, Ivan, and especially the almost always forgotten Nathaniel. However, Nino is Marinette's friend, and Adrien's BEST friend, and it kept us until the 3rd season to find out he has a younger brother?

A lot of the fandom also loved "Chris Master" because it was just a silly episode where life-sized toys invade Paris in search for Santa Claus. Yeah, it was funny, but it was still "meh" over-all for me, except for meeting Nino's brother.

Anyway, I lost the point in there somewhere, which was that I'm LOVING this season of "Miraculous Ladybug." If only it could inspire me to get OatS written!

I need to shake off the rust, the cobwebs, and the self-doubt. I need to just sit down and write this week. Perhaps the rest of today can be spent really locking in that outline so I know where I'm going with this story. I have about 4 different outlines scattered throughout different methods: just straight up writing what I want to happen, writing out the plot points in a 3 Act outline, using the Snowflake Outline method created by Randy Ingermanson, and my notecards of plot points to organize. I feel like I actually have more outlines out in the ether somewhere, but those are the four I remember having....

Thankfully, I seem to have been matched up with some really cool people in my Camp NaNo cabin. I also have writing group tonight, so perhaps that can inspire me as well. With any luck and discipline, I should be back on track by next week. Here's hoping.

Vash the Stampede from Trigun
Manga created by Yasuhiro Nightow

Awesome Weekend of Awesomeness

Okay, this weekend has been awesome!

To start, in honor of "Miraculous Ladybug" season 2 coming out in the US, I did indeed post the first chapter of "Peeping Tomcat"! You can find it at one of these three locations:

On FanFiction      On Archive Of Our Own       On DeviantArt

The story hasn't even been up for a week yet, and the stats have already been pretty cool. It may be far from a massively popular story, but it certainly is one of MY most popular stories, and at the fastest rate as well. It pays to write for an actively popular fandom.

Anyway, as of this posting, the stats for the story are:

FFN: 457 views, 28 faves, 52 followers, and 7 reviews
AO3: 420 views, 33 kudos, 7 bookmarks (followers), and 2 reviews
DA: 13 views, 1 fave, but no comments

Total Results: 890 views, 62 faves, 59 followers, and 9 reviews

The comments have all said the same variation of these top three sentiments:
  1. This is really good.
  2. How will this develop? / I can't wait to find out more.
  3. You have the characterization spot on / Adrien's insight is awesome

So, yay!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Two of the Fanfiction.net reviews were by guests, so who knows how many more people are "following" the story without doing so officially through the websites? As for DeviantArt? Well, not many still go to DA for fanfiction, and if they do read stories there, they rarely go for 6800+ behemoths. So, while it's a bummer, I get it, and I'm still excited that ANYONE was willing to read through it, let alone favorite it.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Another really cool thing? The twelfth episode of the second season, "Captain Hardrock", premiered world-wide on Friday, along with the American premiere of the first half of the season via Netflix. So I got to watch the latest episode "properly" through Netflix, instead of waiting for someone to post it on YouTube.

Now, for whatever reason, season 2 has been focusing on Adrien's daily piano practices. Out of the twelve episodes, we see Adrien at home in four, and in all four episodes, either Gabriel or Nathalie reminds and/or orders Adrien to go practice his piano. On top of that, in the twelfth episode, Adrien is performing in front of his father to show his progress. That's when we get this interaction:

Gabriel: I suggest you rehearse your piece some more. You'll play it for me again later today.
Adrien: But, Father, you promised I could attend my friends' concert.
Gabriel: Not after THAT performance you've just given. Which was probably due to THEIR influence. You need to refocus, Adrien.

I just fangirl squealed so much while watching that scene, because it just made my story even MORE perfectly in character. One of the initiating conflicts for "Peeping Tomcat" is Gabriel grounding Adrien. Gabriel notes that Adrien's latest photo shoot seems sub-par, and his piano skills aren't as advanced as they should be if he were practicing properly. Gabriel blames these "shortcomings" on Adrien's focus on his friends, and grounds his son until Adrien learns to properly prioritize for his future.

Kinda close, huh? I just added more sticks to the fire for mine. Not too shabby, considering I wrote the scene months ago! So cool! I guess I was on the same wave-length as the show's creators.


Oh, and speaking of the most recent episode, I love the character of Luka! He was teased a year or two ago, but finally showed up in the "Captain Hardrock" episode.

Even though the creator of the show Thomas Astruc stated that we'd see more of the character Lila, and that the new character Kagami would be a potential second love interest for Adrien, we've only seen those two characters in one episode each. So it's probably unlikely for us to see more of Luka, but I hope we do. I mean, according to one of the colorists for the show Feri González, people "are going to fall in love with [Luka]." And she's right. He's adorable. Also, just for funsies, here's the concept art Feri did of Luka:

Check her out at:
twitter.com/daferisae
instagram.com/ferisae

Now, while I definitely didn't see Kagami as a love interest for Adrien - she seemed more of a fencing rival and friend - Luka definitely has potential.

I'll always want Adrien and Marinette together, but if it's going to take seasons to get there, I wouldn't mind more Marinette and Luka in the meantime. I mean, at the end of the episode it's hinted that Marinette might have a bit of a side-crush on Luka. Right when she might have been finally growing a side-crush for Cat Noir too... dang....

But that might also mean that Luka will pop up more if there is going to be more romantic conflict for Mari. Hmmm. Maybe I'll indulge with some Lukanette fanfiction in the future....

Lukanette? Maybe Earring Babies? I don't know what the coupling will be called, but a lot of people have been calling Adrien/Kagami the "Ring Couple" because they wear similar rings on their right hands, and Luka has gauges that resemble Marinette's earrings. So....

Okay, yeah, back on topic.

To quick recap: I posted "Peeping Tomcat" finally, got a good response for it, and have been itching to post the second chapter. Which is appropriate, considering the second chapter is called "itch" and talks about the same call for instant gratification. I also commented on how cool the latest episode is, and how I fangirled about the "accuracy" of my story thanks to a scene in the latest episode.

But "Peeping Tomcat" isn't the only story I posted this week. I had that Willow story going on as well, the one I was going to post either way last week to make sure I had one new posting each month.

"Don't Mess (an X-Future Snippet)"

On DeviantArt      On FanFiction      On FictionPress

Now, this little snippet hasn't been getting much love, but I get it again. It's not quite fanfiction. It's also not quite original. It lands in that awkward chasm of All-OC fanfiction. Not the most wanted genre, especially when the snippets are too short to include any canon characters that might pull people in.

Either way, I'm proud I wrote it and posted it. I like the subtle way I showcased both Penumbra's and Willow's powers. I didn't state exactly what was going on, or that they were using their powers. I hope it is as easy to comprehend not knowing the characters as it is for me, who does know. Well, as always, feel free to constructively criticize any of my works.

Since I briefly talked about Willow, how about we talk about another character with white and blue hair:

Parzival addressing the whole of OASIS in "Ready Player One"

I didn't know about this book until two summers ago, when a co-worker found it at a garage sale, and bought it for my birthday because she figured I'd like a book about gamers. I loved the book pretty instantly, and shortly after found out it was being made into a movie. About a year ago I started FINALLY seeing trailers for it, and I was ecstatic! Since the release date was announced some time in... the fall, I think?... Ronoxym and I have had a standing date that we WOULD go to see it together, since he was just as much of a fan of the book.

Well, along with the awesomeness of the second season of "Miraculous" finally coming to Netflix, and finally posting my story, this weekend kicked butt because Ron and I finally had a chance to go see "Ready Player One." Hubby and Cyhyr came with, after dealing with stupidly excited spouses for over a year. It was a lovely double date. The movie was awesome, but, even though the author Ernest Cline wrote the screenplay, the co-authorship of Zak Penn, and probably the influence of the studio, really changed a lot of the plot. The movie had the same basic FEEL of the book, and the generic over-arcing plot and subplot are still there, and the movie was still an incredibly enjoyable action-packed romp. But it took surprisingly more liberties than I would have expected, given the author penned the screenplay as well.

Then again, Orson Scott Card helped write the screenplay for "Ender's Game" and that turned into a bit of a disaster. I guess even when the author is involved, you can only do SO much to adapt a book to screen, which makes movies like "Harry Potter" and the BBC mini-series version of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" all the more rare gems. On the plus side, I also think it means it is a LOT harder for the author to be upset about the theatrical direction the story went. They probably sucked it up and went "yeah, the main theme/feel of my story is still there. I'll let you change it" as opposed to authors who simply sell the rights and then don't have any voice on how their little darlings are altered.

Well, regardless, I still highly suggest giving "Ready Player One" a watch, and I'm definitely getting it once it comes out on DVD.

Another bit of awesomeness aside from the TV show update, my story getting love, seeing a movie I have been waiting to watch for years, and an awesome night out with Ron and Cy? While bringing up "Miraculous Ladybug" on Netflix, I noticed that "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" has ITS second season up as well. Both "Unfortunate Events" AND "Miraculous" updated with their second seasons on the same day!? Yes, please!

I've already gone through both shows' second seasons over the course of the weekend....

I was at that awkward age when the books came out where I was much older than the target demographic, but I was also still young enough to care what others thought of me reading a children's book series. I enjoyed the movie, though, and absolutely LOVE the series, as evidenced by the binge watching. So, I'll have to track down the series and add it to my "must read" list.

At this point, my "must read" list is very much like my Netflix and anime "must watch" lists. For every one I take off the list, I add about five more.


I need to start picking up the pace to try to get through books faster at least.

It's a good thing that I'm starting to do that already. It kept me until yesterday, so two days more than two books in one month, but I finished off Ali Luke's Lycopolis trilogy.

My apologies to Ali Luke. I had her third book "Dominion"
mistitled on my challenge sheet, and I didn't even notice
until she pointed it out last month. I will go back and
correct my earlier posts this year.

As for my thoughts on "Dominion"? Well.... honestly, I didn't really connect with it. Objectively, when I reflect back on the story, a LOT went on, and each individual scene was intense. However, as I reflect back on my feelings of the story, it seemed slow, and I was disconnected. I did struggle a lot with it being an e-book that I had to read off my laptop; not the best way to read something via the Kindle app.

So I'm going to hold my official judgement until I get my hands on a paperback copy. I'll see if a re-read using my preferred medium changes my views. I will say, though, that "Oblivion" is definitely my favorite out of the three thus far.

I also still want to write screenplay adaptations of the books. See first hand why changes and liberties need to be made. See if maybe I could keep a script closer to the source material than even Ernest Cline or Orson Scott Card could. Then again, I won't have any Hollywood influence or pressure, so perhaps those two gentlemen originally had the screenplays VERY close to the source material.

The real trick is going to be the screenplay for "Dominion". Mostly because a lot of the story deals with an abstract supernatural surrealism that plays well via prose, but it is hard to really create imagery for it. Probably one of the reasons why I felt disconnected from this third installment. I have a very hard time comprehending and connecting with something I can't mentally picture.

On the plus side, though, in my attempt to understand the abstract concepts Ali presents, I've sort of pictured how it could be portrayed on screen. The next challenge will be to write out my thoughts on how it is shown visually without going overboard. It is not the screenwriter's job to fully dictate to the actors and/or director how things should look. I need that happy balance between giving the director a concept, a direction, to work with, while still leaving individual interpretation possibilities. Let the director use their own imagination to potentially come up with a better visual even I could think of. They are the professional and know better than I what could work, and what possibilities are available.

Perhaps a series of projects for next year, after I've completed the WIPs I already have going. It will give the trilogy time to settle in my head. See what parts really stick with me when I do my re-reads.

I'm now free to move on to my re-read of "Ready Player One" to truly remind myself how the story went, and see how much was actually changed, versus what I THINK changed, based on my failing memory. I like the idea of the re-read happening so shortly after watching the movie, too, before the movie version fades from my mind.

One more bit of awesomeness to finish off my weekend.

This past Sunday was Easter, and so I got to spend some time with my in-laws, as well as my sister-in-law's in-laws. Normally, since I see that side so infrequently, I don't really connect with them. I was more involved in conversations this go, which was nice, but the big thing is the time spent with my niece and nephew. Particularly my nephew, who actually clung to me for a little bit. Loved it!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Even better? My niece's birthday is this week. Hubby and I are going to have to miss her official party, but the plus side is some one-on-one time once we figure out a good time to visit to celebrate the big day.

Another one we'll have to visit is celestialTyrant, who is hitting the big 3-0 this week! Such an amazing week!

It's been a good weekend, and it's already shaping up into a good week. I just need to fight the urge to post the second chapter of "Peeping Tomcat" early....