August Burnout (Oh, and Bats)

Est. Read Time: 14min 

Hello, and happy August, everyone! I know, it's not exactly MUCH earlier in the month than I have been publishing. HOWEVER! It is also NOT nearly midnight when I published. So... improvement! Yay!

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After three months in a row of using the Mali font (I did not intend to do that. I forgot to switch to this font last month), I'm back to trying out Kalam to see how I feel about it. After getting semi-used to the Mali font, how does everyone feel about this one? I kind of feel like I'm reading a comic strip, but I also don't necessarily hate that??? Does it miss the "look more mature and 'professional'" mark I've been trying to hit by switching off of the Coming Soon font??? I haven't had a comment on any of my blog posts since January, so I'm not sure how these fonts are hitting. I'd love the input.

Anyway, as for August thus far. Well....

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My one coworker is a biker, and hit up the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota at the start of the month. She left on the 3rd and got back on the 13th. There's only three employees at the place where I work: me, the biker coworker, and our manager (there's more employees within the company, but they work at other locations). As I mentioned last month, due to the small staff, if one of us is on vacation the other two are working straight through it with no days off. It sucks, but we literally don't have the staff to handle vacations any other way without one of us working a multi-level store by ourselves for 8hrs. Plus, the company as a whole is small enough that normal labor laws - which requires at least one day off every Sunday thru Saturday work week - don't exactly apply. So, biker-coworker being gone for 11 days means Manager and I are working those days straight through. Plus, my manager had August 2nd off leading into Biker's vacation. Which means I had the joy of not only working twelve days straight - after working 8 days straight to cover Manager's vacation, and only getting 2 days of recovery before this next long stretch - but I also got to work with Biker on her last day before a long vacation. Clearly, despite promising the contrary, she was fully in Vacation Mode^TM that last day: focused more on last minute prep work for her flight early the next morning.

Needless to say, by the time my next day off came around on the 14th I just needed to veg. I have been back to my normal work schedule since, which is nice. However, Manager's daughter is expecting her 2nd kid soon, and Manager wants to take at least 5 days off once she does. That way she (Manager) can go watch her toddler grandson for that first week and help around the house while Mom and Dad recover and bond with the new baby. Which means Biker and I will again have a semi-long work week to cover. Also, since it's contingent on the birth of Manager's 2nd grandchild, there isn't really MUCH forewarning as to WHEN this long stretch is going to happen. We just know it's going to be within the next 5 weeks.

Weeeeee.

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On top of all of that, I've also had Projects^TM at work the past week or so.

Normally, one of the fringe benefits of my job - and one of the reasons having to work 12 days straight isn't TERRIBLE - is that there is a LOT of down time where I can more-or-less do whatever. I can sit and read. I can flip through my socials. My manager likes to play Candy Crush until her phone battery practically dies. Back when I wasn't bogged down with writer's block, I would use this downtime to write. Heck, I'm using some of it right now to work on this blog post!

While I was able to still use some of this downtime earlier this month to work on creative endeavors, which I'll touch upon later, this past week has not left me with much of any downtime at all. If I'm not helping with a customer I am working on spreadsheets or graphic design projects or double checking website accuracy or scanning and retagging the store products or.... herding a bat out of our store......

Yeah. That happened this past Saturday. Randomly, at about 11am, I saw this black blur dash past the office doors. I thought it was the shadow of a pigeon flying past the store's front door, so I didn't really think much of it until a customer alerted me of the rogue bat zipping around trying to find an exit. After the customers that I was ringing up left, I grabbed some Kevlar gardening gloves and a bucket with lid from the maintenance man (he was more inclined to try to kill it, so that's why I took over bat-escort duty). I then set to catch the bat and usher it outside. The thing was QUICK. Just zooming through the first floor at full speed as the poor panicked thing tried to find an escape. Our ceilings are pretty high up, and the bat stayed pretty close to them, so even at its lowest swoop it was still a good foot or two above me. There was just no way I was catching this thing unless it landed.

I tried calling animal control, but they aren't open on the weekends and the outgoing message didn't give a number to call for off-hours assistance. Hoping the bat had worn itself out - which it did - I looked for it again. It had found a dark room to hang from the ceiling within and catch its breath. Problem is, as soon as I noticed where the bat was - which was still WAY too high up for me to reach - I triggered the motion sensor, turning the light on in the room. This instantly startled the bat and it zipped around in a panic again. It shot right past my shoulder as it left the room to try to get away again, but it was too fast for me to even register that it was coming at me. There was no way I would have moved fast enough to have caught it with my bucket.

Thankfully, as it exited the formerly darkened room, it passed the front door. Playing doorman now, I held the door open and called out to it, hoping to catch its attention enough to direct it towards the exit. Kept a minute or two, and the bat near-missing the door about half-a-dozen times, but it finally figured it out and dashed out of the store without fuss. Well, aside from the pigeons that roost above our front door. All of them were like, "Who the heck is this jerk?" as the bat sped past all of their nests in an attempt to find a place to finally go back to sleep. But the bat was their problem now.

Hubby had started up a rewatch of the 2004 cartoon The Batman last week, so I guess it is oddly fitting that this is when I'd have a bat encounter. Funny that it's the 2nd bat encounter - where I was the one who dealt with the bat - in just over a month, however.

Side note: Jason Marsden voices the villain Firefly in The Batman. I have always pictured Marsden using a Brooklyn accent as the voice of X-Future character Devon St. James. Marsden's energy coupled with the energy of The Scout from Team Fortress 2 just makes me think of Devon every time. The fact that Firefly and Devon are both fire users - Devon can manipulate it via his powers and Firefly uses flamethrowers as weapons - coupled with Marsden voicing this incarnation just makes me picture the character as Devon every time. It's been quite amusing. Anyway! Getting back to my main blog update.....

Outside of the excitement of chasing down a bat, work has been a drudge. My brain is fried. No thoughts. Total burnout. Every time I tried to work on something creative I just got radio static. I spent a lot of my downtime either aimlessly scrolling through my socials or doing mindless tasks I've been meaning to do for a while now. Mostly with regards to picture organizing.

Back when I started up Animal Crossing: New Horizons I realized that there would be parts of this game - by design - that I wouldn't be able to replay/relive. All other games that I had played (with the exception of The Sims), I could go back, replay the games, and re-experience scenes/dialogue/action sequences/etc. ACNH? Once I've experienced it I've experienced it and then it was gone. Just like in real life (to an extent). That's when I started taking screenshots and the 30sec screen recordings the Switch allows. I was starting to compile them into folders on my computer for me to go back and reflect on how my island used to be; used to look. I could also relive conversations I had with my villagers. Just record as much of my game-island life as I could to look back on later. Some of the villager conversations took longer than 30sec for me to go through, though, and it was clunky to watch half of the convo via one video and half via another. So I started taking screenshots of the recordings and splicing those together into a sort of conversation comic strip. It's also how I've showcased some of these conversations before in this blog.

Ooof. Terrible timing there, Maddie. XD

Deciding to create these "comic strips" of various ACNH scenes that I encountered was truly when things got tedious. I still want to do it though. A lot of effort up front for a nice gift for my Future Self to enjoy later.

It did mean, though, that I couldn't just transfer the images and videos from my Switch to my computer and tuck them in their little folders. Done and done. No. I had turned this endeavor into Projects^TM!

I did the same thing with the free self-care app I downloaded shy of 18months ago. I'm actually surprised it kept me this long to talk about it. It's called Finch: Self Care Pet.

The concept of the app is that you hatch a finch that you can name (and choose a pronoun for between he/she/they). Then you take care of your little "birb" (as the app calls them) by taking care of yourself. The more you use the app for your own self-care the more your birb grows and builds their own personality. As they age you can pick out feather colors to customize them. You can also buy dyes in the in-app shop (using in-app currency that you earn via logging in self-care). Once you have unlocked a color for your birb, you can easily switch between them via your finch's closet. No need to pay in-app currency each time you want to switch up your birb's look. You can also buy clothing and accessories for them to showcase their personalities even further. They also have their own little pet that can accompany them: your app's micro-pet. Your birb can earn a new micro-pet each month by logging in, as well as by completing certain goals you set for yourself. You can also switch through which micro-pet you want to accompany your birb.

I can't recall anymore if I came up with the name or if I went with the one randomly generated when I hatched her, but this is my birb Poki and her little cloud micro-pet Cotton:

If you're interested in joining the app,
you can use my Friend Code:
XWMEYF4KXA

Once your birb ages into adulthood (via you interacting with the app), they can start traveling to real-world destinations and learn about the culture there. Poki is currently traversing the Sonoran Desert (mostly within Arizona, USA). She's also travelled to Tokyo, Japan; Bali, Indonesia; Maui, Hawaii (USA); Paris, France; Taipei, Taiwan; and safaried through the Serengeti, Tanzania.

The key feature of the app is your birb going on daily adventures to explore the world and learn from it. It could be something as simple as the easiest way to warm up when it's cold outside, or trying out a new food, or discovering a new song or TV series. It could be something about the area they're exploring, such as how many people live in Tokyo, or what's up with the many faces carved into the Pont Neuf in Paris, or visiting the Tanah Lot Temple in Bali, etc. It could be a thought experiment, such as a preference to be able to rewind time and relive the past vs being able to see the future, or which super power would you like to have, or what element would you like to bend if you are from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

You earn energy by checking in with the app and completing either exercises the app provides, or goals you have created for yourself, or just simply journaling. Once you've earned enough energy, you can send your birb out on their daily adventure. You can have them complete their adventure faster by generating more energy. You also earn Rainbow Stones (the in-app currency I mentioned earlier) alongside building up energy. After six hours (or shorter, if you've built up energy while your birb was adventuring), your finch will want to discuss their journey with you. There's two pre-scripted answers you can choose or you can opt to write up your own response. Based on what you picked, your birb will respond in kind. Obviously, it's a bit of a generic non-committal reply if you write up your own response. The app doesn't have writing generators to come up with a response based on what you wrote.

This is the part that I was referencing in conjunction to my ACNH project. The app doesn't save your birb's past adventures to relive outside of noting whether they like or dislike a particular discovery: food, desserts (not sure why it's a separate category), drinks, books, TV shows, movies, songs, games, or activities (such as bathing in an onsen or moon watching).

I find the adventure itself, what Poki has to say about it, my different response options, and her reply back to me all adorable. All things I wish to revisit. Much like ACNH, I realized that I would have to record them myself to do so. This results in me taking HUNDREDS of screenshots and then splicing them together so I can later quickly flip through and relive Poki's journeys.

Sorry for the blurry image.
It's not this bad on my computer.
Not sure what's up with that. 😅

Soooooo, yeah. As I mentioned, my brain has been fried, and so I've been using the need for mindless tasks as an excuse to finally get back to my massive backlog of ACNH and Finch images that I've wanted to splice together via GIMP. I'm still probably over a thousand images deep for both projects when it comes to backlog. But I did make some progress. So... yay.

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Back to that one creative endeavor I did manage this month, though. Yup. Finally circling back around to that. For whatever reason, when I woke up on Saturday, August 19th, I was fixated on my one character Artie. In the past - mostly 2016 - when I talked about Artie, I said that they were still cisfem, but disguised themselves as male for various reasons. They would even purposefully present as female if they felt it would be beneficial to the situation.

Since then, I've felt like Artie was actually the first queer character that I created. I feel like they would definitely use they/them pronouns. I still don't know enough about non-cisgender identities to truly know how Artie would define themselves, so I don't want to canonically say. In one incarnation, Artie still thought of herself as cisfem and did indeed disguise herself as male to better survive in a patriarchal society. In other incarnations? Artie is probably closer to gender neutral? Maybe gender fluid? They don't care if people think of them as male or female. They see the social benefits of both options, and mostly present as one gender or another for those benefits: males aren't questioned on their strength or intelligence, females are allowed to cry or enjoy "cute" things, males are allowed to be a little reckless and exploratory, females tend to have tighter communities to interact with, etc.

The more I thought of Artie while I got ready for work, the more I wanted to introduce them to the world. Back in 2019, I had abandoned this project before finishing my introduction of Lia, but the way Artie was poking at me, I knew I needed to revive my "Meet My OCs" series on Tumblr. During the aforementioned work downtime on the 19th, I started up the first half of my introduction to Artie. You may notice, if you go through the few blog posts here where I talked about Artie before, that I got some of the details of Artie's early versions wrong in that Tumblr post. Funny how your memory can morph facts. Whoops. I have to say, though, I think what I "remembered" for that Tumblr post feels truer-to-form for how I picture Artie now anyway. Maybe it was always what the character wanted, but I just wasn't ready to have a non-cisgender character yet, so I manipulated the facts for my own benefit.

It kept me another two days, but I did manage to get Part 2 of my Meet Artie series published before the close of the weekend. It was fun trying to recreate them on Hero Forge and Picrew.

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Generated using this maker

Generated using Maker 773

My main problem with Artie is that I have a character that feels interesting to me, but I have no plot for them. As mentioned in those Tumblr posts, Artie was created for a play-by-post roleplay game that fell through. Then I revived them for a one-shot horror-survival game, but we never got past character creation. An older post from this blog notes that I tried reviving Artie a third time to write a YA dystopia short story for Ronoxym's 30th. The world build alone ended up being five pages long, so I knew that wasn't going to really work out for what I wanted to do, and shelved Artie one more time... in favor of creating Colton and Zetelica instead.

I just don't have a specific setting or plot sorted out for Artie. They don't have a "world" like my X-Future/Glitches pseudo-cyberpunk characters do, or my Gyateara fantasy characters. Even Colton and Zetelica have a world: the one I built for Rono's story. Artie? Artie just kind of floats around in my head, popping up now and again to make sure I don't forget they're there. I hope to find a home for them someday. Maybe they'll join Colton and Zetelica in rounding up the spirits of the dead. Maybe I'll import them into Glitches (although, I'm not sure what their powers would be....). Maybe I can find a way of reworking the speculative fiction that originally birthed Artie into fantasy, and they can find a home on Gyateara. Maybe I'll think of a story all for them.

Who knows? It was nice getting them out into the sunlight, though. Maybe it will help me keep them a little closer to the forefront of my mind, and I'll be more inclined to figure out where to put them.

Do any of you have "story-orphaned" characters like Artie? What do you do with them? Were you able to "rehome" them eventually?

While my mind still ponders what to do with Artie, I hope that September brings a bit more mental recouping so I can get back into actual story writing. It's been a while, and clearly I missed my initial goal to have at least one chapter of Seduce With Caution published by August 2023. Bully me, peeps! Keep me on track! Have me hunker down and FOCUS on this story. I have so many WIPs piled up. It would be nice to finally take one off the pile, you know?

Anyway, until next time!

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Meet Willow

So, uh, I didn't get my Willow introductory posts up last Tuesday like I demanded myself to do. In fact, the more I worked on it, the more involved it became. By the time I finished writing/editing the posts it was Thursday. So I figured I'd just hold off until Sunday, and have my Meet My OCs series update every OTHER Sunday. That way I have two weeks to organize, write, and edit each character's introduction.

In the end, the document to introduce Willow was about 45pgs long! That doesn't include the space that would be taken up with pictures. The final info-dump - and it was indeed a DUMP as I flooded my poor followers' dashes - was SIX POSTS long, and the first 5 posts were each between 6 and 10 pages long in the master word document.

If you want to learn more about Willow - although, I think I have already shared pretty much all of it on here in some shape or form - you can check out my Meet Willow mini-series over on Tumblr.

• Part 1 introduces who Willow is, gives some of her family history/backstory, and explains her powers.
• Part 2 gets a bit more in-depth with her major relationships throughout X-Future, as well as how I'm planning on adapting those relationships in my rework for Glitches.
• Part 3 turned out MASSIVE as I recapped every major event Willow went through in the X-Future plot line, as well as explain how much of her story is going to be brought over to Glitches.
• Part 4 gave ALL the visuals I have for Willow.... And... it's- it's a lot.
• Part 5 actually has 5 different scene samples of Willow.
  As I was going back through the X-Future role play for research for Part 3, I was amused by some of Willow's interactions. I truly did forget some key bits about her since I haven't role played her for 2yrs. I wanted to showcase those bits via narrative prose.
  Samples include:
  • The one-shot "Mutual Teasing" to showcase Young Willow and her early dynamic with Devon
  • A snippet of the X-Men detention cells scene from "Please, Let Me Explain." Mainly the interaction of:
    Devon: "I'm innocent and never meant to hurt you."
    Willow: "Well, you being innocent makes my life worse; could you just admit to being the bad guy for me?"
  • The one-shot "It Is So On!" to showcase Snarky Willow, her interactions with Nyssa, and her attitude towards Devon post-Brotherhood return.
  • A prose adaptation of Willow's Astral Plane fight with Agony in X-Future, specifically showing off how powerful she is compared to her foil.
  • A prose adaptation of my role playing of Willow confronting Lia's tendency to overburden herself. Namely, the final interaction where Lia: "All of my friends die, and I'm useless to prevent it; why do I even exist?" is responded to by Willow: "Their deaths aren't about you! God, your ego! Get over yourself."
  She's a comfort, that one...
• Finally, after overwhelming everyone, I finished up with a bit of fun by showing off the two main Custom Wrestler entrances Hubby and I created for Willow.

Actually, since this is the first time I tried to film them, I'm cool with showing off the entrances here too. Sorry for the video quality, though. I don't have any recording hardware for the Xbox, so I had to resort to using my phone to record the video... Meh, it works....

This is Willow's individual wrestler entrance. She's donning her Cheshire Cat illusion, and wearing the closest thing I could get to her X-Men uniform. Her entrance music is also her unofficial theme song: "I Get Off" by Halestorm.

 This is Willow's Mixed-Gender Tag Team entrance for her and Chayse. I had Chayse in his casual, everyday clothes, and I had Willow in the closest to her "everyday clothes" that I created: a Slutty School Girl outfit. Their entrance music is "My Goddess" by The Exies.

So... yeah... if it's not obvious, that was what took up most of my week. Well, that and more reading, which I'll get to in a minute.

Next on the docket? Lia.

I was going to bounce over to Jolene, since I probably know her about as well as Willow, and she has a lot of visual aids too. However, that's the problem. I had originally saved a bunch of picture references for my own purpose, so I never noted the artists. I'm going to need time to try to track them down, but it will also be a bit of an uphill battle. Especially since I can't even re-find the image I had used for Jolene herself. She may need more than 2 weeks to be good to go.

Alternatively, I was thinking of writing about Amara, simply because she's my oldest-existing OC, and I THOUGHT I knew her inside and out.

However, ever since I started using Tumblr, I've really picked up on how "stand-offish female lead with a wounded heart that just wants to be loved" cliche Amara actually is. When I first created her, I had her physically abused by her father's side of the family, and then emotionally abused by her mother's side of the family. Giving up on her relatives, Amara went to a Human town to learn how to become an adventurer, but Something Vague happens, and she retreats to the wild. Then, upon near starvation during a particularly harsh winter, Amara is saved by a hermit who trains her on crucial survival skills. He becomes one of the first people to ever show her kindness - outside of her mother - and proves to her that Humans aren't entirely unbearable. At the very least, they can be useful allies/companions. With a renewed outlook on society, she becomes an Adventurer.

It was good, but I needed to figure out that Something Vague portion to figure out what drove Amara to the wild; giving up on society as completely useless to her. I also needed a reason for her to be so stand-offish around men, and why she purposely tried to make herself as unattractive to them as possible. About 5 or 6 years ago, I thought I figured out my solution: 16yo Amara, having traveled to the closest Human city outside of her family's woods, gets kidnapped off the streets, drugged, and forced into prostitution. When she finally breaks out of the brothel, she's so disgusted with Humans, and males in general, that she runs to the woods to live among the "more civilized" animals.

Fast forward to a year or two ago, and that "solution" to Amara's attitude left a foul taste in my mouth. I was basically using repetitive rape as a plot device for character development. Also, if Human males were that evil towards her - the physical abuse was also from her Human male relatives - then why the hell would she trust a Human male hermit, even if he did provide her food and shelter? She also wasn't showcasing nearly enough PTSD and other such symptoms of such a harsh trauma as sex trafficking.

And, on a MUCH more minor note, I couldn't figure out how she was able to break out of the brothel, especially when she was chained to her room. The only solution I could think of was a "good-natured" patron took pity on her and released her, and I hated that a man had to rescue her and set her free...

Still, the forced prostitution stayed in her backstory, because I couldn't think of an alternative.

Until recently, that is.

While reading "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore, I did NOT get a "Legend of Zelda" vibe from the story, as I've mentioned last week, but I DID see Amara a great deal in Cashore's lead Katsa. Both leading females are deadly warriors that no one wishes to mess with. A simple glare was enough to clear the room. Even with this harsh reputation, both women actually find the violence exhausting and disagreeable. Neither woman truly wants to be seen as attractive by men, even though they can't hide how conventionally beautiful they are. Katsa counters this by refusing to wear dresses whenever possible, and chopping her hair close to her scalp. A decision that was mostly functional, as long curly hair is a major pain to maintain and difficult to fight with, but it had the added benefit of making her more masculine looking. Amara, on the other hand, purposely kept herself filthy - covered in dirt and her hair tangled in unruly dreadlocks - and wore men's clothing whenever possible to hide her curves. Both women just wish to be free of criticism and obligation. Katsa wants to be her own woman, instead of the muscle of her king, and Amara wishes for her mother's family - and Elves in general - to just accept her.

I had originally created a love interest for Amara; a Human fighter who falls for her, warts and all. He knows she's broken, and he doesn't demand she give him affection in return. All he asks is that she accepts HIS affection, and finally believe herself worthy of being loved. A task that proves trying, since even Amara's mother was a bit distant from her, emotionally. Eventually, Amara not only accepts his love, and the realization that she DESERVES love, but she also falls for him in return. She doesn't necessarily soften due to his love, but she does finally show her existing soft spots to others; now feeling safe to do so.

For Katsa, Cashore had her also believe she wasn't suited for love. Katsa is actually surprised to discover how many of her companions have fallen in love with her. It's a pretty amusing scene as she races to her cousin and demands to know if HE has also fallen in love with her. To which the cousin just kind of chuckles before admitting that he does love her, but he certainly isn't IN love with her. Katsa is determined to remain unmarried and childless, something I'll touch upon more as I fully talk about this book. She then meets Po, a fellow Graceling, who is very nearly her match in hand-to-hand combat. They agree to train together while secretly gathering information on who would want to kidnap Po's grandfather. There is a hiccup in their relationship and trust...

...when Katsa figures out Po's true Grace, however, his encouragement sticks with her, and Katsa decides to officially free herself from her uncle's service. After threatening the king into submission, Katsa decides to forgive Po's deception and travel with him to find the answers he needs about his grandfather's kidnapping.

While on a quest - which takes months to complete - Po and Katsa re-connect. Then Po apologizes to Katsa. Despite his efforts, and despite his knowledge that she doesn't want a relationship, Po has fallen in love with Katsa. She is equally distressed as she realizes she loves Po in return. However, she still wants to remain unmarried and childless. A decision Po doesn't bother attempting to push. He lets her know that he is hers, and it is up to her to decide what to do with that information.

Much like Amara, Katsa doesn't exactly "soften" with Po's love, but she does find the courage to finally showcase the kindness and mercy she had to keep hidden for most of her life. Po also helped her realize what her true Grace is, and how she wasn't meant to be the weapon her uncle, the king, forced her to become.

The more I read about Katsa, the more the wheels spun in my head, and the more I tried to figure out how to use Katsa as a blueprint for Amara's backstory rework. I don't know if I'll have her become a forced assassin like Katsa was, but I now know of much preferred alternatives for Amara's "Tragic Past," things that can still force her to hate humanity.

Likewise, Hubby, Omnibladestrike, and I just finished up watching How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord during our weekly anime-watching meet-ups. In the show, a character is revealed to be a Demon Lord sympathizer, wishing for the Demon Lord Krebskulm to be revived so she can exterminate the mortal races. While we don't have MUCH on this character's backstory, we do get some hints as to why they want all mortal races to be erased from the planet. Not a kind childhood, that one had.

The Netflix season of Lucifer - which Hubby and I just finished last night - even had a Generic Cop Brutality Towards PoC/Gang Violence episode that had Amenadiel question the value of staying on Earth, and how safe life is among humans. That could also kinda sorta maybe work for Amara pulling away from Humanity....

In truth, it doesn't take much to make someone lose faith in Humanity. It doesn't need to be as violent, traumatizing, triggering, and/or invasive as rape. I don't need - and, in fact, I should avoid - the "old, white, male writer shortcut to tragic female character development" trope. It's gross. It's insulting. It's insensitive. I'm better than that. All writers SHOULD be better than that.

I need to find more characters like Katsa, Amenadiel, and the demon worshiper in HNTSADL. That way I can find a reason to hate Humanity that fits Amara's world, backstory, and personality. I also need to determine if I still want to lean so hard into my InuYasha obsession when I first created Amara, making her goal in life be a quest to find some magical artifact that could dispel her human half and make her fully Elven.

With so much I need to rework for Amara, I probably won't write up her intro until nearly all of the others are done.

Which brings me back to where this all started: Lia being my next OC introduction in 2 weeks. Who knows what I might unearth as I start writing up her intro, considering Willow's intro was supposed to be ONE post. As of right now, though? I think the only thing I need to "sort out" is her Glitches last name since her father is no longer going to be the X-Men canonical character Jamie Madrox. As of right now, the leading option is Mordeaux, mainly because I kept mispronouncing Jamie's last name as that, so Lia's basically been Lia Mordeaux in my head the whole time anyway....

As I mentioned above, working on Willow's write-up wasn't the only thing I did this week, although it was pretty darn close to being so....

This past weekend, EdenDaphne surprised everyone with a second epilogue to her and Maerynn's story "Under Lock and Key." Eden was commissioned to draw the Adrienette Halloween costume teased at the end of the story. After drawing the commission, Eden had an itch to write a small companion piece, so she added the scene as an epilogue chapter, and it was so sweet.

Now, I was busy working on finishing my Willow posts this weekend, but I did finally get around to reading the new chapter yesterday. Of course, I'd recommend it. If you haven't yet, go check out ULAK, especially with this new chapter.

Also, released yesterday, and promptly consumed by me, was the latest chapter of Taurus Pixie's story "Chat Vert". And, yes, it IS another mini-Lukanette chapter. So of COURSE I was sitting on my front porch squealing at a pitch only the neighbor dogs could hear.

I'm calling all fanartists here. If you ever feel inclined to draw fanart for Pixie's story, could you PLEASE do a comic-style side-by-side of Marinette and Luka's phone conversation? Because seeing his side of the conversation would look ADORABLE, and I would love it, and Pixie's stories deserve more fanart.

I'd do it myself, but it might take me 3 months to get it nice enough for anyone to recognize what exactly is even going on in the image...

Anyway, along with reading fanfiction, yesterday I caught up on my re-read of "Fruits Basket." At least, I'm caught up in re-reading volume 3 of the manga, which is where the anime is up to now. This Friday's episode will be the start of volume 4 of the manga, so I should get started on my re-read of that...

Not enough reading for you? Well hold on, because I still have more! I've actually been quite the busy girl this week....

"Graceling" was due back at the library on the 13th, so I rushed to get through the final 100 pages of the story. I still think the second half of Part II in the story is my favorite part; the most intense. However, I did enjoy the conclusion of the story. My only real complaint is about Google's auto-fill feature.

See, about half-way through the book, the descriptions of Po's cocky, intense, but somehow still playful look, and his constant style of undoing the top of his shirt and rolling up his sleeves, just kept making me think of this image:

This is Addison, an OC of windyautumnmoon, and drawn by CrystalCurtisArt. Addison is a were-fox and king of thieves, so it makes sense that he'd give off the same energy as Po. However, without fully remembering this image while I was reading, I couldn't recall if it was actually fanart for "Graceling," especially since I hadn't heard of the book prior to that Tumblr post a month ago. We'll ignore that the series premiered in 2008. Anyway, I didn't think to look up who the artist is via an old Rogue's Scribe post, and instead tried to just search for generic Po fanart.

This, was a TERRIBLE idea. Because all I had to do was write "Graceling Po" in the Google search bar, and the first auto-fill hit turned out to be a major spoiler.

So, here's your warning. DO NOT SEARCH FOR PO WITHIN THE GRACELING FANDOM UNLESS YOU HAVE FULLY READ "GRACELING" OR YOU DON'T MIND SPOILERS.

Going into the third part of the book, I kept trying to forget the spoiler I saw. I could not, and the reveal wasn't nearly as impactful because of it. I mean, obviously, that's why the scene was "spoiled." I do have to say the emotion was still there, and it still hit me, but it didn't hit AS hard as it could have because I saw it coming. Plus side though, at least I know that scene has re-readability if it still hit me even after knowing what was going to happen.

Oh geez, I was going to go into more depth about my overall thoughts on "Graceling" but I've already rambled for quite a bit about my characters, so I guess I'll have to postpone again until next week.

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For now, I'll leave you with this: the writing style Cashore uses, her voice, the language utilized, isn't really "me." I didn't find it nearly as engaging as the more conversational writing voices of say Rick Riordan, or any of the fanfiction writers I follow. I just wasn't as emotionally invested. But, that could just be me and my desire to read more conversational writing. All-in-all, language aside, I did enjoy the plot and characters immensely, and did instantly talk about the book with both Hubby and Omni.

I am planning on picking up the next book in the series "Bitterblue" when I hit up the library for my writing group tonight. I'll keep you posted on my thoughts.

Now, to go work on Lia's write-up so I can actually get it done by my deadline of Sunday, June 30th. An interesting task, considering I should be visiting my mom that weekend; assuming my car is finally out of the shop by then.

Wish me luck!

That Week Went Quick

This week I somehow did a lot and nothing at the same time. I manage to fall into the paradox quite frequently, actually. I guess that means I'm not nearly as efficient as I would like to believe myself.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

What I mean is, I've read for hours this week, and yet the book isn't done yet, and I have 2 days to finish reading before it's due back at the library. I also have been working on my latest Meet My OCs post for Tumblr since Friday; the writing of which has taken up most of my free-time, and yet I couldn't get it done by my self-imposed deadline of Sunday.

In fact, as I'm working on this blog, I STILL don't have the Meet My OCs post done, and will need to work on that next. Along with working on my dishes... and folding my laundry... and vacuuming... you get the idea.

Let's back up and go day by day, because that seems to be the most coherent way to explain what I've been up to when I've had weeks like this.

Tuesday
I finished up my blog post on time, but between picking Hubby up from work, running errands, and eating meals, I didn't get to promoting my blog post until late afternoon/early evening. In fact, I don't think I managed to get my promotion for the post up on Tumblr until around 9pm, when all was said and done. Mainly because my afternoon mostly consisted of dropping my car off at the collision center around 3pm so Rozsavaria could pick me up and bring me back home, and then I kidnapped her to play Diablo III with Hubby and I until 5ish. Then she went home to finish up some school work before she had another friend meet-up, meanwhile, I scrambled to try to get more blog promotions done and dinner eaten before my Writers Group meeting.

At the meeting, I read my penultimate chapter of Prescription for Love. Omnibladestrike had also attended again, making it a bit of a habit for him, which is fantastic. Everyone seems to be really enjoying his story, and I think he really needed to hear that from someone other than a friend. Post-meeting, I hung out for a couple minutes with Omni and Skarabrae-stone. We chatted about Ska's character for X-Future, role playing in general, and interesting quirks we each have that seems to be fairly unique within our social circles. I ended up getting home closer to 8:30, and pretty much crashed; only taking enough time to finish my blog post promotions.

Wednesday
During my little bursts of free time at work - 15min here, 40min there - I cracked "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore open again to try to get some more reading in. I was far from where I should have been, reading wise, in order to finish the book before it was due back at the library, so I had to start tearing through it. After work, I quickly got ready for Zumba, and then I scooped up Roz for her second attempt at the class. I think I killed her a touch less this go. We then did my normal cool-down walk, but it was drizzling, so we only walked one block before I escorted her home. Then, because it's how we always are, I said goodbye, only to stick around and chat for another 30min.... It went from "Oh hey, it really opened up, maybe you should stick around for a bit" to "Yay, you talked long enough that the rain stopped" to "Oh, whoops, we talked too long and it's pouring again." It was beautifully warm rain, I needed to hop into the shower when I got home anyway, and it wasn't that far to go with stuff that could get wet, so I said my goodbyes and legit left.

I made it home, a bit drenched, a little after 8:30. I then scrubbed down the tub, because I had forgotten to do so Tuesday, and hopped into the shower. By the time I was done with the bathroom scrub down and my own shower, it was a little after 9pm. One late dinner and quality time with Hubby later, and it was bed time.

Thursday
I spent HOURS at work - it was DEAD - reading more of "Graceling" in order to catch up. Last week, when I first started reading "Graceling," I had enjoyed the story well enough. However, now that I was getting further into the plot, the story was really hooking me; begging me to keep going. Still wasn't feeling any "Legend of Zelda" vibes, though. When I got home, Hubby and Omni were already hanging out. We enjoyed our weekly anime-watching hang, and I "forced" Omni to finally get into the Fruits Basket 2019 reboot; he had it in his queue but hadn't started it. Omni stuck around until about midnight, so I just did a brief wind-down after he left before I went to bed.

Friday
I got another hour or so of reading in, and now I was getting to the point where I was thinking about the characters and what could potentially happen next. It was harder to stop reading. After work I ran around doing errands; mostly doing laundry. While waiting for my clothes to be dry, I decided to do my new Friday routine: dinner while watching the latest Fruits Basket episode. Except there was a broadcast delay in Japan, I guess, so the latest episode wasn't up yet. I COULD have just watched something on my laptop, like more Steven Universe, or just have the TV on Cartoon Network or something. Instead, I shrugged and started up Ouran High School Host Club again. Got three episodes in before I had to go collect my clothes from the laundromat.

When I got home I figured I'd start work on my latest Meet My OCs post for Tumblr. I was FINALLY done introducing the broad, IRL inspiration for the builds of my worlds and characters. It was time to ACTUALLY introduce my characters. I was starting with Willow, and it turns out this was a TERRIBLE idea. I should have started with the characters I don't really know instead of the other way around, that way I could figure out what I was getting myself into. I'll talk a bit more about this later. Point is, while working on Willow's intro, I thought about her wrestling intro in Hubby's WWE13 game. I wondered if I could somehow record it to post with Willow's intro, and so I spent the next 40min or so trying to find the dang game. I found the case exactly where it was supposed to be, but the game itself wasn't in it. I looked on things, under things, and behind things. I went through all of our other game cases, and a great deal of DVD cases to make sure it wasn't accidentally tucked in any of those. I then checked my box of "sort and put away later" that I have tucked in my library. Nowhere. I can't find this game, but it kept me far too long to give up on trying to find it.

While I was in the library searching, though, I decided to grab the last of the Fruits Basket mangas. I had read the earlier mangas enough times, and I've watched the original anime a couple of times, and so the first... fifth?... of the Fruits Basket storyline is fairly well defined in my memory. The last bits of the story, though? The actual reason Akito allowed Tohru to stay with the Sohmas, Shigure's plot from the moment he met Tohru, the true story behind The Baseball Cap, how Kyo knew Tohru's mom, Kyo's guilt, and a bunch of love confessions.... I vaguely remembered them all, but I needed refreshers. I especially wanted to know how the arcs all ended and tied up so I could properly appreciate the foreshadowing the new anime has been sprinkling in already. For instance, I'm already seeing hints at Kyo's greatest regret and the burden of his guilt, and I just needed a refresher on the exact event he felt guilty for. Anyway, after grabbing the last four mangas of the series, I started skimming them to refresh my memory.

Quick side anecdote: I started buying the Fruits Basket manga back around 2006 or something. I stopped reading the series right after the major reveal of Kyo's guilt. It was a MAJOR cliff hanger, and I didn't intend to stop reading with that dangling in my mind, but I just COULD. NOT. FIND. the next manga. I managed to find and buy mangas 22 and 23 to end the series, but for the life of me, manga volume 21 just wasn't in ANY of the bookstores I searched, and it was always out of stock, even online. Fast forward about TEN YEARS, and, while hanging out with Roz, I saw a Fruits Basket manga, all by its little lonesome, chilling on her bookshelf. It was a later volume, and it was the only one she had; it used to be her late sister's. Roz never bothered trying to track down the other volumes, and wasn't even sure why her sister would have only one so late in the series. But, lo and behold, it was the elusive 21st volume! Roz gave it to me to complete my collection, and I was FINALLY able to finish the series about 4 years ago. As I re-read the final mangas - volumes 20 through 23 - on Friday, I remembered the nearly decade-long cliff hanger I had to suffer though, and I mini-raged at the ridiculousness of it all. Thank God for Roz and her random manga collection.

Anyway, I got so engrossed in my manga re-read that I actually stopped skimming the contents fairly quickly, instead fully reading without realizing I transitioned. Since Hubby was at a Midnight Release game for Magic: The Gathering, I lost track of time. I ended up reading manga until 1am. I guess that was one way to make up for not getting a new episode this week.... When I went to bed I still wasn't quite tired, though, so I cracked open "Graceling" and read one more chapter before passing out.

Saturday
I was finally getting into the real meat of "Graceling", the Act II midpoint had already come and gone, there were slightly new goals for the characters, and the romance subplot was chugging along - something I want to talk about, but this blog is long enough as it is; I'll have to discuss it next week. My point is, I read whenever I could. Getting to the end of Part 2 of the book - basically the end of Act II - felt like a good stopping point for me. Taking a breather from reading, I tried to switch gears and work more on my intro to Willow. I worked on my writing, but not nearly long enough. I had about 12pages, and knew I needed to split up the post so it wouldn't be overwhelmingly long, but Hubby really wanted to get back into our watch of Lucifer on Netflix.

We had heard of the show, and we've caught an episode here and there while it was on. However, we never fully got into it, mostly because it was on at the same time as a show we were already fans of, and so the other show won out the time-slot. We are really enjoying this show - in particular, I'm really enjoying the soundtrack for the show - and we have been majorly binging. In fact, tearing through the seasons of Lucifer is one of the main reasons I didn't get much else accomplished this past week.

Anyway, most of Saturday evening was Hubby and I watching Lucifer together, especially since we didn't get to watch any on Thursday or Friday, so Hubby was itching for more episodes.

Sunday
I tried. I really did. We had two customers the whole day. It was DEAD while people enjoyed the nice weather we were FINALLY having this weekend. We accomplished our paperwork and other such busywork fairly early into the shift, so I worked as diligently as I could to crank out the rest of Willow's intro, that way I could post it when I got home. I had split up the original post into two. Part one was Willow's generic info, pre-X-Future background, and overview of her powers. Part two was a breakdown of her main relationships, both good and bad. Part one ended up being about 6pgs long, and part two was about 8pgs. I STILL wasn't done, though. Part of knowing who Willow is includes knowing what she went through during X-Future, and how that helped her mature into a better person.

Side note: Wolfhearted was right. Once I actually wrote out Willow's personality and her relationships with others in an objective summary, she kinda WAS a bully, a manipulator, and an overall bitch. Without her charisma to carry her and hide her, I can see why Wolfhearted hates her. Whoops. Never realized how bad she truly was. I'll have to rework her character and overall character arc when officially writing Glitches. Thankfully, I've grown to become a much more empathetic person, so hopefully I can see my character's pitfalls a bit easier and can curb them slightly. Either that, or lean hard into them if I want the character to lose sympathy....

Anyway, after writing nearly 20pgs already, I STILL had to do an X-Future recap. I enjoyed the sunshine a bit by trying to work on that third part to Willow's intro on the front porch. Sadly, my laptop's battery doesn't seem to hold much of a charge anymore - probably because I keep it on charge more often than not; I heard that actually ruins batteries - so I only managed about an hour or so before I had to go inside to charge.

Around 7pm, Wolfhearted came over to hang out and watch the English dubbing of the latest Miraculous Ladybug episode; the original French dub having come out nearly a month ago, so this watch with Wolf was long awaited. Hubby, Wolf, and I chatted a bit about the validity of the time travel showcased in the episode. Then Hubby started up Lucifer again. Wolf had watched the series when it first aired, so he was already caught up on where we were. Sadly, where we were was the third season, which Wolf wasn't a fan of. I have to admit, once he pointed it out, I had to agree that, while still entertaining, the writing did do a slight downward slide. Wolf also grumbled about how the season ended, and, having finished season 3 last night, I have to agree with him. I'll get to that, though.

After Wolfhearted left, Hubby and I kept pushing through season 3. I kept trying to work on my post in order to publish it on Sunday. Problem is, I was so engrossed in the show's story that I never got around to asking Hubby if he could stop the show for the night; which would have allowed me to re-focus on my writing. Instead, I waved the white flag, put my laptop away, and just enjoyed the episodes with Hubby. About 12:30am or so, we finally caved, and went to bed.

Monday
Another slow day at work, so I spent nearly half of my work day just writing up more of Willow's post. I figured, "Meh, I had posted on Monday instead of Sunday before, and this post is MASSIVE, so I'm sure no one will care about it being a day late." However, I was still determined to have it be A DAY late. No more. Sadly, that didn't work out. I got home from work with Willow's story arc post nearing 6pgs long, and every time I thought I was done, I remembered another key event that I needed to work in. I also had to go back to the previous two post drafts, and edit a few things, shift a few things, it was getting a bit overwhelming.

Once again nearly done, I paused to have dinner with Hubby, and he turned on Lucifer as we ate. Bad idea. Yet again, I became too entranced by the show's story to gather up the will to ask Hubby to turn it off so I could finish my post. I kept trying to look away from the show. I figured I could listen to it more than watch it; that way I could work on my post. I couldn't split focus, though. I rarely can split focus. For me, my focus tends to be more all-or-nothing. Is there an opposite to ADHD? If so, I think that's me.

I mean, I get so hyperfocused on a task that hours EASILY fall away without me realizing it. Look at this recap of my week: hours of Lucifer watching, hours reading mangas or "Graceling," hours working on "simple" Tumblr posts, the need for me to have an hourly planner in order to keep TIME AUDITS, the fact that when I would character-build in video games I would need anywhere between 1 and 3 hours to do so, the fact that I would spend about 5hrs playing The Sims and I was only building the house, I would irritate my mother when I used to edit AMVs at home because I would spend HOURS working on it, and even 15 solid minutes trying to perfect the timing of the same 4sec of video. I.... might have a problem....

Anyway, we watched the last of season 3, and Wolfhearted was right. The character motivations seemed to meander, which was bad enough. But the true crime was that it had what would have been the PERFECT season finale episode, only to have two more episodes left in the official season. I mean, the 24th episode - in a 26 episode season - had multiple character arc loose ends tied up. There was a nice conclusion to Amenadiel's main arc, a nice redemption arc for Charlotte, a conclusion for the Villain of the Season arc, Linda and Maze's relationship arc comes to a good conclusion, and the long-awaited curveball to the Chloe/Lucifer ship was FINALLY thrown. You just finish the episode going "Whoo, now THAT is a nice cliffhanger." And, honestly, I was a bit disappointed to find out it WASN'T the season finale. I mean, I was binge watching anyway, I didn't have to wait five months for the cliffhanger to be resolved. I'm sure if I was watching it live I would have been happy to learn I still had a new episode the following week. Maybe the cliffhanger could be resolved then.

Except... nope. I enjoyed the next episode, I did, but it felt like filler. It felt like it was supposed to be mid-season or even a left-over from season 2. After watching how screwy the Miraculous Ladybug episode order becomes on Netflix, I wondered if maybe we HAD watched the season finale of Lucifer, and that episode 25 was actually out of order somehow. Except, right at the very end of the episode, Chloe sort of just sneaks in a vague reference to the curveball thrown in the previous episode. That was it. The cliffhanger wasn't resolved. Chloe and Lucifer didn't even really interact much that episode, instead making it a plucky Chloe and Ella buddy-cop sort of episode. There's the GIANT elephant in the room, but the episode refused to address it at all.

The ACTUAL season finale for the show might have been even worse. It, again, was a fun episode, and I greatly enjoyed it. They even had English author, and creator of the stories Lucifer was based on, Neil Gaiman voice God in this episode. It was such a brilliant move. The problem, though? Well, it's sort of two-fold. First, and most importantly, it's an Alternate Universe episode. God, trying to prove a point to the audience even though we never argued against it, decides to alter just ONE simple thing to Butterfly Affect the Lucifer universe in an experiment to see if the characters will still be, at their core, who they are in the main universe. Will they still gravitate to each other? Will Lucifer and Chloe still fall in love, or did God truly manipulate their feelings in the main universe.

The big problem there is that the main element of the "should have been the season finale" episode was the focus on how involved God truly is. Actually, this is a focus on both episode 24 AND episode 23; two episodes so closely tied that episode 24 takes place within minutes of episode 23 concluding. Further proof that this two-parter should have ended the season instead of the actual final two episodes. Anyway, getting back on topic, episodes 23 and 24 focused on God's Master Plan. How much of His Plan does God truly act upon? How much of the Master Plan is actually Free Will, but misinterpreted as God's Will; puppeteered by The Big Guy? The audience is seemingly given the answer to those questions in episode 24. So, after the ultimate question and series theme of "how involved truly is God" is already fairly resolved, the fact that we are given a whole episode again showcasing how involved God truly is seems redundant.

Again, it's a fun episode, and I'd gladly take it, just... not as a season finale. It's lame to end a season on a filler episode, especially when a perfectly good finale was TWO. EPISODES. BACK. Like... why didn't the AU episode air back when Lucifer was questioning his and Chloe's feelings? I mean, I get it, there's a gut-punch bit of this AU episode that wouldn't be as impactful if it had aired before that "should be the finale" episode, but... gah, it's still annoying.

The other main reason I'm a bit rage-y about this finale, is that, aside from two people - maybe three - it seems the cast of characters would have had much happier endings if God truly did alter the timeline the way showcased in episode 26. Sure, Chloe and Lucifer would have met a touch later in life, and Trixie wouldn't have been born, but it looked like Chloe and Lucifer got close a lot faster in this AU than they did in the main universe. In fact, they may actually have a healthier relationship in this AU. Maze wouldn't have learned to love humanity if the AU were the main timeline. However, her views on humanity changed in the main timeline largely due to Lucifer's own perspective changing thanks to Chloe. It's possible that AU Maze would likewise evolve with Chloe's influence on Lucifer. Same goes for Amenadiel. Linda could re-find her way, as could Ella, especially after meeting Chloe. Dan would FINALLY get something that resembled a happy ending. The poor guy truly is the writers' punching bag. He's a bit brutish, sure, but he's not nearly as much of a jerk as he's painted out to be.

The episode was fun, but it was a bit annoying that this was possibly the "better" timeline, and God clearly knew this, but still didn't officially change things. Oh well, at least the AU gives fodder for fanfic writers I guess....

My point being, I was so engrossed in the ending of the Lucifer season that I didn't finish my posts. I hated admitting defeat and putting my laptop away last night. I felt a bit of a failure for doubly missing my self-appointed deadline.

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I know, I know, I need to give myself a break and forgive my failings. It's not crucial that I get these posts published on Sunday every week. However, it's the principle of the thing. I didn't prioritize properly, and that needs to change. So, this morning, I told Hubby that I have some new TV watching rules.

• Rule #1: Hubby can't just auto-turn-on shows we're jointly watching, like he did this week. If I was home, he had the show on. He knows he can't do that anymore. We have to verbally agree that we want to watch TV together. That way if I have other things I need or want to do, I can do them. This also prevents us from being bums who watch 6hrs straight of TV - between my arrival at home at 6pm until we're about to pass out at midnight. 
• Rule #2: No more than 3 episodes in a row. Netflix has its "Are you still watching" prompt after 3 hrs, and from now on, if we haven't stopped at just one or two episodes, we are using that prompt as our reminder to stop. If we're not watching Netflix, I'll put on a timer to remind us to turn off the TV. Three hours is the length of a movie; longer than most movies, actually. It is more than enough TV per sitting. Now, if we're both home all day, and we wish to watch three episodes earlier in the day, then spend the day doing other things, and circle back to bookend our day with more episodes; fine. But no more major-binges. It's unhealthy. It's pathetic. And I accomplish nothing else with my life.
• Rule #3: When my "Go Write" alarm on my phone goes off every night at 8pm, I. NEED. TO. GO. WRITE! I keep hitting ignore, and it's not helpful in the slightest. I need to get back on track with my priorities. I picked up far too many poor habits over the winter and gloomy spring. I need to start anew and really get my life back in order.

Another thing that I really need is Willow not having so much happen to her over on X-Future... As I mentioned above, I had to keep going back to add in events I kept forgetting about. I'm STILL trying to get everything. I had originally forgotten about her first interaction with the villain Agony, I had to go back to put in the mission she went on with Chayse to find Nix, I even forgot the time-traveling visit from her future son Sebastian!

Also, if Willow's story alone wasn't enough, in order for the audience to truly understand the impact of certain events, such as Devon's leaving the X-Men and subsequent return, I had to also explain DEVON'S main events: the Danger Room run that convinced him to leave, as well as him running into Lia on his mission to rescue Trish from S.H.I.E.L.D.

So Willow's X-Future story arc is becoming MASSIVE! I'm ALMOST done - I think? - and I'm at 6pgs again. I also still need to explain the key differences between what happened on X-Future vs what I want to happen in Glitches. In the end, this post will probably be the longest yet at nearly 9pgs. I hope I still stay within the word-cap of Tumblr posts.... Because these posts are going to be insane when I finally publish them. Which... will be later today. They will. Definitely. My goal today is to POST. WILLOW'S. INTRO.

And then get started on the next character. I'm debating between introducing all of the Glitches characters first, meaning the next character intro should be either Lia or Trish, or should I go in order of whom I know the most about, in which case the next character intro would be either Amara or Jolene.

One of those four girls: Lia, Trish, Amara, or Jolene. Either way, I now know that I need to get right on to writing those introductions. I'm not going to have Thursday, since that's when Omni will be over, and I probably won't have much of tonight and/or tomorrow as I finish Willow's intro and complete my read of "Graceling." So my hope is slow points at work and my day off on Friday to get the main chunks of the next intro done.

Why do my projects ALWAYS become more epic than I first expect them to be?

As for "Graceling"? Well... I'm about 330pgs into a 470pg story. I have to really crank out those last 100-some pages before the book is due on Thursday. I have the third part of the book to go; basically the final act of the story. My thoughts thus far, though?

It's good. As I mentioned above, I'm enjoying it. It captures me, makes me think about what could happen next, and calls for me to keep reading. I had a hard time stopping as I raced through pages 200 through 300; roughly.

Still not feeling "Legend of Zelda" though. It makes me wonder if the person who suggested that connection ever played a LoZ game, or read the book, or both. Sure, it's high fantasy/low magic, but there are tons of other video games within that genre. If one wanted to stick with Nintendo games, Fire Emblem could have worked better. At least in those games there are warring countries, espionage, special abilities, adventuring parties, and overt romance. Zelda has a solo protagonist for most of the games, any romance is highly interpreted by the players as opposed to being overtly expressed within the game itself, usually Hyrule is the only country mentioned, there are multiple different humanoid races/species, there are puzzles to solve and temples/dungeons to conquer, and the only "special powers" include Zelda using some sort of light magic via her Triforce of Wisdom.

It just... it doesn't fit. Granted, the suggestion was accurate. I have played Legend of Zelda, and I am indeed enjoying "Graceling" but I don't know how closely those two things actually relate. Makes me wonder even more about the other two books on my list.

Well... four books now, because "Graceling" also has a companion story called "Fire" as well as a sequel called "Bitterblue." Which reminds me, WHAT IS UP WITH THE NAMES THIS AUTHOR COMES UP WITH!? Yes, Bitterblue is a character name, and I HATE that she doesn't have a nickname. At least Greening Grandemalion gets the nickname Po, because I'm sure Greening would be just as exhausting to write/read all the time as Bitterblue. Also, at least everyone in the book admits that Greening Grandemalion is a terrible name, which is why Po prefers the nickname. Now, Po's other family members have much improved names, ones such as Ror, Silvern, Skye, and Ashen. Then, you get kooky again with Tealiff...

You also have the main character Katsa, her mentor Oll, her main adventuring companion Giddon - whose name I keep reading as Gideon - Katsa's cousin Raffin, and her uncle Randa.

I mean, I shouldn't critique since I loudly proclaim frequently my inability to come up with names, but... where did any of THOSE names even come from?

Also, the next time I complain about how "on the nose" Gyateara is for the name of a planet, I really need to remember the names of other fantasy locations:

• Middle Earth - Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit
• Westeros (for a western continent) - A Song of Ice and Fire series
• Essos (for an eastern continent) - A Song of Ice and Fire series
• Nander (a northern country) - Graceling
• Wester (a western country) - Graceling
• Sunder (a southern country) - Graceling
• Estill (an eastern country) - Graceling
• Middluns (the country Katsa is native to; nestled in the middle of the above 4 countries) - Graceling

Also, in "Graceling," each king is, presumably, known by his first name instead of his familial name. So King Ror's given name is Ror, and his last name would be Grandemalion; presumably, since he's Po's father. The other kings then, presumably have the GIVEN names of Birn, Murgon, Drowden, Leck, and Thigpen. Thigpen? Seriously? Anyway, my point being that the capital cities of each country, the cities where these kings themselves live, are all named after them.

These are not new monarchies. So, does that mean THIS is why it's like Legend of Zelda? The heir to the thrown has to bear the current king's given name? Considering Leck was adopted into his royal family when he was about 13, I'm thinking no... Also, Raffin is the crowned prince, and his father's name is Randa. So, what? The capital cities are renamed whenever a new king takes the thrown? Middluns' capital will be named Raffin City once Randa dies or is dethrowned?

Perhaps this is why I haven't gotten very far with my Gyateara build. I think so much about stuff like this that I never get past the planning portion of my world....

Anyway, names aside, I am enjoying the book, but this post is so long already, and I yet again posted late, so I'll discuss my views of the story itself next week. Until then, I'm hiding away so I can get my reading and writing done.

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