Prepping for Camp

Happy summer, everyone! Sadly, for me, the summer thus far has consisted of oppressive heat with humidity bringing the heat index close to 110-degrees Fahrenheit. Either that, or torrential downpours. Not the best start for a “relax outside and write” type of summer, but it hasn't even been a week yet. Besides, the solstice itself was fantastic. Hubby and I celebrated at Shadow's place. He has a large man-made pond connecting his backyard to that of his 20-or-so neighbors' that he swims and canoes in. He also has a fairly decent-sized yard and a fire pit. So Hubby managed to build a tall and super-hot fire in the pit that we sat, ate, and later danced around. We attempted to roast marshmallows, but the flames were so hot you had to cover your face to get close enough to roast anything. We had a bunch of s'mores regardless. We just were crafty on how we got close to the flame. We even had a small, nothing-actually-shot-into-the-air, fireworks show on Shadow's pier. It was a good night.

Trish was thrilled.

It's been so long since I've written anything for either X-Future or Glitches. I do miss writing for My Girls. No one has seen nor heard from Lia in ages. Colette and Crystal are all but forgotten; hiding in the depths of my mind. Amara pokes her head out every once and a while. As per usual, Willow and Trish are the dominant two; begging for me to write about them again.

I may have to indulge them. I do still have a few WIPs about both of them that I need to finish up. Problem is that Ronoxym has been super busy lately, and hasn't really had any time to write. It's hard to co-write something when your co-author can't really find the spare time to help. I already feel like I'm taking over the stories; I don't want to completely “steal” them by finishing them off without his input at least.

On the other hand, Cyhyr and I have been doing more and more chatting about writing as she's starting to get back into the rhythm and habit of doing so. Perhaps she can poke her husband a bit to jump start his writing too.

Speaking of Cy, we're doing Camp NaNo together. I even set up a cabin for our online writing group. It seems like just the two of us are participating though, so, as per Cy's suggestion, I'm probably going to be opening up the cabin to “randos.” If you're planning on doing Camp in July and want to join our cabin, feel free to contact me over on the Camp NaNo site, and I'll send an invite. The morning of Thursday, June 28th I'll open up our cabin to the public and I won't be able to send invites anymore; it's just the luck of the draw at that point. So be sure to contact me quickly if you want in.

In regards to my Camp prep, well.... I have mixed feelings.

For a while now I have known the basic idea of what I wanted to do for “One and the Same.” I wanted it to be based on the movie “You've Got Mail” but, as I expressed in earlier blog entries, I can't get an exact parallel. For one, in YGM the protagonists are heated rivals in their everyday lives, and only deep companions in their secret online lives. Adrien and Marinette don't hate each other, nor are they rivals, so that alone makes things a bit odd to try to create a true crossover sort of thing. Secondly, Ladybug isn't in love with Chat Noir, so the dynamic with regards to the “secret lives” isn't the same either. I mean, I can easily tweak both to still get it to fit, but it's already starting off with challenges. The next challenge is that in YGM one person – Joe – knows that the rival and the online love interest are the same person and loves said person completely. Easy enough. I have that set up with Adrien in “Peeping Tomcat.” The snag is that the second person – Kathleen – doesn't know the love interest and rival are the same, and only romantically cares for the person they know nothing about – NY152. Which would mean that Marinette would have to be in love with Chat Noir, but have no romantic interest in Adrien; the exact opposite of what is actually going on.

Now, it would be easy to do a role-reversal and have Marinette be “Joe” and Adrien be “Kathleen,” resulting in Marinette playfully picking on Ladybug as she tries to woo Adrien, while also testing the waters to see why he loves Ladybug in the first place. Unfortunately, that's not possible as a sequel to PT. The other snafu is that a role-reversal would also flip the Joe/Kathleen dynamic. She's the daughter of a beloved little shop owner whose business is collapsing under the competition of a conglomerate run by her rival, the easy going son of an aggressive and distant business man.

Perhaps sometime down the road I'll do a true crossover, complete with an AU to create the rivalry/love dynamic better fitting the movie plot. It's easy enough to do. Despite Nino's suggestion that Adrien explain the misunderstanding about the gum on Marinette's seat, he never gets the courage to do so. Marinette continues to hold a grudge against Adrien, assuming he's just another shallow Trust Fund kid and super model. Meanwhile, she falls for her flirty, attractive partner who encouraged her when she thought she could never be the hero Paris needed. Since Gabriel's fashion business wouldn't really affect the Dupain-Cheng bakery the rivalry would probably just stay in school.

Might be a fun story/series to write. Another plot bunny to let grow on the farm.

I may never leave this fandom at this rate....

Getting back to “One and the Same” and my Camp prep. I realized that with so many obstacles preventing me to do an exact parallel for the movie “You've Got Mail,” I had to instead focus on STYLIZING the story off the movie.

Namely, how Joe, knowing Kathleen and Shopgirl are the same person, managed to figure out Kathleen's true feelings about NY152 while also wooing Kathleen as himself. That way he knew she would be so in love with both sides of him that she could forgive his company running hers out of business. She would be happy that her love NY152 is also the man she's grown to love: Joe.

THAT is what I want for OatS. Adrien has to figure out what Marinette's true feelings for him are while also winning her over as Chat Noir. That way, he hopes, she'll forgive him for spying on her for a week and finding out that she's Ladybug. She'll just be so happy that her love Adrien is also the man she's grown to love: Chat Noir.

That is the parallel I want to draw. I just need to figure out how to get there.

I created three plots/sub-plots in “Peeping Tomcat”: Adrien, as Chat Noir, needing to confess to Marinette that he spent a week spying on her; Adrien needing to figure out if he loves Marinette for who she is, or just because she's Ladybug; and Adrien needing to restore his confidence as a superhero and Ladybug's partner.

In the latest chapter I hope I managed to tie up the issue with Adrien's feelings for Marinette.

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It was a tough go, which I'll get into later in this post. The point I want to make here is that I'm still left with two more plotline issues. I've decided to use Chat Noir's confession in “One and the Same,” but I have to tie it up enough in PT that readers don't feel cheated. Like I'm forcing them to read OatS in order to get the satisfaction they want in knowing that Chat did the right thing. I don't want people raging at the end of my story: “WTF!? Adrien STILL NEEDS TO TELL HER! You can't let him get away without doing so.”

I mean, I fear I'm going to get those reviews regardless, but I hope to present everything in just a way that people will understand and just kind of let it go??? I mean, anyone who is in the fandom knows that Marinette does just as creepy – maybe creepier – things.

She has her bedroom practically wallpapered with his pictures. She has a print-out of his personal schedule, which she memorizes to the best of her ability. She brings a kid she's babysitting to the park specifically to watch Adrien's photo shoot. Granted, for that one she ended up doing the right thing and interacting with her charge instead of ignoring the kid, but still.... She's also stolen his phone in an attempt to erase an embarrassing voicemail she left him. She conned a police officer into thinking a fake “no parking” sign she made was real, in order to force Adrien's bodyguard to abandon him in an attempt to find a different parking spot; all so she could attempt to coerce Adrien into going on a rickshaw ride with her and essentially kidnapping him for a date. She bumps Max from a competition he had been looking forward to all year – a competition she knew nothing about just five minutes before, mind you – in order to be teamed up with Adrien and force him into some alone time with her so they could train.

I mean, watching someone from outside their bedroom window is CREEPY. Buuuut, he didn't do it for any sort of dirty, kinky, sexual gratification or anything like that. He kept it innocent and informational, like Jane Goodall observing prime apes or something. So is he really that much worse than Marinette?

I hope not! I hope he feels at least on par with her....

Anyway, my point is, I have to give “Peeping Tomcat” a satisfying ending without that confession, but I also have to figure out when I want the confession in “One and the Same.”

That's actually my biggest hurdle.

I was thinking that the reveal would be a sort of great “All is Lost” moment. Everything is going great. Adrien thinks Marinette could possibly love both sides of him equally. He tries to test the waters by asking one more time for Ladybug to let them reveal themselves to each other, and when she declines he yells that he already knows she's Marinette because he saw Tikki while spying on her for a week. Trust is destroyed. She is in shock. There is no way she could be with Chat Noir now. She still is going to go to her date with Adrien, but could he start a relationship with her knowing she'll never forgive his Chat Noir half?

I think it's a great climactic disaster. Everything will build up to that. No other tragedy throughout the story will be as bad as that.

Buuuuut, there's two issues with that.

The first issue is building the trust back up. That in and of itself could be a whole story. Can I really build it up again in just a chapter or two as I conclude after the climax? Could Marinette possibly be THAT forgiving? Maybe after considering how creepy SHE is?

The second issue is, if I have the confession as the climactic disaster, what am I going to use as the “Mid-Act II” disaster? There should be three throughout a story: an inciting incident, a larger incident for the middle of “act 2,” and a climactic issue, before hitting the conclusion.

If I decide to shift the confession to the middle disaster after all, there are some pros and cons there too. The pros are that it brings OatS closer to “You've Got Mail” since Marinette/Ladybug could be as distrusting of Chat Noir as Kathleen was of Joe. Chat trying to rebuild that trust could be similar to Joe building the awkward friendship with Kathleen. Having that parallel would be nice. And I'd have an interesting story where the trust must be returned to their relationship.The main con is that if the confession is the middle disaster something even WORSE has to be the climax. What could I do that would be worse?

So, for now, I have the confession as the climax, which means I have an opening – an akuma attack having Chat Noir nearly reveal that he knows who Ladybug is, to set up everything – and I have the ending.

The following is what I have for my ending if the confession is the climax. Obviously, spoilers ahead:

Marinette agrees to go on a date with Adrien, but her dream coming true doesn't feel as amazing as she thought it would because now she's torn between him and Chat Noir. As Ladybug, she meets up with Chat Noir, who tries to cash in on her confession that she's having romantic feelings for him. He asks once more to reveal themselves to each other, and Ladybug adamantly refuses. Frustrated with her, he confesses that he already knows that she's Marinette because he spent a week spying on her, and yet Hawk Moth is still no closer to figuring them out. He accuses her of being silly by thinking they can't reveal themselves to their partner. Ladybug points out that the akuma (at the start of the story) almost DID find out because of him knowing, and that is why she can't know who he is. She's also obviously pissed that he invaded her privacy, and ended up finding out who she was as a result. She storms off to her date.

Adrien doesn't know what to do, because he doesn't want to start up a relationship with Marinette as Adrien; it will be like building a relationship on a lie: not letting her know he's Chat Noir. Plagg reassures him that she'll trust him again after she blows off steam. He's told that he needs to trust in how much she cares about both halves of him, promise to NEVER break her trust in any way again, and apologize for what he did. He nervously goes to his date.

Meanwhile, Marinette is understandably upset as she waits for Adrien. Tikki is sympathetic, but also points out that what's done is done, and that Marinette has invaded Adrien's privacy as well. Marinette calms down as she realizes that Tikki is right, and that she should give Chat Noir a chance to make up for everything. She agrees that perhaps it's best to have Chat reveal himself to her since he already knows who she is anyway. Best that she knows who he is too so they can better protect each other.

Realizing that, once she knows who Chat Noir is, the two of them could actually start dating, she wonders if that's what she really wants. She compares Adrien to Chat and realizes that maybe she actually likes Chat more. She can't do the date with Adrien, as much as she had always wanted it. Just before she leaves, however, Adrien shows up.

Marinette awkwardly breaks it to Adrien that there is actually someone else she wants to give a chance to. She vaguely describes Chat Noir, and Adrien internally realizes that she picked his superhero half, and is elated by the prospect of her wanting their civilian forms to be together. Knowing she's ready to find out who he is, he introduces her to Plagg and transforms into Chat Noir. Marinette weeps with joy, confusion, anger that he had yet ANOTHER secret, fear that HE was the one in danger beside her all this time, and relief that she doesn't have to choose between her two loves.

The story concludes with her telling him how happy she is that he turned out to be Chat Noir, and they finally share their first kiss (well, their second if you count Ladybug breaking the love spell on Chat Noir in the episode "Dark Cupid").

So I think I have a fairly decent ending figured out. And I have the opening I mentioned before.

I DON'T HAVE A MIDDLE THOUGH!!!! Ya know, the MAJORITY OF THE STORY!?

I don't know how Adrien goes from “Shoot, the akuma nearly had me reveal both my own identity and Ladybug's. I guess she was right that it's too dangerous to know. Probably shouldn't reveal myself to her then...” to “Come on, Ladybug! What harm is there in knowing? Let's reveal ourselves so we can start dating.”

I don't know how Chat Noir and Marinette start hanging out and how he woos her in that persona. I don't even know if I want Chat Noir to woo Marinette at all. Maybe he's still focused on Ladybug, knowing winning LB over also wins over Marinette. So, instead of “THIS STORY WILL HAVE ALL THE MARICHAT GOODNESS” the story is now “Adrienette vs Ladynor: who wins?” That way it doesn't seem to Marinette that Chat Noir is trying to reveal himself to a random citizen, nor does he seem like a “player” when she – as Marinette – believes he loves HER but he's still trying to reveal himself to LB to open up the possibility of them dating.

It's... complicated....

I also don't know how Chat is going to know that she's falling for that part of him. Nor do I know how to have flirty Adrien prove to Marinette that he likes her, but still avoid actually asking her out and/or starting up a relationship.

So.... THE MAJORITY OF THE PLOT is still a giant question mark.

And Camp starts next month... Er... next WEEK.

Even if I use the month as my sort of “test kitchen” to pants my way through the story, the amount of edits and rewrites I'll probably have to do will majorly delay me.

I don't think I'm going to have this story up at the beginning of October like I originally thought. I was under the impression that in the 15 weeks it kept me to post “Peeping Tomcat” I would be working on OatS, and just have to remember to publish the next chapter of PT on Fridays.

Instead, I'm ripping my hair out trying to rewrite/rework/edit the chapters in just seven days. Heck, this past week I didn't post until 2:45pm instead of my normal 8:30am because I just couldn't get the chapter to work. I also “wasted” the Thursday evening before by partying with Shadow. Whoops....

I'm still working on the rework of the next chapter, and have to get a nice head start on the final chapter before visiting my mom for the weekend and starting up Camp on Sunday!

Which probably means the same thing will happen with OatS. I'll start posting in October – if I can – and edit/post as I go until the end of the year. Will I not be able to do NaNo in November because I'll be too busy trying to keep my posting schedule for OatS?

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

This is a much more aggressive schedule than I was prepared for...

I probably won't get as much accomplished this year as I had wanted. I still have the Trish/Devon WIP and Varekai WIP I wanted to finish. I thought I could do one per quarter of the year, but since I didn't start posting PT until after the first quarter of the year was over, I guess I should have known I was over my head.

I mean, I shouldn't be so hard on myself, I guess. I'm working on a story that is currently at 65,000+ words, and will probably finish with at least 70,000 words. OatS will probably be about the same size.

I may not be like other fanfiction writers who have seven stories going at once, or a new story published and completed each month, or a new short each day on Tumblr. Maybe it's because I'm not disciplined enough. Maybe it's because I don't type/write fast enough. Maybe it's because they have ADHD and NEED to have multiple projects going, and completed quickly, in order to produce anything. Maybe they have more time to write than I do. Maybe I overthink my plots. Maybe I edit more than they do. I could keep going.

Who knows what is different about me compared to them? I just know that I'll depress myself if I try to hold myself to their standards. So I'll try not to. I'll try to be alright with not producing as much as I wanted, because at least I'm still producing. At least I still have a lot of love.

Speaking of which, I haven't gotten to my 24hr or mid-week stats yet!

The 24hr stats were a bit wonky this week. As I mentioned, I posted my story about 6hrs late on Friday. So my 24hr stats went from 2:45pm Friday to 2:45pm Saturday, instead of my normal 8:30am to 8:30am. I don't know if it is because I struggled with this chapter, and perhaps the quality noticeably dropped, or if I just missed my “window” by being late, but my stats were a bit “meh” this go.

FFN: 726 views, 4 faves, 4 followers, and 2 reviews
AO3: 287 hits and 8 kudos
DA: 6 views

Total Results: 1019 views, 12 faves, 4 followers, and 2 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 2 likes

FFN reviews:
  1. Great job, I think you really captured his convoluted and panicked thoughts!
  2. Review by Jowy's Pixie; see below

 Jowy's Pixie: Awww, seeing Adrien interact with Marinette while knowing the truth was heartbreaking. The emotional turmoil was too much to bear. But still, grrrrrr Adrien "just friends" Agreste certainly has made a vengeful return. I really feel like I could bop that boy on the head sometimes. But I can imagine why he's feeling as confused and cornered as he is. He knows that they can't know each other's identities and he found out Ladybug's by accident which he knows she likely won't be very happy about. And of course there's the little detail of him admitting to practically spying on her as well.
          The soup scene between them was so adorable! I was squealing the entire time! Is his little plan to potentially woo her as Chat Noir going to work? I mean, Adrien's secrets have got to be found out at some point right? Stuff like that always catches up to people one way or another. Starting to feel like there's no hope for Adrien at this point ahahaha. Awww, only two chapters left? I'm going to be really sad to see it end, but I'm also excited at the same time to see how you do end this. Awesome chapter as always, keep up the great work! Good luck writing!

It was a relief to get those reviews. As I mentioned, this chapter was a struggle. It was a rough week. Each chapter; each week, I added a bit more drama. It's great for building up a story; to pile on the troubles so the readers don't know how the characters are going to get out. Problem is, even I don't know how they are going to get out. It's easy to set up the drama. It's darn hard to fix it.

I had multiple false starts. I wrote and re-wrote and re-re-wrote. Nothing was working. I couldn't figure out how to handle everything. Nothing seemed to happen in the chapter. It didn't advance anything. The story didn't move forward at all.

I had to stop and figure out what were the issues that needed to be solved and how I wanted to do so. I came up with the plot lines listed above: (1) confess to Marinette that he was spying and thus knows she's Ladybug, (2) get confidence in his skills as a superhero again, (3) figure out if he truly loves Marinette for Marinette.

I knew I wanted to conquer issue number 3 first, but I still had troubles. I couldn't get into the mindset. Then I remembered the scene where Marinette realizes she's in love with Adrien: "the umbrella scene" as the fandom calls it. Complete with the song unofficially titled "in the rain." The song wasn't officially released, but someone called DavidRussell323 recreated it.

I had the song on repeat for about three hours or so. Finally, FINALLY I was in the right headspace. In the end I still wasn't 100% solid with the chapter, but I was content, and I have to learn to let go. I kept reminding myself that, while I have to strive for quality I'm proud with, and quality my readers deserve, I also don't have a professional editor to help me. I'm doing this solo, and for free. I have to stop holding myself to such a high standard. As bad as it sounds, I have to remember to go for "good enough" otherwise I'll never let anything go. I'd probably STILL be working on that chapter. I'd probably never finish writing the one for this Friday.

I can't let it lock me down. When I'm nervous about releasing the "good enough" chapters it makes those kind reviews that much more emotional for me. Reminds me that I'm doing alright. That I can do this. That I made the right choice.

On top of those reviews, I also received a nice pick-me-up on Sunday. During my obsessive checks to see if I received any new reviews, I noticed I actually had more likes/faves/kudos. Adding them to my handy dandy spreadsheet, I discovered I had over 300 total likes/faves/kudos across all three sites since “Peeping Tomcat” first went live at the end of March.

Then, some time between when I checked Sunday night, and when I checked again Monday morning, I surpassed 200 followers between FFN and AO3!

I know, it seems like small peanuts in the grand scheme of things. Especially with over 18,000 views. I mean, that's barely 1% liking, and less than even that for followers. But screw that! I'm still excited about my milestones. Like I just said a few paragraphs up, I need to not compare myself to any other writers.

The only one I should compare myself to is my past self. Am I doing better than she did? Then I'm improving and I'll just keep improving until I'm where I want to be.

I did a whole mini-speech and thank you about the milestones on my Tumblr.

Peeping Tomcat Milestones

As for my Tuesday mid-week stats? Let's see how much I improved from “past self”:

FFN: 1274 views, 9 faves, 13 followers, 3 reviews, and I was added to another community. Neat
AO3: 407 views, 14 kudos, 3 bookmarks, and 1 review
DA: 10 views, 1 fave, and my first comment! Whoo!

Total Results: 1691 views, 24 faves, 16 followers, and 5 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 3 likes

New Reviews:
  1. I can feel him blushing off the words awww
  2. Hes turning into Marinette! Awww so cute! (another cassy1994 review)
  3. This whole thing has been super adorable. I'm loving it. Love how now Adrien is doing the spastic freaking out and stammering and running away thing. Poor boy. Hopefully he can figure himself out. And figures out that Ladybug is only really pushing him away because she likes HIM so much. I plan to enjoy the next few chapters too! Can't wait for next Friday! Thanks for posting!

Does my heart good.

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by Birdman, Inc.

Another cool note? Along with the milestones of getting my first comment on DeviantArt, hitting 300 overall likes, and getting over 200 followers, I hit two milestones on FFN alone.

Namely, I have 100 faves and received 50 reviews! It is also now officially my longest story on FFN at 67,642 words, including Author's Notes, so take with a grain of salt. The previous holder of that title was my novelization of the X-Future roleplay board: X-Future: The Second Generation Begins at 67,600 words. Third place is now the first chaptered fanfic I attempted writing: What Is Truly Meant To Be at 61,765 words. The kicker there though is that while PT and TSGB both have 13 or 14 chapters for their word counts, WITMTB only has 8!

"Peeping Tomcat" also now has nearly twice as many views as the second place contender: WITMTB. The "Hey Arnold" fic has 7,369 views compared to PT's 13,761! Wow! "Peeping Tomcat" is also far superior with the 100 faves - second place is The Master of Breaking and Entering at 51. It is also kicking butt and taking names with the 177 follows, compared to second place WITMTB at 38 alerts. It probably had more but people dropped them when I stopped posting, but still....

Trying to ride the high of all these milestones, I tried to finish my prep work for Camp NaNoWriMo. I read through the workbook "Ready. Set. Novel!" Unfortunately, there's not much in there to help with fanfiction: setting and character builds are already figured out, and I already had the rough plot. I went back through the Snowflake Outline method created by Randy Ingermanson, which helped a little, but you saw above how far I was able to get with that.

I'm now behind in figuring out what to do for my next chapter, and I'm going to lose most of my Thursday. I'll be driving down to visit my mom once I get out of work, so whatever I can do while at work is more-or-less my last shot. I need to really crack down tonight and tomorrow!

This whole "get Adrien comfortable as Chat Noir" thing is going to be tough. I'd like for Marinette to be the one to comfort him about it, but I don't know how to have the subject come up. It's going to be tricky, and I feel a bunch more false starts are in my future....

Wish me luck! I got to get back to work!

Also, for the reason why I'm visiting Mom in the first place, let's all take a moment to celebrate her being 23rd year of being cancer free!

Fitting, considering

Fear of Commitment

Last week was kind of chaotic. One of my co-workers went on vacation, so I ended up working nine days straight. I also realized, as I mentioned last week, that the chapter for Friday needed an almost complete rewrite. Actually, all of the closing chapters do. There's a lot more depth and complexity that needed to be added into this conclusion. Part of me likes it, because it adds more to the story overall. Another part of me wishes it just remained a simple “Do I like Marinette for who she is, or just because she's Ladybug?”

The chapters would be all set if it stayed that simple.

I still have to find a way to work in Adrien's feeling of inadequecy as both a friend and as a superhero. I think I've sort of worked out the “Marinette deserves to know” bits, but I probably need to lay more foundation. I have the added layer now of Plagg and Tikki's relationship. AND I have the “Why do I like Marinette” question to solve.

In three more chapters.

THREE MORE!

Guys, that means July 6th should be my last update of “Peeping Tomcat”! That will be it! I will have finally completed one of my multi-chapter stories; excluding the two-part “I Caught You A Star.”

This is so big for me. I've written a couple of stories that have gone on for multiple chapters. One of my first fanfics, “What Is Truly Meant To Be,” has multiple chapters. I posted the first couple chapters of “Please, Let Me Explain” in an attempt to push the project forward. I shared some of my failed NaNo attempts. I tried to convert X-Future into the multi-chapter story “X-Future: The Second Generation Begins.”

Each project, while I still have vague illusions of completing them, have been otherwise abandoned. PT though? I actually completed the first draft for it. I'm most of my way through my manuscript. I just have 3 weeks to go, and all the encouragement to complete it.

I'M GOING TO DO IT! I'm going to actually complete a multi-chapter project! Are you excited? Because I'm about to burst over here. I don't even know what will be going on that first week of July. It's going to be nuts!

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by Birdman, Inc

I'm going to have to work on edits for MY LAST CHAPTER that first week. I'll also have to start working on my Camp NaNo project of writing the first draft of “One and the Same.” AND there's Independence Day on the 4th, so I'll probably be doing some sort of hang-out. Then on July 6th there will be the bitter-sweetness of completing my first novel.

It will be weird to not have anything new to post – presumably – on July 13th. I might have to do another Cat Noir-centric one-shot for Friday the Thirteenth.

I dunno. I'm thinking way ahead of the game. I need to focus on the task at hand: editing THIS WEEK'S update. Go from there.

In the meantime, don't forget to read this past Friday's update for “Peeping Tomcat.”

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I was still kind of nervous about the chapter. I had so many loose ends to start tying up, and while I knew that, it didn't quite register until I saw the reviewers commenting about them. I had to make sure those loose ends were in neat little bows by the end of this thing, or I fear my readers will feel cheated.

I also wasn't sure if I should have kept in Plagg's kitchen destruction. It felt like it derailed the chapter, but at the same time, I felt it showed a lot of character. There was a great deal of back and forth before I decided to keep it in, but even when I pushed “submit” on the websites I was nervous that I didn't make the right move. As I discussed with Jowy's Pixie this past week, there are so many directions this story could still go, and I'm trying my hardest to find the most satisfying path.

It's mildly terrifying. Especially with how much love I've been getting thus far. The last thing I'd want to do is disappoint my readers. I don't want to be one of those authors who had a fantastic first two acts, but trip during the third act; ruining the experience of the whole thing.

Kind of like one of Hubby's friends from high school. He was OBSESSED with the Matrix movies, but was so disappointed in the third installment he didn't even want to watch the first two anymore. When I was in middle school I was one of the few kids I knew who actually HATED the Goosebumps stories by R.L. Stein. For me, most of them seemed to have that World Reset button at the end. That “it was all just a dream” mentality where nothing that happens in the book ever has lasting significance. Everything goes back to the status quo. I felt so cheated after reading about five of those books and having them end like that.

Oddly enough, maybe because they were geared towards a more mature audience that could handle a more permanent world change, R.L. Stein's Fear Street series was my go-to. Much more Junior Stephen King feel.

While I know I'm not going to have that “World Reset”/Status Quo Remains Unchanged ending, I still don't want that kind of disappoint from my readers. I want them satisfied with how I conclude everything.

Maybe that's why I have never completed a story before. It's easy for me to come up with the inciting incident as my spark of inspiration, and from there I can throw tons of curveballs at a character to add drama. But cleaning up the mess? And trusting that I did it well enough to satisfy my readers? Meeeh?

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman, Inc

Maybe that's why I'm such trash at writing sex scenes. Same deal: I can write the inciting incident – where the characters connect physically – and I can write all the build-up and foreplay. Writing the “conclusion” however? Meeeeh?

Goes hand-in-hand with my inability to write in my dozens of fancier notebooks. They remain blank on my bookshelf; waiting for that story that NEEDS to be put in that specific notebook. I never seem to find THAT story though. It's a fear of commitment. Of permanence. Once I start writing in that notebook, that's it. No going back. I can't change my mind without crossing things out, or tearing pages out, or having two different stories in the same notebook. If I screw it up, I would have ruined the notebook. So nothing is written in them.

Ending my stories? Going “this is it; all other possibilities are now closed” is just as nerve wrecking to me.

Ironically, while this fear of commitment crosses over into just about all of my creatives - drawings, world building, scrapbooking, crochet projects, painting minis, even coloring in coloring books instead of photocopied pages, etc - I have absolutely no fear of it when it comes to relationships.... So, yay? Hence having the husband....

Luckily, I have been getting excellent encouragement throughout this story, and it really helps me stick to my guns on how I did conclude it, and how I want to tweak it for the official publication.

FFN: 780 views, 2 faves, 1 follower, and 4* reviews
AO3: 188 views, 4 kudos, 1 bookmark, and 3 reviews
DA: 14 views, 1 fave, but still not a single comment

Total Results: 982 views, 7 faves, 2 followers, and 7* reviews

(*There are 5 reviews listed on FFN, but one is actually a two-part by a guest reviewer who hit "submit" too soon)

Tumblr Notes: 5 likes

FFN reviews:
  1. Good read on Plagg's attitude towards reveals there. While Plagg did give the 'don't tell anyone' speech, he did seem almost encouraging of Chat sneaking a peek of detransforming Ladybug. So it does seem that he makes an exception for other Miraculous wielders - that, or he's sick of the love square and at least part of him wants a reveal so it's over and done with. (Bits about the Plagg/Tikki relationship cut for space.)
  2. Awwww plagg!!!!
  3. Plagg seemed to help a little, but Adrien does seem stubborn about himself. I wonder if Mari is going to confess being a stalker as well. Will hearing Chat Noir confess about how guilty he feels guilt her into feeling guilty about stalking Adrien, and that will help calm him down? Adrien feels he's the only creeper in the relationship, and maybe finding out Mari does it too will help. Or maybe Mari's romantic logic will kick in, and she'll feel flattered her crush fell for her twice...Mari can be unpredictable. (Abridged Version)
  4. "Why would she keep on a peeping tomcat as a partner?" whoo title drop :D
  5. I absolutely love the idea of Plagg and Tikki being siblings! And I feel so bad for Adrien's predicament. I can feel the anxiety that boy seems to radiate. I love it! (another of my periodic repeat reviewers: comics-give-me-life)
  6. Looking forward to the next chapter. Though I honestly think a part of Marinette has known about Chat Noir spying on her for a while... (Bits about the Plagg/Tikki relationship cut for space.)
  7. Long guest review (the one that was accidentally split in 2) listed below.

Look at that 24hr turn out! I'm now getting close to 1000 views within the first 24hrs after posting! It's going to be a shame that I'll have to disappear for a couple of months to write my next story, and possibly start from scratch, reader wise, once I do. I'd much rather ride the coattails of this story and have that high view count from the get-go, but I'll have to have faith that I'll get there again. That I'm now more well known in the fandom, and at least a large portion of them will come back once I post OatS.

Also, I'm not sure how to feel about the reviews. This is probably one of the largest 24hr responses I've received. The trick here, though, is that at the end of the chapter, in my Author's Notes, I asked my readers what they thought about my interpretation of Plagg and Tikki's relationship. Most of the “reviews” were readers answering my question. All of them agreed with how I set the kwamis' relationship up, so... yay.

As for that two-part review on FFN?

GUEST: I find it odd that a romantic relationship between the two kwami is assumed when it is always bought up that the wielders of those two miraculous aren't always lovers whenever this lore is used.
        It's the having it both ways situation. Like how Adrien loves Ladybug. He knows he loves her meaning he knows what those feelings are, can identity them, yet is constantly written not realizing he feels that way for Marinette. And while he technically does feel that way about her, it's only because he doesn't know she is Ladybug that he doesn't know he has feelings for her, not because he was homeschooled. No, really, **** off with that presumption about those who were homeschooled, guys. I'm offended for them with the characterization often given from these fics. To him, they are two different people so think of it as Marinette isn't Ladybug, and you will see how ridiculous it is. If he knows he loves one girl, that he knows if he has feelings for another girl as well. Making it otherwise is trying to have it both ways. Schrödinger's self awareness.
        For me, I don't think of it as the miraculous influencing any romantic feelings. I see it more as the two of them being chosen based on compatibility, and not compatibility being influenced by the miraculous. I doubt that in all of Paris, that only two children offered an old man help. I would say aura came into play and that they were the best fit that Master Fu found.
        Now, back to Schrödinger's awareness. I am aware you have Adrien "not aware of feelings" for Marinette to an extent, but from what I got in your story, they really only developed over that week he was watching her, and realized them almost immediately, so you're good. [sic]

I'll be honest. I wasn't really sure how to respond to this review, so I was a bit glad that it was a guest poster, which means I literally could not respond to it. I think I get what the poster was trying to say, in which I will like to give this rebuttal:

It is possible that his feelings for Marinette aren't the same as they are for Ladybug. Love does feel different depending on how deep into it you are and/or what you are in love with. Prior to my husband, I had three boyfriends, four crushes, three flirt-buddies, and went on a few dates with one guy. My feelings for each of these men were different. If I was with my husband at the same time as any of the above, the feelings I have/had for him would feel similar in some aspects, but also vastly different in others. If I knew I was in love with Hubby, and felt something intense but still "less" for one of those crushes, I might not have realized it was "love" as well. I might have read it the way Adrien does in the show - and therefore in most fanfics - as an intense friendship.

Heck, Hubby even informed me, when we first started dating, that I didn't realize that I was flirting with guys and/or they were flirting back with me. I come from a very physical family, so I hug everyone. I give cheek kisses to everyone. I hold everyone's hand. I play with everyone's hair. I lean in close. I snuggle next to people when we're in confined spaces. I give massages, scratch backs, keep steady eye contact while conversing, and steal food or sips of drinks.

Basically, I had to learn about personal bubbles once I became an adult....

So, in truth, for guys I had crushes on - including my now-husband - it kept me a while to realize I wasn't just being my normal intrusive extroverted self. I was flirting. And there were times where I only stopped to evaluate and realize my crush once someone pointed it out:
 - "Were you flirting with him?"
 - "Pffft. No. We're just really... good... fri- WOAH!"

I mean, that's how I figured out I liked my first boyfriend... when I was also about 14....

My point being, that I TOTALLY understand Adrien's stupid, infuriating denseness when it comes to his own crush. How he feels about Marinette is probably worlds different to how he feels about Ladybug. If he knows that intense feeling is "love" then he might think the more subtle crush isn't love; just intense friendship.

But anyway, that reviewer - who may or may not have been critiquing me? - aside, I also got much more love throughout the week.

FFN: 1157 views, 4 faves, 5 followers, and 7* reviews!
AO3: 299 views, 6 kudos, 1 bookmark, and 3 reviews
DA: 18 views, 2 faves, but still not a single comment

Total Results: 1474 views, 12 faves, 6 followers, and 10* reviews

(*There are 5 reviews listed on FFN, but one is actually a two-part by a guest reviewer who hit "submit" too soon; see above)

Tumblr Notes: 11 total; 9 likes and 2 reblogs

FFN reviews:
  1. I really liked this chapter. Also I can't believe its already been 12 chapters.(Cassy1994's review)
  2. I just want to point out that fashion design is kind of like game design. If you’re a novice you wouldn’t just show someone your designs right off unless you’re being serious about this and could be up for an interview. Any artist would have 3 types of portfolios and maybe a website with her designs water marked so no one could steal them. I’m only aware of this because my husband is a game designer. (review for chapter 7?)
  3. See below for another Jowy's Pixie review

One of the Tumblr reblogs was Skyeribbon again, but the second reblog was someone who had found the announcement via Skye's blog. So, thank you, Skyeribbon for the share to help promote my story! It worked! This is the first time my promotion was reblogged from someone else's Tumblr. I'm super excited by this milestone!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

I still don't know what I magically did last week to get 52 notes in one week; less than. I'm pretty sure I had 52 notes by the time I updated this blog last week. While it's not nearly as exciting to be back to less than even 15 notes, having a reblog off of someone else's Tumblr is nice compensation.

This week is also the leader with the most reviews/comments in one week. Granted, that could be because of the question I posed at the end of my Author's Notes, but still....

There was also the first new Miraculous Ladybug episode in a month this weekend. That may have helped spike my view-count. Week 6 still holds the record though, with 1666 views between the three sites.

But speaking of the reviews, this was Jowy's this week:

Jowy's Pixie: Oh poor Adrien. The boy can't seem to catch a break from an onslaught of emotions. You really perfectly captured his inner turmoil in this chapter and it was such a pleasure to read. I can see this being a legitimate reaction Adrien might have in the actual show if he was to accidentally find out Ladybug's true identity. I'm so excited to see what Adrien is going to do next. Is he going to admit to Marinette that he knows? Is Marinette somehow going to find out? There's so many possibilities with this plot line you've created. That's what makes me love this story so much. Normally, I'm pretty good at figuring out where things are going to go, but with this story, there's so many possibilities that I can't decide. And that's good. I always end up spoiling stories for myself because I can guess where things are going so there's usually no exciting surprises for me. But with this story, I'm in the dark and I love it!
        Plagg's moments were hilarious to read in this chapter. You managed to capture his personality spot on which is awesome because Plagg is one of my favourite characters. I completely agree with your little analysis of the relationship between Tikki and Plagg. It makes total sense that you would make them have a more sibling like bond. That's usually what I imagine for them as well. Especially after seeing their interaction in Dark Owl. There didn't seem to be any romantic insinuations there. Though I do completely understand why people would ship them. Them being a couple would make sense, but obviously that's not the direction the show seems to be taking.
        This chapter was a pleasure to read, but then again, so are all your chapters. I always look forward to your updates to see what's going to happen to poor Adrien next. I must say, something I forgot to previously mention, it's nice to see a story from solely Adrien's point of view. That's quite rare from what I've seen. Usually it's either just Marinette or a mix of both. I like that you've decided to go with just Adrien though. It shakes things up a bit and makes things interesting. Congratulations on another well written chapter. I can't wait to find out what happens next. Good luck writing!

It is rare to find a story solely through Adrien's POV. Too many people are tempted to include Marinette's in some manner. But I just couldn't tell this story any other way, as I discussed last week. I just hope OatS will prove to be as refreshing to read with its dual POV between Adrien and Marinette.

First priority: Finish "Peeping Tomcat" and THEN worry about the POV in OatS.

Switching gears here, I managed to finish up “The Burning Maze” this week. Which leaves me with about half a month to get a head start on my next book.

I have to admit that with each book humbling Apollo a little more and more, I'm starting to actually like the guy. I guess that's the point, but it also shouldn't take three books to win sympathy for your protagonist and narrator. I mean, I like the Arrow of Dodona more than Apollo most of the time. Anyway, the book was intense, and I'm curious as to how much more it's going to get in the last two books. There's also a couple of "grab your tissues" moments that left me dumbfounded. So that's good. I still think I'm going to miss getting another Magnus Chase book in October when we get a second Trials of Apollo novel instead. That series was too good to only be three books long.

As for my 50,000+ word fanfic category? You can find "Won't Tell a Soul" on AO3. It's a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic focusing mostly on the supporting character Nino. The POV does jump to Adrien or Marinette on occasion, but it's mostly a Nino-centric story. It's pretty cool and had a lot of great moments. I just feel like it needed one more proofread to polish it up. Getting through grammar mistakes took some getting used to. It's not TERRIBLE, but it's enough to want that one last proofread.

Anyway, the story is intriguing and just keeps piling it on, which is great. I even used some of the story to help inspire me for Adrien's reactions to things in "Peeping Tomcat." It's great where inspiration comes from.

I'm now at seven out of twelve books read. However, aside from the next Trial of Apollo book coming out in October, the only planned book I have left to read is “Atlas Shrugged.” I don't know if I should attempt tackling that book again while also doing Camp NaNo, and all the social get-togethers I have planned in July. And I certainly won't be able to finish it in 11 days!

So I'm debating between three options. First is to just take a break from reading. Spend that time writing instead; reading my first draft and fixing it. Second option is to go through my at-home library or hit up the public library and snag a quick-read book. Something I can read in the next 11 days or so. Final option is finding another lengthy fanfic to read. Should be easy, my “to read” list is fairly lengthy on just AO3 alone. I mean, I have already been reading a bunch of short fics, one-shots, and lengthy projects one chapter update at a time, so maybe I could keep doing that?

I've started reading the following fics this year; a small chapter at a time while they slowly update:

• 101 Things To Do With Your Son; a collaborative story edited and thought of by Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet; currently up to 23,750 words
• Under Lock and Key; a collaborative between co-author/illustrator Eden Daphne and main fic author Maerynn, who sadly passed away in a car crash earlier this year; currently up to 23,646 words; Eden is editing Mae's last draft in order to make sure the story gets completed
• When Duty and Desire Meet; a collaborative between MidnightStarlightWrites and co-author/illustrator Eden Daphne; currently up to 39,185 words
• Mr. Lucky and the Cat by HariWrites; currently up to 38,126 words
• And the Name for Your Order is? by Baneismydragon; currently up to 7894 words

Add in the assortment of 4000-words-or-fewer short fics and one-shots that I've also read, and I think I'm getting a healthy amount of reading in. Not in a more conventional sense, but it's still a lot more reading than the average American adult gets in.

OH! And speaking of reading fanfics, Cyhyr posted something recently. It's a bit racy and definitely contains mature content, but it's short at only about 4000 words.

Yes. For me 4000 words is short. Leave me alone.

It's in the Final Fantasy XV fandom, so I was a bit lost as to who the characters are and how they SHOULD act. It probably would have been more enjoyable if I did know that, but that's the pitfall of all fanfic: it's more entertaining for those who know the source material. Even so, it was an enjoyable read if you are alright with the mature scenarios she wrote about; namely, prostitution.

So, if you have about 15minutes, and want to give her stuff a try, please do:

Savoir Faire

Alright, this blog is a beast and I need to use my free time to work on my PT chapters. Until next week!

Check Out My Milestones

It's the last week of the month and, as per usual it seems, I again don't have a new work to post for the month. Yes, I've been posting Peeping Tomcat every week, but I wanted to post something new each month ON TOP OF the completed fanfics. So I really need to bunker down and try to figure out what to do with that.

I have two options in mind.

The first option revolves around the fact that Quarthix's wife recently got some D&D 5.0 rule books, and is planning to run her very first campaign. So, since I wasn't able to use her in Bear's campaign, I decided to revive Elymoxa. Now, one of the key changes to D&D from 3.5, which is what I first learned, and 5.0 is the new bit of character creation: Backgrounds.

In 3.5 you just needed to know your character's race, class, age, name, and physical description. You could fill in the blanks all you want from there, and a lot of people didn't bother with a back story. They just ran with this flat character until elements of the campaign filled them out. Not a bad strategy, and one I used often, but it adds a lot of depth to the characters and campaign to have that back story BEFORE you start role playing to help make decisions within the first few games; the time where non-backstoried characters are still kind of getting their footing.

Having the "mandatory" backgrounds part of character creation - complete with a chapter of potential backstories and the bonuses it gives the character - is very similar to how characters are built in Numenera. While it can be a bit restrictive - both me and Quarthix's sister were struggling because we felt our characters equally fit two different backgrounds - having the background options in the book can also be awesome in helping a player build a character.

While I did have to tweak the back story I already created for Elymoxa in order to fit the options available via the 5.0 D&D Player's Handbook, it also opened me up for a lot more possibilities than I originally thought.

For Bear's game, Moxie was just playful in an almost childish fashion, worse than most gnomes. She killed because she was told "this person/thing/beast is evil" and it was something to do in her otherwise humdrum life. She memorized all the bardic tales of mighty heroes and desperately wanted to be one of them. She was warned that her narrow and callused views of what makes a legendary hero vs epic monster could lead her to the path of corruption of one of the Prime Evils; turning her into little more than a hollowed out puppet within the Divine War. She shrugged off the warnings, claiming she was too smart to let herself fall into corruption. She eventually became bored with her village life and started out as an adventurer, where she quickly learned she was over her head, but her pride stopped her from returning home so shortly after leaving. Eventually, she would have joined up with the rest of Bear's campaign party: Mahtab, Korlmitz, Rensin, and any others those core three picked up.

Elymoxa 2.0 has these as her following official Backstory Traits:

• Her generic backstory category is Folk Hero.
• The defining event that made her the village folk hero was: She stood alone against a terrible monster.
• Two personality traits chosen were: 
• "I misuse long words in an attempt to sound smarter." 
• "I get bored easily. When am I going to get on with my destiny?"
• Her ideal is the Destiny tract: "Nothing and no one can steer me away from my higher calling."
• A bond to her hometown is: "I wish my childhood sweet heart had come with me to pursue my destiny."
• Her fatal flaw is: "I'm convinced of the significance of my destiny, and blind to my shortcoming and risk of failure."

Sensing a theme? I used the original backstory, looked over the options for Background, and "Folk Hero" seemed the closest to her personality. Plus, it gave me the trait "Handle Animal" which is sort of a running gag between me and my friends whenever it comes to my D&D characters. Once I chose Folk Hero I again scanned the potential sub-options through the lens of her original back story. The word "destiny" just popped up too much to ignore for someone who strived to become another legendary hero the bards sang.

I even debated changing her from a bard to a fighter, because bards sing about heroes while fighters tend to become them. However, in my mind she's a marksman who takes joy in the subtle slyness of seemingly harmless songs actually influencing and affecting the outcome of battle. So, for now, she's still a bard. One who strives to be the first to have other bards sing about? Or perhaps she believes she's the only bard capable enough to truly capture her exploits? She does have that cockiness of "I misuse long words in an attempt to sound smarter."

I couldn't resist giving her that trait. It just was too amusing to me, and seemed kind of fun. I just need to remember to MISUSE the long words when I'm playing her.

I have to evoke Couch Wittenberg from "Hey, Arnold!" and his routine misuse or mispronunciation of big words to sound smarter in front of his elementary aged students.

Er.... I need to evoke the speech patterns, not the harshness.... But you get the idea.

I also have that new added concept of a childhood sweetheart for Elymoxa. So I need to figure that out. And, worse of all for me, I had to pick a gnome! One of the defining traits of the gnome race is that they LOVE names. They have a clan name, but each of their parents, their grandparents, and even any aunts and uncles they might have all give the gnome a name. Then members of the community all give the child nicknames as they connect with each other. Gnomes could "collect" dozens of names, each more goofy and "fun sounding" than the last. When it comes to gnomic names, my husband can come up with them on the fly easily. Me? I'm totally going to over-analyze each and every one.

At least Elymoxa in and of itself has multiple nicknames built right into it: El, Elly, Mox, Moxa, and Moxie, which is why I gave her the name in the first place. In truth, I'm sure I could break down any part of her name to make a nickname.... Lym, Ox, Za, Elm, etc.

My other saving grace is that Elymoxa will be adventuring with humans, and, according to D&D Players Handbooks of just about all variants, humans tend to be "stuffy" when it comes to names. Having too many gets confusing to a human. So gnomes tend to stick with the clan name - their family/last name - one of their given names, and one nickname they can suggest the party uses. They most likely will also encourage the party members to come up with their own nicknames if they so choose.

When a gnome says "I pretty much answer to anything" they probably mean it.... But it does still leave me with a Clan name and favorite nickname to choose.

Okay, so Elymoxa's new back story, derived from the D&D Player's Handbook traits I selected, is one option for my monthly work. And probably the one I'll be going with.

I did say I had two options though. My second is to do something similar with what I did for "The Birth of the Mimicker". I'm going to be posting Mimicker's chapter - chapter 5 - this Friday, which means my next akuma attack - chapter 9 - is only a month from needing to be posted.

I'M STILL STUCK! I haven't figured anything out for Masketeer, or if I even want to use him, or save him for a later fanfic and create someone new. The big thing that is stopping me is figuring out how he attacks and where he akuma would be hidden. It seems logical that the akuma would be in his mask, but Mimicker already had her akuma in her visor. I would feel like a one-trick pony if I had both shown akuma attacks having the supervillain's akuma hidden on a piece of costume covering their face. Not to mention having both supervillains having names starting with "M".

To help figure this out, I might have to write out a "what brought on the negative emotions to be akumatized" story, as well as the first attacks before LB and CN could make it to the scene. Get all that "behind the scenes" info out of my head so I can move past this writer's block. But figuring out the akuma and the attack is only half the battle. I also still need to figure out how this attack could push the story forward.

Mimicker's attack is supposed to showcase Adrien's dynamic with Ladybug, his capabilities as a superhero, and his love for Ladybug. That last one is important. He doesn't have a crush on her. He's not smitten with her. He doesn't idolize her. He's legit in love with her, warts and all. Mimicker's chapter shows Ladybug kind of at her worst, but Adrien still loves her deeply and shows himself a true partner: picking up the slack when she needs him to, bringing her off her high horse, reminding her of her goodness, and encouraging her to be better.

The first chapter of PT has Adrien lament sucking as a superhero. The fifth chapter shows that he's actually pretty good at it, as well as the fantastic partner Ladybug truly needs. He IS worthy of being called one of Paris' Guardians, even if he doesn't believe so anymore after all the spying on Marinette he's done.

Showcasing the dynamic between him and Ladybug, as well as how he treats Ladybug as an equal instead of this pedestaled goddess, also sets up the struggle he has once he realizes he has a crush on Marinette. The reader, even if they haven't seen the show, should understand that Adrien isn't just some lovesick kid. He truly does love Ladybug, and realizing he has a crush on someone else should be palpably devastating.

Finally, showing off the Ladybug character should help hint that she and Marinette are the same person, or at least that they each share some of the same "off character" traits: Ladybug having Marinette's shyness and dislike of Chloe, and in turn Mari having LB's confidence and bravery. This is a way to have the reader see the same parallels between the "two girls" that Adrien sees.

I know what I want this chapter to accomplish. Even though Adrien's turmoil over Marinette, his relationship with her, and his disgust in his own spying on her are all put on pause, the akuma attack isn't a "filler" chapter. It has purpose still.

I just hope that once I'm done editing it this week I will have accomplished my goals the way I wanted.

The Masketeer though? I know the basic reasoning and purpose of that chapter as well, but I haven't figured out how to GET to those points.

While Mimicker's chapter shows that Adrien is a capable superhero despite his own self-doubt, Masketeer brings him back down. He won't be brainwashed by the supervillain like he did leading into the first chapter, or like he has in five different episodes throughout the series. However, I'm still debating if he'll at least be hit by the supervillain, like he did in three episodes: Timebreaker "killed" him when she tagged him and froze him in time, Reflekta effectively took away his powers when she turned him into a copy of herself, and Pixelator trapped him inside a picture until he could use his Cataclysm to break out.

He'll be distracted by his guilt over spying on Marinette under the guise of "getting to finally know her," only to project the things he loves about Ladybug onto a "more accessible person" - or so he thinks. He's also feeling guilty about "betraying" Ladybug by falling for "someone else." So he can't be his playful, carefree self around even her.

On top of that, while Mimicker had the added layer of making Adrien wonder if his newfound obsession with Marinette was any different than Louise's obsession with Chloe, I also need Masketeer to play with Adrien's inner turmoil. Perhaps pushing the weight of guilt that comes from lies, or hiding behind masks, or not seeing people for who they truly are, or.... I don't know, something like that.

I should probably pick a "moral" first, huh?

I also need to have Ladybug not be so flustered this time, aside from her concern for Chat Noir. She's the most capable superhero Paris has. While she'll always say that she can't save Paris without CN, she not only HAS saved it single-handedly on multiple occasions while CN has been brainwashed, but one of those times she was fighting against CN and four other villains!

She took out the recreations of RogerCop, Evillustrator, and Lady WiFi, while also stopping CN from attacking her, AND stopped the actual akumatized supervillain Puppeteer. All in one blow, I might add. Hence having the time to casually whistle as she walked over to the location of Puppeteer's hidden akuma.

Anyway, I need THAT Ladybug to come to the party to prove how important Chat Noir truly was in the Mimicker chapter. That he's her compass that points her in the right direction.

It would also show that, while Marinette may claim she doesn't have romantic feelings for CN, that partnership, connection, and concern isn't just one-sided; even if it is a bit skewed towards Adrien. Ladybug will show just as much concern for CN's unusual behavior as he showed about hers. She'll also try to be encouraging, but in the end it will backfire.

All the words of encouragement will just hurt him as it adds to his guilt, and then he'll become even more enraged that he can't talk to her because they agreed to never reveal anything personal. For fear that they'll learn each other's identities.

If only they knew that ship will sail in the next chapter....

A lot of undertone needs to happen in that upcoming chapter, and I have nothing! So, those are the two options I have: a second "spin-off" one-shot to help me build up to the ninth chapter of "Peeping Tomcat" or an origin story for my D&D character.

Which would you prefer to read? Let me know in the comments section.

As for the most recent chapter of "Peeping Tomcat"? Well, before I go any further, you can check it out right here:

FanFiction         ArchiveOfOurOwn         DeviantArt

This chapter has had roughly the same stats as the second chapter: a slight improvement, but not as massive a jump as the previous week. I thought a fluffy Adrinette chapter would get more love. I guess MariChat shippers really do rule the fandom, huh?

I have noticed another factor, though. I made sure the first chapter coincided with the premiere of the twelfth episode "Captain Hardrock" as well as the long-awaited arrival to Netflix in the United States. The show was all sorts of hyped up, regardless which country you watched from. The following week - the one that matched up with the release of my second chapter - there was no new episode of Miraculous. No real "drive" to send people to read fanfiction. The love and want of fanfiction is always there, but people seem more excited and hungry for it after watching a new episode. So, that could explain why the second chapter didn't seem quite as popular as the first.

Then, the next new episode "Zombizou" came out the same day I posted my third chapter, and it got a lot of love. Again, perhaps it was because people were excited over the latest episode and were hungry for fanfics.

This past Friday, however, there was no new episode again. It was supposed to air Saturday morning on Disney Channel UK, but I have no clue if it actually did. Normally I can find the episode that evening or the next day on YouTube. I still haven't found anything other than Spanish-language promotions for the latest episode, which is going to air in Spain and Mexico on May 4th, assuming I remember Spanish enough to have translated correctly.

So, for all intents and purposes, there was again no new episode for the week that I posted my fourth chapter. Which may again explain the dip in popularity increase.

Let's check the stats. First, that 24-hr rush:

FFN: 636 views, 1 fave, and 5 followers. But a surprising 4 new reviews!
AO3: 200 views, 3 kudos, 1 bookmark, but still no new reviews
DA: 9 views, 4 faves, and holding strong with no comments

Total Results: 845 views, 8 faves, 6 followers, and 4 reviews

Three out of the four comments were:
  1. This was so sweet! I look forward to more!
  2. Wow nice chapter
  3. I'm wondering if chats going to see Alya and Nino then start worrying because Mari is not with them

So, yay, all positive reviews still! I want to pause and talk about the other stats real quick, but then I want to touch upon that fourth review. It's a neat story.

So, my AO3 views do seem to keep dropping, but I've talked enough about that. I want to instead note that I DID get a new bookmark, so yay that I added at least one more follower. I'm now officially at 100 people following my story between FanFiction and ArchiveOfOurOwn. That's super neat!

I also want to clarify that the "four faves" with DeviantArt is one person liking all four chapters. So, yay that I have a new person favoriting the story, and also yay that they actually liked EVERY CHAPTER, as opposed to the previous faves. Small victories? Even if it isn't as "impressive" as having four new people? I dunno, I think I prefer the one new fan who liked every chapter I wrote....

Another neat thing that happened within those 24-hrs was that "Peeping Tomcat" was added to a FanFiction.net community.

FFN's community definition is pretty simple: "Communities are custom archives organized by active members containing hand-picked stories from community volunteers."

So, like a public "playlist" of stories. PT got added to "The Best, Funny and Romantic Fanfiction" although I'm not sure which category it falls into. I would love to say "all three" but I doubt it.

The description for the community is: "a community for either the best written work, or the best funny one-liner, or even just the best plot or character development. has romance, angst, comedy (especially comedy), and other genres as well as all fandoms that have taken my fancy." [sic]

The community has nearly 33,000 stories, and I can't seem to find a way to filter by fandom, so I'm not so sure how this community of 19 followers is going to really spread the word of my story - how it's even going to be found within the community - but it's still a neat milestone. Also, who knows? Maybe this community WILL help spread the word. I mean, yes, it is 33,000 stories to sift through, as opposed to the 12,300 if you go through the Miraculous topic search, however, if someone's willing to sift through all the different fandoms, I'm sure not all 12,300 stories are in this community. Which might mean I have more of a fighting chance to be found? Maybe? Probably not, but let's look for that silver lining, shall we?

Now, back to that last review. It was by someone named MadHatterLilith.

MadHatterLilith: Oh no. I hope it's not Louise! She might not be confident in herself but she seemed so sweet the way she tries to see good in Chole! (Which can be pretty hard to see most of the time.)
           Everyone needs a friend like Alya; her excuses sounded natural. If it weren't for Nino's "I don't feel a draft", it might not have even seemed like she was setting them up. But they also need a friend like Marinette who'll remind them that they're amazing as themselves and to not change just to seem cool. Adrien and Marinette's little popcorn and candy system and that hand holding part was adorable too. Even out of the superhero suits, they work well together lol Except when the popcorn goes up in the air instead, haha! Such a sweet chapter!

Hatter is such a sweetie for thinking so! But this story hasn't even hit the cool part yet.

As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm part of a fanfiction group on Facebook. About once a week the group owner adds a handful of new members. We always ask them what they like to read and/or write. Since the group is set up as 18+, mainly so no one has to worry about their language or the stories they want to share, most of the group does read more.... mature.... content. Which also tends to mean not many people are in fandoms intended for children, such as Pokemon, Gravity Falls, My Little Pony, or Miraculous Ladybug, etc. Well, one of the new members stated that ML was one of the fandoms she's really into right now, and I got excited. I gushed a bit over finding someone else from my fandom and, among other things, I asked what stories she would suggest I read.

It kept her about a week to respond, but last Wednesday she gave me her list. She decided to start at the back of the Miraculous collection - about 670 pgs worth of story listings - and work her way forward to the most recent ones, and I think she said she's now around pg 620, so she's making progress. She then gave me a list of sixteen stories, along with a notation as to whether the story was a one-shot, completed, abandoned, or on-going. She also included brief descriptions such as "sweet one-shot", "my favorite reveal to date", and "I'll probably favorite this author." All of the stories she suggested are now on my "read later" list.

The trippy part was the last story she suggested. I'm sure you have all guessed by now, but I'll tell you anyway. The bottom of her list stated:
"Peeping Tomcat" by Lycorogue (ongoing, 3 chapters. This one's really recent. First ML fanfic I read and I liked it right away. It even updates regularly!)

Again, we didn't know each other's handles at this point, so I just stared in shock! I had someone suggest MY OWN STORY to me! Someone who didn't know I was the author thought my story was good enough to pass along to a fellow in the fandom. That's.... I mean.... HOW COOL IS THAT!?

Now, I COULD have played it cool; not said anything until I posted the next PT chapter and have HER realize what she did. I could have also been like "Oh, my handle? It's LycoRogue... ;)" I could have been discretely humble: "Oh. Thanks. I wrote that." I could have done tons of things to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal, that it happens all the time.

Instead I decided to be the grateful nerd that I am and GUSHED:

Me: OMG! OMG! OMG! What's your handle!? I love you! That's me! I'm LycoRogue! Peeping Tomcat is my story! You're awesome for thinking it's good enough to share!

Yeah, I'm super cool that way....

MadHatterLilith: Holy crap! I can't believe I recommended a fic to its creator! But seriously, it is a really great fic! Thank you for writing it! It's the first ML fic I read and it's made me a huge MariChat shipper. I love the idea of Adrien just getting hooked on watching Marinette just being herself and that he realises he might be being a bit creepy by watching her. I'm also super excited cause he's actually trying to get to know her as Marinette because he honestly wants to know her instead of "hhm, she might be Ladybug" curiosity, you know? And how when Marinette thought she heard someone outside, she was slightly concerned. I loved how you wrote the characters.Although, I should probably write that in a review instead haha. But really, I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

Haha, I guess that was the motivation she needed to give that above review. So SO sweet of her to put in the effort. I'm still flabbergasted. But to move on, let's see how much more love my story has received since Friday?

FFN: 941 views, 5 faves, 12 followers, and 4 reviews
AO3: 317 views, 7 kudos, 1 bookmark, and 1 new review
DA: 10 views, 4 faves, but no comments

Total Results: 1268 views, 16 faves, 13 followers, and 5 reviews

The review said:
Poor Louise doesn't even see how her idol really is.

Check out that view count! And I'm now up to nearly 100 followers on just FanFiction alone! We'll see how much more that grows, shall we? In the meantime, I still have some more writing to do! Until next week, my lovelies!