Showing posts with label recaps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recaps. Show all posts

Saturday, January 7, 2023

I'm ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Est. Read Time: 28min


Well! Hello, friends! Yes, I'm alive!

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Boy, have I missed this blog, and you all as well! I had such a great rhythm going. Despite me grumbling about 2019, I was finally getting to the point where I wrote daily and I updated this blog regularly and I was finally falling into a regular routine. Then the pandemic lockdown threw me off my game. Here we are, nearly three years later, and I'm still clawing my way back to that routine. Sadly, one of the largest casualties was my ability to fit in time for writing in general, let alone time to work on this blog.

Hubby's schedule - as I mentioned in my last post waaaaaaaaay back in Oct 2021 - was thrown out of whack for the rest of the year as he helped cover for his manager's maternity leave. His schedule being out of whack meant mine was too. I couldn't sort out a good time to work on my blog, especially since it tends to be a multi-hour endeavor between writing, editing, and double checking on the simple HTML coding. After a couple of missed weeks, and feeling terrible about missing said weeks, I eventually waved the white flag. It was clear I wasn't finding the time to blog, or even time to do any writing that I could then promote via my blog. I needed to realize that and stop beating myself up about it.

It was a rough decision, but I knew I needed to let the blog go. At least, for a time.

"For a time" then became ALL OF 2022!

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I kept thinking to myself, "I should get back into blogging. I miss it." Especially after my cousin started blogging, I got the itch to return here. The timing wasn't right though.

I had written a couple of stories, and I thought I might promote them here. But the timing still wasn't right.

The timing never seemed to be right.

Well, it's now a new year. This is the first week of 2023, and I was determined. All other Adulting tasks be damned. I was going to publish a blog post! I was going to MAKE the timing right!

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I cannot, nor will not, promise I'm back to updating my blog every week. Nor can I promise that I'll even update every Tuesday (I mean, not only have I already missed the first Tuesday of the year, but it's now 4 days later! Sooooooo). I can't even begin to guess if I'll have a regular time of day when I'll publish (like how it used to be noon, Eastern Time). However, I will try to get back onto *A* schedule of some sort. I will also promise to get at least ONE blog post published each month. I'm going to start relatively small: 12 blog posts by the end of 2023.

I'll eventually work my way back up to my pre-pandemic New Years resolutions: reading at least one book a month, writing daily, updating this blog every week, and publishing a new story at least once a month. I'm not there yet. So... baby steps. A blog post once a month, with a stretch-goal of posting more frequently. Write a handful of stories this year. Finish one of my multi-chapter WIPs.

That's right! You don't really know about those, huh? Okay, I'll have to do a 2022 recap. But first, I was hoping you all could help me out with something. Considering how long I have been gone from this blog, and how this is kind of a new start, I also figured it could be a good time for a bit of a refresh.

I started off with my horribly outdated description of this blog. Then I added that "estimated reading time" up at the top. Figured that would help people figure out the kind of commitment they were settling in for. I've also been debating about my font. I know that on certain browsers or computer brands (*cough*macs*cough*) or on mobile you might not see my stylized font. It may just be basic Helvetica or Ariel or Times New Roman, etc. However, for everyone who sees my stylized font - called Coming Soon, by the way - I fear it might be a touch hard to read. I know it's a bit difficult to see the punctuation the way the font is written. In turn, I fear that makes my blog look messy and more unprofessional than intended. It was fine for my late 20s/early 30s, but it might not be what I'm going for anymore. Out of a LENGTHY list of font options, I narrowed it down to five alternatives to this font. I just couldn't figure out which one I like best. So, here's where you fine folks come in, if you could. Which do you prefer?

My case for keeping Coming Soon is thus: it's been the signature font of my blog for years, and I like that it had a "handwritten" look to it. I like that this blog has a "handwritten journal on a scroll" aesthetic. Goes with the blog title, I think. Kinda old-world.

Sticking with the "handwritten" look, one of the first options is Indie Flower. It also has the roundness that my actual handwriting tends to have. In truth, my handwriting is kind of part this font, part cursive. I do this weird thing where I splice cursive into my print handwriting in order to write the fastest for me. I can't deny that the punctuation is at least easier to read in this font than in my standard Coming Soon. I'm just not sure if the readability is overall any better. The words also feel a bit closer together between lines to me. Makes it all look a little cramped. Do you guys agree? What do you think? (Also, this is me testing what this font looks like while bolded and italicized, in case that helps with the decision)

The other option I picked out is Schoolbell. Much like Indie Flower, this font reminds me of my handwriting. Mostly how messy it is. While I do like that it definitely looks like handwriting, much like Coming Soon, I fear it will have the same pitfalls: hard to read, and will make the blog look messy and more unprofessional than it already does (in fact, it's probably worse. For reference, this parenthetical is in Coming Soon). Schoolbell might be leaning a bit too hard into the "handwriting style" thing. I do think it is a bit roomier than Indie Flower, when it comes to overall layout. So that might be a point for this font comparatively. Thoughts? Also, this is what it looks like bolded and italicized.

My third option is a bit closer to your more traditional Ariel/Times New Roman/Helvetica/Courier/etc style font, but still has that more unique rounded letter look: Unkempt. I feel this one has a similar issue as Indie Flower with regards to the lines feeling a bit cramped and on top of each other. However, I think this is definitely the most clean and "professional" looking font out of the ones already showcased, while also still kinda-sorta having that "handwriting" feel to the font. If that makes sense? My only other issue with this font is that I hate that the n and h look so close to each other to my eye. I feel like that could hinder people who already have reading issues. Any thoughts on your end about Unkempt? Here's the font bolded and italicized.

Continuing down the road of "more traditional" style font, I've also picked out Walter Turncoat. Much like Unkempt, it has a hint of handwriting style, but is still easier to read. I also feel like the all-caps design of this font will be easier for people with dyslexia to read. It feels similar to Comic Sans without actually being Comic Sans (and therefore hated upon). If I recall correctly, despite the hate it gets, Comic Sans has been stated to be easier to read for people with reading issues. Which is probably why it is used within comics. In the same regards, perhaps Walter Turncoat will make my blog easier to read for those who would otherwise have difficulties. Plus, there's the added bonus for me that this font reminds me of my father's handwriting. I'm just not sure how I feel about the all-caps, since I tend to emphasize words BY PUTTING THEM IN ALL CAPS and you may not be able to recognize the shift as easily. Thoughts? (Also: bold; italicized)

My final option is probably the closest I've picked to a "traditional" font: Josefin Sans. It still has a little bit of personality, so I like it for that. It might be the easiest for people to read, and have the cleanest look, which will help refresh this blog's aesthetic. The downside, for me, is the fact that I AM losing that "handwritten blog" vibe I've had more-or-less since I started this blog over a decade ago (dear lord, has it been that long!?). How do you all feel about this font? Is this the one I should pick? Should I pick one of the other options? Should I just stick with Coming Soon? Please let me know in the comments section below. (Also: bold; italicized)

In the meantime, I'll stick with Coming Soon until I make an official decision on the font....

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How about that 2022 recap, huh? We'll actually start before 2022. Way back in the summer of 2020, so I can first tell you about that multi-chapter WIP I mentioned at the top of this blog. That's where most of my 2022 went, so it makes sense to start there.

Well, back in the summer of 2020, I read ZenMisery's story Dressed to Confess. It's a WIP, and Life hasn't been the kindest to Zen over the past few years, so she hasn't updated since early 2021. Still, it's well worth a read as-is. Anyway, after reading her fifth chapter of the story - wherein young-adult Marinette and Chat Noir have a make out session interrupted by the fact that Chat Noir can't disrobe - I was inspired to work on my first Miraculous Ladybug smut story (with aged-up characters, obviously). Something about me and August... I tend to think the dirtiest thoughts that month, apparently....

Anyway, I had spent a few weeks poking away at that aged-up MariChat smut story that Zen had inadvertently inspired. None of it seemed to work, though, so I put it on the back burner. Then, December 2020, Zen had asked about the smut story. It got me thinking about it again and I poked some more. Still no progress. Fast forward to August 2021, and I FINALLY reworked the story to the point that I loved the opening chapter. At the same time, I surprised myself that it was an OPENING CHAPTER and not a simple one-shot story.

This has become A THING, and I quickly realized my "goofy MariChat smut story" had evolved into a fairly lengthy slow-burn with lots of sexual tension, flirting, foreplay, and fluff-meets-angst romance that just HAPPENS to also have sex scenes sprinkled in. This became quite the endeavor!

As I've slowly chipped away at this story - now officially titled Seduce with Caution - I've posted updates to my Tumblr (reminder that I'm @LycoRogue on Tumblr, if you want to find me there). Mostly, I've done a lot of pruning even before the story is done. I work on something, realize that it just won't work for the overall story, and dump the cut bits to Tumblr. Because I still love what I write and I want to share it with people.

Here are my cut scenes (and when I posted them, so you can see how long I've been working on this story):

On top of the above cut scenes, I also had a few moments of lament. Some were just generic "writing is hard, yo" while others were comments on how canon episodes of the series perfectly paralleled my WIP plot. Whoops?

I've also given mini-updates on my progress with this Tumblr thread (last updated Sept 20, 2022). Also, this update post from Sept 30, 2022. Finally, I have this teaser about love confessions turning angsty from Nov 17, 2022.

If you've clicked those "mini-update" links, you'll notice that I said I had signed up for NaNo again. It was my first attempt at a NaNo (including Camp NaNo's) since April 2020, and the first one that I actually participated in since November 2019 (I signed up for camp in April 2020 but didn't write a word during it). I had been on a roll with working on Seduce with Caution for a little while, so I figured I'd try my hand at NaNoWriMo again. It was mixed success.

As far as my normal standards go (and the loose "rules" of NaNo), I "failed". I didn't hit 50k words within the month. I didn't even hit a half-NaNo of 25k words. I also tripped at the finish line, and didn't write every day throughout November. My story isn't even half done either. "Failure" all around with those regards.

HOWEVER!

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Cropped by LycoRogue

When you look at my NaNoWriMo project from the lens of "I haven't written a significant amount in two years"? It was pretty successful! Using various story-plotting outlines (which I'll touch upon later), I managed to write up an 18pg (13,000+ word) outline! I OUTLINED, FOLKS!

I put a LOT of effort into this project leading into November. I did the NaNoWriMo-Prep course. I went through MULITPLE different plotting worksheets, as I mentioned. I started off with the Snowflake Method created by Randy Ingermanson. Then I went through the different options provided by NaNoWriMo. First up was the very basic plot outline most people might remember doing in school: Plot Rollercoaster. It has six main blanks you need to fill in: set-up, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. That's where you grab your broad strokes. It's where I made sure I had the six crucial plot beats needed for a story. Easy. After years of practice, I just do this naturally more often than not. From there, I went to the Jot, Bin, Pants method. This is where I went through all of the scenes I wanted, and sort of organized them into vaguely the order I wanted (Spoilers: I rearranged a bit the further into the process I went). I already had these broad strokes of my story for MONTHS now though. Maybe even years.

After double checking I had what I needed, I REALLY got down into the nitty-gritty of outlining. I started large: the 9-Step Plot Dot/Point (aka The Hero's Journey) outline. Three main plot beats per act: a set-up, rising action, and climax. It was a way to really see the flow of my story based on what I came up with via the Snowflake and the Jot, Bin, and Pants outlining projects. Then it was time to zoom in a bit more with the "Save the Cat" Beat Sheet (I never did sort out why it's called that...). This one is more catered to show/movie/comic book pacing. You'd think that would mean this one is right up my alley. Not quite though. Mostly because of the asymmetrical way this one is formatted: 5 plot beats in Act I, 7 beats in Act II, and only 3 beats in Act III. I still tried it, though, since there are more beats with this one than with the 9-dot one. That allowed me to break down my main plot beats into smaller chunks and see how they still land within this asymmetrical 3-act set-up. Finally, I found my true home: Katytastic's 3 Act/9 Block/27 Chapters outline. I had found a similar set-up years ago. Outside of trying my hand at the Snowflake Method now and again, the 3 Acts/9 Blocks/27 Chapters (or plot beats, in my case) method has always helped me the most on the rare occasions that I plotted out a story first. Sometimes it's great to be able to just break your story down to the smallest level; bite-sized bits to focus on and figure out. Then build back up and out.

First, you look at the overarching story. Break it down into "set-up", "conflict", and "resolution" for the whole story. Those are the themes of each act. Then, dive into each act. What is the set-up, conflict, and resolution of that act? You've now broken the whole story down into 9 blocks. Go into each block. What is the set-up, conflict, and resolution for each block's theme? Those are your 27 individual plot beats. If you keep to the base formula and have each of those plot beats be a chapter, you can break it down again: based on the theme of that chapter (determined by the 27 beats), what is the set-up, conflict, and resolution of that individual chapter? Just keep breaking down into smaller and smaller sets of 3: set-up, conflict, resolution. That way you keep tension but also allow your reader/audience feel satisfied that SOMETHING is being resolved throughout the story.

Granted, here we are, January 7, 2023, 2 months since I needed the outline to be complete for NaNo, 4 months since I started focusing on outlining the story instead of just winging it, and almost 2 full years of me slowly chipping away at this story, and yet I STILL don't think I have ALL of my plot points ironed out. I have enough to get a good portion of the story written and go from there, but not the full outline as intended. Even so, I DO have those 18 pages (13,000+ words) of outline! Far more than any outline I've ever done before. Larger than a lot of STORIES I've done before! Also, unless I shift things while writing/editing, it IS looking to be at least a 30 CHAPTER story! I mean, yeah, my preferred outline method (3/9/27) would have had me write 27 chapters either way, but still! The longest story I've written before now is Peeping Tomcat with 17 chapters! And that's STILL an 84k+ word story! Now, roughly DOUBLE that for Seduce with Caution!

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Soooooo, yeah. First major win of NaNoWriMo: I actually focused on my story, and allowed myself to dedicate time to my writing for the first time since February 2020. Second win: I WROTE A MASSIVE OUTLINE! My third win was the fact that I dedicated at least SOME time each day in November to writing. Be it an hour or ten minutes. Even if I only wrote 20 words, it was still 20 more than I had the day before. I did trip at the finish line, missing November 28th, and denying me the "checked in every day of November" badge. Still.... for someone who only sporadically wrote something since the pandemic hit? Writing even 20 words 29 out of 30 days of a month was a pleasant surprise, and yet another win.

Sure, in the end, I never once hit the daily-word-count goal of 1667 words, and I didn't even cross the 20k word threshold. However, I did manage 14,943 words. That's nearly 15k words that I didn't have prior to November. One of the chapters I'm not sure if I'm scrapping because it's a bit meander-y and unfocused, but that's still a win in my book. I STILL spent 29 days writing nearly 15k words. Worlds better than what I've been producing since early 2020.

I did take another break in December to focus on the holidays and getting back to that pre-pandemic schedule I had. But, it's a new month and a new year. Seems a good time to refocus on my writing. That was the main reason why I dedicated nearly this whole week to working on this blog again. It was why I was determined to finish and publish this post today. It HAD to be done before the first week of 2023 had passed!

Likewise, I'm aiming to have Seduce with Caution at least completed enough to have published the opening chapter by August 2023. That will be 2 full years since I wrote the opening chapter and liked it enough to run with it. Three years since I was inspired to write the story in the first place.

So, I hope that some of you fine folks will gently poke and prod at me to make sure I stay on-task for this story. Reminder again that you can find me on Tumblr and on Twitter both @LycoRogue. Also, as a way to entice you to bully me into finishing this project, here's the teaser I had up on NaNoWriMo.

Summary
Chat Noir is tired of Marinette acting like he’s not attractive or “sexy” enough to win over Ladybug despite them both now being 19. So, he decided to demonstrate his new flirting techniques on her. Problem is: they worked. Before she realizes what she's doing, Marinette is swooning. Thoroughly freaked out, they are now forced to independently struggle with two key facts: (1) Marinette needs to navigate her new desires for Chat Noir, and (2) Adrien has to sort out why he found Marinette's whispered pleas such a turn-on.

Excerpt

Indignantly, Chat Noir nodded to his abs, clearly instructing Marinette to run her hand across them as they continued their role-playing. Still fighting back more laughter, Marinette complied. She wasn't expecting the tinkle up her arm as her fingers roamed across each ribbing of his eight-pack.

“You like that?” Chat Noir cooed.

“Huh?” Marinette's hand shot back to her side as she glanced up at him.

Dropping his confident act, Chat Noir wove for her to continue to play along. A little whimper escaped his throat as he re-posed.

“Oh. Uh. Right. Sorry.” Marinette tentatively rested her hand back on Chat Noir's abs and hummed her confirmation to his question.

“Wait.” Chat Noir again broke character as he grabbed Marinette's hand. “This is wrong-”

“Yeah, sorry, I-” Marinette couldn't look him in the eye.

“-she wouldn't be seated,” Chat Noir continued. “Here, stand up for a second.” He pulled Marinette to her feet, then stepped closer to her, resting her hand back on his stomach. “Okay, yeah, it will be more like this. Awesome.” He then folded his hands behind his head again. “Okay, so from the top.” His casually goofy tone once more gone as he thickened his voice with honeyed sultriness. “So, you like that?”

Marinette rushed to catch her bearings, mindlessly falling back into her fictitious Ladybug characterization as she again hummed her agreement.

“And what about a man with a strong back?” Chat Noir pivoted, sliding Marinette's hand around his side until it was resting beside his spine. He was firm, and the curvature called for Marinette to run her fingers up to his shoulder. The superhero costume was smooth and welcoming under her touch, and Chat Noir's body heat sent a fever through her. She tried swallowing a couple of times, and couldn't quite get her throat to comply.

“Uh, Chat Noir, maybe we-”

He abruptly turned, and caught her hand. Pressing it to his chest so she could feel his rapid heart beat, he leaned in so their noses nearly brushed. “You know how I feel about you-”

“Wha-?” Marinette forgot they were role-playing. She forgot she was supposed to be Ladybug. Her whole mind went blank at the prospect of Chat Noir liking her.

His lips brushed against her ear, and his breath tickled the little hairs. “-you know you could have as much of this as you want. All you have to do is ask for it.” Chat Noir's voice was soft, silky, low, and challenging.

“Yes, please,” Marinette whispered back without thinking.

“Wait, what?” Chat Noir pulled back, his tone normal, and his heart racing harder against her hand.

“I- uh!” Marinette felt like she was going to melt. Her face, ears, and neck were all on fire. Her heart was pounding, her throat was still blocked, and her legs were heavy. She had no clue why, but in that instant she wanted to feel his weight on top of her, like when they were kids and he'd roll her out of the way of an attack.

“Marinette?” His own face, ears, and neck were vibrant red. He dropped her hand so it wasn't pressed against his chest anymore. “Wha- what did you-?”

Seduce with Caution coming August 2023!

Hold me to that!


Now, to be fair to myself, SWC wasn't the only writing I've done since my last blog post (time to get into that 2022 recap).

Halloween 2021, I had this small sprinkling of inspiration. A scene just popped into my head when I woke up that morning. No surrounding context. Nothing ever came of it. But I did still share the scene with Tumblr. Story Seed: Alya Rage Pins Adrien to a Wall in Defense of Marinette

A little over a week later, I had this short story crop up ("short" as in, 1579 words): Saving Marinette from an Akuma. Not sure why I only shared it to Tumblr and not to AO3, FFN, or DA... I might have to remedy that.

December 2021, I had this plot bunny that ended up not going anywhere, but might still be brewing.... Adrien Needs a Fake Girlfriend. I'll have to share my updated list of WIPs with you fine folks. I'll circle back to that.

Anyway, then in January 2022, my mind decided to work some overtime, and I had this dream: Miraculous Encanto?

I've also written and published 5 one-shots since my last blog post! So the past 14-some months haven't been ENTIRELY devoid of writing. Whoo!

I Just Wanted to Kiss You
Summary: Sometimes you just get overwhelmed by how much you love your partner, even when they’re seemingly doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 1401
Published: November 19, 2021

I’m Not Allowed to Love You
Summary: Ever since that night on the Palais de Chaillot, when Chat Noir refused to abandon Ladybug, things have been different between them. Ladybug blushes around him a bit more. She’s been more vocal about how upset and scared his needless risks make her. She laughs more at his jokes, and forgets to berate him for making them in the first place. She’s even flirted with him a bit more.
Adrien is fading from her thoughts as he’s slowly replaced by Chat Noir, and it terrifies her.
Then, one night, Chat Noir takes his shot, and asks Ladybug out one last time. Neither of them could have anticipated the can of worms that would open, and how painful her answer would be.

Rating: General Audience (Although, a bit of a CW here, there are references to Chat Blanc, and so death and destruction are both talked about in passing)
Word Count: 2363
Published: March 18, 2022

Cataclysm the Doubt
Summary: Barely three hours into becoming a new father, Adrien is not handling the life change very well. It’s a good thing Plagg is right there to get the twenty-something’s head on right. Being able to cataclysm physical things is certainly easier, but sometimes a metaphorical cataclysm is the best option.

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 1728
Published: May 13, 2022 (Happy Plagg Appreciation Day!)

Rolling Thunder
Summary: They say that falling in love is like a clap of thunder: sudden and dramatic and obvious. No one mentions that it can also be like rolling thunder: so slowly continuous it’s hard to remember when it even started.

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 4737
Published: June 14, 2022 (inspired by Finding Yourself in the Details by mostlovedgirl)

Is He Loved? Is He Happy?
**SPOILER ALERT: This story is based on the season 5 episode “Transmission (The Kwamis’ Choice - Part 1)”**

Summary: Marinette seemingly has everything she’s ever wanted. She’s again a normal girl with a normal life, and she has Adrien. However, the fact that Chat Noir - HER Chat Noir - wasn’t at the latest akuma attack is all she can think about. She never dreamed that she would lose him so entirely, and now she’s haunted by two major questions: Is he loved? Is he happy?

Rating: General Audience
Word Count: 3552
Published: December 14, 2022

Circling back to my list of WIPs/Plot Bunnies, there's actually about 35-ish stories/story concepts on that list! It's kind of massive. Far too long to include wholesale in this already lengthy blog post. If you do want the full details, however, you can find them via my Tumblr post about it from last January. I still want to also share the list here, though, for simplicity sake. So you fine folks get an abridged version.

I feel like long-time readers will already know most of these, but there are some new ones since October 2021. After I'm done with Seduce with Caution and I FINALLY finish One and the Same, which one of these would you most like for me to work on next????

  • Fanfiction WIPs
    • Miraculous Ladybug
      • Seduce With Caution - Already talked about above
      • One and the Same - My sequel to Peeping Tomcat that has been in the works since autumn of 2018
      • I Don't Care - My interpretation of Gabriel and Emilie’s romance: how they met, them dating, their marriage, and their years with Adrien before Emilie fell into her coma (died?).
      • Love Square Fluff Week - Back before the pandemic truly hit, I was working on the 7-day Love Square Fluff Week writing prompts. I had the first 5 chapters up before I fell into my pandemic-induced writing funk. I just need to figure out those last 2!
    • "Hey, Arnold!"
      • What is Truly Meant to Be - an unintentionally abandoned multi-chapter fic. Arnold and Helga have graduated high school, and Arnold has moved back to Hillwood. He tries to win Helga back, only to discover she's already dating someone. Arnold struggles with the idea of moving on from Helga. Meanwhile, she struggles with the choice between staying with her supportive boyfriend or leaving him for the man she's loved since preschool (and still does love, if she's honest).
    • X-Future (a homebrew X-Men roleplay)
      • Please, Let Me Explain - originally written by my friend Ronoxym. I kinda-sorta hijacked it (and then overcomplicated it). Rono's character Devon is being shunned by my character Willow because she believed he had left the X-Men to join The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. PLME follows their journey as Devon desperately tries to prove his innocence and ease the pain his two+ year disappearance has caused.
      • Some Like it Flame-Broiled - another story originally written by Rono (based on some of my roleplay in the game) and then kinda-sorta hijacked by me. Also, my first foray into writing smut. In this AU of X-Future, Devon truly did become evil and join the Brotherhood, where he starts an antagonistic sexual relationship with my Brotherhood character Trish. This story focuses on one of these encounters.
      • Untitled battle between Devon and Trish - A knife-fight to the death between the canon versions of Trish and Devon after Trish takes Devon's girlfriend's parents hostage. The story is fully written already, but I was learning how to write fight scenes at the time, and it really needs to be reworked.
      • X-Future: The Second Generation Begins - My adaptation of the play-by-post X-Future roleplay into narrative prose. I don't think I'm even 10% of the way through the game's story before I got overwhelmed with how much there was. Still want to finish this project some day though. I just need to sort out an efficiant way of doing so.....
      • X-Future Snippets - an anthology of one-shots, shorts, flash-fiction, and vignettes - some canon; some not - centered around my three main X-Future characters: Lia, Willow, and Trish. They were a way of exploring their characters outside of the game. I don't know if I'll continue this project per se, but I do want to reconnect with these characters somehow. So I might start up a similar project, at least.
    • D&D
      • Too Many Names, Even For A Gnome - A character study for my gnome Elymoxa. I never really got a chance to play her, so I was using this project similar to X-Future Snippets. I don't know if I remember Moxie enough to go back to this project, however.
    • Cirque du Soleil
      • Varekai - I want to create a novel adaptation of the Cirque du Soleil show about the mythological Icarus falling into the mystical forest of Varekai (as opposed to dying in the ocean, as the myth actually goes).
    • World of Darkness
      • Lottie’s untitled story - This was my NaNoWriMo attempt back in 2014. It was about my Vampire: The Masquerade character Lottie. I liked the character well enough, but I don't know if I still remember where I was going with this story. Probably officially abandoned.
  • Original WIPs
    • Glitches
      • A rework of the X-Future world and original characters (the player characters) as an original story with no ties to X-Men or Marvel.
      • I also picture it as its own comic/webcomic run or a TV series, but I'm REALLY pipe dreaming with that.
    • Gyateara
      • Lost Loves and Paramours - My 2016 NaNoWriMo story where I explored the backstory I gave my D&D character Jolene Crisslebalm. I actually won NaNo that year, so I have 50k+ words already written for it.
      • The Race for Destiny - My first-ever attempt at NaNoWriMo, way back in 2012. It was an isekai where my main character Natalie is teleported to an island country within Gyateara. There she meets Connor, the fabled Chosen One who wants nothing of his foretold fate. Together they must take down a Great Evil in order to prevent the full destruction of the island nation. (I was young, okay? I watched a LOT of anime...)
      • The People of Gyateara - An anthology of the various cultures that make up the world of Gyateara.
      • The Divine Legends - the various myths and legends that the people of Gyateara tell.
      • Untitled story about Amara’s backstory - My first-ever D&D character. She's a half-elf scout-class loner who hates both humans and elves for their treatment and "othering" of her because she's a half-breed. This story explains that mistreatment.
  • Fanfiction Plot Bunnies (ideas I haven't started actually writing yet)
    • The PV (where Felix is Chat Noir and Bridgette is Ladybug) co-exists with canon
    • Adrien is in need of a fake girlfriend, and decides to ask Marinette
    • Rewriting of canon where only one thing is changed: Gabriel Agreste is actually a loving and attentive father.
      • Potential Title: When Love Matters
    • Non-Magic Game-Streamer AU; Adrien and Marinette are IRL friends who hide that they are also off-camera video game streamers. Same Love Square shenanigans as Marinette is still in love with Adrien, who is in love with Marinette's streamer persona without knowing it's her (and she doesn't know her main gaming partner is Adrien's hidden streamer persona)
      • I picture Marinette being the type of off-camera streamer who just uses an icon since she can design that for herself and she doesn't have the funds to commission someone to make her a vtuber model. Whereas Adrien has a catboy fursona he has a fully animated vtuber model for
    • Three different continuations of Ladybug’s Simp Squad.
      • An Adrien and Plagg one that's a touch angsty as Plagg asks Adrien why he didn't mention his swan dive off the Montparnasse Tower while battling Alya for Simp Supremacy. (spoilers: it's because he realized that she can't be Rena Rouge anymore and figured she deserved a win)
      • Marinette makes Nino a “#1 Rena Rouge Simp” sweatshirt to match Alya's "#1 Ladybug Simp" sweatshirt. (Alya then asks Marinette if she could have a "#1 Carapace Simp" shirt as well.)
      • Cuddly Ladrien fluff now that Marinette sees how much Adrien cares for her superhero persona.
    • Adrien tries out the theory that “if you want the truth, ask the same question 3x” on both LB and Marinette; to surprising results
      • Potential Title: The Rule of Three
    • Another retelling of the 12th chapter of Remember That Time When... by mostlovedgirl, this time focusing on Adrien dealing with Marinette abandoning him for an evening after she locked herself in the bathroom to hide.
    • AU ending to the NY Special that is also kind of a retelling of my story I Need Him Back. Uncanny Valley couldn't return Adrien's ring to him, so Marinette now has to pick out a new Chat Noir. Tikki and Plagg plot together to get Marinette to give the ring to Adrien. (I guess this could also be an AU of the episode "Kuro Neko")
    • Alya (as either herself or her superhero persona) pins Adrien against the wall and accuses him of hurting Marinette (built off of that snippet I shared earlier)
    • Potential collab with Taurus Pixie telling the love story of Fu and Marianne leading up to their departure during WWII.
    • Adrien discovers that Ladybug is Marinette, and tries to figure out who this boy is that she’s in love with. Along the way, either
      1. Marinette somehow discovers Adrien is Chat Noir and laments that she's been turning him down because she's in love with his other persona (and, likewise, the knowledge that the person he's been in love with this whole time is.... HER!)
      2. Adrien is shocked to discover that HE is the boy she's been rejecting him for and has to deal with that
      3. a combo of the two.
    • A companion story for the New York special. A look at some key scenes from a different character's POV in order to better explain the character's emotion showcased in said scenes.
      • Potential Title: See Through My Eyes
      • This is probably now an abandoned concept, seeing as how the special is a couple of years old now and a lot of salt over it has died down anyway.
    • Plagg’s POV of “Puppeteer 2”
      • Another one that's probably abandoned now; the moment has passed. I'm not opposed to working on it though, if my Muse returns.

On top of that list, I have 3 officially abandoned WIPs; all anthology collections of writing prompts. One is a collection of flash-fiction (stories under 1000 words), one is a collection of writing prompts I received from the local writing group, and one is a collection of writing prompts from a book that provides a new prompt every day of the year (plus one more for leap years).

I may try to revive the 365-day writing prompt challenge at some point, but I'm definitely not ready for that yet. I may also try to revive the flash-fiction challenge, but I'm again not quite in the right mind-set for that. As for the writing prompts from the writing group: (1) we haven't given out writing prompts to each other beyond maybe the first year that I went to the writing group, and (2) I haven't been back to the local group since the 2020 lockdowns. The library in the next town over opened up again before the one in my town did, and I think everyone transferred over to that group. I honestly don't even know if the group in my local library exists anymore or if it's just the one at the other library. Either way, their meeting is on a night that doesn't work for me, so I just haven't rejoined a local group.

Another form of "writing" I've been doing? I'm still the Games Master (GM) for Scum and Villainy! We've actually had 20 sessions in total since we started in July 2021! Granted, that doesn't sound like a lot, given that it's been 78 weeks, and we TRY to play every other week. Simple math: we should be up to 39 sessions. Well.... there have been a lot more scheduling conflicts than I had anticipated. But still! Twenty sessions! I don't know if I've ever been part of a roleplay game for this long (IRL time), OR for this many sessions! This is HUGE for me! Add in the fact that *I* am the one running the thing? Mind. Blown! In the best way.

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The playgroup has been on hiatus throughout November and December due to more scheduling conflicts. Same goes for most of January. So the fact that we've stopped on the 20th session is kind of fitting. Our 21st session is currently scheduled for January 30th, and I think the whole group is hyped and itching to get back onto the Stardancer. In fact, there's more crew than when I last talked about the game. All of that will have to wait for another blog post though. I DEFINITELY don't have the space to go over 16 game sessions in this already epic post!

If you don't want to wait, however, there is the World Anvil "world" build I started up in 2021. Sadly, I've been a bit neglectful and haven't updated it nearly as much as I should. Even so, it should still give you a bit of a taste: Procyon Sector.

And now we're back to 2023. This upcoming Friday happens to be the 13th. Another Plagg Appreciation Day for me. Which means I am again on the hunt for inspiration for a Plagg-centric story. If anyone has any ideas, I am open to them. Maybe I'll even have a blog post to go along with promoting the story on Friday. Jury is still out on that. In which case, I'm once more reminding you that you can follow me @lycorogue over on Tumblr or Twitter, where I will promote my writing. That way, even if I don't have a blog post about it, you can still catch when I have new fanfic published. I also publish to Tumblr, Archive Of Our Own (AO3), Fanfiction.net (FFN), and DeviantArt (DA). I made life easy for everyone and have the handle LycoRogue on all of those sites as well. If you follow me on AO3 or FFN (and maybe DA???) you'll get a notification whenever I post something new.

On that note, I feel like this is a good stopping point for now. Love you peeps so much! Thank you for taking this journey with me. Thank you for sticking with it all the way to the bottom of this epic post. I will see you next month (if not sooner).

Take care, friends!

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Tuesday, September 28, 2021

A Paint Job and an Interrogation

Looks like I'm unofficially falling into that "every other week" pattern after all, huh? This time it was a semi-strategic decision, but also an accident yet again.

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Last Tuesday was the only day that Hubby and I had the same day off. We had the whole day to just be with each other. So I decided I wasn't going to spend the first four hours of it alone working on my blog post. You guys have gone Tuesdays without an update before. It would be fine. I had Thursday off as well. I could work on my post then and just be a couple of days late.

Except I also bumped back my errands to Thursday so Hubby and I could just have a chill-at-home sort of "date day", as it were. And said errands added to stuff I normally do on Thursday. And the next thing I know, it's Friday, and no blog post.

Whoops.

I also spent that week working on the wrong thing, I think. We were supposed to have our latest session on the 20th... but Hubby ended up getting the closing shift... AGAIN. Rozsavaria had a closing shift this past Saturday, so we couldn't catch up on all of these missed sessions then, and Hubby closed out September with one last Monday closing shift. So we ended up going all of September without a Scum and Villainy game session. Whoops again.

I didn't realize this, though, so I spent the week between the 15th and 20th focused on entirely the wrong thing, looking back in retrospect. See, during our third session, the crew FINALLY painted the Stardancer to customize it a bit. I thought it would be cool for them if I actually did doctor the official artwork of the Stardancer provided by the game so it would reflect the customizations the crew makes to it. All of the add-ons that the group has added to the ship are internal, so, thankfully, I don't have to worry about designing guns or something to mount onto the outside, but they DID come up with a color scheme, and I COULD do something with that!

I figured it'd be a fairly easy edit. Well, semi-easy. The crew wanted a sort of chrome look to the Stardancer, and there is NO WAY I'm skilled enough to draw the shine of a chrome finish using just the matte colors provided in GIMP. Instead, I found some images of paint samples for what the crew wanted. I figured I could cut the shape of the Stardancer out of the image of the paint, then delete the panels of the ship that would be painted that color. The chrome image would show through the edited pieces. Voila! Chrome colored Stardancer!

Problem is, it wasn't nearly that easy. The image was too grainy, so, despite looking like certain sections were just one color, and easy enough to select and delete, I would have had to sit there with the eraser tool to meticulously delete what was supposed to be "colored in."

Maybe if I could just cut the lines off of the image and paste them onto the chrome cut-out? Nope. Lines were just as grainy to do that with and have it look halfway decent. Maybe if I use a vector tool to redraw over the lines on a different layer, then hide the original image? The lines would be there and, as vectors, not be grainy at all! I could then switch out the Stardancer's base color all I wanted!

Nope again. The details of the image the game provides are just too much for me to handle, let alone handle in a fairly decent timeframe. Maybe I just need an image someone ELSE did to recreate the Stardancer using vectors! Then it will be easy to separate the lines from the rest of the drawing!

I spent far too many hours trying to scour the internet for a clearer image of the Stardancer so that I COULD use for an easy edit. Never did find one. The image I've used in this blog is the highest resolution image I could get. Even if I took the official digital pages from the SaV game and try to grab the image of the Stardancer off of that... no dice.

Okay, so what if I tried to refine this original image first? I used the Decrease Noise and Sharpen and all the other such tools for HOURS trying to get the image to the point that it was usable. Still nope. I was getting to my wits end.

FINALLY, I don't know how the light bulb came on, but it did! I switched the image to negative so all of the black detail lines were white, and dropped the opacity down.  It worked!!!! You couldn't see the now-black panels of the ship, and instead saw the chrome base layer! AAAAND the white outlines were still visible, so all the detailing of the ship was still there! Whoot!

The group had also picked out an accent trim for the Stardancer's first paint job. That should be a lot easier to figure out. I've done edits like that before. I took a copy of the original image, colorized it to be the color of the trim, placed that image over my chrome image of the Stardancer, and then all I had to do was erase everything that wasn't the accent trim.

This process was a lot smoother, and looked amazing as I moved along. I just didn't realize how much detailing I would be doing. The actual process of erasing everything but the accent bits was far more tedious than expected and kept me DAYS to finish.

Tanuki Facebook sticker
by Yanare Ku

I hadn't finished listening to and recapping the second gaming session to relay over to you fine folks. I was running out of time to do that. I was spending far too much time working on this project of editing the Stardancer image. I needed to switch gears.

But I wanted to surprise my players with this new image. Get them excited about their decision to customize their ship. I HAD to have this image done by the 20th so I had it for our session!

And then Hubby got called into work, and we had to cancel the game.

I didn't realize we wouldn't have our session until late Sunday. I attempted to rush through my review of the 2nd session so I was ready for Tuesday, but it was too much to handle with such limited time. Plus, Roz was wondering if she could still come over - since she took off from work for the session - and just hang. We're now going to hang out on non-session Monday nights and play video games together. We started with Diablo III.

Point is, I had virtually nothing prepped for Tuesday's blog update, and I had the opportunity to just be with Hubby all day. Which meant: no blog post last Tuesday. I thought I'd be able to make up the pre-post prepping by Thursday, but that was very much another nope.

All because I wanted to get this image done by the 20th, and we won't actually need it until the 4th.

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It's done though, and the way I did it makes it easier for me to doctor again in the future, in case the crew wishes to re-paint the Stardancer. I have a layer that's just the base color. I have a layer that's just the colored trim. I have a layer that is the inverted Stardancer image at low opacity to use as the lines layer. As I said, it SHOULD be fairly easy to doctor the image further from now on.

I was so excited to show you guys the end result, but I think it's only fair that the players be the first ones to see it. But I have it on standby for when I get to that part of the third session recap.

Speaking of, I delayed this post so I had more time to recap the rest of the 2nd session. So, without further ado:

Credit to the Scum and Villainy art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha, Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin

When last we left the Stardancer crew, they had rescued Ishi from the dark side of the planet Sonhandra, dressed him up as Demarcus' "5 year old nephew Timmy", were ordered by the Borniko Syndicate to air a message the Echo Wave Riders would like broadcasted, picked up Mevakor and his bodyguards, and headed off for a moon gazing party on Mem.

Upon arriving at Mem – and quickly joined by ten ships carrying elitists that Mevakor had invited – the group saw that the moon Yuura was crescent; just a few days away from a new moon. Mevakor was disappointed. He was expecting a glorious full moon. TI'kæl quickly bullshitted that the CRESCENT moons were the best. The moon's “peak” was when the light hit the algae juuuuust right that everything glowed beautifully (the algae always glowed). Instantly, Mev got excited, and gleefully called over the elitists – made up of other nobles and high-end merchants/businessmen – to show off the moon and glowing algae as if he was the expert on the matter. Counting the ten elites, their “arm candy”, and their bodyguards, there's roughly 25 people unexpectedly there along with everyone who came via the Stardancer. There was also a whole “Emperor's New Clothes” sort of scam unintentionally going on with Mevakor at the helm. He's mentioning how fantastic the view of the moon and the shimmer of the algae is, because he didn't want to seem swindled. Meanwhile, no one wanted to seem off-trend, so they all agreed with him. Off to the side, however, the bodyguards were all muttering between themselves that they don't get it, and the whole trip was a waste of time.

As this display was going on, Quinton got Demarcus to help him bottle up some of Mem's surface water and algae, and try to sell it to the elites for a Cred each (about $10,000). They managed to sell 4 vials. Quinton pocketed 3 Cred, and pitched Demarcus a Cred for helping. This was the point – where parts of her home world were being sold off – that tI'kæl decided to peace out, and went for a swim. She purposefully had the crew dock far enough away from her home city that no one would know that she had returned to Mem. As far as her people knew, she's still on her pilgrimage to learn more about The Way.

As everyone was partying, Demarcus found some Memish seaweed. It's edible, but it's just simple vegetation. He still pawned it off as a narcotic and traded it to a noble for some of his actual drugs: a tiny frog-like creature that secreted a hallucinogenic when sucked on. The noble had already partaken in one of the frogs he had, so he just assumed the seaweed from Demarcus added to his high. Demarcus promptly indulged in his vice.

The next morning, Demarcus awoke to the familiar chorus of groans produced by a bunch of inexperienced people waking up hung-over. The crew then found Mevakor in a hung-over stupor along the beach. They tried to collect him to bring him back to Vos and move on to their next job, but he resisted. He had already told all of the other elitists that they were having a 3-day party on Mem to see the moon at its peak and then non-peak. That way they could fully appreciate the beauty of the moon at its peak since they now knew the comparative "non-peak". TI'kæl again jumped in to tell Mev that of COURSE the moon phases are so subtle that it would be hard to notice any difference from night to night (complete BS). What he needs to do is come back a week later to truly notice and appreciate the changes.

Again acting like it was his plan all along, Mevakor roused the rest of the guests and told them that the viewing party would continue in a week. He then told them to think of it as an extended “spa day” before their festivities officially continued. To finish with his hosting duties, Mev gathered everyone's contact information and set up alerts for all of them so he could coordinate the party's continuation.

Contented that he'd be remembered as the best party thrower and the first to start the trend of Yuura Appreciation Parties, Mev joined the crew back on the Stardancer. Going through the contact info he had just gathered, Mev realized he didn't get any contact information for the Stardancer crew. TI'kael gave him a fake number. Satisfied and nursing a bad headache, Mev went to his quarters to lie down, and spent the rest of the trip back to Vos in his cabin.

As Quinton flew the Stardancer to Vos (and tI'kæl spent the time reading a book), Demarcus tried yet again to get on Ishi's good side (especially now that he knew Ishi was a weapons specialist). He found Ishi in the ship's training room trying to build his latest creation. Although he had spent the past year or so basically blind on the night side of Sonhandra, Ishi mostly built large, clunky weapons and devices to get by. He had grown so accustomed to his glasses and using sight for more finely dexterous builds, and couldn't manage with touch alone anymore. Now he was even more out of practice, and he still didn't have replacement glasses, so he was effectively blind with the ability to see colors. Grumbling about his inability to properly build his latest weapon, Ishi reluctantly allowed Demarcus to be his eyes (and sometimes hands) and assist in building the gun. The two did manage to bond slightly. Ishi seems to hate Demarcus the least out of the whole crew.

As the Stardancer neared Vos, they noticed a much heavier concentration of 51st Legion ships patrolling the planet and docking space station. In order to near the planet without too much harassment, they turned on their cloaking. However, to officially dock, they needed to turn the cloaking back off and call down for a docking bay.

The second they are properly docked, the Stardancer was locked to the port by the Legionnaires, and all personnel are ordered off the ship unarmed. After a quick discussion, the Stardancer crew agreed to comply, and take “Timmy” with them, hoping his disguise would hold up. As the crew, “Timmy”, Mevakor, and Mev's two bodyguards exited the Stardancer, they were surrounded by Legionnaires, and escorted away from the dock. As other ships came in to dock, they were treated similarly: locked in place, and all personnel escorted away from the port via platoon of Legionnaires.

Once inside the station-proper, the group was separated into seven individual, cramped, interrogation rooms. Mevakor was, of course, whining and protesting the whole time: this isn't how you treat nobles, he cannot be separated from his “emotional support” bodyguards like this, he demands food and something to drink, his bodyguards better be returned to him unharmed, this is abuse of power and uncalled for, etc.

The crew tried to claim that “Timmy” is too young to be by himself so that he could stay with Demarcus. The Legionnaires didn't care, and still separated him from the others, but they did agree to not question him since he's “too small a child” to be questioned unattended. Instead, they left Ishi with something to drink – a juice box he angrily punctured with the straw and aggressively drank from – and some snacks. He spent his time in isolation quietly grumbling about the whole situation: the “idiot smugglers,” and Maggie clearly not liking him anymore if she sent “those idiots,” and how she's paying double for weapons next time. However, because he was muttering under his breath, the Legionnaires assumed he was grumbling about getting concentrated juice and oatmeal raisin cookies instead of fresh-squeezed juice and double-fudge cookies (which, yeah, he's grumbling a bit about that too).

The Legionnaires then proceed to interrogate the Stardancer crew with basically the same set of evidence thrown at each them: the ship was registered to have been docked on Vos three days prior*, right around the time the Hegemony noted a discrepancy in their crystal inventory records, and the Customs officer noted that Quinton specifically had a cooler full of crystals that he declared (yes, the Customs officer is also in question for potentially letting smugglers through without fully checking all of the crystals declared).

*probably should have been 4 days prior: 1 day to travel to Sonhandra, 1 day on Sonhandra, 1 day to travel to Mem, 1 day to travel back to Vos. I didn't do the mental math properly, so the canon is 3 days. Whoops.

Quinton instantly responded that he still had all of his lovely crystals on display back on the ship. The Legionnaires were welcome to go check out his cabin and inspect them (they, of course do). Quinton also told the Legionnaire interrogating him that the Stardancer was done with its site-seeing the last time they were there. They only came back to drop off the noble that hired them as his escorts and tour guides. The Memish Quinton travels with (tI'kæl) was talking about how lovely her homeworld was, and the noble (Mev) wanted to see it. Mevakor had told the crew that he had “business to attend to” and needed to be back to his ship within the week. So the Stardancer was only back so soon after the previous visit in order to drop Mevakor back off.

In the next room, Demarcus yelled that it was stupid that they were thought to be potential culprits; there was no way they would be so dumb as to return to the scene of the crime. The Legionnaire countered that if the crew thought they got away with it, they might be emboldened enough to try to steal more, and that is why they came back so soon. Strike while the iron's hot. Pushing harder, the Legionnaire asked sarcastically, “So you know nothing about the Vosian crystals?” Demarcus answered with a shrug and commented on Quinton buying a bunch from one of the vendors because he thought they were pretty. Convinced he wasn't going to get anything out of Demarcus, the Legionnaire locked him in the interrogation room to check on his story. As the Legionnaire was leaving, Demarcus again shouted, “What kind of idiot would return after stealing from here? How stupid would someone have to be to do something like that?”

In the room on the other side of Quinton, tI'kæl purposefully spoke only in Memish and pretended she didn't understand Common at all. The racist human Legionnaire yelled for her to learn Common, complained that it's a wonder anyone can communicate with xenos at all within the Hegemony, and whined that he was “always stuck with the damn xenos” and how he wished he could just “get a single human!? Once! Just ONE time, I'd like a human!” before locking tI'kæl in the room and fetching an interpreter.

At the end of the hall, Mevakor was freaking out at the Legionnaire questioning him:

“What do you mean crystals were stolen from Vos the same day I was here? Isn't that what Customs is for? To prevent something like that from happening? How is the Hegemony going to fix this? HOW ARE YOU IDIOTS SO BAD AT YOUR JOB? THIS IS WHAT CUSTOMS IS FOR!”

(Quarthix loved that Mevakor was ruder than Demarcus. Elitist privilege, baby!)

As Mevakor got more and more worked up that the Hegemonic security measures clearly failed, he began hyperventilating. He then told the Legionnaire the same thing Quinton did: he bought crystals as souvenirs from seemingly reputable vendors. He even noted exactly what shops he bought the crystals from, stressed that he had receipts as proof, and even offered up an audit of his finances as further proof that he only purchased the crystals on the receipts. If it turned out he did indeed have the illicit crystals, it was because those vendors were pawning them off to unsuspecting tourists, and if that's the case then he demands the names of all involved in the offending store so he could buy them out and shut them down for embarrassing him like this. Now angered by the prospect of being framed, he screamed at the Legionnaire for “holding me hostage like this!”

The bodyguards independently confirmed that, yeah, Mev is “the biggest schmuck of the galaxy” and they were clearly just souvenir crystals he dropped full creds on (similar to spending thousands on red-dyed rock candy because they "looked like actual rubies").

Of course, since both Quinton and Mevakor gave the Legionnaires permission to check their cabins for the crystals (not that they needed it), the Legionnaires took it upon themselves to extend this permission to the whole ship. They spent the next hour basically upending everything to try to find the crystals or other contraband. Hubby joked that Quinton will sick his lawyer (who is apparently Lang) on them; neither Quinton nor Lang will stand for this disrespect and abuse of power.

When the Legionnaires returned to the interrogation rooms, they were carrying Mevakor's two bags of crystals. Since the Stardancer wasn't his ship, he never bothered unpacking his purchases. Which meant he never found the drugs that Quinton snuck into the bags when he first met Mev. The Legionnaires, on the other hand, did find said drugs. They poured out the bags of crystals all over the table in Mev's interrogation room, and the drugs spilled onto the table with the souvenirs.

Mev instantly went on the defensive, accusing the 51st Legion of conspiring against him and planting the drugs. That way the Legion had “evidence” they could then use to excuse keeping him captive. The Legionnaire interrogating him assured Mev that no such plant or conspiracy occurred. Mev switched gears and swore up and down that he'd fire his bodyguards if the drugs turned out to be theirs. He kept bouncing back and forth between “I'll have my bodyguards' heads if it's their drugs” and “The Legion is out to get me! Those drugs are plants!” Mev and his bodyguards continued to be detained for Mevakor's outbursts.

Meanwhile, back in Demarcus' room, a Legionnaire came in to finish the interrogation. She confirmed that Demarcus was the captain of the Stardancer and that he did indeed transport Mevakor Nagan and his two bodyguards throughout the star system the past week. She then asked if he knew that Mevakor had illicit drugs within his possession. To which, Demarcus, with the most unconvincing mock surprise, commented that he had no clue and that Mevakor seemed like such a nice and law-abiding guy. “Not that guy! He seemed so innocent! Who would have thought he'd do such a thing?”

The Legionnaire ended up giving Demarcus a “wrist slap” and a strong suggestion to better vet any other passengers the Stardancer picks up from now on, because Demarcus and his crew could have been charged as accomplices to Mevakor's drug smuggling. Demarcus apologized for his “major blunder” in judgment.

Over in tI'kæl's room, a Memish interpreter did come back to try to interrogate her, but tI'kæl spent the whole time excitedly telling the Legionnaire about the Way. The interpreter sighed, told her to shut up about the Way, and kept asking about the missing crystals. But that started tI'kæl on a spiral about how beautiful the crystals were because they resonated with the Way, and how lovely all of Vos was because of the great Way energy there was on the planet. Eventually the interpreter gave up and chalked tI'kæl up as yet another over-zealous religious nut who clearly had no clue what her crew was doing around her.

Eventually another Legionnaire interrupted to let the poor, exasperated interpreter know that they were cutting the Stardancer loose: “These guys don't know anything about the crystals.”

“No shit, they don't!” the interpreter shouted back, and then stormed off yelling that she was taking her vacation time. She didn't care what the higher-ups thought. After that headache of listening to yet another religious zealot, she earned her time off.

As the crew picked up Ishi from his isolation room, the Legionnaire in charge of escorting them back to their ship gave them one last speech about responsibility:

“You're allowed to leave. But, especially since you have a little one with you, make sure to pay closer attention to who you surround yourselves with. I would hate for this young gentleman to be corrupted by such scandalous activities as possible drug [trafficking and dealing] and crystal smuggling.”

Demarcus apologized once more. Beside him, Ishi, who conveniently still had a juice box in his hand, went to salute the Legionnaire, but only used his middle finger to do so. “Oh, his hands were full, and the middle finger was the only one free to salute with....”

With that, the four of them boarded the Stardancer, and headed for the jump gate to the next star system.

Thus ends the second session. Sadly, due to Mevakor still being detained by the 51st Legion, the Stardancer crew wasn't able to bill him for escort, travel, and tour guide services. Plus, if it weren't for dropping Mev back off at his ship, the crew could have avoided getting interrogated by the Legion. A rare instance where "Mistakes were made; we got paid" didn't actually occur for the crew. Still, Mevakor became the fall guy they initially tapped him for. Just a shame that he's no longer a Stardancer traveling companion.

Fear not, dear reader. For I assure you this is not the last we've seen of Mevakor Nagan. We all like him enough that I have *plans* for him. I have this whole storyline going in the background for him. I cannot wait for enough in-game time to pass for me to bring about his Grand Return! It will be fun. I just wish I was as skilled at voices as a lot of online DMs. Even before a description or a name is mentioned, just the voice that Johnny Chiodini uses signals to the players (and all the viewers) that a specific character has returned. Their ability to create so many distinctly unique voices is amazing. They clearly missed a calling for voice acting. Anyway, I'm not that skilled in the slightest, so the players may not get that Mev has returned until I have actually mentioned his name. But it will be fun when that reveal DOES happen. I'm so hyped for this!!!

As for the upcoming recap of session three, well that consists of the crew trying to figure out how to manage the Borniko's order to broadcast the Echo Wave Riders' message throughout the sector, and some shenanigans as the crew destresses and tries to get better gear. Also... the Stardancer itself gets a paint job! Yay!

Soooo... yeah! Until next time!

Scum and Villainy rule book cover designed by art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha,
Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin
(Cheesy Batman-series-joke edits by LycoRogue)

OH! Wait! Before you go! I nearly forgot! I DID actually do a biiiiiiiit of writing as well throughout this past week. I still couldn't quite get the third chapter of my newest WIP to work out for me, so I jumped to the end. I don't know how close to the actual conclusion of the story it will be, but fairly close to the end.

Chat Noir's love confession! EEEEEEEE!

I still have tweaks to do, and it's only about 2 pages long, so the chapter itself has to be bulked up. I also don't know if I want Marinette to respond before the conclusion of the chapter, or if I want the confession to be the conclusion and her reaction be the start of the next chapter. Or... both? The confession is from Chat Noir's POV, so do I finish the chapter with Marinette's reaction as seen through Chat Noir's POV, and then retell the confession and Marinette's reaction to it from her perspective as the start of the next chapter? So many possibilities!

Also, big announcement time! This Saturday, October 2nd, is Hubby's and my TEN YEAR wedding anniversary! TEN! How have we been married that long already!?

So, happy anniversary, Sweetness! I love you more than anything. You are my sanity (oddly enough) and my smile! Can't wait to see what the next 10 years will bring.

Posted by at 2:09 PM Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
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