Happy Birthday, Pixie!

Welcome everyone, to the final day of Camp NaNo!

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

Such major fail...

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

Hacker Boy Facebook Sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that includes being inspired.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by PRANEAT

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

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

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

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

YOU'RE THE BEST!

LOL, she's adorable, right?

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

"I Was Thinking Of You"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

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

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

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

FFN Reviews:

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

AO3 Reviews:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

featuring Taylor Swift

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

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

Catch ya next week!