It HAS To Be Spring Now, Right?

Well, happy May, everyone! Yesterday we had snow! Yes, snow! Still! So, I'm hoping now that we're in May that spring will FINALLY show up and I can avoid seeing little white flakes fall from the sky until at least October.

As I write this, it is bright and beautifully sunny outside, so.... maybe?

I want to be able to emerge from my home and write on my front porch again; absorbing the sunlight and only be pale instead of ghostly. I want the sunlight to give me the energy to actually DO some writing. I've been slacking off lately.

Originally, I was going to have "Peeping Tomcat" done and edited before I posted even the first chapter. That way I didn't have to worry about it. I didn't have to think about it. I was then going to take the fourteen weeks I took posting the chapters to write the sequel "One And The Same". That way I could flow straight into that story once done with this one.

I haven't even written out the outline for OATS yet. However, I DID watch "You've Got Mail" while folding laundry the other day in order to help get ideas.

It didn't help as much as I had originally thought.

I forgot that the bits I needed - how Joe convinced Kathleen to fall for him and want him to be NY152 before the meet-up - only took up the second half of the movie, and even then it was only about 20 minutes out of a two-hour film.

On top of that, doing a straight crossover-like fanfic would result in an AU story.

For those who never saw the movie, or the movie/play that inspired it: Joe and Kathleen became internet pen-pals. Neither knows the other's name or what the other looks like. They were careful to not give any specifics about their lives aside from the fact that they both live in New York City. They still created an intense friendship and bond that evolved into love. They decide to meet in person. Joe sees Kathleen waiting for him and is instantly distraught because Joe and Kathleen have been bitter business rivals up to this point. He ends up standing Kathleen up as his internet persona NY152, but still tries to engage her as Joe. It doesn't go well. Yet, he still knows he's in love with her. He just needs her to give Joe a chance to realize that he IS NY152, and the man she loves.

So, he starts an elaborate plan. He smooths things over as NY152, apologizing for "standing her up" at the meet-up, and rebuilding the bond and friendship. He then "bumps into" Kathleen as Joe and tries to start up a friendship, apologizing for running her out of business and trying to help her figure out what to do next in her life. Eventually, Kathleen trusts Joe enough to admit that she has a romance going on with someone she met over the internet. To build the friendship more, as well as to see what Kathleen truly thinks of NY152, Joe starts making fun of her pen-pal. They joke, but Kathleen stays adamant that NY152 is the love of her life.

Once Joe knows that Kathleen is positive that there is no one else for her but NY152, and after he and Kathleen have created a true friendship, he tries asking her out to see what she'd do. He - as NY152 - had already set up a second meet-up and date with Kathleen, and Joe purposely asks for a date on the same day. Kathleen is visibly torn, because she has grown to care deeply for Joe, but still desperately wants to finally meet NY152 and can't think of being with anyone else. She eventually turns down Joe, though still visibly upset by her decision, and heads to the meet-up with NY152 instead.

While she's waiting for her pen-pal, she hears a man call out for his dog Berkeley. NY152 had previously mentioned that he named his dog that, and so this is clearly the pen-pal's way of indicating that he is NY152. Excited, but a bit confused because she recognizes the voice, she turns to the run away dog, and sees Joe chasing after him. She starts crying over the flood of emotions realizing that the two men she has fallen for are actually the same guy, that she's been with the love of her life for weeks, that he used to be her hated rival, and he clearly knew who she was and was purposely playing with her. It was a LOT to take in, and none of it is expressed verbally, but Meg Ryan did a good job conveying it with facial cues.

Anyway, Joe walks over to her, tells her not to cry, and she chokes out that she was hoping NY152 was Joe.

*Wipes brow* Whoo, bit of a lengthy recap, but there you have it.

So, the big thing to point out is that as ShopGirl and NY152, Kathleen and Joe have hidden civilian identities. Making these the equivalent of their superhero identities. They only "meet up" briefly - for Joe and Kathleen it is whenever they have a moment to email back and forth, and for Adrien and Marinette it's whenever they need to save Paris - they know nothing of each other's civilian/personal lives, they don't even know each other's names, they don't know what the other looks like - to some extent with LB and CN - and they promised to not share any personal details, so they connected without truly knowing one another.

However, if the superhero personas are supposed to represent the email addresses, then a direct adaptation would mean Adrien and Marinette would be the bitter rivals, and that Adrien would have to try to build the bridge towards friendship while playfully trying to chip way at Marinette's love for Cat Noir, only to be happy he failed, but also happy that she ended up wanting CN to be Adrien.

In other words, this whole thing predicates on Marinette first loving Cat Noir and only tolerating Adrien, which is the opposite of canon. If I had Marinette figure out that Cat Noir was Adrien first, and had her try to encourage Adrien to want Ladybug to be her, then it would work fairly well. However, I'm already en route to the Big Reveal in Peeping Tomcat being Adrien knowing about Mari. Can't switch gears now.

Also, I'm a firm believer that Adrien DOES already have a crush on Marinette, but it's just overshadowed by his love for Ladybug, and the poor fourteen-year-old can't pick up on the "lesser" love he has for his friend. Whereas, Marinette is so blinded by her infatuation with Adrien that, while flattered and maybe a bit flustered by Cat Noir's flirting, she doesn't seem to really have a romantic interest. He's more of a flirtatious ego boost that she considers a best friend. So she'll take a bit more convincing to fall for CN.

And there's the rub. I need her to fall for the person she doesn't really know. So this is going to be a much looser adaptation than I originally thought.

For "One And The Same" I need Cat Noir to be Joe and Adrien to be NY152. Marinette's crush on Adrien will be solidly known either by the end of "Peeping Tomcat" or right at the beginning of "One And The Same." I haven't figured out which yet. But Adrien still knows how Ladybug, and therefore Marinette, feels about Cat Noir, and doesn't want her to love CN just because he's Adrien. He needs to know that she loves both sides of him, just as he'll figure out that he loves both sides of her before the close of PT.

It will be Cat Noir playfully picking on Adrien, to see Marinette's reaction to it. It will be CN who will "bump into" her, in order to build up the friendship. So, OATS will probably be exclusively MariChat with a small sprinkling of LadyNoir, depending on if I can figure out how to get CN to knock his civilian half down a few pegs while dealing with LB. It could also potentially have a lot of Ladrien as Adrien and LB interact similar to NY152 and ShopGirl in order to keep up that bond.

There is a LOT I need to think about, and I'm so far behind already! Gaaaah!

On top of that, I don't know if I'll be able to get ahead of the eight-ball. I'm struggling with the current chapter, and it's only going to go down hill from here.

The chapter I'm working on has Adrien reflect back on the four days between chapters two and three. However, the flash-back montage ends in spying on Marinette yet again post Mimicker attack. Between his reflection on what he learned about Marinette via his spying and what he discovered that night after the Mimicker attack, Adrien has an epiphany about the fact that Marinette isn't all that different than Ladybug. Little does he know.... poor kid.

So, this is kind of a major turning point for Adrien. It's the start of him slowly realizing that he DOES have a crush on Marinette, and possibly even love her, which then tears him apart because he's now in love with "two woman" - as far as he knows, at least.

The problem is the seemingly awkwardness - at least, to me - of the "flash-back" bits of the upcoming chapter. I'm such a linear writer that any sort of recollection of the past seems weirdly written to me. I also have to have Adrien recap four nights and the significance of these nights while still leaving space for that current night, all while not going overboard on the size of the chapter. It's a task, to be sure.

The seventh chapter I think I'm fairly okay with, so I could try to use NEXT week to get ahead, but that still leaves me with the second akuma attack issue.

Yep. STILL haven't figured that out. I did much more work on Masketeer, but I'm seriously starting to think that he doesn't work with my current story and that he has to be stashed away for some future fanfiction project. Leaving me to start from scratch yet again.

Tanuki Facebook sticker
by Yanare Kuby

I will get this. I know I will. I HAVE to for my story. I'll figure it out. And then I have chapter ten pretty much set. It's the remaining four chapters that I'll need to rework too.

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

Thankfully, both Cyhyr and ChibiSunnie should be done with their respective schooling sometime this month, so maybe they can still beta for me to help out with my back half of the story.

In the meantime, I think I'm doing fairly decently by myself. Let's check out this past week's 24-hour stats!

FFN: 546 views, 2 faves, 4 followers, and 3 reviews
AO3: 130 views and 1 kudos
DA: 32 views! 24 of which were for the new chapter. I also got 2 new faves, both of which were for the new chapter, too.

Total Results: 708 views, 5 faves, 4 followers, and 3 reviews

The reviews this week were:
  1. The battle was really fascinating! I hope to see more fights soon.
  2. I really enjoyed this!
  3. A story with intriguing plot, perfect characterization, AND great writing? I’m in heaven :) keep up the great work! Can’t wait for the next chapter!

That last one nearly made me cry. I was just so stunned and humbled by that review. I mean, me!? Just... AAAAAH! Amazing feeling! No matter how many good reviews I get, and how few bad ones, it is always - ALWAYS - so encouraging to have someone tell you how much you're doing it right.

"Intriguing Plot"?
"Perfect Characterization"?
"Great Writing"?

The fact that people see all three of those elements in my story just makes my heart swell.

Qbbie, if you are somehow a reader of this blog, know that I want to just glomp you so bad!

Tohru glomping Hiro from the Fruits Basket anime
Original manga by Natsuki Takaya

Oh! And speaking of blog readers. Over the last five weeks I'm back to averaging about 37 hits. So I guess whatever brought people to my blog in droves of about 400 has ended. I probably scared everyone away with my endless stats dumps for PT.

Oh well. Once again I thank those of you who are here because you are truly interested in the silly things I say. My true readers. I love each and every one of you.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

And since I'm on the subject of readers, let's come full circle back to Peeping Tomcat. As per usual, you can find the latest chapter up on these three sites:

FanFiction         ArchiveOfOurOwn         DeviantArt

Also, a special shout out to my poor mother. She doesn't really get fanfiction, so she is always very confused when I both talk about it and write it. She also can't stand horror/suspense/thriller/gory stories, but I pretty much exclusively wrote that in middle and high school.

In other words, my entire life my mother has known I have writing talent, but I think I have yet to write anything that falls into her reading comfort zone. Still, the dutiful mother that she is, has read - or at least attempted to read - everything I've ever written and shared.

Most notably, this weekend while we were talking to celebrate her birthday, she asked me to explain FFN to her so she could read PT. I also had to pronounce Kwami for her, and explain that too. I'm hoping she's now all set. We'll see what a non-fan of "Miraculous Ladybug" thinks of my story.

LOVE YOU MOM! AND HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

You rock as both a mother and just a warm-hearted person. I love how much you try to not blindly believe your daughters have talent, but wish to experience it yourself, even if we don't really use mediums or themes you normally check out.

So, can we all just stop for a moment and give my mom major props? Her and Hubby are my rocks and my biggest cheerleaders when it comes to my writing. Shortly followed by Chibi and my one uncle.

Love you!!!!!

You guys rock!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Okay, back on topic.

As of this posting, my current weekly stats for week five of "Peeping Tomcat" are as follows:

FFN: 787 views, 4 faves, 6 followers, and 4 reviews
AO3: 191 views, 4 kudos, and 1 bookmark
DA: 35 views and 2 faves

Total Results: 1013 views, 10 faves, 7 followers, and 4 reviews

The latest review:
  1. I really liked Mimicker! She seemed like an akuma that would be on the show!

I'm so glad I did well with Mimicker!!! I hope to do just as well with whomever my second supervillain is. And THIS right here - this review - is why I struggle for so long. I want to make sure the end result is "right" and fitting for the show.

Also, with the followers I gained this week, I have hit over 100 followers on just FFN alone! Now, it's not much in the grand scheme of things. Over on FFN, the most followed story has over THREE THOUSAND FOLLOWERS! It's a completed story, and I guess I now have to check it out if it's that popular!

Quite a few Miraculous stories have over 1000 followers. So, having only 100 is kind of small peanuts. However, for a relatively unknown author within the fandom to have over 100 followers in just over a month is so cool!

I'm going to focus on that.

But I'm sure you guys know that I don't JUST have the latest chapter of PT to share. At the beginning of the year I promised myself that I'd post something new each month, excluding the chapters of my WIPs. So, to stick with that, I went ahead and worked on a "character study" short for Elymoxa.

"No Need To Daydream"

On DeviantArt       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On FictionPress

So, there you go! Two different things to read this week! Bonus? "No Need To Daydream" is less than 750 words! When do I ever write anything that short? So, go. Read. Let me know what you think.

In the meantime, I really need to get cracking on the back two-thirds of PT. Catch you guys next week!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

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!

Playing Massive Catchup

Alright, well, I definitely didn't intend on completely skipping last week! I was doing so good, too.

I don't have a real valid excuse. My excuse is simply that I had to work last Tuesday, and also...

Here's the quick play-by-play of the past two weeks:

• Wednesday 9/7 - On death's door; crashed after work
• Thursday - Work until 8pm, and then OPENING GAME OF REGULAR SEASON FOOTBALL! We were up until midnightish.
• Friday - Work followed by me zoning out on the couch for hours on end trying to figure out how to level up my character in Bear's campaign.... It was bad....
• Saturday - Work again, half-hour break, and then straight into the weekly D&D session. Things are starting to look bad for Jolene. Me and Bear decided I need to do a solo-session with her to figure out background stuff. I stayed up until it's time to take Hubby into work.
• Sunday - Drop Hubby off; couple hours of sleep; pick him up; work; and then straight into the Giant's rival game! Sunday night football - minus a half-hour between the afternoon and evening games - kept us up until midnightish again.
• Monday - My coworker convinced me to join her in Aerial Yoga. So, right after work, instead of working on this post - knowing full well that I couldn't write it Tuesday due to working - I went to yoga with her, and then straight into the Monday Night Football double-header. By the time the games were over and I was back home it was around 1am.
• Tuesday - Work, and at that point I had been up for so many days in a row that I just zoned out instead of writing this post AFTER work, so that it could go up Wednesday.
• Wednesday - More work, and then straight into laundry. I was going to work on this post there, but it was the only free time Bear had for my solo play. It kept nearly the full two hours I was at the laundromat, and then another hour or so after I got home. Then quick folding/hanging of my clothes before bed.
• Thursday - My 10hr day at work, leading directly into football again. Another late nighter.
• Friday - While this was yet another day that I had every intention of writing my late post, it turned into me cleaning week-long neglected dishes, as well as working on a new weekly challenge Ronoxym gave me; something I'll talk about more in this post.
• Saturday - Work yet again, then about half-hour down time for food, followed by the D&D session leading straight from the Wednesday solo-session. Jolene is REALLY in trouble now, but Bear had to crash early for work, so we had to kind of stop right in the body of the drama! We're continuing with a short session tomorrow night, and I've been antsy about it since Saturday night! More on this in the blog too.
• Sunday - Hubby drop off; Hubby pick up; work; football. I was going to use the much more mellow atmosphere of football watching this week to FINALLY get to my blog, but at that point I figured I'd just write last week off and wait until today.
• Monday - Home stretch. Last day of work before my day off; FINALLY. Aerial Yoga was cancelled, so I left work and just vegged all night; enjoying my freedom.

I feel so bad. Not only did I miss my blog post, but I also haven't had contact with my email pen-pal in nearly two weeks. My brain has been so burnt out that every time I open the email to respond to her my eyes cross and drop focus. So, I guess I know what I'm doing when I'm done with this post.

I've been slacking a bit on my prep for NaNo, and my writing has died down a bit with my brain being all fuzzy, but I haven't stopped completely.

On Friday the 9th I was able to get a hold of Ronoxym via FB messenger. Generic "how's things" talk for a little bit. I then tried to strong-arm him into doing NaNoWriMo with me and Cyhyr. I think I MIIIIGHT have convinced him, but he's a busy boy, so who knows? Between work, new-fatherhood, and going back to school, I have no clue where he'll find the time. Still, I'll be evil and poke him during November to ask how his writing is going.

Anyway, as we were talking "shop" I reminded him that he never gave me the writing challenge he said he made up for me back in January/February. After a brief moment of "Uh... let me remember what it was...." he gave me my challenge: write a new 1000-words or less flash fiction each week!

I'm now REALLY glad that he had forgotten about exchanging challenges until just now. Finishing up the last quarter of the year with this challenge will be interesting enough. A full 52 weeks of it might have killed me....

So, writing a complete story/scene/whatever in 1000-words or less is already super hard for long-winded me, but Ron wasn't done yet. Not only did I have to write flash fiction each week for the remainder of 2016, but I also had restrictions:

1. None of the stories could relate to each other. They couldn't continue off each other. I couldn't thread a bunch of 1000-word scenes into a full story. Each flash fiction had to be a one-shot.
2. I couldn't write about characters I already created. No X-Future girls, no D&D characters "behind the scenes" stories, no characters from original stories I already wrote. Each new, flash fiction had to be about completely different characters.
3. No. Fan. Fiction. None. No playing in someone else's sandbox. Not only could I not use my own characters, but I definitely can't use someone else's. Each week. New characters. Completely original.

I'd call him mean - and I think I actually did in our conversation - but I wasn't exactly kind to him either when I gave him his challenge at the beginning of the year; not that it matters, he had forgotten about it with all the chaos of Baby-Prepping.

OH! And speaking of Ron, he and ChibiSunnie just celebrated their birthdays! Happy birthday to probably my two writing besties!

Aaaaand we're back....

So anyway, my nervousness about Ron's challenge quickly turned into excitement. An adorable elder couple came into the store a few days prior, and they inspired me. I had my first story done within 24-hrs of getting my challenge.

When I was done I was actually at like 1013 words, though, so I had to grumble and cut until I was at EXACTLY 1000 words; still counts! Also, I cheated slightly. What I wrote wasn't a scene per se. There was no action. There was no dialogue. There was no true movement of character. Instead, it was a snapshot of a man dealing with his wife dying from cancer; what is known as a vignette.

A story is still told, but at the same time the elements of a "scene" are missing: the action; the growth.

"Screw 'Til Death"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

I read this story at writing group last week. I think I have stronger faith that the lack of critiques each week is due to my skill; not their neglect.

When I finished reading there was just this profound silence, and then this group exhale. I had comments like "Wait, you're HOW OLD again, and can write so poignantly about a couple in their late sixties?" and "I've been through this, and let me tell you, you've nailed it." Just about everyone at the table said similar: I captured the pain of losing someone you've loved your whole life; the loss of self along with your partner. Granted, after seeing my mother go through it, it wasn't a hard stretch to be empathetic towards those in that situation.

That's when Carson nervously pitched in a cautious "I don't mean to insult you, but... why do you write fanfiction when you can write like THAT!?" The room echoed his sentiment. He always seems to be able to put words to what everyone else seems to think.

I was probably blushing nearly as bad as when I read "Rensin's Conquest" to them. I had to admit to them what I've already admitted here: I know full well that I use fanfiction as a crutch to get past the "hard bits" of writing; namely creating the world and characters. Yet, I still fall back into the crutch because it was what always got me writing in the past, and writing fanfiction is better than no writing at all, right?

Still. It's SUPER encouraging to hear them all astonished at how well I wrote that tale. I don't know how they'll feel about the next one I wrote this past Friday, though. Not nearly as emotional, and in the realm of fantasy; which most of the group isn't really into.

As I stated in my weekly recap above, Jolene isn't really doing very well. The session tomorrow night might actually see her untimely demise.

While I'm of course fighting to prevent that, I also must let the character make her own decisions and let the chips fall where they may. I already have her swan song written up should it go that far.

Since Jolene may not last much longer, I've started trying to find inspiration for my next character. I flipped though about twenty or so pictures people have drawn of characters created for fantasy games. Among them was this amazing picture.

Bard Ariane by Lapis-Razuri

Isn't she adorable!? I instantly knew that she was going to be the basis of my next character. Right off the bat I figured I'd make her a gnome. She also looks playful, like she doesn't really take anything seriously. She looked spunky, like she had a lot of "moxie." So I needed to figure out a good name for that.

With some playing, I figured "why not a name that - in theory - people could shorten to 'Moxie'?" Some more playing around, and I came up with the name Elymoxa. I personally shorten it to just Mox, but I'm assuming the group would shorten it to Ellie. However, the potential for "Moxie" is there, and that's all that matters to me.

Anyway, since she's not officially a character yet, I stretched the restrictions of Ron's challenge a bit, and I used her for my second flash fiction. Consider it a way to get to know her. Time-order-wise, since I haven't opened the Players Handbook even once to start officially creating her, you could say she's an original character I liked enough to make into a D&D character to play.... That makes this past week's story count for the challenge, right?

If you want a nice intro to Mox - who will probably change while I play her, because that's how it ALWAYS happens with my characters - then you can check out my flash fiction for week 2 of the challenge:

"No Time for Playing"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

If you want to follow along before I post in my weekly blogs for the remainder of the year, you can watch the anthology I've pieced together for these one-shots. It's called "Ronoxym's Flash Fiction Challenge." And, yes, it does occur to me that perhaps the name is a bit confusing. I'm LycoRogue, and it says Ronoxym's, but I was tired last Friday when I set it up. Besides, Ron was the one who challenged me. It made sense at the time. I might have to go back and change it though at some point....

The trick is to figure out what to write for this week's challenge....

The other trick is to get back on track with NaNo prep while dealing with the drama of Jolene's doom, and let me tell you, she has NOT shut up since the solo session last Wednesday! It's snippets and mini-speeches, but I have a couple pages worth over the course of the past week.

I'm really liking Jolene and her relationship - strained as it is - with the clueless Rensin. Even the setting of the campaign is awesome. I just wish I understood it a bit better so that Jolene could have played around in it a bit more. Perhaps Jolene and Rensin will be revived - as it were - in another story concept down the road.

I can't keep stealing other people's roleplay characters though, like I did with Phfylburt's Lincoln or Ron's Devon. I'll have to find a way of recreating Rensin as an original character to pit up against Jolene. I did have a similar concept for Amara's love interest for her story - which I had mentally "in the works" back in like 2005/2006, but never actually written down. I don't know if I can make Rensin as adorable as his player does, though. I'll need practice over the years of polishing.

Alright, well, since I'm now down a week for my blog posts, I might work on a catch-up one for a double-post week. Most likely focused solely on my reading challenge progress since I haven't talked about that in a little while. So, keep your eyes open for that.

In the meantime, I'm off to play massive catch-up to make up for the crazy-long work week I had.