Stuck at Home

Hey, how's everyone doing? I know things are not boding well for me already. I mean, I'm still healthy, but... well.... Saturday was my last day of work before the business shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Thankfully, as far as I know, no one in the company has a confirmed - or even a suspected - case of COVID-19. Instead, this closure is mandated in order to assist with social distancing, and is supposed to last at least two weeks. However, no one knows how long we'll actually have to do this.

You know how, if a child is in timeout but tries to leave it prematurely, the timeout is restarted, so the child's 2 minute timeout ends up taking nearly 10 simply because they wouldn't listen? Yeah. I feel like that's what's going on with the entirety of society. We need those two full weeks of social distancing in order to keep all those with the disease - both known and unknown - fully away from everyone who is still healthy at this point. Every time the government has to yell at people for organizing in groups or still doing frivolous shopping/gathering it's like the child getting sent back into timeout; the timer resets.

The long and short as to why the timer must reset is that it takes up to 2 weeks for the virus to fully incubate and cause symptoms. If, after 2 weeks, you don't have symptoms, then you almost definitely also don't have the coronavirus, and therefore can't spread it to someone else. However, each time more people potentially come in contact with an unknown carrier, the timer has to reset to take their potential contraction of the virus into account.

I found this really simple infographic on Tumblr that helps explain the situation.

So, uh... yeah. The longer it takes for society to just suck it up and stay home/away from people, the longer those of us that are complying will need to stay put. It's frustrating, to say the least.

Generated by Bitmoji
(Yes, my Bitmoji is wearing PJs. Why wouldn't I?)

Honestly, I thought I'd be able to handle it better than I have been. Despite arguably being an extrovert, I'm still kind of a homebody, so you'd think it would be easy for me to ignore that things like restaurants, movie theaters, bars, and even my friends' houses exist. Plus, I have a list of things I want and need to do that is so long it probably easily surpasses the two week minimum I'll be home. Heck, this is day three, and I'm still in "aaaah, time to relax and catch up on sleep" mode. So you would think I'd have more than enough to keep me from going stir crazy.

At the same time though, this is only Day 3 and I've already lost track of what day of the week it is at least a half-dozen times.

Bun Facebook sticker
by David Lanham

Also, as I noted, I haven't even started to touch that To Do list yet. Case and point, I STILL haven't had a story update this month. I haven't finished my Fluff Week project. I haven't written any new one-shots. I haven't started up the When Love Matters project. I haven't thought of One and the Same. I have just... kinda... lost myself as if I already had cabin fever.

For instance, Sunday - just Day 1 of my mandatory home-stay - I started off the day listening to the recording of a two-and-a-half hour livestream on one of the YouTube channels I follow. Overly Sarcastic Productions had Red do two reading livestreams over the past few days as fundraisers for Feeding America. The first one, on Thursday, had Red reading various Edgar Allan Poe short stories for 2+ hours. The second one - the one I listened to on Sunday - was held Saturday evening, in which Red graced us all with a reading of the most notoriously horrendously written fanfiction known to man: My Immortal by XXXbloodyrists666XXX.

For those uninitiated, this story was written in the early 2000s - I think 2006? - and it is a gothic Harry Potter AU where the main character is obviously a self-insert, Mary Sue original character. Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way - the main character's full name - is a vampire who is in her final year at Hogwarts. She starts dating a gothed up Draco Malfoy, only to instantly get a crush on a newly goth Harry Potter, who now goes by the name Vampire. In fact, all of the sympathetic characters have become both goth/Satanists and members of Slytherin House: Hermione Granger became B'loody Mary Smith, Ron Weasley now goes by the nickname Diabolo[sic], and, if I remember correctly, Neville Longbottom shows up towards the end with the new name of Dracula. The author even includes an author-insert character for her beta reader and best friend Raven. This character is named Willow.

The "Plot" of the story - if you could call it that - is that Voldemort wants Ebony to shoot Vampire or Voldy will kill Draco. Due to Ebony's conflicting feelings within a very forced love triangle - which also includes Vampire and Draco both being bisexual and ex-lovers - she keeps telling Voldemort no, and for whatever reason he just keeps pestering her to do it instead of following through with his threat. Eventually, Professor Trelawney - who is either "Profesor Sinister" or "Profesor Trevolry", depending on the whim of the author at any given point - who is also gothic ("goffik") and therefore has a friendly repertoire with the main characters, tells Ebony she must go back in time in order to seduce a teenage Voldemort. Seems he only became evil because he was heartbroken. While back in the 1980s, Voldemort, who is going by the name Satan instead of Tom Riddle, does start to fall for Ebony.

Further time traveling and false death shenanigans ensue before the author dropped off the face of the Earth. There are 44 chapters total, however the 39th chapter was apparently written by someone who hacked the author's account. This parody chapter mocked nearly every element of the story thus far before claiming the fic "complete." In the chat of Red's read through of My Immortal, a lot of commenters joked that the "hacker" was Raven, finally sick of the author's poor grammar and spelling despite the beta reading. This joke is also a nod to the real-life drama told in the Author's Notes at the start of every chapter.

Usually, the ANs were generic "gothics rock; preps are just jealous haters. Everyone who flames the story is clearly a prep. Goths, you rule and I love you." There was also almost always a hat-tip to Raven to thank her for the beta reading. A little past the halfway mark, however, the two had a falling out. Apparently the author had stolen a poster from Raven because said poster was of the author's favorite singer, and she couldn't resist stealing it. She apologized to Raven via the ANs - a weird spot to air out dirty laundry and ask for forgiveness, but whatever - but apparently Raven didn't accept the apology. This lead to Raven's insert character Willow getting killed off. This rough patch with Raven, and a couple of earlier chapters where Raven was on vacation and couldn't beta read for the author, were the worst-written chapters. So, despite all of them - except the hacked one - being horribly written, it seems the quality WAS somewhat improved by Raven's involvement. "Luckily," a couple of chapters from the end, it seemed the author and Raven made up, because Willow made a silent return and the quality "improved" again. In the meantime though, the drama between the author and Raven continued to play out with the author bouncing between "screw you" and "I'm sorry, please forgive me" in her ANs. She also routinely yo-yo'd between "don't blame me for the poor spelling/grammar, that's all on Raven's beta reading" and "Just kidding, Raven, you're amazing!"

Let me tell you, this story is ATROCIOUS. It is borderline PAINFUL to experience. I had Hubby listen to some of it, mostly so he could experience the glory that was the hacked 39th chapter, and he almost couldn't handle just chapter 38; I had him listen to that first to hear the narrative change and understand the mockery. And yet, I LOVED listening to Red read it. The story was one of those trainwreck So Bad It's Good type of experiences. Plus, Red's mocking voice acting, her stumbling over reading the misspellings of words and poor grammar, and her running commentary of the work was a delight. Please, note, however, if you do brave Red's "audiobook" of this fanfic - or find and read the fic yourself - that it is bad for reasons worse than poor grammar and lack of knowledge of the source material.

There is an obscene amount of profanity, gratuitous and callous use of wrist cutting, romanticized and nonconsequential views of suicide, and nonchalant mentions of pedophilia and rape (always spelled rap). Now, the pedophilia and rape are always portrayed as horrendous acts, and the acts are never actually described, but the terms are thrown around casually as evidence of how "evil" someone is. Also, bisexual males are heavily fetishized with the author interjecting with phrases like "aren't bi guys so sexy?"

This. This is how I started my two-week isolation. It's kinda only gone down hill from there.

Hubby wanted something new to binge on Netflix, and, due to a lot of talk about it lately with our Anime Night friends, he decided it was time for us to FINALLY get into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

This... this show... it's... well... it's unique. That's for sure. I'm enjoying it, to be fair, but it is so massively over-the-top with everything. The dialog, the character design, the color palette swaps for dramatic scenes, the move sets, the character/villain names - which are almost all nods to Western musicians and bands - and the POSES - probably what the series is most known for. Add in the casting of just about every male voice actor I adore, and how can I not enjoy this grand slice of Cheese?

That said, "bizarre" adventure is an appropriate title, because, HOO BOY, is this show ever bizarre! So, needless to say, Sunday was an overly "weird" day for me.

Also, if all of that wasn't enough for my Sunday, thanks to a message ChibiSunnie sent me, I fell down the Inuyasha nostalgia rabbit hole. I've been routinely listening to the soundtrack ever since. In fact, while writing this blog post, I've been listening to the full 4min version of "Come" by Namie Amuro on nonstop repeat.

I have also gone back to listen to Red's livestream of the Edgar Allan Poe stories, but that was yesterday while making dinner and doing dishes.

The rest of my Monday consisted of Hubby and I sleeping in, us watching more JoJo's, me cleaning for a bit, and managing to still get in my Monday Zumba class, thanks to the instructor getting a free version of the video conferencing program Zoom. So, for as long as we can't meet up for Zumba in person, we can each go through the hour-long class at home. All we need is some floor space, the link to the Zoom session, and a good internet connection. Added bonus? Some of the normal participants who are out of town can still join in now!

Add in all of the other entertainment - OSP's reading livestreams, various other YouTube videos, Netflix, Tumblr, and (hopefully) this blog post - as well as people's ability to work from home, and still stay connected to each other, and I think the internet is the MVP of this social distancing. Way to keep up the hard work, Internet.

Generated by Bitmoji

Speaking of MVPs, can we pause for a minute to talk about the true MVPs? The essential workers that still have to brave interacting with others during this time of crisis?

So, thank you, doctors, nurses, various other hospital workers, first responders, grocery store workers, delivery drivers, postal workers, funeral directors/morticians, and any other worker I might have missed - such as clerks in stores like Walmart that are still open because they also sell food, water, and other essentials. I know most of you don't really have a say in the matter, but I still praise you for your continued work in this chaotic time, and your calm demeanor despite how crazy everyone else has become, and how poorly a lot of you have been treated lately.

I don't know how much comfort it is in these trying times, but, from me to you:

Generated by Bitmoji

Stay well, and stay sane out there.

Hubby is one of those brave souls. He works at a grocery store, so please send him all of your Positive Thoughts for the mornings where the store gets a delivery truck. The place gets MOBBED! The store opens at 6am, and when I drop Hubby off for that 6am shift there are already easily two-dozen cars in the parking lot, and the store manager has already let most of them inside! It is a MADHOUSE as people rush to grab up the hand sanitizer, soap, cheap meats, bread, paper towels, tissues, and.... you guessed it... toilet paper. What is up with the toilet paper insanity?

Downside is that Hubby has to still go out and deal with the public during everything, which also means he could contract COVID-19 and bring it home to me. So please keep us in your thoughts. I mean, so far so good, but I don't want to rest on my laurels. Also, even if we do stay healthy, that is a LOT of time for him to be standing when he already has bad knees and a bad back. Also add in the particularly terrible treatment from a lot of customers right now.

Plus side is two-fold. One, Hubby is getting a massive amount of hours, plus a hazard pay premium while everything is going down, so I hope that will help with me having to switch to unemployment for at least the next two weeks. Two, as mean as this may sound, his working while I'm forced to not means I have nearly 8hrs every day to be home alone. I can spend that time cleaning, or writing, or watching shows I want to catch up on but he's not really into, or stealing the TV to play video games; something I don't get a chance to do frequently.

That said, you see how well I utilized that alone time on Sunday....


Alternatively, Monday, while I was doing Zumba in the "dining room" that separates our living room from our bedroom, Hubby switched from JoJo's to a different anime he had on his watch list, but I wasn't particularly invested in one way or the other. After my shower, and our dinner together, I asked him if he would be cool watching more of his show instead of going back to JoJo's. That way I could sneak off to attempt SOME writing.

Squirreled away for roughly two hours before crashing for the night, I once more tried tackling that 'Your Voice' prompt for the long-over Fluff Week challenge. I had told you last week that I was writing down all of the options I thought up so I could weed them out of my head. Well, a few days ago I just kind of gave up and started writing, hoping SOMETHING would manifest.

I'm not entirely sure how I'm feeling about what I have thus far, but whatever I have, I have six pages and nearly 3000 words worth. It's definitely fluffier than some of my previous chapters/stories, although that's not really saying much. It's also far more Adrienette than I initially pictured for the story, but I guess I needed all of it to help set up the pay off? I'm still not sure what I'm going to do to switch to the initial LadyNoir side of the Love Square that I want the prompt to really focus on. So..... we'll see where I go with that.

Oddly enough, mostly due to my frantic attempt to keep up with my now flooded Tumblr dashboard, I haven't actually read anything this week, unless you count my listening to My Immortal.


Seems everyone I follow is now home with plenty of time to either add content, or at least reblog it, on Tumblr. Meanwhile, I still had work last week, and while we barely had any customers, a lot of that time was spent trying to clean and sanitize the store. Not much time to go through Tumblr with enough regularity to keep up with the heightened influx of activity. When I got home each night I spent some time bonding with the husband, and then I would kind of mindlessly sift through my Tumblr dash for four hours.

I have added so much to my already overwhelming drafts folder.

NuaNia Facebook sticker
by PRANEAT

Since I spent so much time trying to stay up-to-date with Tumblr, I ran out of reading time. Then, like I said, I've been slacking Sunday and Monday, so no reading then either. I'm hoping to get past the mental block this work shutdown has created and truly start utilizing this newfound free time properly.

It's just so weird to be told I CAN'T go anywhere, instead of opting to stay home of my own accord. It's making me stir crazy out of principle, I think. Age old "you don't want something until you're told you can't have it" problems, I guess.

I'm sure it didn't help that it's finally officially spring and we still had this mess to deal with yesterday:

Generated by Bitmoji
Why are we still getting snow!?
It was like 70 the day before!

I'm still awkwardly kind of on-call for work since I'm literally a block away from the store. I'm hoping the blinding sun I've seen all morning means the snow melted on its own. Otherwise I might have to go shovel the front sidewalk at least. The store's owner is trying to figure out how to pay me - or somehow give me some sort of backpay once the store reopens - for any time I might spend checking on and otherwise maintaining the building. There's a lot of roof-leaking problems as well that I might have to peek in on.

So... uh... yeah. This time is weird. It's going to feel weird for a while. While I feel like most of us are hoping these Social Distancing restrictions are only going to last for 14 days, I have a suspicion it might last until the end of April at the earliest. Especially if people continue to not voluntarily isolate themselves.

Boy, do I hope I'm wrong, and we can all get back to some semblance of normalcy by the beginning of April. Regardless of which direction this thing leans, I hope we can all stay sane together, and that I've helped you ease some of that boredom and antsiness.

Generated by Bitmoji

Ramblings About Spoilers (And Some Stuff About My Writing Too)

In truth, I'm not entirely sure what I did this past week. I haven't been feeling well, which means I've been neglecting my time audits. Always when I need them the most to figure out what the heck I did with my life is when I'm too "bleh" to remember to do them.

Awesome.

Generated by Bitmoji

I'm so good at this whole "Adulting" thing, guys.

Out of what I DO remember, this was my week:

• Go to work for the past six days straight
• Attempt to write and fail more often than not
• Power through the second half of the final season of Steven Universe
• Overwhelm ChibiSunnie with walls of text about Fruits Basket Another and Steven Universe
• Responding to a week's worth of Chibi's replies and own gushing about mangas she's into
• FINALLY getting back to messaging TLOS21 after I accidentally ghosted the poor dear MONTHS ago

None of that is necessarily in order.

I think the big thing was the Steven Universe bit. Hubby and I had a couple of binge nights throughout the week, even though we still would have had this week to finish the show off before the TV movie premiered. That last day, though?

Generated by Bitmoji

We started the show up as a way to wind down our evening. The timing was near-perfect for us to stop at midnight. It would have been like 12:06 or something random like that by the time the episode ended.

Except, it was a precursor to an episode I knew was going to happen, and one that was kind of major for the fans, from what I gathered via Tumblr posts and talking with Chibi. It was also the episode where the the show's creator Rebecca Sugar went a bit passive-aggressive. See, the show has a strong focus on lesbian relationships, among other key things. While some of those relationships could be reworked to be presented as "really close friends" or "family" - basically the same treatment Sailor Moon got State-side in the 90s - there was one couple where you couldn't deny that they were together. They kiss and hug and swing each other around... they were clearly a couple. Some countries, trying to rework this fact to hide a lesbian relationship, reworked one of the characters as male since she had a more masculine personality and style. Rebecca was NOT happy with this decision, and decided to throw a monkey wrench into those re-works.

I won't say more because of spoilers, but it was a glorious show of passive-aggressiveness, and I assumed it would be the next episode in the line-up. They are only 10min long episodes, so Hubby and I decided "Meh, one more." Except there was actually a sort of interlude episode. The NEXT episode would be the one I was waiting for.

"One more?"
"One more."

Buuuuuut, the one I was waiting for turned out to be a double episode: 20minutes. Okay. No big. So we go to bed at 12:30. Lots of adults do that.

Except I didn't know the episode I was waiting for would be the one that also flung us into the final act of the series. I should have seen that coming, in hindsight...

Cliffhanger after cliffhanger after cliffhanger... next thing I know, we're finishing up the 40min finale episode and going to bed at like 2am!

Sheesh!

But, hey, I enjoyed an awesome show finally. I got to watch the most epic portions of it with my hubby. He was annoying and called all the major "twists" the show concluded with. Darn his masterful observation and deduction powers!

Also, guys! GUYS! There is a BEHEMOTH of a character in that finale called Obsidian, and I LOVE her!

If Lia were a Steven Universe Gem instead of an X-Men mutant, then I could TOTALLY see this as her design... maybe with fewer arms... but... yeah! Maybe I'll rethink Lia's hair so it's more like hot smoke. I mean, Te Ka from Moana had a similar look.

Another good reference for Lia in her Obsidian form. In my reworking of Lia for Glitches I DO have her has half-Hawaiian, so maybe an homage art styling to Disney's Te Ka would be appropriate.

It might also help me make her seem less like the X-Men canonical character Magma - who, in X-Future, is Lia's mom - if I made Lia look more like a human volcano and less like the female version of the Human Torch.

Johnny "Human Torch" Storm from Fantastic Four
Amara "Magma" Aquilla from X-Men

Now, I tried making Lia look less like her mom by having her cover her magma form with a "skin" of obsidian; hence the codename. However, Lia still has her hair turn into flames when she powers up. I'm not much of an artist, so these are the best renderings I have of my vision.

Left Design: mostly artwork from ChaZie doll
designers, and then doctored in Photoshop
Right Design: Completely done in X-Girl
doll maker by Candy's World

After seeing the design of the Steven Universe Obsidian, and comparing her to Te Ka, I'm thinking the smoke-cloud hair could actually work better for Lia. Especially since the comic book versions of both Johnny Storm and Amara Aquilla are blondes. It just seems natural for light colored hair to become flame-like. Meanwhile, Te Ka is part of Hawaiian culture, and most Hawaiians have brunette hair. It seems just as natural for brunette hair to become smoke-like. Lia happens to be brunette....

I'm going to have to re-think Lia's Obsidan Form art design for Glitches....

Generated by Bitmoji

Back on topic. So I completed my watch of Steven Universe. That means I was also able to finally get to the Overly Sarcastic Productions' Trope Talk about Plot Twists. I have to say, while I was fairly certain I knew MOST of the spoilers for SU already, I'm glad I didn't chance watching the Trope Talk before finishing the series.

It was a kind of major twist, and while said twist now entices me to go though a second viewing of the whole series - as long as that is - in order to see the clues sprinkled throughout, at the same time I'm glad THAT twist wasn't spoiled for me. After having an emotional investment in the series, to have THAT rug pulled outside of the narrative would have pissed me off.

Sure, there's the argument - one that Red brings up in her Trope Talk - that if a story is ruined by being spoiled, then it was a poorly written story. This was a big talking point around the spoilers embargo for "Avengers: Endgame". Like, people were literally beaten up for announcing spoilers for the movie. So the critique became: "if you find out a spoiler and decide the story's no longer worth consuming, then it was probably a poorly written story in the first place." Mainly because it means knowing that twist takes away the enjoyment of the story; detracting from any form of second viewing.

HOWEVER, there are twists that ADD to the second viewing because it gives you something to look out for. Red states that these are "well done" plot twists; the kind that enhances the story. I argue that it sucks to have THOSE spoiled for you just as much as the "bad writing" plot twists; the ones in there just for the initial shock value.

Red explains that being spoiled something that is a good plot twist will just sort of launch you into the "second viewing" mindset of "I already know this twist but..." as you still enjoy the suspense - or the suspense is kicked up a notch due to your knowledge - or as you pick up the breadcrumbs leading to the twist.

For instance, there are a LOT of these "retroactive" plot twists in the show Futurama. Two major ones are actually revealed in the 4th season, even though there were hints about it all throughout the series. One reveal was so ingrained in the overarching story of the show - even though it was never even HINTED that there was a deeper meaning to it - that if you go back to the VERY FIRST EPISODE, and know what you're looking for, the reveal is there! It wasn't something that was retroactively added in for a flashback sequence to explain this random plot twist, IT WAS THERE IN THE FIRST EPISODE, JUST WAITING TO BE REVEALED!

FOUR SEASONS LATER!

Likewise, the second reveal also had breadcrumbs from at LEAST the second season, if you knew what to look for. That's another three years of dropping hints before the reveal. The best part is, while both reveals did kinda-sorta change characters' outlooks on their lives, it didn't change the overall story of the show. It wasn't a "trajectory" twist that drastically redirects the show plot for the rest of the series; or the rest of the movie....

Knowing those reveals actually makes the story more fun as you try to pick up on those clues upon your watch. So, in that regard, I think I agree that finding out a spoiler shouldn't ruin the overall experience. Instead, it tweaks it to a potentially better one as it forces you into that "second viewing" mindset.

HOWEVER, my counter-argument is that it only really works with those retroactive-twist spoilers, but not trajectory-twist spoilers.

Sure, a trajectory twist - or the "character reveal" twists that are usually both retroactive twists and trajectory twists - should still be done well enough that knowing it doesn't ruin the whole story, otherwise, what is the point of re-watching/re-reading/re-playing the story?

Most of the examples I can think of off the top of my head are character reveal twists, but we'll go with it.

• Knowing who Keyser Soze is won't ruin the re-watch value of "The Usual Suspects."
• Knowing who the titular "Twilight Princess" is won't ruin the video game.
• Knowing the full story about the Crystal Gems rebellion against Pink Diamond - the Steven Universe spoiler Red had used - doesn't ruin the re-watch value of the series.
• Knowing who is the masked leader of the terrorist group in "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel" or, similarly, the masked leader of the terrorist group in "Fire Emblem: Three Houses" - Hubby has a thing for RPGs with masked terrorist group leaders, apparently - doesn't ruin the re-play value of those games.
• Knowing who Darth Vader is in "Star Wars" doesn't ruin any of the re-watches of it.
• Knowing the truth about what the world of Psyren is - in the same named manga series - doesn't stop you from wanting to re-read it.
• Knowing the truth about what the Assassin's Creed games are about doesn't ruin the re-play value, nor does it detract from future games in the franchise.

HOWEVER. While these are all well-written trajectory plot twists, I would STILL hate to have known them ahead of time. I still would have HATED having them spoiled - which is why I'm so glad I waited before watching that Trope Talk.

Because, while the story isn't ruined by knowing, and it may actually be ENHANCED with the knowledge of those twists, getting those twists spoiled still ruins the EXPERIENCE of going in blind. You don't feel that initial reaction that the writer wanted for you. That shock. That awe. That gut-punch. That "wait! what!?"

Being spoiled on a well written plot twist - usually a trajectory twist - takes something from you, and that's why I'm trying harder to either avoid posting spoilers on this blog, or at least marking/hiding them. I know, I've been accidentally spoiled on a lot of things that took away that initial impact, and I'm super bummed about it.

Speaking of: pro-tip for anyone watching "Miraculous Ladybug" and either haven't gotten to season 3 yet, or just started it. Avoid watching the episode "Party Crasher". It aired terribly out of order and spoils new Miraculous wielders.

So... anyway.... those were my rambling thoughts about spoilers and why I'll continue to want spoiler tags for things.

Let's move along to the real reason you guys are here: my writing.

In that regard, I kinda sorta have good news?

I don't have anything posted yet. I still need to finish and polish. And this might be one of the few times I read something to my writing group before publishing it. I use the limited critiques I get from them for future writing; a means to grow and adapt. However, it's rare that I use the critiques for the actual story I've read, because said story has already been posted online. In some occasions, the story has been up for months before I get to read it at group.

We'll see how it goes. First, I have to finish writing/editing the story before group tonight. That is the trick, considering it kept me until I had a night alone at home on Friday - I just haven't been able to really focus at work this week - to finally got some words on paper; so to speak.

About two hours and five pages worth of writing.

Generated by Bitmoji

I had finally gotten around to working on my Gabriel and Emilie story.

Originally, it was going to be a one-shot in the same universe as Stranger in a White Dress, and set it up as a series, like I did with the It's You universe. Then I thought I'd do something similar to What Is Truly Meant To Be, and create a love story where each chapter relates to a different song. The first chapter would be "Play Me Like A Violin" by Stephen and the second chapter - the writing I did on Friday, and continued a little bit yesterday - would be based on "I Don't Care (acoustic)" by Ed Sheeran. However, the more I wrote, the slower the progress got with the relationship. I was perfectly okay with that, but it meant I barely covered even the first verse of "I Don't Care" within my story. I mean, that's fine too, since "Stranger in a White Dress" is more of the FEELING of "Play Me Like a Violin" as opposed to a narration of the story told in the song.

Still. The more I wrote "I Don't Care" and the more I got into the slow build of their relationship, the more I realized how much the song didn't just talk about this ONE MOMENT in their romance. The feel of "Play Me Like a Violin" very much encompasses the initial attraction the two had for each other, in my mind. However, it's a story about a whirlwind romance, of physical attraction without truly getting to know each other. The story told in "I Don't Care" - the song, not my writing - is about a strong connection with someone; being able to do things otherwise thought impossible or uncomfortable, simply because the love of your life is beside you.

That's not just a chapter in Gabriel and Emilie's life. That is their whole romance.

So, I'll have to rework and retweak a few things, and I want to alter a part in "Stranger in a White Dress" before officially posting it as "chapter 1" of this story. As of right now, the overall story will be called "I Don't Care" which works as a nod to both the song that inspired it, and to the couple's attitude towards hardships while they're together, as well as a painful reminder of Gabriel's thoughts after Emilie is taken from him.

Really, the only hesitation I have with posting this new story as a chapter instead of a short story within the same universe as SiaWD, is that if it's a multi-chapter story, then people will be expecting updates on it. I know I will post more chapters as I become inspired to talk more about the couple's doomed relationship. However, I have no clue how frequently those inspirations will strike. I mean, it's been over a year since I wrote SiaWD.

Also... I still have OatS to work on, so switching focus to this new story, instead of letting new chapters pop up whenever, seems like a disservice to OatS and the readers waiting for it. Especially since I'm not the type of person who can split focus on a massive project like these in order to progress them simultaneously. I just don't want my readers to see me posting a new multi-chapter story, and have it not be OatS AGAIN. I already did that to them twice with "Woven Heartstrings" and "Prescription for Love." I feel like I'm just teasing them now.

On the flipside, maybe they'll just appreciating having SOMETHING new from me to read. Plus, using this Gabriel/Emilie story as sort of a palate cleanser whenever OatS is running me into a wall might be just what I need to finally finish that massive work.

So, here's to adaptability, and hope it helps get me back on track with my writing.

Until next week.

And Back Out Again

Well... that writing momentum died quickly!


Also, sorry for the delay on this week's post. I had a surprise visit from Ronoxym and Cyhyr this morning. So you can blame them for distracting me.


Anyway, this past week was actually pretty booked with other things, so writing kind of fell to the wayside.

I had a project I needed to finish for a gift, so that took up most of my freetime outside of work. That, and I ended up hanging out with Rozsavaria - formally known as Spink on this blog, but Rozsavaria is her main online handle, so that's her name here now - and she taught me how to knit.

It's not very good. I mean, it's not BAD, but it's also not very good.

I've had always been a bit intimidated by knitting, but it's actually pretty simple... at least, the very basic knit stitch, and when it is done in a row. Pearling is a pain, though. Trying to remember to work in reverse was a bit much for me....

Anyway, yeah, I just did a lot of crafting outside of work this week. And some socializing, hence the hang-out with Roz. Omnibladestrike also did his weekly hang-out with us on Sunday. Quarthix was over last Tuesday to draft for fantasy football before I went to writing group. I've been a bit busy.

Also, since I brought up the topic:

I like reviving old memes....

While I was at my job I actually - surprise, surprise - did work! Yeah! About once every other month I have to go through all of our clearanced out items. This list is usually an inventory of about 450 items between the actual furniture and the decorative items such as lamps and wall art. I have to double check the spreadsheet I created is up-to-date on pricing, price drops, items on the list, and how many items are left between all of the company's stores. I then scan the items, print off, cut, fold, and hang the new tags; again double checking the pricing verses my spreadsheet. I also have to double check that we have barcodes for everything, that everything on my list matches what is on our floor, that items that were sold were properly taken out of the system and off our inventory, and look for the inevitable one or two items that are on our list but I can't find on our floor. This past week I also added in the task to photograph everything so I can also keep together a visual inventory of things that are harder to differentiate based on the item name: such as lamps or wall art. So I kept myself hopping this past week.

This left virtually no free time to write, and the few minutes I probably could have written I ended up wasting on YouTube videos instead.

A year or two ago, after I read Dante's Inferno, I discovered a YouTube channel called Overly Sarcastic Productions.

It was fun, but I didn't really get too far into the channel. Mainly because - as most people seem to rationalize these days - I can totally sit and watch four 10-min long episodes because "come on; it's just 10minutes!" but heaven forbid I watch one of OSP's 26-min videos about classic literature... I just don't have the time for that!

Anyway, one day last week I was going through a writing post on Tumblr that talked about tropes and cliches: how to avoid them, and which ones you could keep in. The article commented about OSP's Trope Talks playlist for some great and humorous discussions about literary tropes. Basically Red breaks down the tropes, comments about how they can become bad cliches and hinder writing, but also talks about how they can be fantastic tools for improved writing.

And thus I was hooked. I just tore through all of the Trope Talks currently up, checked out a few of Blue's History Summarized, and I'm now going through the Miscellaneous Myths playlist.

Everything is informative, so I FEEL like I'm being productive. However, LEARNING about writing isn't actually writing, and in learning about writing I'm failing to CONTINUE writing, so it is a wash when all is said and done. I just hope my writing improves because of the "research" I've been doing.

My final bit of procrastinating? Well, you can blame Jowy's Pixie for that...

As I'm sure we're all well aware by now, Pixie is the one who has left me those lengthy, ugly-cry-inducing reviews on "Peeping Tomcat". Well, through my messages to thank her for all of her reviews, and her replies back, we've built up a nice rapport. I think it's safe to say we even have the starting seeds of a friendship.

Well, along with this budding friendship, I've also picked up on how articulate she is. She has her thoughts well thought out, and they are meaningful and unique. I just knew she was a good writer, even though she gobbled up a whole humble pie and thinks she's just "okay". I couldn't believe that, and so I hopped on over to her FFN profile. She has three on-going "Miraculous Ladybug" fanfics right now. All of them are 50,000+ words long!

I wasn't sure if I could invest in such long stories, but I wanted to at least get a taste of her work. So I chose the shortest one she had: an AU where Chat Noir is a cat demon instead of a superhero, and Marinette is just a simple girl.... that accidentally sold her soul to Chat Noir.

Accidentally selling her soul to a demon wasn't the smartest thing Marinette could have done while messing around with a Ouija board alone. Especially when that demon is the devious Chat Noir, demon prince of bad luck and destruction. AU.

It's called "Immortal Bond." It is a bit mature, intense, and dark though.

I've seen people subvert the "Chat Noir is a demon" trope... and yes, it is a trope; you'd be surprised how many came up with this idea. Sure, CN is a demon, but he's still playful and fairly in character. Pixie, on the other hand, doesn't try to subvert the trope. Chat Noir is a demon who TRIES to be nice, flirty, and protective of Marinette. However, he ends up being possessive, stalkerish, aggressive, emotionally abusive, and demanding. Thankfully, Pixie also has Marinette trying to find any way she can to escape from Chat Noir, and the story does address the stress and fear Marinette suffers. Even with all of that though, Chat Noir is still one of the "good guys" and is played as an anti-hero. Well... more of an anti-villain since he's the main antagonist. But it is largely hinted that there is a Big Bad villain that Chat is trying to protect Marinette from, so back to anti-hero?

My point being, while lots of people subvert the "a character is a demon" trope, and I went in totally expecting that, Pixie is not one of those writers. She goes gritty. So.... trigger warning? I guess? But if you can handle a darker theme it is well worth the read.

In fact, I actually read her whole story in just two days! I read the first five chapters on Sunday, and then the second half during the slow times at work on Monday. I have NEVER read a 50,000+ word story that fast! It just begged for me to keep going. True, there still needs to be some more polish to it and perhaps one really good line-edit revision, but what fanfiction doesn't?

The concept is compelling and intriguing to me. The characters are forced to be in darker and more severe situations than are presented on the show, which means there's no canonical precedent as to how Marinette or Chat Noir would act. This means they're both a bit out of character, but understandably so. What this also means is that the story doesn't HAVE to be a "Miraculous Ladybug" story. Pixie can rename the characters and she'd be good to go to have it be an original story. I hope that perhaps one day she does rework it as an original.

Anyway, if you're looking for a good lengthy story, don't mind waiting for the weekly updates on chapters, and can handle the darker themes, go check out "Immortal Bond."

Aaaaaaand, since I'm promoting stories now anyway, I might as well let you know that the pre-order links for "Leather and Lies" are finally live! Don't forget to check out Celeste Straub's premiere novel!

She only has two online locations available right now for pre-order, with more links becoming available in the near future. The links are also only for e-book pre-orders right now, but a link for a print copy pre-order will be up eventually.

For the time being, you can pre-order on Amazon and on Smashwords.

Other pre-order locations to come include: Kobo, Nook, iTunes, and GooglePlay.
I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

And one more person to promote....

One of the artists I fell in love with via the Miraculous fandom is Eden Daphne. You probably read me commenting about her on here before. She's the artist and co-author for a few of my favorite fanfics:
 - When Duty and Desire Meet
 - Under Lock and Key
 - Freed in the Rain (a one-shot within an anthology)

Over the weekend she opened up her commissions. Her prices are actually really reasonable, even borderline "cheap" for the work.

I've missed her commissions availability before and I really wanted to get something drawn by her. I just couldn't decide what.

Do I go for an OC? And if so, who?

• My first main OC Amara Yori... the Edge Lord?
• My first X-Future character, the meek and motherly Lia Maddox?
• Arguably my main X-Future character: party girl and playful flirt Willow Driver?
• My psychotic, but fun to write, Brotherhood character Trish Morrison?
• My main NPC Crystal McGinty?
• My most-played D&D character Jolene Crisslebalm, the Golden Succubus?
• My newest D&D character the gnome Elymoxa Welbys Alver Teenybump?
• My Numenera character, the cyborg Jynna?
• What about my Gyateara characters? Female lead Nathalie, or male lead Connor?

I also have about three or four characters from when I played "Vampire: The Masquerade", two or three more D&D characters, and the list goes on....

Alternatively, I could go for a lower tier, pay for the background and/or extra characters, and ask for scenes from "Peeping Tomcat." It would help me promote the story now that it's done, and it could have the added bonus of Eden Daphne possibly wanting to read my fanfic. The trick here though is which scene?

• When Chat Noir first accidentally peeps on Marinette?
• When Adrien and Marinette have their cute heart-to-heart on the subway?
• Their pseudo-date at the movies?
• And even then, do I go for Adrien helping Marinette clean up her spilled popcorn?
• Or when he cheered her up by eating the rest of his popcorn that she accidentally knocked onto him?
• Or when she grabs his hand during the intense part of the movie?
• Do I showcase my original akumas?
• Which one there? Mimicker in the mall with her army of Chloes?
• Terravenger and his plant creatures after turning Place des Vosges into a dense forest; Marinette's family's home completely overrun?
• Gremlin taking out the electronic devices outside Center Hall? 
• What about when Chat Noir watches Marinette drawing the yin-yang dress?
• When he watches her dance in her room?
• What about the Chat Noir Appreciation Festival?
• Do I not care about spoilers and have Eden Daphne draw Chat Noir finally seeing Tikki? Or even PLAGG first seeing Tikki?

There were so many options! I just couldn't narrow it down.

Then ChibiSunnie intelligently suggested I just write all the options down and draw from a hat to see which one to ask for. I asked Hubby to pull from the cup for me, and he did so in a very unconventional manner that I won't get into.

While Amara was the first slip of paper pulled, he quickly declared, without even looking at the slip of paper, that the LAST ONE in the cup will be the winner. This resulted in Willow being the winning "pick", although I could have overridden him and went with Amara instead since she was the first one pulled.

I almost did, too. Mainly because Chibi has drawn me a couple of cards that had Willow on them already, so I technically already had fanart of her... or, free commissions since I asked Chibi to draw Willow on my cards?

Anyway, I decided to go with the spirit of the lottery that Hubby came up with, and asked Eden Daphne for commissioned art of Willow. Luckily, I got my request to her before she closed her commissions again. It wasn't even open for 24hrs before she received enough requests that she needed to close commissions down! I sure lucked out in getting my request in on time!

I chose the "full color, full body, no background, only one character" option. It SHOULD come out to be the $70 listed on the above sheet, but I haven't received the invoice yet. I did send Eden Daphne my write-up of Willow's physical description and personality, as well as some reference pictures. She seems super excited to work on Willow's asymmetrical silver-haired bob with blue streaks.

While I get that drawing takes time, I also can't wait to see the first WIP sketches to come my way! It's going to be so cool when I get the completed artwork! I also gave Eden Daphne fair warning that I just might attempt to slot myself into more of her commission openings in the future. I feel she might have to turn me away soon enough so she can give other people a try!


Alright, now that I'm done with promoting everyone else's stuff, it's FINALLY time to promote my own.

Like I said, I didn't really do much writing this past week. However, I DID still need to reach that "one new story per month" goal. So I polished up the akumatizing side story for "One and the Same." It is crazy early to try to promote this sequel, and most people will probably forget about this side-story by the time the main one comes out.

That said, it was the only story I had written in August, and it was ready to publish with just one more pass-through for line-edits. No need to stress trying to write something new and edit it within a couple of days.

"Making Headlines"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

There isn't as much love for this story, mainly because it's so small - about 1000 words - and it doesn't include any of the main characters. I knew it was going to have low readership, though. All of my akumatizing stories have a small reader base. Even so, the reviews have been promising.

• Oh damn! Of course you never cease to tease! ;p Intriguing, as always. Waiting for the continuation!
• Ooh, I totally like this!
• Oh, this is interesting! It makes me look forward to the story coming out next year!
• I liked this tale, especially the interactions between Nadia (who herself isn't too sure of her job) and the upcoming Clara. Clara stuck to the broken bones and lost dogs news items is somewhat sad and yet real for starting reporters. Jammer maar helaas! (Its' a shame, but there is nothing to do about it! You'll have to admit it looks better in Dutch)
       I ADORE Headliner's outfit! She does have a "Press card" on her Fedora? That'd be awesome! I'm looking forward to next installments! I'd also want to thank you for all of your time you spend/lost on creating this wonderful, editing this great, writing out this amazing and most of all for sharing this delightful first chapter for our joy and contentment![sic]

I even received a review from my mother.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Mom: You actually have me hooked, so hurry up and tell me what happens. I knew eventually you'd write something for your mother.

HAHAHA! Happy to please, Mom! For those who don't know, while my mother is a strong cheerleader of mine, I never seem to write anything that she enjoys reading. It's either horror/thriller/gory, or it's "super nerdy" with it being a fanfic of a show she doesn't watch or a book she didn't read. She likes romance, and wishes I'd write more of that. So, honestly, this no-romance-involved story catching my mother's eye is a bit of a surprise to me. Glad to have her hooked though.

I also received another guest review, but it's probably my mom as well, since she tends to accidentally double post when she tries to edit something she already posted....

- "You actually have me hooked so you better write fast and tell me what happens."

I'm excited that I'm getting people pumped for this sequel.

NOW TO ACTUALLY WRITE THE DARN THING!

Speaking of, this post is already about 5hrs late. I think I should call it 'good' and focus on my story instead. Let's just hope Eden Daphne or Jowy's Pixie don't update for a couple of days.