How Marinette's Song Came to Be

Sorry I lied, and now this is a day late. Like... super late. Like, it's now night, late. I was out of the house more-or-less from 1:45pm until 7pm yesterday running errands, then I had dinner, then Hubby wanted to play his "A Song of Ice and Fire" miniatures game again, which lasted until 10:30 or so. Then some household chores.... Then, today, I've been at work.


Anyway, late though it is, as promised, here's my second blog post in order to help make up for missing last week. This way I can get a bit more detailed in the actual writing progress of Marinette's Song and my Fluff Week stories. I can also truly gush over those other stories I've read the past week or so.

Thing is, though... seems I had a LOT more to talk about than I thought in regards to the writing process behind coming up with my Lukanette story. So... uh... this entire epic blog post is JUST about Marinette's Story. 

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Edited by LycoRogue

At least you know what you're getting into, right? If you really don't care about my rambling about my writing process, and the readership stats for the story, then you can go ahead and skip over this post.

HOWEVER, I do also gush about the Lukanette Secret Admirer story written for me by CaptainMalcolmReynolds, and it would be a shame to miss that. If you want to just skip down to that bit, scroll until you see this Bitmoji:

My review of Or I Could Just Kiss You... is only about a paragraph after that.

For those of you that are sticking around for the whole ride, I hope you've gotten your bathroom breaks in already....

Luka screen grab from episode "Felix"
Marinette screen grab from episode "Silencer"

As I've mentioned in the past, I instantly loved the concept of the prompt justknitstuff had submitted for her future Secret Admirer to use.

Supernatural AU! And not the show SPN. Luka is descended from sirens. His music tends to put people under a spell (not the throw yourself to death kind though), so he goes to his favorite charm shop from the cute witch that makes charms to dampen the affect when he plays. Pre-relationship so while Luka is still calm and cool, you can tell he's still stupidly love sick.

I don't know if that's what came across in the end, but I hope it is.

Also, to be fair, I also enjoyed her other prompt except for two things:

Older Viperbug and Lukanette. Luka and Marinette are trying to start a family but second Hawkmoth makes it a little difficult. Everyone knows each others identity because knowing who they are makes them a stronger team and trust each other more. They work as one big team, but also in little groups. Luka takes charge of the Zodiacs and is kinda Marinette's second-in-command, cause Adrien knows Luka is a little better at making plans. I'm ok with nsfw and other background pairings. Second Hawkmoth can be anyone.

The issues I had with that Aged Up story? Well, for one, as much as I ADORE Lukanette, and think they will be great together, and would not mind if they're End Game, I'm still a die hard Love Square shipper. I will delightfully consume End Game Lukanette like it's going out of style, but I just can't bring myself to write it. Same with my second issue: Luka/Viperion becoming Ladybug's second in command, essentially demoting Adrien/Chat Noir. I am such a Chat Noir stan that is constantly fighting to remind people (the show's writers included) that Chat Noir is NOT Ladybug's sidekick. He is an EQUAL partner, as presented in season 1.

They are less Batman and Robin and more The Wonder Twins. Sure, the female is arguably more powerful or more effective, but you still need both of them to properly function.

Look! They're even "fist bumping" here!
(Just ignore the whole sibling thing;
it's not a perfect analogy)

Granted, it was further explained to me that it's more of a Sailor Moon Inner Senshi vs Outter Senshi, with, I guess, Chat Noir still being the Tuxedo Mask-like partner in battle (ignoring that TM never really actually battles, does he?), and Luka being in charge of the Zodiacs much like Sailor Pluto and the Outter Senshi??? Either way, it's a complex dynamic that definitely would not be fully explored in time for the Valentine's Day deadline.

Needless to say, with my resistance to the Viperbug story, and my instant draw to the idea of Luka being part siren, I was super excited to work on that AU story.

I wanted to be careful, though. I actually have Wiccan friends, so I instantly knew that I didn't want to have Marinette be a traditional "Hollywood witch" and instead try to ground her more in Wiccan practices.

Dear LORD was that a terrible idea. I'm Roman Catholic. I've never witnessed Wiccan practices, and I only vaguely know them via researching random sites on my own, and my friends casually talking about their practicing. I have the disclaimer down on each chapter, but I'll say it again: I hope I didn't offend any Wiccans, nor did I horribly misrepresent the religion. I hit up about a half-dozen sites researching different elements of the ritual I had Marinette perform. I don't know if every site I hit up is 100% accurate, nor do I know if the information I learned is interchangeable. For all I know, I created a ritual that looks like the Wicca equivalent of mashing up Baptist and Catholic Masses and calling it a standard Methodist Mass.

I was going to ask my Wiccan friend to read the story for me and critique the ritual at least, but as the story got longer and longer I felt guilty trying to ask her to beta. So I went in relatively blind.

Regardless, here are the sites I used:

• I wanted to include a snake somehow to give a nod to Viperion, so I started off searching about snakes and Wiccan or Pagan rituals/symbolism. The two main sites I used were:
• The Snake on Witches Lore
• Serpent Magic and Symbolism on Learn Religions
• In the end, I took most of the info from Witches Lore, because it all fit Luka near-perfectly. Especially the Wood Snake description, most of which Marinette relayed over in the story itself. She only missed: "Wood Snakes... usually sort difficulties out without consulting with others."
• Next, I needed Marinette to have a way to figure out Luka's ancestry, so I turned to Grove and Grotto's gemstone chart to find the best stones to focus energy during the interview: Gemstones and their meanings
• I got a nice mini-chuckle out of the appropriateness of Marinette using serpentine... cuz, ya know... serpent.... snake....
• I needed to figure out what Marinette would have to symbolize the elements
• So first I researched the elements in Wicca: The Wiccan Elements on a site simply called wicca.in
• Then I researched the trees in the Place des Vosges: What you should know about Place des Vosges, Paris on French Moments
• Turns out, the most common trees are lime and chestnut.
• I also researched the most common stone in Paris: Lutetian Limestone on Wikipedia
• Now having sorted out Luka's spirit animal guide, and figuring out which element guides him, the next portion was figuring out how to bind his powers. For that I looked back at the site Learn Religions: What is Magical Binding?
• From there, I focused on Norse Runes
• I also narrowed down which Rune I wanted to use: Elder Futhark – Rune Meanings on The Rune Site
• I was trying to decide between: 
• Thurisaz (Thorn (or Giant)) - This rune represents the ability we have to resist unwanted conflicts in a passive manner. It is a rune of protection and can tell us of a possible change that would have otherwise come without warning. You can use the protection aspect of Thurisaz as a defense against adversaries.
• Ansuz (Mouth (or Divine Breath)) - A rune that symbolizes stability and shows us order. It is also a rune that indicates intellectual activities and directly represents the divine breath of all life and creation.
• Perdhro (Dice Cup (there are many variations)) - This rune reminds of the uncertainties in life and represents freewill and the connection of the restrictions we have due to our circumstances. It is viewed as a rune of memory and problem solving.
• Elhaz (Elk (or Protection)) - This is a rune of great restraint power, defense and protection. Use this rune in charms and talismans to protect yourself as well as your property.
• Eihwaz (Yew Tree) - Eihwaz is a rune that can be used as a magical protector and facilitator. It shows us that in the event of an ending situation we find the start of a new situation.
• I then learned about making personal runes:
• "According to Tacitus in his Germania, the Runes should be made from the wood of any nut bearing tree, including oak, hazel, and perhaps pines or cedars."
• Next was researching the meaning of those trees listed: The Victorian Language of Trees on Tales by Trees
• From there, I thought I liked the idea of 'oak' so I researched the meanings behind it further: Oak Tree: Symbolism, Information and Planting Instructions on Urnabios
• It didn't quite work, so I tried again on the Tales by Trees site, and found this line about juniper: "Juniper was meant to serve as a sign of protection."
• Researched juniper via Juniper Tree Symbolism & Meaning on Tree Symbolism
• Of course, I can no longer find my Google source for Juniper wood having a floral, almost rose-like scent to it.

That's not even all of my research. Like I said, I couldn't find my source on juniper lumber having a floral scent, and I know I hit up about a half-dozen other sites. However, they were too long ago, and every time I tried going through my web browser history the thing refreshed around February 7ths, and the research was mostly done closer to the 4th....

Anyway, after doing all of that research, and deciding that Marinette is going to give Luka a binding charm, I had to figure out what the charm would be. It would be easier if it were Adrien, because I could just use the charm bracelet. Duh. Luka, though? Marinette hasn't gifted him anything yet. He gifted her a guitar pick though.... Seemed weird to have it go the other way, however. Also, it wouldn't necessarily help if his voice also cast a magical aura. In the end, it was actually Hubby that came up with the idea of Luka getting a choker. I didn't want to add anything to his canonical design at first, but with the earrings, ring, bracelets, painted nails, and a low-u-neck shirt, truly the only thing he was missing was a necklace. Plus, I think a simple choker would work well with his design.

This is only a quick edit, so it's not the greatest
quality, and you can't really see the charm,
but just to give you a rough idea.

It works, right? What really got me was RIGHT AFTER deciding I was going to give Luka a choker, I found this bit of Aged Up fanart where Luka is ROCKING a choker - well, technically it's a charm on an extremely long chain he could wrap around his neck like a choker, but six of one; half-dozen of the other. Either way, the fanart just solidified that he'd look awesome with one.

Anyway, after deciding on the choker, I spent a bit of time sifting through a LOT of generic Google Image searches before finding this necklace on Amazon.

A close second was this choker by A. Brant + Son.

I think the simple hemp twine and single charm just works better for Luka. What do you think?

Well, along with all of that other research, I knew I needed to keep Tikki in my cast of characters somehow. I did a generic Google search for "red animals" and the second I saw this strawberry poison-dart frog, I knew that was Tikki. I mean, look at that coloring!? It's like the frog is wearing a Ladybug suit!

Image from the Momtastic Web Ecoist article
Well Red: 10 Amazing Red Animals

Look at how tiny they are, though! They're barely larger than a thumb nail! Here's another look at how small they are.

Image courtesy of TripAdvisor

Also, I don't remember why I bothered - probably a means to procrastinate under the justification of helping me visualize it better - but I spent a good hour or so doctoring the image of that snake necklace from Amazon so it looked like a wooden charm. It kept a LOT of color adjustments, and the flattened and singed back side of the pendent didn't come out as good. Still, fairly decent over-all for using a free online photo editor and touch-pad mouse.

Reminder of the original image

Speaking of taking far too much time creating an image... the story's cover art...

You see, as a bit of a change of pace for me, when I was editing Marinette's Song on the 11th, I noticed that I actually had six fairly natural stop-points for the story, all averaging between 1200 and 1800 words apart, making relatively consistent mini-chapters. Taking advantage of those natural stopping points I originally wrote in, I ended up splitting up the nearly-11,000-word story into bite-sized chapters, but still posted the whole story in one go. That way my readers could decide if they wanted to binge the whole thing, or just read it in small chapter bites.

It did keep me a day or two, though, to go back through and try to come up with proper transitional lines for the new chapter breaks. Mostly it was coming up with catchier opening lines - which then lead to new opening paragraphs. It was a task and a half, and one I was not expecting to spend so much time on still, especially when I had this blog and the rest of Fluff Week to finish.

Making the story multi-chapter, however, meant I now needed cover art. As I had mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I do try to have cover art for each of my multi-chapter stories so that they are easily grouped together visually on DeviantArt. Also, that way I don't have to include the story's title for each chapter.

Of course, I didn't think of this until the 13th when I went to publish the story on DeviantArt.

Real quick aside: the reason I publish the stories in the order of DA > FFN > AO3 > Tumblr is as follows. I still haven't figured out how to just upload a word document to DA, so I still cut and paste using the "Enter Text" hotlink. This brings up an HTML writer which doesn't allow emphasis - such as bold face, underline, or italics - to transfer over when I paste. The emphasis has to be added via HTML. Instead of scrolling back through my story and adding the HTML to the places I want italicized - or other emphasis, but usually it's italics - I just add the HTML as I'm writing. It's become second nature now for me to write <i> before hitting italicize, write what I need, then write </i> before switching off of italics.

Anyway, because my base document has the HTML typed into it, it's just easiest to post to DA first. Then I have to go back through my document, find the HTML via the Find feature, delete the HTML because the brackets won't transfer when I upload the document to FFN - leaving behind random 'i's - and re-save the document without the HTML. Once that's done, I upload to FFN. It's a simple upload; one of the easiest for me to do out of all four sites I use. For whatever reason, when I upload to AO3, or copy/paste from my Word document, there's extra line breaks between paragraphs, and it's just tedious to delete those. So instead, I upload to FFN, and then copy/paste to AO3 from FFN's document editor. For whatever reason, that doesn't add the extra line breaks. Go figure.

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So, to recap: I write with the HTML for italics to make life easier for my DA upload. After posting to DA, I delete the HTML and upload to FFN. I then copy the document via the FFN editor, and paste to AO3's uploader. Once all that is done, I go back to my DA posting, You see, when I copy/paste to Tumblr from FFN, AO3, or my Word doc, the italics aren't there, just like with DeviantArt. So, in order to not have to manually scroll through the story in order to put the italics back in, I "edit" the DeviantArt publication in order to access a file with HTML again. Now, the straight HTML doesn't work unless you're specifically in the HTML editor function, in which case I also need to include the HTML for paragraph breaks and the like. Instead, since the brackets still transfer over from DA, I search for the HTML, just like I did when I deleted it from my Word document prior to uploading to FFN. I then add the italics between the HTML coding, delete the coding, slap on a "read more" break somewhere a couple of paragraphs in, and call it a day.

The reason I don't just post to Tumblr at the same time as DA and THEN delete the HTML is because I like linking to the other sites people can read my story on.

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That's why I publish in the order I do. So, naturally, I tried to stick with that routine when I went to publish Marinette's Song on the 13th. Again, I TOTALLY missed that we were supposed to only publish to the AO3 collection until it went live, so I started, as I always do, on DeviantArt. Except, as I went to upload the first chapter I realized I didn't have cover art for the story.

Again, I could have just published as-is, then gone back to add the cover art to link the stories together. That way the story was uploaded on all four sites before 6pm on that Thursday. I guess it's a small blessing that I prioritized the cover, though, because that meant I did NOT publish to FFN before I was "supposed" to, and I didn't publish the story incorrectly on AO3 - something I'll touch on in a moment.

I wanted something quick and easy to make for the cover art. I had limited time, and I'm not terribly skilled with art design anyway. I figured the easiest would be similar to my I Don't Care cover: screen grabs of each half of the couple looking back at the other. The trick then became finding good enough grabs to use.

I started with Luka, hitting up "Captain Hardrock", "Frozer", "Silencer", "Desperada", "Loveater", "Miracle Queen", and then remembering he was also briefly in "Felix." I had a small handful of screen grabs that might have worked, but the one I used for the cover ended up coming from "Felix." I then did the same with Marinette, studying her during each of those same episodes. I also grabbed a nice handful of pics of her, but went with the nice blushing Marinette at the end of "Silencer." She's in a dimly lit room during a concert though, so it was tricky to try to adjust the lighting on her so she was a touch closer to Luka's color levels. Also, trying to cut them out of their respective backgrounds while using only pixlr.com was suuuuch a pain in the butt. I miss having Photoshop....

Then the title itself wasn't saving as centered, even though it showed centered in pixlr. Same with the white letter box I had the title in. I had it extended WAY past the sides of the images, but for whatever reason it kept cutting off with slivers of pink lining the sides on the saved files. I didn't finish editing the images until after the D&D session, so it was already late, and after over 40mins battling pixlr, I shrugged a "good enough for now" and resolved to fix it the next day.

It actually was a fairly quick fix, taking about 30mins or so.

Still, it kept me far too long to make something that wasn't as crucial as I was making it out to be, and that delayed my publishing. Although, as I mentioned, it was probably for the better. I had never published to a collection on AO3 before. I know on FFN and DA you could add an already published story to a collection, so, on the 14th when I finally got around to publishing to AO3, I went to publish the story like I normally did. However, when I went to add the story to the collection, it wouldn't show up in the drop-down options. In fact, I struggled with AO3 - which must have been flooded since it was about 10:30am on Valentine's Day - for about 40mins or so before finally caving and just publishing the first chapter without thinking about the collection. I then tried to add the story to the collection, and couldn't do it. Finally, I deleted the first chapter, and tried AGAIN. This time, I used the "upload" button found in the collection itself. That seemed to have worked fine. However, I would have screwed up again if I had actually published to AO3 on the 13th, because I wouldn't have had a way to hide it, and I forgot all about the collection.

Like I said. Good thing I prioritized the wrong thing, because it saved me from screw up more than I already did.

Anyway, I have to admit that I was a touch nervous when I noticed that the collection was hidden, and therefore my story was as well. I know there have been Tumblr posts warning about that feature of AO3 because you could "lose" your stories if the admin of a collection your story is in changes the privacy of it.

Cpt Reynolds was a mod though, and Knit seemed nice in the interactions I've had with her. So I'm trusting my story in their collection for the event. Worse comes to worst, I have it up on three other sites, and I can easily delete it from the collection and re-upload it under my own account.

So, there it was, about 1pm, crisis mostly averted because the story was hidden inside the collection on AO3, and I hadn't published the chapters on FFN, although I did have them formatted and ready to go once the AO3 collection went live.

We'll ignore that I actually remembered to tag Discovering Miraculous Writers at the end of each chapter, so that blog was starting to reblog my story on Tumblr....

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About 6pm on Valentine's Day, I got an email telling me I received a story as a gift: The event collection on AO3 was live! I was "off-grid" most of the day to spend it with the Hubby, so I didn't see the email until close to 10pm, but I happily published to FFN finally, then went back to my Tumblr posts to update with the links to the AO3, FFN, and DA publications of the story. I then lulled myself to sleep - in the best way - by reading Malcom's story to me!

Again, you can find Or I Could Just Kiss You... over on AO3 or Tumblr.

Summary: Marinette loved Luka. Luka loved Marinette. They were both too blind to see it though, until the day Luka decides to proposition Ladybug...

It is just so sweet. I didn't even remember what prompts I had thrown at the sign-up for this event. I'm terrible at stuff like that, so I literally looked up "Valentine's Day Prompts" and picked the first two that I liked and felt would fit well with Luka and Marinette. Seems one of those random prompts was quite the winner because Mal absolutely loved the prompt line of "Or I could just kiss you..." and just RAN with it.

It is such an amazing, sweet - but sometimes bittersweet - and perfectly paced story. I told Mal that it played out like a 1980s romcom like When Harry Met Sally or something. The concept? Luka and Marinette become best friends, but keep missing each other when they try to confess their feelings. Luka doesn't want to push Marinette, but Marinette keeps thinking she's "too late" and Luka doesn't feel the same way anymore. Luka had figured out that Marinette is Ladybug, and the two, at one point, get into a discussion about first kisses. Luka has yet to have his first kiss, and Marinette comments that she's only kissed a boy as Ladybug, so do they count? She then laments that no one would want to kiss her civilian form, and that's the first time Luka states "Or I could just kiss you.” She laughs it off as a "pity kiss." Fast forward to the duo talking about birthday wish lists, and again Luka asks for a kiss, but in his attempt to sound suave, Marinette misinterpreted as the request being a joke. This starts off a LONG chain of events where it takes these two morons about seven years of going back and forth asking each other for a kiss before they realize BOTH OF THEM ARE SERIOUS and FINALLY get together.

It's so gloriously painful to watch, and you just want to shout at them to just admit they sincerely want that kiss; tell the other how they feel. It's also nice to see how Mal envisions them in their early 20s.

Remember what I said above about not being able to write End Game Lukanette, but will gladly consume it? Yeah. This. This is the perfect example of that. So, yeah. Go read this awesome bit of writing.

And to MalcomReynolds:

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So, I've been giving love to the story gifted me, but what about the other way around?

You tell me, these were the reviews I got from Knit (AKA: ChromeMist):

ChromeMist: Chapter 1 down!

Lol it was fate that I was the one encouraging you to write more of my story! Mal told me my secret admirer was super excited about my prompt! I'm really happy it gave you such inspiration! So far it's really interesting and I can't wait to read the rest! Thanks a bunch!!

ChromeMist: *squeals* That was wonderful! So fluffy and heart warning! And you put so much effort into the actual magick of it! I just glossed over it in mine. Which is funny, we kinda sorta did the same thing...ish!
I don't have enough words though to say how much I love this! Thank you thank you!!

So I guess it's safe to say she enjoyed it? Does my heart good to know that, especially when I tossed Blame Fate for This and The Great Debate seemingly out into the void previously. Of course, I also got more love than simply from Knit/Chrome. The always awesome MalcomReynolds commented on all seven chapters, and another Secret Admirer Exchange participant also left me love and an encouraging review.

Here's the full stats breakdown.

FFN: 271 views, 5 faves, 2 followers, and 1 review
AO3: 206 hits, 20 kudos, 5 bookmarks, and 10 reviews
DA: 72 views and 4 faves

Total Results: 549 views, 29 faves, 7 followers, and 11 reviews

Tumblr Results: 64 notes; 52 likes and 12 reblogs

This post is already long, so you can check out the reviews at their respective sites.

Full disclosure: Discovering Miraculous Writers reblogged 6 times, and, like on DA, the same user could like/reblog each individual chapter on Tumblr, so take that number with a grain of salt. However, it seems most people waited to like and reblog the final chapter, which has links to all of the previous ones. Chapter 7 of Marinette's Song alone had 21 likes and 4 reblogs over on Tumblr. Also, ironically, the final chapter is the only one DMW did NOT reblog. Go figure.

Anyway, that SHOULD be everything I wanted to say about this nearly-month-long project for one of the two fandom events I had signed up for this month.

Now to start up a THIRD post - TRIPLE post week; who knew? - to talk about my Fluff Week stories, and the other stories I've read so far this month.

Catch ya later!

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I'm Late, I'm Late, For A Bunch Of Dates!

Okay. I'm actually a touch exhausted, and it isn't just because I'm currently running on about 3hrs of sleep.

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I mean, yes, there's the lack of sleep as well, but that's what caffeine is for. See, the grocery store Hubby works at is already understaffed, but then, last week, one of the supervisors for the front end cashiers quit. Yesterday, another supervisor decided to transfer to a different store, and a third quit "effective immediately"! That means Hubby is now just one of like 3 or 4 supervisors available! So he stayed late yesterday. Then the overnight cashier - since it's a 24hr store - called out, and with all the available cashiers already scrambling to cover the supervisor shifts, there really wasn't anyone left. So - picking up 7hrs of overtime - Hubby went back to work to do the overnight. That means he was at work for 19hrs, minus the 4hr break he had between the long shift and the overnight.

Yeah, so, as exhausted as *I* am, he's 10x more-so.

How does any of this translate to ME working off of 3hrs of sleep? Well, readers that have been around since I started this blog might remember how much I HATE when Hubby does the overnights. Once upon a time, he'd go in for the Saturday-to-Sunday overnights every week in order to switch out the tags for that week's sales. I just couldn't fall asleep without him home, and so I'd have insomnia those nights. Sometimes I'd power through the night and Hubby and I would crash when I got him home after his shift. Sometimes exhaustion would overtake me and I'd actually pass out about 3am or 4am. Well, last night was one of those nights. Could NOT fall asleep until 3:30ish, and I needed to be up at about 6:45 so I had time to quickly get ready before picking Hubby up at 7.

Caffeine is my friend today.

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However, as I mentioned at the top, my true exhaustion is NOT from the lack of sleep. Instead, it's due to the writing frenzy I HAVE been able to get myself into.

Sorta.

So, you guys already know that my anniversary threw me off last week, and so it actually kept me 3 days to write my blog, and a fourth to edit and FINALLY publish it. Yeah... that seems to be the trend for my writing this month.

After publishing my blog post, I spent the rest of Friday cleaning my apartment and researching for my story for Ronoxym. I found a lot of really neat info, but it also meant I got lost on Wikipedia for hours on end. I also talked quite a bit with Wolfhearted throughout the day. Sometimes it was about Ron's story, sometimes it was about Miraculous Ladybug, and sometimes it was about stupid stuff because why not? I also wrote up my basic concept for my story and sent it to Wolf to read over. It really helped me sort of solidify my idea to write it out like that. It also spotlighted the bits I still needed to figure out.

So figure out I tried. Saturday I went back to researching. The biggest thing I noticed is that most of my supernatural references I was using were European/UK based, and yet I randomly threw a Japanese myth in as well. I had to decide if I was going to go all-or-nothing. I either had to pull in myths from the rest of Asia, India, Africa, and Central/South America, or I had to keep the references strictly European - and by extension North American/Australian due to colonization.

I once more got lost on Wikipedia, and once more found a LOT of really interesting stuff. However, I couldn't find anything from non-European cultures that really worked with the concept I had come up with, so I caved and dropped the Japanese reference. I could always mention that this was just the "European/American branch" and that there were other branches covering the other regions/cultures of the world.

Content that I had researched enough - at least, to start - I FINALLY wrote my first word of Ron's story. The set-up kept a bit longer than I originally anticipated, but it almost always does that to me. I was at 4pgs and nearly 2200 words when I had to stop for the day. I still need to go back to re-read and edit what I have, and then finish the actual story. However, I do not have it done yet, and I doubt I'll have it done in time for Writer's Group to critique it in time to help me edit. I mean, I could give them the opening and see what they think of that....

Again, I'm hoping to have the story done by the 18th, so I only have 10 more days to lock this down. I can do it!

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The real challenge is the timing of Kyoru Week.

As I mentioned on Friday, Sunday was the start of this Fruits Basket fan event. We were given seven single-word prompts: one per day of Kyoru Week. We are then challenged to use the Word of the Day to create fanfiction or fanart focused on the relationship - usually romance - between Kyo and Tohru.

I was going to do more writing at work, but got distracted by another creative project. For Halloween, the local businesses are participating in a scarecrow design contest. My manager and co-worker signed the store up on one of my days off, and the two of them decided on Jack Skellington and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

We had more than enough discontinued fabric in our store. We could have probably made a fairly close replica of Sally's dress.

I mean, we could have, but my co-worker - who pitched the idea of Jack and Sally - never actually saw the movie, and so she just knew Sally had a patchwork dress and ran with it. Okay. Close enough. I joked that we had Zack and Suzy instead of Jack and Sally; ya know, to avoid copyright infringement.

Anyway, the scarecrows needed to be up by yesterday, but Sally's dress still needed to be finished. I decided that was priority, so I finished sewing on the patches my co-worker started, and I added on Sally's capped sleeves.

Same basic feel as Sally, right?

I don't know if my co-worker considered her done, or if she added a few more patches before putting the couple in front of our store. I'll have to check them out when I'm back at work tomorrow.

Anyway, that project took up most of the 5hr work day I had on Sunday. Then, when I got home, I had a quick meal with Hubby before he had to go back to work; yes, he also did a last-minute split-shift on Sunday to help cover with all of the coverage loss at work.

I finally had a moment to sit and write at about 6:30 on Sunday. I had every intention to continue working on Ron's story then, that way it could be set for tonight's writing group. However, as I wound down from my day, and flipped through Tumblr quickly, I was reminded that Sunday was Day 1 of Kyoru week!

Shoot!

I wanted to participate, I had yesterday and today to still work on Ron's story before group, and Ron's story is already "late" at this point, so what would a couple more days hurt? Shelving my original story, I began thinking about what to do with the Day One prompt: Stay.

I started by reading through the other stories submitted. See if any of them spark anything. I then thought of two songs I know with "Stay" as their title.

First was the song I've been obsessing over lately. In fact, I've had it on repeat the whole time I've been writing this blog.

"Stay" by The Score.

It has such a nice beat to it to get you pumped. That bass, man. Plus, I love the lyrics. In case you can't really read that lyric video, here they are again:

I've been lying to myself, at night
Thinking everything is alright
Yeah, I get lost in this state of mind
Losing my words got me, got me, got me tongue tied
Doubt myself and I don't know why
I wish I wasn't this person sometimes (times, times)
I make mistakes but I think it's just fine (fine, fine)
It's just fine
And I tell myself

Stay, who you are
Don't be afraid
When it all comes crashing
Stay, who you are
Don't be afraid, stay

I'm so tired trying to walk the line
Just to measure up, I'm done trying
Yeah, I get lost in this state of mind
Losin' my way every, every, every time, I
Doubt myself and I don't know why
I wish that I could be perfect sometimes (times, times)
I make mistakes but I think that it's just fine (fine, fine)
It's just fine

When it all comes crashing, stay
Who you are don't be afraid
When it all comes crashing, stay
Who you are don't ever change
Stay

Stay
Stay

Stay, who you are don't be afraid
When it all comes crashing, stay
Who you are don't ever change
Stay

Stay
Stay

The lyrics are just awesome for Fruits Basket stories. The desire to be someone else? The want to be perfect? The constant reminder to just stay who you are? Those lyrics just scream out Kyo and/or Yuki. In fact, if I could get video and an editing suite, I would be so tempted to make this into a Furuba music video.

However, the lyrics do lean more towards Kyo by himself, and/or Yuki by himself. Aside from maaaaaaaybe questioning if she's a bit too ditzy, Tohru never really challenges the idea of changing who she is. And, yes, she does remind each boy that he's amazing as he is, she never officially tells them to not change. Besides, the lyrics to the song imply that it's an inner voice reminding the singer to not change.

It's a great song for a Kyo and/or Yuki themed story, but not really one for a Kyo and Tohru themed story. Especially one focused on their relationship. So, over to the second song I thought of the moment I saw the prompt word.

"Stay" by Mad At Gravity. This one was a college staple of mine, and I'm pretty sure Hubby was the one who introduced me to this band. With this song, specifically. Now, the version I know, and the one I can find on YouTube, is the "rare acoustic demo" but I can't seem to find an official studio-release of this song. If you've heard the non-acoustic version, please feel free to leave me the link in the comments section. I'm itching to hear it.

Either way, the acoustic version is probably more sorrowful sounding anyway, so it works.

This song is more about mistimed love, and it actually fits really well for Kyo and Tohru. Not out of any sort of maliciousness, and not because one falls out of love with the other, just because they can't seem to get on the same page. Both believe they aren't worthy of the other's love.

Here's the lyrics.

I can feel you pull away
And it's just as I lean in
And the timing leaves me wide open
With a miss I am betrayed
Slices right through my thick skin
Yet I seek another high

I'm asking you to stay in my arms
Away you're breaking me apart
Stay in my arms
Away you're breaking me apart

And I'm out here on a limb
But I'm holding out my hand
Hoping you can make the climb with me
And I'm carving in the bark
And dropping down to where you stand
Trying silence on for size

I'm asking you to stay in my arms
Away you're breaking me apart
Stay in my arms
Away you're breaking me apart

And I miss you in my fingers
And valleys in between
It's odd how feelings linger
For something yet unseen
There's ages between
My heart and my mouth
My veins throb with that
Which I cant spit out
Now I don't need much
Just presence in mind
And the assurance
Your ache matches mine

So stay
Please don't pull away from me

Stay in my arms
Away you're breaking me apart
Stay in my arms
Away you're breaking me apart

So angsty. Now, the lyrics, especially with how angst-ridden it is, screams a Kyo-to-Tohru story. Lyrics like "Slices right through my thick skin / Yet I seek another high" and "And I'm out here on a limb / But I'm holding out my hand / Hoping you can make the climb with me" and "Trying silence on for size" and "There's ages between / My heart and my mouth" all FEEL like they were written specifically for Kyo.

However!

First of all, I already wrote an "Angsty Kyo to Tohru" story: Unsent Letter
Secondly, all of those lyrics can also apply to Tohru, even if it doesn't feel quite as obvious.

Tohru, arguably, has thick skin as well. How else would you explain her befriending people who were straight up cruel to her when they first met: Uotani, Hiro, Akito, Rin, and even Kyo to some extent. The fact that she's out on a limb and hope that he'd make the climb with her may seem odd since he's the cat and therefore climbs up things all the time. However, for her to INITIATE the climb? He generally snubs things she initiates - at least, at first - because he likes to keep his Tough Guy persona, and fears following behind Tohru would diminish that. Tohru is also a very talkative person, sometimes to the point of rambling. However, she also knows when to sit and listen, and she figures out fairly early that Kyo needs a listener so he feels included. So, you could say she's "trying silence on for size" to see how it fits for their relationship. Much like Kyo, Tohru also can't quite figure out how to express her feelings. Mostly because she fears that she's reading too far into their relationship; seeing romantic advances where there might not be any. That, and she's a bit of a ditz who doesn't notice his non-verbal cues.

Much like Kyo, she is wondering if he hurts as much as her that they aren't together. She also longs for him to stay in her arms - turning into a cat or no - or at least hold hands - "And I miss you in my fingers / And valleys in between." Being apart hurts her, and this is showcased A LOT in the series.

The cincher for me is that it's usually Kyo that pulls away. He's the one who puts up the emotional barrier. It's mostly because he fears his future isolation - and feels guilty about Kyoko - but still, it's HIM that pulls away.

It may be a male singing the song, but this is completely TOHRU'S song to Kyo.

Feeling confident in that decision, I started writing the story from Tohru's perspective. It was going to be an angsty story about her wanting Kyo to admit his feelings, or at least let her know if he didn't feel anything romantic for her. It would be her pain as she tried to coax Kyo to stay with her; be with her; let her hold him, even if it's just his hand. He was going to be his aloof self; struggling to keep his feelings for Tohru hidden. It was going to hurt. It was going to be angst-ridden. It was going to be beautiful.

It was also going to be way too long.

I didn't actually start writing anything until 8pm, and I knew I was going to pause for an hour while watching one of my TV shows. That left me with three hours to write, edit, and publish. There was another hour lost to texting with friends and picking Hubby up from his second shift of the day. Now I was down to two hours! After my first one, I realized the story I was going for was going to take too much time to tell. I had to simplify.

So, when I got back to writing at about 11pm, I edited, cut down, and reworked. It's not nearly as knife-turning as I originally aimed, but it is still a decent show of how oblivious these two are. Plus, I got to write a pseudo-tsundere Kyo. That's always fun.

In the end, however, I didn't finish writing until 12:15am, and I didn't have the story formatted and posted to Tumblr until 12:45-ish. So... I was technically late, but it was before I went to bed, and it was still October 6th on the West Coast. So..... still counts?

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I ended up publishing the story on my other three sites Monday morning, and that's when I realized.... titles are a thing.

I'm letting you know right now, my titles are even more trash than normal this week. I just... I can't think of anything properly poetic, but I wanted more than "Kyoru Week" and the daily prompt word. So... please forgive me my titles, and if you have suggestions for alternative, you are more than welcome to leave them in the comments section.

As of right now, the name of the entire Kyoru Week collection is Hearts Together. Yeah...

The story for Day 1: Stay, is called

"Small Talk"

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I'm going to wait until next week to note my over-all stats. I probably won't be able to figure out which chapters are more popular than others that way, but I'm already so far behind on everything I don't really have stats for Day One vs Day Two anyway.

Speaking of Day Two....

After my fail with Day One, I tried reallllllllly hard to get my act together for Day Two. I went to bed knowing the prompt was going to be "Firsts." I tried to fall asleep picturing what that could mean.

I woke up with a list of potential "firsts" for a couple. Admittedly, my mind DID briefly stop at "write smut; their first time intimately together." I... quickly breezed past that. It was in the back pocket for a sort of "last resort" but I wanted to stay fairly PG/PG-13 with this story. I then thought about the excitement - and perhaps challenge - of buying furniture for the first time. Which lead me to "their first apartment together." It wouldn't be the first time they lived together, but it would be the first time they did so without any sort of "buffer roommates" as it were.

I continued to think about the story as I did errands and cleaned the apartment some more. I also got a bit sidetracked with errands that sort of sprang up on me; unexpected responsibilities I needed to handle. Mostly because of Hubby having a longer-than-expected shift, and then going back for the overnight. Which meant I had to shift things like laundry around so he had something clean to wear when he went back to work. One of Hubby's friends also asked us to the movies with him, which meant I had to rearrange things I was going to do today so that we had time to hit up the movies. More things to do last night, such as grocery shopping. On top of all of that, I also got distracted when Ron's still awaiting story crept in for me to ponder a bit.

Somehow, throughout the day, I got worried that "first apartment" wouldn't be an entertaining story, so I tried to figure out other non-sexual firsts. However, most of those were already talked about in depth within the manga: the first time they met, the first time they lived together, the first time they really hung out as friends, the first time they held hands, the first time they told each other they loved each other, the first time they kissed, the first time they hugged, the first time they hugged without Kyo transforming, the first trip they took together, etc.

A lot of other participants seemed to focus on Kyo's and Tohru's first child: Hajime. It was sweet, but it was what most people were getting as they read through the event tag. Plus, the stories were more focused on Hajime and how the couple was as parents. It wasn't really focused on Kyo's and Tohru's relationship with each other. There were also a small handful of people who focused on Kyoru's first fight. However, arguably they already had those in the manga as well.

I tried to brainstorm with Hubby as I brought him home for those four hours, but I also had to do the laundry, as I mentioned, so I was doing a LOT of running around. I was also stuck in a Bad Luck cloud. Little things all day: dropping a dish I JUST WASHED on the yet-to-be-washed floor; the shower curtain rod falling on me, twice; my bathrobe billowing out further from my hips than I thought, and therefore knocking over a collection of plastic bottles I needed to bring to the recycling center; my milk hitting my cup of coffee at JUUUUUST the right angle that it splashed my coffee up at me; a sealed bag not properly tearing open when I tried to get to my daily supplemental pills; the chain to the ceiling fan/light snapping so I had to climb up a ladder to reattach it; etc.

It was an exhausting day. By the time I actually had a moment to sit down and WRITE my story, it was about 11pm!

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by Birdman, Inc.

At least I had decided that I was going to stick with my original "first apartment" idea. I was able to churn the story out in about 100minutes, and had it formatted and posted to Tumblr just before 1am. Less than an hour late. Not too bad, right?

I was actually impressed that I was able to write it so quickly, and when I proofread before publishing to my other sites this morning I didn't find too many errors. So... yay.

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It did seem to blow up quite a bit already as well, so that's cool. I mean, Kyo and Tohru are actually a sweet couple in this story, so it makes sense that more people would like this over my first one.

The title's still trash though.

"Experience It All"

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Now to figure out today's prompt: Selfish.

Also... ya know... Ron's birthday story....

But first, I need to get going! The movie is going to start in about 90minutes, and 40 of that will be used up with driving to the theater!

OH! But before I jet, I'm not the only one who connected with her muse this week.

Taurus Pixie was able to finally figure out her story Immortal Bond and was able to upload the restarted version as Immortal Bonds. How cheeky, including the 's' to get around the "no duplicate titles" thing. This way, if you liked the way the original was written, you can still read that incomplete version. Pixie can also keep all of her lovely reviews, and compare the stats of her new version to those of her original. All while essentially keeping her original title, which she loved and was perfect for her story. YAY!

Right now Immortal Bonds only has a short prologue up, but it's a jumping point. It's an achievement proving that the year-long wait was worth it for both her and her readers. If you like dark, occult-themed AUs, where the main character accidentally summons a not-necessarily-malicious demon, by all means go check out Immortal Bonds! 

As for me? I REALLY need to jet now. Bye!

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Picture Time!

Why, hello, fine folks! Welcome, welcome. I've got quite a bit of a treat for you.

Well... for some of you....

I don't know how involved/invested some of you might be when it comes to this, but back in chapter 4 of "Prescription for Love" I had designed outfits for the two Agreste men and two Tsurugi women to wear to the British Royal Wedding.

I had a couple of reviewers state that I did a wonderful job designing everyone's wedding outfits, and/or they also feel the pain of trying to design new outfits for their characters. It was so great to feel that camaraderie and praise that I figured I'd let you know exactly what I do to get these outfits figured out.

I meant to go over all of this last week, so it would be closer to when I posted the fourth chapter, but with everything else I talked about, and how long it kept me to finish the post, I just forgot. Which means you guys have the delight of learning my process this week instead.

Buckle up, there are a LOT of pictures to go through.... I probably use as many reference pictures as artists do. I just wish I could DRAW the finished product to show everyone... Oh well, my readers seem to have a decent mental image. We'll see now if I was able to describe the below in a good enough capacity that you, dear reader, were able to imagine what I did.

To start, sadly, I don't know why, but it seems I deleted the reference pics I had for Gabriel and Adrien's matching white tuxes, and I can't re-find the pictures I used via Google image. At least, I can't re-find them in a timely enough manner for it to be worth it.

Just know that I spent probably hours online flipping through pictures of tuxedos of varying degree of formalness. I saw some really sharp-looking white tuxedos with waistcoats, and, with both Gabriel and Adrien wearing white jackets/cover shirts normally, it seemed to fit them.

Gabriel, Adrien, Kagami, and her mother
from the "Miraculous Ladybug" episode Backwarder

Okay, so Gabriel wears more of a cream-colored jacket compared to everyone else in white, but you get the point.

Once I decided on a white tux, I wanted a bit of an accent. I'm not entirely sure how I stumbled upon silver paisley, but I did find a lovely picture and ran with it. Along those lines, I just pictured Gabriel in a top hat, and it worked for me. Same with Adrien in a trilby. I would love to show you what I envisioned, but I just spent the past 45 minutes trying to quickly edit a few clips from Style Queen with Marinette's derby hat replaced with a trilby. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a trilby image at the right angles for the edits to work, so they all look like these...

Last one is the best,
I think....

Trust me, in my head it worked....

The real problem, though, was trying to figure out what the Tsurugi women were wearing. I did a few internet searches, resulting in kimono-like dresses such as this one for Kagami's mother.

I still wasn't very satisfied, though. So I went to one of my mobile games. It's a fashion designer/dress-up game called Love, Nikki. In the game, the Cloud Empire has very Chinese-oriented clothing, but there are also kimonos, so I figured I'd flip through the Cloud Empire clothing to try to find something Kagami and her mother would wear.

For Mrs. Tsurugi, I put together this.

What I love is that the hair style and glasses almost match Kagami's mother's design.

It made it much easier to picture Mrs. Tsurugi wearing the above gown since I basically put it on her.

After an hour or so, and coming up with the above look for Mrs. Tsurugi, it was Kagami's turn. I knew I wanted her in red, and in a more modern look. My Love, Nikki take was this one.

It was decent, especially since I found a hair style close to Kagami's. It just didn't feel as fancy as everyone else's though. Ironic, since, while looking up images of guests of the Royal Weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry, this design for Kagami is probably closest to what real-world guests would wear....

Anyway, back to the internet I went. As I looked for "modernized kimonos" and "Japanese modern wedding outfits" I stumbled upon this article: Antique Kimonos Elegantly Transformed into Contemporary Wedding Dresses

The long and short of the article - which isn't long to begin with - is that designer dress company Watabe Wedding pioneered the trend of modernizing kimonos as colorful Japanese wedding gowns. Out of their collection of five gowns they rent out to brides, these are the three I combined to eventually design Kagami's dress for my story.

The Kanazuru (“gold crane”)
designed by Watabe Wedding

This one was my main inspiration. Something about it just screamed "Kagami" to me. The red and black. The subtle white accent. The ribbon around the high-waist of the gown. The delicate power that the golden cranes seemed to add to the dress. I just loved this gown, but it needed some tweaks. That's when I went with this gown:

The Tsurumomiji (“crane maple”)
by Watabe Wedding

This was the flowing silhouette I wanted for Kagami. It had grace and elegance and a daintiness she rarely shows canonically. Plus, it better matched Marinette's vision of what Kagami would be wearing.

Marinette, freaking out about Adrien and Kagami having a weekend away,
starts envisioning how Adrien would fall in love with Kagami after seeing her dolled up.

The dress from Watabe Wedding that really cinched it for me was this one.

The Botangiku
(“peony and chrysanthemum”)
by Watabe Wedding

I loved the idea of the dress having a corseted back, and I loved the flowers on this gown. It again had the flowiness I wanted Kagami to wear, and it had a nice elegant train to it.

The last bit was Kagami's sleeves. In truth, that idea came from my own wedding gown. It was an October wedding, so I wanted belled sleeves to wear during the ceremony, and then I could slip them back off for the reception. However, on top of that personal spring of inspiration, I also found images of looooooong sleeves like these, that kind of matched the look of a furisode kimono.

So I decided to add in the detached and belled sleeves to Kagami's outfit.

I wasn't QUITE done yet, though. Mrs. Tsurugi had her hair up in the elegant buns showcased in that Love, Nikki design, but Kagami just had her hair down. Even in Marinette's imagination, Kagami's hair was down with just an accent in it. I wasn't a fan. She needed a bit more as well. So back to the internet I went, searching for updos for bobbed hair. I eventually found this.

I loved it! Kagami's hair would look so cool woven together like this! And she's one of those annoyingly "good at anything she does" type of people, so I had faith she could figure out how to properly pin her hair to have it look like that basket weave. Throw in some Baby's Breath throughout her black/blue hair, and I was done.

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by Birdman, Inc

Whoo! That.... was a lot.... But for anyone curious about how I designed everyone for the wedding in chapter 4, now you know. In great length. With plenty of pictures. I gladly welcome fanart of their looks.

The above process kept me about three or four days to accomplish, so you can probably see (a) why I wasn't able to write at a fast enough pace to get the story done and up in a timely manner after Backwarder aired, and (b) why I have a love/hate relationship with the idea of designing outfits for characters....

This is why I gave up fashion designing, and why I'm sticking with writing.

But all of that was what I did back in February. What did I do THIS week?

Well, in part, I slacked off a little.

I didn't finish and post my blog update last week until Thursday, so you can read that post to see what I was doing on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Friday was supposed to be when I would post chapter 7 of "Prescription for Love." That way I was still, kind of, keeping with my "every three days" posting schedule. As you could probably guess, I failed at that deadline.

I had the chapter written up, but part of it was Kagami's story tagged onto the tail end of chapter 6. I realized it didn't really work in her POV, so I gave it back to Adrien. Which meant I had to rework a few things so it fit his perspective better. The second part of the story was from Adrien's POV to begin with, but it was an awkward transition from Kagami's chapter, so THAT needed to be fixed. Once those opening parts of the chapter were polished, I realized I wasn't a fan of how I described Adrien FINALLY getting the medicine Marinette asked for, so that needed to be reworked as well. Lastly, I felt that, as the sort of culmination of the whole story, the drive to find the meds that has pushed Adrien throughout the plot, the chapter was kind of bland.

I zipped through their Sunday in London, got the pills for Marinette, and had the quartet on the train within 1800 words. That was too quick. I mean, it kept me 6 chapters, and roughly 9,000 words, to describe everything that happened during their Saturday, but only a fraction of that length was spent on Sunday? The day where everything kind of comes to a head? I couldn't rush this.

So I slowed things down. I showcased Kagami's attempt to help Adrien, and Adrien's frustration that they walked "all over London" - as he says in the episode - to find the medicine. The end result was an extra day needed to write and edit. Which meant the chapter was OF COURSE late and posted on Saturday instead of Friday.

Late Saturday as well. It posted at 10:30pm my time. I'm good at this deadline thing...

"Chapter 7"

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This chapter, after slowing things down, became MASSIVE, compared to my other chapters. Well... other chapters within PfL. This past chapter certainly isn't massive when compared to chapters in my other works.

Anyway, my point is, I was proud that this story had "bite-sized" chapters of only 1000 words or so. Then I inched closer to 2000 words. And then this chapter? Darn near 4000 words. Granted, that was the average size of a “Peeping Tomcat” chapter, but... well.... I wanted shorter chapters for this story. I mean, it was SUPPOSED to be a simple story inspired by a single episode. I wasn't expecting it to blow up to a 13,000+ word story! And I still have at least one more chapter to write, maybe two.

Worse yet is that I'm still not completely satisfied with my timing for Chapter 7. Upon doing further research for my upcoming chapter, I realized that Adrien and Kagami seem to be stopping to eat a LOT in this last chapter.

• Kagami and Adrien had breakfast at about 8am, and it takes roughly 30min to eat.
• Then lunch less than 4hrs later at noon, which again takes about 30 or 45 minutes to eat.
• Then they had to try out the British tradition of Afternoon Tea at about 3pm, which meant only two/two-and-a-half hours between meals...
• While Adrien and Kagami finished their tea early and went to go feed ducks and talk, Mrs. Tsurugi enjoyed a full hour for her tea, which means they went back to touring about 4pm.
• I had the train leaving at 8pm to arrive in Paris at 10pm, but I forgot about time zones, so the train has to actually leave at 7pm. 
• Which means, when they stopped for an early dinner before meeting up with Gabriel and boarding their train, they had to have stopped no later than 6pm. 
• And that's based on the idea of them both getting, and eating, their meals in about 20min!
• So, in truth, they probably stopped closer to 5:30. WAAAAY too soon after having Tea!

It's a good thing I didn't actually state any times in my chapter, but it's easy enough to break down. That is a LOT of food in a VERY short amount of time, especially for Europeans, who traditionally eat WAY less than Americans do.

Maybe I shouldn't have had poor Adrien try a "Full English" breakfast at the start of the chapter...


There were a couple of other things with the chapter that bugged me, like a distinct lack of location transition towards the end. Adrien is in the pharmacy, then there's internal monologue and contemplation, and then, suddenly, Adrien is at the train station and asking his father something.

No mention of reaching the hotel to gather their bags from the storage lockers, where their stuff was moved to after 11am check-out. No mention of meeting up with Gabriel after a day away sight-seeing. No mention of reaching the train station. Just a vague hand wave, and BOOM! They're in the train station!

So, I'll most likely go back and polish up Chapter 7 one more time in the future. For right now? It's at about 85%, so I need to focus on finishing the story first.

Which will be fun, since, while rewriting Chapter 7 in the first place, Adrien threw a curveball at me that I need to handle. I also never got around to actually finishing the story before I started posting. Remember a few posts ago, when I said I couldn't QUITE hit my goal of one new story per month because I couldn't finish PfL in February? Yeah, I was so focused on my sister's birthday and playing catch-up polishing off my first draft, that I never actually finished it.

A new chapter is SUPPOSED to go up today, and I have a decent chunk of the chapter written already. Who knows if the chapter will actually make it to being published though.... Wish me luck, fast fingers, a steady flow of inspiration, and a LOT of discipline to not distract myself.

Also, don't forget to check in on your favorite link to my story for that next chapter update:

"Prescription for Love"

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Keep in mind that if you follow the story on FFN, subscribe to the story on AO3, or follow me on DA, you'll get an email notification once I post the new chapter. That way you can be one of the first to read it! And you don't have to wait for the link in my post next Tuesday. Yay!

Alternatively, you could follow me on Tumblr to see me post a promo for the latest chapter once it's live. Lots of ways to find me, find the story, and find out when a new chapter or story is posted!

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by PRANEAT

I've got grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning to do before hitting up "Captain Marvel" with Skarabrae-Stone tonight, so I better get cracking on that writing! Catch you guys next week.