Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

... not to avoid something that everyone and their dog hates.

Over and over, I find that if I avoid something because of negative reviews, I almost always end up loving it. It happened with season 3 of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., with season 9 of Perry Mason, with TMNT 1987, with Equestria Girls, and with many other things. I also in general love things everyone hates, regardless of whether I initially avoided it myself or not. The Batman series is a good example of that. I enjoyed it from the start, compared to everyone who tears their hair out over it.

I finally got around to buying/seeing Ghostbusters 2, mainly because of the two cartoon episodes it comes with. One of them is a favorite. (The other was WTH territory and I sincerely hope that it isn't typical of the later seasons.) Honestly, I ... ended up loving the movie much more than the original. I think there were only four instances of swearing and a couple of naughty comments, compared to swearing practically every two minutes in the original (or it felt like it, anyway). It was creepy but wacky, had many more character-developing scenes, and Winston had a lot of good screentime. It felt much more like the series, and that may have been the point. They probably knew a lot of kids would be watching it because the series was running right then. Also, the plot point I really wasn't crazy about before I saw it, them being discredited and having gone their separate ways at the beginning, ended up in practice feeling a lot like TMNT, especially Ray and Winston at that birthday party. LOL. So I actually ended up not being too bothered by that after all. I can see myself rewatching this movie and enjoying it, whereas I'm honestly not sure I would rewatch the first movie, at least not in full. I have rewatched my favorite scenes from it.

I can't remember if I mentioned, but Build-a-Bear had a 30% off deal the weekend before this one and I was able to get Michelangelo with that. We were finally going to be in the area and I couldn't pass up a chance to get that much off of him. Then I discovered that the big Slimer plush was on clearance at a Wal-Mart other than ours. I couldn't get him then, but the other day I was able to go back and get one. Our Wal-Mart still isn't clearancing them. It was awesome to get him for $7 instead of $15!

It felt so good to get my 31_days challenge done last week. Some pieces I really enjoyed writing, but others were puzzling, and it was definitely frustrating to have to worry about the day's piece each day when I really wanted to be writing my Turtles fic. But I kept on because I wanted to do the challenge too; it was a story I'd wanted to tell for some time. I still think I'll also write the original Snakes and Chita story I was going to tell, though, which was a third-person narrative oneshot involving one of the last times Snakes put up with looking all over town for Chita when she deliberately ran out to make him find her after an argument. I have a very distinctive image of the opening lines of that fic and they have never gone away, so I need to write it.

I tried to basically keep to the prior versions of the Snakes and Chita tale that Snakes related in two earlier fics. When I realized I had some details wrong in a couple of pieces, I went back and redid those parts. For a couple of other parts, however, I decided that I wanted to tell it slightly differently and that would either make more sense or be closer to what I wanted, so on a couple of points I deliberately made it different from the earlier accounts. Like, I didn't have Snakes and Chita go gambling all night long the first night they met. I mean, they'd been beat up in the first casino when Snakes tried to defend her. It seemed much more likely that they'd go try to take care of their battle wounds. And then at the end, I changed the point where Snakes lost track of Chita's trail in 1910. I wanted Chita to turn up again, but not decades older. I drew inspiration from both a role-play where I'd used her and from the fact that she was always intended to be characterized as sort of a flapper wannabe, and had Snakes lose track of her trail in the 1870s. She found a portal to the 1920s, where she fit in and was happily staying for the most part. (I will speculate that the portal was another result of Dr. Faustina's experiments.) But then she returned to the 1870s once, heard that Snakes was alive, and found the portal to the present-day to see him again. They were able to converse and have some closure at last.

Chita was very interesting to characterize in that last piece. Unlike other versions of her, including the role-play version, this Chita actually did mature a little bit. She wasn't as superficial, was willing to touch the scar that she had always avoided before, and felt badly for how her past cruelty had negatively impacted Snakes. But she wasn't ready to settle down and she recognized it; she had finally opted to stay single. She wants parties and material objects and yet she knows they're not what truly bring happiness. Still, she can't make herself not want them. I drew some inspiration from my own feelings regarding her love of material things and not feeling ready to settle down.

She was never meant to really be a likeable character, so I am amused that I kind of got fond of her and developed her a little. Even some of her superficialty is endearing to me. But since she has plenty of negative characteristics, I would totally understand anyone not liking her. What she did to Snakes was horrible. Not that it was worse than things Snakes did canonically, of course, and so there is definitely the possibility of redeeming her. That was kind of where I was going with the final piece.

I would never have her and Snakes get together again, but they parted on civil terms, and this past night I ended up drawing a cute picture meant to take place around that point where Snakes is standing watching her dance as she whips her boa around him. I sketched the whole thing out very quickly and I quite love it. I might ink it before I scan it, though.

Apparently I had Snakes on the brain after that themeset, because yesterday I had a weird dream involving him. It seemed to take place in the Old West, before The Poisonous Posey episode, even though some things ended up not making sense. Dr. Loveless was there too, and Snakes seemed to be working for/with him and there was some explosion planned for Jim West. Snakes seemed all into that, the little weasel (despite the fact that he seemed to not know Jim in the episode, so there's where it doesn't make sense). Then the tables were turned when Jim escaped and Dr. Loveless chained Snakes to a bomb that was set to go off in a couple of minutes. He was begging and pleading to be set free, and finally someone did. His characterization felt very similar to what's seen in the actual episode: pretty much a pathetic coward who likes to set bombs as ways out of his problems and ends up digging his own grave by doing so.

I never at all intended to become intrigued by him with that characterization, and yet it happened when I was fleshing out his character out of necessity in The Night of the Deadly Codename. And of course, that also led to Christopher rightfully taking his place as one of the darlings when I studied the episode more. I wonder if there's any chance at all that I could have seen that episode when I was very young. Mom insists that Dad used to watch WWW in reruns, so I wonder if there's any chance I saw it back then. That would be hilarious. And it would mean I did encounter Christopher years ago, just like all the other darlings. I want to say I have a vague memory of watching that episode in bits and pieces when I was a kid, but I'm probably just inventing something in my mind because I want so badly for there to be a time when I saw Christopher years ago. Still, wouldn't it be interesting? Snakes is one of my favorite characters to flesh out and develop, and if I actually saw him many years ago and just don't remember it now, that would be rather intriguing.

I also started thinking again about maybe making a Snakes plushie. I'd have to learn some basic embroidery so I could make the scar raised up, but that would be an interesting challenge. Now that the weather's cooled down, I feel like working on my other projects too. Maybe I can finish Barry's clothes at last and also make Mike's jacket!

I just love autumn so much. As always, I celebrate meteorological seasons and not calendar seasons, so for me Fall started on Thursday. It was a beautiful cloudy day too, perfect for the first day of Fall. When the sweltering heat of summer fades, my sewing creativity seems to wake up again. I am excited for what this autumn will bring and hope that it will be happy and enjoyable.

I think I'm almost done with the Turtles fic. I have the climax largely written, or all written, unless I add more to it. Then I just need the epilogue stuff. The story will definitely end where I decided it should. And I may or may not continue it in oneshots or other multi-chapters. We'll have to see. One thing I do know is that while I'm totally cool with watching the series in all its formulaic glory, I don't think I could make myself write stories that are all so formulaic like the series' nonsense, with Shredder's crazy plans failing, etc. I think I could only do a handful before it wouldn't feel believable to me any more. It's easy to watch nonsense; not so easy to create it yourself time and time again.

I kind of have a vague idea of the alien computer still being around after all and discovering that Baxter is finally human again. That would be kind of cute. And it would be interesting to see how Baxter would react to the computer while sane, and whether the computer would want to help him like before. That might be one of my oneshots. And if I do continue things, Baxter and Barney need to have a proper conversation again. Maybe Baxter can finally tell him that Krang was trying to murder him when the cross-fusion happened.

One problem I discovered while writing is trying to keep Barney from feeling too much like a Kylo Ren trope of wanting to go to the dark side/not caring if he has to kill a family member to do so. I fleshed out some of his scenes in chapters before I put them up and had him monologue and have doubts and wonder if he's just acting tough to impress Shredder when he appears as though it doesn't bother him, what he might have to do. I don't really want Barney to be sympathetic, exactly, because really, how much sympathy can you have for someone who willingly joins a megalomaniac while sane because he wants power and recognition? But when he's only in one episode and we just don't know much about him, I don't think it would be fair to paint him as irredeemably evil just to contrast him with Baxter being redeemable because of wanting to be honest at first and then having gone nuts. (Seriously, compare him in season 1 with the season 2 opener. He is sane in season 1 and just wants to invent something that would be helpful to the city's population. He really doesn't know what Shredder's up to. He thinks the guy just really hates rats in the city. He doesn't know Shredder is marketing the Mousers in order to murder someone, nor that Shredder is stamping Baxter's name on them so he'll take the blame. And Shredder is going to kill him just because he saw Shredder and could say that Shredder offered to market the Mousers and was using an old house as a hideout. By season 2, after he's been framed for attempted murder, blamed for the damage the Mousers caused, and thrown in the insane asylum for talking about the Turtles, Baxter is cackling madly about giant talking Turtles and is clearly insane. It is very sad, actually.)

So anyway, this story already inadvertently inverts pretty much all the angles of the other Baxter fix-it fic. I also hope to invert the Kylo Ren trope when it actually comes time for Barney to follow through on his vow to kill Baxter if he interferes. I really like how I've written the climax.

Then I drew Leonardo for the first time since my childhood, and this time he actually looks pretty good! I think I'll be able to draw those Turtles pictures for my "opening" clips that I wanted.

And I always meant to muse on this thought: Coming back to things I like that everyone hates, I actually liked when there was a girl who was part of The A-Team. She seemed to be a reporter if I recall correctly, so I kind of equated the situation as April O'Neil and the Turtles. Heh. The girl seemed to fit just fine into the A-Team's plans and it was nice to have someone around that I could more easily relate to.

Along those lines, I also tried comparing members of The A-Team to the Turtles, but that didn't go so well. Naturally I got B.A. and Raphael, but then I kind of stalled on drawing any other logical parallels. I guess Murdock could be equated with Michelangelo, since they're both the most out there members of their teams. But Hannibal and Leonardo and Face and Donatello don't seem to make very good parallels. And I keep wanting to equate Murdock with Donatello because of their mechanical know-how. So ... heh.

So I finally admitted in the U.N.C.L.E. comm that I don’t see Napoleon as a chronic bed-hopper even though he certainly loves a pretty face and is a serial dater. What I didn’t say was that if I really thought he was a bed-hopper like James Bond, I doubt I would be attracted to him or find him appealing at all. Part of the reason why Napoleon appeals to me is because I’ve always had the impression that he’s a more moral person than James Bond. I don’t like James Bond because he’s a chronic bed-hopper. I do like Roger Moore, and yet when it comes to Bond, there’s just an automatic turn-off. No attraction.

(Years ago, when I was experimenting with walking more on the wild side, probably because I liked how impressed someone seemed to be when I did it, I had a character who was kind of a bed-hopper and that continued even after he became seriously involved with one particular person. That was gross. We never wrote out any bedroom scenes or anything like that, but it was always known what he was doing. I couldn't do that now, especially the continuing with playing the field even after starting a serious relationship. I would be totally uncomfortable, especially if the character was very important to the story as he was in those role-plays. I would also be uncomfortable with the character having a big role since he was a big-time crime boss and very unrepentant. If I ever get my novel off the ground, he will either have a very reduced role, not be a bed-hopper, or possibly both.)

Speaking of Roger Moore, though, it’s interesting how I can be totally obsessed with him for a while and then it fades and while I still like the characters, there doesn’t seem to be much, if any, crushing. That’s happened more than once. I wonder if that means he’s more on the fringes of my darlings instead of smack-dab with them. With all the rest, there is constant crushing on the characters when I see them even if there isn’t a constant, serious obsession with them/the actors.

I think a lot of why it faded this time was because of Simon Templar, actually. I like the character, but I am one of the few who prefers the color episodes to the B&Ws. There were a lot of B&W episodes I hadn’t seen before and then they finally released the DVD sets of those seasons and I snapped them up. In the B&W episodes, Simon seems rather sexist sometimes. And I know that was likely largely a product of the times and has to be looked at in that way, but Simon by his very nature is an anachronistic person. I think that even in the present-day, Simon would probably have some sexist ideas and feel that women are silly worrying things that need to keep out of the men’s worlds and stick to their own place. The book Simon is a lot more that way, I think, but the TV version has some of it too. I hadn’t seen some of the worst offending episodes of that sort before and when I did, they were kind of a turn-off. The most sickening episode of all was the more humorous Luella. Everyone was unlikable there, from Simon to his friend to his friend's wife. I think those views aren't expressed as much in the color episodes. Or maybe possibly Simon matured beyond such views. I should have been watching the color episodes on MeTV once they came around to them again. I keep longing for a new DVD release of all the color episodes, but I’m not sure they’re going to release separately from the boxset. I'd better watch my scant few color episodes again; maybe that will cool things a bit and I'll like Simon more again.

I still love Beau Maverick and was thrilled to see a couple of his episodes I’ve never seen before when Cozi showed them. The Town That Wasn’t There was sooo good and establishes why Beau is my favorite Maverick. It starts out seeming that he’s being a selfish prick, but throughout the episode he grows to honestly be fond of the people he’s with and sincerely wants to help them. He even turns down $10,000 when accepting it would have hurt one of those people. He then comments to himself something like that his uncle would send him back to England if he knew.

(Honestly, I really don’t like Beau’s uncle. He treats Beau like crap and most of the sayings he gives sound really selfish. And yet when he actually appeared on-screen, he acted more like Bret and the others in that he seemed to try to help people, so I ended up torn on what to think of him. Although it also seemed like he mostly helped because he liked giving the finger to the bad guys rather than because he wanted to help the people who were being hurt. When I write about him in stories I try to be kind, since even when I don't like certain characters I try to examine them from all angles within the contexts of the stories unless they're meant to be out-and-out villains and don't need to be examined more closely. Part of me seriously wants him to just flat-out not care about Beau since he treats him so rotten, but I always try to instead stress that he's just worried about Beau doing something that will get him hurt or killed. Although the $10,000 thing makes me question that idea.)

I think Lord Sinclair may be my favorite Roger character. Part of me would like to say that my Roger Bond figure is Lord Sinclair, as I think he’s the one I want the figure to be the most, but I feel I can’t since I don’t have a Tony Curtis figure to be Danny. Sacrilege! If I had a Tony Curtis figure that’s around 6 inches, my Roger figure would totally be Lord Sinclair. I don’t suppose there is such a thing as a Tony Curtis figure? Sigh.

So it suddenly occurs to me to wonder, I hope the Venus plush is the correct size. The stock picture was the big one, and the weight of the package fits, so one would assume the individual seller was aware of that and listed their product on the right page. One wouldn't think the small size plush would ever sell for that price, but I saw some outrageous prices for her on eBay. All there is now is to wait and see.

And I got up today's vignette, in which Vivalene bothers Ecks. She turns up in most of my fandoms and I thought it would be fun to see her there. The setting is the present-day, as per my preferences, since to my surprise the Cold War didn't really seem to play any part in the series with regards to Illya's presence. (I.E., no one ever seemed alarmed that a Russian was there, etc., so time period seems of little importance.) Nevertheless, for pieces posted on FF.net and such, I will probably try as much as possible to be ambiguous and not state a time period one way or the other, since I know most people prefer it to be the time in which the series was made.

Ecks still thinks Wye is dead, and Vivalene is only furthering those thoughts (albeit Vifa really thinks he's dead). I'm still anxious to get to the reunion, but I'm not downright upset like I was last night. I think that had less to do with them thinking each other dead and more to do with my distress over the injury and the treatment and the extended hospital stay. It downright upsets me to write things involving extended hospital stays, as mentioned, especially if said stay includes any length of time in which the patient can't perform normal bodily functions themselves without tubes and machines everywhere (which certainly is the case for injuries like that, probably moreso than some other injuries). That is just disgusting and gross. What I wrote didn't actually touch on any of that, but it was a hospital piece and it upset me just knowing what must have happened that I didn't write about. I thought I was upset more because I can't stand hospitals in general, after my grandmother was in one for so long and we kept going in for long hours several times a week. That's probably part of it too, but I think I figured out it's the other element that bothers me most. But ah well, there was nothing I could do about that, since I wanted the character to survive the injury and that would mean he'd have to suffer through the treatment for it.

And then I also think I'm just plain feeling guilty for writing about some more antagonists. It takes me a while to get used to doing that each time it happens, because I always feel like I shouldn't be doing it. Sometimes I never do stop feeling that way; I slacked off on those Once Upon a Time vignettes because I kept feeling guilty to write about Mr. Gold after all the horrible things he's done.

Anyway ... I'm kind of thinking I'll write the reunion piece for Wednesday's theme, but we'll see.

And apparently my post where I was trying to find out some other details of such an injury made it into the top 25 posts for today, according to Livejournal. That's cool. I never thought any post of mine would be quite that popular.

Following the same train of thought as the previous, locked entry, I was just working on a bit of chapter 8. I really haven't planned any other stories in this series. (I hadn't planned on writing this Scarecrow one either. Heh.) I'm still thinking that when I'm done with this one, I'll do the oneshot of the meeting of the Riddlers and maybe do the cracky thing crossing over with the 1960's show.

But now I also have a possible idea for another multi-chapter, should I decide I want to do it. Yin was mentioning that the commissioner and the district attorney have to okay the idea of raiding Arkham based on the information from Penguin. That got me thinking, "Hmm ... district attorney...." The Batman series doesn't have a Harvey Dent, either. Now I have a plunnie of him being the focus of a new mystery.

The Riddler may know him from Dent prosecuting his case in the past. Perhaps the Riddler is the only one of the main characters who really sees that Dent isn't necessarily the white knight the others believe him to be. I was never crazy about the idea of Dent really being a white knight, since to flip and turn into Two-Face, I felt he would have to have had some instability and darkness before that, and it seems like most portrayals of the character agree with that assessment. And I don't really like the character on Gotham; it disgusted me that he ( Spoilers! )

But anyway. This isn't about the Gotham series; it's about The Batman. So the plot would probably follow Dent's gradual descent to being Two-Face and succumbing to complete madness. Maybe he would be doing some shady things while at the same time seeming to be an aboveboard district attorney and a friend to Jim Gordon and Batman. The Riddler would sense the darkness in Dent and maybe see a bit of it, but he wouldn't be widely believed. The commissioner and probably Batman would think he was just bitter because of Dent prosecuting him, at least at first. Yin wouldn't know what to think, but she probably wouldn't just outright dismiss him.

There have been several versions of how Dent got disfigured, ranging from the most famous (being hit with acid by a mobster), to it happening in an explosion (The Dark Knight) to The New 52 (I think the sister of someone he prosecuted threw acid at him?). I'm not sure how I would write it happening. Or if I'll write this fic at all. But at least the idea's here, if I want it.

... Suddenly it occurs to me that reimagining Clayface as a former friend of Bruce's and an upright policeman may have been The Batman crew's version of Two-Face. But that won't stop me from using Dent if I decide I want to. It would be a much different story than Ethan's, since Ethan is a much nicer guy than it seems Dent ever really was.

I think I'll draw Dr. Portman and Jonathan Crane. You know, I've never drawn Portman at all, in all the years I've used her as a villain? I'm a little worried now that I may end up making her look too similar to my redesign of Florence, just with glasses. Both have short-cropped blonde hair, slightly curly, and green eyes. I'll work hard to make Portman look different, especially since I was just complaining about similar designs of characters on The Animated Series.

Speaking of that, I did run across two The Batman characters who look similar. A doctor at Arkham in the season 1 episode Topsy Turvy looks almost exactly like the president of the Riddler's university in the season 4 episode Riddler's Revenge. The latter is basically identical to the former, just with red hair instead of dark. Maybe if I ever address that in the fics, I'll say they're brothers. LOL.

Before I get to the rant of the subject line, a quick request for anyone who doesn't want to read through all of this entry. I have decided I may try to make a plushie, because I am having an almost impossible time contacting my usual plushie maker. (Also, I am not completely incompetent on making things like that; I used to occasionally do it when I was a kid. So it's thankfully not entirely new territory to me.) Does anyone know of comms with good plushie tutorials or just general "How to make plush" comms? I can't find any on LJ. I know about LovetoPlush on DeviantArt, and have saved a couple of clothes-making tutorials from there, but that's it. That seems to mostly be a place to post plushie pictures rather than to offer plushie-making help, though. And it's a human plushie I need help with, if that narrows the list down any.

Now, on to the rant and various squeeful rambles.

For those who don't know, I am a freelance writer. I accept assignments on a website to write articles to get some of my needed money. (The rest mostly comes from other online work, particularly certain trustworthy survey companies.) Yes, this writing in addition to the nonfiction writing I do for fun on this site and two Bloggers, and all of my fanfiction.

I've had a pretty good record in the past with people being satisfied with my offerings. Now, in the last couple of weeks, I've gotten several revision requests for various articles. I don't know whether I'm just making bad choices on which articles to write or if my writing quality has gone down. It's really starting to frustrate me. Luckily, so far I've been able to fix all the articles in a way the clients like. I'm still waiting to know about one I had to fix today, though.

I really hope the problem is the former. Writing is my passion (although some of these topics I have to write about, admittedly, are not). I'd be honestly devastated if I thought I couldn't write properly any more.

And I'm so geekily thrilled that I'm finally into the new My Little Pony series. I just love the Ponies. I'm a longtime fan, dating back to Generation 1 years. One of the earliest presents I ever got was a yellow pegasus Pony, Dancing Butterflies. I just adored her. (Still do; I have every one of my old Ponies.) I don't remember when I got her, but she was by herself for some time before my next Pony, a light blue pegasus, Sugar Apple. She arrived on my fourth birthday. Over the years I was able to get various Ponies from G1 as presents. Then G1 was over in the U.S. and I was so bewildered and sad.

I'm not even fully sure why I fell so hard for the Ponies, but they were always among my favorite toys. I used to have so many longing dreams about visiting stores and finding Ponies again. I hated waking up from those, haha. I am a shopper and collector by nature and often dream of shopping sprees for various products I love.

I collected a few Magic Meadow Ponies when they first came out, and loved them too, but they weren't My Little Ponies. And after Magic Meadows disappeared too, I was never interested in any of the other imitations.

Then came Generation 2. I was ecstatic! So they didn't look much like G1 Ponies and they were smaller. I didn't care; My Little Ponies were back at last. I got six of those and was even able to send away for a mail-order Pony, something I'd always wanted to do with G1 but wasn't able to.

I feel bad that I was never able to get anything from Generation 3. They looked a lot like G1 Ponies (at least until the G3.5 line) and I really wanted some. But at that time I just didn't have money to divide between them and other things. I'm still hoping to get a few G3 Ponies, especially the Halloween one cosplaying a ladybug. Haha, you'd know I'd have to have that one.

I knew about Friendship is Magic when it first came out, and I was very interested, but I just never got around to seeing it until two of my dearest friends both came to me talking excitedly about it. And at last I watched it and fell in love with the characters.

I had previously been very disappointed that the G4 line was mainly so small. But now that I'm into the show I appreciate it. Gah, Wal-Mart only charges $5 for one of them! I can collect a Pony every time we get groceries, pretty much. As a collector, that thrills me. I loved when I was able to buy something YGO-related every time we went out. I miss those days.

(Plus, now I think the smaller Ponies are cuter than the big Fashion Style ones they're releasing for G4. The Fashion Style ones don't always look right to me, somehow. I think it's the shape of their heads.)

I also did buy that talking Twilight Sparkle plushie. Yes, I am such a geek. I love having her read and sing to me. I don't regret choosing her over the DVDs, not one bit.

Also, because this entry is jumping all over the place and I want to talk about it, last night I started pondering on all the parallels between Once Upon a Time (eee, the season finale! SO. AWESOME.) and The Case of the Broken Ties, my long and twisted Perry Mason fic. What amuses me most is that there are a lot of parallels, and most of them are completely unintentional. I knew about Once (I've been a devoted fan from episode 1) and I was excited to write a fic with a similar premise, but I'd written two similarly-premised fics already. The concept is not new to me, nor was Once the beginning of my interest in it. The Broken Ties was a new spin on a premise I already found fascinating. Once may have prompted me to consider the idea for a Perry Mason story, but that's about it. What I came up with for it was by and large just out of my own head.

Here is a list of comparisons. First, the Once list.

- Everyone has false memories.
- Two people other than the villains remember the way things are supposed to be. (August and Jefferson.)
- No one can leave Storybrooke. If they try, something bad happens, such as a car accident.
- Most people have been placed in capacities other than their previous ones.
- Snow White (Mary-Margaret) is a school-teacher.
- Snow and Prince Charming are being deliberately kept apart.
- The Evil Queen, Regina, has an irrational hatred of Snow.
- Mr. Gold, aka Rumpelstiltskin, is very quiet and calculating. He stays in the background, letting Regina control everyone's situations, but he is the one who is really in charge.
( Spoilers for the season 1 finale )

And the Broken Ties list:

- Everyone has false memories.
- Other than the villains, only two people know the truth. (Hamilton and Paul.)
- No one can leave Los Angeles County. If they try, they wind up hurt.
- Some people have been placed in other capacities instead of keeping their current jobs.
- Della is a school-teacher.
- Perry and Della are deliberately being kept apart, although here it's because the villains are afraid that if they see each other the spell will weaken, not because of an irrational hatred on the villain's part. Nope, that angle comes in with ...
- Vivalene has an irrational hatred of Hamilton Burger, but rather than thinking he ruined her life she's just angry that he has rejected her multiple times and recently has been prosecuting her for attempted murder. In spite of all her evil, Once's Regina is still more sympathetic than Vivalene! At least Regina occasionally shows moments of humanity, mainly where Henry her son is concerned. Vivalene, to my remembrance, has never shown any humanity in any stories in which she has appeared.
- Vivalene's sister Florence is like Mr. Gold in that she is staying in the background and is more calculating in her plans. She only lets Vivalene think she's ahead. In reality, Florence controls everything.
( Relating to Once's season 1 finale )

Intentional Parallels:

Mr. Vann is the Mr. Gold equivalent, although he is mostly a visual counterpart only. As mentioned, Florence takes over Mr. Gold's role in the story.

I love The Broken Ties. I'm having a ball writing these missing scenes for 31_days. And since Florence still has big plans, she will probably be the villain in a future mystery fic. (Possibly a Livejournal-only one, depending on how I feel about audience reaction.)

^^ I've got a lot of positive reviews for Engel's new chapter, which I posted yesterday morning, but I got one that confuses me a bit. XD; The person said that Alexander is an interesting character, in spite of her not agreeing with "certain aspects of the angel part." Errr, what angel part? "The Angel of Death" is just a common phrase that's out there. It's not meant to be taken literally. Alexander self-proclaimed himself as such, but it doesn't mean any of the other characters agree. And he's not an angel at all. **shrugs.** I thought it had been pretty well established by now that he is a doppelganger. Oy. **scratches head.**

Sometimes people come to me asking what makes a good OC. XD; That's really a hard question to answer. But basically, they have to be very human, with both good and bad points. However, if the bad points are overemphasized (especially in a character on the "good" side), it's really quite annoying. Though of course if one overemphasizes the good points, that can be annoying too. XD One needs to find a proper balance. And the character needs to be very unique and not like a carbon copy of a million others out there. Also, one shouldn't force a character into existence for the sake of having one. A good OC will develope at his or her own pace, with ideas flowing gently to the author. And if they're having trouble figuring a character out, it's helpful to use them in RPs for character development before using them in fics.

Dad got Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade from the library because he wanted to see it. I was happy to see it again, but Dad didn't seem to like it very much. (I kinda had a feeling he wouldn't, though.) XD; He complained about many of the harrowing escapes not being able to happen in real life. But isn't it silly to complain about that, when any movie of the genre has a lot of escapes like that? I don't know, he seems to complain about a lot of the movies that I find highly fascinating. I don't think he sees the depth in them that I do. I'm fairly certain that he wouldn't like anime.

I pitched my story idea involving Siegfried's ex-fianceé to Amelda-kun and she thought it sounded interesting. ^^ Basically I decided that Aloysius (his father) had tried to arrange a marriage between Siegfried and the daughter of a business partner. The girl, Aldabella Friederich, is a devious, twisted, manipulative, murderous little rich girl. XD; But unlike Vivalene, who always has a worldly air and appearance, Aldabella looks extremely innocent, even though she isn't at all. Siegfried was one of the only people to see this, and when his father killed himself, Siegfried broke off the engagement. He secretly used to call her "Belladonna," like the poisonous plant. Aldabella was always angry at him for breaking the engagement, and one of her loyal maids was as well. The maid then infiltrated into Siegfried's manor and has been working there for a while.

And hence continues my trend of female villains. XD; Armina isn't a villain, but she's also technically not an OC. Well, readers of Engel will see that soon, anyway. Anita, an unnamed character on the show, is another such technicality. XD; I guess the only semi-important female character that isn't a villain and that is a purebred OC would be Kasumi, who I haven't done much with lately.

I've been thinking about Dartz and writing for him. I remember that even before I finally softened to the point of liking him, I very much disliked the way some people portrayed him. One such person played him as a typical villain, a sniveling coward who when confronted by his former warriors, would lie and say he was sorry and beg for forgiveness and such because he didn't want them to hurt him. .__.; WTH? That's just about the most OOC nonsense I've seen for him. What's scary is that the person was being serious and not just trying to be funny or something. Heck, come on, Dartz would never act like that. He's the furthest thing from a typical villain and he's certainly not a coward. I kinda think that person didn't like Dartz and his dislike of the character came out in the way he played him. I could be wrong, though. Maybe the person just didn't have a good grip on how to play him, because he also made Ironheart very OOC. ^^; Oh well. Anyway, I like the way I write for Dartz. I think I have a pretty good grip on his character.

And here's a fun quiz!


( Anime Quiz )

I keep meaning to post on this, but I keep not getting around to it. XD; Several weeks ago I had a conversation with Aubrie in which I mentioned how much I dislike any story about Original Characters that I come up with. The only explanation I could really give for why I disliked those fics was that I felt like I was the victim of whatever troubles befell the OC's, since I created them. o.o; It's amusing, though. . . . I really do try to put myself in the canon characters' shoes when I'm role-playing them and try to determine what they're thinking and feeling. Otherwise, the RPs wouldn't be much fun. XD; But I don't feel like what's happening to them is happening to me. It's hard to explain. And even with a select few OC's, it's not like I feel like that. I never feel like I'm being hurt if I get Runihura or Khu into trouble. But oh how I despise my original fictions. XD; Maybe I should try writing an original fiction on an OC I do like and feel comfortably "detached" from, like Runihura, and try to go from there. . . .

There was a really intriguing episode of TMNT last Saturday. The show's just been getting better and better. Right now each Turtle has been sent to a different dimension/alternate universe/other world and they're following each one's adventures in the episodes. Last Saturday they showed Donatello's experience. He wound up in an alternate universe where 30 years had passed after he had gone missing and the Shredder now ruled supreme. o.o Don met up with Mikey, who had lost part of his left arm and was no longer cheerful and somewhat immature, as he always has been on the shows. He had seen so much and had been so disillusioned by the events after Don's disappearance that he had finally been forced to grow up. He tells Don that Splinter is dead and that then Leo and Raph had a big falling out.

Don is determined for them to defeat the Shredder for good and restore the peace, so Mikey takes him to the underground resistance movement, led by April. She tells them that Casey died in a previous attempt to stop the Shredder. And Hun and Dr. Stockman are with the resistance movement. April says they rescued the two of them (or what's left of them, rather) from being executed and that's how they'd wound up there.

So anyway, April manages to get Leo and Raph contacted and they come. They're not happy to see each other and get into a big argument over what happened to Splinter. Leo believes they couldn't have saved him, while Raph believes otherwise. Then Don breaks up their fight and tells them what's going on. They're shocked to see him after all this time, but agree to be part of the final attack on Shredder.

So they all wind up at Shredder's new hideout and find that he's much more powerful. o.o He kills Hun and Stockman when Hun comes begging to be taken back again (dang, why he would keep wanting to be around that guy is beyond me, especially since Shredder had tried to kill him multiple times in the past. Maybe it's because, somehow, he felt useful when he was working for Shredder). Then Mikey also dies. o.o Leo winds up fighting Karai and tells her that she must make a final choice between fighting for what she truly believes or continuing with the Shredder, whom she considers as her father and can't bring herself to leave. I was expecting this to happen, but she chooses the Shredder and winds up killing Leo. ;__; Then Raph is all sad and comes running over to him and he winds up dying too, after being furious and charging at Karai, I think. He collapses over Leo's body. Then April kills Karai and Don manages to defeat the Shredder. She thanks him and there's a bittersweet ending as he fades out, presumeably being pulled back to his own dimension. April is left standing amid all the carnage.

I dunno why I actually liked the episode. XD; Maybe it was because instead of being something where Don actually went into his future, he went into an alternate universe. If Don had really been in his own future, it would have been extremely depressing and I probably wouldn't have liked it. But Don couldn't have been in his own future, simply because all the other Turtles (and Splinter, too, I think) each were sent away into other dimensions and they all have to get home, not just Don. Anyway, I really did like the episode in some bittersweet way. The part where Leo and then Raph die is so sad, but it shows what a strong bond they really did have, inspite of how they often argue.

I have a couple of picture ideas. Mom wants to see a movie, so maybe I can draw while that goes on. **cuddles Alister.**

As a parting note, thank goodness for bananas. XD;

Well, I started work on chapter 19 of YuleTide Terror and now have tried, in Khu's thoughts, to fully correct my previous warping of P. Seto/Seth's character. XD; I have blamed Akunadin! **glares at him.** After all, we know he tried to possess Seth on the show, so I tried now to elaborate on the concept.

The previous morning I fiddled around with a random blurb concerning Valon finding Alister beaten nigh to death and muttering things about his brother Miroku thanks to the doings of his captor. (Dang . . . isn't that the lecherous guy's name on InuYasha? XD; It's hard for me to picture a child having that name after being familiar with it as being the other guy's name.) Plus, I keep having my morbid little hurt/comfort thoughts that I use to entertain myself with when I get bored. I'm having thoughts of Alister getting hit by a car. o__o;; Sometimes I disturb myself. XD; Oh well. At least I know that my sense of morbidity is nothing like this other person's that I know. LOL. Compared to her, what I do to the characters is a walk in the park.

Here's the blurb, if anyone wants to read it. Dub names and voices were in mind when writing. XD; I'm told that Valon and Alister actually haven't interacted that much, but hey, that's what fanfics are for. **smiles.**

( Blurb )

I changed my MSN signature line again. I do that whenever either a particular quote amuses me enough or, more likely, if I want to express the words of a favorite character. Today my signature is "I just haven't been feeling myself lately---and I mean that quite literally! SURPRISE!" I got such a giggle out of that when I watched that episode again this past afternoon. XD;

I did an interesting vocal RP with Mom where Vifa came barging in and said that Valon and she used to be an Item. Neither Alister or Raphael liked her very much (just as they, or at least Raph, haven't been thrilled with Mai) and according to Vifa, they both almost died once, but it wasn't her fault. XD; Valon thinks that she purposely tried to kill them so that she'd have Valon all to herself. Also, Alister was currently laying at death's door because of Yami Marik (yes, I swear I've had Yami M be the cause of Ali's woes in three different RPs now!) and Vifa had the audacity to say that maybe it was Valon's fault. Valon was already blaming himself, so Vifa's remark didn't help much. The whole incident ended with Valon and Raphael both punching the demon woman. XD; Maybe, instead of Mai being the subject of Ali and Val's argument in my fic, it should be Vifa. Or maybe that would be too much like The Disappearing Deejay Dilemma. Hmm.

XD I'm not really mad at him. Just a bit perturbed that he's creeping onto my fave characters list ^__~ Oh well. I guess I can't have too many faves, right? Just as long as he doesn't try usurping Marik X3

I guess I've gotta blame the new arc for my interest in Devlin ^___^ Throwing in some h/c in episode #99 didn't hurt either. XD And since Marik's absent right now on the show and so's Bakura, my attention has turned back to some of the others. Mainly, Kaiba and Devlin. That's not to say that you should expect me to be writing more short stories about Kaiba (or any about Devlin, for that matter), only that my interest in them both has been renewed XD And that Devlin will probably play more of a role in all of my future mystery fics XD

So let's see . . . all the guys whom I luv to put in h/c situations in my mystery fics (and some in short stories, too). . . . This'll be a long list.

Marik
Rishid
Kaiba
Bakura
Yami Bakura
Shadi
Devlin

Basically, it's anyone on whom I have a crush XD I will do it to Yugi and Joey, too, but they get it less frequently. And Tristan never gets it unless the whole group does. LOL.

I don't like having girls as the victims. I only make an exception in the case of Ishizu. Not sure why. Maybe 'cause she's my fave female character? Usually if a girl is involved in an h/c scene, they're the comforter person ^__^ Again, though, the girls can become victims if the entire group does. XD

Hmmm. I also don't like OC's becoming permenant characters in stories, though I have no problem with them recurring every few mysteries or so XD One exception to the rule is Oreo the cat, who is a regular character now. Tee hee ^__~ The rules seem different when they're applied to animals.

XD Now I know why Carrie always begs people to comment ^__~ **wonders if anyone besides Adelianna is reading these musings.** Hmmm. . . . Oh well. I can use them for my own reflection and study, if nothing else ^^

I'm happy because I did chapter 4 of Family Ties! =3 Now I've just gotta work out chapter 2 of Home for the Holidays! I'm hoping to do some writing while I relax and watch the WB's block in a couple of hours. It's so relaxing to just sit there and watch my fave characters ^o^

Earlier I was thinking about some of my original characters. Khu, in particular. I remember when I first created him, he was really evil @@ He tortured Yami Bakura two different times, just for the heck of it! Thanx to Chaos, however, I wound up taking a different look at him XD In the RP's I do with her, Khu is a main character and not evil. I actually delved into his mind and developed his character. That was a neat thing to do. Since the RP's with Chaos, I determined several different things about him:

--He hates water, because he nearly drowned once and so did Seth (his younger brother and ancestor of Seto Kaiba)

--He loves grape juice XD

--He was a really rude kid ^__~ **think Yahiko on Rurouni Kenshin!**

--He can be high-strung, while Seth is more relaxed XD

Oh yeah, and the reason for why he was always after the Pharaoh was because he blamed him for his mother's death @@ She died in the Pharaoh's prison.

Somewhere along the line, Khu had a bad accident that rendered his left arm useless for any underwater activity (though he can use it okay on land). I'm sure he didn't mind that any XD LOL

Anyway, the main point of all this is I was trying to find similarities between my OC and me. Like Khu, I have an intense fear of drowning. But I do like water, interestingly XD And Khu has this tendency to be sarcastic, like Kaiba (and myself LOL). Let's see . . . Khu can seem cold and unfeeling. . . . I can tend to seem that way (at least emotionless) if seen in public. On the Internet I'm different, though XD Oh yeah, and I can be high-strung X3

Khu's a fave OC of mine, but I've trained myself to not have a crush on him. LOL. For some reason, I can't stand having crushes on my OC's. Nor do I like doing hurt/comfort scenes with them as victims, usually. The only explanation I've been able to come up with for that is that, since I created them, it almost feels like I'd be kayoing myself and I don't like self h/c in fics or RP's either XD I remember doing a couple of short h/c fics with some OC's for the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom during a time when I thought I had a crush on a character I'd created called André. Later I decided I hated them and I took them down from FF.net XD

In my mystery fics, the most fun I've had with an OC was probably with Mr. Thorton from both Christmas mysteries now XD He is such a nutcase. Sometimes his comb gets stuck in his hair and he doesn't even notice. Then other times he's holding a vegetable, like lettuce, and it crumbles in his lap. Again, he won't notice. He's, like, always stressed out and afraid of disasters XD He's really overprotective of his toy store and has a fear of being sued.

Other fave OC's would be Bruce, Bernard, and Elsa (from the deejay mysteries). Bernard and Elsa got created back when I was actually writing fanfics about four deejays (real ones!) who worked at a radio station in Las Vegas. They were all on friendly terms with me and I enjoyed talking with them ^__^ They liked my fanfics, too =3 Anyway, Bernard's and Elsa's roles in those fics was pretty much the same as in the YGO ones. They would walk around, cause trouble, and constantly accuse one person of being guilty (in the real-life deejays' mysteries it was an OC called Vince, the head engineer. In the YGO mysteries, it was Bruce) XD Bernard and Elsa were based on characters in The Hardy Boys book #109, one of my all-time faves ^^

Ahh . . . that was fun, taking a trip down Memory Lane. I miss that radio show ;__; Since it went off the air, the deejays and I have kinda lost touch with each other. I do still know how to contact at least one of them, though ^__^! If anyone's interested, the website I did was: http://www.angelfire.com/nv/Oldies931fanpage I think that's right. The fanfics were so silly and goofy XD I luved writing those things.

Vivalene is one OC that I hope I'm not like in any way, shape, or form! XD Originally she was created as a nice girl, but a bit of a flirt. You should see the original character design. She looked so sweet and innocent @@ Compare that with the Vifa of today: a back-stabbing murderess! She is bad to the bone. I like vocally RPing her 'cause I get to do her syrupy voice, but she's a really horrible person. She's tried to kill Marik, Kaiba, and Joey. And she mentally tortured Bakura. @@ And she turned against Seth and shot him multiple times. (Not that I like Seth, but still . . .) Yeah . . . I definitely hope none of me is like her XD

Oh yeah . . . there's Kasumi too. Little angel girl ^^ She's fun. She usually comes to assist Kaiba or the Ishtars. Lucky gal XD Her past was recently told in my ninth mystery, Ranch of No Return.

I could go on about OC's for hours XD But I think I shall stop for now. Maybe I'll pick up the musing later.