I haven't spent much time posting lately. I've been so busy writing things that for the most part, if I want to say something that I might ordinarily say here, I say it one-on-one to someone instead.

I've been working on the next Turtles fic, which is a light-hearted oneshot. I found it difficult to go from a more serious tone in the multi-chapter to a lighter tone in the succeeding fic and not have it look strange or mismatched, but after I fleshed some things out it looked better and flowed better with the multi-chapter. One problem with lighter ones is that it's harder for character introspection and development, so it's a challenge finding ways to work that in. I really want the stories to be like seasons 3/4, although they will definitely dip into season 7-ish territory sometimes.

I've been tinkering with a website to talk about my Turtles verse, the proposed "episode" ideas, and other things. I wrote a long essay on why I think 1987 Baxter should be able to be redeemed and I'm quite pleased with it. The site isn't live yet, although I've given a couple of people the link to examine assorted things on it.

I finally started that fic I wanted to do detailing Illya being haunted by Mr. Ecks. So far I have two vignettes done and at least two or three others planned. I don't want the story to wear out its welcome, but with a character-developing series of vignettes, it could technically go on and on. I shouldn't have it get too long, though, or it might be harder to align it with later fics in the timeline.

I've also got the WWW fic going again. I'm going back and forth among all of these fics and also hope to work more on Ginger and Lou fics and that Real Ghostbusters fic. (And that Equestria Girls idea I still haven't started.) It's definitely nice to be able to flip from one fandom to another, writing-wise.

I saw some pieces of the new Equestria Girls movie. Honestly, I love Sunset Shimmer more with each film. She and Twilight are definitely the best things about them. From what I saw, though, my fears about this film feeling like Winx Club were not far-fetched. I want to see this film in whole, and I'll probably buy it, but I don't think I'll re-watch it much. I do not like that it looks like ( Spoiler )

Had a wonderful birthday! I was very touched by all the warm wishes through here and Facebook and other places. Got some lovely gifts, with some belated ones still on the way. And the shopping spree went swimmingly, better than it has a lot of times. I found some things I wanted and some surprises and it was delightful to have money to get them. Somehow I managed to collect a pretty good amount of money for the shopping spree just in the month of September. Usually I start saving in the summer months, but that didn't happen too much this year because of surprise sales and clearances.

I had intended to get a Fashion Style Pony, but while I love them dearly, I still can't seem to justify paying $15 for one of them when it comes right down to it. Sigh. I want a sale. Meanwhile, I found Indigo Zap on clearance for $4.98. Yessss! I am sad that apparently I missed other things clearancing at Toys R Us, but at least I grabbed something before they were all gone.

I also found volume 7 of The Real Ghostbusters for $9.99. The standard price is $14.99, so I wasn't passing that up. I didn't think I'd find it at Toys R Us, but it was an idle hope, and then there it was. I got it mainly for the Egon's Ghost episode, and thankfully, this time I was not disappointed! It was sooo good. So intense and so much friendship squee! Unfortunately, another episode I'd wanted, Slimer, Is That You? turned up in the re-dubbed version with Dave Coulier as Peter and Kath Soucie as Janine. I love Kath's work, but not as Janine. And Dave Coulier was absolutely teeth-grinding. The Time-Life version has the original voice actors for that episode, so now I have one more reason to try to get hold of some of those older DVD sets. It was a really fun episode and I want to hear it with Lorenzo Music and Laura Summer.

At Target, I found season 1 of TMNT 1987, which thrilled me. Wal-Mart doesn't have it anymore and Amazon upped the price, but Target was only charging a few cents more than Wal-Mart had had it. Now I have all the human Baxter episodes. I've watched his season 1 episode twice on YouTube in the past. When comparing it with season 2, it is pretty heartbreaking to see how much he cracked.

Also at Target, I discovered that Tracey West is still active in the kids' anime scene and she has written a YGO anime guide. I have no idea why they put that out this year, unless it's to prepare newcomers for the movie. But it was great! I longed for something like that when the show was airing. Oh, there were some things kind of like that, but I didn't like them as much as I liked this one. And it covered all seasons and characters. I probably shouldn't have, since it was just basic information that a diehard fan would already know, but I couldn't resist and it had to come home with me. I feel like a kid again, going through it.

I bought season 4 of TMNT 1987 at Wal-Mart. I also wanted volume 2 of Miraculous Ladybug, but they apparently sold out after finally getting some in. Sigh. I should have bought it at Target. But oh well; I'm sure there will be other chances for it.

(Oh! Oh! Speaking of Ladybug, I saw a doll giftset at Toys R us with her and Cat Noir! Squeeee. Naturally it was $30, so I am hoping for a Christmas sale. I must have it.)

Between my purchases and gifts, I now have all 1987 Turtles seasons except 9 and 10! I'm less interested in them, since they're darker and someone else takes center stage as the villain, but I'll probably try to get them sometime for completeness' sake.

I made one other purchase that night: another plushie base at Jo-Ann's. As much as I hate sewing, I absolutely love being able to create the characters I want in a couple of weeks instead of commissioning someone for a lot more money and waiting several months for the product. Now I just need to decide whether I'm going to use this plushie base to make Snakes, 1987 Baxter, or a Richard character (probably Steve Drumm). I want to make all of them, so it's mostly a matter of which one first. I kind of lean towards Baxter. It would be a fun challenge working out the hair and the glasses. It's making the clothes that drives me up the wall for any plushie. I shouldn't start any new one until I've finished Barry's shirt and made Mike's jacket, but uggh, I keep dreading working in silk with Barry's shirt. And I hate sewing in sleeves in general. Definitely the most maddening part.

I have an Amazon gift card and I'm having my usual debate on what to buy/when to use it. I could get $25 worth of books, as there are some I want, and then maybe get one other thing to go with them. Or I could bite the bullet and do a splurge and add $29 in cash to my $20 gift card. Ultimately, I'd rather wait until I can get another gift card, but by that time, some of the stuff will have probably changed prices. Uggggh. I hate so much that Amazon changed the rules for free shipping. $49 for free shipping is just outrageous! The only other way to get it (without getting Prime) is $25 worth of books and anything else ships free with them.

Then I have my usual dilemma of what to be for Halloween. Every possibility seems to fall through. I wanted to try being a Ghostbuster, but I can't fit into Mom's (non-Ghostbuster) jumpsuit and I'm not crazy about the idea of spending a lot of money on an official costume. Even if I wanted to try that, I can't find any women's costumes (which is weird, considering the new movie had women Ghostbusters) and the men's ones only turn up in sizes too big. I've also considered either a Turtle or April O'Neil. For April, I'd base her mostly on Megan Fox's April because of the hair, and then she has the classic yellow of the 1987 cartoon April. I have yellow tops, but no yellow trousers. Sigh. For a Turtle, green clothes would be good. I do have green pants, and I could probably dig up some kind of green top. Then I could buy a Turtle shell at Dollar Tree and a blue mask/headband thing and whee. A cheap ghetto thing, but good enough for a church Halloween party.

I've also considered trying to dress up in Ghostbuster Abby's casual clothes, since I probably could find stuff around here that looks somewhat like what she wore. Abby wasn't at all my favorite in the movie, although I warmed up to her before the film was over. But she is the one I could pass myself off as the easiest.

Today I even had the thought of wearing my long green coat, my fedora, and my sunglasses, and saying I'm a random spy/secret agent/whatever. Heh.

Most likely, I'll go with ghetto Turtle. But Dollar Tree was out of blue headband things this past night. Sigh. Hopefully they'll restock.

So while I was going through stuff tagging it recently, I stumbled on that entry where I was comparing Napoleon and Illya's interaction to Jim and Arte's. That was before I'd seen The Summit Five Affair, so I didn't even really believe there was a friendship between Napoleon and Illya and in any case, if there was, I preferred Jim and Arte's insult-free friendship. It was interesting to read that again. And even though now I have come to believe in Napoleon and Illya's friendship, the comparison still made some observational points that are relevant regardless. I've been thinking about it ever since.

It was amusing about Napoleon and Illya, really. The whole fandom pretty much celebrates their friendship, and then there was this one person who insisted she didn't see their relationship that way at all and felt they were only partners, and then there was me in the middle. I wanted to believe in the friendship, but I wasn't feeling it, and I wondered if she was right. I was thrilled when I watched The Summit Five Affair and finally saw clear and present friendshippiness. Yet in spite of that, and in spite of the fact that I enjoy reading other people's friendship fics with them now and then, I personally don't seem to be that interested in writing about friendshippy, hurt/comforty situations with them. For that matter, I don't really seem to be that interested in writing that sort of thing with Jim and Arte, either.

It could be the fact that I don't actually crush on any of them very seriously. (I do have mild crushes, to varying degrees.) Generally, I reserve hurt/comfort scenarios for characters I'm actually crushing on very seriously. On the other hand, it could be that plus the fact that for both shows, my favorite things about them are the plots and mysteries rather than the friendships. (And some of the guest-stars....) And that may sound strange coming from someone who can get so intrigued by friendships that she'll even tinker with characters she normally wouldn't go near, but considering that mysteries and detective shows were always my first love, it makes sense. I mean, seriously, I was four years old and I knew I just had to watch Carmen Sandiego because it was about detectives in these awesome fedora hats and catching crooks and that just sounded so epically awesome. I'm still puzzling over how I already knew I wanted that type of show. I certainly hadn't been exposed to it before; Mom felt I was way too young for that sort of thing. Then the same thing happened when we got this thingie in the mail telling about upcoming shows and I learned about Darkwing Duck. I was like "... A crime-fighting duck?! I MUST WATCH!"

So yeah. Pretty much if it was a crime show, I wanted it. That was my original motivation for getting into The Andy Griffith Show too. (Well, that and Barney sounded hilarious.) Then I started learning all I could about classic TV and found out about U.N.C.L.E. and WWW and all those great things and I wanted them. But it took years before I actually had access to them. And I was all over the James Bond film Moonraker when I saw it (aside from the bed times). Spy stuff ... yay!

But back to Napoleon and Illya. Their specific friendship type is not being very open about their caring. As Crystal pointed out, the best way to see their caring in most episodes is through their facial expressions. It's a very visual thing. That, of course, doesn't translate to stories (unless they're illustrated). But that could be part of my disinterest in writing friendshippy fics about them too, since in lieu of seeing the caring via pictures, it would have to come out some other way. I don't want things to get too mushy/goopy since that would be OOC for them, but sometimes even them discussing deep things at all can result in them seeming too open/OOC. With them, I usually prefer to keep things pretty much as they are in the show, and hence, my stories usually seem to focus on their adventures instead of being hurt/comforty (aside from one creepy fic). I do like having them discuss deep subjects at times, which they do in The Peaceful Meadows Affair, but it doesn't really feel like I'm having them be so open.

Then we have characters like Brett and Danny, who also have that insult humor I don't like but can also do a 180-degree turn and be very open about their caring like it's the most natural thing in the world to show it (which it should be, but it's understandable/professional/better if secret agents like Napoleon and Illya don't follow that idea). I'm hoping to write more fics with them, but I am wondering if I'll be able/comfortable getting the insult banter into things. I haven't really needed to yet, and come to think of it, I've left that out of the U.N.C.L.E. fics too. The thing I adore about Brett and Danny is their openness and I find that easier and more relatable to write than friends who are holding themselves more at arm's length.

When I really think about it, Brett and Danny may very well be an exception to the usual, as it seems like the friendships I usually enjoy writing about the very most ... are often ones I've developed almost or entirely on my own, rather than being fully in canon. With the exceptions of the canonical friendships of Sephiroth and Zack (as shown in Crisis Core), Joe Mannix and Lew Wickersham, and now Brett and Danny, it seems like most of my main friendships have only really been developed into friendships by me. The familial relationships I've loved to write about are canon, but the friendships ... either hardly ever are or else there's only the slightest smidgen of it shown in canon and the smidgen is enough to intrigue me and make me want more. Even with Seph and Zack, there isn't a whole lot showing them together in canon, although as I recall, someone does specifically identify them as friends in-game.

Usually I characterize working partners as friends, regardless of whether they're actually depicted as such in canon. Other examples would be Gin and Vodka, the bikers, Schrank and Krupke, Ginger and Lou, and Ecks and Wye (although the evidence for the latter being friends seems pretty strong to me, given Wye's actual flipping out after finding Ecks stabbed).

With the bikers, Raph seemed protective of Valon in canon, but Valon and Alister couldn't seem to get along. And usually aside from that, they didn't interact together. But it became a fanon thing to have them be friends anyway, with several people adopting the idea of them deciding to start over together after the Doom arc, since they'd already been through so much together and they were really all each other had.

With Ginger and Lou, you have to look pretty closely to see what's going on there, but there is definitely some kind of chemistry between either the actors, the characters or both. I think that essay I wrote pretty well examines every possibility and shows that it is possible that they could be friends. I develop the idea by saying that they became closer and more open while in prison, thus opening the door for their interaction as I've depicted it. Of course, one could certainly use the argument I made with Napoleon and Illya and throw it back at me, saying I shouldn't portray these two being open either. I've worried about that. But one thing is, we've only seen how Ginger and Lou canonically interact during a high-stress situation. With Napoleon and Illya, we've also seen how they behave during downtime. So with Ginger and Lou, I figure there might be some leeway since we don't know how they behave during normal times. I try to make their interaction as fitting the characters shown in canon even though at the same time I'm trying to develop it a bit beyond that. (I guess I also figure no one would care if I soften Ginger a bit, really, since I doubt anyone really became intrigued by him and Lou in canon like I did. I kind of worry what David Chase, the writer of that episode, might think, though. Yes, that David Chase....) Of course, that's what a lot of the U.N.C.L.E. writers do as well, often with excellent results.

Then there's Autor and Ahiru, who were certainly not friends in the series proper. But Autor seemed friendly in that little follow-up play some of the voice actors did, and given Ahiru's gregarious personality, I have a hard time believing that she wouldn't eventually come to see the good in Autor and accept him as a friend. So that seemed to have good potential even though it wasn't expressly canon and that became another of my favorite friendships to work with.

Then we have Duke and David. There's no indication of who David is to Duke in canon (aside from the dub note that he's the store manager), but since Duke confided in David about his plans, at least partially, and David teases Duke without consequence, I would say it's pretty likely that they're friends.

And of course, things like Ray Norman and Coley Rodman, Snakes Tolliver and Beau Maverick, and Snakes and Duke, are most certainly not canon by the slightest stretch of the imagination. Those characters are not on the same show in canon, nor are Ray and Coley or Snakes and Duke canonically in the same time. It's interesting how things like that can just develop in fics or role-plays and end up feeling so right.

Perhaps I usually prefer focusing on things like that because I feel that either canon or the other fans are handling the main friendships just fine and I'd rather do something different and explore other angles. I know that's how I tend to feel about Rumbelle, even though I still enjoy writing my vignette series now and then. That's more in protest of the way Once has gone downhill, though, instead of a desire to actually write Rumbelle. I like to write them talking, which the show should have done more of, but I am pretty useless when it comes to romantic stuff. In general I find romantic/kissing scenes tedious, boring, and almost impossible to write, and I don't want to let down the fans who want to see lots of that, so I still hesitate to post my vignettes on FF.net. (That, and the fact that I don't update that story very frequently....)

And so after a month we come full-circle. I went to F.Y.E. at the end of January looking for some type of James Bond figure in Roger's image. That wasn't the only reason I was there, and I would have likely gone anyway even if it hadn't been a reason at all, but I was still very upset when I got sick after that excursion and got everybody else in the house sick. I can't prove it came from there, but it must have been either there or Wal-Mart, since I got sick before anybody else and therefore most likely did not pick it up at my aunt's. It had to be a place where I was the only one going around and coming into contact with people. But it was highly aggravating and upsetting that it happened, especially when the shopping was fruitless.

I was upset for weeks feeling like I should have gone to Build-a-Bear instead and got the other doll I wanted. Then I probably wouldn't have got sick/got everybody sick. And I was frustrated that I didn't get to go last week because of the lingering cough problems. Now, however, I'm grateful I didn't make it. Hopefully I'll get another chance for the doll, but meanwhile ...

I finally found a figure online for a decent price. Not one of the 12-inch figures, sadly, but about half that size. I spent days debating whether to get it and trying to see if it really looked enough like Roger to make a purchase worth it. There were four people watching it besides me; it was a Buy It Now listing. I felt a little bad to suddenly pull it out from underneath them, but any of them could have bought it at any time if they had felt so inclined, and apparently they didn't by the time I made up my mind, so no regrets. These figures usually seem to go for much more than I got mine for, so I'm doubly thrilled.

I did immediately feel guilty to purchase something James Bond, since neither Dad nor Mom like that franchise (and I'd be all over it if it wasn't for the bed times; I loved Moonraker except for what amounted to two minutes or less of bed times/implications of bed times ... and I still kind of want to see more films, too ...), but of course it was more for the actor than the character, and my idea was that it could be whatever character I wanted it to be at any given time. I stayed in that more excited mindset and didn't feel any more guilt.

Ohmygoshsquee, it shipped Monday and came this past day! And, as I determined before taking the plunge and purchasing, it does look sufficiently like Roger to be worth it! And it's so nice with fabric clothing.... I adore fabric clothing! It shows real thought and attention went into the crafting, instead of just putting molded clothes on. (Not that some molded clothing can't be amazingly detailed too, of course. But it upsets me that fabric clothing is not really a thing like it used to be.) The card is also very nice, with many pictures of Roger all over it. I have it sitting next to the card from my Oscar Goldman figure so I can see the pictures. The figures themselves are on my desk.

So I have what I set out to find a month ago and I am very pleased.

I've also been reading that Saint book I got with my last Amazon order. I've got to say, I like this one way more than that short story collection I tried a couple of years ago. Even though that was written after this novel, I like Simon's characterization in the novel far more. It's one of the books written around the WWII era, The Saint Sees It Through, and Simon is serious like his television counterpart. I haven't seen one aggravating, dirty-minded crack in here like there was in the short story collection. I also haven't seen any instances of Simon taking the law into his hands more than I find comfortable (no burying bodies in gardens to keep the people involved from going to jail, oy vey). I may want to try some other books from this time period. And if I like them too, I will be highly amused, as of course the WWII era books are largely hated among the book purists. They usually prefer their Saint much more playful and mischievous and naughty, as he is in the earlier books. I prefer him more like the character in the TV show. Which of course immediately makes me a bizarre wild card in the fandom, as I am almost everywhere. Can't break with tradition, after all.

I'm also writing a sci-fi Maverick fic, as of course the fic where Snakes reveals himself to be alive has to include some sci-fi elements. And with encouragement, I'm continuing it to show Snakes taking Beau through the portal to visit the present-day. It's mostly a character study, though, as both Snakes and Beau have issues to work through at this point. It probably won't be more than a two-shot, but who knows.

I am vaguely considering that maybe Beau could be visiting in the Count Manzeppi fic I wanted to write, and that might give me a little more motivation to go ahead with it, but I'm not sure. I was just burned so seriously with The Deadly Codename that I'm honestly afraid to start a new WWW fic. I don't want to be involved in any more drama in that fandom. Beau around would just be one more thing for that person to complain about, should he decide to complain again. I might actually have more luck writing that fic for the Maverick fandom instead. **headdesk.**

In any case, there is the problem that by playing so much in Snakes' past, it kind of turned a few things in my original timeline for him on their heads, as I knew would happen if I kept playing. But I really liked the things I was coming up with and didn't want to let them go. Now I do have to wonder how to re-align things again, since Snakes wasn't supposed to have any friends before going to the present-day and now with the Maverick branch of the timeline he has Beau. I'm trying to rationalize it by him saying that Pinto broke him so much over three years of torture that he wasn't sure Beau really would still care and want to be his friend, since they didn't even really know each other that well. But I'm not sure that's a good enough fix.

There's also the issue that in Airship it's a plot point that Snakes hasn't been back to the past before and goes back only to find Jim and Arte. After I brought in the idea of Snakes and Beau, I knew Snakes wouldn't want to leave Beau hanging, so in the Maverick timeline, the first time he goes back is to find Beau and let him know he's okay. I don't know whether to leave things as they are, apparently two similar but different timelines, to try to reconnect them by explanations from Snakes, or to reconnect them by tweaking some things in the older stories.

Another idea I had was that maybe the time re-set Duke caused in the YGO branch of the timeline screwed a few things up that he hadn't intended on, including Snakes and Beau, and that perhaps when it's said that Snakes didn't have anyone, that's because he doesn't remember Beau with the time re-set. That gets fixed at the end of the story, so if there was any trouble, Snakes remembers the truth now. But that gets sticky too, as it would mean that the original WWW time-travel fics were written with the time re-set in mind and they're Snakes' incorrect memories of how things happened.

Confusion, thy name is time-travel. Confusion, thy name is also retcon.

I've gotta say, I have to sympathize with George Lucas in a situation like this. When you start playing in the past, you find new ways of telling things that you like better than the original way. And then naturally you want to tweak the originals to fit the new ideas. But that's an unpopular thing to do. And I still don't agree with him booting out the original actors for Boba Fett and Anakin Skywalker in the original trilogy DVDs. But still, I can understand why it happened.

What am I gonna do?

Uggggh. I absolutely abhor computer scammers, identity thieves, and the like. I'm pretty sure at least one person wondered why I felt so bitter about them and was unhappy that I couldn't really warm up to a character of hers that seemed to have that sort of dubious occupation. But when you've actually experienced a crime yourself, at least for me, it makes it very difficult to feel any kind of sympathy towards such criminals, even fictional ones.

I know there are a lot of fictional characters I like that I doubt I'd excuse in real-life; somehow being fictional, they're detached from reality and it's easier to see all sides of their heart and soul, unlike in real-life. But on the other hand, there are a lot of fictional characters I just can't bring myself to like or feel sympathy for. Sometimes it may not seem to make sense regarding the ones in that category, but to be honest, I think most people have those fine lines where one particular character is liked but another that may seem the similar on the surface is disliked. Perhaps it's a matter of the characters' attitudes, at least sometimes. I just can never like Pegasus, for instance, because of the specific mocking, joking attitude he takes to everyone's misery. But on the other hand, I am intrigued by Yami Bakura. They both steal souls, but their personalities are not the same and I am far more bothered by Pegasus's personality under the circumstances than I am by Yami Bakura's.

Anyway. So. Back to the computer criminals. Years ago some crumb stole my dad's credit card number and bought a bunch of stuff with it. I was always afraid it was my fault, because it happened shortly after I used it (with Dad's permission) on Sega's website to buy the Knuckles plushie. I worried Sega's store hadn't been secure enough and that's how the number was taken. Thankfully, my dad didn't have to honor those purchases; the company believed him about the card number being stolen. But regardless, because of that experience I've been specifically bitter against computer criminals ever since.

Now yesterday, my dad got taken in by a computer scammer. He seems to be the type that deliberately puts junk on your computer and then pretends to just be finding it and says he can get rid of it for a high price. This crumb claimed he was from the computer company and even gave some of Dad's personal information to try to prove it! He messed up the computer and Dad couldn't even get in last night. Thankfully, Dad has managed to put the computer back in order now, and hopefully he's going to be able to find a way to report the creep. But this only deepens my bitter feelings towards computer criminals.

I wish I'd known about the phone call from the creep right when it happened; I would have been immediately suspicious and told him not to let the guy have remote computer access until he proved without a doubt he was from the computer company. It made no sense to me that a legit party would randomly call, since Dad hadn't even called the computer company. And sure enough, when he did call them after talking to the guy, they told him that the guy was a fraud. I'm relieved that the computer seems to be back to normal now; I certainly hope it can stay that way. (It wasn't my computer, by the way, but the newest one Dad uses. It's never really worked right because it's had a lot of trouble with viruses and computer creeps and the like.)

But so yeah. Computer criminals are something I just can't seem to not be bitter towards. Before the incidents where we experienced the crimes, I think I was just neutral, didn't really understand the damage they cause, and might not have been bothered by fictional computer scammers. But after the first incident in 2001 and this new incident too, uggggh, I cannot stand them.

Somehow I think Simon Templar would feel the same way. And now, even though it would probably make the few fanficcers stand on their heads and scream Foul for plopping him in the obvious present-day, I want to write a fic where he brings down some computer criminals. That would feel so delicious to me. I love how Simon champions the rights of those who are being hurt by the greed and evil of criminals. And I have to admit, I do sort of swoon thinking of him as a knight in figurative shining armor, rescuing the girls of the week (re: me) and whoever else is in distress. That is, of course, how the author of the original books intended for him to be viewed, and that was captured perfectly in the television series.

Do I agree with all of Simon's methods? No, I do not, even in the toned-down television version that I far prefer over the books. But I do love that he's devoted his whole life to catching criminals and protecting the innocent from them.

Also, I am absolutely ecstatic to learn that the big boxset is not the only in-print release of The Saint! They're also doing double-season sets, and those are reasonably priced! I can get them! SQUEEEEE. There's one out now and the next releases next week!

And as a closing note, I was reading a review of one of the few Saint books I'm interested in. People have long wondered if the TV Saint is working at least sometimes for a secret organization and not just always on his own; some episodes hint at that. Now in this book, the reviewer says Simon says he is part of such a thing and even stranger, that at the end the organization is identified as U.N.C.L.E. (A curious trick, since the book was written in 1947!) I'd have to read the book to know how accurate that assessment is, but regardless, I am certainly intrigued. And I'm probably going to have a terrible time not imagining that Simon is with the London office of U.N.C.L.E. now.

I really don't like naming drabbles and vignettes 99% of the time. To me, they're fic snippets and not like a full-fledged fic, and titles don't apply. I really have to struggle to think of titles for them, and I have to come up with something, since I'm posting them to a comm. But I ended up forgetting to name today's piece and had to quickly edit and think of something.

I'm musing on how I've chosen to portray the characters. Since they have limited screentime, it requires some thinking to flesh them out. And I love it, honestly. When there's so little canon to work with, there's less chance of screwing up when you flesh out.

Ecks canonically seems to be depicted as someone with a playful streak who can also be deadly serious and efficient. To flesh him out, I draw from some of Chrissy's other more playful characters, such as Goniff from Garrison's Gorillas and Roger Bard from Mannix. I portrayed him as someone more serious in the past (similar to the always-serious Ginger in that respect) who opened up around Wye, and Wye's influence gave him a more humorous/playful approach to life. Wye is likely not always a good influence, but the damage is done. Ecks is still more serious than Wye, and sometimes surprises when he switches to a playful comment.

Ecks was raised in the organization and didn't have a choice about joining, something that embittered him and eventually convinced him to betray the organization when Mr. Zed proposed an alternate plan. Wye joined the organization voluntarily later in life, mostly for his own amusement, and went along with Mr. Zed's betrayal plan pretty much for kicks. He thinks the organization's idealistic ideas of taking over the world and forcing world peace are ridiculous and prefers Mr. Zed's matter-of-fact desire for power.

(Ecks could have alternately joined later, same as Wye, and been a juvenile delinquent before joining, but I decided to make him a little sympathetic by pretty much being forced into the position. Both ideas fit with the canon we have, I think, and I preferred having him be more sympathetic. I also thought being raised in the organization was a more unique and interesting idea. It reminds me a little of Shiho and Akemi from Detective Conan.)

Wye is the wild card of the two, a bit more sadistic and quite capable of taking revenge/tipping off the deep end when pushed too far, as canonically shown by his screentime after finding Ecks stabbed in the park. Hedley Mattingly gave him a Cockney accent, so I play on that and give him a lot more of the British slang that I first started researching when writing for Ginger. Ginger doesn't use as much. I think I determined that while Ginger is likely from the East London area, he may not specifically be Cockney. They say that all Cockneys are East Londoners, but not all East Londoners are Cockneys. Ginger doesn't come across as Cockney to me; he doesn't quite have that Cockney accent.

I portray Wye as having a "laugh at the world and all its stupidity" approach, something he's passed on to Ecks, but Wye is still much more that way than Ecks is. Wye is older and has seen more than Ecks has, although each has experienced heartache and sorrow somewhere alone the line. Wye decided to turn his heartache around and laugh about it. But he draws the line at laughing about what happened to Ecks. That still makes him serious and grim.

Wye and Ecks have a very close relationship, but are not often open about their feelings. Each know the other cares about him. Wye often still thinks of Ecks as a boy; there is a fifteen-year gap between their ages, as corresponding to the actors, but I haven't decided whether their ages are precisely the same as the actors. That would make Ecks 35 and Wye 50. Usually I make the characters several years younger than the actors. I was thinking mainly of dropping the ages by five years, to make Ecks 30 and Wye 45, but I'm not sure. With Ginger and Lou, I left their ages the same as their actors (47 and 41).

I'm not entirely clear on how each thinks of the other in relation to himself. They started as mentor and student, and working partners, and still are, but they progressed beyond just that. Are they like brothers? The age gap isn't enough for it to be father and son. Or are they friends, without really imagining each other to be familial?

I'm actually still not sure how Ginger and Lou think of each other, either, for that matter. It doesn't seem to me that they consider each other as brothers, but more as friends without familial connections. At the same time, they are very insistent that they are family. They have no romantic interest in each other, and even though for most friendships I write it isn't strictly said within the stories that it's that way (albeit it's implied), for Ginger and Lou it's an integral part of their storyline that they are not romantically involved. Ginger identifies as asexual and Lou identifies as straight. Perhaps the best term for their close friendship would be a term that seems to have originated on TV Tropes: platonic life partners. (I really don't care for the term "bromance" and think it looks and sounds really silly.)

Perhaps platonic life partners is the best term for what I'm doing with Ecks and Wye, too. Wye tried marriage, failed (his wife and his best friend ran off together), and doesn't want to try again. Ecks is still open to the idea, but has no immediate plans for it and is content for the time being to just stay bachelors with Wye. Lou is the same way as Ecks in that respect, although he doubts seriously that he will ever marry, unless he finds a girl who will accept Ginger and love him as part of the family. Ginger is not an easy person to get along with, so it seems unlikely. There's always the chance that Lou will find someone, but I would not be documenting that in any of my stories.

I'm toying with an idea where Wye might have known Ginger growing up. They're close to the same age and are likely from the same geographic area. Sometime I may write a fic where Wye and Ecks encounter Ginger and Lou and no one knows what to make of anyone else.

And following along the lines of what I was giggling about in the morning, I also started thinking about the silliness of Chrissy locking Hedley Mattingly in the closet on Mannix. Hedley was playing a fake Scotland Yard inspector in pursuit of Chrissy's Roger Bard. Roger tricked him into going into the closet with reverse psychology and then locked him in. LOL. And then went over to Mannix's place and asked him to turn the guy loose after he had time to get away.

Ecks would never trick Wye into going into a closet, but I started giggling about describing it that way, since the actors are the same. Also, the dialogue after Mannix lets the fake inspector out is priceless.

Mannix: What's going on?
Fake Dustin Rhodes: Obviously I was locked in that closet!
Mannix: How'd it happen?
Fake Dustin Rhodes: Accident. Now if you don't mind, I have urgent business with Roger Bard! **storms out.**

I love how he refuses to admit how he ended up in there. LOL. Of course he would. And I got the giggles imagining Wye ending up in a closet by some other means, and Ecks has to let him out.

One thing is, if I'm going to poke fun at one of them, I'll let the other play straight man. That looks more realistic, and kinder, really. Everyone does some stupid things in life, but if they both did stupid things at once, they would really look like idiots and that isn't my intention even if I want to have a little fun at their expense. So if Wye is clocked by the oar, Ecks will come to help him (and perhaps barely manage to dodge the oar flying at him, too). Same with the closet. But in the haunted house fic, Ecks is the one having strange problems as he's tormented by the ghosts in the house, until he finally has enough and flees out of there screaming and crashes into Wye.

Part of me kind of wants to alter it so Wye is in there with him, but I really wanted to have that exit scene with the crash, which is much funnier if Wye has no idea what's been going on.

I haven't had any time to work on that lately, as I've been busy with my theme set and finishing up that YGO fic (just the epilogue to go, after five years of working on it off and on! Squeeee, I can hardly believe it's really getting done and I've finally managed to tell the story I wanted to so badly!). But hopefully soon now I can get back to the haunted house fic, as I was really having some fun with it.

It's interesting how some dreams can stay with you a long time. I don't have recurring dreams, but I do have recurring themes and locations. One of my happiest dreams I had many years ago, when YGO was still in first-run and I was writing my first batch of stories. I seemed to be at some sort of outdoor book sale, even though it was during the holidays and cold. I was utterly delighted because I found a big hardback book of YGO stories, including one with Duke and Tristan. I believe all the stories were holiday-related, but I'm not quite sure on that.

It seems like the booksale was being held on the sidewalk of our old street, right in front of about the fourth house down from us. There was a big lighted wreath on the front door.

The old neighborhood is one of my recurring themes, as is shopping for things. (Although I think at the time I had that dream, we still lived at the old place.) I remember how much I longed for YGO to have some novelizations or even original stories published, like series such as Pokemon had. YGO never even had coloring and activity books, except for, I think, two small ones, and maybe two regular-sized ones, the latter of which were only available online.

Then other recurring themes seem to involve supernatural or other weird occurrences. Sometimes that means dreams of living in a haunted house. I haven't had one of those in a while, actually. They were creepy as heck, but I kind of miss them. They provided the inspiration for two or three haunted house fics I wrote.

Other types of supernatural dreams are like a weird dream I had today, involving Pony characters. I'm not entirely clear on what the heck was going on, but apparently Shining Armor and ... whom I decided was Twilight Velvet had died suddenly and tragically, yet they were still at the house and functioning as though nothing had happened. Twilight Velvet, in the dream, looked more like Twilight Sparkle, her daughter and my favorite, but it couldn't have been her, because she was the main one observing all of this and being really confused as to how the dead could still be there. Although also confusing was that the other one observing this seemed to be Shining Armor, which it couldn't have been since he was one of the deceased. I guess it must have instead been Twilight Sparkle's father. But it really seemed like it was her brother.

Any way you cut it, though, that is a really bizarre dream. Mix that in with one I had when the scene switched and for once I was in my current bedroom (most dreams have me either in the old house or in one of the huge haunted houses) and trying desperately to catch a random blue bug that had flown into the room. I was glad it wasn't a fly, but I didn't want it in there anyway.

Weird, weird dreams.

I've written most of the next chapter of Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart now, following the one I just posted. I am going to have them going to Germany, because the only plane they could get will stop there first. They'll encounter the heavy bad guy in white there and there'll be some intense chase scenes before they finally get back to the plane and go to Egypt.

I decided that I would go with the concept that my stories of Duke in L.A. have happened and Snakes was a major player in finally finding a way to get David back. Duke vaguely remembers Snakes even with time being rewound and people forgetting the truth of what happened, but he doesn't know why. Snakes likewise remembers the name Duke, but is very displeased and angry when David drags him with them, saying he doesn't trust Snakes not to crack under pressure and reveal where they're going.

Despite not really remembering things, however, Snakes will grow to be protective of Duke, just as he was when they were working together to bring David back. When the time comes that he could leave and go his own way, probably in Germany, he chooses to stay.

I'm considering an idea of him being hurt in the climax while protecting Duke from a booby-trap, since I want some hurt/comfort but feel like it would not be a good idea to make either Duke or David the victim. Duke would be very distraught over Snakes, and I think by that point he would finally remember things a bit more, either because time is unraveling or because Snakes being hurt shocked some memories back. I have a distinctive image of Duke pleading with Snakes to hang on and not to die, and that he didn't want to lose one friend while trying to save another. Duke would call him by his real name, Sam, and say that while David was his Sam during the events of Lead Me Through the Fire (meaning a Sam to Duke's Frodo), Snakes was Sam after David's death. Snakes would smile a bit, say that was the last thing he ever expected to be for someone, and appear to die. Of course he would make it out okay, but I haven't decided whether he just wasn't dead to begin with or if maybe there would be some supernatural event that would bring him back. Not another wish with a price on the amethyst, but maybe time setting itself right again or maybe just a wish in general, not on the amethyst, by Duke or Serenity.

Of course, I plan that even when time sets itself right, David will be allowed to stay alive. Time going back the way it was will mainly just have the effect of everyone remembering everything (unless it also has the effect of allowing Snakes to live). I'm kind of leaning more towards the idea of Snakes living either because he wasn't dead in the first place or because of a wish made without a price, perhaps granted because the Chamber of Sorrows is falling apart.

I'll figure it out more as I get closer to that point. But in any case, if I really go through with being able to write this fic to the end, I'm afraid it will have to be mostly for my own satisfaction; nearly everyone who was reading to begin with has either moved on by now or likely doesn't have the time to pick it up again. Or is reading silently; I get a lot of those.

It would be nice to have the audience that I had back then, but I know that it is not to be, and I've always longed to write this fic to its conclusion, so maybe I can be happy with that.

Woke up looking for tapes for my shows tonight and happened to glance at my YGO DVD set that's the first half of season 1. I plan to get some more of those at some point, but since I do have video copies of every episode in English, I haven't been bending over backwards to hurry and get more.

I was thinking on how I think my favorite arcs are the first two: Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. I liked Noa's arc up to the point where Tristan had his "accident"; as glad as I was that the robot monkey thing was all virtual reality and not real, that was still getting too, too weird for me. I did like Seto's duel with Noa, though.

When they finally got out of the VR world, the Battle Tower wrap-up of Battle City was mostly tedious. Every duel seemed to take forever. Yugi and Seto was six episodes. Seriously? Joey and Yami Marik was four and Yami Yugi and Yami Marik was five. The best thing about the Battle Tower episodes was the Ishtar family squee.

Doom arc I love for the bikers, but it's a really depressing arc, with Mai going bad because Yami Marik emotionally destroyed her during Battle City and so many characters losing their souls. Of course, there was soul loss during Duelist Kingdom too, but aside from Yugi's grandpa, it was for a much shorter time than in Doom arc. Or it seemed like it, anyway ... though I guess Mokuba spent quite a long time soulless. I love any scrap of screentime the bikers have, and Duke had some great scenes too, but I hate wading through all the depressing stuff.

Grand Prix was honestly a really nice break from all the heavy stuff. I love Siegfried and still delight to remember how he beat Weevil and Rex in one move. It was a fun, light-hearted arc, and aside from the awful Vivian, I quite enjoyed it. I didn't realize how much I and the characters needed a break from the dark stuff until Grand Prix came along. And to think I was lukewarm about it at first because it was filler.

The Pharaoh's Memories arc is ... I'm not sure. I like that they put Seto in it; not having him in the manga version of the arc was a terrible omission. But the anime version doesn't have as many of the deep scenes with Thief King Bakura that the manga does. And I have mixed feelings about the very last saga, where Yami Yugi crosses over to the afterlife at long last. It's great to think that he can finally be at rest and that Yugi has matured enough to stand on his own, but it's sad to think of them being separated. And the dub version cuts out the epilogue scene where it shows what most of the characters we've seen throughout the series are up to.

And I thought about Duke some more, too. He and Tristan have some interesting interaction. Tristan always seems worried about Duke if it looks like Duke is hurt or worse. There's some mini hurt/comfort in Noa's arc when Tristan wakes up and finds Duke slumped next to him. And Tristan really seems to freak out and be upset and distraught when Noa encases Duke in stone.

But it's hard for me to get past Tristan not trusting Duke. They weren't allowed to discuss their strategies when they and Serenity were forced to duel against one of the Big Five, and Tristan decided that Duke was just out for himself because his strategy didn't involve protecting Serenity even though that was not helping anything long-term and it was just causing Tristan's lifepoints to whittle down to nothing. The Big Five guy was deliberately targeting Serenity because he was trying to get the guys to protect her and lose the game for all three of them. Duke's strategy was to try to save all of them, not just Serenity, and he knew that if Tristan just let himself lose it wouldn't help any of them, including Serenity. But he couldn't say anything about it and Tristan didn't trust that he had a plan that would be good for everyone. So Tristan kept doing his own thing and did end up losing. Then it was up to Duke alone to win, since Serenity really didn't know how to play the game. (Although if I remember right, she did end up turning out a couple of cool moves.)

It's one thing for friends to argue all the time, if that's just how they show affection, but when they can't even trust each other during life-and-death situations, it's really hard for me to believe that they're really close. I guess that's why the common fangirl ideas of Duke and Tristan as being really close friends (or even lovers) just leaves me cold. Tristan might be upset for Duke to be hurt or killed, but most decent people would be upset by that. If he can't trust Duke, after Duke should have already proven himself an ally, there's something wrong somewhere.

Of course, there is the fact that from the time Tristan and Serenity were saved from Rare Hunters by Duke to the beginning of Noa's arc was, I believe, one 24-hour period. Yes, this show really crams a lot of adventures into one day, just like what happens in a lot of my stories. Tristan and Duke had that fight on the roof in between (and the dub really made Duke sound awful in it, whereas in the Japanese he didn't say anything like that) and their rivalry over Serenity was definitely well-established. Naturally Tristan's distrust of Duke had a lot to do with his crush on Serenity and his feeling that Duke wasn't good for her (and perhaps anime Duke really wouldn't be; I still detest the changes they made to his character for his anime introduction arc). And the short period of time between events didn't allow for Tristan and Duke to really become friends. Tristan's distress over Duke's fate at Noa's hands was not the distress of someone who has lost a dear friend. They didn't know each other well enough for that.

The rest of Noa's arc may have taken place over the course of one day; I'm still unclear how long they were there. Battle Tower was all one day, I think, and then Duke went his own way again. He and Tristan may have been willing to bunk together out of necessity in both Battle City and Doom arcs, but neither arc had them having known each other enough to be doing that because they were close. However, out of all of Yugi's friends, Tristan is probably the one Duke has had the most interaction with and the one he felt most comfortable with. I can't see Duke bunking with Joey, for instance.

Then there's the fact that Yugi and company didn't even tell Duke about things in Pharaoh's Memories arc; Yugi felt guilty and admitted that he had forgotten. Duke said he understood, and he probably did; he was a loner and only came on their adventures if he either invited himself or was dragged into it by the bad guys. But perhaps he was a loner partially because he didn't fully feel like he had been accepted into the circle. Yugi wouldn't forget to tell Joey, Tristan, and Tea, so for Duke to be omitted definitely says that he is not as deeply in the friendship as the original four. And it doesn't help that his business is right across the street from Yugi's house. It seems pretty hard to forget a friend if they're right there.

I'm sure the fault is a bit on both sides; Duke is a loner and maybe Yugi and company think he prefers it that way. Maybe he does, but the fact that he comes right out with Yugi's grandpa as soon as he does find out what's going on suggests that at least part of him does want to be involved. It's a sticky problem, and in my fic Desperado I tried to explore it from both sides.

My YGO fics are mainly divided into two groups. The earlier ones, which I wrote while the show was still airing in first-run, have the whole group as buddy-buddy, including Duke. A couple years after the show finished, I started writing for it again, and reviewing the episodes gave me new perspectives on things, including how Duke sometimes seems excluded from the tight-knit group of the original four. In addition, the manga strongly suggests that Duke is not really part of the group and still doesn't fully grasp the idea of friendship. Those newer fics, up to the present, follow those concepts, especially anime-wise. But he does come to realize the value and reality of friendship, mostly through the store manager character who is obviously pretty close to him judging from their canonical conversation in episode #46.

I'm not sure I can ever un-see those concepts. I always explored the loner-Duke idea to some extent; even when writing the first batch of stories, the song Where Will You Go? was always Duke's image song, and he was quite a loner in the RP with Aubrie. So I guess I've just expanded on those ideas since then.

I feel like re-reading some of those fics and maybe writing some more. I often feel like that and don't really do it, but maybe this time I will.

I kind of wish I could do a Duke RP exploring some more of these ideas, but it would probably need to be a clean-slate RP and not one deeply entwined in canon of its own, so that is unlikely to be able to happen. Once I get an RP going with someone, it very quickly develops canon of its own, which is the case with the one steady RP I currently have going that sometimes involves YGO characters. And its Duke arcs have already covered some of those ideas, as well as the events of my Lead Me Through the Fire and Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart fics.

I miss the days when I had several RPs going at once. But I'm of course grateful to have any RPs still going at all. They are fun times.

So I finally got out of my writing funk, at least enough to work more on the second Mannix fic's chapter. I might be able to get it done today, but now FF.net seems to be down. At least, I can't bring it up, even though someone else can. **headdesk.** I could post the chapter to AO3 in the meantime. Not that anyone even visits the Mannix category there, but still.

And I was selecting a fresh shirt to wear and decided to see if I could still fit into one of the two original YGO shirts I bought on my 16th birthday ... twelve years ago. Good heavens, has it really been that long?

I opted for the electric blue shirt with Yami Yugi. It was always one of my favorites of my YGO shirt collection, and I'm pleased that I can apparently still squeeze into it.

But putting it on certainly brought on a wave of bittersweet nostalgia. I don't wish that it was the past or that I wasn't interested in what I am now, writing-wise, but sometimes I do miss those happy, innocent days of being excited each week to find out what was new on YGO and staying up all night to make sure I'd catch the new episode(s) instead of sleeping through them. I kind of wish that time could be concurrent with the happy parts of the time now.

It was such an exciting time of discovery. Japanese anime was so new to me and I was so excited to discover it wasn't all adult-rated stuff, like I had mistakenly thought due to a brochure from Columbia House. I gobbled up YGO, Sailor Moon, and so many others.

These days, there's really nothing I care to see Saturday mornings, cartoon-wise, except when My Little Pony is running new episodes. The other current American cartoons don't interest me and it seems like there haven't been many noteworthy anime series lately, not like there used to be years ago. The main popular one is one that I'm afraid would just be too gory for me to ever get into. I am anxious to try Sailor Moon Crystal, but I'm skeptical of it at best. I really don't like how the eyes are being drawn. They don't have the same spark of life as the original anime's eyes do.

I was already kind of wanly nostalgic remembering the happy days of discovering new things with beloved people and excitedly sharing and discussing them. Eras come and go so fast. Sometimes it gets lonely, as most everyone moves on to other things and I'm still here, still wanting it to be like it was and sharing things. It reminds me a little bit of that part in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon where most of the Senshi are so busy running around with other things on their minds and Ami/Sailor Mercury is quietly waiting for them to all come back again.

Found this on Tumblr. I like to answer all the questions at once like a Livejournal quiz.


1. My first anime: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.
2. My favorite anime: The same.
3. The first anime character I was obsessed with: Yami Bakura and Ryou Bakura concurrently.
4. My anime OTP: Seto Kaiba/Tea Gardner.
5. An anime I can’t stand: Ultimate Muscle. Ugh, Mr. Cheeks.... I can hardly believe they got away with airing that on broadcast television, for kids.
6. An anime I want to watch: Can't think of one offhand.
7. An anime I never finished: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (still need to see the latter half of SuperS and most of StarS).
8. The most recent anime I finished: Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
9. An anime I never thought of watching but fell in love with: If I never thought of watching it, how did I end up doing so?
10. My favorite genre of Anime: Don't think I have one. I watch stuff from many genres. I like magical girl shows a lot, though.
11. Shonen or Shojo: Depends on the anime.
12. My favorite anime character of all time: Just one?! ... Marik Ishtar, maybe. (YGO)
13. An anime that I introduced to a friend: Princess Tutu.
14. The anime that I am currently watching: None.
15. An anime that never gets old no matter how many times I watch it: Any anime I love.
16. If I own any anime merchandise: Yes! A whole lot, too much to possibly list, especially for YGO. Figures, shirts, DVDs, custom-made plushies.... Also some Sailor Moon dolls. And DVDs of other series I like.
17. Yaoi or Yuri: Neither.
18. If I’ve ever been to an anime convention: No.
19. Who is my favorite anime voice actor: George Newbern.
20. Sub or Dub? It depends on the anime, honestly. For YGO, I can never stop preferring the dub, despite how they removed scenes and changed up some of the dialogue. But for Sailor Moon, the dub makes me cringe and I must watch in Japanese.
21. If I could have any anime character’s hair style, who would it be: I don't know; I like my own hair.
22. Manga or Anime? Anime. Manga moves too fast and is often unnecessarily dark and grotesque and graphic.
25. If any of my friends or family watches anime: Lots of friends do. One of my sisters was trying Sailor Moon, but I don't know how that went. One of my brothers watches and likes YGO. Or he did, anyway. I don't know if he still watches reruns or went on to watch all the spin-offs.
26. If I listen to any anime music: I haven't for a while, but I love anime music.
27. If I’m following any ongoing anime series: I am not.
28. If I’ve ever been to an anime club: No.
29. If I’ve ever cried over an anime: Heck yes.
30. What my last anime wallpaper was: Probably one with the bikers from YGO. Or Siegfried von Schroider. It's been years since I've had an anime wallpaper.

So somehow I stumbled across this little article, which is a nice read: http://www.fm100.com/public/queue/view/5828 And the bit about Paul still having conversations with John is so squeeable! Love it.

Now I have more decisions to make. I have enough spare money for a nice little shopping spree. But since I like to stretch it as much as I can, I wonder whether to spend a certain part of it on one DVD set that has two episodes I want, or whether to spend it on several smaller, Pony-related items.

The DVD set is a nice show, but probably one I wouldn't be interested in if not for those two episodes. But those two episodes have Simon, and if he's the main guest-star and has a lot of screentime, it would be SO WORTH IT. But the set is newly out and I'll have plenty of chances to get it. But Wal-Mart has the best price and they might not have it long. They've been rotating their DVDs more than usual lately (or so it seems to me).

Then I badly want some of the new Pony stuff: the Celestia and Cadance plushies I mentioned, and some of the new figure sets, and also I'm getting awfully intrigued by Sunset Shimmer and want to get that figure. And there's an adorable Christmas ornament of Twilight in a stocking that I really want. Hobby Lobby has their Christmas stuff 50% off, so if they have that one, she surely wouldn't cost too much (unless their ornaments are outrageously expensive, which I doubt).

I still haven't seen the Equestria Girls movie, but I plan to do that soon. I dunno, for some reason, while humans turning into animals is absolutely abhorrent to me, I am kind of fascinated when the reverse happens. Of course, that's the premise behind Princess Tutu, and then there's two Ponies in Equestria Girls who become human (Twilight and Sunset). I'm particularly interested in Sunset's experiences. She seems more spoiled/prideful than outright evil to me, so when ( spoilers! )

Of course, then there are times when I don't like the "animal to human" trope, either. I was trying to do that in one of my YGO mysteries and have Oreo the cat be temporarily human, but I ended up not liking that and had the human just be a manifestation of Oreo's heart, so she had a voice.