Awesome!

Well, I decided to contact the girl who created the Team Rocket video and played Meowth, as I figured that was definitely the only right thing to do when I wanted to use the majority of her human catboy Meowth design in a fic and in some drawings. As I hoped, she said yes! I've been tinkering a little more with the fic and I definitely think it will happen. And I already did a couple of experimental drawings yesterday. One of them, at least, I'll probably touch up and post. The main differences with my version are that the ears are to the sides of the hat instead of going through the hat, the charm is now in a ring, he can extend his nails as very dangerous claws, and he still has cat-like eyes. And I'm not sure if I'll keep the R on the tie, as that was a little detail of hers that I might want to leave unique to her version. (Maybe an R lapel pin instead, LOL.) Everything else basically looks like her version.

Of course, the fic will be another installment in the Turtles/Pokemon crossover verse, but this one will fall on the Pokemon side of things and the Turtles characters will be guests, so it will be posted in the Pokemon category. I'm debating whether it will be a oneshot or if I should leave it open as a vignette series, since I want to play around with the idea of human Meowth for a while yet I don't want the mutation to be in other fics. I'm also debating if Krang should try to get Meowth, as James is now worrying he will. If he does, that will go over very badly, LOL. The mutation resulted in much longer, stronger claws. Meowth could probably wreak havoc on the Technodrome if Krang tries to abduct him.

Then I had a weird thought. I wonder why catboys always seem to have blond hair. Of course with Meowth it makes sense since his fur is cream-colored, but then there's Chat Noir from Miraculous Ladybug and Schrodinger from Hellsing.

I've also been pondering on my continuing very bad reaction to the K-Marts in the state closing. For weeks I was even telling myself, "No, it's not gone. It's still there, exactly as I remember it in the good days." Of course, I never actually made myself believe that, but it was just nice as a way of coping. Now I seem to have better settled into acceptance that it's gone and I'm not really telling myself it's there anymore, but I still choose to remember it in a happy way. I'm still not sure why it closing affected me so badly. I guess I just plain loved it more than I even consciously knew.

Revising the old fic

So I'm back to thinking of how I could redo my old Pokemon fic Dead and Alive. I read through it again and pondered.

One thing I would probably want to do is to change what actually happens. The original story has a fire and explosion, and since I just did that in the fic I just finished, it should probably be a different disaster that happens in the old fic. Considering rapids/waterfalls/something else to do with water.

Next problem: James reveals at the end that he tricked and fought off his attacker in the woods and then was pushed off a cliff to the beach below. I would like him to trick his attacker in a redo, but if it's in the water, it might be harder to do.

I guess the story really is more that he's missing rather than positively dead, since there's no body and only a bloodied glove Pikachu finds, but then again, with the explosion they figure he was caught in it and there isn't anything left to find. If I change things to water, I might play up the missing angle more, although still with people considering him dead.

I'm still thinking of each story being self-contained and not referenced in other stories (aside from the crossover ones and the starfish oneshot) because I like to keep having different ways that Ash and company sees Team Rocket showing their goodness and somehow I like it most when such stories are not connected. That way it feels fresh each time. Therefore, this story would not reference the one I just finished, for example. But we'll see.

Still debating the Giovanni problem, as while I don't really think I want him to be trying to kill James, I'm also not sure I want the stickiness of an imposter in there, as that could take some of the focus away from the main problem. Maybe I should just make it some creep in the organization who thinks Giovanni will reward him for getting rid of such incompetence. Instead, Giovanni is furious that the person acted without his permission. (Tentatively thinking of making it two creeps and calling them Bonnie and Clyde. **giggle.**)

My own incompetence with writing different aspects of the Pokemon world, and the Pokemon themselves, would of course be smoothed out, since now I would really know what I was doing, at least well enough to be convincing. The original fic clearly shows my mind was on one thing and one thing only and I had little interest in even keeping basic facts and spellings straight.

Things like Meowth being attacked would be fleshed out, with Jessie absolutely distraught and refusing to lose him too.

James' misadventures, like choosing a disguise and later hiding in an old house, would be fleshed out as well.

I should probably wait a while before posting this fic in any case, but it will take a good long while to write the revision, if I write it, so probably no problem there.

Still thinking

If I change the disaster to water for my Dead and Alive redo, maybe James somehow manages to drag himself out of the water or just ends up washed ashore and then is attacked by Bonnie and Clyde at that point. Then I could still have him trick them when they try to kill him, although I'd also want to change that the method of death is strangling. I haven't done that since learning of how it hurts the throat/neck even if you do survive. Several weeks of wearing a neck brace just for a few seconds of strangling ... no, thank you. Maybe they just try hitting him on the head and he falls down dazed, but fakes being dead when he realizes they think they hit him hard enough to kill him. Of course, then they'd try checking for a pulse and he'd have to get up and try to fight them off, and then he still falls off a cliff to lower ground. They leave him for dead at that point, either that or they have to leave because the ground is crumbling all around. (Or because of some other effect of their flood. I imagine Ash and company will have to try to repair the dam to stop the entire forest from being wrecked.)

Also thinking that the water disaster starts when Bonnie and Clyde deliberately break a dam or something to try to flood the cabin where the trio is staying. So a flood happens and James tries to help Jessie and Meowth, but then goes under and they can't find him and are panicking thinking he's drowned. But instead, yeah, he gets to shore and then that other stuff happens.

In the morning I tried redoing the scene in the climax when Jessie finds James after he's hurt saving her from the Big Bad. That scene didn't end up so different, though, since that was the one where I wanted to keep the dialogue I already had. But other things will be pretty different and/or fleshed out.

And I'm worried that I screwed up my other fic by posting the epilogue without reading through the whole story again first. I read through it so many times while writing and posting other segments, and after writing the epilogue too, so I thought it was okay and I'd addressed everything I needed to in the epilogue, but now I'm worried that maybe I didn't. Bleh.

Heh, how funny that I was worried getting the Pokemon DVDs would plunnie me since I'd casually written for the show in the past, but then decided it probably wouldn't happen. And now it has anyway. I'm still working with the Turtles fics too, but I'm having a bit of trouble concentrating on finishing the one I've been working on. It's actually close to the end, so hopefully I'll be able to get the rest done in between all these Pokemon plunnies. I really want to do a second Christmas Turtles fic and have Santa return and talk to Barney, happy that he's in a better place now. But aside from that, I am worried about the continuation of the series. The other fics on the list aren't really speaking to me and I don't have any other ideas.

A year ago tonight, I was working on my Phantom of the Floxy Redux fic. I went to this awesome Messiah sing-along thing and planned out the hurt/comfort scene while I was there. It was the only time I was really happy during that Christmas season. Every other celebratory thing I tried to do that year seemed to go wrong. I can't attend the sing-along this year, so I hope other things will go right this time.

I still love that old fic. So intense and exciting and fun to write. But wow, have Baxter and Barney come a long way since then. Especially Barney. But Baxter's grown too.

... And wow. I didn't think anybody could make me like the song Christmastime is Here. It sounds so melancholy and sad even though it's really supposed to be peaceful, happy, and nostalgic. It always make me feel melancholy and sad. But I just heard Kurt Bestor make it sound peaceful and nostalgic. (Then it got upbeat and jazzy too.) Finally, a version I like! Now he's doing a calypso O Christmas Tree. Epic.