It's still been mildly driving me nuts whether that very YGO-flavored August 1st I'm remembering was 2002 or 2003. I finally did some Internet searches and turned up a piece about Mattel's YGO offerings at the Toy Fair for 2002. According to it, the first big figures were released that year, so I guess it was August 1st, 2002 after all, even though I didn't think that was enough time counting back from when I discovered YGO. I wish I knew the exact day I did. It must have been earlier in July than I thought, or maybe it was even late June instead. That would have allowed for plenty of time to get obsessed with first the show and then Seto and search high and low for big figures.

I also read that they had planned to release a six inch Pegasus. I'm pretty sure they never did. Searching for one only brought up images of SetsunaKou's custom-made version. I wonder why Mattel never released theirs. I thought Pegasus was a pretty popular character, although I personally was never crazy about him. Had they really released a six inch figure, however, I might have tried to get it.

I also learned that they released a Joey figure from the Capsule Monsters arc, with his casual clothes from it and the ability to add his Red Eyes armor from the episode where the cursed Red Eyes possesses him. Wow, I never saw that figure in stores! I don't know if I would have tried to get it if I had, since I already had a Joey, but that's cool! They also made an actual Capsule Monsters board game. I don't think I ever saw that either. That's a shame. I'm sure I would have tried to get that, because it looked like such a fun game in the show.

I wonder if there are other YGO treasures they made that I don't know about....

On the 2nd we went to an open house. They've been building ten new houses near us and they allowed everyone to tour them before the families moved in. It's a company called Self-Help Homes; I think the deal is that whoever is moving in does a lot of the building themselves. It was mentioned that food would be provided, but not what. I looked up what's usually served at real estate open houses and turned up cake, so that's all I was expecting and wasn't surprised when we got there and found some. We didn't make it in time for the opening ceremonies, though, so it was probably announced there that they'd be serving an actual dinner after the house tours. While we were touring, I saw that getting set up and heard some of the other people talking about that. It was awesome to get dinner, especially after 90 minutes of walking! A hamburger with cheese, a hot dog, all kinds of toppings, Doritos, ice water, and giant chocolate chip cookies! Yuuuum!

The houses were all gorgeous. My favorite ones had huge bathrooms with the toilets off to themselves in nooks. One house even had a giant walk-in closet with a light off the bathroom! It was epic.

The weird thing is, while we were touring I kept having intense Sonic the Hedgehog nostalgia and thinking about getting that Amy Rose plush. Something about the touring or the houses or the time of day or the way the sun was coming in or all of the above was making me remember something Sonic-related, but I couldn't remember what and I still can't. It may have been a memory of around ten years ago when I was on a big Sonic kick in late summer. Or it could be a memory of when I got my first Sonic game set in July 2001, but that was a cloudy day, so I don't think so. In any case, it was very nice but also very strange. Maybe it was a memory of being into Sonic while taking those driving classes years ago, but I don't know what new houses would have to do with that. I don't know what new houses have to do with any of my Sonic memories, honestly. LOL. Maybe being on a Sonic kick and listening to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack on our way to my childhood friend's wedding reception in her big backyard? I don't know. Maybe it's even as simple as the new houses being for families, and that reminding me of when I was a kid and just newly getting enthused with Sonic. It wouldn't explain the specific Amy Rose association, though. Then there's the thought that maybe I was associating the houses with anime, like Sailor Moon, and thinking about those characters' families, and how I got into anime in summer, and thinking of Sonic since it's also a Japanese property and I have many summer memories of Sonic....

I did finally get my gift card and order the Amy plush, and I got the last one. I was worried wondering if there was really one left or if I'd get a message that she wasn't available after all, but she was there and shipped and I got her the day before I needed to cancel the Prime trial, the 11th. She's so cute, and gorgeous, and so soft! Her dress is soft too. It's so hilarious that I would actually end up wanting an Amy plush, but realizing she didn't act out nearly as much as I'd thought really helped, because she was so cute and sweet in the episodes I was watching, and tough when she needed to be (not when she didn't need to be). I also like that sometimes she's kind of a voice of reason; when Knuckles flips out she usually stays logical. (Of course, then sometimes she's illogical herself at other times, heh. But I guess she's a pretty well-rounded character.) I love characters who are voices of reason; that's one reason why I love Gansley so much. (And I love Marc Thompson's voice for him in season 3; I could listen to that for ages. Help, I have a crush on a 60-year-old man (who isn't someone I've watched in stuff at various ages)! How did that even happen? Lol. I keep remembering this Charlie's Angels episode where Sabrina has a crush on a 60-year-old man because she loves his intelligence, and Jill and Kelly keep giggling about it. Of course, I certainly don't like the way Gansley acts with Yugi and Atem in their duel, but what I don't think people tend to realize is that if I write for a character for a long time, sometimes I end up falling in love with the version of them that I'm writing. Gansley is repentant in my post-canon verse, and combining that with his voice and being one of the logical ones of the group, well ... squeee. (And I think his "happy" sprite in Nightmare Troubadour is adorable.) Same thing with Nesbitt, minus him being one of the logical ones, lol. But I really love the way I've developed him in my post-canon verse. It's really those versions I'm crushing on, not what we see in canon where they're displaying such repugnant behavior ... although I do feel sorry for Nesbitt, especially considering his backstory in the original Japanese, and of course I love Gansley's canonical logical behavior trying to look after the others. Team Dad Gansley is adorable both in canon and in my verse, I have to say. Johnson doesn't seem to have any good qualities in canon unless he cares about the others, and Crump is so repulsive with his dirty-minded behavior towards Tea and Serenity in the original Japanese. The dub thankfully removes that, but he's still repulsively sadistic and I really don't have a lot of sympathy for him in either version. I do like the versions of him and Johnson I write for, though. I didn't think anyone except Lector was even deserving of a second chance until I re-watched the episodes enough to pick up nuances and realized that they seemed to care about each other. Then I really wanted to save them all.)

I was worried wondering if they'd even get any more Amy plushies in, as then it was saying "Unavailable. We don't know if or when this item will be back in stock." But I checked again and it said she'd be back in stock this week, so that's good. I have never seen something like this. All of these Sonic plushies are so popular and in demand, and they keep flying off the shelves almost as fast as Amazon can put them back! That should tell Sega that people still want quality Sonic merchandise. It's so hard to find Sonic stuff in stores right now and it's so frustrating. I love that I was able to get a shirt at ShopKo before they closed. I still feel a little sad that I didn't get another one I saw, but I didn't have much money and it was white and long-sleeved. I don't really like white for shirts because it gets dirty so fast, and I only wear long sleeves in public and in cooler weather, so I figured that shirt might not even get much use for a while. It was definitely more practical not to get it, but I still feel a little sad, especially when it's so very hard to find Sonic stuff.

I have to admit, in spite of the silly rivalry with Mario, it seems to me like Mario is clearly the winner in merchandise and almost always has been. There was a time when Sonic figures were around and more interesting than Nintendo figures, though, but that's long past. And there's a book about Mario that's readily available, while The History of Sonic book was never easily obtainable and went out of print before I could save up enough to get it. Sigh. I miss the days when Sonic stuff was easier to get and so plentiful. Even though the non-Boom ban is over, it seems like companies aren't getting back on track very quickly. Boom really ruined the merchandise scene and it's never recovered.

Then I have the problem that I love these Sonic plushies so much that I ... really want the actual Sonic one. The thought of petting a Sonic with minky-like fur just sounds glorious. But I think I'd feel more guilty getting another Sonic plush than I would for almost any other character, because my classic Sonic plush was such a close companion of mine as a kid, probably my favorite Christmas gift ever, and I never really wanted another Sonic plush because I was so happy with him. I know the plush isn't really alive, but it's really hard to think in logical terms like that, especially for someone sentimental like me who kind of wonders if the inner life idea could be true. Plushies and figures and dolls are alive to me, because in Jessie from Toy Story's words, "that's how they [the kids] see you [the toys]." I try to rationalize it by saying I have classic Sonic and why not get modern Sonic; they're different so it's not a betrayal of the classic plush; it would be nice to have a Sonic without felt spikes, etc. We'll see which side of my mind wins out.

The 4th was ... probably about the worst holiday I've ever spent. As a normal day it was okay, but as a holiday it was really lame. Two wonderful things happened, though: I reached the Big Five arc in my game that day and I got to role-play with Crystal. After that, the day went downhill and didn't stop. We didn't do anything as a family to celebrate and I wasn't even able to get a pizza. (I did finally get one next week after the Scottish Festival, though.)

The Festival was fun and we got to see the band The Fire again, which was awesome. I was a little sad they didn't do a full hour concert like they usually do (it was 45 minutes instead), but I guess they were worn-out from the heat. It was so hot, ugh. Although I don't think it was as bad as last year, where it was so stuffy it was hard to even breathe.

I wanted to find a pendant with a purple gem or rock so I could think of the amethyst ring I gave Lector in my fics, but I couldn't find anything like that. The jewelry shop I like so much didn't come this year, for some reason. The new store I liked so much last year was back, though, and they had some raw amethyst samples that were really tempting. But I really wanted something to wear and I didn't have much money, so I ended up not getting one of those.

It has been a really busy month. Most of this past week has been taken up with preparations for my sister getting re-married, and then the wedding was on Friday. Outside. In 97 degree temperatures. GAH. But at least it was at a beautiful place and there was some shade. The reception was pretty awesome. Most receptions around here only do dessert, but they did a meal! Cheese sandwiches and crackers and cheese squares and potato rolls and punch and nuts and M&M's and vegetable trays and gigantic pieces of cake ... ! Paradise! And on the way home I found the My Little Pony Bubbles at Target! This is G1 Bubbles, not G4 Bubbles. This Bubbles is yellow with blue hair, one of the two sitting down Ponies. I've wanted her for a long time. I hope I can find her friend Seashell too, because it would be too sad not to have her BFF. Plus, she's also really pretty, lavender with turquoise hair.

This week may be busy too; I'm desperately hoping we can have fun on our local holiday, especially since the 4th was such a bust as far as doing fun family things to celebrate.

And I finally beat the Nightmare Troubadour game, after many struggles against Yami Marik! I have to admit I oddly enough didn't have too much trouble with the other odd or difficult duels in the game. No one else really seemed to be on Yami Marik's level. I kept getting trounced to the point of utter frustration and aggravation, especially since I thought he was the final barrier keeping me from getting back to the Big Five. Finally some Internet searches brought up some advice and a gameplay video with good strategies I was able to use and I beat him. It was especially hard because I had to defeat him with Obelisk, and he kept destroying my monsters before I could get him on the field, and occasionally when I did get him on the field, Yami Marik did something else to make me lose, like play Ring of Destruction after already whittling down my lifepoints with Lava Golem.

Then when I finally beat Yami Marik, I found I wasn't at level 20 and I had to be at level 20 to see the Big Five again. I was just barely at 19. So there was some frantic dueling to level up, and occasionally a Rare Hunter or Yami Bakura showed up and screwed up my EXP. I love Yami Bakura and any other time I would have been happy to see him, but not when he ruined the EXP I'd got from Seto by causing me to lose before I'd saved again. He showed up a couple of other times and I beat him those times, so then he helped me get EXP. (I don't get any when I lose.)

It's been a delight to play against the Big Five again! I don't like that apparently I can only duel them in a row and have to start over if I lose to any of them, but at least I get to see them again in some way. I don't like that the game made it sound like they're possibly holographic projections, but I'll just insist they're real and this is their new job, lol.

I'm finally wrapping up my multi-chapter fic. I ended up feeling really badly for Pegasus, as through this fic and other ones of mine, he's seen or heard about characters getting second chances and yet he can't have Cecelia back. I don't even like Pegasus that much (mainly because of how flippant he acted about all the horrible things he did, even after he supposedly repented), but I felt like I was slapping him in the face and it just didn't seem fair, like that everyone is allowed back except Cecelia. (Of course, there are other characters who stay dead, but I don't think any case other than Cecelia's involves a loved one so unable to deal with the death as Pegasus is.) So I've set up a situation where Shadi's taking him on a quest that may bring Cecelia back. I was going to end the epilogue with them reuniting, but now I wonder if I should leave things with him on the quest and possibly have the next fic with more of the cast ending up on the quest too and having that be an adventure fic. Maybe it should be the one I've wanted to do for so long with the Big Five having to take Capsule Monsters trials. I'll think about it. That could take focus away from Pegasus, but I'm really not sure I could write a fic with him as a central character. It took me years to finish Until You Find Answers, mainly because I couldn't get into Pegasus's mind and was dreading his chapter so much.

So after a couple more defeats, I ended up beating Gansley. Crump, Johnson, and Nesbitt I all beat with one duel each, despite trying to give them opportunities to beat me (lol). I lost to Lector, meanwhile, so I get to face him again (squeee!).

I still really don't like this real-life Satellite Cannon angle, though. I wonder why the game creators decided to do that. Why not just have it that they want revenge on Seto and then it's only when Gozaburo shows up that he announces he's going to blow up the city?

I decided to go find the first scene from Reshef of Destruction featuring the Big Five on YouTube. They beg Mokuba for a job, and Mokuba finally smirks and hires them to be in the Kaibaman show as their Deckmaster characters and get trounced by Kaibaman. They're all humiliated, and Nesbitt storms off exclaiming he's not going to entertain runts! Someone else calls, "Wait for me!" and chases him, and then another calls, "Don't leave me alone!" and the other two hurry off as well. I wish they would have made individual human sprites for them, as I don't know who's talking or who's being addressed unless names or titles are given. Nesbitt was identified, but no one else. Still, seriously adorable that they all want to stay together!

Then I watched the cute ending bit again where Roland convinces them to help bring hope to the scared kids, and Nesbitt is actually the first to agree, followed by Lector. Aww, you guys! You're just softies at heart! **cuddles them.**

Overall, the two games featuring the Big Five feel like night and day. I actually think Reshef of Destruction is closer to portraying them IC, as I feel like the anime kind of did have them as at least semi-sympathetic, plus, it's very usual for YGO characters to try to repent. I just really have a hard time believing they would condone Gozaburo's plans of hatefully blowing things up, so I don't feel Nightmare Troubadour portrays them quite fairly. At least once you beat the game, things are relaxed and you can just duel them without high stakes (I think?), so they must have settled down by then. I definitely look forward to getting to that point in the game!

... And I feel like writing a fic where Nesbitt comes to himself kneeling on the ground with his kendo rod or some other rod in his hand and Lector laying beaten and hurt next to him, and he can't remember at all what happened, and he's panicked thinking maybe he and Lector were arguing and he lost his temper and started beating Lector down. Of course he didn't, but it would probably be an intense and heartbreaking fic. I have done a couple of similar things with other characters, but each fic is different when different characters are involved, and I'm curious to see what would happen if I used Nesbitt and Lector. Then I'd have to decide whether or not Nesbitt actually gets accused of it. My original thought called for that, but I don't know if I would really feel like doing that to him. The poor guy is going to be devastated enough without the police trying to arrest him, especially since his confidence has taken a serious downward spiral in my fics and he just can't get over having been mind-controlled by Yami Marik and attacking Lector then. Of course, when Lector wakes up he'll be able to tell what happened and that Nesbitt was trying to save him, not hurt him, and then I have to figure out why Nesbitt forgot or blocked everything. Maybe Yami Marik forced the block, hoping that Nesbitt would think he beat Lector.

Side7 is finally back up! I thought maybe it was down for good this time, and I was really dreading having to re-upload so much old stuff to dA in order to keep it online.

I've been playing my YGO Nightmare Troubadour game and loving it, although I'm really impatient to get to the parts I got the game for (the Big 5 and Marik)! And I have to say, as skeptical as I was about playing some OC, there's a definite thrill about walking around town and having all these characters I've loved for so long wanting to talk to me and be friends with me. Tonight I fought Seto for the first time and even knowing it was just an AI, I was nervous and wanted to impress him, lol. Which is pretty much how I'd feel if he were real, alright.

My only real objection is that apparently whoever made the game thought that all players would be male; the OC is called "him" by Yami Yugi at one point. I call foul! But eh, I'll just insist on it being a typo, since there are some weird typos and sentence structure in this game. ("Let's already return"? Seriously?)

I had been considering getting some other games for my 2DS, but I don't know if or when I really will. I was having fun with the Mario Maker and the Sonic games I electronically bought and downloaded, but I really got the 2DS for this specific YGO game and once I had the YGO game, I haven't played anything else on it. I am determined to play this game all the way through and beat it so I can duel whomever I want, whenever I want! Especially if Duel Links never adds Marik or the Big 5! (I really think they might be leading up to Marik, though, especially when Ishizu and Rishid are still getting increased exposure lately, even hosting a new series of cutscenes for some Duel Quizzes. But maybe it's just wishful thinking. Especially since people seem to know ages in advance when new characters are coming and apparently nothing's been said about Marik.)

I've been watching a lot of Sonic X episodes lately, and weirdly enough, in the season 1 episodes and early season 2, I'm actually really liking Amy. She's cute and sweet when she isn't hitting people who don't deserve it, and I wonder if she didn't do that as much as I thought she did. I also wonder why she got so crabby later, as she's usually in a bad mood in season 3. (Although there's certainly plenty of reason to be in a bad mood with so many horrors going on!) And I am amused when she hits someone who does deserve it; her slamming Eggman in his hovercraft into the sky was pretty funny, LOL.

I also finally got my furry Shadow plush! He came last week and I'm just nuts about him. This isn't the Tomy one, but a bigger one I found on Amazon and ended up falling in love with. The fur feels like minky, and really might be, since that's a polyester-based material and he is polyester. Apparently he's a Korean plush. I really might buy the Amy in this line, since it's so incredibly soft and since I'm actually liking Amy in a lot of these episodes. I hope she'll come back; she's disappeared twice now from the shop. I'll have to check again and see if she's back. The downside is, if they keep selling out so fast, I'd have to hurry and get her as soon as possible, and I was hoping my next purchase could be getting those Megaman manga I'm missing. But I kind of don't want to miss out on this plush.

I also finally watched my Full Moon DVD. I was only waiting because I wanted to see it in Japanese and I didn't know if I felt up to reading subs, but I ended up watching it in English anyway. I thought I'd set it to Japanese, but when it started playing in English I just let it go and decided I'd hear the voice cast. Maybe it's because it's been so long, but I actually liked the English voice cast. And I remembered why I loved that series so much. It's just so sweet and pure. I don't know how anyone could watch it and not be happy in most of the episodes (although a few did get really sad and the finale was bittersweet, but so, so beautiful). I feel so sad again that they stopped releasing the DVDs about halfway through. That's why I never bothered to get the DVDs, but I should have got what there was. I'll want them all now. I wonder if the whole series might be on Crunchyroll, at least. I'll have to check.

I definitely liked the anime better than the manga, although the manga had some good things too. But I remember being unimpressed with the manga until volume 3, and then as I mentioned once, I was disturbed by some of the things the manga Meroko was up to (mainly how badly she got on the rocks with Mitsuki in volume 4). She's quite a dark character in the manga, and I like her as cute and perky (and not intent on committing murder!) in the anime. I also really liked the resolution better in the anime, although both had nice elements. I remember not really feeling the Takuto/Mitsuki pairing because they seemed more like brother and sister to me. Not sure what I think now.

I have enough gift card money now to get one of those YGO figures, only I wisely decided to watch the YouTube reviews in more depth prior to deciding which to get. And the end result is ... I'm not sure I want either one of them. Most of the reviews seemed to be fairly glowing, but they also discovered that the figures can come apart. One person got Yugi's arm off completely by accident, and a Yami Yugi figure broke apart in half. .__. Part of me wants to say that the reviewers were just playing too rough in trying to see all the movement points, but I'm still disturbed that such things happened. They should be sturdier than that and not fall apart just because someone is trying to see how well they can move! Also, they're smaller than I thought they were, only around 6 inches, and for me that makes them too much for the price. I still don't have Sailor Pluto because her price doesn't drop (and I haven't been able to snag her on Clearance; ugh, I wish so much I'd gotten her along with Tuxedo Mask and Chibiusa, even though I didn't think I could afford three at once, even on Clearance).

Also, one thing I am highly amused by is that Mattel figured out how to make a Duel Disk that detaches from the arm without taking part of the arm with it and it folds up and snaps together just like the real thing, but these fancy Japanese figures don't have Duel Disks that can do that! I feel like making a video where I review all three Marik figures I have so that I can point that out about the six inch Mattel Marik. I doubt anyone would care, but it just seems like a fun thing to do.

Amazon is finally going to have a Nintendo 2DS for slightly cheaper than Walmart, but it's not in stock yet. I still want to play Nightmare Troubadour and the emulator versions just aren't working, so I've wanted to get the 2DS and find the game and play it that way. But Amazon is notorious for not getting things in stock when they say they will and GameStop is saying the local stores don't have the game. I wanted to buy from them since they make sure to test all the games first. But I don't want to buy on the website and have to pay for shipping, and I'm not even in a position to do that right now (although I might be by the time the thing's in stock). Still, I can't decide whether I really want to drop all my gift cards on the 2DS or have a shopping spree and get several fun things. The 2DS is the one that comes with a Mario game, so I'd have a lot of fun with that, and then I want that YGO game, but I'm already actively playing two mobile games and I don't know that I should add two more. (Plus, I kind of wonder if the screens would be too small for me and I'd get eyestrain. I can't do much on my Smartphone because it's often too small of text. I prefer tablets.)

I did finally get another My Little Pony. I badly wanted Bow Tie because she's such a gorgeous shade of blue, and I found her! Squeee. I really wanted to get at least two Ponies, but I couldn't spare more than the money for one. But that's alright. I can hopefully get another one or two soon. LOL, there are Ponies everywhere in the room. I love it.

I have the second New Orleans fic done in first draft form. I changed the location of the climax to the cemetery from the third floor of the house. I'm amused that most of the story takes place in one location. Sometimes I can't write fics very well that have one major locale, but this one has flowed, possibly because I've drawn heavily from my haunted house dreams to put the house together. I have certainly rebelled against that Nancy Drew parody book that promised "a ghost in the plantation" and then barely spent any time at the plantation.

Evangeline certainly became an important character in the fic, which I hadn't intended on but I suppose it's not a surprise since she's Lector's younger sister and they're staying at her house. She's going through quite an arc of her own, growing more and more embittered at most of the family while Lector just grows more and more sad and weary. I don't think Evangeline's bitterness will resolve for a while, and it may continue for many years, honestly. It's hard to blame her for her anger, considering the father deliberately set Lector up as a target to be potentially killed to turn Dr. Raven's attention away from the rest of the family, and the rest of the family doesn't treat Lector very nice either, despite not liking what the father did. Evangeline started as just a cute, perky character who still idolized their father, and has changed quite a bit.

The next fic I'm planning will probably have some of Gansley's family showing up wanting to reconcile. It may also include problems from Bandit Keith's Rare Hunters and Duel Monsters spilling into the real world again, because I got plunnied for some scenes with Kuriboh mad at Gansley and later feeling sad after Gansley is badly hurt trying to protect Atem. I don't really want to wait on either idea, so they may combine. Also, Lumis and Umbra will duel Lector and Nesbitt and think they have it made when Lector and Nesbitt start arguing about strategy, LOL. Of course, Lector and Nesbitt show that they can pull through and their friendship triumphs over their arguments.

I have Lumis and Umbra in Duel Links now. I'm happy for any new characters in the classic YGO world, but I can't help wondering ... why are we getting such minor characters when so many major ones still aren't here?! Although between Lumis and Umbra becoming unlockable and Rishid having an event right now too (training to get stronger to save Marik), I wonder if there's any chance we'll finally get to have Marik soon. I really hope the game won't pull some dumb thing and say we can't have Marik because then Yami Marik can't be around. Yami Yugi and Yugi are both there, in separate bodies! We can certainly have both Marik and Yami Marik!

Lumis and Umbra are unlockable as part of a new tag team event. I wasn't too impressed with the last tag team event, as it was basically the same as the first one, but this one is really fun again. I am so amused at some of the team-ups, especially Yami Bakura and Bonz! One thing that surprises me, though, is that the classic YGO tournament is the second one instead of the third one. I would think that they'd make players wait until the last tournament to get new characters unlocked. The GX tournament is the last one instead. Its prizes are some new GX cards or something. I haven't even played the GX cup. Since it comes after the classic YGO one, I saw no need to bother since I don't care about GX. Heh. Instead, I've played the classic YGO cup three times. And I read you're allowed to play the cups more than three times, so I might do it again before the events ends.

Oh, and it looks like I never got around to recording that I did get Darkwing unlocked in the Disney Heroes game. Squeee. After I leveled up high enough to unlock a place called the Coliseum, I was able to earn chips to make headway towards unlocking him, and when I got Guild Wars unlocked and won a Guild War, they offered me Darkwing chips as a reward and then I had enough to get him! So awesomely satisfying. I focus most of my attention on leveling him up and he's my strongest character now. Next most important are the Wreck-It Ralph characters. I finally unlocked Calhoun the other day and now I need to get Buzz from Toy Story. He's very hard to get; Darkwing was 30 chips and Buzz is 80, and I only have two. Or there's always the chance I may unlock him by opening a Diamond Crate with him in it. We'll see. I have Woody, who I was totally chuffed to get. I also have Rex. I need Buzz too! And Jessie.

Does anyone use Fire tablets, and type on them? I have the most horrible time typing on mine. I turned off Autocorrect, but I'm still having weird problems. It spaces after opening quotation marks, tries to make new paragraphs start with lower-case letters, and if I type a word wrong and go back to fix the typo, it will split the word in half at the point where I'm fixing it. Does anyone else have this problem? It is absolutely maddening! I did a little research and learned that some people having typing issues with Fires, but the described problems don't sound anything like mine. I wonder if it's a browser problem, but I can't see anything to even change the settings of the Silk browser.

And fic-wise, I've been pondering on what human Duel Monsters the Big Five might be able to portray, like if I ever did a fic where they ended up thrust into the game body and soul (or if I wanted to do some fun drawing exercises, like I did with the bikers years ago). Lector would probably be great as the White Magical Hat, and maybe Nesbitt as Cyber Commander (albeit I would remove the face plate so it wouldn't be covering half his face), but I can't think of anything for the others. Possibly contemplated Johnson playing Chow Len the Prophet.... I did have a cracky idea of Crump possibly put in as a human version of Nightmare Penguin, and his reaction is basically, "Seriously?!" But I'd rather find a human Duel Monster character.

Also keep pondering on doing a story with them in Capsule Monsters, and in the arc there's five trials to test one's intelligence and skills, and it would be interesting if there was a test for each of them in the fic, something specifically tailored to them and their personalities that they would have to pass. Not sure what said tests would be like, though, or what they would test....

Squeeee, I actually got the Marik figure! I had great luck with available surveys on Valued Opinions and quickly earned enough Amazon gift cards to get him entirely with those! The one I wanted was still available, and I wasn't sure if he was new or not because he was listed as Collectible - Very Good, but the description sounded a little like he was new. When he arrived, he was very new! The box was extremely beat-up; the description had mentioned box damage. Of course, I didn't care about that since it was the only one I could get and the figure wasn't damaged. Inside, the tape was all in place and Marik and his accessories were wrapped in plastic. Very new! I'm thrilled.

I should probably get the Yugi figure next, since I don't have a Yugi, but I'm kind of drawn more to the Atem/Yami Yugi one. (Both of these figures move.) I kind of like the design more on Yami Yugi (Yugi's blond hair pieces seem rather flat), plus I'm a little annoyed that Yugi's Duel Disk can't be removed (especially since it's a Dark Side of Dimensions design and I'd rather think of him as anime Yugi instead of manga movie Yugi). But we'll see how I feel.

Dad picked up Sunbeam for me at a Target and she's so gorgeous. I have her and Twilight standing together and they both look so '80's, I love it.

Now I'm fighting with the climatic chapter of my Bendy fic. I needed something that would really set Anime Yami Bakura off, and I figured that would have to be Bakura being harmed. Of course, I also wanted something appropriately horrifying for the game world and IC for an antagonist Yami Bakura to cause. So Bakura and several other characters end up falling into the ink machine and are sacrificed during a fight with Bendy. There are clues in the game that the studio owner was sacrificing people to use their souls to power his living cartoon characters, and I decided Manga Yami Bakura would totally want that twist, even if Bakura being hurt was not planned. Problem is, I couldn't figure out where to go from there. In the morning I actually wrote some stuff where Bakura finds the two Yami Bakuras arguing, and his soul has been put in a Boris the Wolf body, and the other people who fell have had their souls used likewise, while their bodies are placed in coffins that are seen in the real game. But reading everything over now, I'm just not comfortable with the souls being shown in the cartoon character bodies because it's too brain-breaking for me. I already only picked certain characters because I knew absolutely I couldn't handle it happening to particular ones (like any of the Big 5), but it seems I can't handle it happening to any of them. I guess, like a friend of mine puts it, I find it humiliating and undignified for them to be stuck in such a situation. I never thought of things that way until she described how she felt, and then I realized that was how I felt too, rather than just finding certain things brain-breaking for me. So I tried a rewrite where no one knows where the souls are and keeping the coffin scene. But I'm not sure I can do that either, because somehow having their bodies in the coffins troubles me more than the stuff I wrote where Gansley was apparently killed and the others had to leave his body on the floor. I'm still struggling with the personal demons I've carried for almost a year now, and I'm just not sure I can do the coffin thing because of that. Coffins stir up too much pain. But then the other option would be the fallen people becoming ink monsters, which of course I'm also not comfortable with, and I'm just not sure what to do because I don't want to spoil this story due to my own real-life problems and I really did want to fit in the horrifying twist involving the ink machine.... I know eventually I'll figure it out, but right now it's very exasperating.

I think I'm developing a crush on Yami Yugi. I sort of wonder why it never happened before, given his justice-driven slant and his determination to fight for his friends. I'm trying to think of merchandise I have featuring him, and it's funny, even though he's the main character, I don't think I have much compared to some other characters. Of course, he's on a lot of my shirts, and I did get some magnets with him, and some stickers. I still don't have the pin from that set, and I believe I don't have his Hexor. Odd that the Beginner's Set was released with little Yugi instead, although I'm not complaining since Yugi doesn't get a lot of merchandise exposure. Of course, I have big and little Yami Yugi figures. I'm also contemplating making my plushie base into him since I haven't been able to find what I want for Marik. I'm pondering how to do the hair. It would need to be stuffed, I suppose. I have the black portion, but I'm not sure where I'd get the red-violent border.

Dad got a phone upgrade, so I got the old phone and hence, I finally have a Smartphone, lol. Or did I say that already.... I have a Yami Yugi wallpaper on it. He's kneeling on a checkered floor, and the floor reminds me of Sonic. I also have the YGO dub theme as my ringtone. I love it. I always thought one of the most fun things about a Smartphone would be a custom ringtone for something loved.

My Fire tablet keeps showing me ads for this Kingdom Hearts mobile game. At the beginning of the week I thought maybe I'd get it, only I found something far more intriguing in the App Store: Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, with Darkwing Duck as an unlockable and playable character! **starry eyes.** He's hard to get, unfortunately, and WTH, he's not on all servers. Of course, he's not on the one I was assigned to. Luckily, people are allowed to make accounts on other servers, so tonight I got on a server with him and had to start over to unlock him. After several days of playing, I know the ropes better and have advanced on the new account almost to where I am on the original account. It's still going to be hard to get him, though, but I am determined, just like I was about Yami Bakura. It's also really neat that Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope are starter characters in the game. I've been angry at Vanellope because of the second movie, but playing the game has made me feel better about her again. There's a lot of nice, squee friendship in the game.

I have discovered good episodes in the other Monk seasons, to my delight and relief. Apparently all seasons had good and bad episodes. I have also discovered, though, that man, is the Captain immature sometimes. It was just jerkish and mean and childish to keep punching holes in Randy's drink. (Although it was also not a good idea for Randy to keep drinking those giant things while on duty. He should save that for off-duty hours, and since it's not a problem in other episodes, I imagine he decided the same thing.) It was also seriously immature to take off his shoe and run it across the window just to upset Monk (although at least in that case it was understandable for him to be upset since Monk felt the Captain's girlfriend was a murderer and he couldn't take that thought after so much heartbreak already in his life). And then the incident where he crunched up the donut box with the donuts.... Naturally I hated that on more levels than just the immaturity. I love donuts!

I also got reminded that it seems like Charlie's Angels were a little naughtier in the early episodes. They were kind of mean to Bosley in several season 1 episodes, and Jill was laughing while Kelly was obviously in pain from a massage that wasn't at all pleasant. I remember Kelly and Sabrina laughing at Kris for getting sun-burnt in the season 2 premiere, also. But I don't recall that things kept on like that. I imagine somebody complained, maybe saying the Angels weren't very angelic with such behavior. Heh. I'm pretty sure they stopped teasing altogether when someone was obviously miserable, and when they did tease Bosley, it was gentler than in season 1.

Lector's voice actor is on Facebook! I must ponder on what to say to him.

So I found that season 4 of Monk is way better than season 6, although of course there were missteps there too. (Ugh, I'd totally forgotten how much I hate Mr. Monk Goes to the Office.) I think now that season 5 is probably where things really went wrong. Mr. Monk and the Actor was awful. I'd only remembered the hilarity of the movie casting a girl to play Randy, and how the real Randy and the Captain were just staring in slack-jawed disbelief over the movie Randi and Captain being romantically involved. ROTFLOL. And the nutty actor who got way too much into his parts. I'd forgotten that he went so completely nuts that he thought he was Monk and had to catch Trudy's killer, and stopping him caused Monk to have a horrible setback (which of course wasn't mentioned in any other episode). That wasn't funny in the least, but it felt like they were trying to play it as funny because he felt he had to see Dr. Kroger every day. That was heartbreaking, especially since at the beginning he actually felt ready to take a weekend vacation and by the end that was all shot! Ugh, that was just so cruel of the writers. I think it was also in season 5 where Harold and Monk had some dumb argument about who loved Dr. Kroger most, and then at the end Harold takes a bullet for Dr. Kroger and it's coming in at cheesy slow-motion and it was all so ridiculous. **rolls eyes.** Pretty much any time the show does slow-motion, I cringe.

We seem to have exhausted all Netflix discs that Dad and Mom would like to see, so since I don't like ordering discs if I'm the only one who wants to watch, we switched back to Streaming. Unfortunately, it's different than before; there's barely any classic TV anymore. We probably won't be keeping it for very long, so I'll have to soak up what I can of the wonderful kids' shows I want to see. With Streaming, I can definitely watch things that only I want to see.

First I watched a bunch of My Little Pony season 8, which I'd had trouble finding. I still have a little more of it to watch. Then I remembered they have The Real Ghostbusters, and I've been having a ball watching a lot of those. I've also watched some of the Miraculous Ladybug episodes I hadn't seen yet.

It didn't take long to remember about the Carmen Sandiego series, so I gave that a go. I was pretty lukewarm at the idea of reinventing her as a Saint-type character who only steals from the bad guys, but when I actually watched the show, I fell in love with said show. Now it's hard to think of going back to verses where Carmen is a cold-hearted criminal. (She is pretty one-dimensionally bad in World, honestly.) I still have three episodes to go on their very short season, but I love the show, the reinvention, and I want more. My only complaint is that the theme song is boring as heck.

Somehow I wandered into an anime Netflix dubbed called Glitter Force (or Smile PreCure in Japan) and decided to try it. I spotted so many things that were references to Sailor Moon (I assume in a love-letter way), but it was cute and sweet and fun and I've found myself watching quite a lot of it. I also might try to look up the eight episodes they cut for silly reasons (mostly that they couldn't figure out how to localize them, it seems). Honestly, I kind of love that it's localized, though, even with dumb episode removals. It makes me nostalgic, thinking of Saturday morning anime on broadcast channels. I miss those days so very much. Heh, even back then, I would far rather watch a cute magical girls show than something darker and depressing.

Of course, the irony is I am writing dark and depressing things sometimes. Did I mention the twisted abduction fic with Lector being taken by some nut who wants to get back at Gansley for firing him, and the nut then proceeds to send Gansley severed limbs claiming they're Lector's? Of course, they're not. Lector is physically alright, but he's being drugged and probably psychologically tormented. The Big Four, meanwhile, are going out of their minds. Eventually they find Lector safe, naturally. I wrote several scenes weeks ago when the bizarre urge first struck me, and in spite of worrying I'll traumatize whatever fanbase I have left, I have finally written a bare bones first draft of the whole story (minus epilogue stuff). I also want to insert scenes of the Big Four struggling to deal with this and maybe some flashbacks to when they each met Lector. If I really post this fic, I'm wondering if it should be rated M for thematic elements. I also wonder if I should have rated Taming the Darkness M.

Then there's me actually getting interested in an AU scenario that doesn't involve bringing back dead characters, which is a pretty rare thing, honestly. AU normally doesn't interest me in the least. But I started thinking of how Crump and Tea were both being frozen in their duel, and hence, it seemed like when Crump lost, he should have been frozen. Of course, that would have complicated things too much, and it might have seemed too dark for the good guys to leave him like that, but I started wondering what would happen if Noa insisted on enforcing it after Yugi and Tea left. He would probably make Crump freeze while in human form too, so he'd really suffer. Then the others would try to rescue him upon realizing he was missing, and Noa would tell them that if they won the Merger duel, he would free Crump and let them take the kids' bodies. But they lost, and Noa refused, and they tried to free Crump anyway, so he froze all of them as punishment. Then he went to duel Seto, and the duel with Yami Yugi happened too, and while Noa was trying to possess him, Yami Yugi saw the Big Fives' fates in Noa's mind, and why it had happened, and he wanted them free. Noa initially refuses, but when Gozaburo likes what Noa did and then promptly abandons Noa again to go blow up the world, Noa snaps and frees them to spite Gozaburo. And I'll be rewriting some of the last three Noa's Arc episodes. I want Lector to help Mokuba somehow, but I'm not sure how, because of course I still want Noa to possess Mokuba and Mokuba to resist and for that to be what gets Noa to try to save everyone instead of blowing them up. And I want someone to rewrite the program so Tristan will realize he still has his human form, instead of continuing to be tricked into thinking he's a robot monkey. I always hated that twist, and for some time I didn't want to re-watch the arc beyond Nesbitt's duel because of it. I've mellowed enough that I can tolerate it due to wanting to see other things that are going on, but I still don't like it. I had thought Noa or Nesbitt should give Tristan his body back, but maybe it should be Lector, or Lector and Nesbitt together, considering how Lector refused to give back the body after losing the Merger duel. That was probably his lowest moment.

I also got intrigued by the thought of What if Lector had found out that Gozaburo was abusing Seto, and Lector adopted both Seto and Mokuba to keep them safe? I probably wouldn't write that AU, as I kind of have my usual idea of "What's the point? Why should I work with AU when I could work with canon?" But on the other hand, it's so adorable to me that I might have to tinker with it a little bit. It makes me squee all over just thinking about it.

Back in my main timeline, I think I'm going ahead with my idea of Manga Yami Bakura falling into anime verse and putting some of the characters in a life-size Mario game. I'll probably do it as the next big fic after I finish posting the New Orleans one. Just one more full chapter and the epilogue left.

We have awesome movie gift cards given by my aunt and we decided to try seeing Mary Poppins Returns last month. There wasn't anything else in the theatres that sounded safe/like something we could all enjoy. I was lukewarm, since I rarely like musicals and wasn't particularly crazy about the first Mary Poppins film, but I ended up loving it. I keep playing the soundtrack over and over on my Amazon Music trial, and I'll want to buy it once the trial runs out.

I got two more plushies on that outing so I could make Crump and Johnson. I also got the Sabrina doll from Charlie's Angels and a Chachi doll from Happy Days. Squeee! I'm not big on Happy Days, but I love Scott Baio, so Scott Baio merchandise must be mine!

I have the Big Four plushies semi-made by now; I have everything done but their shirts (and suitcoats and ties, if I feel like going all the way making suits). I used the black velvety material I used for Duke's scalp on both Crump and Johnson, and a scrap of leftover black fake fur for Crump's mustache. I gave them clothing scrap ponchos so they can be around, especially since I'm really dragging my feet on the shirts. I really hate sewing anything with sleeves. I have Gansley's shirt largely done, though, so I need to finish it and move on to the next one.

I also finally found a giant ladybug plushie at Walmart again! They only come out for Valentine's, and I haven't seen them in years. We tried so hard to get one the last time they did it, but they sold out within days. This time around, there have always been some there since they first showed up. But I didn't think there'd be money for that, and I didn't have money to spare to buy it, only I woke up Tuesday morning thinking, "What am I thinking? I don't want to pass that up when they finally have them again!" So I went to Walmart to try to get one ... only the only two I could find left were both torn, WTH. I was about to give up when I remembered that I'd seen some getting randomly put where they didn't belong, in some big basket bins and boxes of animals. I started looking through those and finally saw a flash of red in one. To my delight, it was another ladybug, and one that wasn't torn anywhere! I bought it. Then to my further surprise, Dad noticed and suggested that he buy it from me and give it to me on Valentine's Day. LOL. That was great with me, since I really couldn't afford to spend the money.