insaneladybug: (sephiroth)
Some things the same, some better.

I'm getting paid now by a veteran's organization to take care of Dad. The money helps a lot, both for things needed in the household and fun things. I've had the freedom to buy things I couldn't before, which makes me very happy. One of my most treasured things is the Play Arts Kai Advent Children Sephiroth with wing. He arrived on my birthday last October and I adore him so much.

I finally got a Switch Lite and have plenty of games for it. Best discovery was realizing I could actually play Final Fantasy VII after loving it for so many years. I spent hours reading the game script, I watched countless cutscenes, watched Advent Children over and over, but I never had access to the games to be able to actually play them. Playing it at last and getting to actually experience those beloved characters' story opened story floodgates for me and I've had lots of ideas for both FF and KH stories. I'm also finally able to play Crisis Core, which I also love.

Twilight and Dawn timeline has definitely taken off and I've been writing many stories with Cloud and Sephiroth after they've grown even closer. I feel I should probably insert a few stories to bridge the gap between where the timeline left off and the first recent fic taking place after the other fics that showed them much closer than before, but I don't know. Maybe it looks okay as it is, especially since that recent fic has a crisis in it and said crisis furthered their closeness in it. I love those guys so much.

I overhauled my KH fic timeline after finally looking into Birth By Sleep and deciding it was time to accept it and work with it and that it mostly helped the main things I wanted to have in my timeline, mainly Sephiroth being his own person and actually trying to help Cloud instead of hurt him. My new KH timeline is way better than the old one and also accepts the magical nature of the source material much more. Seph has a much better and happier backstory, especially regarding his wings, and he no longer is bound to Cloud like in the old timeline. He's trying to help completely of his own free will. So much better.

Bought a gaming laptop and am able to run Dissidia NT on it. I play that most every day, always as either FF or KH Seph. It's funny that a fighting game is actually calming and comforting to me, but I think it's mostly because of being able to play as Seph. Smash Ultimate is another comfort game for the same reason, as is my ROM of Dissidia 012. I also have Rebirth and the mod that lets me play as Seph in at least some of it other than just chapter 1. That is delightful. The graphics in that game are so beautiful and I'm always swooning over Seph's gorgeousness in it.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is such a wholesome and adorable game, and useful to try to learn timing in music better. I like getting that out a lot too. My main team of Seph, Cloud, Zack, and Aerith reached Level 99 within a week or two, lol. Of course, it's fast leveling up in that game, but still.

The Eevee colony has expanded exponentially. And Pokemon Center is doing a Year of Eevee event, which of course has contributed to the expansion.

Very upset about Joann closing. I wish someone would step in and save them like someone did for Big Lots. Big Lots isn't even the same unique store it used to be, but there's really nothing that can replace Joann. I'm stocking up for future crafting projects and need to get back there again for more. It still doesn't feel real to lose it.

Party City is gone now too, save for the franchise locations that weren't affected by the bankruptcy (and the Canadian stores owned by other people). I'm glad I did end up getting the Eevee cardboard cutout when they got it back in stock last autumn.
insaneladybug: (lumisandumbra)
Got some survey cash-outs and the concert refund around the same time and ended up going a little berserk with most stores closed and not usually being able to find what I wanted around here anyway. I felt like having some fun online.

eStarland hasn't updated their site and it's left looking like they still have the old Final Fantasy VII figures in stock to buy. I stopped getting them because I got so discouraged when Zack showed up with legs that weren't the same length, but I was craving to get Tifa and Aerith. I fell for it until I looked closer and saw no Add to Cart buttons even though the listings said "ships within 24 hours." When I realized I couldn't get them, I kind of snapped. I started looking up many different things I'd wanted for years on eBay and debated for days on what I wanted most. I ended up deciding it was time to get more 12 inch Star Wars figures and proceeded to buy Luke, Lando, and Han. I also found classic trilogy Obi-Wan on Amazon for the same price as on eBay and bought him with a gift card. Now I'm trying to get Qui-Gon, young Obi-Wan, and Mace Windu. I also would like Boba Fett, of course, but of course he's one of the most expensive ones. I've had a gorgeous Leia for several years, part of Disney's Elite Series. She doesn't quite fit in scale with the guys, but I love her so much I can't quite think of getting another Leia that would fit better.

I'm thrilled with all of the purchases and that definitely calmed me down (although I've been getting restless to buy again and I wish the other Amazon gift card I earned would get here). I suppose my favorite is Lando, though, as I've especially longed to have a figure of him through the years. (I remember wanting to get a small one when I saw it at the antique mall some years back, but I didn't because I wasn't sure Dad had ever forgiven Lando for the betrayal thing and I thought he might complain for me to get him. Didn't know how to get it without him seeing.) They're all amazing, though! Luke especially blows me away. Such gorgeous facial sculpts for everybody!

I did a rewatch of Magic Knight Rayearth. I think after YGO and Sailor Moon, it's the next most special anime to me. I had thought I liked season 2 best because of the character development, and I still love that, but there are still those episodes where the story drags and it's mostly fighting, and season 1 has the most friendship squee. Season 2 mostly focuses on the girls interacting with other characters. So now I think I like season 1 best, lol. And I know CLAMP already extended season 1 compared to the manga, but I wish it had been extended even more. They could have had episodes of the girls traveling to villages and meeting people and having more friendship squee. It was just wonderful and made me want to levitate, hee. The girls have the special kind of friendship like I portray with the Big Five.

I wanted figures or dolls of the girls, but it's almost impossible to get all of them and always has been, so I decided I'd rather make plushies of them. I also still want Lumis and Umbra plushies. I realized fake fur would be good for Umbra's hair, so I'm trying to find some in the right color. It's very difficult, as the same shade will show up looking like multiple shades on eBay and Etsy. I wish I could find it locally, but I don't tend to see exotic fur colors like teal or turquoise in stores.

Still working on Big Five fics. I finally finished the fourth New Orleans fic and it was a 20 chapter mammoth fic. It felt good to do one of those again. I wrote some oneshots about them and about Lumis, Umbra, and Arkana, and now I'm contemplating a Duke hurt/comfort fic. Or maybe he should just get hurt in the next ensemble fic. Vivian Wong and the Paradox Brothers will be returning to find the missing medallion, if I can craft a whole story around that concept.

I also drew some more, but I had to mark a couple as Mature Content because of violence and apparently non-dA members can't see such pictures. http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com

Also, I hate Eclipse (the new dA site, not the supernatural mush book). Can't find my way around at all. I'm enjoying the last little bit of time with the old dA site and I eagerly await the website ArtSpacious, which unhappy dA users are developing.

ElfBean continues to be awesomely amazing. Squeee!

I also eagerly await things opening up again. It's become more normal shopping lately, except for no hand wipes.
insaneladybug: (sailormercury)
I'll try anything once....

http://chng.it/qD46n75NP4

I want my beloved voice actors back....
insaneladybug: (snakes)
So I had a weird dream about Nack the Weasel/Fang the Sniper. He was on some kind of case this weird person had hired him for, but I have no memory now of said case. Except everything kept going wrong and the client was super-aggravating and it ended with him basically bailing out, even if the only way to get away was to mail himself somewhere else while tied up. WTH. And the client commenting on how he was so annoying noisy, when she was the one who had been doing all the pointless talking. Weird, WEIRD dream.

It did make me remember how much I enjoyed the character, at least in the games. I still feel that the comics really played havoc with him. I did like Archie giving him a sister, but otherwise, eh, I didn't like Archie making him an idiot or Fleetway making him a traitor. I hated Archie's version of Triple Trouble so much, I didn't even want to keep it and I sold it to another Nack fan when she wanted it in spite of the portrayal. (Now I have the story again, though, because it was included in a graphic novel compilation with some other stories I wanted.) In the games, he's a jewel hunter (I think), but I don't recall that they even gave much of a description for him beyond that. Yet it seems like there was a sentence or two, at least, so I need to try to dig that up. But he snipes with a toy pop-gun, LOL. Yeah, a real dangerous fella. He's probably fairly harmless, unlike both comic portrayals.

I wrote a lot of stories for him back the day, mostly silly hurt/comfort ones. Then I tried a different approach for a Sonic X story that stalled. I don't think I care much for the latter approach now. Part of me would like someday to try a third approach, different from either of those and probably drawing more on the jewel hunter bit (maybe). And part of me still equates Snakes here with him in some way. (That is, in a positive way, similar to my fleshing out of Snakes, and not the selfish coward we see for a few minutes in canon.) Maybe I'll try to look for that official description from the games, if there is one, and ponder on this.

Then I woke up and found that someone new had Favorited me on FF.net, and they seem to like my FF7 stories. I looked through their Favorites, saw an intriguing one with Sephiroth being hurt when sane and protecting Genesis, and had to open it and start skimming through it. It was so, so good, and Genesis was portrayed a lot like Barney in it, anger-wise, and I remembered why I love sane Sephiroth. I Favorited it, and later I'll need to leave a review on it.

Also, the Turtles fic really took off! I figured out how to do the opening scene, it flowed, and then everything else flowed. I think the first draft is almost done now, save for the ending scenes. And then I'll probably add a little more here and there, as I usually do. I would estimate that it will probably go up early Tuesday, maybe, or later on Tuesday. Mondays are always very busy, so I might not have the chance to properly finish it then. But I might be able to get the first draft done tonight. We'll see.
insaneladybug: (steve)
Apparently I had intended to take this quiz last May, but never got around to it.

Say Hello to Steve Drumm as our icon host today. I think I'm one of his only fans. Poor Steve. He's really an interesting character in his own right.

5 Favorite recurrent characters you love to write about and why in no particular order:
1. Hamilton Burger (Perry Mason). He’s my favorite character from the show. It was his friendship with Perry that made me sit up and take notice to begin with, and this past year I started paying a great deal of attention to him and realized what a wonderful, kind, honest person he is. He deserves more attention in the fandom, which I am more than happy to lavish on him.
2. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII and/or Kingdom Hearts). Sephiroth, when he’s sane, is intriguing, aloof, serious, and a good friend. I’ve picked up writing for him again in To Blossom As the Rose and found that I still have the touch.
3. Duke Devlin (Yu-Gi-Oh!). Duke is a character whose potential is rarely explored by fanfic writers. I detest how the anime murdered his introduction story; it’s so serious and dark in the manga and gives him so much depth. (And there are no cheerleaders!) I like writing for him with his manga backstory inserted in the anime events. It’s kind of sad; the manga-ka gave him such an awesome intro and then kind of forgot about him. He didn’t even develop an interesting sub-plot with Duke and his cynical views in Battle City. The anime, on the other hand, involved Duke in that and other adventures.
4. Lieutenant Schrank (West Side Story). Played by the incomparable Simon Oakland, Schrank is a world-weary policeman who has to put up with and try to stop the local teen gangs. Unlike the characters I generally write, Schrank uses slang and bad grammar, and probably realizes but doesn’t care. He’s another generally overlooked character, one I find fascinating to explore.
5. Yami Bakura/Thief King Bakura (Yu-Gi-Oh!). My first favorite character (not my favorite overall, but literally the first character who became a favorite). It’s a puzzle trying to separate his personality from that of Zorc’s, but I like to try. Things were simpler before we had Zorc to worry about. But Yami Bakura as I wrote him recently is a much darker character because of the Zorc mess. I still like putting him in humorous situations too, as I did years ago.

5 Recurrent characters you hate/don’t care to write about and why in no particular order:
1. Noa Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!). Like Crystal, he’s just never appealed to me. Worse, I’m not sure exactly why. It might go back to my dislike of child villains. Noa’s behavior seems ten times more disturbing because of his age. I’ve heard that the English dub mashed up at least some of the reasons behind what he did, though. I was told that in the original he wanted the others there in his virtual world so he wouldn’t be alone. Although even if it started that way, it seems his goals must have changed later. The way he treated everyone during his duel with Seto was just sadistic.
2. Vivian Wong (Yu-Gi-Oh!). I know she was supposed to be a parody of rabid fangirls, and hence annoying, and boy does she succeed. She is a stalking nightmare. I seethe when she abducts Solomon and deliberately injures his bad back to force Yugi to duel her, and insists on him being her love slave should she win. I shudder every time I see someone who wants her and Duke to pair up. Gosh, what a horrible fate for Duke!
3. Lilie (Princess Tutu). Now she is a sadistic little prick. She is always hoping for Ahiru to be miserable because she looks so cute when she’s miserable and Lilie wants to comfort her. She only showed genuine concern once, in episode 7. It says right on her official profile that what she loves is Ahiru’s failure and what she doesn’t like is Ahiru’s success. She is one messed-up nutcase.
4. Everyone on Gensomaden Saiyuki. Now, let me make it clear, I love them, but I don’t like writing for them. I can get their personalities alright, I think, but I can’t come up with anything decent to write about them. The one thing I tried to write, I didn’t like, and I’m not sure the recipient did either. I never have posted it anywhere.
5. … I can’t really think of anyone, unless I list another cast for a show I just haven’t been able to write for. Or unless I list Mr. Ishtar from Yu-Gi-Oh! He was vicious and cruel to Rishid, and I don’t know if he cared about Marik so much as he cared about just having a son to be an heir.

5 one-shot characters that I enjoyed writing about and why in no particular order.
1. Mignon Germaine (Perry Mason). From season 8’s The Fatal Fetish, she is a good friend of Hamilton’s. Her son works in his office as an assistant D.A. She is an aloof woman who cares deeply about her son and doesn’t want harm to come to him. Her bond with Hamilton is deep and strong and I just adore expanding on it.
2. Tony Ferano (The Monkees). From episode 25, Alias Micky Dolenz, he is the right-hand man of Baby Face Morales, the gangster lookalike of Micky’s. He has a wide range of hilarious expressions as he reacts to various nonsensical situations around him. Usually he is serious and cold, in fact, downright icy. He was a former policeman with Detroit, where he ran various illegal operations.
3. Baby Face Morales (The Monkees). Also from Alias Micky Dolenz. He has a hair-trigger temper and is very dangerous. Alternately, he can actually be oddly philosophical (in my stories). He and Tony have a bond of sorts, but it’s on-again off-again in between warring with each other.
4. Ruby (The Monkees). Yet still from Alias Micky Dolenz, Ruby is Baby Face’s girlfriend. Although seemingly ditzy in the episode, I generally write her as being smarter and more serious. She always worries about Baby Face and the chances he takes. She wishes he would leave crime behind and take her away somewhere to settle down.
5. Captain Caldwell (Perry Mason). From season 4’s The Misguided Missile, Captain Caldwell was an investigator from the inspector general’s office. He was killed by a nut while trying to solve a mystery surrounding the titular object. It was a very unnecessary and tragic death.

And a bonus, “David Tanaka” (Yu-Gi-Oh!). I put his name in quotations because it’s my invention. He doesn’t even have a canonical name. But he talks with Duke in his first episode and seems to be a close friend. In the English dub he’s the manager of Duke’s store.

5 characters I want to write about for future fics:
Would this refer to characters I haven’t ever written for? If so, I’m honestly not sure how to answer that. I think everyone I want to write for I’ve tried at least once.

Your favorite penned fiction and why (there can be two if there is a tie): Probably Lead Me Through the Fire for Yu-Gi-Oh! It developed Duke’s character a great deal, as well as that of the afore-mentioned David. It was very dark, included no magic or supernatural goings-on (well, except for something brief at the very end), and included a death that, try as I might, I haven’t been able to reverse in other fics and fully feel good about. I didn’t want the character dead, but it feels like it was so important that I can’t really change it. That doesn’t mean my sequel will remain unfinished, but it does mean I’m having trouble with it.

Also, The Case of the Broken Ties for Perry Mason. It is Hamilton’s and Paul’s story, as they work in desperation to reverse a spell that has caused everyone else to forget all or part of their memories. It develops Hamilton and Mignon’s friendship as well as the interaction between Hamilton and Paul. It’s amusing; while my favorite YGO fic has nothing supernatural for a generally supernatural series, this story is full of the supernatural for a series that always relied instead on logic.

Your least favorite penned fiction and why (there can be two if there is a tie): Probably Family Ties and Family Secrets, both Yu-Gi-Oh!. My mind was seriously messed up when I wrote those things. I don’t even agree with my portrayal of Mr. Ishtar anymore. I wish I could just remove them both. I only leave them there because people like them and I know how frustrating it is when something disappears that you like.

People’s favorite fiction of yours (by review count and positive postings): Probably still Frantic in Frisco, one of my old Yu-Gi-Oh! mysteries. 288 reviews. Good Heaven. I wish I could duplicate that feat someday.

People’s least favorite fiction of yours (by review count and negative postings): I have no idea.

If you are a member of Fanfiction.Net, how many people have you on their favorites’ list: … 660 (okay, my jaw is dropping now)

If you are a member of Fanfiction.Net, how many people have you on Author Alert: 283

Fanfic Meme

Jan. 1st, 2012 11:27 am
insaneladybug: (andy)
I'm probably going to cross-post this entry to LJ, at least. But I decided I wanted to try out using this journal for something. And play with my icons. This is Andy. (Well, actually, it's not; it's a doctor character Wesley Lau played on The Mod Squad, but I list him as Andy anyway. I can feel like I have a color picture of him.)

Year-End Fanfic Meme

Favorite:
It might be the one I’m working on now: The Case of the Broken Ties, for Perry Mason. It’s a plot concept I’ve been fascinated by for years. I’ve tried variations on it two previous times, for other fandoms. Ironically, both of those fics are unfinished. I don’t intend to let this fic suffer the same fate, however. I have the basic plot mapped out in my mind and some details on the computer. I've very excited to tell the whole story.

Best:
I really have no idea. Maybe the longest fic I’ve written to date, It’s Probably Me, for the Princess Tutu fandom. I worked so hard on it from last November through this past February. There’s still a couple of kinks I need to iron out and haven’t dragged myself to do so yet, but overall I think it’s a well-done piece.

Most underappreciated by the universe:
Everything I’ve written for West Side Story other than Language Barrier.

Most fun to write:
Gosh, I don’t know. Every fic should be fun to write or it isn’t worth it. And I’ve enjoyed each and every one.

Most intense fic:
I don’t know. Maybe It’s Probably Me and The Case of the Memento Mori Murderer. But The Case of the Macabre Mansion turned out very intense too. Those latter two are both Perry Mason.

Saddest fic:
Running on Empty, for West Side Story. Or it would have been, had I not suddenly changed gears two-thirds in and not been able to stop myself.

Perhaps I should list I've Been Standing Too Near, for The Monkees (more or less). It was a fic involving Baby Face Morales and his gang from episode 25, and it had character death. As it stands alone, I don't plan to write any kind of sequel or follow-up to it.

Funniest fic:
… Gosh, did I write any humor fics in the past year? I rarely write humor at all, albeit I can when I feel like it. You know, I think the closest I came was Ross, The Good Samaritan for The Patty Duke Show. And that was more just gentle family-friendly goodness, like the show. There’s nothing that funny.

Fic that shifted my own perception of the characters:
I think every fic I write helps my perception of the characters change at least somewhat. But perhaps especially my West Side Story fics for Schrank and Krupke. The Worth of Souls and Ripples in the Water have been the most effective to that end, I believe.

Hardest to do:
Probably those two fics, as well as maybe Game of Darkness for Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Yu-Gi-Oh!. (Now there's an odd crossover for you.)

Biggest disappointment:
That I changed Running on Empty from its intended bittersweet path. I still wonder if I shouldn’t write the original ending and put it up too.

Biggest surprise:
The immense positive response I got when I tested the plot idea for The Case of the Broken Ties in the Della-Perry Yahoo group. I didn’t think anyone would be that interested, considering the supernatural slant.

Most telling:
… Telling about what? My love for the characters? What certain characters are like? I hope my love for them comes through in every story. And I try to show their true personalities every time, often focusing on aspects people don’t know or think about much.

Now I believe The House of the Setting Sun, for The Monkees, is the most telling that I have a strange mind.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I don’t think I ever try to predict how much I’m going to write.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Just about everything I did this year was something new. I would never have thought I’d be writing fics for Monk, West Side Story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, or Perry Mason. Or that I would be writing an FF7 Western story crossed over with two rare Western movies. And since I had no idea about any of that, I didn’t have any idea about the specific characters I’d be writing for, either.

… You know, Simon Oakland is directly responsible for most of the new things I tried. Because of Kolchak, and realizing how much I liked Simon, I got story ideas for West Side Story and got back into Perry Mason. And without getting back into Perry Mason, that FF7 fic would not be happening.

Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.):
I wonder if that FF7 fic would be considered my biggest writing risk. It’s both a genre most people would never think of using with those characters and has characters from two Western movies most people probably don’t know exist (Smoke Signal and Two-Gun Lady).

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Finish everything I’m currently working on, but especially The Case of the Broken Ties and To Blossom As the Rose (the FF7 fic).

March 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
2324252627 2829
3031     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 11th, 2025 02:46 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios