The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

For the last several weeks, I've known that MoonlightTyger would be coming out here for a day trip to a favorite theme park. I was invited to come with her and her sister and her friend, but wasn't sure until a few days ago that it would work out. And me being me, I stayed skeptical still worrying it wouldn't work out right up to the end and finally allowed myself to get excited the night before.

The rides to and from were very fun. We all have a lot of common interests, so it was neat talking about them and listening to the music they had brought. It took less time driving than I thought it would too, only about an hour instead of closer to ninety minutes! That was great for arrival times, but I was sad when it was time to say Goodbye so soon!

I've honestly never been to a theme park. The closest I've ever come is the state fair a couple of times and some carnivals for various holidays. It was a pretty amazing experience! It was all decked out for Halloween with hanging pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns and pretty lights and silly fake gravestones everywhere. I get motion-sick on almost any rides and sometimes still in the car, so I knew coasters were not a good idea. But my main deal was wanting to go in haunted houses, since due to Dad being a chronic Halloween Grinch, that's also something I've never done. And I kind of hoped I might find something awesome on the midway, since I know licensed character plushies turn up at the games on those.

I saw the licensed character booth on our way in, with Pokemon and Mario characters. I immediately wanted a big Daisy I saw hanging there. Ironically, I don't think I've ever played a game with her, except maybe Mario Party. But I love her personality, and of course I'm tickled her name is Daisy. We decided to do the attractions first.

There were several haunted attractions and I chose a couple that sounded creepy but not uncomfortable. Like one I rejected said it featured the devil. No. So MoonlightTyger and I tried a nice mansion. There was a hallway with those silly, creepy pictures that look normal and change to skeletons or zombies, lol. Then there were various freaky rooms. My favorite was a library with a fireplace and a kitty. At first it looked like a dead end, but MoonlightTyger finally saw the dark hallway to go down. There was eventually a mad scientist and a weird elevator operator. There was some disgusting imagery along the way, but I'd figured long ago there likely would be since a lot of people seem to like making Halloween gory. So I had managed to brace myself for that. It was fun and over all too soon, lol. (Of course, I'm sure MoonlightTyger was relieved it was over!)

I had also wanted to try a haunted ghost town. The website made it sound like it was outside and walking around to different buildings that were haunted, but it was all indoors. It was longer, being a whole town set-up, and to my surprise it was gorier than the regular haunted house. The outlaw ghosts were fun and very plunnying. There were freaky animatronics, like one floating over a cemetery, and something that looked like a scarecrow wielding a scythe. The church had ghosts rocking in the pews. So creepy! I got some nice imagery from both houses to use in fics, and I hope to get on that right away.

We walked around the regular town set-up, which had restored buildings from pioneer days. So cool! I love things like that. There was a church, a house, some cabins, and a main street of businesses. One had a miniature circus and lots of dolls on display. Some super old plushies too. It looked like the images were painted onto a cloth body shaped like the animal. Fascinating!

On the midway, MoonlightTyger and I played Whac-a-Mole. She was amazing at it! I don't know whether I was doing something wrong or if the machines just weren't registering me so well. I was hitting every thing, but it consistently gave me low scores. But since MoonlightTyger was getting a perfect score, we won and she won the Daisy for me! Squeee. Daisy is so soft. I should have brought my Disney tote bag along from my backpack just in case of winning something as I had hoped, but I hadn't been sure it would fit in the smaller red bag I had decided to carry through the park and left it in the backpack instead. So I just carried Daisy in my arms for the rest of the trip.

Throughout all of this, MoonlightTyger's sister and friend wanted to ride a particularly scary coaster twice and go on a water ride. Then we all regrouped and all three were able to go on MoonlightTyger's favorite ride when the lines were short! I knew I didn't dare try a coaster, so I watched their stuff and texted with Crystal for a bit.

To finish, we went in the gift shop and I found a hilariously adorable bookmark and pen set of a gray kitty holding a sword. LOL. I almost freaked when I saw the manufacturer name looked like Kalin, but then I saw it was Kalan. Oh well, still close!

All in all, such a lovely experience! I love meeting dear friends in person and it was so neat to get to do something like this at long last and for it to be so close to my birthday. I'm so happy it all worked out!

With things still upsidedown here, I haven't been sure Dad would even be able to go out and select anything for my birthday, and I certainly didn't want to impose and ask, so I decided the best idea would be for me to get a few things for myself when I was getting groceries and such. I still wanted a nice birthday, and knowing everything I'm getting (aside from friends' gifts) is better than getting nothing. I bought a couple of things a few weeks ago and put them away for that, and I got a bit more this past week. I'm also, of course, hoping to be Radley for Halloween. I've had the most horrible time finding any fake leather jackets in American sizes that I can afford. There were only two real options: one in the right size that said it would ship in 1-2 months and might not even come in time, or one a size smaller than my usual. Of course, I took a gamble on the latter. It came yesterday! It is very soft and I hugged it. It fits if I don't close it, and Radley always wears his open anyway, so that works.

I also learned almost too late that most Disney Stores are closing. My main one was already gone by the time I was told. My uncle managed to take me to the other one last week on the very last day. There was barely anything left, and even less that was of interest to me. I finally got The Rise of Skywalker on Blu-Ray and Digital. I can use the digital code, and this will be more incentive to get a Blu-Ray player. I saw Target's mini Disney Store and was underwhelmed (but at least I heard a beautiful song, You Carried Me With You, on their screen). JCPenney has a better selection of stuff, though, honestly. And they're closer. I came home and signed up for the Disney Store website, but the prices are abominable! $20 for one doll when it used to be $12! They sent me a free shipping coupon and I was having trouble finding anything to use it on. Finally they randomly reduced the price of a Cinderella plushie and I got her. She came yesterday too! So far she's still in the mailer, as I was hoping to save her for my birthday. I might have tried to do that with the jacket too, but I felt I needed to test that immediately since the size was not my usual. (And since I was so excited by that I didn't think I could wait, lol.)

I also ordered some of the YGO 5Ds manga and it came this week too. I'm also trying to save it for my birthday. Volume 4, which is one of the ones I want most, has become mysteriously hard to get. Aurgh! So I thought I should hurry and grab the others I most wanted. 4 may come back in stock for Books a Million on the 4th, so I'll be watching that closely. I may get all nine volumes eventually.

I had a strange but nice dream of shopping in a store and finding Radley-related merchandise. Weirdly, in the dream he was a Frozen character, lol. I woke up before I fully checked out, but at least I was checking out. Many shopping dreams have me unable to complete purchases because of the stuff mysteriously disappearing. The dream felt rather true to life, as with my Halloween shopping, I do rather consider I'm buying Radley merchandise, lol. I got the wig last night with an eBay gift card and I associate the jacket with him so strongly, it felt like he was real and the jacket was an actual connection with him. Yes, I know that's nonsense. No, I don't know why this particular comfort character makes me feel that way, as I haven't for any of the others, even Marik. But there you go.

I saw a lovely top someone was wearing at the park that said "Only God can judge me." I immediately knew I had to draw Radley wearing a jacket that says that. I hope to do that today.

So I finally got Kris, along with the G1 Pony playset, thanks to a second Target gift card. They did immediate shipping! I wish Amazon was that fast. They never are, unless you have Prime.

Kris looks more accurate than Kelly, just as I thought to begin with. I definitely want all the girls, though, even Julie. I honestly don't like her as much, especially compared to the classy Tiffany that she replaced, but maybe I'll like her more over time. I flip back and forth on her, really; I really liked her in Island Angels, but tonight we watched Stuntwomen Angels and I didn't like her slightly crude comments or her cowardly behavior. Although at the same time, I can't blame her for being afraid! I would be terrified to do frightening stunts! But I didn't like her cheating when they drew straws and causing Kelly to have to do the dangerous stunt first.

I could be wrong, but I think Julie is better-liked in the fandom than Tiffany. Maybe because Julie is different from the norm and they like that. But Tiffany is different too, in other ways. Like, she has an interest in the occult and believes in ghosts. I really like that and it would have been fun to have explored that more. I love the Halloween-ish episode with her! It doesn't hurt that she was in the first episode I saw, too, the one with Simon Oakland: Angel's Child, so in some ways I was used to her right off the bat. Some people have said that Tiffany is useless, but she doesn't seem so to me. Of course, I always love things everyone else hates, and in some ways, I think my ideal line-up would have been the season 4 line-up but with Sabrina staying on too, or at least making guest appearances like Jill. I love Tiffany!

The down-side of season 4 is that it's book-ended by two two-part episodes, neither of which particularly appeal to me. It opens with a crossover with The Love Boat, and while I like the main characters of that series, I don't care for the series since it seems like there's often insinuations of the guests getting it on with each other. (But I could be wrong on that happening a lot, since I haven't watched many Love Boats. A mushy series about guests often falling in love, or in infatuation, doesn't appeal much to me. I'd rather see more about the main cast.) Then season 4 ends with an irritating plotline of Kelly and Kris both falling for the same guy and that causing a rift between them. I hate that type of storyline. Although I am morbidly curious to see how bad the rift gets, as I always hope some friends won't let it ruin things completely. Naturally, we'll see all episodes eventually.

Halloween went well, costume-wise, although I didn't get to cosplay in local stores like I like to do. I still wanted to do it badly enough that I did it the following Monday. No one batted an eye. I love how chill this area is. I also love the dinner at the neighborhood Trunk or Treat: chilis and soups. They had a chicken chowder thing and even better, a potato soup! And tons of shredded cheese. So much love. A guy also gave us giant Snickers bars, which was epic. I adore Snickers!

Best Buy sent me a mystery certificate that I had to go in to find out the amount of. It could be anywhere from $5 to $5,000, with several other levels in between. Of course, I knew it was likely it was $5, but I wanted to try anyway, and even $5 would make me happy. Dad was very iffy about going, but finally agreed we could. We also needed to run a couple of errands, so it wasn't just a shopping trip for me to do frivolous, fun things. (And anyway, if it had been a big amount, I probably would have tried to find something to share with the family instead of just something for me. Although I badly want an Apple tablet, especially since I don't think they keep mysteriously gobbling space like Androids seem to....)

It was indeed the $5, and though my original plan was to get screen protectors for the big tablets if that happened, I was unable to do that. Oh dear. I know Best Buy had them back in April. But they have other neat stuff, even toys these days. I've been wanting a Wobbuffet plush that's bigger than the one Walmart has, and Best Buy had one. It's normally $20, but was on sale for $15, and then my certificate meant I only paid $10! I saw other things that looked good too, but my heart was set on Wobbuffet as soon as I saw him and the price. So soft....

I also had another coupon for Build-a-Bear and wanted to see if I could still get Peanut. She's no longer on the website and they're clearancing her out in stores, so I was worried they might not still have her. They actually had just one left! She was also part of a deal on clearance plushies for 2 for $25. Since she's $25 by herself, and would be such if I didn't do the sale, I thought it would be ridiculous not to do it. Why get one plushie for $25 when I could get two for the same price? They had one Halloween cat in the Clearance bin too, and since I'd wanted their pretty, glisteny cat, that was perfect. I also added a sound to one of these plushies for the first time, both to get the purchase up to what I needed to apply the coupon and because it was kitty sounds and it was too adorable to pass up.

I peeked in The Disney Store and they were still running plushie sales, as usual. I think I may ask for Lady for Christmas, to have something to ask for since I'm always puzzling over it. They also had a lot of Wreck-It Ralph figures and plushies because of the sequel coming out next week. I would enjoy having some of those too, but I don't know if I'd ask for any of those because Dad would probably make fun of the movie title and the character designs. I saw the trailer for the sequel as part of my work, of all things, and it looked so fun that I decided I should really see the first one. I'd always thought it looked like something I'd love. I was right, surprisingly, even though there was some bathroom humor I hated. Normally that will turn me off of something then and there. But I was so enchanted by the characters and the friendship and the "bad guy" thinking he was bad even as he was doing good things that I just fell in love with it when I bought it last week. I watched it three times, twice in a 12-hour period. LOL. I think the last time I did that with a film was the third Equestria Girls film. I also feel like it's time for another watch.

I also dropped in at Target with a third Target gift card (I've really been getting some amazing work lately) and remembered this time to get The Monkees' Christmas album. I'm going to listen to that today. I'm thrilled they finally made one, and that they got Davy on there in the form of archive recordings! It wouldn't be right without him. I also got another Pony. They still don't have the third wave yet, but now I have all but one of the second wave and three of the first wave. I hope I'll still be able to get the rest of the first wave, but I suppose I'll be able to; they keep selling out and restocking. People love having G1 Ponies back!

Then it was to Joann's to find material for David's hair. I really haven't wanted to use the same material as Duke's, since David's hair is lighter and that material is such a pain. I couldn't find anything in the exact shade, only lighter or darker. I chose lighter, because the material was amazingly soft. I also got a plushie base for Serenity and discovered that there is no tan or auburn fleece at Joann's. Walmart didn't have any either. I had to settle for something more orangey than planned on, as it was the closest to the right color. I also talked to an employee briefly about My Little Pony (G4), because of my Pony hat. We both have Twilight and Fluttershy as favorite Ponies, and she likes Applejack a lot too. I also like her, although I usually like Rarity as third favorite main Pony. (Overall, my most favorites are Twilight and Sunset, but Sunset I think of more as a human than a Pony, since she chooses to live as a human.)

I've mostly finished the Yami Bakura in Thief King form plush, by the way. I've detailed some of the process at dA, so I don't think I'll do it here too. http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com

During the trip, we heard a radio ad about Papa Murphy's Pizza having XL pizza for $6 on Fridays, so I badly wanted to check it out. Dad agreed and we brought one home. It's more seasoned than a Little Caesar's, but the crust is very thin and I prefer thick crust. Seems like the other Papa Murphy's I had featured thicker crusts. Ah well, I love the pizza regardless, though! Yuum.

I've been in a lingering Halloween mood since the beginning of the month, but Christmas music is finally go on the radio and I'm getting into the Christmas spirit from that and from seeing the lovely Christmas decorations in stores today. There's also a beautiful new store in the mall that has mostly religious paintings! I can hardly wait to take Mom there; she'll be in love with it.

I finished my WWW fic and started on the next YGO one. I needed to further my Big Five storyline, so this one features Lector back in his body and Dr. Portman trying to manipulate him into helping her torment Seto for her latest experiment. But Lector, torn after getting fed-up with revenge plots and having tried to help Mokuba, isn't sure what he wants to do. He's the only one of the Big Five that I felt could be redeemed, so I wanted to try it. I definitely find it intriguing how upset he is about thinking Seto used Mokuba and betrayed Gozaburo. Portman points out that he's hypocritical, since he also betrayed Gozaburo. This is juxtaposed with Yami Bakura wanting to celebrate Halloween and turn the front lawn into a scare fest. LOL. It's my attempt to write something similar to the old mysteries, as I mused about wanting to try doing. The mysteries were quite a mix of humor and dark situations, which this definitely is. I didn't stop to realize, though, that maybe newer readers wouldn't appreciate the humorous tones.... I'm also not sure Dr. Portman is appreciated, since YGO leans more towards fantasy than sci-fi. There are sci-fi elements too, though, especially in the virtual reality arc, so it doesn't seem so out of place to me to have a villain who's more about sci-fi than fantasy.

I had a pretty awesomely weird dream the other day that would be really fun to make into a fic sometime. It was a Wild Wild West dream and had Jim and Arte investigating this saloon/casino place. They found that Lucrece Posey was running it, and that Snakes was serving as her right-hand man. It seemed to be an AU where Snakes and not Ascot Sam was the sole male survivor of the gang, and weirder, where he was the only one who had remained loyal to Miss Posey. When I woke up, I really wanted to do something with it, but AU usually feels so cheap to me and I wanted to figure out if I could make it work in my established canon-compliant timeline. I came up with the thought of a mad scientist, maybe Dr. Faustina, experimenting with brainwashing and amnesia drugs and managing to alter Posey and Snakes' memories so they think something different happened than what did. Jim and Arte stumble into this mess and are utterly baffled. Maybe they are also part of the experiment and Dr. Faustina has made them forget all about time-traveling to the future and Snakes turning over a new leaf, etc., and they only remember their initial encounter with the gang and are stunned by Snakes being alive, not to mention loyal to Miss Posey. Eventually they do remember and have to try to get Posey and Snakes to remember.

I had a lovely birthday. At first we weren't sure if we'd even be able to go out because the weather was supposed to be wonky, but it ended up being fine for most of the time we were out and it was a wonderful outing. I ended up being able to get some of the retro My Little Ponies from Target after all. I asked for a couple, and I received those, and I also bought a couple more. I also got the Kelly figure. Kris, of course, is not out yet. But she is on the website, and I'm seriously considering ordering her there since it could be months before stores get her.

Build-a-Bear once again didn't send a birthday coupon, and this year I'm wondering if they've stopped the birthday coupons in favor of that Count Your Candles thing, which isn't nearly as good since it's only for one specific plush and only benefits the kids. There are lots of adult shoppers too, and they should still be considered. I don't know if I want to call and ask about the coupon this year or not. Last year I got someone who thought I was a moron, sigh. She didn't even seem to know about the birthday coupons. It seemed like a problem for everyone born in October that they hadn't got their coupon and eventually they were sent out in the latter part of the month, and the coupons were good through November to make up for the mess.

Anyway, I didn't miss the coupon too much this year. I do kind of hope I can get another Lalaloopsy before she's gone, but meanwhile I found something actually exciting at The Disney Store. They haven't had a very interesting plushie section for years; it's so streamlined from what it used to be. But they had Oliver and Dodger as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of Oliver and Company, and they were running a plushie sale that made each of them $12. I had to get them both. I'm wondering now if I should have also got Lady, or at least seen whether she was part of the sale too. I was so excited about Dodger and then about Oliver too that I wasn't thinking at the time, but I only have a puppy Lady plush. I've always wanted an adult Lady too. Eh, maybe I'll get to go back soon and check. Anyway, they seem to run plushie sales a lot, interestingly. Most times I've gone, it seems like they're having one.

I also got this awesome Nancy Drew computer game with a haunted mansion and a ghost. It looks like maybe there really is something supernatural going on in addition to the probable fraud. I hope so. It's a really fun game so far. I love puzzle games, especially with mansions and ghosts! There's a cemetery on the grounds too. So creepy! And it's giving me some possible ideas for my YGO Bad End Night fic.

There were other fun things too: a lovely card and a fun blurb with Bakura and Yami Bakura from Crystal, Ladyamberjo sent the movie Coco, and other things from my parents included a card, the My Little Pony movie (the one from last year, not the 1980s one), the 90 Minutes in Heaven movie, a gorgeous autumn leaf necklace, and Roma Downey's Box Of Butterflies book (totally a surprise there, but a thrilling one!). An aunt sent a card plus a couple of DVDs and a couple of books, all romance, which isn't a surprise. I think she's trying to get me interested in romance. Everything looks interesting, though, and one of the DVDs is four Christmas movies, and there can never be too many Christmas movies. I actually saw one of them last year when I was with my friend and she had the Hallmark Channel on in the background. It was a very cheesy movie but kind of cute and sweet, and I actually had kind of wanted it, so I'm excited about that. One of the books also sounds like it has some friendship stuff going on in addition to the romance plot, so I'm anxious to see how that goes.

I really felt like a kid again this year. It was amusing, being surrounded by Ponies and Disney plushies, but it felt so good. For a little while it was kind of like I was ten again, when I was first longing for more Oliver and Company plushies.

I also figured out my Amazon order. It looks like the OS for the cheapest Fire tablet is an older one, based on Android's Lollipop. I'm not sure if Duel Links would even run on an OS that old, at least, not for very long. I think I'll wait on a tablet and maybe I can get a good deal on a more recent one over Black Friday weekend next month. For my order, I'm getting Charlie's Angels, It's a Miracle, and the Secret Agent set. Scrolling through my list of stuff, I suddenly felt like I really wanted to get that. We never did get to see all the episodes because Netflix lost one or two of the discs, and the ones we did see were mostly good. I remember there being very few duds in that series, and I was ecstatic when the boxset came out. I doubted I could ever get it, but I added it to my list anyway. Squee, the set even has all of both series, the thirty-minute one and the hour-long one! So excited to see those again, and to see the ones we missed. (And LOL, the actress who played Miss Posey is in the first episode of the thirty-minute series.)

I also located some good shirts on eBay and bid on one that looks about perfect. With any luck, maybe I can pull off a halfway decent Halloween costume after all.

On Dreamwidth, I'm trying a Kaiba brothers icon. You know, I think it's the first time I've ever used a Seto icon of any sort....

Here's pictures of my two main Marik cosplays, from many years ago. http://cubeupload.com/codes/cad37e

The first two pictures are from the first attempt, a very ghetto cosplay with a blue shirt instead of lavender, but I was ecstatic when I got it for my birthday, both because it was awesome in general and because it was close enough of a color that I figured I could use it for my Marik costume, which was already underway at that point (I'd been planning it since July). You can see the gold foil armbands, which, as mentioned, were very uncomfortable to wear for long. They looked awesome, though! The Millennium Rod was made from a very heavy cardboard cylinder (probably off aluminum foil), a miniature bowling ball, and cardboard shapes, all covered in gold foil and taped together with clear packing tape. The cape was used pretty much only because I wasn't keen on walking around in public in something sleeveless, heh. And behind me you can see my Bakura and Marik commissioned plushies from SetsunaKou. Also, my YGO board game and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit (which I love to play, but rarely do; it's a little embarrassing because I'm so good at it, LOL).

The bottom picture, from the following year, is five together because it used to be on CosplayLab, which has now shut down. Waaah. The accurate lavender hoodie I sewed from a pattern. As I recall, the pattern was for something longer, a sweater or something, and I modified it. (And yes, I used the sewing machine that time, instead of trying to do it by hand.) The middle pictures are from the church Halloween party; the others are of the very small bedroom at the old house. I still have the Balto standee, but I haven't been able to display it ever since we moved. **sniffle.** Of course, clicking on the pictures makes them bigger. I shouldn't have to say that, but it's incredible how many people I've encountered who don't seem to know that.

... Huh, since the bottom picture is labeled 2004, that means the first attempt must have been from 2003. I didn't remember I had both Bakura and Marik that soon; I thought I only commissioned Bakura in the summer! And it takes weeks to get the plushies, although less weeks back then. I don't know; I am seriously confused. Maybe I commissioned Bakura in May and Marik a couple of months later? I will have to think about this.

That blond wig I'm using has got a lot of mileage. I originally bought it to use for my Margaret Houlihan cosplay (yes). I love when I can reuse wigs for other costumes! And I know the wig looks consistently white in the pictures, but I swear it isn't.

I'm amazed at how fast I'm moving along with the Seto plush. Shirt's done and I'm currently hemming the coat. I don't think I'll do any more tonight, but later today I'm hoping to do all the rest, finishing the hemming and sewing the sleeves and attaching them. Then I'll take pictures and display him while I try to figure out how to make the locket. Normally it takes me around a week to get a plushie done. Maybe this shows I've done it enough times by now that it's a swifter task.

The anime and the manga both could have done more with Seto than they did, but in both it really is moving how different he becomes by the end. Especially in the anime, since there you get to see him move past the hate and not just think about it. All of that content is anime-only. The Seto from the first episode could never have been the hero he became in later seasons, or at least, I don't think so. So while he still has a long way to go (and I'll see what I can do about that in my fics), he did come a long way from where he started.

It is sad, though, that the storyline had him get so bad in Battle City at all. In the final episode taking place at Duelist Kingdom, he actually seems peaceful, happy, and respectful. I fully believed he was going to loosen up after that. Instead, he got a thousand times worse than he'd already been! In my old timeline, he is already very relaxed and pleasant with Yugi-tachi in the early stories, albeit still aloof. That was because I believed that was how he would be after Duelist Kingdom. Later on, when I saw he wasn't that way at all, I think I half-unconsciously started changing how I wrote him to match canon more. I remember at least one reader wondering about that. For my new timeline, since it follows canon to the end before branching out, he still has a long way to go. But in Dragons at Dawn, Yugi speculates that Seto does think of them as friends and just can't admit it out loud yet. That was inspired by Ishizu's words to Seto before Atem's duel with Yami Marik. Of course, in any case, I think I've mostly toned down Seto's rudeness to original Japanese version levels. I cringe at how the dub made him sound so much worse than he was on many occasions. When I am displeased at how the dub handled something, I tend to write from the original Japanese version and pretend that the dub mangling didn't happen. But I will always write with the English names, locales, and humor, since that's "my" YGO.

Occasionally the dub actually improves on something. One thing I noticed is that in the original Japanese, Marik doesn't seem to acknowledge how badly he treated Rishid. In the dub, he does. And then there's how the dub tried to give Duke more of a noble reason for going after Yugi then just being whiny about not being able to get his game going because Yugi defeated Pegasus. In the dub, he's upset about that, alright, but what bends him out of shape the most is that he believes Yugi cheated to win. So he wants to expose Yugi as a cheat.

(Of course, then there's the sticky situation that I hear in the original, Yami Yugi can actually will certain cards to come up next, which definitely is cheating. As cheesy as the Heart of the Cards thing is, I far prefer that explanation to what's going on in the original. Although in the case of facing Pegasus, I wouldn't begrudge Yami Yugi willing cards to appear to win....)

And I'd forgotten I have so much of the YGO manga. Most of it I bought from Borders because of their awesome 40% off coupons. I have 30 out of 42 total (including YGO R). And I'm confused that I don't seem to have Duelist #19. I was sure I had that one. I must just be remembering reading some of it in the store. I'm missing 1, 4, and 5 of the first seven, and 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 13, 19, 21, and 22 of Duelist. I have all of R and Millennium World. And the Movie ani-manga. Also, I am still thoroughly grossed-out by all the gratuitous shots of Yami Bakura being eaten by the darkness in Duelist #20. It looks much more gruesome in the manga than in the anime. Of course, it is absolutely horrifying in any case, and I had to look at other parts of the screen a lot while watching those scenes in the episodes, but I see no need to depict it the way the manga did. Give me the anime version any day.

And I still think anime Yami Marik is a way better villain because he's more creative and personalizes his torture. In the manga, he just torments Mai with sickening physical depictions, including one of my most hated tropes. In the anime, he tailors his torture to her insecurities. That was repugnant, but honestly brilliant. In my fic Taming the Darkness, which is of course anime-based despite the manga quote title, he tortures Thief King Bakura along anime-style lines (although he does get manga-style gruesome at some points, as what he tends to torture his victim with are mainly illusions of Ryou Bakura being harmed in all manner of different ways, or him betraying Yami Bakura, and reenactments of the Kul Elna massacre). Taming the Darkness and its predecessor, White is in the Winter Night, are both very important to my current timeline and also the darkest and most disturbing fics I've ever written. Both have a category of Horror, although White is in the Winter Night is mostly psychological horror while Taming the Darkness is a physical/psychological horror mix. Both also develop Bakura and Yami/Thief King Bakura's relationship a great deal, which was certainly necessary when following canon and taking place shortly after it. Yami/Thief King is separate from Zorc at last and trying to figure out who he is, and who Bakura is to him, and Bakura likewise is trying to decide what Yami Bakura means to him, and they get into more than one argument as Bakura finally lets loose with a lot of pent-up feelings from canon.

... Also, manga Bakura seems to either be an idiot or extremely innocently clueless, always wanting the Ring back and not seeming to realize there's any problem with it. I was thinking he remembered there was a problem because of what happened in his manga introduction arc. Maybe I'd better read that one again.

I know I'm down on the manga a lot, but I usually do prefer the TV or movie versions of most things. But I really do respect the manga for being what came first and bringing the characters to life for the first time. And I do prefer Duke's manga intro and some parts of Millennium World in the manga, although I prefer Seto being present for that last arc, as he was in the anime. I'm a little surprised I have so much of the manga since I do prefer the anime, but I think the reason is because I wanted some new YGO following the anime's end and the manga certainly fit that bill in some ways, LOL. Millennium World, as I recall, I happily bought before the dubbed anime version happened ... I think? ("Happily," because I was so eager to see what Yami Bakura was like in ancient Egypt.) Because I remember when the anime version came out and I was disappointed by some things being mostly absent, like Atem and Thief King's intriguingly deep conversations in the early scenes. At least, I think some volumes came out before the English anime version, but it finished up after the anime did. I seem to remember getting some of the volumes at the new house, and we moved when the final season was underway. Then R was the other manga thing I really looked forward to. One of the characters, Pete Coppermine, has occasionally popped up in my fics as Duke's neighbor. I should read R again. As is usual with filler arcs, I loved it.

And I feel somewhat guilty that I've always enjoyed seeing Yami Bakura being villainous, to some extent. Naturally I don't like seeing him hurt people (... usually, although I did like his protectiveness of Bakura against that mean gym teacher in the manga, despite disagreeing with his methods, and I felt his dispatching of the thugs that wanted to kill and rob him in the tavern in ancient Egypt was self-defense), but sometimes I like seeing his schemes and him being smooth and cool, and sometimes I get a kick out of that mad cackle and his sarcastic wit. I know many feel the same way, about him or other villains, but I'm usually not that way. Usually I only like antagonists because of them showing goodness and/or repenting. And I certainly prefer writing Yami Bakura as an antihero rather than a villain. But ... I've always found him a fun and intriguing villain in canon. He was in the first episode I ever saw (The Evil Spirit of the Ring), and I remember hoping it wasn't the only time we'd see him because he was just too interesting. He and Bakura were my first favorite characters and certainly part of what made me so excited about this strange new show. I was hooked from that episode. I've rewatched it so many times, and I even remembered that I watched it in Spanish on my old DVD at least once, just to hear the Spanish voices. And I'd rewatched it so many times in English by then that I think I mostly provided my own subtitles. LOL.

Back to the manga rambles, one thing I've long puzzled over is how to have Duke's manga intro plus the anime thing of mind-controlled Bandit Keith both happen in my verse, since both involved the breaking of the Puzzle and a fire. I tentatively sorted out some of the problem by having Duke's intro involve that creepy Devil's Boardgame go haywire and age the house they're in so it starts collapsing. (Yeah, I'm not going to burn down or collapse Duke's store.) But as for the Puzzle getting broke, I think that still happens in both adventures, unless I alter Keith's escapade so it doesn't happen there. Maybe someday I'll try to actually write Duke's intro as per my verse, which is mostly manga but with the anime inclusions of the store belonging to Duke and not his dad, his store manager "David," and the apology scene. And with my own concept of them being in a house that ends up aging into collapse. And I didn't have his dad turn good, but I still wonder if I should have let that happen. I think I was influenced by a friend who felt he would probably go back to his old ways despite the redemption. For manga verse, honestly, I feel that he did truly turn good. There were glimpses of a good person still there all along and I think that won out. But for my verse, it worked better for him to not turn good and to instead leave off disowning Duke. It gave Duke a lot of issues to work through. Yet I feel guilty about doing it that way, feeling it's not fair to the character of Duke's father. So I continue to waffle about that from time to time and wonder if I should try to redeem him in my verse, either by him coming back after being thought dead or else him coming to Duke as a ghost and wanting forgiveness. (My verse had him die in the collapsing house when he refused to be helped by Duke and Yugi and fell instead.)

I'm rambling again.... I should be working with my fics!

This has been an interesting week. I haven't gotten much written on the WWW fic, but I wrote that creepy Ginger and Lou fic that followed up the Emergency! episode and then felt the urge to write a Pokemon fic based on a role-play with Crystal that we were just wrapping up. The fic is pretty different from the role-play, but both involve a haunted house and James getting possessed by an evil spirit.

It was fun writing for Ginger and Lou again. It felt natural and normal and I easily slipped into it, as I have every time I revisit them after an absence. And it was amusing to see that they're still having the same old trouble with having to fight malevolent ghosties.

I still find it strange how obsessed I became with those characters. Ginger is not the type of character I normally go for, even though he is played by a darling. I found him good-looking but repulsive the first times I saw the episode. But that chemistry I picked up on between him and Lou (or between the actors, whichever) was so fascinating to me that it became the basis for 200 short stories and a couple of multi-chapter fics. And a webcomic. And I still feel like I'm writing for them IC, that if they were to try to go straight and get out of crime, they would probably be similar to how I write them. Except for the openness in their friendship, perhaps, but I have it that that developed from being in prison together. Dang it, I love them and I can't help it.

The Pokemon story was chilling. I love how it turned out, though, and especially I love the climax on the widow's walk of the mansion they're at. I think I'll have to illustrate some of that. I haven't printed it yet, as I was debating whether anything needs to be changed or added and I was waiting on a particular person's opinion of it before I decided that. I will probably also read it over again myself later tonight and see how I feel.

I still don't think I'll write many Pokemon stories, but one thing I was thinking of is that for it, I may feel I need to be episodic. That is, stories not referencing each other. I suppose I figure they all take place in the same verse, but I'm not sure I want to build on each story like I usually do. That could change, but with this series it's complicated, since I really don't want to mess up the status quo, as previously pondered on, yet I can't see myself ever writing a story where Team Rocket doesn't get to be key/awesome. Also the problem that even if I'm only using the canon of the first two seasons and then a few things I liked here and there from other ones, I seem to mess it up. This is a hard series to keep straight.

I also wrote a crack Turtles fic with Clefairy copping all kinds of odd things, LOL. Barney flips out when one takes his car's antenna.

I wasn't planning to do an actual Halloween fic for the Turtles since I'd planned on slice-of-life for it, I wasn't sure I was in a slice-of-life mood, and of course, Halloween's past. But I'm still in a Halloween mood, as evidenced by the fics of the week, and I feel like writing a haunted house fic with Michelangelo and Baxter. That's still not the Halloween fic, though. I'll decide after I write it if I still want to write the Halloween fic. Maybe the clock being set back will put me in more of a Christmas mood. Usually I get Christmassing a few days after Halloween.

Yesterday morning I had a Turtles viewing session and watched some spooky episodes. One was Nightmare in the Lair and I got an idea of Michelangelo and Baxter stuck in Nightmare World. After I slept, though, I wasn't so keen on that idea anymore. But I wanted to do a friendship fic with them, hence the old haunted house concept being retooled to mostly focus on them (even though the others probably will show up looking for them after a while).

One of the Halloween discussions in a recent fic has both Baxter and Barney revealing they're not really into dressing up for Halloween (although they were as kids). I honestly can't picture them being into that, but it probably also plays into this odd hang-up I have where, unless a character I really like shows a canon enjoyment of disguises (i.e., James), I will probably not be able to picture them liking it and/or not want them to like it. I like to see the characters looking like themselves. It's a funny hang-up, but I've always been that way. I remember freaking out as a small child when Dad dressed up with a fake moustache for a Halloween party at his then-place of employment. I did not like seeing him looking different and I flipped and hid until he took the thing off. Of course, I wouldn't act ridiculous like that anymore, but I still have that pesky hang-up and I can't seem to make myself like the idea of Baxter and Barney dressing up.

Of course, the irony to all of this is that I myself adore dressing up. But even though characters can definitely pick up some of my personality traits in the writing, that's one that just doesn't happen.

I did write a Perry Mason fic that heavily involved a masquerade party setting, though. And I had to come up with costumes for those who were attending, which I found slightly uncomfortable albeit interesting and amusing at the same time. As I recall, though, my most favorite characters did not dress up, LOL. They showed up at the party later, not in disguise, because of problems that were happening that they were coming to see about.

Speaking of dressing up, Halloween went very well. As usual, not many at the door and some came while we were at the trunk or treat, sigh. But the trunk or treat was fun and there was food for the adults too! Soups and donuts! I originally planned on having chili, but when I got there and there was potato soup, well, that took priority. Yuuum. I also enjoyed seeing some of the decorations in town, especially one house that set up a whole graveyard thing with creepy creatures in the yard. And I went into Wal-Mart. I always love going into a store in disguise. I'm sad that they just weren't as big for Halloween this year. Not as much merchandise and they were shuttling some of it out the day before Halloween to make room for Christmas aisles. I used to get plunnies for Halloween stories from walking their aisles. It was so magical and creepy. The way they did the Halloween section this year just wasn't very magical. Everything was crammed together on fewer aisles. Sigh.

Also, I kind of wanted a Pokemon hat. They're clearancing some, but the prices were higher than I wanted. This past week they lowered, but the hat I wanted had some bizarre white fuzz stuck all over it. I wasn't sure if it was synthetic or if some animal loose in the store could have mauled it, so I didn't find that very appealing. Sigh. (Yes, sometimes there are animals in there, although when they're not service animals the owners try to hold them or put them in the carts.) And there was only the one copy of that one, at least this week. I think when the prices were higher, there were two copies of it. I'm debating getting a hat with just Pikachu on it instead (the one I wanted had several Gen 1 Pokemon, including Meowth) or if I should try a different Wal-Mart and see if they might have the other hat.

Well, to my relief, things did settle down soon after writing that mega hurt/comfort scenario. For the first time in months, though, I've been working on two fics at once, the latest Turtles one and this Pokemon one, since it insisted on being a story. It's interesting going back and forth between fics again, especially when I enjoy them both.

The previous Turtles one came out alright, but now I'm stalling a bit again because I think the one I'm trying now will be filler until the antagonist shows up to cause trouble, and I have most of that part written already. Maybe I'd better work on that rest of that bit and I can fill in the other filler later.

Then for some reason, while fiddling with the Pokemon one, I started thinking about this person I ran into years ago who hated sacrifice fics, at least with certain characters. I remember her saying that Bass (from Megaman) was far more interesting than to do that with him, or some such. Of course, I certainly don't care for deathfic sacrifices, but stories where they do survive (or come back to life later, heh) I adore. It sounded like her arguments against them weren't really about killing him off, but it was so long ago that I don't recall the details.

Anyway, so then I started worrying about the Pokemon story and wondering if I should really have the scenario I wanted where James has to be heroic and nearly dies, since maybe there'd be some Pokemon readers who hate such scenarios too. But there have been canon occasions where Team Rocket has done that (second movie especially), so it wouldn't be OOC for them. Then I worried if it should just be James in the fic or if it should be all of them, like in the second movie, but I specifically wanted it to just be James. And I had assorted other worries, like whether Rocketshippers would get bent out of shape for James to do that and leave Jessie (although the reason he gave was because he wanted to keep the world safe for Jessie and Meowth, and he was pretty much forced into a situation where he had to do it or there wouldn't be any hope). And then of course he does come out of it alive, even though there's a big scare at first.

(Then I also worry if Rocketshippers will be mad that I'm not Rocketshipping, even though I do of course portray them as being very close.)

Eh, I don't know. I like how it's been coming out, though, and I would like to post it. This one I may wait until it's all done to post. I rarely do that if it will be in multiple parts, but right now I'm not fully sure how long it will be, so I don't know what kind of chapter breaks it will have. It was originally going to be a long oneshot, but I decided it needs to be at least several segments.

Then I wonder about ages too. I thought they were in their late teens years ago and some fans seemed to have that as a thing, but others felt they were adults. I'm not sure canon has ever said one way or the other, but I know that at least in the early seasons, they come across more as teens to me. They've certainly seen more than a lot of adults have, yet at the same time there's a definite immaturity to them. (Plus, James looks like a teen in how he's drawn.) And of course, sadly, there are a lot of adults who act immature. But I prefer seeing them as teens and am still writing them as such. Especially since I'm sticking with old-school Pokemon.

I'm honestly bothered by a lot of the canon that comes later. Even in episodes where James gets good development, like the one with his grandparents, Jessie and Meowth don't fully seem IC. One would hope that they would respect James enough not to steal from his grandparents when he repeatedly pleaded with them not to. And then I saw some of the one where the team splits up, specifically the scene where Jessie tells James to go home to Jessiebelle in spite of knowing how abusive she is and then just twirls off and leaves him in the middle of nowhere to do her Pokemon Coordinator stuff. I'm all for them leaving Team Rocket, but they should leave together. Jessie didn't even ask him to come with her. She just seemed to not want to be with him anymore. It all felt so very off. I thought I must be watching a nightmare or something at first, because it didn't ring true. I do like that when James flips and tries to catch a rare Pokemon in the hopes that she and Meowth will come back, Jessie does come running as soon as she learns that everyone who's tangled with the Pokemon has vanished.

So anyway, things seem to go up and down like that. Add to that the confusion of many years of canon and regions and types of Pokemon that I know next to nothing about. I think I prefer sticking with old-school Pokemon and I imagine all of my fics will too. I like the simplicity of when there was a core cast that didn't keep changing.

I doubt I'll ever write much for the series. One hiccup is that while I want them to leave Team Rocket, it would probably change the status quo too much. I'd want them to always be around, and how would that happen if they weren't following Ash? Of course, I guess it could be like the movies and they keep ending up in the same place by accident. Or they could be shadowing Ash to protect him from other Team Rocket members, but that's pretty unlikely, especially since Ash manages fine. Anyway, since I'm worried about the status quo and yet at the same time must keep developing characters in stories to be happy, I don't think I'd be able to sort out my problems and write very much with them.

In any case, one interesting thing is that years ago, I was pretty much only interested in the series for them (even though I did enjoy certain Pokemon creatures). This time around, I seem to be absorbing more of the culture as a whole and find the Pokemon themselves utterly fascinating and magical.

I also drew a picture of Barney meeting a Clefairy. I am highly amused.

Still don't know what the deal is on the payment/credits for the book fair, so I'm undecided on what book to drop if I figure I can't get them all. I did decide they were worth enough to me to take the extra shifts, however, so on Thursday I should be able to find out for sure what the deal is with the money, if my friend doesn't learn tomorrow on one of her shifts---the only one of hers we won't be sharing. Too early when Mondays are usually busy. And Tuesday is the only day I won't be doing something this week, so the breather is nice.

I always get nervous when debuting a new costume. Hopefully it will go over well on Wednesday at the party for the girls at church. And it looks like I'm probably going to a Halloween dance, as my friend was interested when I told her about it and I'll go if she goes. It's big band and masquerade, so those things are certainly appealing. We both just want to go and have a fun time rather than looking for romance with guys there.

I've been missing Fred Meyer's ever since we moved down here. When I heard they had built one about ten minutes away, I was thrilled. I finally saw it yesterday, however, and now I'm not so thrilled. It was more like a big Smith's with a clothing shop in the middle of it. The toy department was kind of pathetic. Instead of being more like ShopKo or K-Mart, it felt like the old grocery store toy sections. Although, granted, they did have more toys than a typical grocery store, but not as much as Fred Meyer's used to have. And the prices are horrible. $17-something for a Fashion Style Pony?! That's even worse than Walgreen's price! But at least I saw some new Pony merchandise I hadn't seen before, so that was fun to look at.

Now, Smith's bought Fred Meyer's years ago and converted them to Smith's Marketplace, it's true. But the ones where we used to live were still Fred Meyer's. Only the name had changed. I guess if they build them from the ground up, they make them more like Smith's. Now I'm wondering what the ones in the old area are like, if they're still Fred Meyer's inside or if they've all been remodeled and have less merchandise, like Smith's.

I was there in the first place not just to see what it was like, but as part of my search for Halloween costume pieces. I didn't have any luck there. Whereas Fred Meyer's in the old area had a big costume section, this one was dinky and not much better than a regular Smith's. And they had inflatable graves like like year, only these had dumb epitaphs that weren't even creepy. They said dumb things like, "I liked bacon" and "Dead Fred." Compare that to last year's, which had corny but creepy things like "I'll be back" and "Rest in pieces."

I also looked at the Wal-Mart in that town. They had a wonderful selection of stuff, but not what I wanted. I am especially baffled at the lack of lab coats. Mad scientists are a Halloween staple! There's never been a year when I didn't see lab coats. Surely they're still coming. I'm more worried about the wig problem. I may end up having to get that one that looks like season 1 Baxter's hairstyle, even though I really don't want to.

ShopKo was horrible. I thought maybe if I looked early in the season, they'd have more stuff. Their costume section was just as pathetic as the last couple of years. Barely any costumes and only a handful of wigs way too expensive for just Halloween usage. It's sad. I remember when their Halloween section was epic. It was one of the best ones that I looked forward to seeing the most.

At least the trip wasn't a total loss. I finally found a nice birthday present for a friend and can at last mail her birthday (and Christmas!) stuff. And I saw two Baxters in the figure department. Honestly, all the Wal-Marts except ours are ordering more than one set of the Mutagen Canisters now. I don't know why ours always has to be so insistent on just one at a time. Ugh.

It was a beautiful overcast day and fell like Fall, and the sight of the Baxters gave me a special sense of nostalgia, both of when I found mine early this year and shopping times years ago when I found YGO merchandise. The feeling only lasted for a minute, as I was walking outside in the gloriously cloudy day, but it was nice. I miss when YGO was in first-run and I found something neat pretty much every time I was out. And discovering figures of favorite characters was always the best part. Or shirts.

And I did end up ordering the Indigo Pokemon DVD set. I kept wanting it really badly and felt like I was just torturing myself by waiting, so I ordered it early Thursday morning. As usual, I immediately waffled over whether I'd made the right decision, especially when I saw eBay had it for a few dollars less. Problem is, for me it wouldn't really be less since I'd have to pay entirely in cash on eBay. On Amazon, most of it is paid with the gift card. After I'd slept, I felt at peace and that I'd made the right decision and got what I really wanted. It hasn't shipped yet. It will probably show up next week sometime, either two weeks before my birthday or less than that. And I probably will try to save it for opening on my birthday, as planned, since I likely wouldn't be doing another Amazon order to be the birthday order.

I'm still working with that Turtles fic that was giving me trouble, and it still is giving me trouble. I have, thankfully, been able to get more scenes into it, though. But it's moving very slowly and my attention is still wandering. I'm anxious to do the class reunion story after this one. I already had ideas, and maybe yesterday did give me a little more inspiration too.

Now that I'm more awake than when I wrote the long post in the morning, I find I'm feeling more disappointed and sad about the shortness and understatedness of the class reunion. It seemed like so much work for such a little event. The dinner was wonderful, but like I said, it seemed like there wasn't much more than that and it seemed like it should have been a bigger affair when it was the last official reunion. Heck, the first time I went, they even had a bit with door prizes and stuff and we won a nice hardback novel by a popular local author! And then last year's fifties mini-concert.... This year there was a cute song written to celebrate, and one guy gave a nice speech and the class song was sung, and that was pretty much it besides the dinner. It's weird when milestone events aren't as big as previous ones. This was the last official reunion and there wasn't much to it. Same with the Scottish Festival when they did their 25th Anniversary celebration. It was so lackluster compared to the previous year. But eh, maybe when everybody's getting on so much by now, they were happy for a more low-key reunion.

Still kind of wanting that snow cane maker. Maybe I should see if Wal-Mart carries it and how much they charge. I wonder if they might clearance it as part of summer clearancing, if they have it at all. And I'll stay alert for any possible reason to get to the local K-Mart this week, both for the snow cane maker and also just because, well, I'd still like to say another Goodbye. Especially after seeing the disaster that was the other K-Mart. I don't really want that to be my last memory of the store. Mom's longing to get out somewhere, especially since she wasn't able to go on Saturday. Maybe Dad would be willing to take us to that town this coming week. It's not very far at all.

I also discovered that there is some distressing/holes in the Turtles shirt I got, but only on Leonardo. That makes me wonder if it's not supposed to be there and it's a damaged shirt. I tried so hard to find a good one. One had weird stains of something on it, which I immediately put back, and when I found the one I got I thought it was fine. I didn't realize I needed to check to make sure the picture wasn't damaged. I can't find it on F.Y.E.'s website to see what it looks like there and I wouldn't know how to find it anywhere else. There's just so many Turtles shirts out there. I have no idea when we might be able to go to the little F.Y.E. that's closer or if they'd even have the shirt, so maybe I should just say "Screw it" and start wearing it. It's not a lot of distressing, but if it's not supposed to be there then I wonder how durable the whole picture is. I really hate raised-up designs, since they can peel and flake and everything. The best kind is when it's imprinted right into the shirt's threads. The America shirt is like that, and some of my custom-made classic TV shirts.

I hope I won't regret that I didn't walk down the sidewalk from F.Y.E. and see if the Spirit Halloween store was open. Usually Halloween stores close at 8, so I figured it wasn't open, but there were lights and something was flashing in the window that could have been an Open sign. I was worried about taking a lot of time shopping, since I knew Dad wanted to get home and Mom would be worried, but also, I figured I should really check Wal-Mart's costume selection first, since a Halloween store would be more expensive. Wal-Mart should start getting Halloween stuff in within a week.

You know, it probably looks seriously shallow that when I discovered a complete series set of Charlie's Angels for $31 (MILL CREEK IS AWESOME), my response was immediate and enthusiastic and I was much more ready to jump in and buy that rather than to pay $24 for season 2 of The Virginian. But it makes sense with my current mindset of preferring fluff and squee. The Virginian is of course the deeper series, but Charlie's Angels doesn't have as many depressing episodes. And I love the friendships between the girls. And I enjoy David Doyle in a Simon Oakland-ish type of way. It's really not a bad series, if one enjoys 1970s cheese and fluff and friendship and detective shows and generally happy endings. There's a lot of worse things one could be watching.

But I was still concerned to think of dropping that much money right now, as I want to be sure to have enough to buy the live-action Beauty and the Beast when it comes out next week, so I didn't buy that either. I have it added to my Wish List, though, for the future. And I looked up Miraculous Ladybug and found that volume 4 was released last month, oy. I've been looking for it at Wal-Mart for weeks and haven't seen it, and it was cheaper on Amazon than Wal-Mart would have charged, so last night I bought that. I still have this coming week before the Prime trial expires, so if I want to go for one more small purchase, I still can.

Among the things I'm considering (I would only pick one of them):

- The Wild Wild West season 4, because my recorded copies from MeTV are probably chopped up for commercial time

- The Rockford Files season 1

- A manga I need to replace

- A couple of Nancy Drew books, as the prices for some are really good right now ($3.99 to $5.99, compared to the usual $8.99 they charge for the hardbacks these days!)

Fanfiction-wise, I'm almost done with what was probably my first Turtles-related idea, a crossover with the 87 series and the Platinum Dunes movies. I hope people will give it a chance and not throw things at me for the crossover. I was hoping I could fit Napoleon and Illya into it, as I need to write something U.N.C.L.E.-related for a birthday gift for someone, but I don't think they're going to fit and it would just look shoehorned in if I tried. So ... I'll probably have to go back to Plan A and just write a non-connected blurb.... And it will probably still be a Turtles crossover, because the plunnies just ain't biting. Good thing she likes the Turtles too....

I've also been thinking about those other plushies I bought at Jo-Ann's last year. I got them for specific characters (Coley and Snakes, I believe), because each one is handmade and looks different, so you have to look them all over and pick with specific body and head shapes in mind, but I kept changing my mind on what I wanted to do with them. I also considered Jim and Arte or even trying to make April. Making am adult female character with one of these dolls would be ... interesting. They're really better suited to making either children or adult males. But yeah, so that was another thought. Also considered making Barney, but then I'd want to make Vincent, and that would have to be from scratch, since he's a computer with a body and he's blue.... Also considered this week making the characters from The Persuaders! in memory of Roger Moore. So overall, still very conflicted. That wasn't ever really the reason why I didn't make the plushies before, though. It was because I couldn't seem to draw Coley. And because making Baxter was exhausting and I wanted a break. And then I felt I didn't need to make any other plushies right then because I was satisfied with Baxter. And still am, really. But I feel bad for those two, waiting to be made up. Maybe I shouldn't have bought them, but I got them on amazing 60% off deals and I thought I shouldn't pass it up.

I do feel a certain sentimentality that the one I picked for Baxter I picked on my birthday, and although I waffled a bit on whether to really make Baxter at that point, that plushie was always really reserved for him and when I became even fonder of the character than ever, I decided to go ahead with that plan the following month. At first I thought he'd probably be mostly for display, as I worried about jarring his glasses, but I've done a lot of cuddling with him since then.

I've been thinking about Halloween costumes too, because it's never too early to plan something fun like that, especially for one of my favorite holidays. Kind of wondering what it would take to put together a Baxter costume, honestly. As usual, I have a couple of pieces that could work, but I'd need all the rest. Of course, white lab coats are easy to come by around Halloween. I could probably find a light brown wig fairly easy too. For glasses, I'd just have to knock the lenses out of my sunglasses. They fall out all the time anyway, so it's easy to put them back. They're pretty much the right shape and everything. I actually have a black sweater vest and white shirt combo, although the shirt has thin black stripes. But it would be mostly hidden by the coat anyway. I have plenty of jeans, which appear to be what Baxter wears for trousers. And I have plenty of leftover ribbon with which to make myself a bowtie.