The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Dad and I got Mom the complete Monk set for Christmas and we've been watching episodes here and there. I have reconfirmed how much I love Sharona. I always liked her better than Natalie, I have to admit. Natalie was just too perky for my tastes. One thing I will grant is that Sharona is more abrasive than Natalie, although once I saw the pretty awesome argument for that that it was Sharona, personality and all, who was able to bring Monk back to himself enough that he could work as a consultant after Trudy's death destroyed him. That was finally acknowledged in canon too, in season 8, which thrilled me. (Natalie was the one who acknowledged it, as I recall. I loved that.)

I always hated the way they wrote Sharona off the show. I know that with the contract mess they didn't have much choice but to do something to remove her, but the way it was done was totally OOC. Sharona would not run off and abandon Monk with only a note to explain. I know they had problems sometimes and she'd quit, but that wasn't the same thing. She was still there. She hadn't run off to New Jersey and left him alone. If she did feel she had to leave, she would make sure he was well taken care of with a replacement first.

I tried writing a Monk fanfic once to bring Kevin back, as that was something else that seriously ticked me off. I never handle killing off favorite characters very easily, especially when it's something that completely doesn't have to happen. I couldn't get beyond the first chapter because I found so many roadblocks. I wanted Sharona to move back and that wasn't going well in the writing. I didn't want Dr. Kroger to be dead, and yet that really couldn't be helped since the actor died, and I didn't see how I could bring back more characters from the dead than Kevin alone, and I love Dr. Bell too, and everything was just so frustrating with me not knowing quite how I wanted to write that mess that I ended up giving up.

I realized that all of my problems with various things in the show started with that terrible way of writing Sharona out. But there's probably still nothing that can be done for it, fic-wise; I'd considered before doing an AU where Sharona doesn't leave, but Natalie comes in too, but I don't know how it would work with both of them there. Monk really only needs one. Although I wonder if it could work like, with Sharona staying the nurse-type assistant but Natalie becoming like a secretary or something? And they could both help with different aspects of the cases, maybe. Monk's like a private detective, more or less, and they usually have more than one operative.

It's a nice thought, at least. I doubt I'd ever do anything with it, just like I doubt I'll ever write anything more for Once Upon a Time. I hit a roadblock with it because I still hate a lot of the things they did to Rumpelstiltskin, but I do love how they finally did develop him and get him to fully turn good. So I'm left with not wanting to accept a lot of stuff as canon but loving other things so much I hate to discount them.

Then, switching gears to YGO....

I find it terribly amusing that I was telling someone I didn't think I had anything more I could write about Seto, that I'd explored him so much in the past and I felt I'd told it all, etc....

And then things exploded and I got further inspiration for my arc with Seto coming to acknowledge Yugi-tachi as friends, and since I got fascinated with the Big Five, Seto and Mokuba have become extremely important to that arc and I've found new aspects to develop with both brothers. At the moment, they're probably the most important characters in the timeline. Yami Bakura is still working with his quest, of course, and in fact, he made some important progress in the last fic. But for the moment he's mostly kind of taking a step back while I work with the Big Five and the Kaibas. It's fun having new ideas for Seto and Mokuba, especially since I used to write stuff with them before switching to the Ishtars. At the moment, I've been having trouble thinking of new Ishtar sibling scenes, and often Ishizu and Rishid don't say a whole lot and Marik interacts more with Mokuba. Maybe eventually I'll get some more inspiration for the Ishtar siblings as well. I hope so.

I've also been pondering a lot on my love of the dub. I love the dub names and voices and localizations, and in some cases, I realize I really love the dub personalities as well. Not Seto and Marik, I must confess; they are mostly better in the original, although I love their dub voices and always will. But like with Yami Bakura, I'm in love with his dub voice and it really seems to change his personality too. He's more informal in the original, I think, but I just love him as classy and educated in the dub. To me it's much more fascinating to think of a thief in ancient Egypt with his dub vocabulary and knowledge.

Then there's the Big Five. Johnson and Nesbitt I don't think are too different between versions, except that in the original Seto made Nesbitt blow up his compound as a show of loyalty, something I keep in my verse. And I'm not sure if Nesbitt likes pretending to be a robot in the original, but I admit I find that intriguing in the dub, that he prefers machines to that extent. Nesbitt did seem slightly more sympathetic in the original, both in his flashbacks and in some of his dialogue during the three-against-one duel. Honestly, in the flashbacks, he really did get a raw deal and was treated pretty much like dirt. After he blows up the compound, he asks about the Duel Tower and Seto tells him about a new engineer coming in to work on it, and that Nesbitt can follow him around if he doesn't get in the way, or something like that. Of course, it still doesn't justify what Nesbitt and the others end up doing, but I actually do feel bad for the guy. And you can see how upset and angry he is but that he's trying desperately not to lose his temper, which is interesting since in the present-day he displays some impulsive and reckless behavior.

Gansley is obsessed with war quotes in the original. I'm okay with that, but I have to say, I'm terribly fond of his business obsession in the dub and prefer that. I just wish the dub had kept him knowing about Atem, because that was kind of epically awesome that he paid that much attention and knew there were two spirits there. Also, it just kind of amuses me that Atem is getting so frustrated and angry with Gansley in the dub when he talks about business. Getting upset about war quotes is more logical, but getting bent out of shape while being told about the three rules of business or how Gansley become a lemonade distributor is just seriously amusing and kind of gives Atem a rather human quirk that we don't see too often.

Crump ... oh boy. He is one dirty old man in the original. That side of his personality is completely absent in the dub, which is just fine with me. I ran into a dilemma of whether or not to bring any of the original over with him. I ended up settling on keeping his interest in women younger than he is but not making things so sick. I think he is mostly teasing Tea in my fics when he makes cracks and he only does it to get a rise out of her, and in any case, he doesn't say anything like what he said in the original, ugh. And when he does get involved with someone in my fics, I think it's more like May/December romance type instead of lustful and creepy. Like in the current fic, where he's trying to go on a date with a suspect around Mai's age to get her to open up, she's been told by the villain to try to come on to him and she acts like a femme fatale at first, but he says she can just be herself, that he'd prefer that anyway. And they just have a nice talk. I think I figure that since with him I am writing more from the dub personality, I can do whatever I want with the girl angle and it won't necessarily be OOC for the dub version even if in the original it might be. In the original, I probably like Crump the very least, even less than Johnson. In the dub, I like Johnson least. And I've gotten rather fond of Crump writing for him as the one who tries to encourage the other Big Five members to open up about their feelings when he can see they're upset about things. I didn't set out to write him that way, but it just kind of happened during some of the emotional hurt/comfort scenes. Somehow it seemed right. And I don't like picturing him as having this really sick side, so it's nice that the dub gives another option. (Although, of course, the sadism he displays in both versions is a whole other kind of sick, ugh. Trying to freeze Tea.... I decided he should find out what that really feels like, so the villain threw him in a freezer in the current fic. And Seto's in there with him too, lol. Awkward.... They're in there long enough that they're both getting hypothermia, and I think Crump will have to try to take care of Seto when Seto gets worse first. Crump handles the cold a little better because he's somewhat overweight.)

Then Lector.... I've mentioned that he seems more justice-driven in the dub. Aside from the scene where they fight over bodies and Lector seems to be a bully to Crump in the dub but not in the original, I prefer him in the dub. I phrased it on Tumblr as him having my heart. I love the Southern accent, I love the justice-driven attitude, and I love that in the dub there's more of an indication that he might care about Mokuba. I also love him saying that he helped raise Seto (and presumably Mokuba as well). Not that it isn't possible that he did in the original too, but it seemed like the original slanted it more as him just associating with them for that one year. With Gozaburo's wife gone and Lector being the next closest person to Gozaburo as his assistant, I really love the concept that he helped raise the boys. I also prefer that in the dub, he didn't taunt Seto about his virtual reality technology being used for war. (The dub removed that plotline altogether, which I didn't like them doing, but I was definitely fine with Lector not taunting Seto about it.)

With Crump and Lector especially, it makes me want to be able to feel like the dub versions of characters are legitimate versions of the characters instead of just being screwed-up or watered-down versions of the characters and not legitimate versions since only the original is a legitimate version. Manga and anime are different verses to begin with, so maybe sub and dub anime could be seen as different verses too, each legit in its own way.

Maybe that is kind of the culture now, for all I know. I'm used to remembering how things were, when dub fans really struggled against the purists. It does kind of seem like things have settled down since then and that at least some people have an appreciation for the dub versions. I know there's been some marketing directed towards those who grew up with the dub and are adults now and still think of it fondly. As a dub fan, that makes me very happy!

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).