The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Venus arrived today and she's gorgeous! I won't open her until Tuesday, but it's awesome she's here! I put her with the Pokemon DVDs in the closet for now. I'll have fun deboxing and watching new stuff come Tuesday.

I found a couple of interesting Chibiusa listings and contacted the seller about one that's new, but the seal is broken. Wondering if he knows why it's broken. Then a sealed one is only two dollars more. So I'm contemplating one of those. Both are cheaper than the Mercury. And since she's smaller, I totally approve of her costing less.

Pondering on that quiz I've been fiddling with for Baxter and Barney. It's originally an OC quiz, but I just had no interest in talking about OCs, so I modified it to use it for characters I wanted to talk about. My dA friend enjoyed reading the Baxter one (I still haven't posted the Barney one), but said he was disappointed not to learn about an OC. That honestly amazed me, LOL. I do find it idly interesting to see the characters people come up with, but I would much rather read about their interpretation of canon characters, unless I seriously disagree with their interpretation. For me, canon characters are always more interesting than OCs. I have no loyalty to or interest in someone's OCs like I do with characters I've been journeying with in favorite shows. I read fanfics to see the canon characters getting into new adventures, not to meet someone's OCs. Anyway, so because of my own feelings, I find it interesting that someone would actually be interested in someone else's OCs that much. Especially when all he's seen of any of my OCs are a couple of pictures of two of them interacting with Baxter. I thought I should try doing the quiz with an OC since he's actually interested, but I haven't thought out all the little details about my OCs like I have my interpretations of canon characters. So I wonder how far I'd even get trying to take it for an OC. LOL. It's a fairly long quiz and my heart might not be in it if I use an OC.

Something to think about....