The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

Got into victory_road as Radley. It's a very cute game set in the Pokemon verse! That caused a plunnie explosion and I decided to further explore my past concept of both shows in the same verse. I just put up chapter 1 of a fic.

Very annoyed at Nintendo taking away eShop access for portable devices next year. I bought a couple of games, including Pokemon Crystal. It's very nice, very liberating, even, to finally play a Pokemon game! I'm breeding Eevees. They're so cute! I have three so far, all male. (I have to use a Ditto mommy.) I'm hoping I can get a female eventually too. I've always loved them, but I got obsessed with them after having Radley get one as a starter. I chose Eevee because the Espeon evolution looks like Ruby Carbuncle, one of Radley's cards.

I'm watching some of Pokemon Master Journeys to see Chloe's Eevee. There have been others on the show, of course, but I'm not sure any others have gotten an actual arc about them! I hope she will end up deciding not to evolve. I love the evolved forms, but I also love the original form. The way the story arc is set up, I kind of suspect that she will not ever evolve even if eventually she gains the ability to do so. I would like to see another Pokemon like Pikachu who doesn't even really want to evolve because she's happy with herself.

I decided that when Team Rocket only appears to do villainous things and we don't see character development for them, I prefer them not being there. I enjoyed a couple of Master Journeys episodes without them just fine. Although that could be because I'm so intently involved in the Chloe arc. I still love the episodes where we see better sides of them, although I am pretty confused by their twisted morals. So they get upset at the thought of taking away people's special memories in that amnesia scheme from Alola, but they think it's okay to steal people's Pokemon so all they're left with all their memories?! I kind of think and hope that if they actually did succeed in taking someone's special Pokemon for a while and then saw them all sad and heartbroken, they would feel so guilty they'd bring the Pokemon back. When we see their good sides, it kind of seems like that's something that could be the case. Maybe I'll write such a fic sometime.

Still driving, and have actually been on the freeway repeatedly! That is really huge for me. I bought a Glaceon plush at GameStop yesterday. I also got an Espeon from Mercari. It's an interesting online shopping place. I think the sellers there seem more often like fans able to identify official plushies from bootlegs. There are lots of bootlegs that have crept onto Amazon, and maybe eBay too.

What everyone wants to have happen: the HVAC unit dying in the middle of a heat wave. It got up to 92 degrees in the house and was so horrible it was hard to breathe, even with a fan. Dad actually consented to a repairman, but the guy insisted on $877! That was out of the question. The normal going price is between $100-$200, I believe. Dad was disgusted and fed-up and insisted on doing it himself. There were many setbacks and problems, such as an idiot sending the completely wrong motor after Dad specifically went over the specs with him several times! After a week of hellish temperatures, off-set a bit by fans and a cute portable AC, Dad and my brother finally fixed it! HALLELUJAH. And now we know more about electricity and how HVAC motors work. And the sounds they make when they don't. There's a video on YouTube where a guy demonstrates the sound we'd been hearing, and the video opens with a shot of a bad motor sitting there making the sound, and for some reason that amuses me so much. I'm not sure why. Maybe it just seems funny to see it highlighted like that. But yes, that was a nightmare week.

I've been trying Discord because I wanted so much to find a nest of YGO fans. There have been many ups and downs. But I got closer to a silent fic reader friend I've casually known for a while and we have an RP going, and I have a couple of other steady RPs going, so that's all really nice. I still just love RPs.

Fic writing and art-making go on. I also dabbled in fanmixes and have two for Kalin and Radley on YouTube. I just *love* that so many artists are putting their songs officially on YouTube! All but I think two of the songs on the mixes are officially up on the artists' channels. I have pages on my YGO website to discuss the song choices in detail. For some reason, the YouTube descriptions won't load on mobile devices well, plus there's a character limit, which I hit for the second mix.

I've been having so much fun finding new music for the mixes when I need specific topical songs. Occasionally it's frustrating when I can't find something that fits, like a song where someone is annoyed by someone who isn't a jerk ex but doesn't want to kill the annoying person (seriously, why are there so many extreme songs where someone wants to kill the annoying person? WTH. Yeah, yeah, I know it's because there are many people who feel like that even if they wouldn't really do it, but it's frustrating when you're looking for something not as extreme), but in the end I've found things that work! Yes, I finally found a song about being annoyed with someone that was exactly what I wanted, so close that it felt like it was written for the specific situation of Kalin suffering from depression and self-hatred in Crash Town and repeatedly rejecting Radley because of feeling he's not sincere! (I Don't Even Care About You by Missio.) That was an amazing moment.

My icon is also related to my fanmix projects. I realized Evanescence's My Heart is Broken is perfect for the scenario in my fics where Radley is forced to sacrifice himself to save the others and Kalin can't deal with it. I'd forgotten that red text washes out once icons are saved; it was much brighter in my program.

I am obsessed with the band Red. I stumbled on a song of theirs called Hymn for the Missing by accident, was intrigued, and finally looked up lots of their stuff on Friday. IT IS INCREDIBLE. Squee songs and hurt/comfort songs and angsty songs and now I have seven of their songs on my second mix because THEY'RE SO PERFECT. I even found songs that could fit for amnesia situations! (Probably not what they were intended to be, but that's half the fun when a song can be interpreted multiple ways!)

I'm also customizing dolls. I wanted Kalin and Radley dolls (so I could stroke Radley's pretty hair, lol). It's not easy finding boy dolls with rooted hair, but Jay from Descendants is perfect for Radley with a little paint to lighten his skin tone to Radley's. Their proportions are so odd, though, that then to match up with him, my only choice for Kalin was a rooted hair Carlos. The post office has been aggravatingly slow about delivering him, but he should be here tomorrow. The hair is shorter than I'd wanted, but I'll work with it. I don't feel like rerooting or making a wig. I'm nervous how the hair dyeing will go, but hopefully it will work out. I have clothes all sewn for him and some Ken shoes that will hopefully fit.

Been getting some nice writing done and stories completed. Can't remember if I ever talked about the desire to write one where Lector is a vigilante in town, but the urge to do that kept coming back and I finally figured out a way to write that story the way I wanted it and it ended up bringing in the manga-verse characters again. Right now I'm starting one about the Big Five having ancestors in Atlantis who ran from the final battle and have been considered cowards, but it's finally learned that they ran because they were getting Critias's younger brother to safety, and that the Kaiba family line comes through the brother they helped to escape.

I was able to start that RP on Tumblr I was talking about, and it's a lot of fun. I'm starting to get the urge and plan to do some hurt/comfort at some point in it. I'll have to run it past my RP partner.

I've been getting more Big Five commissions from ElfBean. Six now, and I have many more ideas. I'm just so in love with her work! It's torture having to wait to get more while I accumulate more money, lol.

We did our annual re-watch of creepy Wild Wild West episodes for Halloween time, including The Night of the Tottering Tontine. I like that episode, and yet I don't like its And Then There Were None plot set-up, because I don't like seeing so many characters get killed off left and right. A couple of the deaths particularly upset me, and for the last couple of years I've toyed with a fic that while they're all waiting to be freed from the house they're trapped in, they discover that those people are still alive but badly hurt and in need of medical attention. It would be a nice and suspenseful hurt/comfort fic. Problem is, if I bring back two of the characters, then I also feel bad for the other one who died needlessly while they were trapped. Yet if I revive all of them I imagine it would look ridiculous. Plus there was one other character who didn't deserve death who died at the very beginning of the episode. I feel bad for him too. So I don't know if I ever actually will write the fic.

Lots of the events last month that I was hoping would be awesome didn't really go the way I was hoping they would. I try to just focus on the good parts and move on, as they weren't total busts and some elements were really great and fun, but it is disheartening when things just don't work out the way one dreams of. October is my favorite month, and I feel like I just didn't get to enjoy it to the fullest extent. I'm really hoping Thanksgiving and the Rockapella concert and Christmas will work out nicely, but I'm rather skeptical at this point, especially since there's sickness traveling around the house and it can hang on for a long time when it comes. I'm desperately hoping I won't catch it, but who knows. I still don't have my ticket for the concert, and since they're non-refundable I don't even know whether to try getting one yet in case I might get sick and not be able to go anyway.

I did get an amazing $15 off coupon for Build-a-Bear, and even though they once again screwed me over for the birthday gift they promised to send, I doubted that would have been better than that coupon. (The gift has only been $5 in the past.) I decided to either get a Pokemon or a Pony, and with the series ending this year, I thought I should get a Pony since it might be the last time I could. The choice was between Rainbow Dash and Cheerilee, and although beforehand I had decided I would probably get Cheerilee, I ended up deciding I wanted Rainbow Dash at the store. It just felt like the right time. I got her and no regrets. She's certainly not my favorite character still, but she has her moments, and her design is gorgeous in any case.

I have mixed feelings about the series finale. I am so relieved that it ended with everyone still alive and friends, but I can't deny being annoyed that Twilight has to rule apart from her friends. The royal seat was moved at least once, when Celestia took it to Canterlot, so there's no real reason why Twilight couldn't have moved it again and ruled from her castle in Ponyville. As I see it, the only reason they did the ending the way they did was to show that friends can be friends even if they're apart. Which is certainly a good lesson and all, but it feels like everybody wants to teach that lesson these days, even if it doesn't fit the particular world for characters to leave (Ralph Breaks the Internet, I'm looking at you).

I made a Target order as my birthday gift to myself and finally got my Farrah Fawcett figure and Sailor Moon shirt. And a belated birthday present for JP. They were running a Buy 2, Get One Free DVD sale, so I also got the 1980s My Little Pony movie and was able to add the G3 Pony Christmas special as the free one. I have to admit, while I like the 1980s TV show, I didn't like the movie much. The TV show had villains and situations I could take seriously, but the villains were so goofy in the movie and some of their songs so ridiculous that I couldn't take the Smooze problem seriously even though one was supposed to. There were some scenes I liked, but overall, I have to say, the G4 Pony movie was way better.

The G3 special, on the other hand ... it was so sweet and felt very pure. One thing I love about most Christmas things is that even if they don't want to do anything overtly religious, most of them teach worthwhile lessons about kindness and unselfishness. The G3 special was full of those things. Minty accidentally broke the beacon that leads Santa to their town, so she was afraid she'd ruined Christmas for everyone. She didn't once think about herself, and instead tried to think what she could do to save it for everyone. She decided to give her treasured socks as gifts to them. Then, when she decided that wasn't good enough on its own, she determined to fly a balloon to the North Pole to give Santa directions to their town. A Pony afraid of clouds went after her when she realized, and then all the other Ponies went after them. They could have been mad, but they realized breaking the thing was an accident and they were just so worried to get Minty and Thistle Whistle home safe. There were some suspenseful bits, and things did get a little cheesy with the Ponies' love for each other creating a new beacon to guide Santa there, but I can totally deal with that kind of cheese. LOL. It was so very sweet. It reminded me of Lalaloopsy, which always seems to show the characters helping each other during day to day crises. I want to see more G3 things. People who don't like G3 because there aren't save the world level crises are missing out.

I've been interested in Scooby-Doo this autumn. The figures got re-released and I didn't want to miss out on them this time. I got them all and have seen some of the movies and assorted series' episodes here and there. I really enjoy the movies, honestly. As much as I loved What's New, Scooby-Doo? when I watched it in first-run, I think some of these movies have the characters more IC. Fred was portrayed as an idiot so often in What's New, sigh. And I'm not sure what to think of Velma fangirling so often, even though it's cute enough (and I of course can relate; I'm just not sure it works for that particular character). All of these recent things seem to make the characters livelier than in the old 1970s series, though. They often seemed more like one-note cookie-cutter characters back then, but the re-envisionings in recent years give some of them more personality. I also saw the trailer for the Scoob movie next year and it looks really cute. I love what it shows of how Shaggy and Scooby first met!

I also saw the new Sonic trailer. The redesign of Sonic is beautiful and Jim Carrey as Eggman looks like fun. I'm hopeful and anxious for the movie now. I wonder if it depicts their first encounter, since Tails doesn't seem to be in it and he wasn't in the first game.

Thanks to Netflix, I finally saw both of the theatrical Grinch movies. There were pros and cons for both, and maybe I'll elaborate in another post, but overall my feeling is that the movie from last year is the best and most magical. Both movies tried to humanize the Grinch, and I liked that, but I don't like how cartoony and shallow the Whos felt in the live-action film (nor did I like the Grinch's disgusting habits there). It's funny that they all felt more real in the animated film. I was surprised there wasn't a lot of crude humor in that, when Illumination made it. It was just lovely. And they weren't afraid to use religious Christmas carols, with lyrics!

I've been enjoying the next batch of Carmen Sandiego episodes on Netflix. I hope there will be more. I found both Zack and Ivy really annoying in this incarnation, but Ivy has started to develop more and I love that. I hope Zack will develop more too. One character I haven't been able to like is Graham. He seems nice enough with amnesia, but since he was ready to kill Carmen with his memories, despite their past as dear friends and surrogate siblings, to me he's a ticking timebomb. If he regains his memories and is horrified at what he was with V.I.L.E. and wants to be different, then I'll probably like him. But for the time being, when I don't know what he'll be like if his memories return, I just don't. I certainly feel for Carmen still remembering the good times they had, though. I can't get enough of this series.

Apparently today is Duke's birthday. Interesting. Stats for anime characters are fun. I wonder if it's just the manga characters who have them. I saw some for Rebecca, but I don't know if they're official. I'd like to see some for the bikers and Siegfried, if they exist. And I am amused that Seto and Thief King Bakura somehow ended up with the same birthday.

I keep having the urge to try making a Yami Bakura plush. On the one hand, that seems silly, since I already have a Thief King plush and until the bombshell dropped about the Zorc fusion, I (and everyone else) thought Yami Bakura was solely the spirit of Thief King. So I already have a plush of the character as I always thought of him. But I like both forms of the character, and because of that, in my verse the Infinity Ring allows him to switch between his forms. So if I made a Yami Bakura plush, I would still consider that it was just the Thief King and not Zorc too. Plus, it sounds fun to try to design the spiky hair. I may still have some soft white material left over from my Rouge the Bat costume, in which case that would make some absolutely wonderful hair. And on Monday I saw some assorted materials that would work for Mokuba and Siegfried plushies; the striped material I found could also be used for Yami Bakura's shirt. (Okay, so he and Mokuba don't exactly have the same color shirt, but there was only one material there that would work for either of those shirts.) Then I may still have enough gray here to make his trousers; I'll have to dig through my fabric bag and check. It would be a darker gray than in canon, but if I have enough, I'd rather use that instead of trying to find another shade.

And LOL, I was musing in the morning about one of the YGO RPs I used to do.... With most of my favorite characters, the other player let me play them. I probably liked Marik, Alister, and Siegfried more than she did, and even with characters we both liked, such as Ryou Bakura and Seto Kaiba, she let me play them. In Seto's case, I imagine that was because she wanted to play the OC she'd set up as his girlfriend. But the one character we both loved and seriously wanted to play was Yami Bakura. That presented a problem. I let her play him, but then later, when she badly wanted to do an ancient Egypt RP and I wasn't as sold on the idea because I preferred the present-day with all the characters and not ancient Egypt with only a handful, I finally agreed ... if I could play Yami Bakura for that portion of the RP. LOL. And that was what we did. Ah, those were the days....

And Dragons at Dawn is finished! Squeeee! ... And so is the first chapter of the next fic, LOL. I will hold off on posting that for a bit, and I'm wondering how to fit in the posting of those biker oneshots, since I'm really eager to start putting up the next multi-chapter but I wanted to share the biker stories too. The first one I put on AO3 last week or so, just so it would be up somewhere. I wanted to focus solely on posting Dragons at Dawn on FF.net, since it was all done. Of course, no one was interested enough to bother commenting on the biker fic at AO3, but someone did leave Kudos, which is something. The second biker fic isn't quite done yet. Maybe I'll post the first biker fic on FF.net before starting to put up the new multi-chapter. Hmm.

I've also been continuing to watch YGO on the official website! I'm thrilled and amazed that the videos work for me, and continue to! It may not last long, especially since they're apparently embedded from Hulu and the laptop doesn't like Hulu much, so I'm trying to get in all the seasons 2 and 5 ones I really wanted to see. I went back to see the early Battle City stuff, starting with Joey's Rare Hunter encounter. I skipped his duels with Espa Roba and Weevil, since they're not favorite episodes and nothing else seems to be going on with other characters that I especially wanted to see ahead of other stuff. (Although I just remembered that Serenity has subplots in those. I'd like to see her scenes.) I will watch his duel with Mako, though, both because I like Mako and because there is a subplot going on that I want to see. I will probably go back and watch Joey's other duels later. Espa's, at least. Weevil episodes I tend to avoid. The best Weevil duel is Yami Yugi versus Weevil atop the moving train in Doom Arc. Heartbreaking and intense! I do want to watch that one again soon, even though I saw it recently, but first I want to focus on getting as much mileage out of the website as I can.

... Also, one thing I discovered while watching my season 3 DVDs. I still think the Yami Y vs. Seto duel is way too long and very tedious. I can't sympathize with Seto's behavior in those episodes at all, at least not until towards the end when the reason for his obsession becomes a little more clear and human, and then it's just sad that it means that much to him to win. On the one hand, I think it would have been better to have brought that out earlier in the duel, as then I might have not been so aggravated with him throughout most of it. On the other, it was interesting and packs a punch from a storytelling POV to have left it till later.

And despite only being one episode shorter, I found the Yami Y vs. Yami M duel much more compelling and exciting, even though I don't like Yami Marik as anything other than a good villain for a hurt/comfort story. Probably because so much was on the line and Marik and Yugi were the stakes. I was intently watching that duel and enjoying every minute, whereas the Yami Y and Seto duel was grating on my nerves a lot and it was such a relief when it ended. I am so glad that Seto was able to get past at least some of his demons after season 3. I have rediscovered my love for him at long last, but I still find him hard to watch at his worst.

Another of the silly parody songs from the role-play, in the same vein as "Gee, Mr. Burger" and written around spring of 2012, I think. This one parodies The Battle of New Orleans. And, as I said on the post for the earlier song, I don't think the Karnage character is really nuts; I think he's so outrageous he's in a special class all his own. ;) But naturally he comes across as absolutely bonkers to most people.


( The Battle of Los Angeles )