#I'm also going to finish Morrowind properly and finish Mud-on-Her-Face

[vvatchword]

Did something I haven’t done in a hot minute and re-read the first draft of the goddamn BioShock fanfic.

Guys, it wasn’t that bad. The first chapter was merely okay because 2010 was right where I began figuring out How Not to Purple. The rest of it was fucking great--sans the Sinclair bit, where I got his voice so wrong I started crying a little. When I ended the fanfic, it was with my hands out going Why Did U End There? How dare you not finish, you piece of shit. I want to finish this. Come back here you fucking coward.

It’s interesting what I gained and lost as I wrote. The Gains: more technical prowess, more brainstorming, more complex society, better Plasmid use in the background, improved character voices for everyone, better understanding of history and certain technological and environmental constraints. The Losses: I became a little less creative and a little more rote (fewer neat callbacks, visual gags, use of environmental limitations); the tone got more and more miserable. As to the tone, I think this was a problem of Life in General, which at the time was kicking my face in. (As opposed to now, when life is merely curb-stomping me, but I’m used to it now. When you’re a human pudding it stops hurting.) My Johnny Topside is the cutest sweetest nicest guy--EVEN WHEN HE’S BEING FUCKING TORTURED, a thing I didn’t expect to click, but totally did. Good job past me, good fucking job, let’s see if I can reclaim that shit.

Also, bonus points for my Grace Holloway, who I had COMPLETELY forgotten I had written. She is *chef’s kiss*. I’m definitely reusing some of that scene in the future. Which one? This one.

Delta swung Holloway’s door into the doorframe. He had nearly broken it in half. It was with consternation that he watched the door slowly slide through the frame and fall on its face in the hallway. One of the last slinking Splicers jumped and skittered down the stairs.

“Leave it,” said Holloway. “I’ll fix it somehow.”

“Haoooo?” Delta asked, pointing down the hallway.

“Sofia Lamb told them to listen to me,” she said. “And Doctor Lamb controls the ADAM. They do what she says–so they do what I say. And I say they can’t come into my house.”