#since nano it's been nice to see the “progress” not because it's progress but because

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

HA I'm 100% not making this camp nanowrimo goal

[nicohverse]

Entropic Float 2: December Update!

Hello everybody!

It’s been a while since the last update. I did say you probably wouldn’t hear from me again until about now! October and November have come and gone, and with them, plenty of progress.

For October- I didn’t quite hit the goal that I set, of reaching a certain number of talksprites completed before the end of the month. I hoped to reach 80% of talksprites ready to go, but only made it up to 74% - In part because I misjudged how much time I had to begin with, and in part because I failed to account for certain days of limited access to my desktop computer. I completed 10 more sprites after the October update, not the hoped-for 15 more. Though, if it counts for anything, there are 3 more sprites which reached a partially-completed state before the month ended!  We’re at a nice round 20 talksprites left to complete at the moment.

When it comes to November, I was able to accomplish exactly the goal I set out to- 50,000 words written, all of them for Entropic Float 2’s memory-seeking segments! This doesn’t represent every single memory by any means, but it does make a substantial dent. This month also brought with it some more partial progress, beginning while not yet completing several more visual assets in the few days between completing the NaNo challenge and November’s end.

What’s on deck for December? Well, there are holidays, and with them, several angles to consider. Working on gifts has already delayed me posting this update, in fact! It’s a busy season for an etsy shop, and time enjoyed with family is necessarily time spent away from the desktop computer on which the biggest steps in game development are made. So, I’d rather not commit to too many goals with an unpredictable month ahead! I’m hoping to finally get the EF2 demo onto steam and complete a few talksprites. Beyond that, I’ll surprise myself and you all with whatever I’m able to get done.

Oh, and going into 2025 - I’ll make the January update about halfway through the month, like this one, then in February begin making the same sort of biweekly updates as I did for the first game, including progress bars. These will mainly be across our various platforms, I’ll actually be easing off of updating on the Kickstarter page except for major developments. Enough of what EF2 needs is finally coming together enough to say “It’s this far along” in any meaningful way.

Thank you, as always, for reading. See you next time!

[narastories]

ramblings about writing longfic

So as you probably know by now I've been busy writing a chunky little fic over the summer. I wanted to look at the statistics of the process and ramble a little.

We got permission from Bob (@dresdenfilesbigbang) for a little vagueposting, although I don't think this post will even count because I'm not going to talk about the fic, I'm just going to use the process as an example to make a few points.

This time, I've used NaNoWriMo to track my word count, and that is the first thing. If you are motivated by tracking your word count, this is your reminder that besides being a yearly event, it is also a great tool that you can use all year around. Plus, you can create a project with any time length or word count, not just 50k in one month. I actually started off with 20k as the word count, since that was the minimum for the Big Bang, but ehm... well, it soon became clear that 20k is not going to be enough lol Point is, you can also update your goal as you go and it doesn't mess up anything in the slightest.

And I guess November is coming up if you want to do NaNo "proper". I did that once, and it was great to just see that I could. But honestly, 1600 words a day is way too much for me and I don't see the point. I would rather write 50k words over 3 months and push myself less. With the NaNo pace if you miss a day it really puts you behind, and that is just plain stressful.

Which brings me to my second point. If you look at this graph, your first thought might be "oh that looks so linear and disciplined" ...

(Well, okay your first thought may be "why the heck doesn't it start from zero?" I've written 5k before the start date, okay? It was a sort of "proof of concept" to see if this story was going to work out. And it's not like it was cheating, I've still written way too much lol)

And you know, you kind of would be right, I've neatly stayed above that dotted line, sure.

But then you look at my daily word count graph, and it looks like this:

(Again, ignore the anomaly of the first day please lol)

What I'm trying to say is this: if you write often enough, over a long enough period of time, it will look like consistent progress.

You don't have to write every day if it doesn't work for you. You really don't.

And I think it's nice to just pay attention to your process if you decide to start a bigger project because it will give you valuable info about how you work. And it will make writing the next longfic or bigger writing project easier.

My first multichapter work on AO3 is still unfinished at the 75%-85% point mark. I was posting it as I wrote and then I hit that point which now I know is critical for me. Now I know that when I'm 3/4 done with a fic of this size I usually want to go in and move things around, have a little crisis, and generally that I just go back and forth between writing and editing a lot. And because of that, posting as I write is a really bad idea for me.

So I guess the most crucial thing you can learn is how you write, and then everything will become a little easier.

Also, since this is a Big Bang fic with a deadline, it will drop all chapters at once which is something I haven't done before. Very exciting. (To me at least. To other people probably not, because of the tiny nature of the rarepair. But that never stopped me, has it?)

[trickster-shi]

Wednesday 01/03/24

I am so not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I am pretty pleased about the work I've done on my writing projects this week.

Project Zander

Chapter Two, 1840 words

I finished the first scene of the chapter, which is from Darius' POV and I uncovered his core character strength and weakness while writing and then brainstorming separately. Darius is the tol sunshine puppy of the group, with seemingly endless sass and optimism, but that's actually covering up a lot of insecurities, fear, and mother henning tendencies. His internal thoughts are fun to write because he feels everything, worries about everything, and ties himself up in knots while trying to be brave and funny for the people around him.

They're in quite a pickle at the moment, so he's been incredibly introspective while the other two sleep, trying to figure out why they ended up somewhere they shouldn't have and how they're gonna get out of it.

He's also worrying about Zander and what he had to do to save Darius and Elivia in chapter one, and wishing the sisters were there to take over because Darius is very much not ready to Adult at that level just yet.

I'm still trying to work out some world building issues to marry this story into the ending of Fred and Taz's series that is not completely written yet, so that's also fun. I'm throwing in an alternate Texas circa 1940's or so, steampunk elements, magic, and gods into the mix with surprise time travel, so there's a lot of moving parts but I'm excited to tackle them.

Since I work Thurs-Friday, I don't know how much writing I'll get done those days, so it may be down to the weekend to make more significant progress. We'll see.

Home Across the Universe, Story #10

Untitled, 2987 words

I wrote the entire 2987 words today, so I feel really good about that. I've written a couple previous drafts of this story since October but they just didn't quite come together how I wanted, so I put it on the back burner until now so I could concentrate on NaNo and then Project Zander.

So far, this story is about Stiles taking advantage of a new opportunity and seeing where it leads. It will be pretty Stiles and Peter-centric, with some Derek POV scenes thrown in. I am still developing the Kate plot thread introduced in Boyfriend Achievements: Unlocked, so I don't know if she will be appearing in this story or the next one. It depends on how long this piece decides to be.

So far, this first part was Stiles and John talking over the new opportunity with lots of Stiles' inner thoughts and references to things that have been happening since Christmas. I would say that Stiles is currently the most hopeful he has been in quite a while, so that's really nice to write.

Still, you guys know me. I do love my angst, so I'm sure I'll get to weave some in there somewhere, but so far Stiles's only angsty struggle is that two someone's currently occupying the Stilinski home *cough, Mini-Stiles and Austin, cough* broke the coffee pot and there's been a creative punishment enforced to work off that debt to buy a new one. And Stiles hasn't had coffee first thing in the morning in a week.

He's quite testy about that. But the new opportunity has the added incentive of free, good quality coffee, so he's all for it, even if it does come from Peter.

Other Projects:

I haven't physically worked on the other projects currently occupying other back burners this week, but the following stories are still in active progress:

Into The Black Episode Two

I did restructure what exists of Episode Two during December and wrote around 1k-2k on it. It is currently sitting at 5,876 words. Mainly it was tightening up the narrative, so I cut out a lot of stuff that was dragging the chapter down and fixing stuff to move the plot forward. I'm excited about what I have planned for that episode.

Rabbit Come Home, Part Three

I haven't touched what I have written for the third and final story in a while. It's currently sitting at 16,636 words. I know what I want to have happen in my head but I've had a hard time actually getting it written down, so that one may just need to marinate for a while before I can finish it. I want to do my vision justice and nail the ending.

That's all for now. I'm going to finish up some things and head to bed. 5 am is gonna come way too quick, I can already tell *cries*

[ageless-aislynn]

Last line tag game

Tagged by @thephaeronsforge aka @sarnakhwritesthings Thanks so much! ❤

Kai smiled.

"Recreation" chapter 3, allllmost done but not quite there. 🤞😣🤞

Since that was so small, literally almost not able to even be much smaller, lol, I thought I'd turn to its sibling fic "15 Minutes" chapter 7 also in progress and

"There's no such thing," you muttered.

Yep, also pretty short sooooo how do you feel about the opening to the original fic that's also part of my Camp NaNo? Yeah, hardly a last line, I know, but well... It's never going to see the light of day in any form so I thought it would be fun to share it here. 👀🤷‍♀️

It began as an idle idea for a very AU Mass Effect: Andromeda reader fic that I knew I'd never actually write and post because it was simply pulling waaaaay too far away from the source, dumping all of the lore and such, so what was the point? Then I realized, hey, that's means it's FREE REAL ESTATE for making it my own thing, right? 😛

However, for this purpose, I put the ME:A names, references, etc. back in and made it a reader fic again. It also seems to read kinda like a Halo hybrid because that's what ya girl's been writing over in Fanficville so...? 🤷‍♀️😉

Under a read more because of the length. I'll also mention here so it's not necessary to click through that I'm tagging anybody who'd like to do this. *boops your nose politely* 😉 Definitely let me know if you do, though, 'cause I'd love to read it! 🤗

The first thing you noticed was Alec Ryder standing ramrod-stiff at attention, awaiting your arrival as if you were a five-star general and he was a cadet worried he hadn't shined his boots properly enough. "Ma'am," he said, his tone stern but polite. He offered his arm as if he really didn't want to. Interesting. Had you read his file wrong? He'd been out here alone far longer than he should've been allowed to be. The prospect of bare fingertips brushing the back of his hand should've had him quivering in anticipation. You'd heard of others having to actually stun-stop their Pathfinders at their initial meeting. It had never happened to you but… It was part of your training to know it could. But clearly not here, not today. You'd worn your gloves, just in case. You stepped out of the shuttle with your lone rucksack in one hand and put the other on the sleeve of his forearm, letting him assist you down as if you were royalty. Your dead implant flared in the back of your brain despite the double barrier of fabric between you. He was shielding hard but this was what you did, what you were, and wisps of emotions were leaking through. He was… anxious. "Welcome to Heleus," he said, adding your title and last name. You thought about correcting him with your first name but sensed he preferred the formality so merely said, "Thank you." He broke contact as soon as politeness allowed, folding his hands behind his back. "I'm afraid I can't give you a tour right now, I have duties to attend to. But Sam can guide you to your room, give you the lay of the land. Most of the station is still in shutdown but he'll turn the lights on for you if you'd like to look around." "Ah, all right then," you said but you were saying it to the crisp, neatly-pressed back of his black and red uniform as he gave a quick nod and strode away. You were supposed to be ready for anything but you decided to allow yourself a short but heartfelt thought of What in the actual hell? Then you tucked it away and went looking for Sam. Maybe he would be glad to see you? It would be nice if someone was.

Alec Ryder for visual reference. 😎 Andromeda has a LOT of character types that I love but this particular idea felt like it paired SO nicely with Mr. Emotionally Repressed Pathfinder Sr. so I, um, yoinked him out of canon and, you know, repurposed him. As one does. 😐😂

[echo-bleu]

Writing thoughts

I've been in something like writing limbo since the start of the year. Wordcount-wise, I've written about as much in three months as I often do in one (45k), and I've had more days of no writing at all than I've had since, uh. 2018, or thereabout. It's a combination of work picking up and tiring me out, and being kind of confused about what fandom I'm currently in xD

What I wouldn't do to be a full time writer, though.

The truth is, I've found myself at a loss, procrastinating, aimlessly scrolling, and generally doing nothing (aside from rereading LOTR on my usual writing/drawing time). While it's certainly needed at time to not be productive, it's not actually good for my mental health right now, so I'm going to give myself a bit of a motivation boost and sign up for Camp NaNo with a 40k goal. It's okay if I don't meet it, but it's a fairly reasonable goal for me and it will force me to at least attempt to write every day. I'm here, if anyone wants to be buddies.

I've hit a bit of a burnout regarding Witcher, and at the same time I got (back) into LOTR and started thinking about fics there but I'm not fully in, so to say, so this will be episode #TooMany of 'Echo tries to juggle two fandoms at the same time'. For the record, every other episode failed miserably.

Things I want to write (at least bits of):

Original short story that will remain a mystery for now: it's going to be fairly short and it's well in progress already, with a full plot and a deadline, so it's the priority.

Witcher fics: - that thunder in your lungs: I was steadily writing the main fic of this series when things went sideways... And I have far too many ideas for the rest of it. - for all the things that drum: Again, many ideas! The priority is the sequel to Dandelion Season where Jaskier's powers are actually explained, but then the rest of the series will be after his jump back in time. - if your voice begins to crack: I need to sort through the writing I already have to see what can be posted, because it's a shame that it's all just sitting there waiting for a part I'm struggling with. And then write said part, hopefully. - left you behind just standing there: I have four chapters ready to go, I just need to get my ass into gear and write out the rest.

LOTR fics: - Long fic that's probably too niche for anyone to read, but I'm stoked about it, and I'd like to at least properly plot it out. It's a heist! It's dark and angsty! Sauron has the Ring! It's very fucked up but I love it. - I have started two different parts of a series of Faramir-centric fics set post-canon, that include a variety of queer and disabled characters and a lot of recovering and trying to heal from trauma. Less high-stakes, they'll mostly be short-ish one-shots, hopefully.

Singer Street. My poor poor original novel that I keep putting on the backburner. Would be really nice if I managed to get back into that one.

[onwriting-hrarby]

on writing, 5-11

A very strange week. I think I've been grieving my novel. I haven't written in my journal either. Everything has been a mess of words and a mess of projects and intentions. Truly, I don't know what I'm doing, where I'm going. I oscillate between writing a new thing and going back to the old novel and finishing it and being like, I can make mistakes. I had a good therapy session in which I cried and wailed. Writing is not only what I do, it's a part of me already, just like a job, or friends, or lovers, or family. When writing fails—when my idea of writing, my expectations, my art leaves me—I am thrown into a twirl of desperation. A pilar falls. I am just a ruin.

Slowly, slowly, I get back on track. I'm slowly, too—almost unconsciously—deciding to have fun, and let it be. For a week, I haven't followed my routine of writing at 6 am, but I have written even so. So much, I realize. I need the solitude that writing gives me, I need the calm.

Yesterday, I wrote for almost an hour and a half straight. I didn't look at my phone until morning. I've slept like a baby, at 10 pm, woke up at 7 to write. I've been writing—with breaks—for three hours now. I think I'm going to read a little bit.

The word tracker for Nanowrimo that I downloaded is bliss. I could never meet the 50000 words mark for Nano because I am no good with such a structure of X words/day. It puts a pressure on me that I don't like, since I usually write per scenes. Today, I've written Rotten Judgement and my new idea of a novel. I can also count projects this way.

I don't think I'm going to meet my word expectations (40k for RJ, 20k for my novel; no numbers for OT), but it's handy, and also nice, to see the progress.

[tryslora]

If I'm lucky, all errors have been caught before posting this year, and I have properly accounted for all variations needed for removing a leap year. Man, leap years are killer to deal with in terms of tracking down tiny changes to formulas! BUT. I think I actually did better this year than last year. Can we not discuss the things I screwed up? Anyway. I really did doublecheck pretty much everything that goes back to the Wordcount sheet.

ANYWAY.

For those who have been waiting for this spreadsheet, here it is! Sorry to be so late. For those who haven't seen this before, please take a look, use if you'd like, and share if you want to. All I ask is that if you make changes and spread the changed sheet around, please credit me as the original inspiration and link back to the original as well.

2021 Word Tracking Spreadsheet

Instructions and explanation are behind a cut/read more to save your feed/dash. This spreadsheet was developed because I found that it helped me keep myself moving forward from year to year, and I've been using it since 2012. I've been sharing it after folks asked what I was using to track my words, and it has evolved over the years into the version below. The instructions include screenshots from the 2021 spreadsheet and have finally been updated because a few things have changed. So. I guess I should update the instructions!

This spreadsheet was designed to allow you to set monthly goals for your writing, and easily track your words on different projects each day. It totals up your words for the day, your words for the month, and your words for the year. As you carry it along year to year, you can even track trends in your writing habits (for example, I’ve learned that I really suck at writing in May/June/July).

I’m going to go through this tab by tab to show you what’s what, and how to set yourself up and work daily.

We are actually going to begin with the second tab: Monthly Totals. This is where your totals are tracked, and where you set your goals. You can either set all your goals ahead of time, or month by month.

On this tab, you can fill in your pledges per month, and your goal for the year in the cells marked in grey. The monthly pledges (see column D) will transfer to other tabs as needed, and will be used to calculate a daily expected word count for each month. If you set an annual goal (you don’t have to!), you’ll be able to see how close you are to making that goal, and whether your pledges add up to the annual goal.

New: You can see your words to goal, and average needed per day to get to the goal.

You can see my usual pledges here. I've lowered my goals recently because I've found that around 500 words expected per day actually encourages me to make more, and doesn't make me feel bad if I make fewer.

The Actual column (B) is calculated automatically for you based on what you fill in on the Wordcount sheet, so let the spreadsheet do the work for you!

===

The next tab we need to take a look at is the first one. This is where you’ll be doing your work, on the tab titled Wordcount.

It may look complicated, but I swear it’s not! It calculates pretty much everything you need, as long as you just keep copying information from row to row.

It’s set up so it’ll work whether you start a brand new project of 0 words, or carry forward a WIP that had words before the new year started. All you have to do is put in the title, the purpose (fest, community, this is all just for your notes), and the due date, then put in your starting word count. When you add a new project, make sure to fill that starting word count (0 or otherwise) down through ALL the prior days so that your totals stay consistent. The way I do this in Excel is to select from the starting total down to the current date, then choose Fill Down. All rows MUST be filled in or else your words will go negative (see above, where the cell G6 has a value, even though the word count did not change that day).

When a day begins, it’s easy. Just copy down the prior day (except January 1st, just start with the one in place) by selecting from column F through the last column after your current WIP and then copy it down to the next row.

For example, if I were ready to start Jan 3rd, I select from F6 through I6 (one after my last project) and copy those cells down (I do it by using the little square in the bottom right to drag it down, but you do what's best for you.

When you finish working on a project, enter its current word count.

Now, let's take a closer look at what's above.

I started two projects on Jan 1st: Title and Title2

Title started with 0 words

Title2 came in from last year with 20 words already written

On January 1st, I recorded 100 words for Title and 1200 for Title2, and the sheet calculated that I wrote 1280 words that day

On January 2nd I didn't do anything on Title, but Title2 inreased to 1300 TOTAL words (NOT new words), so I added 100 words that day.

On January 3rd, I added Title3 with 0 words to start, and I made sure that every row in my new column showed those 0 words.

The sheet color codes for days where you are below target or above target in the Actual Words/Day column. It’ll be white on zero days. You can see at a glance your trends for writing.

It also marks projects that have been added to as green on that day in their column, which is nice if you do a weekly or monthly round up. Again, you can see at a glance which projects you've worked on, versus the ones still waiting.

When you finish a fic, simply hide the column (do not delete it). That’s why copying the entire row from F to after last down is important, so you copy the hidden columns too.

Some information about the other columns.

Target Total is where you hoped to be that year by that date. If you’re not there, don’t worry!! Zero days are OKAY and give yourself a chance to catch up another time. If you need to adjust your pledges, go do that on the Monthly Totals tab and everything will update.

The Daily Target is the total you are hoping to reach to stay on target toward the Monthly Pledge for that month–it’ll be different each month depending on what you pledge.

===

Now let’s move on to some of the fun tracking pieces. Next up are Daily Graph and Monthly Graph, which are exactly what they sound like. I’ll show examples from my 2017 spreadsheet (note, the daily graph will look very up and down–that’s OKAY! Again, let yourself have zero days…).

Daily Graph

Monthly Graph

Please note that the monthly graph has changed slightly. The pledged words are a line, but the actual words are now an area graph so you'll be able to see that fill in, and see your pledge as a line over it. That will give something good to look back on at the end of the year, but I don't have a new example yet!

===

There is a weird little blank tab for tracking AO3 stats, if you want to do so like I do. Feel free to modify as you need, based on your own person fandoms. I just carry data through from year to year so I can see how things change.

===

The last two tabs are my favorite! The Annual Comparison tab becomes useful after you’ve been using the spreadsheet more than a year, because by keeping track of totals year to year, you can start to see what your writing tendencies are. This tab has changed this year!

In the main data, I have added a Range (difference between the current month and the average) and a Median. In both cases, it won't calculate (just like the average) until you're actually in that month. Prior calculations are against the prior year's data.

Just copy in your data from prior spreadsheets, then let the new column for this year calculate on its own. No work needed once you've put in the old data!

Sample data included solely to be able to make it make sense. It won't be in the sheet you download.

The chart has changed! The area chart is your average across all your data. The colored lines are all the years. The current year is in black, with markers, to make it really stand out. So you can see both how you are doing against your prior years and your typical average per month.

And the last tab helps you track your progress toward your pledges. This tab is why I created the spreadsheet in the first place. I did NaNo back in 2011 and realized that being able to see my progress helped keep me writing. I like visuals! It lets me see at a glance how I’m progressing toward my goal each month.

You don't need to fill in a thing on this sheet! It pulls in the pledge from where you set it on the Monthly Totals tab, and calculates your wordcount based on that sheet, and does everything for you. Just sit back and enjoy the charts. Red columns are the expected totals, and blue will be your actual progress. You can see whether you're ahead or behind (and DON'T WORRY if you're behind, it is OKAY).

Yes, that’s my actual horrible progress December 2018. It was a rough month.

Anyway, that’s it! Hope you like it, and if you’ve used it before, thank you for coming back. Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

2021 Word Tracking Spreadsheet

[ridiasfangirlings]

Zombie AU. Takes place in Yata & Fushimi's last year of middle school. When they hear news of what's happening Yata is concerned for his sibling so he & Fushimi leave to go pick them up from elementary school. After rescuing Yata's siblings, they're about to be overrun by zombies, when a local 'gang' called Homra swoops in & helps them. They stay with Homra for safety, as the world continues to get progressively worse. Homra eventually meets & teams up with S4, a former private police force.

So imagine this starts as a nice normal day at middle school and then turns into a zombie movie halfway through. Maybe Yata and Fushimi manage to escape because they're skipping class too, like it's during the day that things start getting messy as some zombies manage to make their way onto the school grounds and start biting. Most of the kids are in class and don't notice what's going on until it's too late and then panic ensues as everyone tries to escape at once. Yata and Fushimi however were hanging out on the roof and Yata sees these weird adults staggering through the courtyard. He wonders what's going on and Fushimi leans over and stares down with this keen look, like he doesn't think 'zombies' immediately but he definitely feels like something's wrong. He grabs Yata's arm and says they should go home, Yata doesn't get why Fushimi's suddenly so insistent but he goes with it. They make it to the courtyard just in time to see a few faculty members get bitten and turn into zombies and it's a total 'oh shit we're in a zombie movie and we look like expendable side characters' moment. Yata wants to try and run right past the zombies but Fushimi stops him, saying they need to be cautious about this and instead they sneak around the building to where Yata's been hiding his bike. By the time they retrieve the bike the school has already exploded into chaos, imagine Yata just pedaling as hard as he can past all these zombies and carnage while Fushimi clings to him on the back of the bike.

The streets are in just as much of a mess as the school was and Fushimi probably thinks they should go back to his place to hide on the assumption that his large well-stocked house will be easiest to hunker down in. Yata's worried about his siblings though, the elementary school isn't far and he can't just leave Minoru and Megumi to get eaten by zombies. Fushimi's irritated at Yata for not listening to him but he just clicks his tongue and says fine, they'll get Yata's siblings and then they need to hide. They probably have to ditch the bike eventually and go for a more stealthy way of movement, they also sneak into a destroyed sporting goods store and Yata gets himself a nice zombie-killing baseball bat while Fushimi stocks up on various knives and even manages to retrieve a gun and some ammo. Yata's like Saruhiko can you even use that and Fushimi clicks his tongue and says he would rather have too many weapons than not enough.

Eventually they make it to the school, where there is even more zombie chaos. Yata and Fushimi get to fight their way through the school as best they can, taking out zombies on the way and trying to get past all the frightened panicking kids and teachers. They split up briefly and Yata goes to find Megumi's classroom while Fushimi goes to get Minoru (who probably comes running out of his classroom and just clings to Fushimi all 'Saru!' while Fushimi has to stop himself from prying the small child away from him). They meet back up outside the school but things are getting bad in the street and Yata doesn't know how they're going to escape, especially with Minoru and Megumi. Fushimi leads them to the nearby parking lot and tells Yata to break open the windows of the nearest car and have Minoru climb through and unlock it. Yata's like wait we can't drive Saruhiko and Fushimi gets this wild grin as he's like I can if it doesn't matter who I hit (and that's how Yata finds out that Fushimi knows how to hotwire a car).

They drive wildly out of the school and through the streets, Fushimi just running down every zombie they come across and Yata thinks that maybe he is enjoying this slightly too much. Unfortunately they eventually get surrounded by too many zombies and they can't go any farther, surrounded on all sides. Yata asks Fushimi what to do and Fushimi gets this grim look as he pulls out some knives, telling Minoru and Megumi to stay in the car. Yata catches his eye and nods, shouldering his bat as he tells the kids to keep their heads down and don't look out no matter what. Yata and Fushimi climb out all prepared to meet their last stand together, which is when they hear the sound of a motorcycle pulling up and suddenly there's this red-haired guy with a flamethrower taking out zombies left and right. Yata and Fushimi stare in shock as this whole motorcycle gang appears and takes down the zombies, a blond guy with sunglasses drives over to them and holds out his hand all come with us if you want to live, okay kids.

So Yata and Fushimi are taken back to Bar Homra along with the Yata siblings, turns out that Homra's a gang that's been running this territory for some time. When the whole zombie outbreak thing happened Kusanagi used his contacts and Mikoto's influence to get a resistance set up almost immediately, procuring weapons for everyone and going out trying to find survivors. Shizume's been pretty overrun in just a few days and most of the guys at Homra are members of the gang and their families, Yata and Fushimi are outsiders who eventually become a part of the gang as well. Yata's strength and speed are praised immediately while Kusanagi is impressed with Fushimi's strategic mind. They can't seem to do much more than defend the bar and occasionally rescue a few survivors though, Fushimi's getting restless that they're just fighting a war of attrition and that Homra has no endgame. Then one day while he's out on a supply run Fushimi runs into Scepter 4, a private police force who all managed to survive the initial outbreak thanks to the genius of their lead officer Munakata. Munakata is intrigued to find that there are other groups of survivors out there and requests an audience with Homra, everyone is surprised when he greets Mikoto with an almost familiar 'Ah, Suoh. So it is you,' while Mikoto sighs and gives this feral grin all even zombies couldn't take you down huh Munakata. The groups are immediately at odds but they also have a common goal and now must work together to defeat the zombie hordes and take back the city.

(Also as long as we’re talking zombie AUs it’s been a while since I mentioned the Great Unfinished K Zombie AU I wrote once for NaNo)

[flipomatic]

Internship Chapter 14: Day 10 - Edric

Author Note: I’m currently working on chapter 30 of this fic. Since NaNo ended I’ve been feeling burnt out and have slowed down a lot. It’s still in progress though, and I expect to finish it by the end of this month.

First Chapter Previous Chapter

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When the dispatcher told Edric and Frederick that they would be assigned to the training hall for the day, Edric wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

On one hand, patrolling was the worst. On the other, trying to train new spells was almost as bad. He hadn’t bothered to work on the plant or healing spells, so he was sure to show zero improvement. It was certain to be another bad day.

Regardless, he had to go with Frederick to the training hall.

As usual, there were a few other coven members already there training. Unlike other days though, Frederick actually went to talk to one of them when they arrived.

“Hey, Nick!” He called across the hall to a witch who was practicing fire spells. The witch was in full coven uniform, so Edric couldn’t see their face. When they looked over, Frederick waved broadly. The witch put out his fire spell and jogged towards them, seeming to recognize Frederick.

“Frederick!” He said amiably. “How’ve you been?” When he reached them, the two grasped hands in an odd sort of handshake. Edric lurked behind, not wanting to get involved in this conversation. If they talked for a while, then his suffering would be pushed back.

“I’ve missed our patrols together. Other than that pretty good, been showing our intern the ropes.” Frederick released the handshake and then tugged Edward forward by his sleeve. “Edric, this is Nick. If I remember correctly, you met him on your first day here.”

Edric couldn’t recall meeting someone by that name. The only one coming to him was Mike, the coven member he’d patrolled with. “Hello.” He said politely; it wasn’t worth mentioning that he didn’t remember him.

“Nick Ralph, at your service.” Oh, so his last name was Ralph. Frederick was right; Edric had met him on the first day. Edric only saw him for a minute and he hadn’t made much of an impression. “How are you liking the internship so far?”

Edric put on his best fake smile beneath his mask. “It’s awful.” He said in a saccharine sweet tone.

For a moment, neither of the men reacted. Then Nick burst out laughing, bending over slightly from the exertion.

“He’s a gem.” Nick said after his laughter faded, as he lifted his mask to wipe his eyes.

“We’re working on discipline.” Frederick seemed far less pleased. “And we have training to do.”

Nick nodded, putting his mask back in place. “I have to get going to patrol anyway. See you around.” He saluted, which Frederick returned, then walked towards the exit.

That meant conversation time was over, and suffering time was about to start. Frederick started moving towards their usual training corner, gesturing for Edric to follow him. “Have you been working on your spells?” He asked while they walked.

“Before we talk about that,” Edric wasn’t ashamed to stall for more time. Even if he had to ask personal questions. “How do you know Nick? You seem close.”

Luckily, Frederick didn’t catch on to the stalling tactic. “We went to Hexside together.” He replied as they reached their corner. “He was on the abomination track and I was on healing.”

That was news to Edric. “You were on the healing track?” That was surprising, given his skill in plant and illusion magic.

“I can do a lot more than heal bruises.” Frederick replied, referencing the events of last week. “Speaking of, how is your chest feeling?” He sounded concerned.

The bruises had faded to a yellowish color over the weekend and didn’t hurt as much to the touch. “It’s healing.” Edric replied, not wanting to go into detail.

“Good.” Frederick nodded. “We’re going to work on spells and some basic weaponry today, let’s start with the plant spell.”

Edric sighed, then lifted his hand to cast it. He drew the circle like he should, but then just like last week there was almost no effect. A single root wiggled up half an inch out of the ground. That was it. Without being able to see Frederick’s face, Edric wasn’t sure how he would react.

“Try putting your other hand on the ground.” Frederick seemed to have far more patience than Edric, as he had already proven many times. “To better connect with the plants.” He maintained a calm tone, which honestly Edric was not used to hearing in response to failure.

It was worth a shot. Edric knelt down on one knee and pressed his left hand against the ground. He used his right to cast the spell. It did lead to a stronger effect, but only slightly.

Now the root was an inch out of the ground, instead of just half an inch.

“We’ll keep working on it.” Frederick said, still sounding confident. He crouched down to cut a nick into the small root. “Let’s try the healing spell now.”

It would feel overdramatic to sigh again, so Edric just rose back to his feet and cast the spell. Similar to the plant spell, it had minimal effect. The cut was only partially healed.

“You’re making progress.” Frederick was being way too nice when he said that. “I thought of another useful spell for you, one that’s great when working with a partner.”

Oh no, not another type of magic. Edric prayed that it was an illusion spell.

His hopes were shattered when Fredrick pulled a collapsible flute out of his pocket. “It’s an acceleration spell, super useful.” He lifted his mask to sit on his head, then started to play the flute. A wave of magic came out with the music, which was a fairly simple tune. It had the immediate effect of making Edric feel lighter on his feet.

“Please no.” Edric said bluntly. If it was possible, his bard magic was even worse than the other ones. He had tried a recorder once, nearly killed Em with the screeching sound.

Frederick stopped playing, almost pouting as he put the flute away. “Fine, but only because the other two still need work.” He pulled his mask back down over his face. “What else was there today… oh yes.” He hit one clenched hand into his palm as he remembered. “Wait right here.”

“Ok.”

Frederick walked back across the training hall, towards the rack of weapons. He stopped at it and examined it closely, likely looking for the ones he wanted to use. He picked up two wood swords and started walking back with them.

It was sword training time. Edric knew this was coming at some point, but he hoped it would be later. Or never, never was ideal.

When Frederick was close, he tossed one of the swords to Edric. The teen barely caught it, almost fumbling it to the ground.

“You need to be able to defend yourself, so it’s time to learn the basics.” Frederick said, placing his own wood sword on the ground. “Show me how you should hold it.”

Edric turned the sword so he could hold the hilt in his right hand. He spread his feet a little farther apart and brandished the weapon, holding that pose.

Frederick walked over and started correcting his posture, first by fixing his hand on the weapon. Then his knees, the width between his feet, and how he positioned his center of balance.

“The Emperor’s Coven primarily uses the sword defensively.” Frederick explained while Edric continued to hold the pose. His arm was starting to hurt from holding up the heavy wood weapon. “Can you cast with your left hand?”

“Yes.” Edric replied. He could do it, but the spells weren’t as strong as the ones from his right.

“Go ahead then, cast some illusions without dropping your stance.” Frederick proposed the challenge, picking his own sword up off the ground.

It turned out harder than Edric expected, especially with his right arm starting to shake. He lifted his left hand to draw a spell circle, and was able to create an illusion stand to rest the wood sword against.

“Not exactly what I had in mind.” Frederick said, though he sounded at least a little amused. “Go ahead and take a five minute break, then we’ll work on deflecting.”

Edric let the illusion drop, causing his wood sword to clatter to the floor. He stretched his arm, rubbing at the muscles to get blood flowing properly through it again.

“You’ll get used to it.” Frederick was watching him do the exercise. “And get stronger.”

Edric doubted that, especially since he would not be continuing a career in this line of work. “That’s unlikely.” He sat down on the ground, might as well take advantage of the break. Once he was seated he continued to stretch his arm.

While Edric rested, Frederick lifted his wood sword. He gave it a few practice swings, then switched to a two handed grip.

Fredrick swung a few more times, going through a few routines, then called to Edric. “Let’s get back to work.” He gestured for Edric to stand up, which the teen did slowly.

Edric picked his sword up and resumed the stance he was in before. Frederick gave a couple instructions on fixing it, but not nearly as many as before.

“See, you’re already improving.” Frederick complimented his clearly sloppy form. “Now we’ll work on one handed blocking.” He lifted his wood sword, pointing it in Edric’s direction. “When I swing, lift your sword to block.”

Frederick took a couple steps towards Edric, swinging his sword in a slow diagonal motion. Edric quickly lifted his to meet the strike, and the two clashed together. The impact hurt against Edric’s hand as the hilt jostled in his grasp. Frederick pulled back, and it took all of Edric’s concentration to not drop the sword right back onto the ground.

“Keep your elbows up when you move.” Frederick offered a correction, as usual. “Let me show you why. I’m going to come again, this time hold the position after you block.”

Edric nodded, already exhausted. When Fredericks sword came again, he lifted his own to block it. He was slightly too late this time, and the two collided much closer to his body. As instructed, he held the pose.

“Right now your elbows are down, this is how blocking like that feels.” Frederick leaned forward, applying pressure on Edric’s block. It was heavy, and difficult to maintain the block. He almost sighed in relief when Frederick pulled back.

“Keep your sword up.” Frederick reminded him, snapping Edric back to focus. He walked over and lifted Edric’s right elbow, bringing his arm to a different angle. He then went back to put his sword where it was before. “This is how it should be, with your elbow in the right spot.” Frederick again applied pressure to the block, but it wasn’t nearly as heavy this time. It still took a lot of effort to hold and Edric was still weak, but it didn’t feel out of control.

“Remember how that feels.” Frederick said as he backed away. “Go ahead and return to your starting form.”

Edric did so, his arm muscles once again complaining.

The pair continued working on this technique until lunch, and then for a while after as well. When Edric complained while they ate, Frederick explained that he was worried Edric would be injured even worse than on Friday without proper defensive training.

The bruising on Edric’s chest made it hard to argue against that.

Edric did okay until the strikes started to speed up. He could either have the correct form, or be fast enough. To do both was just beyond him, especially after a long day of training.

“We’ll keep working on it some other time.” Frederick said after knocking the wood sword from Edric’s hands during a failed block. “Go get a drink, then work on your plant magic.” Edric was relieved; even going back to the plant magic was better than this.

That didn’t stop him from taking his time getting that drink, of course. He had to sit on the couch in the lounge for a while to drink it properly.

By the time he made it back to the training hall, Frederick had put both wood swords back on the rack. He was working on some kind of bard spell, or maybe he was just playing his flute it was hard for Edric to tell.

Edric went far enough away from him that the flute playing could be ignored and set about working on his magic.

He didn’t plan to work on the plant spell, no, he had something better in mind.

Illusion magic revenge for sword fighting.

Next Chapter

[danetobelieve]

Tech-tonic Shift || Dave and Winston

When: week beginning 12/07 or so Who: @seizethecarpe​ & @danetobelieve​ Where: the station and etc. Summary: Dave brings Winston some technology that they found at the beach. Warnings: content warnings for death discussion, some slight description of gore and the like

Winston was actually starting to be able to do their job again. They’d taken the week off after Bea’s resurrection, mainly because all the tech around them had immediately gone haywire. After a week it hadn’t really been that workable but Winston had barely been in the job a week and taking an extended period of time off was hardly ideal. Things had improved vastly since then. A knock at the door however dragged them from their thoughts and Winston looked up from the array of monitors they’d been given as part of their new role. Honestly, one of the reasons that Winston enjoyed their work so much was the cool stuff they got to work with. Obviously this wasn’t all top of the line, but then again it was a ‘sleepy’ backwater town in Maine. Looking up, Winston spotted officer Redwood. “Hey Winston, there’s a guy here to see you, found some tech on the beach or something … seems more your area then ours?” Winston honestly wasn’t sure that it was, but when it came to anything with anymore then a six inch screen they were usually the one who ended up doing it. Apparently things hadn’t changed with the new job. Which was fine. “Sure, I’m happy to take a look at it.” Winston held the door open and spotted someone almost exactly there height. “Hi, my names Winston Dane, I’m a forensic technician here, you had something you’d brought in?”

Sometimes the end of the hunt wasn’t a successful kill, but the hope of closure. Dave knew a thing or two about that. Some days he woke up with nothing but the desire to feel the fury’s neck tear under his teeth, and sometimes he was too worn to want anything but the chance to say goodbye. Figured it was the same for everyone else, so when he’d heard rumbles of a beach that was the site of a number of disappearances he’d had to explore it. When he saw some seals hauled up and untouched, it looked all kinds of friendly to him, even with the broken down warning signs. But when he’d had a real walk, he’d begun finding them. Bits of sunglasses here, phones there. After an hour's walk on the beach, he’d found some things worth salvaging. Things that had been spit back out after. Some of it was beyond rescue, some of it wasn’t, but hell, maybe there was someone who would want them back. And hell, Dave had no idea what people could do with tech these days. So he’d brought the whole batch over to the WCPD. When he was finally directed to the person who could help, he offered them a wide hand to shake. “Dave Herring. I was having a walk on one of them beaches that no one sunbathes on, and found all of these ipods and kindles and I don’t know what kinda gizmos. I was told you might be able to help me get them to the right persons.”

Honestly, when Winston had started their day today (with coffee as usual) they hadn’t expected this. But it was certainly an interesting problem. Winston paused for a moment as they considered what this guy was saying. “Okay Dave, cool to meet you…” Winston glanced at the man opposite them before pulling up a chair and taking another one for themselves. “I don’t know if you’ve got all of that stuff with you, but the best way to do it would probably to see if we can work out who they belong to and then I can try and get in contact with them and let them know that you found them and returned them. I’m sure they’ll be really grateful, it’s really nice of you to bring these up.” Winston found that it was less nerve wracking talking to people in a professional capacity then it was when they were in a social environment. “Which beach did you find these at?” Winston asked, curious as to why there was such a great variety of items just being abandoned on a beach.

“As a matter’o fact, I do,” Dave replied, swinging a rough looking tackle bag from his back, that he hadn’t updated since at least the eighties. Why replace what you could stitch and fix back together? ‘Specially when things these days weren’t made to last. Piece by piece, he picked out the salvaged tech, sand grains sticking to each piece. No matter how battered each individual thing was, he set it down on this young Dane’s desk with careful reverence. Some of these things likely had photos of the people that had lost them, and maybe answers too. “Uh, the one just south of Vicker’s beach.”

“Oh, wow, cool.” Winston was pretty sure that the bag that Dave had used to bring the proverbial goodies into Winston was older then they were. However, they weren’t going to complain. At least he had thought to have the good sense to bring them in at all, which was more then most people. Apparently that fact was more true on the one just south of Vicker’s beach. Winston was pretty sure that there was a veritable plethora of iPods (there was an old nano, an iPod classic, two iPod shuffles and four iPod touches), several phones, a couple of kindles and a few other versions of e-readers, an iPad and what looked like the very battered remains of a Alienware laptop. Winston pulled on a set of gloves and glanced at the tech. “You weren’t kidding, this is really a lot of stuff. Weird that people would just leave this all behind, I guess the first thing to do is clean them all up as best I can, then get them charged and see if I can access them.” Winston looked up at Dave. “This is gonna take me a while Dave, can you come back in like a few days or something and I can let you know what sort of progress I’ve made?” 

“Sure thing,” Dave said, slinging the worn canvas bag back onto his back, looking at the random assortments  he’d left on the technician’s desk. Hoped this Dane person would be able to find their homes, even if their owners were long gone. Plucking his sunglasses from his shirt pocked, Dave nodded his head, and headed out. No point in lingering to waste anyone here’s time. 

-------

Several days’d passed, and Dave’d eventually made the trip back to the station to see where the electronic detective had gotten with all them gizmos. He’d done another pass of the beach in the mean time, running his fingers through the sand, but nothing new had surfaced. But sand beaches could swallow and unearth their secrets at any time and maybe he’d found all the big things on his first round. Maybe he wasn’t the only one patrolling the beach for little treasure treats. All the same, he was quickly directed back to Dane’s office, and knocked politely, summer hat clasped in his hands. 

Winston had been working on the lost items as much as possible. Finding all the various charging cables had been challenging in itself. Of the gizmos that had been brought into Winston, a good proportion of them would need repairs to hardware before they could be recharged. A few had broken screens which made accessing them difficult. The rest worked to varying degrees. Spotting Dave knocking at the door to their office, Winston pulled it open and ushered him in. “Hey, welcome back Dave, you want a drink or anything …” they weren’t sure if Police Station Coffee would be to Dave’s taste but it was polite to offer, “You didn’t find anymore tech did you?” Winston asked, a little concerned about the amount of it that was apparently turning up. 

“Nah, I’m alright, thanks all the same,” Dave replied, waving away any such coffee request as he stepped inside. He set his bag down, and pulled out a quarter of some old kindle, and what had once been the motherboard of some kind of smart phone. “Ain’t too sure you’ll get any use out of these. It’s just that one shore, though. You’ll find trash anywhere, but just whole things abandoned on this one.”

“Sure, it’s cool, the coffee here sucks,” Winston raised an eyebrow at the scraps that Dave had brought in. “I’ll take a look at them if it’s all the same to you, I don’t really know what I might be able to do with it. You never know what you might be able to pull off of something, even if there’s no way to access any of the data that was once there forensics can get a lot. I’m always … surprised by it.” Winston paused for a second. “Anyway, I’ve managed to get into one of the phones, it’s one of the newer models actually and the lady who owned it had a pretty good case on it. It was just scratched up really.” Winston pulled a evidence bag towards them and turned it over so Dave could see the phone inside. “It’s belongs to a lady called Elaine Thompson, she lived here in town, is a retired lawyer apparently. When I matched the phone to her I realised that there is a missing persons report attached to it. Elaine went missing in February of this year.” 

“Ha, noted,” Dave replied with a laugh. “Not much of a coffee guy myself, but I’ll keep that in mind.” The caffeine gave him headaches as often as not these days, heavy pounding ones not worth the kickstart to the morning he promised. Besides, sleep was the one thing in his life he had complete control of. He slid the little pieces onto Winston’s desk. “Yeah, you;d know better’n me.” When Dane said they’d found something, he perked right up, clasping his hand behind his back and leaning over the phone. “Shit. That aint good. This here uh beach I found this all on, it had a couple broken signs, saying it wasn’t all that safe to stay there too long. Wonder if maybe all this has somethin’ to do with that.”

Winston was not convinced that there was such a thing as someone who wasn’t a coffee guy. They themselves lived off of the stuff. Sometimes to an unhealthy level. However, that was hardly important compared to the other problem at hand. Dave seemed concerned by the news, however it was nothing compared to the concern that Winston themselves felt at the fact that they had been found in an area with broken signs warning about a hazard. “Okay, that sounds like bad news,” Winston wondered whether this was a coincidence. Maybe Elaine had simply wandered onto the beach and something terrible had happened. They were almost praying that this wasn’t supernaturally related. “I’ve got a map of White Crest’s coastline, can you show me where on the map this area is?” Winston pulled up the map on an iPad and handed Dave a stylus, “You can just draw onto the screen, if you use your fingers to like drag the map to where you want, then you can you know … draw with the pen thing.” Why would they call it a pen thing? “Anyway, if there were signs here we should definitely get someone to check it out properly.” 

“Yeah, sure thing,” Dave agreed, sitting in the seat opposite Winston’s desk. He’d expected them to pick up a physical map, but instead he was handed an iPad and a stylus. Hell, Dave had only made the switch to a touchscreen phone three years ago, and was constantly typing the wrong buttons, clicking on things that he oughtn’t and getting lost through ads that looked like links on the website and dragged him some place else. The moment he took the iPad, he accidentally clicked the homescreen button. “Uh,” he said, gesturing for Winston to refind all of it. Once they had, Dave was more cautious, poking the screen in short bursts until he got to the area south of Vicker’s, using the pen, he cautiously drew a bubble around the beach in question. 

“Awesome,” Winston dropped slowly into the seat next to Dave’s, watching them carefully pick up the iPad. There were some set backs but that was to be expected and Winston had seen much worse. Some of the older members of staff in the station didn’t know the difference between a fax machine and a printer, many of them were convinced that faxes were the optimum method of transferring information too. “Don’t worry, happens to the best of us.” Winston watched Dave mark out the area before taking several screenshots and sending them off to the relevant people within the station. “Some officers are going to meet us down there, but you’ve actually … you know been out to this beach and gotten there relatively unscatched, do you think you could show us the areas you found everything and we can set up some method of monitoring it so we can work out why this is happening…?” 

“Hmmm,” Was all  Dave had to say to that. He was happy just fine with his laptop from 2010 and a phone with a case thick enough it could be mistaken for a brick. This was not his expertise. At Dane’s suggestion, he nodded, although he had a bad feeling about it right deep in his gut. “Ain’t too hard to get to, it just seems dangerous to stay on.” With plenty of signs of danger on all ends. It wasn’t even one of the beaches with the more dangerous waves nor riptides. “Anyhow, I’m here to help, however that might be. Just letting you know I’m new to town. Don’t know much of anything about the beaches yet.”

“Well, welcome to White Crest, I’m sorry that this was one of your first experiences of the town, it’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.” Winston being one of the key culprits for that particular crime. “If you’re free now we might as well go check it out now, officer Redwood has volunteered to drive us down to the beach,” which was good because Winston didn’t think that they should be having anyone in their terrible piece of shit car within any sort of work capacity, “so if you’re happy to join us then we can get going straight away. Hopefully this won’t take too much of your time.” 

“Sure am,” Dave replied, dropping his hands to his thighs and pushing against his knees to stand up again. “No time like the present.” Not long after, there was officer Redwood, whose hand Dave shook too, and they were lead to the car. Dave gave directions to the beach, and they were soon on their way. As Officer Redwood pulled up, Dave scanned the waters. Shrinking tides, and with the sunny sky, the water wasn’t that violent either. In all things, it seemed a perfect beach day, but the beach was near empty of people. Everyone either avoided it or somethin’ worse was causing the gap. “See here. Sign’s barely even legible, completely rotted through.” He pointed it out, nudging it with his boot

The sea wind swept through Winston’s hair and slowly dried out their lips. Winston squinted into the sun through their glasses and couldn’t help but wish that they had brought their sunglasses with them. Looking down at what was a truly rotten sign, Winston couldn’t help but wonder what was up with this place. “That’s really weird,” Winston crouched down and pulled the remains of a large red sign that had once given a warning of some kind from the wet sand. “Did you see other signs like this … ?” Winston had to admit that it was weird to them, they weren’t sure what it was, but there was something off about this that didn’t quite add up, Winston took a step towards the beach. 

“Yeah, one down on the south end. Doesn’t seem to matter that you can’t seem them though, for a sand beach it sure is empty,” Dave said, looking out along the beach. He’d been wrong. There was one man, lying on a striped blue beach towel, flicking on his phone. David frowned, looking around the rest of the beach. Instinctively, he raised his hand in front of Winston, because while he knew he’d walked it fine, people didn’t avoid such a pretty place for nothing. “Careful now. Sure those signs are there for a reason.”

Spotting the man lying on the beach towel Winston was about to say something to them and was making their way over when Dave’s hand rose in front of them. “Broken signs and an empty beach,” Winston wasn’t sure whether or not this was really true, but they were almost certain that there was something going on here that was supernatural, it didn’t make sense for this to be something … mundane, and yet there was definitely something weird going on here, “that doesn’t seem weird at all.” Swallowing, Winston looked at the man on the beach, was he beginning to sink a little or were they seeing things? “Is he getting lower…?”

“I don’t have the faintest-” Dave turned back to the beach with a frown. Winston was right, the man was sinking, slowly at first. He didn’t seem to realise, but as Dave began to move, the man began to yell. Dave dropped his things and sprinted across the beach. Ignoring the police altogether, he grabbed the man’s arm, and tried to yank him back out. He came far too easily, so much so that Dave fell back from how hard he yanked. Only, the only thing he’d rescued was an arm dripping blood. “What the fuck.” He began to dig through the sand where the man had been, frantically throwing sand behind him as he dug his hands deeper and deeper, but as most when he reached the water logged sand, it smelled like iron, but he couldn’t quite see how blood soaked and red it truly was. 

What happened next would’ve been perfectly placed within a horror movie, Winston saw the man sinking, they tried to move with Dave as he went to help the sunbather but they weren’t nearly as quick or spry as their older companion. Darting after Dave, Winston was gasping for breath and had half a mind to reach for their inhaler and then they saw the hand that was in Dave’s possession. “Okay, fuck, off the sand now.” Winston wasn’t giving an option here, they could look for the man all that they wanted but from the arm that had been left behind and the red splodge of blood soaking into the water and dirt around them, Winston doubted there was anything left to look for. “I think he’s gone Dave,” they swallowed as the Officers that they had come here with looked at one another as if they should be doing something but weren’t sure what, “we need to get back to the station and cordon this place off but first we need to get out of the sand.” 

After a long pause, Dave nodded, pressing his bloodied hands against his knees to push himself standing upright. He was breathing heavily, his lungs protesting the exertion. “Think you’re right, Dane. Alright, let’s go.” Pressing a hand to his side, he followed them off the sands, still holding the arm in his hand, it dripping blood onto the sand as they returned back to the embankment. “Don’t understand a thing. I walked that beach for hours last week. Ain’t seen nothing like this.”

Pursing their lips at the scene that they had just witnessed, Winston couldn’t help but worry about all of the people who could’ve been hurt like this. They weren’t sure what they had just seen. Honestly, it didn't really make any sense to them. They had seen things that could do this, but they were always physical things. Not entire pieces of land. Apparently previous signs hadn’t been successful but they had to do something. “I don’t get it either, but I’m going to look into it, I don’t think it was entirely natural and whatever it is that can do something like that is beyond me.” Winston paused for a second longer and frowned. What was different about Dave if he had been able to comb the beach without getting harmed. “We’re missing something and as soon as we find out what we can actually do something about it.” 

[pepziglassknot]

Have Faith in ME

Aged up Pro Hero! Katsuki Bakugo 

Based off of: A Day to Remember- Have Faith in Me

 WARNING: Angst (eventual little fluff and big happy ending). Cursing. Mentions of death. General warning about injuries. 

Bakugo x Reader 

Readers quirk: Touchable Telekinesis 

-Katsuki and reader have been together since their last year of highschool. Y/N is one of the top rescue and emergency force heroes. The night Katsuki and his fiance(e) have a fight, y/n immediately rushes out to answer an emergency call. 

Hero name: Mega-Force

Word Count: 1.8k 

Part 1 | (p2 coming soon!) |

“I’m not being reckless dammit! I’m doing my job Y/N. SAVING PEOPLE?” His voice was hoarse, body covered in dirt and dried blood.  “Being reckless is almost blasting your arms off Katsuki! You tried doing everything by yourself and now you can barley hold your own weight up. Why are you acting like this? Of all times??” Y/N wasn’t afraid to challenge Ground Zero back. So when their fiance almost goes and kills himself for the fifth time this month, they don’t feel the need to hold back on sharing exactly how they were feeling. “I thought you stopped all this non-sense two years ago, you were working so well with the other heroes.” Mentioning his coworkers must have set off a fuse as the blond forcefully struggled to stand up and try to push past you. “I did what I had to do, that’s it. Drop it.”  The bedroom suddenly felt still, Katsuki’s voice had been stern and bitter. “I’m going to go shower. Just....just leave me alone.” This evenings fight started the moment he came home looking half dead and broken, and seemed to be coming to an end late into the night. Y/n could only watch on as the banged up hero trudged down their carpeted hall and into the shower room. Their breath was only released when the door was slammed shut, the echo of Katsuki’s anger sounding through the cold apartment. 

Why was it like this? It didn’t used to be. What changed? 

“Damn you Katsuki...” Y/n was quick to try and hold down their frustration, walking out to the kitchen to turn the water heater on. Even if they were mad, confused and maybe hurt, how could they not turn on the hot water? Any good fiance(e) would at least make sure their partner was comfortable.  “FUCK, the water!” His voice rang out again, the shower room door slamming against the wall.

 “I GOT IT.”

 After a few moments, only the sound of the door closing again showed they were acknowledged. This was tiring. 

Standing in the kitchen, a small stove light was all that illuminated the dark and lonely kitchen. The soft warm glow gently shined against the engagement ring as y/n finally felt the tension in their muscles release. Why did their face feel wet? Blurry vision? Impossible. They must have been tired. There was no reason to be crying right now. When did Y/n start crying?  “It’s fine, it’s fine. Everything is going to be okay. It will be.” Their voice was so sore and barley audible. Flashes of all the fights the both of them had been having over the past few months started to drown y/n’s mind. The tingling of reasoning was etched into their thoughts, they knew exactly why these fights started. Katsuki was stressed with Hero work and getting married. Y/n was stressed with the exact same thing, the difference was Katsuki was pushing himself away through it all. Why was he so afraid to just open up again? Why couldn’t he just tell them what was bothering him so much?

Using the nearby sink, Y/n splashed cold water onto their face in an attempt to sooth the warm and burning skin around their swollen eyes. With arms supporting their body against the end of the sink, the sound of dripping water was soothing and grounding. 

With Katsuki, the sound of running water hitting the tiles helped drown out any of his racing thoughts as his heart tried to slow down. Even the great Bakugo Katsuki knew that this was wrong, that these fights were unnecessary and just made the situation worse. He just....he couldn’t help it. Y/n just couldn’t understand...they couldn’t see everything, that’s all. Eventually they will be able to. He just had to be patient until then, which god dammit he knew he wasn’t even doing that right. “Shit.....shit...shit.” mutters escaped through Katsuki’s clenched teeth, his weakened body leaning against the wall for support. If the evening had gone differently, maybe he and y/n could have shared a shower together with a nice bath. They could have ended the night in a warm and welcoming bed together. There were still some nights like this, but they were slowly being spread out and thinned. He hated it. He loathed it with a passion. 

----

It had been an hour now, so Katsuki must have been taking a long soak in the tub. 

“I said I��d never let you go, and I never did...” you sang quietly to yourself, the random american rock song playing through your head. It was one that Kirishima had introduced to you and Katsuki when he gifted the both of you some of his favorite cds. The bedroom was cold, so you kept yourself tucked under the warm and soft covers of your bed. With bedside lamps on, there was enough light in the room to read some of the books that your fiance kept beside the bed. Even now the young hero still enjoyed retiring to a somewhat early night. Books were his usual go to wind down for the day, followed by small chatter and a kiss goodnight. Just the thought of your soon to be husband brought a small and tired smile to your face. “Oh Kats....” I miss you. “Good, you aren’t asleep yet.” You jumped a bit from your book, quickly looking up to see Katsuki at the entrance of your shared bedroom. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and his hair was still dripping wet. “Yeah...I am. I wanted to wait for you.” 

With a simple nod, the tired but refreshed male stepped into the room to further dry up and change into his nightwear. Quietly watching on, you set the book back where it belonged and adjusted the covers around you. 

Silence. 

How long would it last?  “Katsuki I-” He seemed to perk up from his dresser when his name was called, but the both of you were interrupted by a loud and consistent beeping. “The hell?”  You eyes widen a bit, hurriedly jumping out of bed to jog over beside your....beside Katsuki. Your work communicator that you kept on the dresser was going off with the emergency alarm and flashing yellow lights. You both share a quick glance before you slip on the device and answer the call. 

“Mega-Force! An Emergency in Tokyo sector A. The villain has already been apprehended, but the damage has continued to progress and become even more hazardous.”  This must have been from the villain Katsuki was fighting along with the other pro heroes! “You are being requested to help lead the effort of maintaining and preventing further damage to buildings and civilians.” 

You were usually only called on for big emergencies, Katsuki knew this too. 

“Mega-Force, confirming Request. TOA fifteen minuets.”  “Request Confirmed. Information and instructions are being sent to you now. Message Over.” 

“Y/n wait-”

“I’m sorry, I have to go. You heard the message Kats.” You were already getting undressed, throwing open your drawer as you slipped on some leggings and a sports bra. “I know but..please dammit, just wait a second!” 

“I can’t! I can’t waste time, what if more people get hurt??” leaping over the bed, you quickly find and step into your suit container.. ((Think Tony Start and his Nano-technology.)) Waves of deep chromatic blue, black and gold start to shimmer over your body before you hero costume is outfitted. The only skin that was left bare were your hands, a small cut off area around your collar bone, and your arms all the way up to the end of your shoulders. This was to maximize your ability to use your quirk. 

“Look, I know you already know it but I’m-” 

“Katsuki.” Within moments, you’re standing back in front of your fiance. The small hints of worry and uncertainty on his face bring you some peace. He still loves me, cares about me. 

“You don’t have to say it. It’ll be fine. I’m always safe. We’ll have trained teams out there like always. Have faith in me.”  The last bit you spoke struck a cord with the Bakugo.

. He watched now as you slipped on some of your protective gear and your head piece. “Don’t wait up, It’ll probably be an all nighter okay? There’s some dinner in the fridge and you know where the medical supplies are. I’m sorry I can’t help you with that. See you soon.” Just as your about to leave, you feel a firm grip pull at your forearm. “Y/n.” Katsuki kept his stance, the image of you in your hero uniform burning into his mind. You were about to do real hero work, he should know best how serious this was. But..for some damn reason there was a small pang in his gut that yelled at him to not let you go.  In the few silent moments you shared together, one of your hands reached up to cup the battered one on your arm. “It’ll be okay. I had faith in you coming home to me, so..just do the same for me...” with a few quick steps you wrapped your arms around the warm and now clean smelling man, Katuski doing the same as he pressed a tender kiss to your forehead. “I know.” his voice was quiet.  “I mean it, I’ll see you soon Kats.” “See you soon sparks.” With that, you were off and out of the room. Just in the bedroom he could hear the front door open then quickly shut closed. He was alone.  Katsuki knew that he wasn’t being called forth because of his direct involvement with the Villain earlier that day. All the hero’s who helped take down the sucker were given the next few days off to heal and get back on track. For a little while he had hoped that he could use these days to finally see you. To actually talk to you and have more than just a few minuets and a good night kiss. Sure he understood how busy hero work could get, but that didn’t stop him from at least feeling a little guilty for having spent so much time away from HIS fiance(e). Logically, he came to the conclusion that this mission would at max last two days -if even that-  which meant he would have a day with you. “Grr...that’s fine. IT’s fine.” We just need to talk, not yell. We need to stop yelling.... Maybe then I can try explaining all these emotions I've been feeling. 

| part 1 |

[amaltheaz]

2019 Fic Writing Roundup

Total 2019 Word Count: AO3 tells me it's 80,085 but it's also not taking into account my nano word count since I haven't posted them yet so with that included, plus the tumblr prompts I filled and the stuff I haven't posted yet... 319, 721 words

Total 2019 Hits - 54,879

Other 2019 AO3 Stats

Kudos - 3,493

Comment Threads - 325

Bookmarks - 710

Subscriptions - 437

Links & Titles to 2019 Works:

From recent to earlier in the year...

1. let there be damage ensued (in that kind of love)

Ship: Scott Moir/Tessa Virtue

Summary: Scott has no idea how much time has passed since the door shut behind them, since the lock was set in place. All he knows is that he is here and so is she.

aka

that pegging au I've been working on for way too long

Status: Completed.

2. you can see it with the lights out

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: Prompt: Kara’s not affected by cold the way humans are and Lena has begun to take advantage of that fact. Kara’s warm skin is great for cold hands

Status: Completed

3. hang a shining star upon the highest place

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: Their first time hosting Chanukkah for the family.

Status: Completed

4. did you mean it (when you said I was pretty)

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: "Lena takes a deep breath to steady herself before she finally dares to look up. Dark blue eyes meet her gaze and she tries to swallow down the dry feeling in her throat, tries to see why Kara is looking at her like this because she's sure that friends don't do this."

aka my own little twist on that friends with benefits au

Status: work in progress

5. what a waste to say the heart could feel apart

Summary: "Despite how it happened, she feels better about coming out to Varia. It seems a similar feeling to the time she saved that plane, a complete body and soul relief that she was able to be who she truly wants to be. Kara can't help but think though, that coming out as Supergirl only resulted in her having to hide even more of herself, just so nobody suspected that she and Supergirl are one and the same."

Or

that alien activist au that nobody asked for but I wanted to write it anyway

Status; work in progress

6. and say you'll hold a place for me in your heart

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: "It’s nearing midnight when they walk through the front door of their new home."

Status: Completed

7. we can move worlds again (like the way gold lasts forever)

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: "The first time they meet, Kara Zor-El is in prison and in line for execution that very same day."

aka the mummy au nobody asked for

Inspired by the fanart in this post: foleypdx.tumblr.com/post/155613882562/luthoring-the-mummy-supercorp-au-lena-in-this

Status: work in progress

8. short on stardust, but there's still time

Summary: "Kara doesn't have to try too hard to single out Lena’s heartbeat across National City, finding it almost as easily as she finds Alex’s or Eliza’s. The ache in her chest loosens and relaxes when she hears the strong and steady beat and it tells her that Lena is unsurprisingly still awake.

And so Kara doesn't spare another thought before pressing Lena’s name on her phone."

Status; work in progress

9. i can try if you like it

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: Tumblr prompt: intimate artistry and birthday fic

10. you danced inside my chest

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: Lena melts under her touch, leaning into it in near the same way that a cat seeks affection."

11. teeth sinking into heart

Ship: Kara Danvers & Alex Danvers (danvers sisters please and thank you)

Summary: a little break in Midvale

Note; I'm really proud of this little ficlet.

12. the key to our heaven is mine

Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Summary: "She wakes up with cold dread soaked into her bones."

And some more that I didn't post to AO3

Jack/Lena - Secret relationship & holiday fic

Tessa/Scott - pregnancy fic/hairbrushingbraiding

SuperCorp - "you don't have to hide from me"

Supercorp - "Kara, can you smell that? Is that—is that you?"

Supercorp - "this isn't how I imagined it happening"

Supercorp - "this is the plan?"

Supercorp - "how could you ever think that would be a good idea?"

Supercorp - "did I just say that?"

Supercorp - "kara looks down at the coffee order in her hand, shocked and disgusted that anybody in their right mind would order a triple shot with nothing to mask the bitterness, and wonders who in the goshdarn heck placed such an order."

Favorite Fic

- My favourite fic that I've written this year honestly would have to be my Jack/Lena from a prompt I filled. It was a nice change of pace to write a different pairing just to know that I can actually do it. This past year I had hoped to challenge myself a little more with my writing and writing Jack/Lena has helped with that.

Hardest Fic

- I had already said it earlier but fwb au for sure has been my hardest fic. I feel honestly part of it is that I know I'm close to the end and I don't want to get there, and the other part wants me to be there already, haha.

Do you plan on taking prompts in 2020?

- oh, for sure! Though I do have so many prompts waiting for me in my inbox, sometimes you just need new ones to unlock some of those creative juices.

What was the best thing about 2019?

- Getting to know my discord family over at @creatorsguildsc has definitely been something that has brought me great joy. Interacting with other content creators in fandom, day in and day out, sharing our frustrations and our love for the thing that we love doing, learning from and encouraging/enabling each other. For sure, this is the best thing about this year.

What was the worst thing about 2019?

- I feel this probably is the same as last year and that's how I wish I had written more.

Any last thoughts for 2019?

- Not bad. Let’s do more of that.

Goals for 2020:

- Finishing fwb au for sure, and hopefully some of my other fics too. I would really love to finish my Melinda/Nat fic as well. Hmm, I would also love to get to know other content creators in this fandom.

Tagging: @spaceman-earthgirl, @xxpaper-flowersxx, @nataliawhite92, @hrwinter, @pippytmi, @drfitzmonster, @spicycheeser, @outislanders, @semperpugnandi, @idontneedtobeforgiven, @ihavethewrongglass, @littlemousejelly, @bearpantaloons, @swashbucklery, @whythinktoomuch, @vox-ex, @storyiicharacter, @gveret-fic, @coffeeshib, @cyclone-rachel, @dcanslist, @thelnjames and any other writer who wants to join in, please feel free ❤️❤️❤️

[gamebound-comic]

Progress Upd8

So I realize its been a while since Gamebound updated and since I talked about the current status here.

I make a lot of random ass tweets, but that's buried easy and not all that far reaching. :U

So here's a progress upd8~

-I'm doing work on Gamebound for NaNo, so there will be an upd8 at the end of the month/beginning of December

-Current script status

110 pages

~24k words

3 Acts, 2 Interludes, 1 Intermission

11 flashes planned, 4 of which are interactive

Estimated completion: About 1/3 or 30% written

Act 1: 67 pages (~60% written)

Act 2: 30 pages (~30% written)

Act 3: 10 pages (~10% written)

Remaining 3 pages are divided between 2 Interludes

I'm planning on adding some sidebar links too.

Tag page for blocking, organization, and tracking purposes

Content Warning page

General warnings: From what we know.  Like major character death, violence, toxic relationships, etc

Comic-so-far warnings: What's shown up in-comic as it's currently posted

Warnings for current upd8: When there's a new upd8, this section will be warnings pertaining only to the new upd8.

Because these would be changing and because there will be warnings for future content I feel may be a deal breaker from the get go, I would prefer they be on a separate page to avoid any spoilers.  This will be linked in the description of the comic, but also as I post each update notification on tumblr/twitter/etc

Another aspect to this is that, alone, I won't necessarily catch all content that warrants a warning.  So I do ask that if there's something you feel should be added, I'd appreciate being informed and perhaps a brief explanation for why it should be added.  There is some particularly... questionable language in the next upd8 that has prompted me to get this page added to the side bar at that time.

I'm also planning on changing the theme on this blog soon as the current one has not been playing nice with my tags, my links, and really hadn't been the best looking imo.  It was cute enough looking like the mspa site, but it's time to change.

And for now, that's that.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.  Otherwise, see ya at the end of the month with an upd8. 0u0

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall: Thoughts on the Latest Update

So...guess who played through the whole update in one sitting?

I don’t usually give my thoughts on games themselves--if I do, it’s typically in regards to story and worldbuilding rather than gameplay--but there was so much to unpack with this that I feel like I want to cover some points. Some of this is just my personal thoughts, some of this will be a critique, and some of this--since I do post headcanons, stories, and a few theories--will be in regards to my approach on those now that we’ve been given new information.  As this will contain spoilers, I’m leaving the info below the cut.  That said, let’s begin:

To start out, I’d like to cover progression.  I played with my lvl. 36 character, like I’m sure many of you have/will, and while I can’t speak for anyone playing this and receiving these missions on lower levels--when they’ll be getting other missions and the Nanos they need to level up at possibly the same time--as a result, I felt that the new World Nano missions we were given flowed really nicely.  One thing that is both a gift and a curse with FusionFall is that, while it has vast areas to explore, rather than level up following a singular route like some games, you can do a bit of running around if you don’t stack your missions properly.  Luckily, this doesn’t feel tedious simply because there is so much to explore and thanks to the quick travel system. However, for more experienced players who have already run through everything, I could see this being a little stale.  The newer missions ran a pretty set path within a mostly singular route, so you could run from destination to destination rather than hopping from the different areas in the game.  If they add updates with a similar scale, I hope they continue with this trend. 

There were two new locations to explore in the game: Harada-Bridges Records and a digital world.  Both are amazing!!  I’m a sucker for this kind of worldbuilding anyway--I’ve made a huge list of products, stores, etc. in FusionFall and the Cartoon Networks shows just so I can pull them in to my stories rather than use generic stuff--but this took the cake. The team didn’t need to go this far, but they did.  And I love them for it. The record studio had posters for bands and refs to some of the cartoons, it added more to the lore with the Gangreen gang and fleshed them out a bit, and they just looked awesome.  I mean, look at this: The first words out of my mouth on seeing the digital world were literally, “Oh Mama!”

It’s not anything super complicated, but it has this awesome, almost Tron-like aesthetic that’s  just beautiful.  The glowing walls with shifting colors was a great touch and the enemies fit perfectly into this.

Speaking of enemies, let’s get to them and the new combat introduced. 99% of the time, unless it’s for an event, I play solo. (It’s just what I’ve always done.) And at this point, I’ve gotten pretty good handling the controls for the game if I do say so myself.  Not that they’re overly complicated: Once you remember the buttons and what you need to look out for, you’re pretty golden.  

Some of the combat introduced actually surprised me.

The enemies themselves weren’t anything too original, a lot of them we’ve seen before, but some of their abilities will catch you off guard if you’re unprepared.  There’s a fusion monster that splits into two upon death that you have to beat, and then you later have to fight three Fusions at once, some of your Nanos abilities do nothing, and they’re constantly blasting away at you.  I died once to the 3 Fusions, but handled myself pretty well: It did, however, force me to rethink my strategy in a way I never had before, which was refreshing.  I couldn’t even attempt to take on one Fusion at a time in the group by luring one away because all of them reacted, so I ended up having to run around constantly as I was attacking in order to avoid getting bombed by fusion blasts. I like this experiment, as it breaks the old formula and gives the average player a new challenge without becoming frustrating.  I hope the team continues this!

One thing that is frustrating though, and it’s been a problem since before the update, has to do with the fusion matter in Fuse’s Lair. Keep in mind, while I’m fighting three teams of three Fusions one right after the other, I only see one Revive ‘Em all the way at the start on the map, which is huge. (I got a bit frustrated back when I had to battle Fuse because the Revive ‘Em for that was pretty far too, so I constantly kept having to run back to Fuse through a course of fusion monsters and ziplines even though the game was saving my progress during the fight.)  I get that it’s always been a thing when you tackle a boss and it’s a reasonable penalty for the most part, but when you have to go through such a massive location it gets a little ridiculous just to have one.  Especially due to the fusion matter present in the Lair.  Story-wise, it makes perfect sense: You’re in the belly of the beast, so to speak, and in most likely the location with the highest concentration of pure fusion matter on Earth.  However, where this fails in terms of gameplay is that, not only can you step in it and have no idea because everything looks the same, it’s right in the middle of walkways you’re forced to go through or in small patches you accidently step on because again you can’ t see it like in the rest of the game.  It’s a good thing I kept my Grim Tokens for a rainy day, because one tini-tiny patch literally killed me immediately after battling the last trio of Fusions despite the fact that there was no indicator I was standing in it during the fight.  It makes it hard to even find somewhere to stand to recover as you’re going through, and it’s one thing I do hope they fix even if I never have to go back to the Lair myself.

Getting to some of the story/worldbuilding stuff, again, I do love where they’re taking the game.  You can tell these guys aren’t just trying to make random missions for funsies; They’re taking plot development seriously, trying to connect various dots and add a whole new chapter for us to explore.  Of course, you know I already love it, but also, not gonna lie...

I’m happy that it looks like I was right on the hivemind and symbiotic nature of Fuse with Planet Fusion theories. :)

As for the Belladonna/Buttercup one, I figured I probably wouldn't be right about it back then and, sure enough, the memory-loss idea was kept.  The fact that the team actually brought more to such a minor thing in the game overall pleasantly surprised me though.  While I can’t say I like the take due to the plot holes remaining, it’s not something I pin on the team as it was present in the first version of the game and even one of the devs commented on it being a little off and them needing to change some of the dialogue around it in a YouTube vid. There’s only one negative that I have to say about it and that’s an additional plot hole that was made by introducing “Belladonna” with her own separate Fusion and Nano. If she and Buttercup are one and the same, then it doesn’t really make sense that there’d be another one of her.  Memory loss or no, Buttercup’s still Buttercup and from the information we’ve been given on the creation of Fusions, her Fusion wouldn’t change just because of the amnesia unless maybe they’re going for a split personality route, but even that seems a little weak--especially since we’re shown during the mission that Buttercup maintains fragments of her memories and then she remembers her true identity pretty fast.  I think they’re working with it the best they can without tearing away from the original material though, which I really respect.  I hope we get to see where Buttercup is going in the future now that they’re doing more with her character and giving her a chance to shine.  That mission in particular felt like reading the chapter of a good comic, where you’re snapping at the bit waiting for the next issue to be published.

However, as for my personal stories, I’ll probably still be keeping to the Belladonna/Buttercup ideas that I had before and I’ll still leave the theory up for the sake of that theory, even though it was wrong.  There are some things I’d like to play with for stories.

Well, Fusion Fellas, looks like we’ve got a lot to look forward too and a whole new world to explore! 

[tryslora]

2020 Word Tracking Spreadsheet

[NOTE: The link to the spreadsheet has been fixed. Sorry for the error while posting last night]

If I'm lucky, all errors have been caught before posting this year, and I have properly accounted for all variations needed for a leap year. Man, leap years are killer to deal with in terms of tracking down tiny changes to formulas!

ANYWAY.

For those who have been waiting for this spreadsheet, here it is! Sorry to be so late. For those who haven't seen this before, please take a look, use if you'd like, and share if you want to. All I ask is that if you make changes and spread the changed sheet around, please credit me as the original inspiration and link back to the original as well.

2020 Word Tracking Spreadsheet

Instructions and explanation are behind a cut/read more to save your feed/dash. This spreadsheet was developed because I found that it helped me keep myself moving forward from year to year, and I've been using it since 2012. I've been sharing it after folks asked what I was using to track my words, and it has evolved over the years into the version below. The instructions include screenshots from the 2018 spreadsheet (and are copied from then) because I need to get this out and the sheet has not changed.

This spreadsheet was designed to allow you to set monthly goals for your writing, and easily track your words on different projects each day. It totals up your words for the day, your words for the month, and your words for the year. As you carry it along year to year, you can even track trends in your writing habits (for example, I’ve learned that I really suck at writing in May/June/July).

I’m going to go through this tab by tab to show you what’s what, and how to set yourself up and work daily.

We are actually going to begin with the second tab: Monthly Totals. This is where your totals are tracked, and where you set your goals. You can either set all your goals ahead of time, or month by month.

On this tab, you can fill in your pledges per month, and your goal for the year. The monthly pledges (see column D) will transfer to other tabs as needed, and will be used to calculate a daily expected word count for each month. If you set an annual goal (you don’t have to!), you’ll be able to see how close you are to making that goal, and whether your pledges add up to the annual goal.

You can see my usual pledges here. I always try to reach high and pledge higher than I think I’ll make.

The next tab we need to take a look at is the first one. This is where you’ll be doing your work, on the tab titled Wordcount.

It may look complicated, but I swear it’s not! It calculates pretty much everything you need, as long as you just keep copying information from row to row.

It’s set up so it’ll work whether you start a brand new project of 0 words, or carry forward a WIP that had words before 2018 started. All you have to do is put in the title, the purpose (fest, community, this is all just for your notes), and the due date, then put in your starting word count. When you add a new project, make sure to fill that starting word count (0 or otherwise) down through ALL the prior days so that your totals stay consistent. The way I do this in Excel is to select from the starting total down to the current date, then choose Fill Down.

When a day begins, it’s easy. Just copy down the prior day (except January 1st, just start with the one in place) by selecting from column F through the last column after your current WIP and then copy it down to the next row. When you finish working on a project, enter its current word count. In the example above, I ended day 1 with 1 words on TITLE and 1450 words on OLD FIC. The spreadsheet calculated that I only wrote 1 word total for the day. I copied that row down, and the next day I had 2 total words on TITLE and 2500 on OLD FIC, and the sheet calculated that between the two, I wrote 1051 words for the day.

The sheet color codes for days where you are below target or above target in the Actual Words/Day column. It’ll be white on zero days. It also marks projects that have been added to as green on that day in their column, which is nice if you do a weekly or monthly round up.

When you finish a fic, simply hide the column (don’t delete it). That’s why copying the entire row from F to after last down is important, so you copy the hidden columns too.

Some other columns. Target Total is where you hoped to be that year by that date. If you’re not there, don’t worry!! Zero days are OKAY and give yourself a chance to catch up another time. If you need to adjust your pledges, go do that on the Monthly Totals tab and everything will update. The Daily Target is the total you are hoping to reach to stay on target toward the Monthly Pledge for that month–it’ll be different each month depending on what you pledge.

Now let’s move on to some of the fun tracking pieces. Next up are Daily Graph and Monthly Graph, which are exactly what they sound like. I’ll show examples from my 2017 spreadsheet (note, the daily graph will look very up and down–that’s OKAY! Again, let yourself have zero days…).

Daily Graph

Monthly Graph

The last two tabs are my favorite! The Annual Comparison tab becomes useful after you’ve been using the spreadsheet more than a year, because by keeping track of totals year to year, you can start to see what your writing tendencies are. And there’s an average line (the curvy one) to bring those years together.

And the last tab helps you track your progress toward your pledges. This tab is why I created the spreadsheet in the first place. I did NaNo a few years ago and realized that being able to see my progress helped keep me writing. I like visuals! It lets me see at a glance how I’m progressing toward my goal each month. The pledge column is filled in automatically, based on what you pledged back in the Monthly Totals tab. It calculates the expected daily word count, and what you need to write. Then you can see the comparison.

Yes, that’s my actual horrible progress December 2018. While I’m not far from my annual goal, I’m having a really rough month of very few words (can I count these instructions???).

Anyway, that’s it! Hope you like it, and if you’ve used it before, thank you for coming back. Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

2020 Word Tracking Spreadsheet