Ho Ho Ho

LOL, well, so much for "there will be updates in November"!

Though I can't remember where I actually said that, so if you can't find it in this blog, no one can prove anything. ;P

How's about just a quickie update right now? Here's a preview of a fic that won't be released for at least another year, probably longer! I'm only just starting it, for one thing, and for another it's got a story between it and HOAW and I learned my lesson about releasing stuff out of order! But it's a Christmas fic, so I just can't resist writing some of it now.

NO SPOILERS for much of anything, this time around - cool, huh? It's just fluff so far, and fluff it shall remain for quite some time. Enjoy I hope!

****

Tentatively titled: Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime

The snow was snowing. The wind was blowing, and icicles were forming. Launchpad cared nothing about any of that, however; his mind was otherwise occupied.

After a few moments of staring at the display case, he made a jab in the centre of the glass. "That one. I think," he added uncertainly, as the sales girl started to pull the selection out of the case. She stopped, looking at him inquisitively, and he hedged for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that one."

"The emerald?" she asked.

"Yep, I think that's the right one." She removed the ring carefully and set it on a little black, fuzzy pillow. He wondered if they threw one of those in for free, or if it cost extra. It was cute. Still, though, it was the ring that was the actual gift, so he focused on that. It was a thin gold band with an emerald set in the centre; the band thinned out even more and wound itself around the stone on either side. It reminded him of a plant, so therefore it reminded him of Beth; even better, he knew she liked green. "Boy, that's really pretty," he said admiringly.

"It's one of my favourite designs," said the salesgirl cheerfully. "It's custom-made, but it's totally worth it. What size did you need? I can put in the order today and it'll be ready to pick up by Christmas Eve."

"Oh. Size?" He hadn't realized rings came in numeric sizes. "Uh, well, lemme see." He looked at the sales girl's fingers and tried to picture Beth's in comparison with hers. "What size do you wear? She's probably got fingers a little skinnier than yours."

"Okay, well, I'm a seven." She slipped the ring onto the second finger of her left hand, modeling it a little bit. "So a six? Would that be a good guess?"

"You're the expert," said Launchpad, grinning.

The girl returned the grin and took out a little pad of paper. She circled the number six, then at the top of the page she poised her pen to write. "So let me just get a few pieces of information here..."

"What're you doing?" asked a voice at his elbow. Launchpad turned to see Drake, staring in puzzlement at the ring on the girl's hand. Looking slightly flustered, the girl slipped the ring off quickly and put it back under the counter.

"Gettin' Beth a Christmas present," Launchpad answered.

Drake waited a moment, then asked, "You're getting her an engagement ring? Launchpad, for the tenth time, you're not even dating her."

"Aw, no! It's nothin' like that! It's just a present."

"Launchpad. That," Drake pointed at the ring under the glass counter, "is an engagement ring. ALL of these are engagement rings. If you're trying to send a girl the message that you're not desperate, you don't buy her an engagement ring for Christmas."

Launchpad was puzzled. "It's not an engagement ring! It's a... a friendship ring kinda... thing!" The sales girl coughed slightly and looked to the side, scratching her cheek. He felt bad for ignoring her. "What was it ya needed to know?"

"How much does that thing cost, anyway?" Drake asked the girl, pointing into the case.

She cleared her throat again. "It's three thousand," she said awkwardly.

Launchpad's eyebrows went up. "...Oh."

"Shall we go?" Drake asked. He sounded unmistakably smug, though he was trying to hide it.

After a quick apology to the sales girl, Launchpad left the jewelry store empty-handed.

Better Not Be Stingy or Your Nightmares Will Come Truuuue

Well, here they are - the final set of chapter notes for HOAW. For better or worse!

Happy Halloween!

Chapter 10:

References:

- The Real Ghostbusters - "Roben's Spirit Guide", Morgana's reference material, is a take on "Toben's Spirit Guide" from RGB.
- Morgana's backwards-spell to open the door ("Nepo rood") is a reference to Zatanna from DC Comics.

Somehow Morgana watching calmly as candy flies through the air strikes me as funny. I guess because it seems to imply that this is an everyday occurence for her, or at least something she's used to.

I had a real problem in writing this chapter, because I honestly really wanted to have the rain pouring down (SO spooky, you know) but I also needed Gos to be trick-or-treating the whole time. Well, I was always more than willing to go out in the rain on Halloween, but I think I might be pushing it in this one. ;)

Another track from the Beetlejuice soundtrack inspired the tone of this chapter once DW and co. go into Beth's house. All the funhouse stuff is there specifically because the track has funhouse-style music in it. Is that cheating?

Richie was hard to write because he was more or less unsympathetic. Even giving his reasons for doing what he did failed to make him sympathetic. More scenes are written from his POV mostly so that I could try and figure him out a bit. Stella was more straightforward - she made a decision rashly and then regretted it when her spell started to claim Beth, so she decided to cancel it. Richie was harder because he didn't have the regret that Stella had, nor was he inclined to give up his chance at freedom the way she was. Not that I think it was a mistake for me to write him that way, only that it made it harder to find a way to *like* him.

Anyone wondering how, exactly, zombies could burst through the floor of the house's *second story* to attack DW can consider that he's also being attacked by staircases and banisters. *G*


Chapter 11:

References:

- None for this chapter!

Some of the transitions here are jarring; I'd had some constructive criticism when I wrote these scenes that jumping from POV to POV within a scene was poor writing (although the person who told me that was much much kinder in their phrasing *G*) because it implied omniscience. So I was trying very hard to have only one POV per scene, or at least not a whole lot of hyper bounce-arounds. Over time I found that this method of writing didn't work for me, and tried to adapt it so that if I switched POVs in a scene I could at least have a clearer transition to it (which may have been what the commenter actually meant), but at this point it's just choppy little scene changes but with how they're structured I don't want to take the time to reorder them.

Always feel kind of good about myself when I reach the point in a fic where DW gets to be heroic. Since I am at that point in this fic (after 11 chapters!), I now feel good. Also, I liked writing him fighting Malachai, since I feel like it's the most in-character I have DW in this entire fic.

Y'know, rereading this now, I find something very moving about LP's statement that he would never give up trying to save Beth, even when he could no longer see her... I guess that's lame, being enamored with my own writing, but honestly, when it comes to the Beth/LP stuff I am oddly hard to please with my own writing so I thought it was worth noting that I actually *liked* something. (A lot of the other parts in here either leave me cold or even make me cringe a little... I *so* overwrite these things, or else I underwrite them.)

My hope is that Richie's sudden change of heart is a) believable, and b) kind of endearing. I would like it to be one of those moments where you kind of grin a little while reading it. If readers didn't like him up to now, I hope maybe they forgive him a bit at this part.

On the other hand, in retrospect I do wonder if perhaps Richie ends up becoming a bit of Marty Stu, joining Darkwing in fighting Malachai. I had intended it just to give him a purpose for being there, but it does feel to me like it takes away some of DW's thunder, now. Oh well, once again - what's done is done.

Oh yes. I think I failed to mention before now that, rather than sounding the slightest bit like Michael Keaton OR Beetlejuice (lol), the voice in my head for Richie is Steve Buscemi. Very weasely. (I am allowed to say that because, believe it or not, I have the hots for Steve Buscemi, and have for abooooouuuut... five years now? When did I see "Ghost World"? That long, anyway.)

The old "house pulling itself apart" idea came ultimately from The Haunting but I do believe that it's been in a lot of haunted house films.

The brief, quiet conversation between Morgana and Darkwing at the end here is meant to feel very intimate - I sort of wanted to acknowledge a bond between them.

Epilogue

References:
- The Last Unicorn, for Stella's "remembering" tea; the influence here was the laughing skeleton who "remembers" wine enough to get drunk off of it when it's not really there.
- The "going into the light" idea is not specific or unique to one source, but I was thinking explicitly of The Frighteners in this one. Which is kind of odd given how I use it, but oh well. *G*

Although Stella is definitely at peace in the end, I also found something a little chilling about her and Richie simply... *disappearing* like that, and ended up reflecting that in Beth; this is why, despite her sympathy to Stella, Beth is left more unsettled by this ending than anything else.

You may be left wondering if this is for certain the end, or if there are still any ghosts in Beth's house. Well, short answer "yes" with an "if", long answer "no" with a "but..." No, that's a Simpsons quote. The answer is, there are not *currently* any ghosts in Beth's house. If you can call that an answer...

I Done Commissioned Me Up Some Artwork!

A couple of months ago, I decided to treat myself and so I contacted Amanda Rohrssen, aka DarkwingPsycho, and asked her for an art commission. I had no real ideas so I threw a bunch of non-specifics at her: definitely Beth, maybe with Launchpad, something lightly romantic but not major... We agreed on a moment from HOAW, and Amanda produced a really sweet picture that is not actually *in* the fic, but is entirely in keeping with the LP/Beth relationship, and I went "EEEEE!" about fifty times over. ^_^

http://disneypsycho.deviantart.com/art/Launchpad-and-Beth-141804083

Amanda's main devART page has information on commissions. I paid $30 for this - it's $25 for a traditional media piece, plus an extra $5 for a second character. Totally worth every penny, and I think sometime in the future I'm gonna get another one. I am entirely out of the art game myself these days, it seems, but having beautiful artwork produced in this caliber more than makes up for it. :D

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living

Chapters 8 and 9 of HOAW; this will be followed by the remaining chapters tomorrow, probably in the morning. I also have a picture to post! Not by me! Which makes it even cooler :D

Chapter 8

References:

- "Calvin and Hobbes", which long ago inspired the "lobotomy" gag of carving pumpkins. It just seemed SO Gosalyn...
- The Wizard of Oz, in multiple ways, most prominently "I do believe in spooks".
- BIG reference to Beetlejuice in Morgana's spell, which is as close to word-for-word from the movie's exorcism scene as I could get it. I actually did not get it right going by ear when I wrote this... I have since checked the closed-captioning and corrected it. Mostly. *sigh*
- And another reference, this one kind of more subtle: Gosalyn is actually describing Beetlejuice when she asks Stella if she can make herself look scary "like in that movie".
- The other movie Gos eagerly mentions is, of course, The Exorcist. That movie scared my sister so much it made her CRY. :D
- Third reference to Beetlejuice in this chapter: The phrase "Death for the dead" in reference to exorcism comes from there.
- "This is my 'resolved face'" is from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" (it's a Willow line, from season 2 I believe). Cute and, I think, quite Beth-ish.

I don't know but there is something about the sentence "I'll let you carve part of the face" which, as innocently as Gosalyn may mean it, is just sadistic and wrong. :D

I had initially intended Beth's repeated versions of "my house is haunted" to be a reference to "The Real Ghostbusters", where in one episode Winston just disbelievingly repeats "I have sold my soul to the devil" until someone - I think Ray? - points out that it's just a minor demon. (That sure helps, huh? The chant then becomes "I have sold my soul to a minor demon.") ANYway - I felt like it turned out flat on paper, so I just kept the very basic idea.

Beth is too upset and freaked out to be polite or bother to hide the fact that she doesn't like Morgana, here. Naturally no one actually picks up on it. *snerk*

To the best of my knowledge, it really IS dangerous to break a circle during a seance, since the circle is the protection or something. I've never been in a seance. At least not a real one. ;P

So I hope that it doesn't seem out of character for Beth to be so gung-ho all of a sudden about helping Stella. I feel that it's in her character a lot to want to help people, and that she decided that the ghost was just unhappy and needed help, so she'd do it. I know that's kind of a 180-degree turn from her skepticism earlier, but now that the whole thing has a "human face" on it, so to speak, she's much more sympathetic.

One could wonder why, precisely, they're going to let Gos go out Trick-or-Treating when they've got this whole thing planned. The real-life answer is because I needed Gos to be doing something in the climactic scene; the within-the-fic answer is that, if you've heard of fury and a woman scorned, that's nothing compared to the fury of a woman who has missed out on Tricks-or-Treats. (Thank you, "Great Pumpkin"!)

Chapter 9:

References:

- One more Beetlejuice ref for the win, as Richie dusts himself off when he re-enters the story... This is done in the manner of Michael Keaton in the movie, when he says "It's showtime."

OOoooh spooky spooky house! I feel like this opening scene to this chapter is a little overwritten, because it's very much a visual scene in my head and that, naturally, can't be conveyed well into text. Ah well. I do like Gosalyn going back to her window in the hopes that NOW she'll be able to see some ghosts, though.

Drake and Beth's chess game is a lot like the ones I used to play with my husband. For the record, in this game, Drake is me. *G*

"What could happen to her in the hour that she'll be out?" Dun-dun-dunnnnn! Watch me make use of my very subtle foreshadowing! Gape in amazement! ;D

With Beth running around her house calling for Stella, don't you just want to make a "Streetcar Named Desire" reference?

By the time it's turning to dusk and Beth realizes she's been running around her house for three hours, at this point I wanted to imply that the whole reason she went over there (and the whole reason Drake let her) was because the house was sort of working on them both, warping their judgment. I think that's probably clear from how Beth wonders why she lost track of time, etc, but since I spell things out in these notes, consider this one spelled.

The entrance of the ghosts is another sequence written to a track on the Beetlejuice soundtrack - at the moment I couldn't tell you the name of it, though I think it's "The Exorcism" or something, but it's track number 13. Stella's entrance is approximately 52 seconds into the track, which I know because I am listening to it now. *lol*

Okay... what do readers think of Richie's return? Did people know he'd be back? Was it super-obvious that he was a ghost, and was the presence in the wall? I wanted to leave that a mystery until this point and have a little tiny fakeout, implying that the other presence was Malachai trapped in the house. Instead, what Morgana mistakes for two presences is actually three: the woman, the one trapped in the house - Richie - and the "angry" one, which is Malachai. So did it work as a mystery or was it obvious? I genuinely want to know, so please leave a comment if you have one! Even if it's "it was obvious", I still wanna know.

There is no intention of implying a romance between Stella and Richie, btw. Though if anyone wanted to read it that way I wouldn't stop them. But I didn't craft one.

While I'm rereading this now, I am pretty confident I did a decent job of maintaining the surprise with the spell that gets set on Beth. I don't see any major giveaway on that, but if I'm wrong, please do let me know. Sometimes subtleties are not my real strength. ;)

NEWS FLASH!

OMG you guys. I finished the rewrite of TWC1. And I posted it to FF.net.

FINALLY. *weeps*

I hope it doesn't take me another 9 1/2 years to finish rewriting TWC2. I'll settle for 5 years. I'll call that short. :P

But for the time being I'm going to focus on trying to finish AAE... or at least get a big chunk of it done. I am starting to hate that fic, honestly....

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2451889/1/TWC_1_My_Kingdom_For_a_DoublePlait_Bolt

I've seen "The Exorcist" about 2,000 times and it keeps getting funnier EVERY TIME I SEE IT

HOAW Chapter notes continue!

Chapter six

References:

- Henna-Barbeara is my incredibly brilliant reference to Hanna-Barbera. No, seriously, I think that might be the best name-pun I've ever come up with. Sad, really. *G*
- "That Sinking Feeling", just for the Frosty-Os cereal.
- Poltergeist - "This house... is clean!" As delivered by the medium.

Shout-out for finding a way to write Beth waking up in LP's bed! (Hubba-hubba! Hey, I'm rated G.... approximately. ^_~)

They do not show cartoons anywhere on network TV nowadays on Sunday mornings (they barely show any on Saturdays), but when I was a kid... which I will only say was approximately when this show was airing... they did. Usually it was all Scooby Doo and Smurfs and things, and I didn't usually watch them, but obviously SOMEONE did so why not Gos? *G* They also used to do music videos out of cartoon clips, especially at Halloween. I distinctly remember one for "Bad Moon Rising".

Drake's characterization in this scene - most specifically his "voice" - had a lot of help from Darkwingpsycho and LadyJess, both of whom understand him a lot better than I do. ;)

One thing about ghost stories I've never fully understood is the whole "seeing things that aren't there" part. Just because I don't understand it, though, doesn't mean I won't use it - as evidenced by Beth's ability to contact the house's previous owner on his unlisted number. The only problem with this scene is that it doesn't actually give her any new information, other than the fact that the hauntings escalate until Halloween and then die back down on November 2 or so. Which isn't necessary to the plot. Ah well.

The only problem with the Beth's "I'm sorry, Drake" face is that unfortunately, at no point in any of the fics I've written has Beth ever really said "I'm sorry, Drake, but..." Heh, oh well! Once again if I didn't point these things out probably no one would notice. ^_^;;

Chapter seven

References:

- I think the idea of camping out in the living room comes from Poltergeist as well, but it might not. I do know I saw it in a ghost movie.
- Although nothing in it is a direct reference, the ghost sequence in this is influenced in large part by The Blair Witch Project, mostly in terms of the characters' reactions to what is going on. Mainly Beth's reactions, in fact - the gasping, "What was that!?", and so on is based largely on Heather, the girl in that movie. (Of course in the movie it was "what the *bleep* was that?!") Oh yes - and the description of Beth's breath hanging in the air before drifting away is an image that appears (purely by fortune) in BWP, too.
- The Haunting is somewhat directly referenced in that Beth is holding Drake's hand so hard it "felt like she was breaking his fingers" - which is in my favourite scene of that movie.
- The appearance of Stella, and her movements, are based on the movements of the titular ghost in The Lady In White.
- Help!, the Beatles movie, for Drake's line "I take back every bad thing I said about you". I think it's Help! - it might've been Yellow Submarine.

Drake's thought about how he "might as well just marry" Beth - in a *negative* way - was kind of a deliberate nod to what a bad couple they would actually make. *G*

So, this is the chapter where things start getting, and staying, genuinely creepy. Actually this is probably the creepiest chapter in the story, at least in my opinion. I probably ripped about half of it off from other sources, without knowing it. Oh well. It's all collective memory anyway, right? ;P

Case in point: the sequence where LP hears what he thinks is Beth come into the room and stand behind him. That's the kind of thing that gets me each time.

In addition to a nod to The Blair Witch Project and the specific reference to The Haunting, as noted above, this whole sequence with the appearance of the ghost owes some inspiration to The Haunting in general, which is sublime in its use of tension and fear in the middle of the night. The presence of barely-heard voices also is drawn from that film, mainly a scene in which Nell hears the voice of a man chanting or reciting something - you can hear his voice, but can't make out a single word, which is very creepy. There's also a woman laughing or maybe crying, and a baby crying... Unsettling scene, just wonderful. *fangirls The Haunting for like the fiftieth time*

I have always wondered about how this reads to other people reading it for the first time. Anyone reading, or who has already read it: what's your impression of this scene? What do people make of the shape that goes running down the hallway? Does this inspire curiosity to know what's going on or is it just "ho hum, ghosts again"?

Who else thinks LP is milkin' the whole being-scared thing so that he can keep clinging to Beth? ;) Heh, in fact, I like that idea so much that I just went back and attributed it to Drake. Your call whether or not it's true...

You can't reason with a headless man!

The past four post titles, btw, are from the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, narrated (and in this case, sung) by Bing Crosby. Man I wanna watch that now!

***

Chapter four

References:

- "Monsters R Us", the Darkwing episode, referenced a few times over mostly for Gos having been the Monster and somewhat for LP having been the vampire bat. Evidently Beth has not seen that episode. ;)
- The Seven-Year Itch starring Marilyn Monroe, which is the inspiration for Beth's costume (as she says).
- "Malice's Restaurant", I think, was the Darkwing episode where Morgana meets the Muddlefoots. I always thought it was interesting because it brings Morg into Drake's life, outside of his nightlife as Darkwing. Also because of how quickly the Muddlefoots and Morgana take to each other. *G*

Joke that may be lost: the Super Glue to get the bolts on. One should never Super Glue anything to one's body. I'd intended to refer to the bolts being there later (possibly the next day) but decided it was out of place.

I feel a cardinal rule of writing a ghost story is, even when you have cute scenes, you must keep the tension up a little by including some spooky stuff. Hence the part with the locked/unlocked door at Beth's house.

This is another chapter with a bit of a change to it, mainly with LP in Beth's house; I made him a little more exasperated with her behaviour. 'Cause no matter how much you like someone, when they're frustrating they're just FRUSTRATING, durnit. *G*

Another thing I tweaked was just referencing the fact that Beth knows how LP feels about her now, and is nervous being complimented by him (though underneath she's also quite flattered, as well).

Don't ask me why I "duck-i-fied" Charles Darwin's name to "Drakewin" but did not change Marilyn Monroe or Humphrey Bogart. I just couldn't think of any good replacement names. Drakewin, on the other hand, fit so nicely... SO nicely, in fact, that I'm certain either DWD or DuckTales already used it somewhere. The image of Honker in that costume is SO CUTE in my head! ^_~

The brief Honker and Beth interaction sorta sets up something I started playing with back in "Something In the Air", which is that Beth and Honker think very similarly and as such get along very well - which down the road leads to Honker developing a little crush on her. I think this is different from the "everyone loves Beth" syndrome I used to have, because it actually makes *sense*, and also because I intend to underplay it and use it mainly to annoy Gosalyn. If I ever manage to write a fic that takes place after this one, it'll become a little more obvious. ^_^

One thing that is in use in this fic which I don't think has been made particularly clear in earlier fics is that Beth really *is* pretty, and despite being incredibly skinny, could possibly pull off something like Marilyn Monroe for her costume. It's made a little more evident in AAE. The issue she has is that she's been overshadowed by her glam older sister and had self-esteem issues, so she's never put any effort or developed any confidence into her appearance, and manages to keep people from *looking* at her closely enough to notice that she's quite good-looking. She really is underweight, though - or at least, she was, but she's no longer as bad as she was before she met Launchpad. Once she got more friends, she started eating a little better and is a healthier weight now; so she's still skinny - that's just her body type, tall and thin - but no longer badly so.

I put Morgana in a black dress (kind of a Morticia Addams deal) because I figure Halloween is for her family what Christmas is for a lot of Normals (at least the Christian ones), so she's dressed up after having just left some family affair. Oddly, though, I always put her in black when she clearly prefers the colour red in the series. Well, blame me for liking black, I guess.

Yes, "thrilled to death" to see Morgana is an intentional pun on my part.

LP does indeed do a Bogart impression, I believe in "Double-O Duck" from DuckTales.

Man, I really wanted him to kiss her. *sigh* How come, no matter how many times I reread that scene, he never does? :P

Chapter Five

References:

- None in this chapter!

More additions to the text here, both to acknowledge the changes to canon and to give a little more depth to Beth's freakout. In the original she was freaking out more because she was just afraid she was going to ruin her friendship by falling for LP or something, the way she had with Drake; but it makes more sense for her to freak out because LP is moving in on her and she doesn't know how to deal with it. Of course she blames herself though. *G* And actually, she's sort of right - she is sending pretty mixed messages...

I don't think it comes across too well here but that wall section that keeps worrying at Beth - what makes it so uncomfortable is that it's body temperature, perhaps a little damp, and tends to remind people of touching human skin. :P

Of course the "audio" portion of this ghost scene corresponds to the prologue. I tellya folks if this had been a movie and not a fanfic, this scene would have been positively spine-chilling.

Personal opinion, on rereading this, is that you can tell I was out of practice writing DW when he comes into this chapter... A better representation of him would be to have him say something to make it worse, or something like that. I was writing DW like he had no sense of humour here. If I weren't so lazy I'd rewrite it a little, but eh... ;)

Wow, a short chapter!

So don't try to figure out a plan

Okay, so I missed Monday for chapter notes. Therefore I will be making two posts tonight (Tuesday). Chapters 2 and 3 in this one...

***

Chapter two:

References:

- Bernie Wrightson, the previous owner of the house, is named for the acclaimed comic book artist of the same name. I named him that as a gag in TWC4, but it really fits here; he has a strong background in horror comics. :D
-Friends: Beth's attempts to be "breezy" are a direct reference to an ep of this series when Monica leaves a message on her ex-boyfriend's machine. She tells the others that she was "breezy", but it turns out that she ended the message by awkwardly saying "I'm breezy!"
- A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday The 13th, two giants of the slasher genre, got blended together for Nightmare on 13th Street. Obvious, but a fun nod anyway.

Beth's fear of spiders was established in "The Bride Wore Black". Of course it's just one of many creepy-crawlies she has a problem with...

Additions to this chapter from the original version mainly include details about the shrink Beth is seeing in St. Canard - naming her and linking her to the previous story (referral from Dr. Mortimer). Dr. Mortimer's office is about two hours away; too much of a commute. *G*

Beth's awkwardness about hugging LP is actually more a holdover from the first version of the fic, when she was clueless about how he felt about her. I probably should rewrite it now but I'm not sure how to, and it's not all that important anyway.

Re: Beth's inability to find anything on TV that is not horror... Back in the early 90s, when this fic takes place, it seemed like all through the second half of October you would only find slasher movies on TV, especially on "local" stations like the now-defunct UPN and on cable movie channels. Nowadays no one really cares, but I distinctly remember the old days when if you wanted to watch a slasher flick in late October, you could just pick a channel at random.

The Casablanca bit is another reference to something with Kim McFarland, this one an RP series in a forum waaay back in, like, 1994 or something. I have injokes no one gets anymore! It's okay, though, because Beth likes old movies and LP is a Bogart fan, so it works. ^_~

For the record, Drake insisted on coming over because he felt bad about how his conversation with Beth went and he's too awkward about it to just apologize. This is his effort at making it up to her by showing her that he still likes her; Beth totally does not pick up on this.

I'm never sure it's appropriate to have LP come off so cowardly when it comes to supernatural stuff. I get the impression from DWD episodes that he doesn't really like gorey movies, he was pretty uneasy in "The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain", and Morgana and her family seem to make him nervous; I may be playing it up a bit much though. I can't decide. I think there's a precedent in the series that I'm following... I hope so anyway.

One may wonder why Darkwing is put off when Beth asks him to come over and catch burglars... The answer is because it's not something he's likely to get a TV special out of, essentially. ;) He does think she's probably overreacting to a noise or a shadow, but even if it turned out to be a burglar, it's a small fry and Darkwing is more interested in catching someone really big and getting national media coverage for it.

On a personal note, in every ghost movie I've ever seen, unseen running footsteps scare the living bejesus out of me like almost nothing else. There was this part in The Grudge where - um.... that's neither here nor there, forget about it. (I spent half of that movie with my hands over my eyes. LITERALLY. HALF.)

Chapter three

References:

- Stella D'Oro cookies - the inspiration for Stella's last name. I named Stella and Richie in the prologue well before I realized I needed last names for them. D'Oro was a cute gag and also the first name that came into my head.
- Toronto Sun - where I got the name for the St. Canard Sun. The Toronto Sun is, heh, a bit of a rag publication (IMHO). Consider the St. Canard edition to be much the same.
- Stephen King's "IT"; Casper the Friendly Ghost - the two inspirations for Richie's last name. Kaspar/Casper is obvious; it's also similar to Kasprak, the last name of a second character in "IT".
-Quackenbos - I will continue to take any opportunity I can find to work this name into one of my fics.

I just realized that I've got two consecutive chapters in which Beth wanders into the Mallard household and convinces someone there to hang out with her. Heh.

Yay for Beth-Is-A-Geek jokes! I wrote the stuff about Beth at the library loooong before I thought up her childhood love affair with libraries (detailed in AAE), but it only makes sense,don't you think? Incidentally, Gosalyn shares my study habits.

I am pretty certain I stole the gag about Beth's delight over periodicals from The Simpsons. You know, since I steal everything else from that show. ;D

Who remembers card catalogs anymore?

If you cue it right around the point where Beth says "This is a Halloween edition from 1971", more or less anyway, track 6 on the Beetlejuice soundtrack ("Lydia Discovers?") goes right around here.

Incidentally, I shouldn't even point this out on the chance that people might not notice it if I don't, but I'm aware there's a plot hole here: how could anyone know that Stella disappeared from her home that day exactly? Well, we could always assume that she had family or something coming over the next day and she wasn't there... But even THEN how would they know about Richie? Let's just assume there's some unlikely but possible explanation and go with that, huh?

Notes for next two chapters follow immediately! To the point where you will actually see this particular entry after them, because yay for loading backwards. ^_~

He's out looking for a top to chop

Chapter notes for "The House On Avian Way" start right now! Today we get the prologue, and chapter 1.

Prologue:

References, etc:

- "Beetlejuice" in various forms is referenced throughout this fic, since both the film and (to a much larger extent) the soundtrack were a huge inspiration. In fact, as mentioned, a lot of the fic was written to the soundtrack. The film, soundtrack, and animated series are referenced many times.

The entire scene is written, and (more or less) paced, to the opening title theme from the "Beetlejuice" soundtrack. If you listen to the theme while reading this scene - well, it won't match up perfectly because the scene doesn't take a minute and a half, or however long the track is, to read; however, it's meant to approximately follow the sequence.

As we find out later, this scene takes place in 1951 - not that I have anything to link it to that year beyond a few vague hints: "the modern wing-tipped shoes" in Richie's apparel being the biggest one. Also, their names - Stella and Richie - are names I associate more closely with the 50s. Though I think "Richie" is linked to the 50s for me more because of Stephen King's "IT" than any real popularity of the name at that time.

Richie's manner of speaking, also, deliberately emulates Beetlejuice in the animated series.

Chapter 1:

References, etc:

- No references in this chapter!

I'm lame. I totally like the juxtaposition of everything going dark and then the room being flooded with light. I'm not sure how clear it is, however, that this is the same room.

So, here we follow the proper format for a ghost story/movie: start with a mysterious, scary or at least chilling sequence to get everyone's attention, then drop down to a quiet and slower-paced opening with a few hints of spookiness thrown in. Mwahahahaha! I love you, ghost stories!

This is probably the first fic that really brings up the fact that Beth is a skilled seamstress, although I established it back in "The Bride Wore Black" (honest!). It also comes up more in "All About Elizabeth", that never-ending monster of a fic. (Almost wish I'd never even started that one by now because it will NEVER BE FINISHED!).

Don't actually know where LP-as-handyman came from; he's a mechanic, not an electrician. [Edited later to add: Actually he's not even a mechanic! XD He's a pilot, but regardless, he clearly has a working knowledge of mechanics - so I can call that canon.] But we can always chalk it up to him trying to impress Beth with his manly knowledge of... everything that can be fixed with a toolbox.

Note my subtle attempts to timeline, when I mention that last year at Halloween Beth had not yet moved in. TWC4 takes place in October and TWC5, in November.

I am not sure, but I think this scene between LP and Beth owes some minor details to Kim McFarland; early in our correspondance when I was writing the first drafts of TWC, she said something about how she could just see LP helping Beth moving furniture and her serving him lemonade, etc... It seems to have resurfaced as LP moving stacks of fabric and Beth serving him iced tea. *g*

Okay, the lengthy introspective part from LP about Beth took a lot of rewriting from me. As of now I still haven't written the ending of AAE, and although I know how it will end, it's hard to reference something you haven't written yet without being either too vague (so no one knows what you're referring to) or too blatant (so there's no point in writing the actual scene you're referencing). I hope I struck a good balance, mainly talking about things that will not be within AAE itself but come in between that one and this one.

Of course the downside in putting all this out now is that it's total spoilers for the ending of AAE, if that kind of thing matters. But it's the getting there that's important, right? ...Right?

Trying to write a dream sucks. I have never been satisfied with what I've managed, and that goes for this one too.

That covers it for this time... tune in next ... uh, day. ^_^

With a hip, hip and a clippety-clop

Every year in October I say to myself "I am going to finish that update on 'The House on Avian Way' so that I can repost it." And then I don't. Well this year guess what? I did! I also put together a buttload of chapter notes for it, which I will be posting anon! (Probably starting tomorrow.) It is not yet uploaded, either at ff.net (the version there is still the old one) or on my webpage, but it will be soon.

Meanwhile though, I thought that in preparation I would post a sort of history of the fic.

I am, as anyone who knows me personally can attest, a freak about Halloween. I've had to grow out of it in recent years, due to lack of time, but in the past I would decorate not only my house but my webpage and blog, as well. I always wanted to write a ghost fic for the Webfoot Weavings, but for years I had no good ideas. In the late 90s, when I was going to school in Canada, two things converged to make inspiration strike:

First of all, I was reading a Rescue Rangers fic with ghosts in it. I found a lot of it to be genuinely chilling, but was let down by the ending. What I liked about the first part, however, was enough to get me thinking of how *I* would write a ghost story; and secondly, I bought the soundtrack for Beetlejuice, written by Danny Elfman. The music in that movie is very original, at once spooky and cartoony, to fit the tone of the movie. I used to listen to the CD in my car while driving to and from school, and after a while, with this possible ghost story on my mind, the score started to inspire scenes.

To be honest, I don't remember what the initial storyline was, except that in the barest bones kind of way it was what it is now: Beth's house is haunted and the characters have to solve the mystery of just WHO is haunting it. or what, or whatever. :) Over the next couple of years I kept going back to the idea, and in 2000, I started writing it. I then spent the next five years working on it. :D

The title was originally meant to be a place-holder, but after a while I discovered it fit nicely. I think this might have been one of the first fics I worked on where I wrote out of order; I kept finding that I couldn't figure out precisely where to go from one spot, so I'd move on to a later one. Also, this was the first *fic* I wrote out of order; I had previously completed "Something In the Air" but had at least one more to go, possibly two, before this one was to take place. I knew, obviously, what was going to happen in those two (or I thought I did) but had no idea when they would be written.

I think I had about half of it, maybe even more, finished by the time I got married in 2002. I didn't want to release it without having it beta read, so I had to track down some readers - my friends Jess and Amanda were absolutely ESSENTIAL in the completion of this story, and in fact, it's more or less how Amanda and I got to be friends and not just general DWD acquaintances. :D

It still took forever and a day for me to finish this thing off. The ending was impossible to write. I wasn't sure just how I wanted it to go until I got there. And so finally in 2005 it was not just finished but beta'd, corrected, and I finally posted it on FF.net, where it fell a bit flat. Heh. ^_^;; In the next few years I actually finished one of the stories to come before it - "High, Dry, and Flooded" - and despite having had that in my head for *years* already the ending took a direction I hadn't expected and I ended up invalidating a good portion of what I'd written and released in HoAW. Figures. So this is why I had to go back and update it. And I held off because I felt like, why do that before I have the one in between HD&F and HoAW finished? (That one is "All About Elizabeth") I might just invalidate it again!

Well, I have gone long enough without updating it. I hate having it just sit there all defunct and all. So I'm finally posting the durn thing.

Of course, now it has spoilers in it, because it takes place after the story I'm currently working on and it does talk about the end of that story. This time I am pretty certain that story will end the way I think it will, btw. ^_~ But heck, if you've come this far, you probably don't mind. :D

HoAW has influence in a lot of my favourite books and movies, *most* of them about ghosts: The Haunting is a HUGE influence, as is Beetlejuice (of course) and even The Blair Witch Project to an extent. Quite a few others are in there too, as noted in the chapter notes to come. I did not include a soundtrack listing, but I might in the next week if I have the time to go through and match up the tracks.

Not a lot of the story has changed, and the really "important" parts are all the same, but still I hope those who choose to will enjoy rereading "The House On Avian Way" as much as I enjoyed writing it. How corny is that? ^_^

Sea of Green, v2.0

I don't have a substantial update for this week. I really don't have the time or presence of mind to do a discussion post - and no one really seems to read them anyway ([/self pity]) - but I haven't finished TWC1 either.

So instead I'm going to put up what I have of the first chapter of the rewrite of TWC2, "Sea of Green". I always did like that title.

My intention is to write the first chapter, post it at the same time that I post the final chapter of TWC1 so that anyone who decides to go look for the next story and hasn't read the original series yet won't be confused by the continuity fail, and then not touch it again until I've finished "All About Elizabeth". Lord knows when that will be; that has turned out to be The Fanfic That Ate Zebbie. But anyway!

Here's a fic preview. I'd ask for feedback, but - HA. ;)

***

One seasonally mild evening in September, St. Canard's greenest resident made a sincere attempt to enter the city's social scene.

Bushroot was not a fan of dance halls - there was no room to breathe, and his roots generally got trampled on - and he didn't care for bars, or other "typical" places to meet people. Instead he opted for an evening meeting at the St. Canard Botanist Society, held in a local school library, where he found everyone pleasantly talking about flowers and accompanied by a potted plant of some kind. It was lovely, and looking around, he finally felt a sense of kinship with non-vegetable beings.

It was still hard, though, to try to interact. Everyone seemed to know one another, and he knew it would be easier to introduce himself to their plants than to the actual people. He hung back a little, just watching, until a soft, kind voice spoke at his elbow.

"Are you going to stay? Why don't you let me take your hat and coat?"

Bushroot jumped slightly and turned to see a pretty blonde duck smiling at him. He felt himself start blushing, and chuckled awkwardly. "Uh, actually, I- I'd like to keep them on. For now," he added, when she began to look at him a little uncertainly.

"Okay, if that's what you want. You should come on in, though, and settle down. Have a seat, we're always happy to have new members." She took his arm and led him towards a table that was equipped with several slightly-undersized chairs. "I'm Laelia."

"Like the orchid!" he said, delighted.

She beamed at him. "That's right! Wow, you do know your flowers."

"I know a lot of flowers." Although it was the absolute truth, it sounded kind of lame. He looked at his hands, feeling bashful. "Uh, I... I'm afraid I didn't bring a plant with me, though."

Laelia laughed. "Oh, don't worry! That's not a requirement. A lot of people just started bringing in friends from home - it can be a great conversation-starter - but you sure don't *have* to. I bet we can think of plenty of other things to talk about."

That had the ring of an invitation. Bushroot gave a great sigh of relief and let himself relax a little bit. "Well, have you ever heard of the Lyceum Nycanthropus?"

Shaking her head, Laelia said, "I can't say that I have. I'd love to know more, though. What order is it?" She rested her elbow on the table top and smiled at him as she put her chin against her hand.

"Oh, it's very rare - I'm not even sure what the order would be..." He put a leafy finger against his bill to think, and as he did so, he heard a small, quick intake of breath from across the table. His heart sank as he realized his mistake.

She was staring at his hand. "That's..."

"Oh, no no no! Don't be alarmed!" He waved both his hands frantically, but this only seemed to make things worse; Laelia paled and drew back from him. "Okay, I know what you're thinking, but I can explain this -"

"You're Bushroot!" she cried, and she stood up and backed away with her hand against her mouth. Heads turned from all parts of the room to stare at him. "You're the evil Mutant Plant-Duck criminal!"

"Evil is a really strong word," Bushroot said desperately as he stood up. The quick motion knocked his had off of his head, and the room suddenly started buzzing as his face became visible to everyone. "I'm really more of a misunderstood type..." He smiled gently, or hoped it looked that way, and said, "All I want is to meet some people who love plants as much as I do. Can't we just sit and talk?"

Laelia started crying. "Don't - don't hurt me!" she shrieked, and stumbled over a chair on her way for the door. The rest of the room followed her example, and within moments, Bushroot was alone... Except for the plants, most of which had been forgotten by their panicked owners.

He sighed, then sat at a table next to a potted orchid, and put his face in his hands.

TWC 1 Deleted Scene

"Wow! This is just like a DVD!" I hear you saying to yourself, or perhaps to your friend or loved one as you eagerly read this blog together, as is your weekly tradition. (Oh yes, I know all about the life you lead.)

Anyway, though. From the length of my fics these days it probably seems I don't do any editing at all; contrary to that, though, I actually go over everything I write and take out things that don't really have any purpose. No, seriously, I do. *G* If the scene worked, other than just looking like padding, then I keep it in a separate file. So I thought, might as well post some here, right?

This then is a scene that originally came at the start of Act II, Chapter 3 of "Double-Plait Bolt". It's fairly short, but was long enough that I felt it would make a difference in the length if I snipped it; plus it didn't say anything I couldn't leave inferred or just put someplace else. Here is Beth getting ready, and being a nervous wreck, to take the bolt to Drake. For context I'm including the first paragraph of the next scene, which is actually the first scene in the released version of the chapter. Enjoy! I'd love any feedback!


****

Beth awoke with a jerk, surrounded by hardware manuals and encylopedias. The light in her bedroom was on and judging from the odd feeling in her cheek, she'd fallen asleep with her face on the edge of a book again. She touched the cheek gingerly, and found a medium-sized groove on the side of her face.

She groped for her glasses, came up empty, and realized they were still on her face; after adjusting to that, she fumbled for the clock instead and found it was nearly six-thirty a.m. Only about four hours since she'd fallen asleep, assuming she hadn't made it far since the last time she'd checked the clock. The idea of "research" on the double-plait bolts had seemed like a good one at one in the morning, but now it was starting to look as if she may have sabotaged herself. She wanted to get to Drake Mallard's house before he left for work, whenever that might be, and so she was going to have to hurry.

Her shower was necessarily quick, and as she dashed around her house getting dressed she rehearsed and revised what she'd say. "Mr. Mallard, I know this is unexpected, but we like to be very efficient at Bindler's." That sounded okay, but she could do better.

"We go the extra step for our customers!" she told her reflection as she paused before brushing her teeth. "That was really good. More like that. Um..." She thought, squeezing the toothpaste tube absently, and ended up with about a triple serving of toothpaste on her brush. "Ack! Gross!"

Her hair was dry enough. She brushed it fifty times, swept it forward over her shoulders, pushed it back, tied it with a barrette, and finally pulled it back in a ponytail. She thought about her bangs, if she should try parting them a different way; but when she pushed them around, no matter what she tried they just looked fluffy and shapeless, so she combed them with her fingers back to the way they always were.

She couldn't seem to sit still, so she wandered back into the living room, then picked up the bolt and examined it. Double-plait bolts were so *odd* looking, she couldn't quite figure out whose idea they had been. They all came with a standard curve to the body of the bolt, which made them incredibly specialized; surely no one would think of designing anything that would need a bolt like this unless the bolt already existed, so it wasn't as if they'd been created to fill a specific need.

What if he'd already found one? Could he have found one since eleven o'clock the night before? That seemed unlikely. She tried to imagine what he would say when she presented the bolt to him. Would he be grateful? Would he be impressed with her dedication? Maybe he'd just be relieved that whatever it was he needed the bolt for would finally be finished. Maybe he'd tell her all about what it was. If he didn't tell her, maybe she should ask, to show that she was interested. She looked in the mirror and smiled, trying to find the shape or look that was most becoming to her face. "You really don't owe me anything," she said quietly, modestly, to her reflection. "I could tell this was important to you, so I thought it was a good idea to rush. Oh, no, I couldn't possibly take any money. ...Dinner? Well... Gosh, this is so unexpected..."

She thought seriously, for a moment or two, about tying a bow around it and putting it in a little box. It seemed like a great, fun idea for about three seconds, and then she suddenly realized that it was a crazy idea and that if she did it, he would think she was insane. She'd probably look like she worked in a hardware store out of a simple love of hardware, which was nothing like the case.

The clock told her that it was eight past seven. She needed to get going. She looked all over her kitchen table for Drake Mallard's address and phone number, finally found it under a book of local street maps, and remembered that she hadn't written out her directions yet. Thank goodness, he lived on a street that was only about twenty minutes' walk away from her! It was so coincidental that it seemed almost preordained.

She grabbed the bolt, her bag, and a jacket, and with her heart thudding in her chest, she scurried out the door.

***

The month of September was not generally among Gosalyn Mallard's favourite months, for various reasons, but it did have a few things going for it. Baseball and soccer were both in full season, which was a plus since it meant there was usually *something* on TV, and even the obvious downside - returning to school - was a little offset by getting to catch up with some friends who you usually lost touch with over the summer.

etc...

Penultimate Authors Notes

Bum-bum-bummmmmm!

There will be only one chapter after this one. I actually have a deleted scene that would have gone in the previous chapter and I was going to post it and forgot, I also forgot to reference it in the notes. I can go back and edit them though, I guess, can't I? Shall do. Perhaps post the scene in question next week. Meanwhile: TWC1, Act 3, Scene 1!

***

References, etc:

- "Yoink." "Yoink?!" comes directly from "The Simpsons", which I find I cannot keep from quoting constantly in my day-to-day life, so it's not only in my fics that it pops up all the time.
- It's not clear, but if you have seen "Reboot", the way DW says "Megavolt." at the beginning of this chapter should be read in exactly the same way that Bob says "Megabyte." in that show. I have been wanting to make that reference for YEARS.
- Obviously this chapter refers heavily to "Clash Reunion" for all the reunion stuff.

I made up my mind that I wanted to write Megavolt mostly congenial in this scene. It seemed really funny to me. In particular once I got on the idea that he would be all "OMG DRAKE HIIII!" the idea cracked me up completely.

"You remember that guy Hamm? I've been wanting to catch up with *him* for a while now." For some reason I love this. ;D

The "where've you been all night?" "Um, at home asleep?" exchange between Megs and Beth was suggested during prereading of the very first draft of this fic, waaaaay back in 1995 I think it was, by Kim McFarland. She made a huge lot of other suggestions too and was very very kind to me over what was really, fundamentally, a pretty mediocre fic. I probably would have given up fanfic writing if not for her encouragement, so I owe her a LOT.

It's not exactly a reference, since it's not a direct line, but Megavolt's list of all the places he tried to track Beth down is inspired by a very similar bit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, recited by Roger after he tried to find Eddie Valiant. Of course in that one it was "But the liquor store guy... *he* knew." Heh.

In a crisis, I tend to go back and forth between having Gosalyn be very brave and proactive, and having her back off nervously. I think that's what she tends to do on the show, too, but I may overdo it (I like to have DW be the one who actually does the heroics, so Gos often just gets rescued); I interpret it as Gos getting all fired-up and going off without thinking, then realizing just how much danger she's in and not being able to think of a way out, so kind of fizzling a bit. If she WERE left to her own devices, for long enough, she'd probably get spitfirey again.

I had a lot of comments about how Drake is really, really hard on Beth here and perhaps too hard. ...I think I stand by how he speaks to her. Keep in mind that not only did she bring Megavolt there - even by accident - it was also due to her presence that he couldn't save Gosalyn right away. He needs a scapegoat and she's it. And yeah, he is mean, but I've seen him get pretty PO'd, even with people he DOES like. (He's said some pretty awful things to Gos and LP, not to mention Morgana.)

The triumphant return

So it took me a year. But I'm back with more chapter notes! And now you can do what I did, and reread all the older posts! ;D

So I left off at the end of Act II, and thus I finish the act up with Chapter 3. I am actually working on this fic again - though it is slow-going due to new family member - and I'm on the final chapter. I'm not going to say something like "I'm hoping to have it done by such-and-such date" or even just "soon" because I have no idea when I will be able to finish it. But I'm working on it anyway! In the meantime, here are the notes for Chapter 3 of Act II.

These are a lot shorter than the previous ones, mostly because a lot of what I could say here - character motivation, etc - I have already gone into. So enjoy! If I am able I'd like to try to update this blog once a week from here on out, but this is early, so we all know better than to expect any consistency from me. ^_~

References, etc:

- "The Simpsons" - Gosalyn's line about "getting reacquainted with my old friend television" comes from the show's "Rear Window" parody, after Bart breaks his leg and is confined to his room all summer long.
- "Moonlighting" - "Do birds bird? Do bees bee?", which is such a ridiculous line that I had to write it in. It also may be one of the only things David Addison has ever said that could be transferred to Gosalyn. XD
- The Music Man - Marion the Librarian
- Addams Family Values - This is where the line that serial killers "look just like everyone else" comes from.

There is a deleted scene to this chapter, believe it or don't. I write way too freaking much (duh) but although you can't tell, sometimes I actually DO read over what I've written and taken stuff out. I wrote a scene about Beth getting ready to go to see Drake, but although I liked it, it added nothing to the plot so I took it out. I'll post it here. SPECIAL BONUS CONTENT.

I don't know when "teacher's days" actually occur in the school year these days. I seem to remember them falling in September. Maybe I'm thinking of Back To School nights. :P Also I don't think they're called Teachers' Days but meh.

Is there even such a thing as truant officers now? Have they existed since, like, the 50s? :D I have a feeling not, but I like the thought that Gosalyn thinks they do since maybe she saw the idea on TV (like I did) and believes they're still around. *G*

The stuff with Gosalyn shouting is the clearest example I have of myself fleshing out what I had previously written, using the first as an outline. I think in that one Beth was, like, surprised by Gosalyn's lung power or something. You can almost use that as a stage direction. *lol* I decided to leave in the "and she's cute!" line, after some debate, justifying it by implying that Gosalyn may well be lying just to get Drake to come downstairs.

I thought it would be really hard to pull off, but in the end, I *like* seeing Beth through Gosalyn's POV in this scene. I think she's really in character, and Gos's take on her seems about what I would expect; she doesn't dislike her, she just has no real interest in her at all and finds her a little odd.

Also, I needed some kind of reason why Beth would want to babysit and why Gosalyn would put up with it, so the idea that she gets along decently with kids actually fits her character. She's intimidated by other adults, but relates okay to children.

Just in case you read between the lines and were wondering if you read it properly... well... if you kind of got the sense that Beth jumps to the conclusion that Drake and Launchpad are living together because they're... *living together*... yeah, I wrote that intentionally. Because honestly, as an adult, I couldn't think of a way that she wouldn't reach that conclusion. Meanwhile I had a bear of a time coming up with a way for her to be reassured it was NOT the case, since I also can't see any circumstance in which either Drake or LP would ever, EVER realize that someone would think that about them. *lol*

Launchpad's "I just crash here" line is pun intended, on my part that is. Not from him. Then again maybe "crash" is just naturally in his vocabulary. ^_~

I don't know where the "herding" trick Drake uses on Beth came from. It just seems to make sense - Beth wants to make sure she's not in anyone's way, so she naturally moves when they seem to be walking in her direction so that she's not blocking their path, or something.

Tiny bit of foreshadowing, I suppose, with Drake being surprised by how Beth can actually be useful. If circumstances had gone differently he would have revised his opinion of her by the end of this meeting; so naturally I had to make things harder on her and shove Megavolt into it so that he'd have an excuse to go on disliking her. Wheee! Character torture! :D

My favourite Gosalyn line in this fic is "I'm saving it all up for med school." (Is it egotistical to have a favourite line?)

I don't know why, but when it comes to writing Drake and Gosalyn there is nothing I like as much as writing their back-and-forths about something Gos has done. It's just FUN. :D


Aaaand that covers another chapter! And it only took me a year! Holy moley!