If I can catch up on stuff like this, I'll be able to make notes with each chapter I post! So lemme see.
This doesn't correspond with the chapter 1 that's posted on ff.net, because I'm actually separating them a little bit differently for formatting on the website. You'll hopefully manage to figure it out, though, b/c I doubt very much people are going to go run off and open a copy of the fic to play along at home. ^_~
Anyway! I tend to put a buttload of notes at the end of my completed fics; I save 'em up for the finale, so to speak. That's good but what about stuff you wonder on when you're reading? You may not care as much as I do (I love author notes), so if you don't, skip alla this. *G* If I go a chapter at a time I'll have far less overwhelming notes though... that's a plus! Oh yes - this is also how I hope to list my inspirations and if there are any actual lines I've borrowed from a specific source (Cassie Claire made me nervous, even though in my adult life I've never "borrowed" on that level... still though... best to document, yes?)
So, chapter 1 of the Beginning :)
References/etc:
- Kids in the Hall: "Joe"'s reference to Mac & Cheese is loosely inspired by KITH. I no longer remember how, I just know that it was. If you get it, revel in it! Yay for KITH!
- Batman: Darkwing's best "I am the night" expression
- Firesign Theatre: Megavolt's line about "powerful gasoline and a shoeshine" etc is from Firesign's album "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers". *pimp, pimp* Firesign is, for anyone not familiar with them (which is probably a good chunk of my audience), a strange and extremely smart and literate comedy troupe. They will likely show up in more of my fics. ^_~
- Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein: have worked their way into Megavolt's discussion/argument with the large flashlight. I don't know that they had any theories that contradicted one another, though. I really just picked those two names at random.
General notes:
- I started writing the beginning of this rewrite in 2000. I made it a few paragraphs and found the action hard to write. I skipped forward a bit to try and pick up some momentum, got a few more paragraphs done, and completely lost it. It languished for years until I picked it up again recently and found it a tad bit easier. You can see the two different writing styles (my writing style changes, for better or for worse, rather noticeably every couple of years depending on how much writing I actually *do*. Since there were a good six years in between most of the sections, the change is major in spots). I am a lazy editor and just left it unless it really stank.
- Who is Joe? Nobody. I named him because, in my original (1995) version, my pre-reader got confused and thought it was Megavolt in the opening scene. That was due to my lousy writing, and I fixed it in that version, but was left with a need to really make this guy an individual, just to avoid confusion. I don't know much about Joe, except that he's kinda dumb, on the young side, and ultimately rather unlucky. *G*
- I generally treated the Original Version (henceforth referred to as OV) of the fic as an extended outline so far. Take the same basic format and general happenings and just add to it. Flesh out with better characterizations, a few more gags, and a slightly slower pace. It's funny to look at the OV next to this chapter especially because it really does read like a summary or something of the new version.
- Since this is a rewrite I think I have a problem with one of the major things this story is supposed to be about: introducing Beth as a new character. I have been writing her for so long, and so many people have already read other fics (if not this one) with her, that it's almost taken for granted for me that people know who she is. Her first scene (which is another one I started in 2000 and made it about three paragraphs into) is intended to introduce her in a slightly more personal, less rushed way than in the OV. I'm too close to the material to have any idea if it introduces her for the first time or if it just brings her into the story as if we're supposed to know her already. I think it's the latter. I've come back to try to rewrite it again and worried that I'm overdoing it instead, so I've opted to leave it the sort of subtle way it is now, and just go ahead and look lazy. I did realize that I didn't give her last name at all in the version on FF.net, so that's fixed. I need to work a good description of her in there somewhere too. Oy.
- Oh yes! And now we get treated to Beth's crazy relationship with her mother right off the bat, which probably confuses the reader about her personality if they don't already know Beth! Heh ^_^;; Also I hate writing accents. Especially Irish accents.
- I'm not going to pretend I'm utterly comfortable writing for Megavolt. But I enjoyed it in the OV - I still think he's one of the highlights - and although I'm probably sort of overthinking it now, I'm enjoying it here. I have come up with a few lines I've really liked, and the "giant Employee of the Month plaque" is one of them. :D
- Beth's morning experience with the shipment at Bindler's is based heavily on my own years of experience receiving shipment in various retail positions. Yeah it was all exciting at the first job when I was 19. It got less and less so afterwards. (Though there's still something to be said for opening boxes and finding out what's inside... It's like Christmas twice a week! Um but I digress) I never tried desperately to make conversation with the deliverymen, though, and they were all quite friendly for the most part. :) This scene is a plus though because it finally introduces us a bit more to the "real" Beth, the babble-fest who wants to like everyone (and wants even more to *be* liked).
- For anyone who has only read the FF.Net version of this, I suggest checking it on my website. I added a brief description of Beth (in terms of why she avoids mirrors) and I find it rather amusing, especially the part about the size of her head. XD
- The Feynmann/Einstein stuff came about because last year I read Richard Feynmann's memoirs (well, one of them) and really enjoyed it. When I was trying to think of a version of a deep and philosophical discussion that Megavolt might have, I thought something perhaps with Einstein and then picked Feynmann to counter him, even though I haven't seen any evidence that they were ever at odds. But they worked together so maybe they contradicted each other at some point...? Eh, it was just an excuse to toss Richard Feynmann into my fic. ;D Note how I am so lazy I cannot bother to make "duck" versions of either name.
- I found it very easy to write a cranky Drake. (Hmm wonder why. maybe because I always write him that way. 9_9) Contrarily I found it very hard to write LP in this scene. I had about three or four discarded tries of a POV from him before DW gets up, over-explaining his friendship with Beth; finally I decided to just let it go for a while longer, not in the interest of making it a surprise but just to try not to overexplain it. Which I proceed to do later, but some of it NEEDS explaining... kind of... damn I'm just wordy. :P One thing I did decide to do as I was developing the chapter was play down the relationship between LP and Beth. Originally it was going to be a little stronger, still without him quite realizing he had a crush on her, but definitely with him having a crush. I ultimately came to decide on a different track for that part of this story; it's really funny the way these things get away from you, huh? :)
- You and I both know that I have nothing in this story that is more Darkwing-esque than "Sidekick Ruins Photo Opportunity". ^_^
So you know how I said the notes would be less overwhelming if I did them on a chapter-by-chapter basis? That only works if I don't add a bunch of notes as I go because I have the extra space to do so. CRIPES. :P
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Let me just toss one out here then
So yeah, I was going to update this on Monday. And before that I was going to update it last Thursday. Seriously! But then I did not, and in the end here we are and I'm like "must do NOW!"
I have at least three things I want to post on, but I'm only going to do one tonight. Since the timing for it is more or less apt (or it was when I first wanted to make the post), I'm going to do a characterization post on Gosalyn, since she made her first appearance in TWC1 with the chapter that I posted on 6/12.
So. Writing Gosalyn. I actually find it very difficult. :) Well, difficult under certain circumstances: specifically I have a lot of trouble writing Gos in group settings, because in those situations she is not one for insight or planning so much as a general sense of excitement over any adventure going on. And if there is no adventure what then? That's where I run into problems, so Gosalyn tends to tune people out a lot in my "group scenes". *G* On the other hand I love writing her in dialogue with Drake; that comes very naturally for some reason, they play off each other well in my head, I guess.
Gosalyn obviously has a lot of energy, and although she has a definite penchant for getting into trouble, she doesn't do it maliciously. With Gos it's like, hmm, let's compare her to Negaduck and say that both of them might like to see something blow up. But where Negaduck would want to blow it up so that it's destroyed, Gosalyn would just want to see it blow up for the pyrotechnics and stuff. It's not the destruction or anything bad, it's just the excitement of the moment that she loves. This is not entirely hard to write, because it lends itself to a sort of cheerful, exuberant delivery of odd suggestions that go in a general direction that many people would just not expect.
The main problem is that I don't like to write characters as just one-liners (or several-liners), I like to try to go into more depth and get inside their heads. The previous chapter was really hard for me in that way, because I found it very difficult to figure out what Gosalyn would think of Beth. Beth is not exciting or interesting, although (unlike with Drake) as long as she's not actively working against Gos I don't see Gos actually disliking her. Thinking she's boring, sure, but Gos might rebel a bit against authority but she only actually antagonizes someone if that person antagonizes her first. (Besides which, Beth has no air of authority whatsoever.) Having said that though, why should she let Beth into the house? I went with a general sense of curiosity and a short attention span.
So yeah. It's not that I feel like I don't understand Gosalyn... Generally I think I have a decent grasp of her character. The problem is mainly in that I find it tricky to write a ten-year-old, and in trying to convincingly relate her into the series as a whole person and not a cartoon character (been tricky for me for all the characters so far, eh? This is like my most-repeated line!). I think I will do better in later chapters; I'm generally mostly satisfied, I guess, with this chapter but I felt like I sort of shoe-horned certain aspects into where I wanted them to fit and then I had to awkwardly shift the POV over to Beth in a kind of weird way. So - later chapters and fics might work a little bit better.
I have at least three things I want to post on, but I'm only going to do one tonight. Since the timing for it is more or less apt (or it was when I first wanted to make the post), I'm going to do a characterization post on Gosalyn, since she made her first appearance in TWC1 with the chapter that I posted on 6/12.
So. Writing Gosalyn. I actually find it very difficult. :) Well, difficult under certain circumstances: specifically I have a lot of trouble writing Gos in group settings, because in those situations she is not one for insight or planning so much as a general sense of excitement over any adventure going on. And if there is no adventure what then? That's where I run into problems, so Gosalyn tends to tune people out a lot in my "group scenes". *G* On the other hand I love writing her in dialogue with Drake; that comes very naturally for some reason, they play off each other well in my head, I guess.
Gosalyn obviously has a lot of energy, and although she has a definite penchant for getting into trouble, she doesn't do it maliciously. With Gos it's like, hmm, let's compare her to Negaduck and say that both of them might like to see something blow up. But where Negaduck would want to blow it up so that it's destroyed, Gosalyn would just want to see it blow up for the pyrotechnics and stuff. It's not the destruction or anything bad, it's just the excitement of the moment that she loves. This is not entirely hard to write, because it lends itself to a sort of cheerful, exuberant delivery of odd suggestions that go in a general direction that many people would just not expect.
The main problem is that I don't like to write characters as just one-liners (or several-liners), I like to try to go into more depth and get inside their heads. The previous chapter was really hard for me in that way, because I found it very difficult to figure out what Gosalyn would think of Beth. Beth is not exciting or interesting, although (unlike with Drake) as long as she's not actively working against Gos I don't see Gos actually disliking her. Thinking she's boring, sure, but Gos might rebel a bit against authority but she only actually antagonizes someone if that person antagonizes her first. (Besides which, Beth has no air of authority whatsoever.) Having said that though, why should she let Beth into the house? I went with a general sense of curiosity and a short attention span.
So yeah. It's not that I feel like I don't understand Gosalyn... Generally I think I have a decent grasp of her character. The problem is mainly in that I find it tricky to write a ten-year-old, and in trying to convincingly relate her into the series as a whole person and not a cartoon character (been tricky for me for all the characters so far, eh? This is like my most-repeated line!). I think I will do better in later chapters; I'm generally mostly satisfied, I guess, with this chapter but I felt like I sort of shoe-horned certain aspects into where I wanted them to fit and then I had to awkwardly shift the POV over to Beth in a kind of weird way. So - later chapters and fics might work a little bit better.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Whoop-de-doo, Tarantula Town!
After ... I no longer remember how many weeks it's been now, I *finally* have managed to finish the last chapter of Act II of TWC1. Thank you lord. I had wanted to have it done by my trip two weeks ago but I just... well, I've been through it. ^_~ Once I got past a certain point it became a little easier and I'm just so glad to have finally posted it! I had to write it slightly out of order, regarding transitional scenes and such, so after I finished the last bit I had to go back and edit and rewrite. I ended up with my first official "deleted scene"! XD Something for the webpage, if I ever get it up and running.
When I was writing it I didn't like how some parts were turning out, but once I'd sewn it all together I reread those parts and they read the way I wanted them to after all. Go figure. Oh well: it's done! It's DONE! So now I will try to write a real content-laden post very soon! But first I had to shout with glee. ^_^
When I was writing it I didn't like how some parts were turning out, but once I'd sewn it all together I reread those parts and they read the way I wanted them to after all. Go figure. Oh well: it's done! It's DONE! So now I will try to write a real content-laden post very soon! But first I had to shout with glee. ^_^
Monday, June 2, 2008
June: Tidbits?
Heh, so here's some of the usual:
1) Waaah writer's block sucks. :P (I actually have been writing the past couple of days, but slowly and with a great sense of awkwardness; I really want to be done with this chapter so I can post it)
2) Good golly it's been how long since I've posted here?! (Maybe I should make an effort to post once a week, or... something)
3) Blah blah, lots of rambling with lots of parenthetical comments!
Moving on to less generic, more specific comments:
a) Thank you Dharma for your comments on my last post! I love reading your take on the characters, always. I'm especially fond of your take on LP, actually; it's like it gives me permission to write him the way I like to write him. ^_~ Any more musing you care to do on any aspect of the series, I for one would be very interested in reading it!
b) I am terribly terribly grateful to Eric, Amanda, and Icequeenkitty for their gifts to me of fanfiction. I will be posting more about this in my LJ, but I think the most detailed postings will be here b/c I would like to talk about Beth's role in them and how different they all are and how awesome they all are too. I also want to say, to anyone who intended to write for me and didn't manage it: don't sweat it, because it's very very likely that I would be *exactly* the same as you in that situation. If you *wanted* to do it that's more than sweet enough! I am soooo low on fic inspiration that even when I promise it I rarely deliver. Sigh. So yeah, the ones who wrote are not necessarily any more awesome than the ones who did not, but they do have the extra aspect of me having something to explicitly gush over. ^_~ (This will be easier once AMANDA UPLOADS HER FIC *poke poke* I am on the verge of typing it in myself just so people can read it... Which is probably not at all true, really, I doubt I'd spontaneously do that without her permission... but whoooo knooooows what desperate acts I may resort to...)
c) I was so, so right about that scene that's been giving me trouble, the one where Beth shows up at the Mallard house for the first time. It's NOT that hard at all but it's going so awkwardly for me, just because I've attached all this importance to it in my head. Argh. It feels like it's really overwritten - and so, for that matter, does a lot of the Launchpad stuff. I really need to simplify but I feel like I have a lot to *do* so that makes it tougher.
And a few things I think I might write about later:
i) A handful of soundtrack picks for various fics ("All About Elizabeth" has the most, "High Dry and Flooded" has a few, and otherwise I may have a short list of just your basic "character" music)
ii) I feel like I should make posts with "notes" on each chapter of the fics I've been posting. Not huge ones like these, but little ones with a list of the references that pop up, any trivia about a scene, etc.
iii) I like cheese. (In other words I don't have much else to say.)
Man! I really hope I can finish this stupid chapter by this weekend and get it posted! Part of why I'm getting antsy with it is because I decided a while ago I was going to finish Act II before I posted more on AAE, and it's been so long since I've written much on that story that I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to get back into THAT, either! Ay-yi-yi. I spent soooo long with writer's block, then I had about a year without it and it was fabulous, and now it's BACK. And within a year or so I'm likely to lose the little tiny bit of time I have to write, and I have SOOOO much left to do... whine whine... ;) It's fanfiction. Lighten up, Rebecca. :D
Well, hope everyone is happy! (And still interested in reading this stuff!)
1) Waaah writer's block sucks. :P (I actually have been writing the past couple of days, but slowly and with a great sense of awkwardness; I really want to be done with this chapter so I can post it)
2) Good golly it's been how long since I've posted here?! (Maybe I should make an effort to post once a week, or... something)
3) Blah blah, lots of rambling with lots of parenthetical comments!
Moving on to less generic, more specific comments:
a) Thank you Dharma for your comments on my last post! I love reading your take on the characters, always. I'm especially fond of your take on LP, actually; it's like it gives me permission to write him the way I like to write him. ^_~ Any more musing you care to do on any aspect of the series, I for one would be very interested in reading it!
b) I am terribly terribly grateful to Eric, Amanda, and Icequeenkitty for their gifts to me of fanfiction. I will be posting more about this in my LJ, but I think the most detailed postings will be here b/c I would like to talk about Beth's role in them and how different they all are and how awesome they all are too. I also want to say, to anyone who intended to write for me and didn't manage it: don't sweat it, because it's very very likely that I would be *exactly* the same as you in that situation. If you *wanted* to do it that's more than sweet enough! I am soooo low on fic inspiration that even when I promise it I rarely deliver. Sigh. So yeah, the ones who wrote are not necessarily any more awesome than the ones who did not, but they do have the extra aspect of me having something to explicitly gush over. ^_~ (This will be easier once AMANDA UPLOADS HER FIC *poke poke* I am on the verge of typing it in myself just so people can read it... Which is probably not at all true, really, I doubt I'd spontaneously do that without her permission... but whoooo knooooows what desperate acts I may resort to...)
c) I was so, so right about that scene that's been giving me trouble, the one where Beth shows up at the Mallard house for the first time. It's NOT that hard at all but it's going so awkwardly for me, just because I've attached all this importance to it in my head. Argh. It feels like it's really overwritten - and so, for that matter, does a lot of the Launchpad stuff. I really need to simplify but I feel like I have a lot to *do* so that makes it tougher.
And a few things I think I might write about later:
i) A handful of soundtrack picks for various fics ("All About Elizabeth" has the most, "High Dry and Flooded" has a few, and otherwise I may have a short list of just your basic "character" music)
ii) I feel like I should make posts with "notes" on each chapter of the fics I've been posting. Not huge ones like these, but little ones with a list of the references that pop up, any trivia about a scene, etc.
iii) I like cheese. (In other words I don't have much else to say.)
Man! I really hope I can finish this stupid chapter by this weekend and get it posted! Part of why I'm getting antsy with it is because I decided a while ago I was going to finish Act II before I posted more on AAE, and it's been so long since I've written much on that story that I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to get back into THAT, either! Ay-yi-yi. I spent soooo long with writer's block, then I had about a year without it and it was fabulous, and now it's BACK. And within a year or so I'm likely to lose the little tiny bit of time I have to write, and I have SOOOO much left to do... whine whine... ;) It's fanfiction. Lighten up, Rebecca. :D
Well, hope everyone is happy! (And still interested in reading this stuff!)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Characterization notes
Ugh, I have had writer's block the past couple of weeks. Yeah, I know, *again*. Well, in this case it's one of those things where I am not even thinking about writing as much so I can't pull myself together to DO it when I have the time. I did manage to outline my ideas for the last chapter of act II of TWC1, though.
Since the last stuff I posted (and really, practically the last stuff I worked on) was LP-heavy, this is a good time to ramble about my characterization of LP! (uh-huh, sure.) I've never made it any secret at all that I'm a big fan of LP's. Unfortunately that doesn't mean I'm able to write him or anything. *G* Out of all the characters of this show I think I've always been weakest at writing Launchpad... There are a few reasons for this, I've decided over the past few months.
A big reason is because of the disconnect between "Darkwing" Launchpad and "DuckTales" Launchpad. I mean essentially there really are two Launchpads, with the earlier one being the more active one and the later one being much more reduced in role and scope. LP was always comic relief and always kind of good-naturedly dumb, but he had a much more active role in "DuckTales". DWD's Launchpad is a more passive character, often there primarily to provide a punchline more than play an active role in the crimefighting. They definitely stepped outside of that limitation quite often - not only in eps like "Water Way to Go" when LP gets to be the main hero or stuff like that, but just in general at times LP contributed more. But ultimately the character was not the same as on "DuckTales", he was kind of domesticated.
Don't get me wrong; I don't care at all. :D But it made it harder for me to write him, especially with any real sense of personalitiy. My liking for LP didn't translate into deepening him or revitalizing him as a heroic type or anything, it kind of translated as me thinking he was a great guy and would be a great boyfriend (to be honest: I never wanted him to be MY boyfriend. I have Ryouga for that, thanks) and so I just wrote him as Mr. Great Boyfriend. Which is not really fair to LP because it just, ultimately further reduces him.
I also made the huuuuge, but understandable given the age I was in, mistake of injecting the early stories with a healthy dose of angst. Did I say "healthy"? I'm not sure that's the right word for it. ;D It's excessive. I was young. A lot of the stuff that I was writing about was the sort of thing actually going around in my social circles (at least the self-pity and emo stuff, if not the actual events) but that doesn't make it less annoying to read. *G* Somewhere after "The Bride Wore Black" even I was sick of it and I took a vow: I was not going to write ANY more angst if I could help it. Not unless it actually fit the story and character, in any case! And in the past 11 years I've pretty much stuck by that, good for me. :)
So in revisiting these early stories, I'm trying to stick to that vow again. (as we can see, I apparently have decided it's VERY necessary to the plot in AAE, as it's laid on thick and heavy.) I've wanted for a while to improve on my take on Launchpad - he deserves more than just "Beth's would-be boyfriend". I've never even given a fully satisfactory reason as to why he fell for her in the first place. Not only that, but he's barely even Darkwing's sidekick in these stories, so I want to get him at least back up to THAT status.
Which basically means reinventing how I see him, let alone how I write him. It was about six or so months ago that I started realizing I write him as a very, VERY passive character. I'm infrequently "in his head" and when I am, it's usually in response to something someone else is doing rather than him doing anything. So I gave him more action in "High, Dry, and Flooded" - more sidekick action in particular - which was a good start. This attempt at breaking out of the "passive" role also led to me surprising myself by writing his confession to Beth at the end of that story. In the five ore more years I had been planning that fic, that scene was NEVER in the outline. Then about two weeks before I wrote it, it popped into my head. Surprise! ;D And it was totally right, and I never saw it coming.
It's been similar attempts at getting "into his head" in TWC1, perhaps to varying degrees of success. This is sort of my big chance to not only give him a bit more depth, but to in fact decide just HOW I want to present him in these fics. I can essentially start over. I mean, I know it's not going to be very different from what I've been writing lately, but I can lay down a more concrete base to work with.
I want to give him a few more layers, and as with any other character I really care for (and feel for) that means I want him to have some low points too. I want him to get a little irritated, act a little thoughtlessly, generally be wrong some of the time. I do believe that Launchpad is a sweet guy who couldn't be mean if he were being paid to be so; doesn't mean he can't occasionally say or do the wrong thing without realizing it. I don't know exactly how all this will come out, but we'll see. :)
In terms of character traits... well, for one, I don't tend to go with people who say that they think LP is "smarter than he lets on". I'll agree that he seems a bit dimmer than he did on "DuckTales", but I'd rather just write somewhere in between there than speculate that maybe he plays it dumb to keep DW's ego happy. I don't see any evidence of that, I think they just tweaked the character for a show that was based more in comedy than DT had been. LP is... um... not a thinker. So what? I like 'em big and dumb. (Once again, we have Ryouga for evidence.) ^_~ Nah, but seriously, I tend to like characters the way they are - flaws and all. If a character I like has a negative trait I rarely see it as character assassination, unless I think it's too played up at that character's expense (like Joxer on "Xena: Warrior Princess", don't even get me STARTED).
The brief, cartoony, choppy feel of the early stories allowed for a certain suspension of disbelief as regards LP falling for Beth. We may never know WHY, exactly, but it happened and it's established and we'll just go with that, right? Fine... except that I don't write that way anymore. That's why in the end I need to flesh it out. I need to think of the characters as *characters* instead of shadows, and I need a reason why LP would fall for this girl, a girl who thinks of herself as invisible and does a good job of convincing the rest of the world of it, too. I've no doubt that he'd be friendly with her, start up a conversation, find her pleasant enough, but fall in love? Why?
I've got reasons, finally. I hope I'll eventually get to them. For now I'll say, in the course of TWC1, you may be wondering if he's actually falling for her yet. Nope. Not within this story. There may be a little more than he's letting on to himself... maybe... but right now they're both just forging a tenuous friendship. Look for developments in fics to come, however.... IF I ever manage to write 'em. :P
Since the last stuff I posted (and really, practically the last stuff I worked on) was LP-heavy, this is a good time to ramble about my characterization of LP! (uh-huh, sure.) I've never made it any secret at all that I'm a big fan of LP's. Unfortunately that doesn't mean I'm able to write him or anything. *G* Out of all the characters of this show I think I've always been weakest at writing Launchpad... There are a few reasons for this, I've decided over the past few months.
A big reason is because of the disconnect between "Darkwing" Launchpad and "DuckTales" Launchpad. I mean essentially there really are two Launchpads, with the earlier one being the more active one and the later one being much more reduced in role and scope. LP was always comic relief and always kind of good-naturedly dumb, but he had a much more active role in "DuckTales". DWD's Launchpad is a more passive character, often there primarily to provide a punchline more than play an active role in the crimefighting. They definitely stepped outside of that limitation quite often - not only in eps like "Water Way to Go" when LP gets to be the main hero or stuff like that, but just in general at times LP contributed more. But ultimately the character was not the same as on "DuckTales", he was kind of domesticated.
Don't get me wrong; I don't care at all. :D But it made it harder for me to write him, especially with any real sense of personalitiy. My liking for LP didn't translate into deepening him or revitalizing him as a heroic type or anything, it kind of translated as me thinking he was a great guy and would be a great boyfriend (to be honest: I never wanted him to be MY boyfriend. I have Ryouga for that, thanks) and so I just wrote him as Mr. Great Boyfriend. Which is not really fair to LP because it just, ultimately further reduces him.
I also made the huuuuge, but understandable given the age I was in, mistake of injecting the early stories with a healthy dose of angst. Did I say "healthy"? I'm not sure that's the right word for it. ;D It's excessive. I was young. A lot of the stuff that I was writing about was the sort of thing actually going around in my social circles (at least the self-pity and emo stuff, if not the actual events) but that doesn't make it less annoying to read. *G* Somewhere after "The Bride Wore Black" even I was sick of it and I took a vow: I was not going to write ANY more angst if I could help it. Not unless it actually fit the story and character, in any case! And in the past 11 years I've pretty much stuck by that, good for me. :)
So in revisiting these early stories, I'm trying to stick to that vow again. (as we can see, I apparently have decided it's VERY necessary to the plot in AAE, as it's laid on thick and heavy.) I've wanted for a while to improve on my take on Launchpad - he deserves more than just "Beth's would-be boyfriend". I've never even given a fully satisfactory reason as to why he fell for her in the first place. Not only that, but he's barely even Darkwing's sidekick in these stories, so I want to get him at least back up to THAT status.
Which basically means reinventing how I see him, let alone how I write him. It was about six or so months ago that I started realizing I write him as a very, VERY passive character. I'm infrequently "in his head" and when I am, it's usually in response to something someone else is doing rather than him doing anything. So I gave him more action in "High, Dry, and Flooded" - more sidekick action in particular - which was a good start. This attempt at breaking out of the "passive" role also led to me surprising myself by writing his confession to Beth at the end of that story. In the five ore more years I had been planning that fic, that scene was NEVER in the outline. Then about two weeks before I wrote it, it popped into my head. Surprise! ;D And it was totally right, and I never saw it coming.
It's been similar attempts at getting "into his head" in TWC1, perhaps to varying degrees of success. This is sort of my big chance to not only give him a bit more depth, but to in fact decide just HOW I want to present him in these fics. I can essentially start over. I mean, I know it's not going to be very different from what I've been writing lately, but I can lay down a more concrete base to work with.
I want to give him a few more layers, and as with any other character I really care for (and feel for) that means I want him to have some low points too. I want him to get a little irritated, act a little thoughtlessly, generally be wrong some of the time. I do believe that Launchpad is a sweet guy who couldn't be mean if he were being paid to be so; doesn't mean he can't occasionally say or do the wrong thing without realizing it. I don't know exactly how all this will come out, but we'll see. :)
In terms of character traits... well, for one, I don't tend to go with people who say that they think LP is "smarter than he lets on". I'll agree that he seems a bit dimmer than he did on "DuckTales", but I'd rather just write somewhere in between there than speculate that maybe he plays it dumb to keep DW's ego happy. I don't see any evidence of that, I think they just tweaked the character for a show that was based more in comedy than DT had been. LP is... um... not a thinker. So what? I like 'em big and dumb. (Once again, we have Ryouga for evidence.) ^_~ Nah, but seriously, I tend to like characters the way they are - flaws and all. If a character I like has a negative trait I rarely see it as character assassination, unless I think it's too played up at that character's expense (like Joxer on "Xena: Warrior Princess", don't even get me STARTED).
The brief, cartoony, choppy feel of the early stories allowed for a certain suspension of disbelief as regards LP falling for Beth. We may never know WHY, exactly, but it happened and it's established and we'll just go with that, right? Fine... except that I don't write that way anymore. That's why in the end I need to flesh it out. I need to think of the characters as *characters* instead of shadows, and I need a reason why LP would fall for this girl, a girl who thinks of herself as invisible and does a good job of convincing the rest of the world of it, too. I've no doubt that he'd be friendly with her, start up a conversation, find her pleasant enough, but fall in love? Why?
I've got reasons, finally. I hope I'll eventually get to them. For now I'll say, in the course of TWC1, you may be wondering if he's actually falling for her yet. Nope. Not within this story. There may be a little more than he's letting on to himself... maybe... but right now they're both just forging a tenuous friendship. Look for developments in fics to come, however.... IF I ever manage to write 'em. :P
Monday, April 21, 2008
:D
I totally had the BEST idea to create a "flow" through the first five Webfoot fics!! :D Well I mean - a "flow" in the Beth/Launchpad stuff since that's the stuff that needs it. I'd been wondering about the pacing of certain things, and whatnot. And I totally figured it out last night! Well - maybe not "figured it out", but it was a real "EUREKA" kind of moment. It made TOTAL sense. Those are my favourite brainstorming moments; I'm wondering all about how to make something work, usually something I've already written and need to go back and strengthen, and I have this idea that once it occurs to me I kind of go "Oh, DUH. Of course it's been that way all along." XD
I'm so happy, I want to spout random Japanese phrases! Dai ureshii wa! ^_^
I'm so happy, I want to spout random Japanese phrases! Dai ureshii wa! ^_^
Monday, April 14, 2008
Why not post here?
I guess it can't hurt to post some of the fic in my blog. I just had a fairly productive twenty minutes or so where I wrote approximately the same amount that I wrote in, oh, let's guess about an hour the last time I tried to write. So yay! And I'm happier with it, so double-yay! It doesn't fix what I wrote before (which I'm still not happy with) but I'm willing to gloss over that right now.
I can't figure out if you can do cut-tags here in blogspot. Doesn't look that way. Well, I'm going to paste in what I wrote since hte last bit I posted at ff.net; so if you actually read this blog you get a sneaky preview! Luckykins. ;D (Or not. I think nobody reads this. But I like having a place I can ramble to and save my rambles, so it's good enough for grampa and good enough for me.) This will be loooong... and it's still only about half the chapter... ;_;
*************
It would be so much easier if he said hello first. She slowed as she approached, hoping he would notice her and she could pretend she hadn't noticed him and act surprised when he said something, but there was no such luck. Maybe she should just keep walking...
The idea of passing someone she knew on the street, *staring* at them, and walking right by them was so stupid and embarrassing that she took a deep breath and pushed right through her shyness. "Ha- hi!" she said, catching a little on the forced peppiness of her voice.
Launchpad started, which was embarrassing and awkward, and for the first split second that he looked at her she would swear he had no idea who she was and that was even worse. She remembered immediately why she preferred never to approach anyone. But a second later, recognition lit his entire face and he gave her a broad grin. "Hey, Beth! Long time no see!"
She laughed awkwardly, all the adrenalin that had allowed her to speak up a moment ago now draining into a kind of weak nervousness. "Heh, yeah, guess so. Um, sorry if I scared you, I just was walking home and I saw you and I thought it would be nice to say something..."
"No problemo," he said casually. That was not a phrase she heard many people say, and it made her smile. "I'm glad you did say somethin', I didn't even hear ya comin' up."
"Oh. Well good."
He looked past her, up towards the roof of the building behind her, for a moment and then back down at her. "You look different outside of Bindler's," he said thoughtfully.
"I... do?" She became self-conscious suddenly; maybe it was the lighting. "In a good way or a bad way?"
Launchpad tilted his head as if considering. "I dunno. Neither really, you just look more... I dunno, more real."
She wanted to ask again if that was good or bad, but that was the kind of question that usually drove guys up the wall (or so she'd heard), so she just smiled nervously instead. As ever, the pleasure she felt in talking to Launchpad was paired with an equally strong sense of guilt; the more she spoke to him, the more she felt like she was keeping him from something else, and she should really let him go and do the things he'd rather be doing. And yet if she didn't talk to him, the guilt didn't go away, it just mutated itself so that she felt guilty for not returning his kindness; he cared enough to talk to her and keep her company, and she was trying to ditch him for some reason. Either way, apparently, Beth was a total jerk in her own mind and since there was no winning, she just stayed where she was, felt uncomfortable, and enjoyed having someone to talk to.
Just now, he straighted up and nodded a little, as though he'd reached a decision. "I think it's in a good way," he said finally. She could feel her cheeks growing hot, and she looked at her feet; as she did, she noticed that Launchpad looked distinctly satisfied with himself somehow.
"Um, thanks," she said quietly. She wondered if she was supposed to return the compliment, decided that if she did it would sound phony, and made a mental note to herself to give him a spontaneous compliment as soon as she could work one in naturally. The conversation was lagging; she fumbled for a topic. Looking back up at him, she said, "Did you guys find the bolt you were looking for?"
Launchpad had been looking at the skyline again; as he dragged his eyes back down towards her, he said, "Huh? Oh, no, it's funny... apparently you guys are the only ones in the area who carry 'em."
Beth was surprised. "Really? Wow, there must have been a recall or something. Henny gets these deals with manufacturers to unload all their leftover stock at lower prices, see," she explained. "She's, um, she's really good at negotiations."
"I bet," Launchpad said in a low voice. Whatever he was thinking, Beth guessed it wasn't flattering, and she giggled. He winked at her, before checking out the rooftops again.
"I'm sorry, is there -" Beth began to turn around and check out whatever he was looking at, continuing, "Am I keeping you from something?"
"Oh, no way!" he said quickly, and reached for her shoulder, pulling her back to look at him. She was startled enough that she whirled back, and they stared at one another for a few seconds before both smiled sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that," he said.
"I just mean, uh, there's nothin' up there. Just... just the stars."
"Oh, you're looking at the stars?" She smiled; that was kind of romantic. Although when she looked over his head, the light pollution in St. Canard was so strong that she couldn't make out anything but streetlamps.
"Uh, kinda," he said, perhaps guessing what she was thinking. "Tryin' to, anyway." With all the speed of someone who was deliberately changing the subject, he said, "So that bolt! I think I'm gonna come in and put in a special order or somethin', if you guys think you could get any more."
"Oh, that's a good idea!" she said. An even better idea occurred to her then, an idea of the kind she rarely had: clever, subtle, and almost-but-not-quite devious. "In fact, I can put one in FOR you. But I'll do it in Mr. Mallard's name so that it'll come straight to him, since he's the one who needs the bolt."
"Hey, good thinkin'," Launchpad said, nodding.
Beth retrieved a pen and an old receipt from the pocket of her jacket, and held them at the ready. "I'll just need his phone number and full address, and I'll get this done the next time I'm at work." She looked up apologetically. "I can't get it delivered in less than five business days, though. I guess he kind of needs it sooner than that."
"Well, we'll keep lookin' around to see what comes up, but if that's the quickest we can get it, it's good enough for me." Launchpad rattled off an address and phone number, and Beth scribbled both down and shoved both paper and pen back into her pockets, feeling satisfied and even a little proud of herself. She knew that she was extremely unlikely to ever call Drake Mallard personally, but now, if she actually felt up to it, she *could*.
The fact that she'd accomplished this task lifted her spirits and made talking to Launchpad easier, somehow. "Well, I feel better now that *that's* taken care of," she said.
"That's real nice of you to keep DW in mind that way," Launchpad offered.
"Oh, you know, customers first." Emboldened by her recent success, she asked, "So, um, is Mister - Dra- Drake... Mallard... around?" That was the most awkward sentence ever spoken aloud, she thought, and wilted inside.
"Oh, Drake is, uh, he's grocery shoppin'," Launchpad answered.
"At... at ten in the evening?"
Launchpad cleared his throat. "Uh, well, we needed a few emergency things." He looked uncertain. "And I'm just out here, uh..."
"Looking at stars," she finished for him.
"Yeah. Well, no, not just that!" Looking uncertain, he said, "I'm actually... keepin' an eye on the car, too."
"Oh! Well, gosh, that's really nice of you!" She was starting to get tired, and still had a long walk ahead of her, but the chance for a possibility of seeing Drake again was so great that she had to at least consider staying. "So, is... is Mist- is he going to be coming back soon? Do you think?"
Launchpad looked just the tiniest bit lost, and it took him a moment to answer.
***
"For the last time, you single-minded simpleton, it's a *grappling hook*!" Darkwing shouted, dodging another blast of lightning. Megavolt seemed beyond listening by now, however; he wasn't even ranting about robots anymore, just taking aim with that zap-gun of his and shooting bolts in all directions.
Well, two could play at that game. Darkwing pulled out his gas gun, aimed by instinct, and fired. And only *then* remembered that it was broken, as the gun misfired and a cloud of purple gas began to leak out of the gun and surround him. He kicked it to the side, cursing everything from the gun to the bolt to that bubblehead at the hardware store who hadn't helped him at all; the gun had worked fine when he shot the grappling hook - why was there a problem now?!
Megavolt's attention was somehow ensnared by Darkwing's momentary equipment failure. "Ha! If that was supposed to be intimidating, I've gotta tell you, you need to rethink your strategy!" He giggled at that, though Darkwing didn't think it was a particularly impressive taunt.
He tried bluffing in response. "All part of a plan, Sparky, but the less you know about it, the better!"
Whether Megavolt would have bought it or not would never be known, however, since he apparently stopped paying attention at the name "Sparky". "Oooooh, YOU! *DON'T*! CALL! ME! THAT!!" The amount of power he was discharging went up considerably, and the rooftop began to look like it was housing a neon sign in the shape of an electrified rat.
Maybe the taunting hadn't been the best idea, Darkwing acknowledged as he hugged the edge of the rooftop, fleeing from Megavolt's blasts. He paused at the west side of the roof, sticking his arm over the side and waving it three times in what he hoped was as natural a way as possible. So, granted, this fight hadn't gone entirely as he'd envisioned it so far, but Darkwing was a master of improvisational fighting and this whole showdown could easily be salvaged. Darkwing would keep wearing him out, and meanwhile, Launchpad would be up here in just a few minutes to distract him and help take him down.
***
In fact, Darkwing would have been absolutely right in his expectations, if Launchpad had actually been following the plan. Instead, his sidekick's attention was increasingly focused on Beth; she kept asking stuff about Drake, and he was having more and more trouble steering the conversation away from the danger zone. Launchpad felt he was generally pretty good at not giving away anything important when it came to secret identities or that kind of thing, but Beth kept asking so *many* questions that he was having a little trouble coming up with answers.
"What department?" she asked, cocking her head. She looked so *intent*; he was so fascinated by how different she was from when she was at work, how much more *alive* she seemed, that he forgot to answer. "Launchpad? What department does Mr. Mallard work in?"
"Huh?" Shoot, another tough question.
"In his social work. Do you guys both work in the same department?"
"Oh, uh..." He coughed as a way to stall. "It's, work with, uh, whattaya call it. Troubled teens."
"Social outreach kind of thing?" Launchpad nodded; Beth's eyes were practically shining. "That's so noble!"
"Yeah," said Launchpad. "And, yeah, I work with him. For him, kinda." She didn't seem to notice; he felt the tiniest touch of disappointment at that, but decided that he needed to change the subject completely before she asked something even harder. "So... do you go out a lot?"
"Go out?" She seemed taken aback; her energy level fell noticeably. "You mean like, with... with other people?"
"Yeah," he said, surprised that he'd taken the conversation that way. Sure, he'd mentioned to DW that he'd been playing with the idea of asking her out, but he hadn't given it any thought beyond that. "Out, with people."
She gave a quick, odd laugh. "Um, no, generally speaking no I don't."
"Really? You're kiddin' me," he said, grinning. She got all fidgety and looked at her feet, rubbing her cheek a little and grinning a little, herself. "Well, maybe sometime I could -"
"You probably do a lot though, huh?" she said quickly, cutting him off.
He considered the question for a moment. "Well, kinda... Not as much as I used to, but I was thinkin' of-"
"What about Mr. Mallard?" she asked, interrupting him again. "Does he go out on a lot of dates, or... well, he's probably got a wife and everything, actually, right?"
"Who, DW? Nah, he's not married. Nothin' like that." The question had given him pause; how had they ended up on the subject of Drake *again*? It wasn't until Beth's eyes lit up as she answered that he began to understand.
"Oh... he's not married?" she said. Her voice was eager; there was no mistaking it.
So she had a thing for DW. Launchpad needed to just take a little moment to process that; he really hadn't seen that coming. It wasn't like it *mattered* - he didn't have his eye on her that way or anything, it was just...
Well, what was it? He wasn't sure. His interest in Beth was purely platonic, as cute as she was capable of being. She wasn't the type of girl he generally went after, but he liked flirting with her; he liked being the guy to make her smile, since he had a feeling there weren't many guys who took the time to do it. And he really *did* like her, anyway, but that didn't have anything to do with whether or not she was interested in DW.
He was losing his touch, that was it. It wasn't that Launchpad had ever thought of himself as a real ladies' man or anything, exactly, but he'd never had any problems lining up dates either. With most girls, they at least knew when he was flirting with them; Beth was the first one who seemed genuinely ignorant of it. And it wasn't that he wanted to string her along, but he was surprised to find that they weren't on the same page here after all. Now that he thought about it, it *had* been a while since he'd been out with a girl, even casually... There'd been lots of girls when he was younger, in Duckburg, but most of the ones he'd really liked he'd had to leave behind. Then things had started to move more quickly - he'd moved to St. Canard, taken up odd jobs, started working with DW, and dating just hadn't been a priority. It took a lot of energy, it seemed, and there weren't usually more than two or three dates, and then either he or the girl lost interest; lots of misunderstandings, or just boredom.
Beth was kind of an experiment, and also kind of an attempt to ease himself back into it; go out a few times with a friend, remember how you do it, then start working into meeting new girls and seeing what happens. And it was way better to go out with a friend you knew you liked being with than it was to just pick someone at random, right?
Except now that he thought about it, asking Beth out under those circumstances, flirting with her every time he saw her... it all felt a little dishonest. He felt like a heel. Better not to ask her out in case she took it the wrong way... He was probably lucky he hadn't already set that situation up, by mistake.
"Oh, gosh, what time is it?" Beth asked suddenly. Launchpad checked his watch - it was quarter to eleven - then showed it to her. "WOW, is it really that late? I'm sorry to keep you - I should have -"
"Hey, I'm the one who's waitin' here, remember?" he interrupted, chuckling. "Calm down. It's more like I'm the one keepin' you."
She half-smiled. "It's not like that at all," she said; it was hard to tell if she was talking to him, or to herself, but she relaxed a little. "Well, I should go. I'm starving, and I have a long walk ahead of me."
Something in that sentence made him uneasy, but Launchpad tried not to show it. "Then go get somethin' to eat, an' I'll see ya later. Thanks for sayin' hi."
"Thanks for... answering," she said feebly. Her smile was distinctly nervous now, and she started past him down the sidewalk. "I'll see you. Um, probably. Right?"
"Yeah," he said, a little distractedly. It hit him belatedly what was bothering him about what she'd said. A long walk home... "How long is long?" he asked as she was walking away.
"What?" She turned back to him, and when he repeated the question, she blinked and then understood. "Oh - home? Um, about twenty minutes. So it's really not that bad, I'm just hungry, and you know how it is when you really want to *be* somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, but..." The direction she was headed in one a bad one. Launchpad had a pretty good sense of the better and worse parts of the city, and another half mile or so that way was definitely one of the worse. "Are you - you're just gonna walk?"
Beth cocked her head. "Well, yeah." She caught on a moment later, and fished through her handbag. "Oh! Oh, it's okay. I walk home all the time. I-" She paused, rummaging, then came up with a little spray can. "I have pepper spray." It had taken her a long time to find it, tucked away in her handbag. Her incredibly conspicuous handbag.
Launchpad had a sudden, vivid mental picture of Beth getting mugged. It was a horrible picture. His stomach twisted a little. "Look, I'm gonna..." He stopped. What was he going to do? Walk her home? That wasn't an option right now. With that thought as a trigger to remind him, he looked up briefly at the rooftop, then back down to Beth. He could *not* let this woman walk home alone.
She was watching him quizzically. A moment later the proverbial lightbulb went off over his head, and he dug into his pocket. "Okay. I think I got enough for a cab."
Beth came rushing back towards him, shaking her head and her hands. "Oh no, oh gosh, no no no. Please don't."
"Yeah. I'm insistin'."
"No! I can't take-" He stopped her, and forced the money into her hands. She held onto it but frowned. "I-I can afford a cab myself," she said quietly.
"Okay. Then you can pay me back later." She started to argue again, and he cut her off. "C'mon. Do me a favour, Beth." He grinned, what he hoped was appealingly, and she softened. A huge weight lifted off his chest when she nodded her consent. "Great. No rush on payin' me back, either. I'll see ya real soon."
Beth dropped her hands, cupping the money he'd just given her, and gave that half-smile again. "I'll have the money for you then." She took a step backwards, turned to go, and then turned back. "Um... Thanks."
"No problemo!"
She turned again, took two more steps, and then turned back beseechingly. "Tell Mr. Mallard 'hi' for me?"
Launchpad smiled and nodded, and what he felt was oddly melancholy. "Will do." Beth waved, and he waved back, and then she was halfway down the block, and then she had turned a corner.
He did wish he could have walked her home. But he was technically on the job, and there was DW's plan to consider... His eyes widened. "Uh-oh." Launchpad turned his head up to the rooftop, in time to see Darkwing hanging half over the edge, waving both arms frantically.
"LAUNCHPAAAAD!" he yelled. Then he disappeared - apparently pulled backwards - and there was quite a lot of light.
"*Uh-oh,*" Launchpad repeated, and raced across the street.
I can't figure out if you can do cut-tags here in blogspot. Doesn't look that way. Well, I'm going to paste in what I wrote since hte last bit I posted at ff.net; so if you actually read this blog you get a sneaky preview! Luckykins. ;D (Or not. I think nobody reads this. But I like having a place I can ramble to and save my rambles, so it's good enough for grampa and good enough for me.) This will be loooong... and it's still only about half the chapter... ;_;
*************
It would be so much easier if he said hello first. She slowed as she approached, hoping he would notice her and she could pretend she hadn't noticed him and act surprised when he said something, but there was no such luck. Maybe she should just keep walking...
The idea of passing someone she knew on the street, *staring* at them, and walking right by them was so stupid and embarrassing that she took a deep breath and pushed right through her shyness. "Ha- hi!" she said, catching a little on the forced peppiness of her voice.
Launchpad started, which was embarrassing and awkward, and for the first split second that he looked at her she would swear he had no idea who she was and that was even worse. She remembered immediately why she preferred never to approach anyone. But a second later, recognition lit his entire face and he gave her a broad grin. "Hey, Beth! Long time no see!"
She laughed awkwardly, all the adrenalin that had allowed her to speak up a moment ago now draining into a kind of weak nervousness. "Heh, yeah, guess so. Um, sorry if I scared you, I just was walking home and I saw you and I thought it would be nice to say something..."
"No problemo," he said casually. That was not a phrase she heard many people say, and it made her smile. "I'm glad you did say somethin', I didn't even hear ya comin' up."
"Oh. Well good."
He looked past her, up towards the roof of the building behind her, for a moment and then back down at her. "You look different outside of Bindler's," he said thoughtfully.
"I... do?" She became self-conscious suddenly; maybe it was the lighting. "In a good way or a bad way?"
Launchpad tilted his head as if considering. "I dunno. Neither really, you just look more... I dunno, more real."
She wanted to ask again if that was good or bad, but that was the kind of question that usually drove guys up the wall (or so she'd heard), so she just smiled nervously instead. As ever, the pleasure she felt in talking to Launchpad was paired with an equally strong sense of guilt; the more she spoke to him, the more she felt like she was keeping him from something else, and she should really let him go and do the things he'd rather be doing. And yet if she didn't talk to him, the guilt didn't go away, it just mutated itself so that she felt guilty for not returning his kindness; he cared enough to talk to her and keep her company, and she was trying to ditch him for some reason. Either way, apparently, Beth was a total jerk in her own mind and since there was no winning, she just stayed where she was, felt uncomfortable, and enjoyed having someone to talk to.
Just now, he straighted up and nodded a little, as though he'd reached a decision. "I think it's in a good way," he said finally. She could feel her cheeks growing hot, and she looked at her feet; as she did, she noticed that Launchpad looked distinctly satisfied with himself somehow.
"Um, thanks," she said quietly. She wondered if she was supposed to return the compliment, decided that if she did it would sound phony, and made a mental note to herself to give him a spontaneous compliment as soon as she could work one in naturally. The conversation was lagging; she fumbled for a topic. Looking back up at him, she said, "Did you guys find the bolt you were looking for?"
Launchpad had been looking at the skyline again; as he dragged his eyes back down towards her, he said, "Huh? Oh, no, it's funny... apparently you guys are the only ones in the area who carry 'em."
Beth was surprised. "Really? Wow, there must have been a recall or something. Henny gets these deals with manufacturers to unload all their leftover stock at lower prices, see," she explained. "She's, um, she's really good at negotiations."
"I bet," Launchpad said in a low voice. Whatever he was thinking, Beth guessed it wasn't flattering, and she giggled. He winked at her, before checking out the rooftops again.
"I'm sorry, is there -" Beth began to turn around and check out whatever he was looking at, continuing, "Am I keeping you from something?"
"Oh, no way!" he said quickly, and reached for her shoulder, pulling her back to look at him. She was startled enough that she whirled back, and they stared at one another for a few seconds before both smiled sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that," he said.
"I just mean, uh, there's nothin' up there. Just... just the stars."
"Oh, you're looking at the stars?" She smiled; that was kind of romantic. Although when she looked over his head, the light pollution in St. Canard was so strong that she couldn't make out anything but streetlamps.
"Uh, kinda," he said, perhaps guessing what she was thinking. "Tryin' to, anyway." With all the speed of someone who was deliberately changing the subject, he said, "So that bolt! I think I'm gonna come in and put in a special order or somethin', if you guys think you could get any more."
"Oh, that's a good idea!" she said. An even better idea occurred to her then, an idea of the kind she rarely had: clever, subtle, and almost-but-not-quite devious. "In fact, I can put one in FOR you. But I'll do it in Mr. Mallard's name so that it'll come straight to him, since he's the one who needs the bolt."
"Hey, good thinkin'," Launchpad said, nodding.
Beth retrieved a pen and an old receipt from the pocket of her jacket, and held them at the ready. "I'll just need his phone number and full address, and I'll get this done the next time I'm at work." She looked up apologetically. "I can't get it delivered in less than five business days, though. I guess he kind of needs it sooner than that."
"Well, we'll keep lookin' around to see what comes up, but if that's the quickest we can get it, it's good enough for me." Launchpad rattled off an address and phone number, and Beth scribbled both down and shoved both paper and pen back into her pockets, feeling satisfied and even a little proud of herself. She knew that she was extremely unlikely to ever call Drake Mallard personally, but now, if she actually felt up to it, she *could*.
The fact that she'd accomplished this task lifted her spirits and made talking to Launchpad easier, somehow. "Well, I feel better now that *that's* taken care of," she said.
"That's real nice of you to keep DW in mind that way," Launchpad offered.
"Oh, you know, customers first." Emboldened by her recent success, she asked, "So, um, is Mister - Dra- Drake... Mallard... around?" That was the most awkward sentence ever spoken aloud, she thought, and wilted inside.
"Oh, Drake is, uh, he's grocery shoppin'," Launchpad answered.
"At... at ten in the evening?"
Launchpad cleared his throat. "Uh, well, we needed a few emergency things." He looked uncertain. "And I'm just out here, uh..."
"Looking at stars," she finished for him.
"Yeah. Well, no, not just that!" Looking uncertain, he said, "I'm actually... keepin' an eye on the car, too."
"Oh! Well, gosh, that's really nice of you!" She was starting to get tired, and still had a long walk ahead of her, but the chance for a possibility of seeing Drake again was so great that she had to at least consider staying. "So, is... is Mist- is he going to be coming back soon? Do you think?"
Launchpad looked just the tiniest bit lost, and it took him a moment to answer.
***
"For the last time, you single-minded simpleton, it's a *grappling hook*!" Darkwing shouted, dodging another blast of lightning. Megavolt seemed beyond listening by now, however; he wasn't even ranting about robots anymore, just taking aim with that zap-gun of his and shooting bolts in all directions.
Well, two could play at that game. Darkwing pulled out his gas gun, aimed by instinct, and fired. And only *then* remembered that it was broken, as the gun misfired and a cloud of purple gas began to leak out of the gun and surround him. He kicked it to the side, cursing everything from the gun to the bolt to that bubblehead at the hardware store who hadn't helped him at all; the gun had worked fine when he shot the grappling hook - why was there a problem now?!
Megavolt's attention was somehow ensnared by Darkwing's momentary equipment failure. "Ha! If that was supposed to be intimidating, I've gotta tell you, you need to rethink your strategy!" He giggled at that, though Darkwing didn't think it was a particularly impressive taunt.
He tried bluffing in response. "All part of a plan, Sparky, but the less you know about it, the better!"
Whether Megavolt would have bought it or not would never be known, however, since he apparently stopped paying attention at the name "Sparky". "Oooooh, YOU! *DON'T*! CALL! ME! THAT!!" The amount of power he was discharging went up considerably, and the rooftop began to look like it was housing a neon sign in the shape of an electrified rat.
Maybe the taunting hadn't been the best idea, Darkwing acknowledged as he hugged the edge of the rooftop, fleeing from Megavolt's blasts. He paused at the west side of the roof, sticking his arm over the side and waving it three times in what he hoped was as natural a way as possible. So, granted, this fight hadn't gone entirely as he'd envisioned it so far, but Darkwing was a master of improvisational fighting and this whole showdown could easily be salvaged. Darkwing would keep wearing him out, and meanwhile, Launchpad would be up here in just a few minutes to distract him and help take him down.
***
In fact, Darkwing would have been absolutely right in his expectations, if Launchpad had actually been following the plan. Instead, his sidekick's attention was increasingly focused on Beth; she kept asking stuff about Drake, and he was having more and more trouble steering the conversation away from the danger zone. Launchpad felt he was generally pretty good at not giving away anything important when it came to secret identities or that kind of thing, but Beth kept asking so *many* questions that he was having a little trouble coming up with answers.
"What department?" she asked, cocking her head. She looked so *intent*; he was so fascinated by how different she was from when she was at work, how much more *alive* she seemed, that he forgot to answer. "Launchpad? What department does Mr. Mallard work in?"
"Huh?" Shoot, another tough question.
"In his social work. Do you guys both work in the same department?"
"Oh, uh..." He coughed as a way to stall. "It's, work with, uh, whattaya call it. Troubled teens."
"Social outreach kind of thing?" Launchpad nodded; Beth's eyes were practically shining. "That's so noble!"
"Yeah," said Launchpad. "And, yeah, I work with him. For him, kinda." She didn't seem to notice; he felt the tiniest touch of disappointment at that, but decided that he needed to change the subject completely before she asked something even harder. "So... do you go out a lot?"
"Go out?" She seemed taken aback; her energy level fell noticeably. "You mean like, with... with other people?"
"Yeah," he said, surprised that he'd taken the conversation that way. Sure, he'd mentioned to DW that he'd been playing with the idea of asking her out, but he hadn't given it any thought beyond that. "Out, with people."
She gave a quick, odd laugh. "Um, no, generally speaking no I don't."
"Really? You're kiddin' me," he said, grinning. She got all fidgety and looked at her feet, rubbing her cheek a little and grinning a little, herself. "Well, maybe sometime I could -"
"You probably do a lot though, huh?" she said quickly, cutting him off.
He considered the question for a moment. "Well, kinda... Not as much as I used to, but I was thinkin' of-"
"What about Mr. Mallard?" she asked, interrupting him again. "Does he go out on a lot of dates, or... well, he's probably got a wife and everything, actually, right?"
"Who, DW? Nah, he's not married. Nothin' like that." The question had given him pause; how had they ended up on the subject of Drake *again*? It wasn't until Beth's eyes lit up as she answered that he began to understand.
"Oh... he's not married?" she said. Her voice was eager; there was no mistaking it.
So she had a thing for DW. Launchpad needed to just take a little moment to process that; he really hadn't seen that coming. It wasn't like it *mattered* - he didn't have his eye on her that way or anything, it was just...
Well, what was it? He wasn't sure. His interest in Beth was purely platonic, as cute as she was capable of being. She wasn't the type of girl he generally went after, but he liked flirting with her; he liked being the guy to make her smile, since he had a feeling there weren't many guys who took the time to do it. And he really *did* like her, anyway, but that didn't have anything to do with whether or not she was interested in DW.
He was losing his touch, that was it. It wasn't that Launchpad had ever thought of himself as a real ladies' man or anything, exactly, but he'd never had any problems lining up dates either. With most girls, they at least knew when he was flirting with them; Beth was the first one who seemed genuinely ignorant of it. And it wasn't that he wanted to string her along, but he was surprised to find that they weren't on the same page here after all. Now that he thought about it, it *had* been a while since he'd been out with a girl, even casually... There'd been lots of girls when he was younger, in Duckburg, but most of the ones he'd really liked he'd had to leave behind. Then things had started to move more quickly - he'd moved to St. Canard, taken up odd jobs, started working with DW, and dating just hadn't been a priority. It took a lot of energy, it seemed, and there weren't usually more than two or three dates, and then either he or the girl lost interest; lots of misunderstandings, or just boredom.
Beth was kind of an experiment, and also kind of an attempt to ease himself back into it; go out a few times with a friend, remember how you do it, then start working into meeting new girls and seeing what happens. And it was way better to go out with a friend you knew you liked being with than it was to just pick someone at random, right?
Except now that he thought about it, asking Beth out under those circumstances, flirting with her every time he saw her... it all felt a little dishonest. He felt like a heel. Better not to ask her out in case she took it the wrong way... He was probably lucky he hadn't already set that situation up, by mistake.
"Oh, gosh, what time is it?" Beth asked suddenly. Launchpad checked his watch - it was quarter to eleven - then showed it to her. "WOW, is it really that late? I'm sorry to keep you - I should have -"
"Hey, I'm the one who's waitin' here, remember?" he interrupted, chuckling. "Calm down. It's more like I'm the one keepin' you."
She half-smiled. "It's not like that at all," she said; it was hard to tell if she was talking to him, or to herself, but she relaxed a little. "Well, I should go. I'm starving, and I have a long walk ahead of me."
Something in that sentence made him uneasy, but Launchpad tried not to show it. "Then go get somethin' to eat, an' I'll see ya later. Thanks for sayin' hi."
"Thanks for... answering," she said feebly. Her smile was distinctly nervous now, and she started past him down the sidewalk. "I'll see you. Um, probably. Right?"
"Yeah," he said, a little distractedly. It hit him belatedly what was bothering him about what she'd said. A long walk home... "How long is long?" he asked as she was walking away.
"What?" She turned back to him, and when he repeated the question, she blinked and then understood. "Oh - home? Um, about twenty minutes. So it's really not that bad, I'm just hungry, and you know how it is when you really want to *be* somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, but..." The direction she was headed in one a bad one. Launchpad had a pretty good sense of the better and worse parts of the city, and another half mile or so that way was definitely one of the worse. "Are you - you're just gonna walk?"
Beth cocked her head. "Well, yeah." She caught on a moment later, and fished through her handbag. "Oh! Oh, it's okay. I walk home all the time. I-" She paused, rummaging, then came up with a little spray can. "I have pepper spray." It had taken her a long time to find it, tucked away in her handbag. Her incredibly conspicuous handbag.
Launchpad had a sudden, vivid mental picture of Beth getting mugged. It was a horrible picture. His stomach twisted a little. "Look, I'm gonna..." He stopped. What was he going to do? Walk her home? That wasn't an option right now. With that thought as a trigger to remind him, he looked up briefly at the rooftop, then back down to Beth. He could *not* let this woman walk home alone.
She was watching him quizzically. A moment later the proverbial lightbulb went off over his head, and he dug into his pocket. "Okay. I think I got enough for a cab."
Beth came rushing back towards him, shaking her head and her hands. "Oh no, oh gosh, no no no. Please don't."
"Yeah. I'm insistin'."
"No! I can't take-" He stopped her, and forced the money into her hands. She held onto it but frowned. "I-I can afford a cab myself," she said quietly.
"Okay. Then you can pay me back later." She started to argue again, and he cut her off. "C'mon. Do me a favour, Beth." He grinned, what he hoped was appealingly, and she softened. A huge weight lifted off his chest when she nodded her consent. "Great. No rush on payin' me back, either. I'll see ya real soon."
Beth dropped her hands, cupping the money he'd just given her, and gave that half-smile again. "I'll have the money for you then." She took a step backwards, turned to go, and then turned back. "Um... Thanks."
"No problemo!"
She turned again, took two more steps, and then turned back beseechingly. "Tell Mr. Mallard 'hi' for me?"
Launchpad smiled and nodded, and what he felt was oddly melancholy. "Will do." Beth waved, and he waved back, and then she was halfway down the block, and then she had turned a corner.
He did wish he could have walked her home. But he was technically on the job, and there was DW's plan to consider... His eyes widened. "Uh-oh." Launchpad turned his head up to the rooftop, in time to see Darkwing hanging half over the edge, waving both arms frantically.
"LAUNCHPAAAAD!" he yelled. Then he disappeared - apparently pulled backwards - and there was quite a lot of light.
"*Uh-oh,*" Launchpad repeated, and raced across the street.
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