30 Days Meme day 5

Day 5 – If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your “muse” or not, what did you do about it?

Welp, this will be a shorty. For real this time. :D

Basically, if it makes sense to have the character there and if I can think of a way for it to enhance the story, then I write it. If not then I do an alternate scenario in my head and don't write it out. XD

It's infrequent enough that I don't have to deal with it much anyway.

I will say that I've got something like five or six unofficial fic plots in my head - what I call "fanfic of my own fanfic" - with various badfic contrivances to get LP and Beth together. My standards for my fanfic fanfic are way lower than my actual fic canon. ;D That's basically my way of shutting Launchpad up. "OKAY LOOK I won't write this but I will make up an entire new plot so that you can get the girl. OKAY? Now LEAVE ME ALONE."

TWC4: Update and Deleted Scenes

So, earlier I wrote a post sayingg that I was nearly finished with chapter 2 of TWC4 and I would have deleted scenes to post later on, but for some reason this computer will not let me publish posts to this blog. So that post never got added to the blog. Instead I'm just gonna go ahead and make THIS message, and then hopefully be able to post it from upstairs on my OLD computer. And if I can't I have no idea what happens :P

Anyway! First of all: I finished and uploaded chapter 2 of TWC4, "Shake, Rattle, and Mole". The link is to the first chapter. It's also here on AO3.

So, as I wrote this chapter it just got longer and longer. And I'd edit it down, then write more. Finally I said screw it and wrote what I wanted, with ideas of what I could trim out later; the final edit turned out to be about 5,500 words. I got it down to just under 4,300 on FF.net by cutting rather ruthlessly and summarizing some of the dialogue I'd taken out. The stuff I cut was all just conversation, and does not keep the plot moving or anything like that - it's all really just chitchat. The thing is, though, I do feel like it's important b/c it gives a bit more of a reason as to why LP and Beth get along and why he'd start feeling the way he does for her. I feel like the version I posted at FF.net, while it is more concise, glosses over both his growing attraction to her and also the fundamentals of their friendship. So, although that's the "official" version up there and the extra stuff is probably really *better* for cutting, I still want to make it available since... well, it just might make the relationship make more *sense*, I guess. I dunno, I'm too in the characters' heads, and this probably isn't necessary - it probably overstates things way too much. But I felt I needed more transition from LP's resistance to his attraction to Beth, into his total acceptance of it at the end of the chapter.

I actually trimmed even more than I am putting up here... maybe I'll keep those parts or maybe they are genuinely expendable. But here are two snippets I thought were worth keeping, even unofficially.

****

"Traffic... OH." She put her hand to her mouth and looked thunderstruck. Then she put her hand over her eyes. "OH, of *course*. THAT'S why he's mad. Oh, I am so stupid."

"What? He's not mad. Why do you think he's mad?" Launchpad felt a need to protect her, but it came out as a sort of frantic cover-up.

"Nothing - I just... oh, sheesh, I didn't think. No, it's nothing."

"You're not stupid," he said earnestly. He looked around the room. "Is it the pictures that fell down? 'Cause that's not your fault."

"No, I know." She looked at him and smiled.

He smiled back, and realized she probably couldn't see his expression at all. He looked at the table. "So, what happened to your glasses?"

"Oh. They fell off, I stepped on them. Standard klutz stuff." She leaned forward and felt around for them, then put them on. The left lense was full of cracks, and the bridge was so broken that the glasses wouldn't sit straight on her bill, so the right lense twisted upwards. She tried twice to right them, then gave up and put them back onto the table. "Ugh."

"Can you see at all without 'em?" He looked at her carefully, without her glasses on - the first time he'd seen her without them; it made her face look younger and different, uncovered. *Naked*. He blushed a little and looked at his hands instead.

"Kind of. I mean, I can see you - just no details." She reached out and poked him in the chest, and he chuckled and rubbed the spot she'd poked. "But I have degenerative myopia, so I'm super nearsighted."

"Whoa, really? That sounds bad."

She shrugged. "It's not that bad. It's slow-acting, I mean. It mostly happened kind of quickly when I was about twelve, and all of a sudden I needed glasses, then stronger ones. But now it's slowed down and I just need to adjust my prescription every so often."

He looked at her face again, almost shyly. All this time he'd assumed that her eyes only looked big because of the thickness of her glasses, but it turned out they were just that *big*. She looked at most nineteen, and adorable. He realized he was staring and looked away, then realized she couldn't tell, so he looked at her again. "So, does it hurt your head to have everythin' blurry like this?"

"No, not if I don't try to see anything. If I have to squint it hurts eventually. But even if I squint I can only make things out if they're close enough, so I just don't bother most of the time."

"How close do you have to be?"

She leaned towards him, and beckoned him closer too. As he got nearer, she narrowed her eyes, and then stopped him. "THERE we go. Hi!"

He waved. "Hi!" She laughed, all squinty-eyed, and blushed a little. "If I get closer do you NOT have to squint?"

"Um, yeah, there's usually a point where I can see things, just before they get TOO close and I can't see them anymore." She beckoned him closer again, and he leaned in. "Okay... keep coming... keeeeep coming..."

Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Beth jumped back like she'd been stung. "OH my gosh!"

Launchpad sat back, away from her, down at the other end of the couch, and he hadn't been about to kiss her at all. "Oh. Hey!" he said as Drake came down the stairs, glowering at them both. "Heh. Gos okay?"

"She's *fine*," Drake said stiffly, and glared a direct accusation in Launchpad's direction. Launchpad suspected he was blushing.

Etc...

***

[[After this, there is one thing i took out - after reluctantly thanking Beth for staying to be sure Gos was okay, Drake gives her an extra $20 as "overtime" which she tries to give back but he won't take it. Eh, it was a nice touch but really not needed. Then the walk to Beth's, I had conversation written out that I ended up removing and summarizing:]]

"Sounds good," she said cheerfully. He had her repeat the first step, and he did his best to listen even though he was fighting a maddening urge to stroke the back of her hand with his thumb the entire time.

They walked in silence for more than a minute. Launchpad felt every second of it. It seemed as if he *needed* to say something, or else he'd just keep *thinking*, and thinking wasn't helping him in the slightest; but he had no idea what to say. Beth, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically silent; he'd never known her not to keep *some* line of conversation going. Taking a guess at what she might be thinking, he asked, "Still worried about Drake bein' mad?"

She nodded. "I feel like I'm on thin ice with him. Like there's a sword hanging over my head, and every time I do the wrong thing, the rope keeping it up gets weaker and weaker, and there's no way to strengthen it again."

"Don't worry about it," he said reassuringly, and tightened his grip on her hand without thinking of what he was doing. "He just gets, I dunno... funny about stuff. But you were right to stay with Gos, and he knows it."

Beth shook her head. "I should've thought, though... With me still being there when he came home..."

"Huh? What do you mean?" That was weird - it almost sounded like she knew about Darkwing.

"Oh - no, nothing. Sorry." She smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"Oh, uh, okay." Launchpad scratched his cheek in puzzlement, and reached for a topic - something kind of boring and safe - and came up with, "So, uh, how's the job hunt going?"

Beth sighed dramatically, her shoulders slumping. "Still unemployed," she answered. "I don't know, Launchpad, I've applied to, like, twenty different companies this week alone and I haven't heard ANYthing. And they're all kinds of jobs, I mean, I even applied to a Hamburger Hippo and NOBODY has called me back! I was saying to Gosalyn earlier, I don't even know what I was thinking, just quitting. What a dumb thing to do. That was the ONLY real job I've ever had, and do you know how long it took me to get THAT? And then Henny just hired me on the spot when I came in to inquire... And now, I can't even use that job as a reference because of everything I said when I quit. Henny would *never* say anything good about me now so I have four years' worth of employment at ONE job, and NO references..." She shook her head and sighed again. "But you know, that's the thing about Henny, I don't think I could have gotten a good reference out of her even if I *hadn't* said anything."

Wow. Launchpad was almost sorry he'd asked, if only because she was obviously really upset. "Uh, I'm sorry. I guess it's kinda my fault you quit..."

"What? No! Oh, no it's not, really." She turned to reassure him hastily, waving her free hand all around as she did. "You just said I should look for another job, I'M the one who quit! Nobody is to blame for this but me." She looked at him, or towards him anyway, with an anguished expression. "Launchpad... What do I do? What if I never get another job?"

With that look on her face, he found that the only thing that seemed important was to help her, to find a way to make all of her problems disappear. What could he possibly say to make her feel good about herself? "Of course you'll get another job! You're a great worker an' - an' you, uh, you have attention to details!"

Beth smiled, evidently in spite of herself, at that. "Do I?"

He shrugged. "I'm not real good at this. But you're smart, you'll do fine. REALLY, trust me."

"I don't know. I said to Gos earlier - people, they just don't notice me. There's nothing on my resume that looks interesting, and it's the same thing when they meet me - just being smart isn't going to do it, it's like I'm invisibe. Nobody will ever call me because nobody will ever NOTICE me."

Etc.

***

[[And, last thing, which I won't paste here; after he asks her to have "movie night", she says that she was afraid he was avoiding her which he denies a bit too much. Again, cute but expendable. And there you go, now you know the rest of the story!

This still may not fully convey the transition I tried to write - well, to be honest, I'm afraid I failed with that even in the full version - but I mean, I just cut bits and piece throughout to take out as much as I could. I'm kinda impressed I got 1300 out of it. I wish I could've taken it down to under 4,000 since this chapter is such fluff that I feel bad having it be so long... but oh well. :P]]

Sex and the Single Girl

I've said it before and I'll just restate it up front: I keep the Webfoot Chronicles firmly PG. I'm not above a few minor hints and innuendos here and there but my rule isnt' even that all hanky-panky happens offscreen; my rule is, there is no hanky-panky. This was a conscious choice I made for myself many years ago, in part because it makes *me* more comfortable in general; *I* have an issue with thinking of the characters in the show in sexual situations.

However, I also decided some years ago that in order to really get to understand Beth - which was important to me - I needed to think out almost every aspect of her life, even the things that would not ever come up. To that end I've pondered a lot of her reactions to various situations - not everything by any means, that's not what I'm saying, only that sometimes I take the time to work out a hypothetical that occurs to me even though I know it won't be an issue in my fics, like religion (she's an atheist/agnostic), politics (conservative moderate but holds few strong opinions), and sex.

I've gone back and forth on posting about this subject, and if you read here regularly you may remember back in the summer when I went through a bit of playing with themes in a non-canon fic... The thing that keeps me from bringing it up, though, is my intention to keep TWC on approximately the same maturity level as the cartoon and not alienate people who feel the same way. It's weird to read stuff that, in terms of writing style is admittedly aimed at older readers (above middle school I'd say) but in terms of content is meant to be "family friendly", then go to a blog talking about the characters in adult-oriented situations. So I've avoided it.

However, I ended up doing that AU I posted about a few days ago, and as I mentioned in there, I crossed over into adult territory. There haven't been a lot of comments on it yet (and likely won't be) but I keep starting to explain the background, the differences, etc, why THIS Beth would make this choice and the other wouldn't, and it gets very long, too long for DeviantART. So I guess I'm finally going to make this post.

But, i'm going to be kind of weird and do the real content in the comments. Since there's no option, from what I can see, to do a text cut like you have in LiveJournal, this is sort of my best option both to save on the length of this post (too late) and to allow any readers who really don't want to know this stuff to just avoid it. For those of you guys, you can just rest assured, this subject matter really, truly will NEVER come up in TWC. I promise. :) ...That doesn't mean I will never again write another AU though. 9_9

My Uncle thought he was St. Jerome...

Guess who saw "Ghostbusters" in the theatre this evening? Yeah it's me :D At first when it started I had a thought, like, "Is this going to be worth it? Am I just putting import onto something that isn't really that important?" But OH MAN was it good on the big screen. It was just fantastic. I haven't ever seen GB in the theatre -I am just SLIGHTLY too young. (I did see Back to the Future in theatres when it came out, though. AND THAT WAS AMAZING.)

Anyway, that is all. I may not get to see Shaun of the Dead, but I got to see Ghostbusters. :D

On a completely unrelated topic, I've been sketching - both artistically and bio-type - on an AU Beth recently. I'm putting up the first batch of sketches on DA and I thought I'd take the opportunity to expand on it here, since... I can. :)

So, waaaay back when I was writing "All About Elizabeth", I included a gratuitous scene that took place when Beth was 18, attending Duckburg University, and working as a librarian on campus. She has a very brief encounter with Scrooge McDuck and tells herself she'll tag along with him on adventures and change her life, but of course, she does not. Well, mentally I then proceeded to create an entire AU where she DOES, and her life is - not all that changed. :D Frothinglizard on DA used this idea somewhat, with my blessing, in a really wonderful set of pics and comics. My idea was entirely different and I'm finally kind of going to elaborate on it. With the note that nothing is ever going to come of this: I'm not going to write it out. I have NO ideas. It's basically making Beth a DuckTales OC instead of a DWD OC, and the fact is, I can't write for DuckTales. I don't do adventure plots - I'm okay with action/superhero/comedy plots, and even those I struggle with and take a long time to do. But adventure, like in old school DT... nope. Just doesn't come to me. The only part of the idea I'm actually able to develop is the stuff that relates to - yeah, you saw this coming, right? - Beth and Launchpad and how they relate to one another.

Basically, Beth at 18 is even more awkward than at 25. I established in AAE that she makes a lot of her own clothes - she actually is quite good but you wouldn't guess it to see her in what she wears at that age. She was going through a thing where she preferred very large clothing, particulary shirts - she was uncomfortable in anything that didn't hide her figure - so it looks as if she's a very shoddy seamstress when actually, she knows what she's doing. She just doesn't really get how awful the badly-fitting clothes really look on her, b/c the alternative makes her uncomfortable. The rest of her apperarance is largely the same, just... perhaps a bit more disheveled. Well, in the AU, she manages to talk her way onto Scrooge's plane as he departs for some adventure in the jungle, and immediately wishes she hadn't, since she has no idea what to do.

She meant to introduce herself as Eliza, and reinvent herself with that new identity, but she screws up and gives her name as Beth on instinct. A bit later she meets Launchpad as he is piloting the plane, and she's instantly gone on him. He's friendly and handsome and charming, and completely overlooks her. They get through the adventure, find the treasure - after nearly losing it due to Beth misreading something - but then she figures it out and all is well. Scrooge isn't too happy with her screw-up, but LP sticks up for her and says she's the one who figured everything out, so he reluctantly hires her (for next to nothing) as his researcher. For a couple of years she does this and also puts herself through school at the same time (which irritates Scrooge because every so often she either opts out of a trip due to exams, or else has to bring her books along with her to study).

Over the next few years she and LP get to be - well, not quite close, but on very good terms. She's completely devoted to him, but she also gets enough of a backbone to speak her mind sometimes. She's just about 21 when Gizmoduck shows up. She and Fenton actually get along quite well and play geeky math games. She realizes early on that Fenton is Gizmoduck, though it doesn't change much. A little while after this LP leaves for St. Canard (I haven't thought of any details as to why); she's hurt by this but doesn't tell him so.

So, part two. After finishing school, Beth starts in teh real world with a real job, which despite all her science education ends up being working for Scrooge in a higher capacity. By this point, having gotten used to dealing with him, she has a much thicker skin than she used to and her confidence in herself is a bit higher. I don't know much about what she does but it involves a lot of travel, plus I think she handles some of the stock investments. Years go by, and she figures out a lot of things for herself and grows up a lot, so that by the time she's 25 in *this* universe, she's quite a different person. Fundamentally still a chatterbox and prone to getting nervous under personal circumstances, she's better equipped to deal with people (and she looks great).

Four years after LP left for St. Canard, she travels there on a business trip - for the first time, oddly! She goes to Europe more often than to St Canard - and gets LP's address from Fenton so that she can look him up. They reunite very briefly and amicably in Drake's house but since she has to run to the first of her meetings (being held over several days), she invites LP to dinner in a few nights.

The funny thing is, when I came up with this AU (which was really just a way to occupy my time and explore a different characterization for Beth), I kept it in my usual rule of Duckverse stuff - which is to say, very close to the tone of the show, nothing "adult" or mature, and my big rule for my DWDverse is that nobody has sex. Sex doesn't even exist. (This isnt' to say I haven't put any thought into it - 'cause I have, from time to time - but it's more like as an exploration of sexual behaviour and how it stems psychologically, mainly from Beth, and next to no explorataion of sexual *themes* from any characters in this show.) Somewhere, though, over the past few days this one... got away from me. *blush* Which is probably why I've been drawing stuff for it and expanding it somewhat. I'm not sure what point I'm going to go up to, but... well, there's more to this storyline, and I'll probably share it at some point soon. But, fair warning. :P

IS 100th POST, IS GOOD

SO THIS IS MY 100th POST IN THIS BLOG :D :D :D

PARTY!

Uh. I have really got almost nothing interesting to say, and almost no time to write it in.

So instead have a playlist! :D

The past few days I've been getting sucked into music that "fits" certain environments in the fics, and mainly LP/Beth ones. I sort of started getting into this a while back with this pic. The idea for THAT came from the end of "All About Elizabeth", when I casually mentioned that LP spent like, two days making a mix tape for the car ride home with Beth, and all the songs have, er, "subtle suggestions" to them - the first being "Take a Chance On Me" by ABBA, though it's not named.

The idea of an actual mix tape that he's like "Oh, here, made ya this" and gives to Beth kind of tickled me so I returned to the thought a few more times and then, after doing that picture, came up with a few others. Only five though. :P So here they are, plus a few extras that I am just sticking in for the fun of it!

These are HEAVILY 80s-oriented, for the record. I wouldn't put anything post-1991 on there anyway, due to chronology of the fics, but I kinda think that both Launchpad *and* Beth are musically stuck a few years behind everyone else. :D

Take a Chance On Me, ABBA

Do You Believe In Love, Huey Lewis and the News (He'd better HOPE she doesn't figure it out while listening to this. It's just aggressive enough to scare her off. XD) (Side note: AIN'T NOBODY BETTER DIS HUEY LEWIS, OKAY?? I LOVE HIIIIIM)

Kiss on my List, Hall and Oates (eeeheehee, I think this song is adorable and SO 80s)

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Leo Sayer Well... this version is by the Wiggles. :D I like this version more! It's an awesome arrangement! yes including Wags the Dog popping up and barking :P COME IN IT'S IN GREEK how can you not love it? :D ...Yeah. It is *so* obvious I have kids.

Somethin' Stupid, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra (Pictures of Grace Kelly FTW.)

Anyway I figure that one is the last one on the tape - there are others in between, I just don't know what they are yet. :) And that's, yeah, that's the one where she finally goes "....Oh."

I think I've probably either mentioned or even linked to these before, but this song is my theme for TWC4:
Strange Magic, ELO There's a reason, it kinda goes with a scene, you can't just plug it in unfortunately. (and since the scene's pacing is in my head, I can't plug it in even after the fic is written. Sadness.)
And I know I've mentioned before, I listen to the Bee Gees for some of my inspiration... You don't have to like this stuff, I just have a liking for 70s makeout music. :D
How Deep is Your Love
More Than a Woman

How can I actually like these songs when I hate that falsetto so much? It's like nails on a chalkboard :P

Anyway... any thoughts? Did I win anyone over to 80s music who didn't like it before? Did I make any new Huey Lewis fans? If not I can throw more REALLY AWESOME songs at you. And he has great hair! VERY fluffy! :D

Three happy chappies in snappy sarapes

Every so often I get "The Three Caballeros" stuck in my head and I really mean STUCK. :P Actually I think I'm going to go watch it if I can find it on YouTube. Just 'cause. I have such a mad crush on Jose Carioca and was sort of shocked to find out that so does half of deviantART, but I digress...

So! Anyway, moving on, and getting back to the point of my single-minded blog; if you've been following TWC3 you know I've recently posted the 8th chapter out of 9. I'm working on the 9th chapter and I already have a deleted scene :P It's a scene I like, but it makes the chapter too long and it's not necessary for the fic as a whole to make sense. So I'm removing it and putting it up here, but I will note that I consider it canon (it was in ALL my earlier outlines, sigh, I hated taking it out but eh. It's genuinely expendable, just something I wanted but isn't needed).

I'm not spoiling anything when I give the context, because - assuming you've read the second-to-last chapter of the fic, you already know how the action plot wraps up. Therefore, this doesn't really give anything away. However, it's really just fluff for the sake of fluff... a bit of schmoopy LP/Beth stuff, yet again. So I guess this is the right place for it. ^_~

***

He picked up the phone, dialed, and then hung up before it rang. What was the best way to do this? Should he be straightforward and get right to it, or make small talk for a while to play it down? Small talk, he decided. That way she'd feel like it wasn't the *only* reason he was calling her. Which it wasn't, he amended to himself hastily. He'd have called her anyway - or, well, he *should* get into the habit of calling her. He'd call her tomorrow to let her know that she should come in, and then keep talking to her after telling her. Perfect.

He dialed again and let it ring.

"Bindler's Hardware, how can I help you." She picked up midway through the second ring, and he thought she sounded tired or maybe just unhappy. He remembered the five-minute rule just before he spoke.

"Uh, hey Beth, it's Launchpad." Maybe he *should* get right to the point, though he really didn't want to.

"Oh, hi!" she said, infinitely more enthusiastic, but he thought he could still detect an edge of flatness to her voice. "Everything okay?"

"Oh, sure, yeah, fine," he said; so much for getting right to the point. "How're things goin' there?"

There was a brief hesitation, and then she said, "Yeah, just fine too... Fine... Henny just got in, actually, so just a few more hours and my shift's done for the day."

"I thought you closed on Thursdays?"

"Yeah, I - I usually do," she said, then with amusement in her voice added, "and I can't believe you remember that."

"Oh yeah, well... just stuck with me, I guess," he said. He felt a little embarrassed now that she'd made a thing out of it, but it wasn't anything, really... It was just easier to know when Beth was in the store and when she wasn't, so that he didn't get stuck dealing only with Henny if he needed to drop by for something.

"Okay - well no problem, just... anyway she's had me close a few times already this week so I asked her to let me have this evening off. That way I can get over there a little earlier, have some time to unwind before I take on Gos, things like that." She laughed.

"Uh, yeah," he said, forcing a laugh as well. "So she letcha switch? Well that's good! After what you were sayin' yesterday it seemed like she might not do stuff like that... So I guess things aren't all that bad!" He wasn't stalling, he was focusing on the positive.

Unfortunately Beth gave a sigh. "Actually now that you mention it..." She lowered her voice. "You'd think I'd asked for an extra week of paid vacation or something. I mean - she has me switch shifts with her *all the time*, something like four times just this month, but heaven forbid *I* ask for something. And I'd *better* not refuse when she needs an evening or a morning free, because if I do, of *course* it's not because I have plans or it's the last minute, it's obviously because I just want to be a jerk. You know-" She cut herself off and sighed again. "I'm sorry, Launchpad, you don't want to hear this. I shouldn't even be saying these things. I just - I'm kind of stressed out right now, and -"

"Hey, you can *always* tell me stuff. I'm here to listen! Even if you just need to vent for, like, a half an hour straight."

There was a sound in the background of her end of the line then, something kind of like a foghorn. Launchpad listened closely but couldn't figure out what it was. "Uh - did somethin' just happen...?"

In a strained voice, Beth said, "That was Henny. I have two minutes left."

"Ah. Yeah, right. Sorry, well... uh... I guess I'll get to the point, then..." He went over a few options of how to lead into the statement quickly in his head, and began, "Well, see, here's the thing-"

"You don't want me to come babysit tonight, do you," she said flatly.

He felt incredibly guilty. "Uh, how'd ya guess?" he asked, hoping if he stayed cheerful he could make it seem unimportant.

She didn't buy it. "Your voice - you obviously had bad news, and you know, that's just the kind of week it's been." She caught herself. "It's not a big deal actually, I'm just being dramatic... You know how it is, one little thing just to validate feeling bad about the big things. Really, I can use another evening off to get some rest."

"Yeah! Get to bed early or - y'know, go out to a movie or somethin'!" Should he offer to take her out to a movie? Nah, she probably wouldn't know how to take that. He had another idea, and this one made more sense. "Y'know, you should come over sometime, but *not* to babysit. Just come on by an' hang out-"

"Hang on." She turned her head away from the phone or something, just enough so that she wasn't shouting directly into the receiver when she said, "Just a *minute*, okay?! I'm ALMOST DONE!"

"Uh, sorry -"

"Don't worry, it's not you... I'm sorry, I probably made you go deaf. She's been like this all *week*." Beth sounded slightly desperate at the end of the last sentence. "What were you saying?"

"Oh, you should just come over and we can hang out-"

Henny yelled in the background again, and this time Launchpad could hear her clearly. Beth yelled back almost immediately, and he was so surprised by the whole thing that he just kept on talking, which resulted in the three of them going all together at once:

"*Store rules are in place for a reason, Beth, an' five minutes means five minutes!*"

"I am NEARLY DONE, Henny, and I still have thirty-five seconds left!"

"-it's been a while, and I miss you!"

He fell silent. Beth and Henny did not, and he got to hear Henny sniping about the exact time by her watch since the phone had started ringing, and Beth started saying into the phone "So anyway *Dad*, thanks for letting me know about Mom, I hope she's out of the hospital soon! Yes, I'll call as soon as I can get home, unfortunately my *manager* feels I spend too much time on the phone!"

Wow. This was crazy.

Henny's voice faded away and Beth took a moment to recover before saying, in a shaky voice, "I am *so sorry.*"

"No, don't be. That sounds *awful*."

"You have no idea," she said; her voice sounded small.

He was at a loss; words weren't his strong suit in moments like these, but she wasn't there in the room with him, so words were all he had to offer. "Your mom's not really in the hospital, is she?"

Beth laughed sharply. "No, of course not. God, wouldn't that just be the topper? No, I just - was being stupid. I wanted her to leave me alone."

"Don't get real upset, okay? You're gettin' out soon, maybe spend the afternoon lookin' at the want ads and see if you can find another place that's hiring."

"Yeah, right." She took a long breath and let it out. "Okay, I should go now or she'll nail me for being over by 47 seconds. Thanks for calling me."

"No problemo. I'll call tomorrow too, okay?"

She paused, just for the briefest second. "Do - do you want to cancel tomorrow night too?"

"Huh? NO! No, I'll just call to check in! We'll DEFINITELy see you tomorrow night!"

"Oh good... okay. Thanks." She sounded deeply relieved. "Um, geez, I should've asked this before now, but is Drake OK?"

"Oh yeah - fine, no, he just... doctor said, to be on the safe side, y'know. Stomach bugs can spread real quick."

"Stomach..." She mused slightly, but didn't finish. Instead she said, "I - I'm not going to ask if you've had a chance to... talk to him yet, about what I was saying... I mean... if you have, well, tell me tomorrow, okay?"

"Oh yeah. You bet. Actually with him bein' sick and all-"

"Right. Well, tomorrow. Thanks again for calling."

When they'd both hung up, he wondered where exactly "I miss you" had come from.

Guess what I did all freakin' afternoon/night?

I wrote that story. I wrote that GOLDARNED story.

I wrote an 11K word story guys. Why can't I do that on TWC? (I'll tell you why, becuase this had no plot, this is just romance. I can crank that out no problem, TWC fics have action plots and those screw me up.)

I initially said I was writing it just for me, but I wrote so much that I feel like I should od something with it. I'm not sure what yet. If you are interested in reading this fic, please lemme know. I think it stands on its own, and I can fill in the blanks on it in an introduction/notes at the start, and I don't think it actually spoils the Christmas fic. And now I don't actually have to write the middle story. I mean, I might anyway, but I don't have to...

I think my main reason to write it would be because Candy is in it, and though she's in the one I just did too she has a much larger role in the middle fic. And when I wrote her scene in this one I realized that I love her.

But I also love Beth/LP romance and this is freaking FULL of that s***.

WAY too much thought

So I just got back from a mid-afternoon walk break and every so often when I go out on these I end up having a very productive fic idea ... thing. (I don't know, clearly all my writing ability is now gone, lol) Yesterday I tried to do some roughing out on acts 2 and 3 of "Those Daring McQuacks" and ended up playing out a few scenes (and realizing that some of the ones I've been wanting to write are going to have clunky motivation/dialogue and I'll have to do them really carefully... dangit). Today I went to move onto the fic that takes place after it, which is a Christmas fic, and which a few years ago (after I first had the idea) I created a fake "sequel" to. As in yes, I had a fanfic idea for my fanfic; non-canonical follow-up.

So in the end I started not thinking about the Christmas fic - which, btw, I have decided is going to be told in little vignettes, each titled after a Christmas song and each with a lyric from that song hidden inside it, it'll be a nice "Find the song!" game all through! :P But anyway - but instead about the sorta climactic scene in the fanfic-fanfic.

And that's when I got carried away.

First I put a bit too much thought into the ending (instead of how I was going to GET to the ending); then I thought "well, kinda too bad it's NC even in my universe, since if this DID happen, obviously THIS would..." And then I started plotting out the SECOND sequel.

And heck if it's not really goooood >_< So here I am - wanting to write that third fic in a trio that has not been started, without any context at all, on an AU of my own AU; AND, if I do it, even though it is unofficial it will still regardless pretty much take all the wind out of hte sails of what I *actually* have planned for the remainder of the series. D: But I really want to write it out ;_; If I had time and could get away with it I'd write it for ME, but I really like to show things to people so I'd prefer to use my limited free time to actually write things I intend to show to others.

Baawwwwww. Let's all cry a river for Rebecca. ^_^;; All this is really a nice sign that I've been writing this series without real resolution for TOO DARN LONG. (You know how long? 16 years, that's how long. YEAH. TOO LONG, BABY.)

If you want details and by details I mean MASSIVE SPOILERS, you can leave a comment requesting them, and I'll either reply in the comments or just send you an email, whichever you'd prefer.

On-Schedule

So! I actually managed to update TWC3 a second time this month! If I can get the last two chapters done on-schedule then we'll be done around the end of August/beginning of September :)

It's not up yet on AO3, but here's the FF.net link.

Since this is winding down, and I haven't done any chapter notes or much talking about the fic itself, I thought I'd make a post about... well, about the fic itself. :) I've whined a lot about how no one really seems to like this one - which is inaccurate, as I have had multiple people contact me via DA and so forth to say that they've started reading with this one, and they find it quite enjoyable. So what I'm really whining about is the lack of reviews on FF.net, when I think about it. Aaaand, whatever. I'll keep whining about that ON FF.net, because I can see how many hits the story gets so I know people are looking at it and I'm just choosing to be all guilt-pushy there, but I'll skip the whining elsewhere. I know you guys. We cool. :D

Oh, wow, that was a digression!

So to get back to what I was talking about, I haven't really posted much about this particular fic and what's gone into the rewrite. With TWC2 I did at least some partial listings of the things I'd changed from the original version, and now that TWC3 is winding down some, I thought it'd be fun to do the same with this one. I can be almost complete, too, since it's nearly over!

In a lot of ways this one is actually very similar to its progenitor: more than either of the others, I really used the original as an outline and just filled the details in more strongly. With TWC2, for instance, I had to change a number of the plot details to make them less hokey, or the order of the events to make them more understandable, etc. With this one, it's largely the same: the outline for both is:
I: Beth gets yelled at/humiliated by Drake and LP comes to her defense, and then she finds out about Drake being Darkwing;
II: Darkwing encounters Quackerjack, who uses his ray gun to minimize him (haha, I like that term), at which point DW gets away but LP and Gosalyn are struck by the change being more than just cosmetic;
III: Darkwing and Gos ditch Launchpad to fight Quackerjack, which they do and they win, and then at the end Beth... Well I can't say yet 'cause it's a spoiler. DUN-DUN-DUN!!! Okay, okay, you got me, I'll spill. She runs away with Negaduck and has his nega-babies. YEAH YOU HEARD ME!

Okay, so, aside from that minor point at the end which may possibly not be true, that's pretty straightforward. I ended up just doing each as 3-chapter acts instead of one chapter each. And I STILL could barely fit all the Beth stuff into the first act, man, even with three chapters :P I do go on and on! So now for the differences:

1. There NEEDED to be a lot more detail in the Beth section at the beginning, because initially Drake just was fed up with her babbling and snapped at her. I mean, it's simple and not fully OOC, but it did make him look like a gigantic jerk. And while Drake can be a gigantic jerk, there's a right way and a wrong way; and he needed to have a reason within his head that made him certain he was NOT being a gigantic jerk. At least not for no reason at all. :D I actually came up with the idea for the whole "nobody can be that BORING" etc while walking to work one day, about a year ago - it just clicked. I'd been sweating over rewriting the scene for MONTHS, not sure if I could make it actually work IC, and then it just fell together. This was also when I decided to really go and just *run* with the idea that DW would think Beth was a superhero, and this was his (flimsy, I admit) reason for letting her stick around and babysit when it wasn't really strictly necessary. So, all this actually took a lot of thought and in the original was way quicker and weaker.

2. In the same vein, I had to *really* punch up the confrontation between Drake and LP. I won't go into the details on it since that's not needed, but I did struggle to make it something that made sense for LP at this point, and it was a challenge. I'm still worried as to whether I pulled it off, though no one to date has told me I didn't. And, again, the discussion between Beth and LP afterwards was very much extended past the original. The idea of LP trying to "talk Beth up" to Drake started as my idea of a way to get him thinking of her more often and - since he ultimately falls for her himself - this might be the impetus to get him to look at her that way or that might just be the excuse he gives himself when he realizes he's doing that.

3. Beth's discovery of DW's secret identity was largely the same but I had to change some details, including why Gosalyn wasn't present (and it's an excuse to bring Honker into the series earlier! I wish I'd had a part for him in the rest of the fic) and just precisely how Beth stumbles onto it. I absolutely wanted her to stumble onto it, too, because as smart as she is, she doesn't think of unexpected things very often so although she probably would put two and two together EVENTUALLY, it wouldn't happen for quite some time. :)

4. I needed more for Launchpad to do in this fic (this is a theme in nearly all my rewrites; he needs more REAL screen time) and thus came the "Harv" sequence. In the original, Quackerjack dealt largely with just DW, though Launchpad did ultimately still rescue Darkwing after getting zapped by the ray. One thing missing in the rewrites: I have to admit that I loved all the Quackerjack and Mr. Banana Brain interactions that were in the original. I can't shoehorn them in unless they feel right, so there arent' nearly as many, and I kinda miss them. :)

5. Almost everything after Darkwing gets child-ized is pretty close to the original, just fleshed out; the phone conversation with Beth ended up a little longer than I intended it, but I think it was needed, because I wanted to show the ease that Beth and Launchpad have between themselves even if she's kind of resistant to it/doesn't realize it's there. I needed some kind of positive interaction between them that didn't involve angsting over Drake. ;) I also had to stick in some mounting tension with Henny, and LP really ought to encourage her to get a backbone, don't you think? In the nice, non-accusatory Launchpad style.

6. Played up the loneliness Launchpad feels when Gos and Darkwing only want to hang out with each other. I hadn't intended it to dovetail like that when I started out having him thinking about how he was kind of lonely in general (back in Act I), but it fit like a glove and was actually already in the original fic. Like I said, I just played it up.

7. The Darkwing and Gos caper is at once directly following the original fic (I'm even referencing it as I go, for the general structure and for content ideas to flesh out) and also incredibly different. Action is NOT MY THING. I'm not good at it. If this reads well, I'm lucky, because I really struggle with it. Things I want to address in the next chapter or two include why DW is acting like such a complete brat (there's a reason, it's not JUST that he actually is one :D), and of course how Gos is going to get free/how the good guys will win.

Finally, upcoming in the last chapter: How will Darkwing return to his normal age? Will Beth find out that Drake thinks she's a supervillain? Will she BECOME one??? What will Launchpad think when Darkwing gives his latest opinion on Beth? Will all of this actually be addressed? NO. :D Some of it will. There's a plot climax coming in Act III chapter 2, and then in the "aftermath" of chapter 3, we'll see the Beth and the Launchpad stuff come to a point. (Not the Beth/Launchpad stuff. Beth stuff and Launchpad stuff, and in some ways the two will meet.)

So in a sense I've always felt like it's not fair to have so much Beth in a story that doesn't really involve her, but in another sense, this is one of the most important stories in the first five so a lot HAS to happen. I hope you'll read on, good friends. :)

Love Comes Quickly

First: So sorry I have not replied to any of the replies I received on my other posts. At this point they're old enough that it probably won't happen, unless I find the time to make a new post specifically to answer. :P Sorry! But moving forward I'll try to be more reactive! I appreciated the responses anyway!

Second: WILL I FIND TIME TO WORK ON FIC OR WILL I KEEP PROCRASTINATING?

Third: A beautiful (is that the right word? no) song by the Pet Shop Boys which kind of thematically works to *one* of my fics... try and guess which. :D



I love the Pet Shop Boys. I also love people who parody the Pet Shop Boys. So for that reason and having nothing at all to do with fanfic or Darkwing Duck, here is a video from Flight of the Conchords.



"Counting out coins at the 7-11 from a quarter past six to a quarter to seven. The manager, Bevan, starts to abuse me: hey man, I just want some muesli."

Double-Post With the Most

I dunno why it is but it's like, if I actually post here, a lot of times I end up DOUBLE-posting. Haha.

So who's up for some over-PG-rated talk? No? You may leave, sir!

To clarify though I'm not about to get smutty. Just some musing on the kind of fic I usually write, and the fact that I don't generally go above a PG rating... even though occasionally I am tempted. *G*

So to be honest, when it comes to sex/adult situations, my rating is kept low due to my own... squidginess with the subject matter. I have never really felt comfortable writing sexy duck stuff, or reading it, to be perfectly honest. I won't turn it down when it's a friend that has written it but I have to put myself into another mindset to do it, and I won't ever seek it out from someone I don't know. It's just not my bag (slash, het, crack pairing, whatever - it doesn't matter, I just don't go beyond PG, a little innuendo. I'll do a "fade to black" and that's about as far as I actively am interested in).

However, I'll admit that I do occasionally find that as i'm writing a scene I have to really, really struggle to keep it... well, "clean". I'm not talking about characters stripping or anything like that but just the undertones. There's a scene in TWC1, when Beth finds out that Drake and LP live in the same house, and there just was no way that I couldn't write it as if she thinks she's discovered that they're a gay couple. She's like, subtly disappointed, right? Yeah. I couldn't bring myself to *say* it but neither could I not write it. To me it was REALLY obvious she'd jump to that conclusion. :D

Likewise, in the chapter of TWC3 that I just posted this evening, LP and Beth have this super-awkward conversation about how she really wants a family but she's never even had a boyfriend; I was trying very hard as I wrote it to not make it obvious that she was really confessing to him that she was a virgin. I mean, if she's never had a boyfriend, DUH, but you know, in a cartoon universe that's not an issue. *G* But that just became the subtext of the scene, and made it about ten times more awkward. These are things that I would assume will likely be more obvious than I thought they were as I wrote them, which means ... they're probably pretty bad. ^^;

The last subject is the topic of actual sexuality, which - well, if I shy away from general innuendo, you'd have to guess that I avoid sexuality like the plague. And I do, but honestly, it's not like it never crosses my mind. One thing about Beth is that she isn't exactly physically demonstrative, but when she hugs someone, they STAY hugged if you know what I mean. You probably don't. :D She's generally never aware of how her actions or things she says come across, and especially not at first, so when Beth hugs someone she gives it her all. She like really, REALLY hugs them. Not in a crushing way but in this way where she presses her entire upper body against them and kind of nestles her head into their shoulder. Drake finds it really uncomfortable but LP finds it really intimate and it gets to him immediately.

From there I end up finding myself writing him just... thinking about touching her, wanting to be in contact with her, putting his hand on her back while he hugs her and just considering the shape of her; these are all actually very sensual and to a certain degree sexual things.

The farthest I'd ever be willing to go in terms of writing a DWD fic would be PG-13. I don't think I could ever write much more than some heavy smooching scenes and then the definite implication of the characters staying the night together... and even that... well it'll never happen in the "official" universe of my fics. (Especially 'cause I'd be selling out; I think Beth is the wait-until-marriage type for certain.)

And I have a lot of trouble writing kissing scenes and the like because I either under-describe or over-describe it; and because I'm genuinely afraid of making it too sexy, or possibly laughably too sexy. ;) Every so often I get it into my head to write one of these and I never do, but today's been one of those days where the whole idea won't stop floating around in there. So, there's the inspiration for this post. *G*

How do the people reading feel about "adult-oriented" material? I know how a couple of people following this blog feel, but offer anyone who'd like the opportunity to reply or weigh in. :)

I swear it's Springfield's only choice! Throw up your ahnds and raise your voice!

Hiiii everyone!

In case you don't watch me on deviantART, I have put up the first chapter of "Forever Young" (third in TWC rewrites). http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2460903/1/TWC_3_Forever_Young

Please review! If you've never reviewed before this is where to start, and perhaps even end! This chapter has a scene I'm all shaky about and need some love. :)

Um, yes, I did indeed put most of this up here already if you go back far enough in the archives. So you might've read it. But it's OFFICIALLY DONE NOW! :D

I is getting a commission done

I was going to write "I can has commission" and then I thought, man, that is so played. So 2008. Right?

Anyway! I'm splurging for myself because I'm having a crappy time of things and are from my stories makes me happy. So I'm commissioning a couple of scenes illustrated from my fics, by Canti550, and it's gonna be awesome.

The only problem is that I don't actually know what scenes I want done. *headdesk*

I have mostly figured out what fic I want them from, at least one of them anyway; but... I thought I had picked one out yesterday, then I went to find the chapter it was in and decided it wasn't the right one. So I decided on a different one from the same fic and all was well until today when I read over it and thought Oh, no. Too heavy. ARGH. So I'm going back to the first one and thinking maybe that is the better idea, only I'm not sure how it would be distilled.

Well I guess I can leave that up to the artist; I don't have to plan this stuff out for her, do I? ;)

For the record, the fic is "High, Dry, and Flooded" if you're among those who have read it. I guess I'll go with my original pick for the first one and then figure out my second. Does anyone have any suggestions for something they'd like to see Canti550 illustrate? I'm a little overwhelmed seeing as how I have about 15 fics in this stupid series. :P I know it's totally up to me, but I'll be happy to consider suggestions! Also since I'm looking for a Beth/LP scene for my first one, the second one doesn't need to be themed that way, so anything would be good...

It's December. Again.

Well, it's no longer Thanksgiving, but I'm going to finish this danged "thankful" thing I started anyway. It would help if I remembered I'd said I'd do it at some point when I'm actually sitting at a computer, which I did tonight, so... Here I am! :D

Okay, if you read DWD fanfiction then you should read the stuff by IcequeenKitty, who has written a series - nearly finished - sorta called "Darker DWD". And it is what its name implies, a group of epic fics that are set in an AU where things are just not quite the same. Little things, you know, like there's not comedy relief and stuff and also people are horribly murdered in grisly ways, and so on. Y'know, that.

The thing is that these fics are *amazing*. I don't usually like "dark" Darkwing fics. I like, in general, the style of the show - I don't mean I avoid serious/drama stuff, I just mean, scaryviolentdark stuff... isn't my thing. the small handful of times I've tried out darkfics I've found them overwritten, and if you've written a "dark" DW fic I very likely did NOT read yours (I've read like, two, and I don't remember by whom, but this was like ten years ago) so don't take it personally. ;) However though, I tried out Kitty's fics because I noticed a lot of the people I knew and enjoyed on Fanfiction.net had her as a favourite, and so I gave the first fic, "Roots of Revenge", a try. I was almost *startled* by how much I liked it. It, and the resulting series, is so well-crafted and the characterizations are so strong, whether they're similar to the series or not. And there's this great heart to it that resides largely with Gosalyn, who draws the characters together beautifully; Morgana deepens that when she comes into it as well.

OKAY! So that's a big build-up to say that when I issued my "Please write fic for me if you love me!" plea, Kitty actually took me up on it, and what's more, she put it in her amazing "Dark" AU. It's a work of beauty. She did not put it up on Fanfiction.net but that's okay, it's up on deviantART instead: Light at the End. I have no idea if this is canon in the series and I don't expect Beth to show up at the end of the final story (which is still in-progress), but it wouldn't kill the pleasure of this baby even if it were not canon, so it's all good. :)

Meanwhile Kitty also draws and she did a really seriously adorable pic of Beth for me a little while ago, here, which of course is obviously set in my 'verse and not hers. ;D

So there's another down; I have two more to do but I've covered all the gift-fic, and that should keep y'all busy for a while. ^_^

Fanfic that is not by me and is therefore OMGSOAMAZING!!!

I got permission from Marci to pimp out the fic she wrote for me!

A couple of years ago I got all high and mighty and for my birthday asked people to write fic for me, specifically fic with Beth in it. I had only a few people with the time and inspiration to take me up on this, and I am amazed that that many did so, and everything that they gave me was *amazing*. I actually still intend to do a giant "OMG" post on each and every piece. But Marci only showed me what she wrote (I guess 'cause it's still incomplete, pfff, like THAT matters :D) a couple of weeks ago, and after I saw it and died, I wanted to make sure I had her permission to share it around... it being unfinished and all. I dunno, you'd think that with her having posted it that would be a sign that it's shareable, but eh, I err on the side of caution. FAR too often it turns out but ANYWAY! ;)

Here's the link to the absolutely fantastic stuff she has written so far:

http://fanfic.thebadfic.com/?p=30#more-30

Seeing as how I respect the need to work where you have the inspiration and all, I am *not* advising anyone to bug her to finish it, but if anyone wanted to send "inspirational vibes" in her direction... s'all I'm sayin'. ^_~ (though only if it doesn't throw off her work on her original fic. Priorities, man.)

*dies again*

Swear to god you guys. I'm going to have a "Guest Star Corner" thing here where I can rave about the various Webfoot-related gifts/commissions I've gotten over the years. I just need to get my s*** together is all.

P.S. Read some of her other stuff too. Marci's awesome is not limited to the times when she writes my OC.

The Ever-Vivacious Head of Kitty Carlisle Says:

"HI everybody! Let's start the game!"

So I'm weak-willed, and thus I'm going to break down and post the scene I've been working on for TWC3's rewrite. It may or may not be the opening to the fic - I haven't decided yet - and it's unbeta'd, but what the heck; it's going to be at least another 3-4 months before I start posting this. :)

SPOILERS ahead if you have not read the original versions! (Why do I bother doing this?) If you haven't read them and don't want to be spoiled, or if you want to wait until after reading the rewrite of TWC2, or have some other reason you want to avoid spoilers, read no further on this entry!

As an aside, I'm wondering if I ought to transport this blog over to Dreamwidth or something, so that I can use cut-tags. I miss cut-tags on this format. ANYway!

A little context for people who aren't familiar with the original version, but want to read onward anyway. In my initial version I reached a point where LP and DW "needed" (in my mind) to come to odds over Beth. Mmm, that's good drama! Well, I actually still feel that way - for one thing, DW is just nasty to her sometimes, and someone needs to defend the poor kid. For another, it's... well, it's still good drama. If done right anyway.

For quite some time though I was worried about writing it - as much as I wanted to do it, I had no idea how to do it without just making it go overboard... How not to make Drake look like an unforgivable jerk, how to keep LP in character, how not to make Beth look like OMGPOORABUSEDBETH!... well, a few weeks ago I was walking from the bus stop to work and a little scene popped into my head and I realized it would work. I could've written it in like three days but it was RIGHT the day before we left to go on vacation to Canada. I worked on it a little while we were there but the distraction level was high. So it's taken me a while to get as far as I have... which isn't all that far... but it's something! Oh, the spoilers are pretty mild; mostly they allude to the fact that Beth gets kidnapped by Bushroot in TWC2, and this together with her being followed by Megavolt convinces Darkwing that she's actually a villainess in disguise. (new twist. *G*)

One last note: I was going to wait on this but I've been getting antsy because of the new comic. I haven't read a single panel of it, and I realized it could be a "game-changer" or something. Well, I tend to get paranoid about my canon, not because I need it to come true but because I don't want to be hugely contradicting something that is now the NEW, ACTUAL canon. Plus the general zeitgeist of DWD right now just makes me want to write a LOT and put it out there. I wish I was connecting better with the public, but at least I'm writing; that's making me happy. :)

So! No further ado; here's the scene in question. I will love any feedback I get!

***

There are many ways in which a hero can protect his city.

The most obvious way, of course, is to defeat the denizens of darkness as they come forward, deducing their diabolical intentions and nullifying the nefarious nogoodniks before they can bring their plans to fruition. After a lifetime of experience, Darkwing Duck had mastered this ability and could do it in his sleep. In fact, he had, but that was another story.

A lesser-known protection, however, is the dedication to constant vigilance. Constant vigilance is what allows the very best heroes to not only thwart the very worst plans of the very worst villains as they unfold, but to act preemptively, eliminating threats before they have a chance to strike. Constant vigilance is the way in which the very best vigilantes monitor potential subjects and catch them *before* they are able to perpetrate any wrongdoing.

Constant vigilance, and a healthy dose of intuition, are among the weapons at the disposal of the peak heroes of the world - the creme de la creme, if you will.

Darkwing Duck's intuition had led him to watch a certain newcomer into his life very closely. He was, in fact, ready to place her on the "constant vigilance" list. At first glance, Beth Webfoot was harmless: shy, bespectacled, and interested only in hardware and the occasional babysitting gig. But after a series of odd events, all of which had seemed to involve her in one way or another, Darkwing's intuition had begun to tell him that this woman needed watching.

She seemed to attract supervillains like a magnet, for one thing. There was that, which of itself was suspicious, but add to it the fact that she was worming her way into his family life... coincidence? How big of a coincidence would it have to be for an honestly harmless woman to meet him, get hired to babysit his daughter, and via totally-unrelated means bump into not one but *two* of his most dangerous arch-enemies?

That would be one big coincidence, Darkwing believed. Too big.

Plus there was something about her that just *bugged* him.

A generic background search hadn't turned up any information, and as a result Gosalyn and Launchpad were telling him he was being irrational. So, all that meant was that Beth Webfoot was very, very crafty - and probably using an alias. He'd have to probe deeper.

Some might say that it was faulty logic for Darkwing Duck to allow a suspected supervillain to babysit his daughter several nights a week, but Darkwing believed in the wise old adage, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer." He was on guard, and so he didn't believe Gosalyn was in any genuine danger. From what he could see, Beth was sounding him out as much as he was sounding her out. He was confident that he'd be able to track her movements well enough to know before she was about to strike.

Meanwhile, he had the advantage: surprise, and foreknowledge. She clearly had no idea that he knew, and while he was being cagey, he could also play her like a fiddle and find out whatever he needed to know.
It was a Wednesday night when he decided to gather information. If the preliminary background check had failed, he would just have to get as much on her as he could, and look at it from every angle. With that in mind, in his Drake Mallard guise, he sat himself down next to her on the couch and began.

"So, Ms. Webfoot," he said, his tone confident and straightforward, "would I be correct in assuming that 'Beth' is short for 'Elizabeth'?"

She straightened up slightly and smiled at him. "Um, yes! You're exactly correct," she said. "A-although I guess, when you think about it, there aren't really many other names that Beth is short for, are there? But still you never know so I understand why you asked."

At this point, Drake was starting to suspect that the stream of ongoing mindless chatter from her was an intentional front. He narrowed his eyes slightly, but gave no other sign of suspicion. "Riiiiight. So, moving on, do you happen to have a middle name?"

Beth looked at him in surprise for a second, and he was just wondering if he'd pushed too far too fast and given himself away, when she blushed a little. "W-well, it's Marilynn, actually."

"Marilyn? Like Marilyn Monroe, huh?"

"Yes, exactly! Only it's spelled with two 'n's at the end so it's not exactly the same - b-but you're not interested in how I spell a name I never even use," she finished, chuckling nervously.

"On the contrary," he said, making a mental note of this information, "I am interested. *Very* interested."

Beth leaned forward, again looking surprised and pleased. "R-really?"

"Oh yes," Drake answered. He leaned forward as well, and propped himself up on one elbow against the couch. "Do tell me more about yourself, Ms. Webfoot... Favourite colour, favourite animal... where you grew up... any prior police records..."

She laughed, presumably at the last one, and went on to tell him everything. In great, extensive detail. Over the course of fifteen minutes he learned a whole lot about very little, mainly - despite his efforts at steering the conversation - about her background in retail. She probably *was* onto him.

After answering two or three questions and then devolving into a rambling monologue that seemed to be mostly about her boss, Beth failed to make any point that Drake could identify. He was stuck nodding, uttering the occasional "Uh-huh" and "Absolutely", and ultimately feeling his eyes glazing over. Was it just possible that she didn't actually notice the effect she was having? After all, the Muddlefoots were the much the same... But this would be such an effective form of torture that it just raised Drake's suspicions even more.

"...And Henny said that it wasn't worth chasing him down over 21 cents, and I guess she's probably right, but it was just going to stay with me all day if I hadn't given him the correct change and really, you know, what if he'd come back and been upset that I'd given him the wrong amount? I know, I know, it's less than a quarter but you never do know, but then Henny said that I'd wasted company time going after him once he'd left the store, and I just thought, it's like I can't win either way, you know? Should I give him his money, should I let him leave, do you know that song 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' It's by the Clash, and I don't normally like that kind of music but I heard it once on the radio and I thought 'Oh my gosh, that's ME' because it basically goes -"

"What?" Drake said suddenly, as if in response to something. Beth fell silent instantly. He sat up straight, looking like he was listening to something, then called "Be right there!" and turned back to Beth. "Sorry, I think I'm needed in the kitchen. Y'know, you should probably go upstairs and check on Gos and her homework, really enjoyed the chat and I hope we can do this again next year!"

"Oh - yes, me too, we could... um...thanks!" She was just trailing off as he left the room, escaping through the door into the safe haven of his kitchen.

The only person there was Launchpad, who had definitely not called him, but Drake was reasonably sure that - despite his partiality to Beth - he could count on some backup from his sidekick in this case.

"Hey DW - hot dogs are just about done," Launchpad announced, being in charge of dinner for the evening. "You want anything on it?"

"Make me one with everything, LP," said Drake, sinking wearily into the chair at the kitchen table, "I earned it."

"Really? Whatja do?" Launchpad asked as he retrieved about five different bottles and jars from the fridge, then piled them onto the counter next to the bag of hot dog rolls.

Drake let his head rest in his hand, as though he were trying to massage his brain back to life. "Just had a full interview with you-know-who out there, to try to get some more information to go on."

Launchpad rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "DW, for the last time, she's NOT a bad guy!" He checked the hot dogs, turned down the flame underneath the burner, and then addressed Drake again. "You're wastin' a lot of energy on nothin'!"

"I beg to differ," Drake said flatly. "If *she's* harmless, then Dr. Slug should be celebrated as a philanthropist. I just spent twenty minutes listening to her go on, and I'm telling you LP, there is *evil* underneath that drab exterior. There has to be, because nobody can actually be that *boring*."

Launchpad frowned, his expression indicating a bit more displeasure than before. "That's not -" The next word, Drake was sure, would have been either "nice" or "fair"; Launchpad was a staunch defender of Beth, and he seemed to share Gizmoduck's idealistic beliefs that "fair" applied outside to life outside of the playground. But the sentence was never finished, because as he was speaking the words, Launchpad's eyes skipped from Drake to something behind him, and he bit off his comment.

Drake swallowed, and reluctantly turned in his seat; Beth was standing in the doorway, her hand clutching the frame in a manner that suggested she was keeping herself upright this way, but although there was a slight blush on her cheeks, her face was almost impassive. There was absolutely no doubt that she'd heard his last comment; the only thing uncertain was just how much she *had* heard.

An awkward moment fell among the three of them, and Drake shifted guiltily in his seat. As Beth turned her attention toward the ground, Drake returned his to the kitchen table. The tension between them was almost palpable. He had to say something - he knew that - but nothing that came into his head seemed right. In books and TV shows, a person overhearing others talking about them just left - usually without anyone even knowing they'd been there. Naturally, Beth was just *standing* there, like she was waiting for something.

Waiting - or maybe completely aware of how awkward her presence was making things. Maybe this was *intentional*. He reminded himself that Beth was no ordinary babysitter (or hardware clerk or whatever she called herself) - and, depending on how much she'd overheard, it was possibly that she knew that *he* knew.
With his mind racing this way, Drake almost didn't notice when Launchpad broke the silence that had built up around them. With a forceful cheerfulness, Launchpad said loudly, "Oh, hi Beth! Uh, so, how's it goin'?"

It was an incredibly lame attempt to pretend nothing had happened, but at the same time, Drake realized that might be the best way to go. At best she might believe it, and at worst, she might not know that they knew that she knew they knew. Wait - Drake frowned to himself. Was that right...?

Beth, meanwhile, answered in a weak voice. "Oh... um... g-good. I-I guess."

"Yeah? Great! Me too. So, uh... lookin' forward to babysittin' tonight?"

"Um..." Beth's voice shook, and grew quieter. "I-I think m-maybe I should... go home..."

Drake fought down another surge of guilt by reminding himself that he was being manipulated by a diabolical genius. If he turned to face her, he might lose his resolve; much better for him to avoid eye contact.

Launchpad reacted strongly, which did not surprise Drake. "No, don't go! Look, Beth, you didn't hear what you thought you heard. Drake didn't mean - well..." He looked beseechingly to Drake, who shook his head slightly in an effort to convey his suspicions. Launchpad's eyebrows went up in surprise for a moment, then knitted together slightly.

From the doorway, Beth said, "I-I'm sorry..."

Distracted from Drake, Launchpad looked at her swiftly. "*You* don't have to apologize!" he said, an edge of something unspoken creeping into his voice. "C'mon Drake," he said imploringly.

It figured: Launchpad *would* end up buying the act of the damsel in distress and forget to pay attention to the guy with the crimefighter's instincts. Drake grit his teeth together and tried to make eye contact so that he could get it through to Launchpad that they were being played, but it was no good; his sidekick was too distracted, and just kept looking back and forth between them. Drake was well aware that he'd have to say *something*, in any case, but without advance communication, Launchpad probably wasn't going to like it. Still, it had to be done.

Stiff-shouldered, Drake turned partially towards Beth and said, "I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"Um, okay," Beth said in a near-whisper. Drake couldn't see her well from his angle, but she appeared to be talking to the doorframe. She started to slip out of his line of vision. "Um, I'll just... um..."

There was a loud *bang* on the table in front of him, and Drake jumped in surprise and looked up to see Launchpad staring at him. No - *glaring*. Drake was taken too much aback to do any more than blink for a moment, during which time Launchpad said, "What kinda apology was *that*?"

"It was-" began Drake, who wasn't about to take this kind of situation from his own sidekick; but Beth managed to cut through his voice despite the softness of her tone.

"No, no, it's okay - he doesn't have to apologize at all!" She looked from Drake to Launchpad, both of whose attention was firmly on her, and she took a timid step back. "I'm... I'm fine," she said tremulously. "He didn't do anything... wrong."

Ignoring Drake for a moment, Launchpad stepped toward her and took her by the hand, drawing her into the room. "Wait here a sec," he said, his voice growing quiet, and then he surprised Drake again by putting a hand to her cheek, just for a moment, as she cast her eyes downwards again. "Don't go anywhere, okay?" She nodded, still looking at the floor.

Then Launchpad turned back to Drake, and said, "I gotta talk to you." There was unmistakably no room for argument in his tone, and although Drake didn't intend to let Launchpad start ordering him around, he did feel it was utterly imperative to avoid any sign of dissension in front of Beth.

Coolly, he replied, "Fine. Ms. Webfoot," he said politely as he got to his feet, "please excuse us for a moment." Launchpad had already started for the living room, so Drake stepped out after him. Once they'd cleared the door, Drake began, "Okay, listen LP-"

"What's your *problem* with her?!" Launchpad asked, spinning to face Drake and pointing a finger decisively in his direction.

Drake was taken aback, and for a moment all he could do was stare at his sidekick, blinking and frowning as his temper flared in the face of this unfair accusation. Launchpad seemed to be waiting for an actual answer, so a few moments passed before Drake recovered enough to answer. "What is *that* supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means, DW. You haven't given her a chance even once since you've met her. An' now you've really hurt her feelings, and for what? What'd she *do*?"

"Don't fall for that sweet and innocent routine, Launchpad - that woman is-"

"No she's *NOT*!" Again, Drake stopped cold, because talks with Launchpad just were not supposed to go this way. Launchpad didn't cut him off, he didn't yell, and he didn't question Darkwing Duck's instincts. All these things together were such unexplored territory with the pilot that Drake found himself getting equally angry and unnerved. Launchpad lowered his voice and continued, but the anger remained audible. "You don't have any proof about that, you just decided it an' you're stickin' with it 'cause it's easier than admittin' that you're bein' a jerk!"

"YOU don't have any proof that she's NOT a supervillain!" Drake shot back, maintaining the same high-intensity, low-volume tone as Launchpad, as he bristled over the term 'jerk'. "All *you* have is a 'gut feeling', so don't give me this baloney about believing what I want to believe! I'M the one with the hero's instincts here, *sidekick*!"

"Yeah, but if you knew her..."

"Oh, give me a break. Just because you see someone for ten minutes at a time every couple of weeks doesn't make you bosom companions. Why do you even care?"

Frowning, Launchpad pointed again, this time at the kitchen door. "Because maybe you didn't notice, or maybe you just don't care, but she *likes* you. She's a good person, but she's shy, an' she's tryin' every day to get you to notice her just a little bit but all you ever do is complain about her an' accuse her of stuff."

"And that's another thing!" Drake said angrily, refusing to quail under this list of inaccuracies, "*she* barely knows *me*. Why should she care enough to try to get me to notice her? Unless she has ulterior motives, that's why!"

"Or maybe she's just *nice!*" Launchpad shouted, and then stepped back, shutting his mouth again. He crossed his arms. "Look DW - just look at it this way. If you don't believe she's innocent, then pretend for a sec that ya do. Pretend she's just an ordinary lady, who never dealt with supervillains or any'a that stuff before. Now think about how much she's been through the past coupla weeks. She's been robbed, stalked, kidnapped, an' she's babysat for Gosalyn five times now. And she keeps comin' back."

Drake had to pause and concede that this was, indeed, a lot for your average non-superheroic citizen. "But nobody's *making* her."

"Exactly," said Launchpad emphatically.

"Sooooo, doesn't that make you *suspicious*?" Drake let the statement hang in the air for a moment, certain that the implications would finally sink in.

Instead Launchpad shook his head. "No. It makes me think she's lonely."

And then *that* statement hung in the air, and sank in.

But... *no*. Just because she'd won over Launchpad - and really, who had doubted that she'd win over Launchpad? She'd had her hooks in him for weeks now - didn't mean that Drake would let this faulty logic win him over as well. His family, and perhaps the entire city, were at stake.... They *had* to be.

Seeing he wasn't going to win Launchpad over with any grandscale arguments (and unable to think of any more at this point anyway), he averted his eyes and grumbled, "Look, she wasn't even supposed to hear that anyway."

"Well, she did," Launchpad said. "An' you're just makin' excuses now 'cause you feel bad."

He was *not*. Frowning, Drake said, "I am *not*. She needs to learn not to come bursting into someone else's kitchen. Maybe she can use this as an object lesson."

***
(Not the end of the scene, just the end of what I have written. ^_^)

Three posts in three days?! Has the world gone topsy-turvy??

I KNOW!

Anyway I put together some authors' notes (and babbling and random stuffage) on the prologue of "All About Eve". For those following along at FF.net (which is... everyone I think, right now anyway), the prologue is chapters 1 and 2. I'm not splitting them up here, but they will probably remain separate chapters when I post them on my site, because otherwise it's a terribly long prologue.

Though I am well aware that real prologues don't have two chapters. We'll just... overlook that.

Without further ado, except to mention that I have a sore throat and it is driving me CRAZY!, here are the notes!

Prologue:

References:

- Title: "All About Eve", classic Bette Davis movie; the title really has no relation to the content, it's just straightforward, all about Beth.
- "Back to the Future" - Candy's line about turning in her homework in Beth's handwriting.
- "Signs" - Tank swinging at everything during softball games. I had just rewatched the movie, so I snuck that in there. I did stop short of having Tank quote the film with "It felt wrong not to swing", though.

I have heard of situations where, to start with, an advanced kid was mistaken for a kid with a learning disability. But I think it might've been in "The Simpsons". I'm not sure that really happens but I thought Beth is so quiet that maybe even her parents would overlook the signs of advanced intelligence and focus in on the apparent problems she was having.

Writing Irene's accent is hard and I hate it. HATE HATE HATE it. I love hearing it in my head, but I hate actually writing it out. Incidentally, Irene is based on Pert Kelton's rendition of Mrs. Paroo, the irish mother of Marion from "The Music Man". She was essentially "born" that way, all the way back in '96 (yep and it's taken me this long to put her into a fic), but it was coincidence that I had Gosalyn refer to Beth as "Marion the Librarian", another "Music Man" reference, in my rewrite of TWC1.

Bug's name was going to be Herbert, until I realized that he is the *third* "Herb" in the Webfoot Weavings, after Herb Muddlefoot and Honker (whose real name is Herbert Jr). So I changed it to Henry, though I struggled with it, because I originally named him after my grandfather - first name Herbert, nicknamed "Bud".

Shout-out to referencing my own fanfics! I have a reference to TWC4 in here, which is the first episode that mentions Beth's fondness for tadpoles. This was something I guess I tossed in when I was punching it up back in '95 or so, and I forgot about it until I reread the early ones a few years ago. The "tadpoles" thing stuck with me and so I tossed it in here as a running gag, even though I never meant it to be an actual character point.

It's hard to write Beth being this miserable and this depressed, because gosh, she's like this through almost the *whole fic*. I'm not 100% sure that she's actually bearable in this story because she's just so depressed. It's hard to write, since it feels so repetitive (though it's repetitive for a reason, which I'll go into in a separate note), so I'd understand if it's hard to read.

This scene with Launchpad and Beth is so awkward. Good lord. It's even worse than I remembered. :D I actually really like the part when he tries to talk to her and she pulls her hand away. Oh, Launchpad. Also? Stupid I know, but the whole coffee thing is still cute. I love writing little moments between them, even when nothing at all happens.

I wanted to try to make sure that I got Beth's feelings as accurate as I can, and so here is some TMI. My husband and I were friends before we started dating (though not really close friends like in this situation), and he liked me before I liked him. He and I talked about it, and I said "just friends" and he said he was okay with that - although it only lasted about a week because I decided to give it a go pretty quickly :) - but for a few days things were SUPER-awkward, especially during the second half of the conversation when, it seemed, he just decided now that it was out there he'd go ahead and tell me everything, and I was like "OMG I have to get OUT OF HERE!" So anyway... Beth's discomfort and guilt are based on that, sort of, only magnified.

Sigh. True confessions: I am very, very uncomfortable writing intimate scenes. That goes for romance in particular. I like to write banter and flirtatious dialogue, I like to write introspection, I like to write silly comedy; now, technically, I like to write romance but I am very bad at it. That's why things move very slowly in my fics and that is why things tend to be very understated. There are moments within this Launchpad/Beth scene, when he's trying to talk to her, where I'm attempting to convey an intimacy between them - the kind of thing that, if you were watching it in a movie, would make you ache for the people involved and also be chanting for them to kiss one another. I honestly have no idea if I was successful or if it just falls flat. I for one feel underwhelmed and I would LOVE some feedback. But yeah, there's a big reason why there's not a lot of solid romance in my fics so far... after fifteen stories. *sigh*

On the flip side, the introspective Launchpad stuff I wrote... well I'm rereading it for the first time in like, two years, and I'm surprised to find that I like it. This stuff works for me.

Heh, random reference to "High, Dry, and Flooded" when LP passes the Muddlefoots' house: they're having their Tuo security system removed (and getting the house repaired while they're at it) after the finale of that fic. ^_^ I know I say a few paragraphs later that it's only 8:30 in the morning, which is a pretty early start time for home cleanup, but I wanted to get that gag in (but I cleverly played it down during such a deep emotional scene, becuz clever writer is clever :P)

Five points for the implication that everyone will think LP and Beth's "night together" was less than innocent!

The discussion between LP and Drake is, for once, more or less in-character (as I see it anyway). LP's mood has precedent since he can, on occasion, take things quite hard and get pretty bummed out (and when LP bums out he *really* bums out). DW of course is just being DW. God love 'im. *hugs DW*

For some reason it struck me as immensely funny that Drake woud misquote his "clever quip" from when he beat the Liquidator in the finale of HD&F. Since it's been a while since I read the original fic, though, now I'm like "WHO is going to notice that he misquoted it?" which makes it look like carelessness for anyone who DOES notice. It was on purpose! I'm totally anal about these details and I swear I wouldn't gloss over 'em... even if everyone else in the world does. XD

Hahaha. Drake is *not* a Beth/LP shipper. He's totally not *trying* to be insensitive though - in fact he's trying very hard to be the other thing, you know, UNinsensitive ;P - I've just found that, a lot of times, people just don't seem to get that the moment you've had your heart broken is NOT the right time to say "well now you can get on with your life!" (For the record, I almost certainly would totally say that to someone in these circumstances, because I am just that insensitive! No, but seriously, it's easy to forget how much it hurts when it's not happening to you.)

You can see, in a few moments of this discussion as well as later in the fic, that I was writing this and rewriting TWC1 at the same time, and I was in fact just redoing Beth's and Drake's first meeting and working on how she fell for Drake in the first place. This shows up in LP's reflection that maybe if Beth hadn't met DW at exactly the time she did, she never would've fallen for him... which is probably true. Or maybe not. But I stuck that in because I was in process of giving the newly specific details of their meeting, and it was suddenly relevant. Stuff like that pops up throughout - this fic, and TWC1, were very symbiotic and influenced each other quite a bit. Which is WEIRD, if you think about it. Parasitic. Incestuous, almost. ;P (No, not at all actually, but I was looking for a good word...)

And next we have my introduction of Beth's father and brother! I had never really fleshed them out much in my mind - aside from physical description I knew (and still know) pretty much nothing about the older brother Bill (aka "Beef"), and at the time of writing I didn't know much about Bug yet, either. I've since discovered that Bug is a loving, but mostly uninvolved father. He's just a bit too passive in the family situation and has never tried to take any stand against his very, very outspoken wife.

One quick addition, I had forgotten that I wrote this scene from Honker's perspective. I'm glad I did that even though it seems weird since I think this is basically his only scene in the fic. Still glad though. I love Honker.

There Will Be Information On All About Elizabeth

I am going to post some chapter notes, the way I did with TWC1 and HoAW. And then I'll probably disappear again. :D No, but it will take a little while because I hope to do it as I code the fic for my website - I mentioned before this is an exercise in futility, because I have yet to actually finish designing the place the fics will go onto so they are never going up, but so what? - and that might take a while.

But so what!

Before I do the chapter notes, here's a post that's just about the fic in general, since I'm approaching the ending and all. It's winding down.

Basically, the fanfic ended up being about people. I knew it was character-driven but it was initially going to be about Beth (hence the title, hurr hurr); in the end it became about people, the nature of people, the fact that you never really get the whole picture on anyone and there are very few "villains". Everyone in Beth's past who seems to have wronged her has their own side and their own lives. What they're really guilty of, usually, is thinking of themselves. Which is what Beth is doing, too. So this kind of came out of nowhere, but it became a stronger and stronger theme throughout, as we looked at Beth's family and the people in her past.

The final message becomes that, for all the awful experiences that Beth has been through and all the poor treatment she's had from other people, regardless, she is the one who has created her life by choosing to make the decisions she has. (You can tell I've reached a philosophy of 'owning your own life' over the past few years, huh?) As appropriate, as I go through with the chapter notes, I'll hopefully dedicate a post or two to some of the original characters in this fanfic.

By the way, one character from Beth's past will return! (Or, wait, two - Ariana will, at least I hope - but one other will too! WHICH ONE? I will not tell! Speculate!)

Other themes: I chose "Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" as the theme for Beth's depression. As I view it, she's dwelling on this one moment and experience, unable to let it go, until in the end she realizes life goes on and everything passes. As with many things I've written, this is a realization I've had myself. I like that U2 song a lot, and I love the sort of epiphany at the end of the song. Anyway, this led to the fic being rather repetitive, intentionally so, because despite all of Beth's efforts she couldn't get past the rejection from Drake and the discussion with Launchpad. I *have* found that in depression you can't think of the future, you can only think of where you are right then and feel like it's going to go on forever, so the U2 song is a fantastic representation of that. (It helps that it was written *about* precisely that topic.)

Another theme that came out - I've mentioned this before, but I didn't go into this series thinking of Beth as having trust issues. When the idea occurred to me, I didn't resist it the way that Beth did, but I didn't realize how true it clearly was until I had really thought about it. Once I did, I went "Oh my god, of COURSE she does!" She always has. Weird, huh? I realized I'd never written her as speaking openly about herself, I've left her very private, and very, very unwilling to believe that people like her. I didn't associate that with a trust problem though until I thought about it in those terms. Then I realized it explained a huge amount, including the mystery of why she would remain blind to Launchpad for so long, and why she would *continue* to feel that way.

I think that about covers it, my dears; specifics will show up in each chapter note post.

Oh! Last thing! Beth's parents are both homages to my maternal grandparents, both of whom passed away during the writing of this monster fic. I created both of them way back in 1996, and it took me this long to get them into a fic! Anyway, Bug, Beth's father, was named for my grandfather Bud. His real name was Herbert but he was Bud pretty much his whole life. I changed Bud to Bug first, then had to come up with a reason he'd be called that; this led to his being a camera enthusiast, nicknamed "shutterbug" or "Bug" for short. I did initially name him Herbert, but then realized that made him the third Herbert in the Webfoot Weavings (after Herb Muddlefoot and Honker), so the name was changed. His personality is not largely drawn from my grandfather, who was much more of a character than Bug, but the inspiration was still there. My grandfather died on April 2nd, 2009.

Irene Webfoot was not named after my grandmother (Thelma), nor is my grandmother Irish. But she did call us "me darlin'", and although nothing solidly inspired her character, I think there's a little of my grandmother in there somewhere. I won't say where. Most everything you'd think it was, is not. :) She died April 4th, 2010. I'm not dedicating this fanfic to them, because neither of them even knew it existed, and I'm not sure what either of them would think. But I am using it to remember them, anyway.

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

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!