Well, that's most of February down...

I didn't realize I hadn't posted in more than a month. :P Ah well, I'm behind on everything anyway.

I got more chapter notes for TWC2; I'm going to try to do another chapter and then do the ones for the latest chapter of TWC4 too :)

Anyway here we go: TWC2 Act II, Chapter 1:

References:

Um, I don't think there are any in this one. O_o A couple of vague callbacks to episodes, but nothing really specific. The family picture that Beth looks at appears in at least one or two eps. That's actually it... I guess it's a sign of maturity that I write my own jokes now instead of referencing the shows I watched all the time, but I kinda miss the refs. :P

***

- This is actually my first time rereading this in at least a year... I'm kinda impressed with how I wrote this chapter, actually, even though nothing much happens in it. Just a good chapter for seeing Gosalyn from an outsider's perspective, and for DW in general, I think. God I'm an egotist. :P

- I'd actually forgotten that I went into a rundown of how Gosalyn's mind worked on homework. This seems apt, actually. I was thinking, I believe, of how we've seen her do homework on the show - I think maybe in "Whiffle While You Work?" She just zips through it whether it's right or not so that she can do other things. But she's clearly really very smart and just doesn't want to spend the time applying herself. I'm really not trying to get into a "real world" dissection of how Gos's personality and intellect work, but I like to stick a tiny bit more realism and detail (not too much, I hope) into my fics than are in the cartoons. What I like about the cartoons is that they imply this behind the scenes, intentionally or not. You can read this sort of thing to it if you want to look for it. :)

- And then meanwhile, I love when Gos turns around and gets into trouble. She's so GOOD at it. My original version of this fic had more specific instances of troublemaking but I didn't really like them then and I hate them now. I thought it would be better to just sort of gloss over Gos doing whatever she likes (including breaking things) and Beth cleaning up after her, only to stand up and find something new has been broken. XD It's OK, though, Beth likes to clean. :P

- What's sort of more important and kind of up to the reader to decide if it works is Beth's liking of Gosalyn (underneath the personality mismatch Beth gets really attached to her really quickly) as well as Gosalyn's initial semi-detached liking of Beth. I think this starts as "she's not really bad and she lets me do what I want" but I'm not sure where exactly it turns into liking her for real. I guess it's just based around the fact that Gosalyn, unlike her father, doesn't *dislike* many people for no reason. Beth, yeah, she can be a bit... much, but she's actually better with kids than with adults, and so she's not as irritating as she is with Drake. But that comes later - she's basically in a "please walk all over me" stage in this fic with Gosalyn. Still though, I think Gosalyn's reaction to her is decent. Not mean-spirited, she just takes the opportunity to have a good time and get away with stuff, and Beth isn't bothering her.

- I'm not *really* sure when I came up with the idea that DW would think Beth is a supervillain. I think it was before I got very far into this fic, though. I mean, I know I hinted at the end of TWC1 that he thought she'd been in cahoots with Megavolt, but that was really a passing thing... I hadn't intended for him to return to it once Megs was defeated and she showed up again. But then I had the idea that this would be his keystone excuse for disliking her - when of course, really, he's just suspicious of her *because* he doesn't like her. But it's easier to dislike someone when you think you have a really great rationale. XD

- In spite of his view on Beth I never, ever mean for DW to come off as too mean, or as unsympathetic, or as dislikable. There are episodes of the series where he's an absolute *creep*, to people he really loves; yet we still love him and relate to him. That's all I was going for here, just the fact that it would be more in his character to dismiss or downright dislike someone like Beth (and it creates drama because she's gone on him), not to make him look BAD. I hope nothing I write looks like character assassination, because it's really done with love and acceptance, even appreciation, of Drake's flaws.

- So help me I love the scene between DW and Gos. :) The cute parts, I mean. I love writing their interactions, the way they love each other so much but push all of each others' buttons, and sometimes can't resist doing so on purpose. :D

- Fifty points for having Gos completely, straight-faced get offended that her father would even THINK of suggesting that she'd have Beth do her homework for her. I think she's even actually offended by the suggestion even though it's totally true. XD

- UGH LATE NIGHT INVENTORIES, Beth, I feel for ya.

The Writing Bug

I've been writing like a fiend this past weekend :D I've actually been alternating between my two in-progress fics, TWC4 (working on Chapter 4) and "Those Daring McQuacks in their Flying Machines" (Act II chapter 2). I'm mostly done with the TWC4 chapter and perhaps half done with the other.

The unfortunate part is that I'm not really sure when I'm going to release them once they're done. Because I know I'm not going to get much, if any feedback, and I know it's going to be discouraging. And as long as I'm writing them for me and enjoying them, I'm happy. So I might just sit on this for a while, ride the wave and see how far it gets me. If I can make significant headway on "Flying Machines" this week that would be amazing. I started that one almost a year ago now and I barely have the presence of mind to work on it (this is only the 4th chapter out of, I suppose, 9 that I'm on right now), but it's nice to be in the "current" timeline sometimes instead of back in the rewrites.

It's neat, in any case. I'm not sure precisely when I started working on TWC4, I think it was the middle of last week but I can't quite remember; but I'm about 3600 words through THAT with one more scene to do so it'll probably top out around 4500 or so. And I started "Flying Machines" on Friday night, I think, and I'm a good 3,000 words into THAT by now. It'll likely get split into two chapters. There were a bunch of things I wanted to put into the first chapter of Act II that didn't fit, so I have to get them done first and THEN get to what I had planned for chapter 2... so it's definitely longer than intended. Act I had two chapters so I guess Act II will have 4. Oh well.

Notes for Chapter 3 of TWC2! THIS IS HAPPENING. Because I have to get through these damn things sometime.

References:
- Harry Potter (Gillyweed). Not sure why I tossed that in there except that it's kind of cute. I'm not really much of a Pottergeek and probably wouldn't catch half the refs someone else might throw into this sort of thing.
- The Simpsons - kind of; Gos's "All of it?" in response to Beth asking her what area she needed help in is a throwback to Homer's response to being asked what safety initiatives he has spearheaded in his role as safety inspector. "...All of them?"

First scene: I've always envisioned Bushroot as basically being a vine-like structure. I think that's obviously the case with his arms, anyway. I guess his body could be considered a stem, but I like the increased flexibility that it would have from being a vine. Still, though, this refers to his arms and they are definitely vines, IMO. haha, like I'm the definitive opinion. XD

I love Spike. I love the interactions between Spike and Bushroot. I tried to write the parts where Bushy is all mad scientist and then goes into "normal guy mode" with Spike around. :D

Listen to me BS about how this compound works! I thought long and hard over this half-assed explanation! Originally the fic just had Bushroot able to just... make all the plants get big. I decided for him to do it all throughout the entire town he'd need some kind of help, but he can make formulas easily, so why not here?

Playing early on with the "secret identity" dance, and keeping Beth from figuring it out. Not sure how convincing this is... it's always going to be a big huge plot hole for me and I can't fix it. *sigh*

So here's another thing I thought long and hard on, and didn't really effectively manage, IMO. HOW would Beth manage to get Gos to do what she asks? Beth is good with kids, surprisingly, but not with telling people what to do. And Gos is really good at not doing what she's told, anyway. There's no reason that Gos wouldn't walk all over her, unless Beth can offer something. So I came up with the moderately unethical solution of Beth offering to do half of Gos's homework, and rationalizing it to herself by making Gos do the other half. XD

I tried to make Gos sound like herself, be likable but a handful.

Aaaand we return to "Beth Mallard". And LP getting as big of a kick out of it as I do. XD

By this point I had hit on the idea that perhaps DW might keep Beth around because he's suspicious of her, and that it would give him an excuse to keep disliking her. So this was how I set it into motion.

And we end with another Spike scene. So much fun to write. :D Tried to visualize this and then give some POV reactions as I thought Spike's body language might suggest them. :)

It is 60 minutes after I intended to go to bed

I may keel over.

I'm jus tgoing to jump into chapter notes on TWC4. I know this is jarring b/c I haven't done any notes on Chapters 1 or 2 but... I'll get to those later. :)

References:

- The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly
- Also "Buddy Holly" by Weezer - I couldn't resist on that one.
- DWD episode "Twin Beaks"


- Okay, Chapter 3 and we FINALLY get a reference to the earthquake plot being more than just a backdrop for the fic :P And it will take even longer to see that pan out... think "next act"...

- I think this might possibly be the earliest (chronological) reference to the fact that Beth used to live in Duckburg. I'm pretty sure I hadn't mentioned this in the earlier fics anywhere.

- You know, Beth's thought that maybe she won't be seen by "too many people who matter" when she finds that Launchpad is the one who answers the door is just.. mean. She doesnt' realize it's mean but it's mean. :(

- This scene was really hard to write. I'm not sure why... well for one it went on a little too long and I couldn't cut things without making it disjointed so I kept having to just trash it and rewrite it, pushing a bit harder in a particular direction. But also, getting the right tone was SUPER tricky. You know - just making sure that it didn't come across as mean, and that there was a reason that he'd think she was fine with the conversation. The reason is because she dislikes confrontation and she's telling herself to lighten up, so she makes herself go along with it but the minute he starts implying that she might not be UNattractive she can't take it since she takes it to mean the reverse.

- Right after the Launchpad scene I had a scene with Beth speaking to Binkie and being kind of fascinated with her... from the perspective of, like, "I didn't think that mothers like her still existed today!" I kept it and I'll put it up here maybe tomorrow, I think ther'es nothing wrong with it, but it was not essential to the plot at all. Just cut for length. At this point in the fic, they have met before (the previous night in fact), but Beth just can't figure out how to respond to Binkie.

- The original version of the fic had Launchpad driving Beth and Gos to the mall, but not staying with them. He did it just because he was sweet on Beth so you could say pretty much anything like "Beth needs a drink of water" and he'd go get it. Or "Beth needs an entire new wardrobe" and he'd be like "What colour?" Which is a terrible idea, to let LP pick out your clothes. But I digress. Another difference is that instead of Honker going with them, Binkie accompanied them. I DO NOT KNOW WHY NOW. I thought about leaving that in but couldn't find any possible reason it would make sense. Instead it made more sense to have Honker along and let Beth hang out with two children vastly younger than her. :)

- So. I have to say. The stuff with Gosalyn all leaves me incredibly pleased with myself. I wish I'd heard from people who liked it but ... at least I've not heard from anyone saying they DON'T like it. Silver lining! :D Seriously though, I just had so much fun writing her and I think it's not only fun to read, I think it's in-character. I sure hope so anyway. I find GOs can be tricky to write.

- I don't think it's abnormal to have an eye exam/glasses store inside a mall. If it seems abnormal, please know that when we were in college my husband used to go to a dentist whose office was in the mall. So maybe it's just that kind of mall. Incidentally note how this puts a timestamp on the fic: there's a Halloween store mentioned, to remind you that it's October. :)

- The idea that Beth could just get not only frames and new lenses but also contact lenses, in approximately an hour, is silly. At least I think it is. I know it was when I first wrote it back in the mid-'90s... I assume it still is. But let's just go with it. It is not the only thing I will be asking you to suspend disbelief on during this fic. XD

- I discovered while RPing Beth that she doesn't let people move her outside of her comfort zone. I can't force her to do anything interesting because when I'm in her headspace she argues politely but ferociously. She nearly always wins. So it seemed logical to work that into the fic and have Gos get frustrated. Beth seems like a pushover but that's only when it's for someone else's benefit. If it's for hers she won't do it and you can't make her.

- Also I really need to write Honker more often. (I said that just the other day when I posted the preview for this chapter, I know.) He's just very... quiet. But I like having him around, and before the rewrites he didn't appear in the series until TWC5. Even if he's only been in it a little, at least he's been *present* since TWC3. Meanwhile, within this fic, I really liked having him and Beth jibe a bit on their opinions. They get along really well since in a lot of ways they're kind of um... the same character. ^^;

- Throwing in a reference to Honker's Aunt Trudy from Twin Beaks just happened but it felt natural. I like it. :)

- I think I've said this before, but I'll specify it again: Beth is actually a very good seamstress, but you can't tell it from looking at her clothes because she doesn't make them to fit her properly. She makes all her shirts at least one size too big, for reasons unknown. I don't show that properly in my pics of her. :P But it's true!

- Favourite line in this one is Gosalyn's dismissal of the candy store comparison.

Hey, Hey, I wanna be a rock star

More TWC2 chapter notes! I realized I should've been doing these every time I put up a chapter. Maybe I'll start putting them up for TWC4 as I go. But I'm so behind... Anyway here's chapter 2 of TWC2, "Sea of Green".

References:

-Fic: TWC1, "My Kingdom for a Double-Plait Bolt", in the reference to Beth having given the wrong name when she introduced herself.
-The Simpsons (LP saying he'd square things before she arrived, then forgetting UNTIL she arrived, is based on Homer doing the same thing in a different situation)
- The Simpsons again - indirectly; I've always drawn a little bit of inspiration from Bart Simpson for Gosalyn, in terms of getting into trouble. So LP's overwhelming "And there's the tour of all of our fire extinguishers" and so forth really sort of starts with that.
- It doesn't really REALLY count as a reference since it's a part of nearly every episode of the show, but Beth references "Basil of Baker Street", the name of the book that became Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective". Since, of course, the statue that activates the transport chairs is Basil from GMD.

Okay, as a just sort of overview of this chapter, I found it really challenging to come up with a good reaction for Drake to have, and a reason why he'd let her stay and not just turn her down. I think it's kind of a reach, and it was a reach to keep it going afterwards, but... there had to be some reason, right? Better a slight reach than just no acknowledgement of the fact that it makes no sense for him to have a stranger babysit Gos, right? Bah. Sometimes I wish I'd come up with a different way to get Beth into the main cast. :P

Beth's mental description of Drake is me trying to put myself into her head and find him attractive. Since even though I love Drake dearly, I am completely not attracted to him in the slightest, this is always hard. XD

A return to Beth Mallard, from the last fic. Which I have to admit I thought was hilarious and have to bring up as often as I can. It's possibly my favourite throwaway gag in the whole fic.

Every so often I run into an awkward situation with Beth and Launchpad where he does something that I would almost swear should upset her or make her angry, and instead she thinks it's cute. Every time it happens I wonder if it makes sense that she'd think it was cute or if she should really be disappointed in him. I *think* it's okay, because Beth is rarely disappointed in anyone but herself, and when it comes to Launchpad she honestly thinks he hung the moon most of the time; so she lets him get away with a lot. That might not work quite right in other peoples' heads though, which... I can't really defend.

Awkward attempt at writing out a visual gag: Beth knocking over and almost breaking the framed picture. That would work SO much better if it was not a described action.

LP flirting with Beth, awwww XD Apparently, looking at this chapter... he does that a LOT. O_o

The bowling excuse was in the original fic, and I couldn't think of a better one (plus I just... really thought it was funny for some reason), so it remains. Flimsy excuses FTW!

I really enjoyed Beth's dramatic reaction to being hired as babysitter, somehow. He's all "Yeah yeah whatever" and she's all "Me so happy me want to cry D8"

Beth mentions "Basil of Baker Street" and not "The Great Mouse Detective" because I liked the idea that Basil is essentially Sherlock Holmes in this universe, and thus a well-known literary figure and known AS "Basil of Baker Street". Sure, the movie "The Great Mouse Detective" might have been made, but that's just ONE of the film adaptations of Basil. ...Or so I have decided. XD

If you were to ask me for my favourite moments of writing Drake or Darkwing I'd have to say my single fave line is the one he gives Beth about the view from OUTSIDE the house. That one, somehow, feels the most in-character; something Drake would slip in to be sarcastic and rely on whoever he's saying it to just not getting it. And in Beth's case, it works, because she just doesn't expect to be spoken to that way so it doesn't quite connect for her.

Beth's line "I would be pleased beyond belief to do that!" works best if you envision it being said very loudly and matter-of-factly. She's completely sincere, but she's also trying VERY hard to be noticed in her sincerity.

I so don't use Honker enough :(

So first: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 30 DAY WRITING MEME REBECCA

Shut up! I'm going to finish it. Things happened at the end of the year. :P

Second, I'm trying to finish up the 3rd chapter of TWC4, a bit at a time. Oddly enough the hardest scene to write this time was a Beth and LP one; normally those come more easily. This time however the fun easy one is Beth going out shopping with Gosalyn. Oh Gos, you are a trip. :D But I'm sad because Honker always stays quiet. I have a very hard time getting him to talk.

Anyway, just because I feel like posting something here since it's been a couple of weeks, here's a little bit from midway through the chapter. I'm hoping to have this one done by Friday or Saturday so that it can get no reviews just like the rest. ;)

****

***

The bus ride to the mall was uneventful, so Gosalyn spent it visualizing a few ideas for Beth's new look. Beth didn't seem to take to this particularly well, and as a result Gosalyn began to toss out increasingly odd ideas just to watch her babysitter squirm. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the nicest thing for her to do, but it was just so *funny* to watch the expressions that crossed Beth's face. Plus, maybe teasing her with far-out suggestions would make it easier for Beth to loosen up with a few less-crazy ideas.

When they got to the mall, they had to go to the eye exam place first so that Beth could get her exam done before getting the order for the new frames in. Honker and Gosalyn sat in the front section of the store, which was supposed to look like a waiting room; but since the front window faced out to a view with photo booths and a temporary Halloween store, it didn't quite have a doctors-office feel.

Gosalyn shifted in boredom. "You'd think they'd at least have better magazines."

"Well, these are only three months old... Doesn't your dad always say that most waiting rooms never have any magazines that are less than five years old?" Honker asked.

"Yeah, but if the magazine is 'Eye Daily', how recent it is doesn't really matter," Gosalyn answered in disgust. She turned and addressed the woman at the counter, who was arranging a shelf of designer frames. "Hey! 'Scuse me! Do you have those contact lenses that make your eyes look all white, like zombie eyes?"

The woman frowned and turned away without answering.

"Did you see that?" Gosalyn said loudly to Honker, who tried to get her to keep her voice down. "I guess I won't be buying any from HERE even if they do sell them!"

"Um, I'm pretty sure they only sell those in costume shops, Gosalyn," Honker said. "She probably thought you were making fun of her."

"I'm a potential paying customer!" Gosalyn sniped, crossing her arms. "I'm taking my hypothetical business elsewhere! ...Hey, you wanna try on some of the glasses while we wait?"

"Um, uh, well-"

Fortunately or not, Beth came back out just then. "Okay, done!"

"Yeah? Did you pick out glasses without me?" Gosalyn asked, hopping up from her chair. Honker remained seated, but looked attentively at both of his companions.

"Oh, no, not yet. Don't worry. No, actually, maybe it's a good thing I broke my glasses last night because I had to get a new prescription and it turns out that my prescription has changed a little bit since last time so it's about time I got new glasses anyway... I mean I wouldn't have chosen *now*, ideally, you know, because I don't have a lot of money but I guess it's as good a time as any - so..." She ran out of steam, stopped, and just looked blankly at Gosalyn for a moment as though she was surprised by the silence. Gosalyn waited a second longer before speaking, just to be sure Beth was really done; that ramble hadn't had any point at the end of it. When Beth stayed quiet, Gosalyn asked, "So what, then?"

"Oh! Well now we pick out frames and I have them fill the prescription, and then we can go wander around while they get everything ready. And we can pick them up on our way out of the mall when we leave." She turned to Honker and smiled. "So - are you both up for giving me some feedback?"

"You BET!" Gosalyn half-shouted, and pulled Beth's arm towards the wall of sample frames in the corner. "And while you're at it, can you check and see if they sell those contacts that turn your eyes all white, like zombie eyes...?"

"Um... I'll ask," Beth answered uncertainly.

They looked about for a good fifteen minutes, with Beth hemming and hawing and ultimately shooting down all of Gosalyn's suggestions. "But the old ones were blue! What's wrong with blue?"

"Well, no, blue is pretty - it's just - I already said no neon colours, Gos."

"This isn't neon!" Gosalyn said, sounding affronted. "This is *electric* blue!"

she refused the cat-eye shaped frames too, and Gosalyn began to wonder why she'd even been invited along. When Honker quietly suggested that Beth try a pair of large round frames much like his own - and like Beth's old ones - Gosalyn almost lost it. "Those are almost exactly like the ones you *had*!" she exclaimed.

"Well... I like these!" Beth said, shrinking away from the ten-year-old girl's fury.

Gosalyn pouted. "I can't believe we just spent all this time so that you could pick out the *same glasses you always had!*"

"They're not the same!" Beth said, and looked helplessly at Honker.

Honker nodded. "They have a flexible bridge that helps keep them intact under harsh conditions-"

"RRRRRRRGH!" The noise that Gosalyn made effectively quieted the two bespectacled shoppers. Almost timidly, Beth made her way to the cash desk and handed over her prescription and the frame sample. The cashier handed her a form and a pen, and Beth began filling the form out.

"What's that?" Gosalyn asked, though she didn't really care.

"I have to place an order," Beth explained, without looking up.

"Oh. Oh, you didn't ask about the contacts," Gosalyn reminded her, and at that Beth *did* look up just long enough to raise an eyebrow, before looking back down at the form. "OH! HEY! That's it, that's what you should do! Get contacts!"

"I am not," Beth said firmly, "going to interviews with white zombie eyes."

"Not *zombie* contacts," Gosalyn explained, "just regular ones. Right, Honker?"

"Oh... um..." Honker stammered, and couldn't quite get an answer out. Gosalyn spoke for him.

"He means yes." Beth, she noticed, looked dubious so Gosalyn said, "Oh come on. You said you wanted to stop blending in, right? If you're not going to buy flashy, easy-to-see glasses, just lose the glasses completely!"

After a moment, Beth sighed. "Okay. Fine. You did come all the way out here with me, and... why not. Maybe they will come in handy sometime." She checked off a box on the order form, and returned the completed version to the cashier.

My Daughter Wants to be Scrooge McDuck

That's not just a clever title. It's the honest truth. And to be fair this bothers me not at all. XD

Anyway I thought, just as a change of pace from the 30-day-meme I've been doing about my writing, I'd start the TWC2 Chapter Notes. I haven't done any chapter notes in a LONG time. First I guess I should check and make sure I haven't already started these...

Okay, checks out. Let's go!

References:
-Title: it's a line from the Beatles song "Yellow Submarine": "Sky of blue/and sea of green/in our yellow/submarine". I was on a HUGE Beatles kick during most of high school and this was written in the height of it.
-Obligatory callback to "Night of the Living Spud" with the Lyceum Nycanthropus.

I began this first scene about a year before I actually started writing the full fic. I think I started the fanfic in the second half of 2010, but I had the opening sequence done, I think, in late 2009. If not then, then in like early 2010 or so. I was trying to get back into writing after a really long hiatus during my second pregnancy and my son's first few months.

Laelia is in fact an orchid; I went looking for plant names for things like orchids that could be rare but work as actual names.

The conversation between Beth and LP initially got away from me and they started talking about how he knew Gizmoduck personally and all this stuff and it was like "STOP FLIRTING AND STAY ON SUBJECT!" They *always* do that. I had to send it to Amanda and have her tell me exactly where to snip it. ;)

I'm not really sure of the pacing of this scene or - well, the circumstances; and I'm not sure how much sense it makes for Beth to be so into Drake. I just kind of have to go with it. I have to be honest; I don't remember what it's like to have a crush on someone. ^^;

The inventory - when I wrote this the first time, I had the same thing in here, despite not ever having had a retail job. It was just vague and mainly involved me having Beth stay late to "do the inventory" which meant counting hte stock, since that's the textbook definition. However it's now slightly augmented by real-life experiences with retail - the late night and the counting turned out to be true, I ignored the fact that no retail store would have only *one* person do the retail, but I added stuff with paperwork. The paperwork is killer.

That's about it for chapter 1...

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]]

This is not a post

Fic update! I posted the first chapter of TWC4 at FF.net and AO3. Since it's a replacement of the chapter that is already there on FF.net, they won't register it as an update until I actually add a new chapter, so this is the "unofficial prerelease". :P I am, however, hoping to have chapter 2 done before the end of the month. :)

I'm so relieved to get this done. I had actually planned on working on this during October, but stress at the beginning of the month basically gave me artistic block on all fronts. I've only JUST started writing again. Hoping this is the start of something good! :)

If I can get to chapter 2 quickly enough (I don't know if that will work or not though) I'm going to work on "Those Daring McQuacks". I have the structure outlined and I tried starting act 2 a couple of months ago but i stalled on the scene. I was able to write it, it just wasn't paced particularly well and I was having trouble with what I wanted to say. I hope I can pick it up again and fix it.

Anyway, I don't think anyone checks this blog if I dont' put up links or reminders, but just in case people do, fic update message and general ramblings. ^_^ Hi!

It's October now?

So I only updated once in September. Then I came on here and I was like "Oh it's stil September, that's good! Oh wait." Because I remember very little sometimes. Bah!

I thought I was going to work on "Those Daring McQuacks" before I started on TWC4, and I even thought out some scenes and had them planned, and it just will not come out. I mean, I have written a few things, but they really really need rewriting and editing. And I'm just stuck on finishing them and connecting the dialogue and stuff. Bah. Also, things in real life land the past couple of weeks have just about killed my creativity drive :P

However, this afernoon I had a few good ideas for at least completing the first scene of TWC4's first chapter (I put up about 800 words as a placeholder on FF.net; the completed scene will only be the first half of chapter one, but it's a start) and surprisingly I was able to get some of it done :) So to maybe keep my inspiration going, I'm gonna post what little I just did since I won't have the chapter finished until the end of the month at the earliest; if I can keep my momentum though I might be able to get THIS scene finished over the weekend. I'm also not posting the part that's already up at FF.net so, if you have no context, the chapter begins with a moderate earthquake. This is immediately after it's over with.

*****

Beth held the glasses up directly in front of her face and squinted at them; she still could barely make them out. She felt them gingerly and when it didn't seem as if anything was going to gouge her, she put them on. One of the lenses had a spider-webbing of cracks over it, and the bridge was bent. She sighed wearily. "Occupational hazard."

Turning to Gosalyn, she took a breath and tried to make the best of it. "So! Better clean up that glass, huh? Do you have a dustpan anywhere nearby?"

"You bet!" Gosalyn cried, and took off for the kitchen. By the time she returned, Beth was kneeling by the wall, carefully picking up shards of glass and looking out of only one eye. "Uh, does that make it easier?"

"Huh? Oh, no - just, the crack in this is really getting in my way. I thought if I just looked through one eye - but it's making my head hurt." She placed a handful of glass into the dustpan and sighed, while Gosalyn loaded her arms full of larger shards and dropped them into the pile Beth had already started. Beth jumped at the sound. "Um, could you be a bit more gentle than that?"

"Why? It's not like it's gonna matter if it breaks *more*."

Beth shook her head. "You know, I think I should handle this. I don't want you getting hurt on broken glass."

"Oh come on! I know what I'm doing!" Gosalyn protested vehemently. Beth frowned and picked up another few pieces. As she turned to slowly place them carefully in the dustpan, Gosalyn continued, "Honestly, I'm insulted! You really think just because I'm a kid, I'm going to - YAAAAAH! AAAIEEEEE!"

"OH MY GOD!" Beth yelled, her eyes widening as she turned back to Gosalyn who was holding her hand to her side and grimacing in pain.

"OHHHH NOOOO! MY JUGULAR!!!" Gosalyn screamed, and Beth stared in horror, uncertain if she should try to make a tourniquet or run to call 911 first; then she realized that Gosalyn was laughing.

"Ahahaha... Just kidding," said the girl, pulling her hand out from her shirt and wiggling it. She caught sight of Beth's expression, which was still utterly horror-stricken. "Heh heh... sorry, that was probably not nearly as funny to you as it was to me."

Beth finally found her voice, which sounded flat even to her ears as she said beseechingly, "Please let me do this?"

Gosalyn relented, and went to sit on the couch and see if the earthquake had affected her video game console.

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.

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. :)

Fluorescent lights, they hum like angels

The thing about sunburn is, once it stops hurting, it starts ITCHING. Take it from me on this one.

So! It's been HOW long now since my last entry? Funny part is on some level I thought it had been even longer. :P But still, I was surprised to see that I didn't update at all up until now for the month of June! Yeesh.

So here's my first thing to mention:

I updated TWC3 with another new chapter! Yay for me! I did mention this on DeviantArt and I am pretty sure most everyone who occasionally pops in here does follow me over there, so they probably already knew it. But ya know, I like to mention it here. :) Is it worth my putting a link up here? If you need one let me know and I'll link it.

Second thing to mention:

Apparently TWC3 is just about my least popular fic so far. Seriously, I don't remember the last time I've had this few reviews on an ongoing fic (not counting the old ones I put up all at once). For the record, I'm not saying specific people or friends of mine - I usually get more random pop-in reviews, that's all. I had a few people following the TWC1 rewrite that I didn't even know; I guess they lost interest. Then I met some new people with TWC2, and that was cool, but only one of them has reviewed a chapter of TWC3 this time and it was to say she wasn't sure about Quackerjack's motivations. (Fair enough, btw; I'm not confident writing him. I think it's totally fair criticism, I just am worried that it was enough to put her off reading the fic. :( I don't want to drive readers away!) I'm kind of hoping I'll pick up some end-of-fic reviews once I finish it, but I'm worried I won't, and that'll be a little bit depressing; I have to admit, I'm not that inspired on this one so it's not my best, but some - in fact nearly all - of hte background plot developments in this one are *pivotal* to the series. They all happen in this one. So I sorta hope that's enough that, by the end, I'll have a few more people who feel it's worth saying something. :)

I guess it couldnt' hurt if I interacted more on FF.net, which I find really difficult, because I can't sort through fanfics to find good ones. I just don't have the time. It's very easy for me to go through a ton of art on DA and leave comments, but I can't invest the time in fanfic unless I know in advance that it's worth reading. I'm sure if I read more fics and interacted with people more they'd reciprocally read mine more, or at least comment to make it look like they were reading. ;)

Oh well, the good news (depending on your perspective) is that I intend to finish this fic regardless. :D And I think TWC4 will be a fun one. I hope anyway. :)

Other weird things: All day on Formspring the number of followers has been distracting me. I don't like having it so clearly marked. It has been fluxing between 53 and 55 followers ALL DAY. It's gone up and down at least 6 times by now. Is this normal? Does anyone else have this happen and is it a bug, or do I just have a couple of people who can't make up their minds about me?

BED

I wish I went to bed earlier than 11pm most nights, instead of after it. It's just that I want to get things done! And I have no time except from about 9-11 pm!

I'm trying to finish up the first chapter of Act II of TWC3 (wow... anyway). I should have it finished by the end of the week - actually I'm hoping by tomorrow. That's pretty good considering it took me a month to get started on it! The chapter has ended up just sort of coming, since this weekend. Nice. I wish they all flowed like that. :P

I haven't mentioned this but this particular fic is about two things. One of them is obvious: Quackerjack. That's the plot. That's totally and definitely the plot.

But there is another plot that, to me, is the "real" one and I'm embarrassed to admit it but I think I probably should. But it's a spoiler so I won't say it here. I'll leave a comment. Then if you want to know, you can read the comments. *nodnod* Secret-like. Did you get the impression that we are whispering while reading this? Haha, that's what it seemed like to me.

Anyway... comments have spoilers. Avoid if you want to wait for the fic to be finished. My realistic (not optimistic but not very pessimistic either) estimate is that it'll be finished around August or September this year, if I can post two chapters per month between now and then. Since I also want to work on "Those Daring McQuacks in Their Flying Machines" i might not keep that pace, but I'll try!

Btw, should I post a preview of "Flying Machines" here? I mean, the stuff that I haven't posted yet on FF.net? Or should I just let that go?

MAN it's cold here

My office is always FREEZING, especially after 5pm.

Sorry no content updates here for the past few weeks, but I have just updated "Forever Young" at Fanfiction.net and AO3! You want the links? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE LINKS! Oh okay what the heck.

AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/165643

FF.net: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2460903/1/TWC_3_Forever_Young

I just put up chapter 3, which officially closes out Act I. That's great! Except I have barely anything written for Act II. That's less great :P I like to have at least a chapter in advance written, because if I don't, I dno't have any "backup" material to post when I'm stuck. Eh well. I'll try to get two chapters done during April. :)

A quick question for anyone inclined to answer: What do you think I should focus on for now: the rewrites, or the rewrites AND new stuff? Is it worth working on new fics at the same time or should I just get the rewrites done and out there first? I'm afraid I'll lose my drive on the new stuff :(

I've asked this before but no one has really answered, so I thought I'd try again. And I'll try again in a few months, I'm sure, if no one answers this time! ;D

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. :)

Bonjour, Good Day, How is your family?

1st: New chapter of TWC3 is up on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/165643/chapters/244215
And at FF.net: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2460903/2/

2nd: The authors notes promise a deleted scene. You might possibly even wonder about that scene before you get to the end, where the author's notes are. What happened is that I wrote the scene where Drake apologizes to Beth, and wasn't really happy with it. It wasn't bad, but I felt like the whole chapter was running long, and I needed to trim it desperately. So I tried the chapter without the scene, just alluding to it, and it worked, IMO. But the scene has been written (and y'all readers might be curious), so I'm going to post it here with my handy-dandy Deleted Scene capabilities! Don't you love Fanfic Blog Extras? ;)

With this scene, there's a bit of duplicated information that shows up at the end of what I actually posted; that's because a small handful of information was important, and so I had to add it back into the chapter another way. I didn't bother to edit it out of here. So just in case you wonder why Beth and DW are having a conversation that they sort of have later on and neither seems to remember that they already talked about it... that's why. XD

Damn, I just realized that I forgot to put the "call me Beth" conversation in the version I posted. Meh. I can fix, though. Oh well! Enjoy!

***

"Ahem. Well," he said hesitantly.

After a moment, she said roughly, "Well..."

"So, uh... I think there may have been a slight misunderstanding just now, Ms. Webfoot," he began carefully. She shifted in a way that he couldn't read. He cleared his throat and said, "I, ah, I had it pointed out to me that you - *ahem* - overheard me say something that was just *ripe* for misinterpretation. And that you may have thought, mistakenly of *course*, that I was talking about *you* just now."

Beth lifted her head in a sort of sideways move, and he saw her eyes blink up towards his. "Re-really..?"

She looked miserable, to the point where he was embarrassed *for* her; it was like she wasn’t able to hide it, and it really wasn’t flattering. And for a moment, he had an awful, gut feeling that anyone who was acting out a deliberate plan wouldn’t be able to pull off so perfect a picture of misery. For just a moment, he was sure that she wasn't a supervillain, she wasn't a criminal mastermind, she was just a regular person. A generally somewhat annoying person, sure, but still a regular one. And he was a jerk.

Drake swallowed. No, that couldn’t be right. There was too much evidence to the contrary, too many coincidences to be real. He shook himself out of it, reminded himself why he was doing this, and then lied as hard as he could. "Oh yes. See, I had a conversation with a coworker this afternoon, and well, I'll spare you the details, but I was just telling Launchpad about it and it would seem that you walked in on the end of it. And from the look of things you jumped to conclusions here..."

She lifted her head slightly. "I... I did?"

He chuckled. "Yep, yep, looks like it." In lieu of anything else to say, he added, "I guess there's a lesson here about walking in on conversations-"

"Mr. Mallard?" She cut him off, and the look she was giving him was both hopeful and desperate. Speaking quickly and stiltedly, she said, "Do - I mean - do you want me - to leave?"

He hesitated. "P-pardon?"

"Just... just tell me." She sighed and put a hand up towards her forehead, shielding herself from him. "Just tell me right now, please, and... and that'll be that."

Oh, now this was too much. This catapulted him right back into his certainty that she was more than she said she was; no one could possibly do this without intending to twist the knife. He almost read her the riot act then and there, but then remembered that Launchpad would probably come to her rescue and tie him up, or something. Without the first idea of what to say or how this should go, he took a breath and lied again. "Nooooo, no no… Whatever could make you think *that*?"

There was a pause - he still couldn't see her face - and she said in a wobbly voice, "S-so you don't want me to leave?"

*Well-played, Beth Webfoot,* he thought. She was crafty. “Who, me? *Perish* the thought,” he said through gritted teeth.

With a slight sniffle she said, "Oh... Okay..." They paused and neither of them looked at each other, and then she said more loudly, "Boy, I sure feel silly over all this. Gosh. I'm - I'm really sorry."

"Oh, no, no no. Think nothing of it." Inwardly Drake was cringing, and wondering if he was really doing the right thing. Well, he was stuck with her now, so he’d *have* to be the one to take down her criminal empire – or whatever it was she was leading up to. "I mean, things... happen. No matter how much we might wish otherwise, am I right?"

"Sure," she said, and nodded. "Oh, Mr. Mallard ... I'm really sorry, also, about - about butting into your conversation."

Unexpectedly, he felt another flash of guilt when she said that, and he squirmed a little under her gaze. "Look, Ms. Webfoot-"

"Call me Beth!" she said instantly; it almost made him think she'd been waiting all this time for a chance to say that. "Um, please."

He winced. "Okay... Beth. Look, let's not even think about it again, huh?" She nodded, looking a little peppier than she had, and he was reminded of a puppy. "Okay, great, so we're settled. Look, I've got to get ready to go, so - so I'll just see you next time, right? We're paid up for the week?"

"Oh yes!" she said, nodding, and then looked thoughtful for a moment. He tried to escape before she spoke again, but she caught him halfway out the door. "Oh! Oh Mr. Mallard!"

He wondered if he could get away with not returning the first-name favour. With a sigh, he decided he probably couldn't. "Drake," he said wearily, turning back to face her. Her entire face brightened.

"I totally forgot what it was I was coming in to say to you! See, Gosalyn had asked me if she could have a friend over tonight and I wasn't sure what you'd think about that so I said I would ask you, I mean, it's pretty much okay with *me* but I don't know YOUR policy on the matter so I figured it was better to ask and be sure so that you didn't-"

"Okay okay, I get it. Are we talking about Honker?"

She looked a little blank, but said, "Is he the next-door neighbour?"

"Yep."

"Then yes, that must be right. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure, sure. Honker comes over all the time. Just make sure Gos doesn't force him to do her homework and there won't be any problems." He started out through the door again, and again she stopped him.

"Dr-Drake? One more thing. Um... is Honker... is he very much like - well, what I mean is-"

He knew what she was trying to ask, as she searched for a tactful way of asking without possibly insulting his daughter. "He's nothing like Gos. He's quiet and studious - you'll like him."

"Oh." She smiled, appearing to relax, and gave him a little wave. He returned it half-heartedly, and did his best to make sure she didn't see him roll his eyes on the way out. The last thing he needed now was to go through the whole darn thing over again.


***

The door to the kitchen opened slowly, almost carefully, and then Drake stepped out. Launchpad watched him, and when he didn’t say anything, Launchpad prompted him a little. “So..?”

Drake turned a look on him that Launchpad couldn’t exactly identify. It was sort of accusatory and annoyed, but also underneath it seemed like it was kind of fumbling and remorseful. It was definitely a glare, though, and Launchpad felt more sheepish every second it was turned on him. After a moment, Drake said, “So I apologized.”

...etc...

Don't you just love it when you make a typo in your subject line?

Seriously. I just noticed a major one in that last entry. ("Throw up your ahnds" I think it was.)

I blame MS Word's autocorrect features, especially the ones in Outlook. They're making me lazy as hell about my typing. :P Me - and AMERICA IN GENERAL!

So, not a lot to mention; I have been getting some lovely gift art lately ^_^ I am embarking on a quest to do more gift art myself for the month of March, and this is probably going to inevitably slow down my efforts at regular updates to my fics (I technically am working on two at the moment). I'd like to get at least one chapter done on each per month, but with the art thingie, that might not happen.

The good part is that I have a lot already written and it just needs betaing, so there will be SOME updates this month. :)

So, also got some very nice reviews on the first chapter of TWC3, thank you so much guys! :D I'm going to go back to an idea I had with TWC1, and start putting "deleted" scenes up here. I didn't have any for TWC2, since that one was shorter, but I need to do some trimming on 3. I am longwinded. :P I don't really think that's a major flaw, but I do like to keep my chapters down to 4,000 words or less - especially if they're not action-heavy. If it's just a bunch of character exposition I want them shorter. 4,000 words is actually a buttload of lot, but it's my ceiling. I hope anyway. :)

Well, this is a long entry considering I have very little or nothing to say! See you guys later, maybe later this week I hope!

This is all far from over

So in about a week I am going on vacation! Woohoo for me!

Meanwhile I thought i would try to make at least one little update here in the meantime, just to keep my readership (hey both of you) entertained. ;)

Today I think I'll just do what I did in my last entry, and go through what things I've changed in this rewritten version of TWC2, now that I'm nearly finished (and hoping to post the final chapter within the next week! :D)

The original version of this fic was, I will be honest, a Mary Sue Festathon. Arama. I suppose it had some things going for it - it was pretty nice to Bushroot, and such - but bah. I don't know. The thing behind it was that I loved Bushroot (and I still do) and I just wanted to give him a chance to not be a total villain, and maybe get a little love in return. So that was the intent....

The result was a bit of an off-characterization for everyone, which in turn was a bit of a theme for the early batch of fics in the series. In this case, Bushroot was just too much of a good guy. He basically does all the same things in the current fic as he did in the original, so action-wise and motivation-wise I guess I was OK, but I think some of the overdoing it came via Beth's response to him.

See, Beth was a little scared at *first* in that version, but she quickly overcame it once she saw into Bushroot's soul in a way no one ever had before and understood that he was a good, good man. :P

Okay, that's a little... harsh, I guess. But it does end up being like that. They see each other as sort of kindred spirits, and although the same twist comes at the end, Beth doesn't let it totally ruin her appreciation of Reggie... who, meanwhile, has a raging crush on her, and she's not entirely sure HOW she feels about him.

So it didn't take too long for me to really wish that I hadn't set up this semi-romance between them, when I've already got Launchpad crushing on her for no reason, and so on... it was just too neat and perfect. I honestly *meant* it to be a one-fic thing and just be b/c Bushroot responded to positive attention and would latch on to ANYONE who was nice to him. But, it went too far, IMO.

There were other Mary Sue elements - I'll go into them in my more specific changes. But the Beth/Reggie relationship was the one that bugged me the most. I ended up altering it slightly so that there's still a sort of subtext to their interactions, but it's one-sided, and it's totally unacted on. I hope that it does come across more as I meant it in the first place, motivated by his loneliness and just being glad that someone, anyone, is talking to him. And there's also a good likelihood that it's because she keeps reminding him of Rhoda, which is a wholly superficial thing based more on wishful thinking (I even have him looking closely at her and thinking how they don't look very much alike; Rhoda is a hottie and Beth is just not. Cute and pretty but not the "hot numero" that Rhoda was. ^_~).

As for specifics, I just kept the same basic outline but changed a lot of things so that they made more sense to me:

- Beth would need permission to actually show up to babysit that evening, so I added a scene where she talks to Launchpad.

- Beth and Gosalyn's interactions needed some major TLC. Actually it took me a long while to figure out how they'd react to one another. I sort of felt like Gos wouldn't have that much of an opinion on Beth, wouldn't actually dislike her - she's a good kid and I think Beth is too mild to actually get her to rebel, so she'd feel kind of guilty disliking her. She doesn't feel guilty disobeying her, though, because Beth makes it so easy. More than anything I needed to find a reason why Gos would want Beth to stay around when I had set it up that Drake VEHEMENTLY did not want her there. I'm sort of still struggling as to why Drake would let her, but having Gos be thrilled that a grownup was basically doing her homework for her (even with Beth's halfhearted attempt at rules) was my best shot for this fic.

- Since I had added a subthread where Drake did not trust Beth, I had to stick in things where he was constantly checking on her.

- The method of Beth's escape was one of the biggies. She just *happened* to be good with plants (still a bit of a Sue-ish touch for this fic, but I have turned it into a firmly-established character trait at this point so I'm not nervous about it anymore), and in the original, she somehow managed to just... charm the plants. I guess that made sense to me when I wrote it, but why the heck would that work? Who can talk to plants unless they have a telepathic link with 'em? That didn't occur to me until some time later. So instead Beth makes a daring escape off the roof, yays. Not... perfect, but a lot more active and less fortuitous and convenient.

- A big change is that she's utterly terrified of Bushroot and they don't hit it off right away... and, as much as she does start to relax around him, she's never perfectly at ease. Just as she starts to get used to him, he goes and gets all supervillainy on her, which is pretty much a guarantee that - sadly - they'll never really be *friends*. But I felt it was important to note that Bushroot really is a villain, even if he's not evil or a bad guy. He's totally self-motivated and not 100% rational. I went into this in my other entry on the subject so I won't cover it here, but I thought it was naive and missing a big part of his character - and of Beth's - if I had Beth just be his BFF.

- The original also had Bushroot decide not to change Beth, whereas here I changed it to leave it up in the air. I think he would've been talked out of it if DW hadn't shown up exactly when he did, but I wanted to let it go either way. Who knows? Oh yes, and part of why he decided to let her go was because the *plants* didn't want him to hurt her. WTF. 9_9

- Since I haven't posted the finale yet, I can't go into a whole lot more detail, but I can say without spoilers that Beth initially got really mouthy with Darkwing. This was when I was going to have her change a bit more by the end of the first five-story arc - just get more outgoing and outspoken, so the idea was that she was more firey under the surface. I've since discovered that this is not who Beth is, and besides, the whole "ironically she loves him as Drake but not as DW!" is kind of a tired idea.

So the end result ... well, this fic is what it is. I still don't love it, to be honest. I just don't feel like it's my most inspired idea, although there are parts of it I really like. But I feel like some of it is reaching, and some of it doesn't go far enough; in all, I'll be very glad when it's done, because I'm mostly satisfied with this rewrite and I hope it'll stand up better than the original did. But I want to move on to other stuff now. :)

Keeping it Real!

Thought this might be fun: in this blog entry I'm going to spell out the biggest differences between my Original Version of TWC1, "My Kingdom for a Double-Plait Bolt", and the rewrite.

The biggest difference is that the new fic is about three times as long. BUUUUUUT to get more specific:

- Okay, number one difference is the interpersonal dynamics. In the first version of the fic, Launchpad and Darkwing walked into Bindler's Hardware, Beth laid eyes on Drake and fell in love with him, and Launchpad laid eyes on Beth and fell for her. Why? I... I don't know. I wanted him to, I guess. I made a stab at explaining why Beth would fall for a guy who treated her like garbage from the start a little later, but it was never really satisfactory; I never really did fully explain what would've drawn Launchpad to Beth, whom he'd never met and who was not especially beautiful or all that interesting. She was just nice, and cute. So I wanted to give a little more depth to their relationship, therefore I set up the fact that they were kinda-sorta friends, or friendly anyway, and that LP likes flirting with her.

- Everything, and I mean everything, was just rushed. The whole thing was like an outline; stuff just happened, and then more stuff happened, and it was like I had five things I wanted to occur in this fic so that was what i wrote. I didn't make a lot of effort in the getting there. So Beth is just sort of plunked into the story; Megavolt just shows up at random; Drake just takes an instant dislike to Beth, etc etc.

- Megavolt had no real plot. I mean he was building something, that was it. I didn't ever really figure out what that thing was or what it would do, although I tried to pretend like I did. I believe (and this goes with the previous point) that at that stage I was able to write a fic in about 2-4 weeks so I guess that goes along with it.

I suppose that pretty much covers it for this one (I'm not thinking that clearly on it at the moment); for the most part I didn't change huge plot points in this, I just expanded on it and rewrote the character interactions, but it largely keeps the same structure, with a number of extra scenes. Stay tuned, though, as I will ultimately post about the differences between TWC2 OV and rewrite; that's a fun one. :)

Oh, and click the TWC1 tag if you are interested in reading any of the chapter notes for that story. The majority are spoiler-free. I haven't done any yet for TWC2 - I'm going to start them when the fic is done just in case I end up editing some of it. Doubtful but you never know...

Later!