Okay, so the title is a BIT melodramatic. And this isn’t my eternal shame. But sometimes a little melodrama is fun. So a few of you have noted my silence. Jaz had pointed out it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve said something. Has it really been that long? Geeze. Time flies. I wish I could say this is a “oh I’ve been so busy” thing but… um… well… no. I sort of got into a game that I’m super excited for and may have fallen off the writing wagon. Just a little. Or a lot. Or way too much. Like, to the point where I may have called in sick one day for work because I just really wanted to play the game. So, basically, instead of being a responble, 30 year old adult, I’ve been a child for 3 weeks XD
But, I have made a mistake. I have erred. You all have entrusted me to write more of this story and it WILL occur. So I make a goal between Fate, cheerleaders, and all you lurkers to do a fun stretch goal that should push me. It’s based on an idea called “Four-in-February” where a lot of people agree to beat four games in the month of February. Well, next month, to make up for the lack of chapter, I’m doing “Three-In-April”… well… it doesn’t roll off the tongue like “Four-in-February” but it’s my goal for April.
Basically, I didn’t try to push myself at all last month and that is my, at least, 3 week shame (so not quite eternal… but if you consider how much you can get done if you put your mind to it in 3 weeks it is a FORM of eternal so… um… where was I going with this?). Because I put no effort into March I want to push myself. The next few chapters, I think, will be shorter anyway so I’m looking forward to trying to push what I can do. Is this insane? Well, maybe a little. My dayjob is something that is sort of tied to tax-season here in America and, well, the deadline for taxes is April 15th. So I’ll be working a little overtime before then, but things will slow down a LOT after then. Creates a nice dichotomy where I think I can get 1 chapter in before the 15th (I have started on 33 after all) and 2 more after. I won’t be pushing myself like this other months so I think I’ll be fine stress-wise. It’s cathartic to do stretch goals like this once in a while anyway.
So, the plan-
- April 1st, post the month artwork (BY GRIMAY!) and post the vignette on Patreon
- April 14th- post Chapter 33
- April 21st- post Chapter 34
- April 28th- post Chapter 35
After that it will be our usual once a month schedule. I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and concern and I’m just fine. Great in fact. Just irresponsible at times when I get into betas of games I’m really excited for. If you’re curious, the game is Overwatch by Blizzard (also, just to head off any questions about it, I don’t share my battletag with people I only know from the internet. I used to and… well let’s just keep it at I had some odd experiences that made me regret it). I love it a lot and look forward to playing it when it officially comes out. But, for now, time to be an adult and get back to writing.
If you’d like to help me meet this stretch goal of Three-in-April, understand that comments really help motivate me. So this is what I’m going to do, I’m going to post a silly topic that is MGP related and if I could get participation from you (ie, comments on the topic) it’d be super motivating for me. So, for this week, the topic is this:
Well, there is the topic! I’m looking forward to your answers! Oh! And thanks to those who have been updating the MGP TVTropes page. I don’t know who you heroes are, but you have no idea how giddy it makes me every time I see it’s been updated. It makes no sense why it makes me happy, but it does and every update you make honors me!
Three-In-April! Let’s do this!,
Taralynn
Yay!!! Glad you are ok 🙂 I have been there also with the gaming, mine was DDO. As for the game you are playing Ewwww 😛 I gave up on blizzard, played wow for 5 years and quit last year. Pretty sure I will not play one of their games again.
I play FF XlV these days and sometimes DDO 🙂 You are a awesome story teller/writer and thank you so much for sharing it with us.
glad to see the story isn’t going to die off. after finding it a few days after you posted chapter 22 and getting hooked i was getting a little worried about it being almost a month since anything was posted. so massive sigh relief over here but that being said we all need to take a brake from time to time so dont go feeling bad for taking some time to play a game and unwind. that being said i cant wait for you to get back to posting chapters.
edit: i ment chapter 32 not 22
You are completely forgiven for putting your life on hold for Overwatch. That game is going to be my crack addiction when I get my hands on it.
Mainly, just glad you’re okay! Thought it may be time to round up a search party, haha. And I think we’ve all lost ourselves in games before… I’ve lost many hours on Guild Wars 2, and lately have been racing to the end of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
Overwatch looks great! You should do a mini-review after it’s released, I think. Before I take the plunge into a new game I always enjoy reading different people’s takes on it.
Oooh, favorite anime/tv show for the main characters. This will be fun! To prove how excited for a new chapter I am, and how much I want to help with the motivation, I already have some ideas to share. I hope it’s okay to post my ideas here (if not feel free to delete), so here goes!
First, Eli. He’s one of us nerds and big into anime, and seems to like modern as well as classic stuff. I’m going to give him an equivalent to my own favorite anime, One Piece. But in the MGP realm, what do you think of “Pieces of Eight” for a name? It keeps the “piece” from One Piece, but also has a nod to Pirates of the Caribbean, which reinforces the pirate theme of the anime. Backup choice: “Fairy Tale” (over Fairy Tail).
Cory is both easier and harder, as I figure he’s the type to have seen a very wide range of anime, but be a little snobby about it given his film-buff outlook. Though at the beginning of the story, he admitted to having a weakness for campy rail-shooters. So, again, I’d go with an anime series, but one that’s a little older and something of a classic. I have two suggestions… “Dragonsphere Zeta” (instead of, obviously, Dragonball Z) or “Robomech”/”Super Time Fortress Magross” (instead of Robotech/ Super Dimension Fortress Macross). Bonus for the latter choice is that it allows Cory to go all anime hipster and talk about how the original was so much better than the localized version, haha.
Stacy’s dream is fashion, so I would imagine her being into a reality show like Extreme Makeover, though one that focuses on fashion and makeup rather than plastic surgery. Maybe something like “Intense Restyling?” Or those fashion-design reality shows, so “Project Designer” over Project Runway?
You didn’t ask for Noriko, but I can imagine her having a guilty pleasure in a ninja anime. The obvious comparison would be to use Naruto, but I have a different idea. A few years ago I saw a ninja anime called Nabari no Ou… so maybe “Nabari no Hime” for Noriko?
So, onto the Spirit Guard. Robynne would be, I think, the easiest to pick. I can think of both an anime (yay nerds!) and a Western TV show she’d really love. For the anime, a nod to Fullmetal Alchemist would be great, since one of the central conceits of the show is dealing with the machinations of a godlike being using a super-advanced technology that appears to be magic. (Though they’re adamant in the anime about it being science!) “Fullmetal Chemist” would be the easiest modification, but I think it needs to maintain the “Alchemist” moniker to carry over the magic/science feel. Maybe “Ironwill Alchemist,” which could be a nod to the determination and willpower of the Elric brothers?
Robynne’s favorite non-anime would be something like Mythbusters or Junkyard Wars, I think. So for the former, perhaps “Lorebusters?” Or “Junkyard Battles” for the latter?
Mallory… hmmm, she’s a tough one. Other than Spirit Guard shenanigans or being generally social, all that I can ever really remember her showing an interest in is sports. So maybe something on ESPN? I have zero interest in sports as a rule, but I know my Uncle loves the show “Pardon The Interruption.” I can see Mallory liking something like that. How about “Suffer the Interruption?” Makes sens for the Bringer of Pain, haha.
Kara… cooking show! Though I imagine not just a normal instructional cooking show, but one of those shows that focuses on a mix of practicality, discovery, and entertainment. In my mind, I’m thinking of something like Good Eats, with Alton Brown. Gonna be lazy, so how about “Great Eats!” starring Anton Braun?
Vivian… hmm, a little tough, actually. The reason I say she’d be tough is that I feel whenever she sits still to watch something, it’s most likely to be a movie. So I’d see her watching movie channels like Starz, Showtime, or AMC. MPG alternatives might be Nebula (get it?), Spotlight, or WMC (World Movie Classics). If I had to give her a favorite TV show, I’d see her going for satire. So in the vein of The Daily Show or Last Week Tonight, how about “The Weekly Show?”
That just leaves Angela. With her being so focused on Justice and being pre-law, I would imagine she would be big into a show like Law & Order. Maybe call it “Serve & Protect?”
Whew, that was fun! Hope that’s motivating, and feel free to use as much or as little of that as you’d like.
Hey, we all put our lives on the line for videogames once in a while. Glad to hear you’re alive and doing okay otherwise. I badly want to play overwatch myself , I’m not sure it’s my cup of tea but I’d like to try it for a bit before writing it off wholesale you know ? the characters just look so lively. Alas, no beta has come my way and I’m not sure I feel like shelling out the 70 bucks (great white north tax) just to play it a week early if I may not even like it much. That game challenge you mentioned reminds me that the forum I frequent most often is doing a back log thing and has been doing one for a couple years now , I don’t participate because I know it will only disappoint me :P. I finish games when I want to mostly , usually 6 months plus after buying them. But, good luck with the lofty goal in April. I find with creative stuff , it’s better to force yourself to do that creative thing for 1 hour every day to make it second nature. I’ve been uploading a web comic recently and twice now I’ve skipped that hour and ended up uploading pages late – not worth beating myself up over mind you but if I had better work ethic my life would be a lot easier.
Pushing yourself too hard to do too much to make up for a past mistake may be a future mistake. We all understand that stuff happens, sometimes even games. Don’t push yourself so hard to make up for it that you maybe fail to meet the new too harsh goals and then spiral away in guilt for not making those. If you fall of the wagon don’t try to lift it and carry it down the road on your back… just get back on. Looking forward to the next post, whenever that is. No pressure, seriously. Don’t over do it.
I think for Cory you should do “Mythbooters”, because the explosions of Mythbusters are way too fitting.
Vivian is totally a “Game Life” person, because No Game No Life has the exact thing she does – the intelligence combined with weirdness.
The others I haven’t quite figured out yet. :p
Hmmmm wonders if this was your April fools thing 😛 “April 1st, post the month artwork (BY GRIMAY!)” jk lol
I haven’t played Overwatch yet, but I totally understand why it could draw you in. A lot of people seemed to have the same experience. Like Zexand said, I’d also like to hear your thoughts on it; I’m not yet sure if I want to try it out when the proper release hits. Still, I’m super excited to hear news of the next chapters! I don’t usually, speak for others, but I hope I’m not being too presumptuous by saying that we all really look forward to your work. I know that, personally, a new MGP chapter being released occupies the same brain space as a new season of a show I like getting to Netflix. It’s always a big lift to the day. Plus, MGP comes out more often than TV shows and is considerably easier to binge.
Thinking about this topic just made me think of more questions…like…
Speaking of Netflix, does the MGP universe need an analogous streaming service? Webflix? Netvids? The Flixnet (If you want to be extra blunt)?
Since the MGP universe is basically an alternate modern day, are superheroes and comic books becoming pop culture for their world, too? It might be fun to retcon reality and say that the trend is caused by the rise of actual superheroes. With the Hush Corps putting so much care into keeping it quiet, it would make sense that superheroes would be on the fringe of the collective conscious just enough that they start working their way into vogue without people really knowing why. If that’s the case, I bet Angela’s favorite show would be a superhero show. I haven’t seen the more recent imaginings of Supergirl or Wonder Woman, but as long as they take their powers seriously and try to use them for good, I feel like Angela would totally resonate with a character like that. Something like Ultragirl or Superlass for Supergirl To keep the alliteration in Wonder Woman, it could be Miraculous Madame, Fantastic Female, Dazzling Damsel, or…um…Bombastic Broad? (Okay, Bland Name Products are too much fun to make up.)
For Stacy, the first thing that comes to mind is What Not to Wear, but Zexand’s Project Runway recommendation makes just as much, if not more, sense. So hers could be a nod to both: What Not to Model. That way, both style and design are covered.
I think having Vivian’s favorite movie be Citizen Kane would be a little too on-the-nose; she would have a more esoteric favorite, but it would still be fun to see her go on a rant about what a revolutionary film Citizen Crutch or Denizen Cane is. I bet her true favorite would be a more cult director with a heavily stylized aesthetic, like Terry Gilliam. So, the cult classic film “Bolivia,” by Garry William.
I don’t think I could come up with one for every character…at least not all at once. But, Zexand, I have to point out that you missed a great one with Junkyard Wars! The Bland Name for that should be Scrapyard Scraps! Okay, I need to stop now before I hit my pun quota for the year.
I’m really excited for the Three-in-April goal, Taralynn. When I set deadlines for myself in artistic endeavors, I find that they really get me motivated, as long as there aren’t too many too often. Plus, they can be oddly refreshing; being pressed for time can make you think of a project in a way that you maybe hadn’t considered. I hope it goes well for you!
Oh, Annie, those are so good! I especially love your idea of “Scrapyard Scraps” … I really did miss a great opportunity, haha. I’ve been watching Supergirl starting its run on TV, and it’s really quite good… I really think it’s a show that Angela could get into. (I won’t offer a Bland Name Product version, since I think you’ve given a lot of good suggestions already.) However, given that Angela hasn’t shown any interest in nerdy stuff, and Mal actively looks down on all geeky stuff, I would imagine she’s never seen it. But it would offer a great opportunity for it to be something that Angela and Robynne could have in common! Imagine Angela coming over to visit and seeing Robynne watch the show might get her hooked, and it would be a nice opportunity for the two of them to bond over a common interest.
And I also throw my wholehearted support behind what Annie said about us all waiting excitedly for your work, Taralynn. New chapters are definitely the highlight of that week, and I always get excited when I see a release date. Good luck with the Three-in-April!
Given all the superhero stuff out now, has there been a Collider TV serires or movie? How does Rob feel about it?
Thinking on it, I like the idea of Ang loving Sailor Moon when she was a girl, so local equivalents could be Lunar Princess, The Mariner Princess, Planetary Mariners, or Maria, Princess of the Moon.
I think Mal might enjoy Wrestling. Or, hey, how about Dancing with the Stars? Hmmm.. Dance Magic? Project Dance? Acting or Dancing? Dance Battle?
I’m tempted to ask you to include an Overwatch animated series, simply because I dearly love the animated shorts they’ve put out for the game.
For Mythbusters what about DeBunkers? That’s nice and punchy.
My response to “My eternal shaaaaame…. 30 March, 2016 (08:23) | Uncategorized | By: Taralynn”
Everyone’s response is pretty cool, especially Zexand’s. Hats off to your depth and enthusiasm!Â
Taralynn – I have said it before and I will continue to say it. You are wonderful, you do a great job, just keep doing your thing and us – your dear fans – will “roll with the punches.” No problem at all 🙂 I am actually a writer too and I admire what you have done here with your corner of the world. You inspire me!
As for video games – have at it! Life is about balancing all kinds of things, including fun games. I have never heard of Overwatch. Will have to check it out. Currently my husband and I are on an Assassin’s Creed and Fallout kick.
And the anime thing. Hmmm let’s see. Here’s the ones I can think of: Cory – Gintama definitely lol quirky humor and all. Noriko – Log Horizon because of Akatsuki; I swear they are sisters or perhaps cousins. When Zexand said Kara cooking show, I immediately thought of Food Wars. I agree with TD on Vivian and No Game No Life. Cammy – Akame Ga Kill! Oh also – not an anime but Cammy reminds me of Caitlin McBride in the fabulous online story Severence Pay. To some extent Robynne reminds me of Patty (sort of) also from Severence Pay. Not sure on the other MGP characters in terms of what animes they would like.
Cheers and keep up the great work :-).
Oops on my first sentence – I didn’t mean to copy and paste that part! /wishes_there_was_an_edit_button