Ex Caerulo

Summary: Commander Jules Shepard, a talented combat engineer of the Alliance Navy, decides that this time, they would fight the Reapers by their own means. Rule no. 1 of tech school is, “If you didn’t build it or know how to take it apart—don’t use it. Better to use your own than tech that’ll bite you in the ass someday.”
Archive Of Our Own link here.

FF.net link here.

( Chapter Two - Commentary )

Chapter 2 is almost at 4000 words. I plan to write at least 2000 more, depending on how cooperative the characters will be. It's been slow-going mostly because of two things: a) university shit (because I have a trimester system, and this semester is almost over, ergo, things happen) and b) quality-checking. It is actually to the point that I think I am more fussy about my writing than my beta-readers. :| I just have a certain standard when it comes to writing fanfic, and I try to meet that standard whenever I can.

So expect Chapter 2 sometime this week or early next week.

If anyone is reading this (which would surprise me, if people did), I am actually looking for a beta-reader. Mostly because I feel bad for bothering my friends, and mostly because both of them have an incomplete knowledge of the MEverse. One of them has only played through most of the first game (because he is a very busy guy), and the second one has only played ME2 and ME3. So for anyone who is interested, drop a comment here, message me on my FF.net account, or email me, because I think my profile shows my email. :| In any case, I don't bite, and I enjoy having Mass Effect conversations with people! :3 Just know that Liara/Fem!Shep is my OTP, and I get twitchy when other people talk about other pairings. I am open-minded to other pairings, I just cannot read them, unless neither Liara nor Fem!Shep is involved. If you are a burning Thane fan, we can talk about Thane, sure. Garrus? Garrus is damn kickass! Mordin? I would go straight for Mordin, damnit! But, just don't pair them with Fem!Shep (or Liara) while I am around. :| I am a simple-minded person. My heart has only room for one OTP.

I just have two things to say for those who might want to be a beta-reader: a) I prefer having a very informal relationship with them, so if you're one of those types who just goes through a grammar check and is very stiff and set in their standards of grammar, I appreciate your professionalism, but I have writing classes in university, and I do not want to further traumatize myself. b) I am more concerned about things like the flow of a story, whether or not people talk too much (as I admittedly, have a weak spot for off-tangent banter), and if a scene does not give away enough information to the readers, and so on. I am not asking for a close reading. I just want to know if there is anything that needs clarifying or if any scene feels weak and needs to be strengthened. Heck, if you don't know what to talk about, I'll give you a list of questions. I'm very open to conversation. ^^ (See pairing restrictions above :P)

With those things out of the way, I think I will collapse in my bed now. <3 Today was tiring. And stressful. And I just feel dead.

 My Kim Possible craze is going strong! Although I have just finished watching the four seasons of Kim Possible, I am still doggedly determined to write a fanfic or several in this fandom. Yay! That said, I have not yet released any fanfic online because I am not sure which one I should focus on. As of right now, I have Operation KiGo (which is very likely to be released), Alter-Kim, and My Name Is all in various stages of completion. Furthermore, I have several other ideas that I want to explore as well that have yet to be tried out. :/ 

So, in short, the Kim fics will come out in due time. I just need to write as much as I can and find out which one I really want to work with the most. x)

Also, I have taken it upon myself to write reviews on different Kim Possible fanfics. Since I was introduced to the fandom by Sobriety, one of the best KP fanfic writers out there, I was so disappointed to find that Sobriety hasn't been mentioned in TV Tropes. :/ Also, some of the fanfics that I have read from the TV Tropes rec list weren't really my cup of tea. Thus, I decided that I would just talk about them--the good and the bad. This is all subject to my opinion of course, so others are welcome to disagree. They are even more welcome to recommend me new fics. *nudgenudgewinkwink*

That said, I will be posting the Review List in a separate entry and link all of my reviews there later. x) It will be my personal list as well, in case I want to reread my favourites. ;D

(Yes, yes, this is what my life is right now. So it would be redundant of me to write about my life. xP)

 I think if I see a picture of Kim or Shego cosplaying Resident Evil characters I would just die. /sighs longingly

Damnit! Now I want to write a Kim Possible/RE crossover. I can just see Jill or Claire getting awfully clingy with Shego and Kim looking ready to shoot someone. :'D I mean, uh, what? Seriously though, I think I can fabricate a story where Team Possible + Team Badass (Shego and Drakken) will work together to aid the STARS team. x3 It can even be gen! I don't mind! As long as flirting is allowed. I like flirting with people. :3 Also, I like shooting zombies. There's just something therapeutic about heads exploding in the TV screen. Srs.

Yes, I got this from looking for RE icons and reading KP fanfic. P: But it's really doable! And it doesn't have to be silly! Well, perhaps a bit.

Wow, I think I might actually write this. o__O Huh.

OMG, new Tomb Raider is pretty.~ 

Ah-hem. Moving on, I actually opened this DW to write about a fanfic I'm currently reading. It's called Another Time, Another Place by StarvingLunatic. It's a really good fic. One thing I've discovered with StarvingLunatic's works is that, they're very nice to read, but you should only read one fanfic at a time. By this I mean, don't marathon his/her fics because you will get sick and tired of them easily. I know this for a fact because Kim and Shego remain pretty much the same despite the different settings/plotlines the author uses. There's consistency there, which is awesome, but it also means that you can get tired of reading his/her works really quickly after a while. I haven't even finished some of StarvingLunatic's works yet (Walking the Line series, Honour Bound) because it just gets tiring after a while.

That said, I still like reading all of StarvingLunatic's works. This one in particular is nice, although I can't help but look at it from a psychological perspective. P: (A tangent I'd rather not go into.) But I do like the ah, the plot. I won't spoil things for you, but upon further reflection, it does have a similar flavour to her other works. Shego always ends up being the more competent adult while Kim ends up as the somewhat ditzy genius. /shrugs Not that I mind. It totally works. And I really do like StarvingLunatic's style of writing. 

Perhaps I will write a proper review later. I did promise my friend that I would write him a Rec List. ;) 

And to end this on a happy note, I shall leave this entry with a really nice Ghost Trick link. <3 Kudos to thatpokemonkid for giving me the link. :'D You rock, my dear.

Like a flickering lamplight, I am drawn to this site once more. I fear that I do not give enough justice to DW. I have had such a strange last couple of months. In between struggling to get papers in on time, writing erratically, forcing the cogs inside my head to turn faster so that I might produce more pleasant shit for people to read (My friend claims my kind of shit is golden. Make of it what you will), and juggling social events in my free time, I have forgotten to write here. I suppose it is because I feel that I lack an audience. The increasing popularity of sites such as tumblr and facebook has made this kind of journaling a strange, perhaps even outdated form of keeping your friends up to date with the goings on of your life. The kind of crowd that now attracts a website like this is a reading crowd that wishes to devour the works of others, chew these things thoughtfully in their mouths as they prepare their constructive criticism.

Still, I will try to maintain this at the very least. It is more than I can promise when compared to my decaying FFnet account where I have not really posted anything new in the last few months.   

Surprisingly, I have a clear conscience when it comes to fanfiction. I wonder if it is because I have such a removed perspective from my fanfics now. Oh, I still enjoy writing them from time to time, but they are not as appealing to me as they used to be. "I grew up and out of it," would be far too easy an answer to say. More like, "There are too many things that interest me at the moment."  

A funny thing about my obsessions is that they are like flames. They burn strongly but die quickly. Thus, I unfortunately have a very short attention span as a result. This is just another one of my strange mood swings.

I read Lestaki's Windows of the Soul for a while. It is a beautiful fanfic, one that I will always go back to whenever I can. In my very biased opinion, it is one of the best love stories I have ever read because of the writer's style. He loves to describe and he loves to analyze a person's feelings, thoughts, ulterior motives, ambiguities--tries to capture the elusive in his writing. Whenever the two main characters ponder, especially about the other, they build such a beautiful profile that every chapter feels almost like an unsent love letter, detailing the other's best and worst qualities, reaffirming and reinventing how they feel about each other.

I like it very much. I wish I could somehow write like that. Not that I want to copy his style. Rather, I want to try and capture human thought and human expression through figurative language. Lestaki just does a good job of that.

A month has already passed and writing here has already been shifted down the list of things that I wish to do during my free time. Happily, I at least was able to write lots these last few weeks, particularly in a collaboration story that I am writing with a friend (Google Docs is godsend :'D) as well as in many different RP threads created by my friends. :3 Of course, my writing is a bare trickle compared to other writers, but I am happy nonetheless. Progress should be celebrated. Not criticized.

That said, I doubt I will be able to write anything coherent here for a while. Busy days are ahead, and I don't know how much time I have that is still solely mine. At least I am able to use my sister's old laptop now, so hopefully, having that with me at school will inspire me to write more than I normally would. :D

Cheers, and a happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada and a happy Columbus Day to everyone in US of A. :'D