Duplicity Update and Sneak Peek of Chapter 4

So I finished chapter 5 earlier today. I'm on a ROLL, baby. 8D *is excited* I would have finished it Saturday night though, instead of today (Monday) if it weren't for my brother going to bed insanely early and kicking me out of his room, leaving me with nowhere to work at while I was at my dad's--my dad sleeps in the living room and my sister shares a room with me, so I had no choice but to give up on it for the night. And then Sunday was busy with going back to my mom's and then studying (cramming) for my Anatomy and Physiology exam that I totally forgot about, so I couldn't work on it until today. XD (The part that sucks is that the test was canceled anyway because we got so much snow, even though classes were held. Ugh.)

I haven't started Chapter 6 yet, but I have the document set up to start. I have a vague idea of how I want it to go, but I haven't come up with any sort of solid beginning, so I've left it for now. But I did read over the WHOLE THING this afternoon, and so far I am overall extremely satisfied and proud of it, so we're doing good! 8D You can thank my friend Taylor for listening to me whine and complain and bitch on and on about it, because I probably would be a lot more stressed out about the thing if she didn't listen to me. XD; Also, one scene would probably not be there anymore if not for her, because I HATED IT while I was writing it and wanted to delete it, but she convinced me not to. Now, I kind of like it, although I'm not completely satisfied with it. It's good enough.

OKAY I KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE OF MY BABBLING on with the sneak peek~

Chapter 4: Absolute Disaster

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"You're joking," I said weakly, watching as Max laid a fishing rod against the doorframe, smiling happily at me.

"Nope! Today you're going to participate in the Fishing Contest and impress Rosalind. I already told my father that you're participating, so there's no backing out now!" He said brightly, and I resisted the growing urge to slam my head against the wall. Or Max's head. At least it wouldn't be as painful to me and be just as satisfying.

"Max, I told you I didn't want to do this! You know I'm no good at fishing!" I whined, staring at the pole like it had offended me. Which it has, and on many occasions. "There are plenty of other ways to get Rosalind to notice me more that don't involve embarrassing myself."

"You're not going to embarrass yourself," Max declared confidently, winking at me. I just scowled back in response. That was a lie if I ever heard one.

"Yes I am," I retorted, "there is no way I can pull off catching anything, much less a fish bigger than Kyle can catch. Dorothy is better at it than me." And she was terrified of the fish—she freaked out whenever one came near her that was still alive and wiggling.

Max rolled his eyes, waving off my comment. "Details. I know you'll catch the biggest fish anyone has ever seen, because I am going to help."

I blinked at him, raising an eyebrow. Wasn't that cheating? "Max, you can't help, that's cheating."

Max deflated a little, but didn't give up. "What they don't know won't hurt them. Come on, it'll be fun!"

"No," I replied confidently. He was not going to convince me, no matter how much he tried.

.~.~.~.~.

"This is possibly the worst idea on the face of the planet." I sighed, staring out at the sea, watching it ripple against the line in the water. After Max had come into the Clinic holding a fishing rod, I knew I was in for trouble. It was totally unfair how easily he had been able to make me go along with this. I wasn't going to admit what Max had used to convince me to agree, but it involved a lot of blackmail; particularly with things that had happened when we were younger.

Curse my girlish appearance. That was all I was going to say on the subject.

"No it's not, stop being such a kill-joy," Max said cheerfully, elbowing me lightly in the side from his place next to me on the dock. I flinched, scooting away from him a little.

"I'm not being a killjoy, I'm being realistic," I replied sourly, shifting a little on the prickly wood of the pier. It was splintery and old, worn down by the ships that came in regularly, and highly uncomfortable to sit on. "Even Barrett thought you were out of your mind." He was participating as well, and when we ran into him on the way here and explained what was going on he was sending me looks that told me he was truly sorry I had been dragged into this and Max ones that clearly said he thought he was a little insane. Not that the idea was anything new, but I digress.

Max huffed in response. "I am not. My ideas are always brilliant and always work."

I had to laugh at that one, stifling my giggles into my arm. "Sure they do." Max fixed on me with an angry stare, looking a little insulted. "Like the time you thought it would be a good idea to try and tame a Woolly, so you could show Jake that you weren't a priss or pussy or whatever it was he called you. Or when that rumor of a ghost hanging around the front door to the Clinic was going around, and you thought you could catch it by laying a trap." My mom had ended up getting tied up in a net, and both Max and I had been grounded for weeks. It was horrible. "Or the time you—"

"Alright, alright, I get the point!" Max whimpered slightly, affronted. "So my adventurous ideas don't always work. But my ideas about wooing the female species always work!" he boasted, and I rolled my eyes. "After all, I am the best at appreciating the intricate minds of women, as well as their beauty." I groaned; he was going to go off on a rant about how awesome he was in a few minutes if I didn't stop him…

"Hey Max?"

"Hmm?"

"Your ego is showing, and I'd rather not see it," I said dryly, staring despondently at the water. This was not fun, I told myself. This was totally not fun at all.

Max laughed loudly. "Well if you've got it, flaunt it!"

I groaned, burying my face in my hands. This was going to be a long day.

.~.~.~.~.

A/N: So there it is, a little bit of Chapter 4 for all one of you reading this to enjoy. XP Hee hee I actually love this scene a lot. 8D Unfortunately it is the most humorous part of the fic for a good while now... :/ Angst is on the way, courtesy of absolute disaster. ^^;

That's all for now, folks~

Working on Duplicity

So so far things are going pretty good with Duplicity's rewrite. I was stuck for a few days after I finished the first chapter because I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do next, but I managed to come up with something and finished that...Monday, I think? So I've been working on the third chapter and editing the past two the past two days.

But about 6,000 words in ten days isn't bad at all for me when it isn't NaNo time. The first time I started writing this fanfic I probably got 2,500 done in that amount of time, so I'm speeding through this compared to back then. XD Hopefully I'll get to the point I wanted to so I can start posting relatively soon. I'm not saying where that point is, because it is slightly spoiler-ish, but it's farrrr off in the future. XD Based on how things are going now, it'll probably be about chapter 15 or so, lol. I ended up adding about 4 chapters of stuff that wasn't in the first version to the beginning. ^^;

It's hard to imagine that this entire thing started off as a PWP yaoi lemon smut oneshot and just blew up into what it is now. XD First it became a short and sweet threeshot-length diddy, then evolved into a story I expected to be around 10-15 chapters or so, but now I have absolutely no idea at all how long this is going to end up. Long. I'm thinking... 30 chapters, maybe. XD I don't have my outline divided into chapters because it's a very bare-bones skeletal kind of thing with only the main plot points I wanted to get through, so I have no real idea how long it might turn out, but it's going to be pretty long. :P I've just started getting to my first plot point (Rosalind agreeing to marry Kyle), I'm not even there yet, and I'm on chapter 3. XD; Chapter 3 last time was the actual marriage ceremony, haha.

Chapter 3 is fighting me a little, though. I know what I want to do, but it just doesn't want to come out. Chapter 2 was doing that to me too, unfortunately. First bump in the road, I guess. I'm surprised it took so long for me to get one. XD Usually I write like, 300 words in the first chapter and get stuck, but this time I sailed through the first chapter (relatively speaking, anyway). But I also wasn't constantly working on it, either, so maybe that's why. I need to take more breaks from it, maybe.

Chapter 2 has such an ADORABLE scene in it, lol. X3 Too bad it didn't come out like it was in my head, but it's still really cute anyway. I'd post it, but it kind of ruins the end of chapter 1, so I'm waiting for something else. :P Maybe later if there's something I can pick out that won't spoil anything you'll get another sneak peek. We'll see~

On another note, yesterday I got a bit of a surprise. At the rate I've been updating my 100 Themes Challenge (~1/month), it's going to take me 8 years to get through all 100. XD;;; So I'm thinking that's a REALLY LONG ASS TIME. I don't even know if I'm going to still be into RF2 at that point, lol. XDDDD So I'll have to get cracking on that. Not during the school year, but this summer, maybe. I'll have a lot more free time, anyway. :P

Alright, I think that's all I wanted to talk about... bye bye for now~ Next post will either be another update on my progress (if there is any, haha) or another sneak peek, it depends on what happens.

Duplicity Rewrite Chapter 1 Snippet

A/N: Okay so this snippet is really long but it's actually only about a third of the first chapter. XD; This is the first section, which I have actually mostly finished editing.

The only problem is now I don't know what to do next, lololol *shot*

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You know those days that you aren’t quite sure how they might go, but are excited and hopeful for no real reason when you wake up anyway?

Today was one of those days, except I might have had a reason to be hopeful. And extremely nervous—and boy was I. I was practically shaking the entire morning, what-ifs plaguing my mind non-stop. What if I made a fool of myself? What if she said no? What would I do then? Probably go hide in a corner and wish I could dissolve into it.

Today was a holiday, but just not any holiday. It was Summer 19th—the day of the Dance Festival. And I was going to ask the girl I liked if she would dance with me.

Well, if I could convince myself not to chicken out, anyway. I was good at that—chickening out, that is. The past few festivals were a complete failure on my part because of that, and I was stubbornly holding onto my resolve this time. I was going to ask her out. I was going to ask her out. I was going to ask Rosalind out, and nothing I could say to myself was going to change my mind. Maybe if I could keep on repeating that to myself, I’d actually do it.

…Who was I kidding? I couldn’t do this. I slumped into the chair at the front desk with a sigh, setting my mug of coffee on the table. This was pointless. She would never say yes. Never in a million years would Rosalind, esteemed only daughter of the affluent Herman de Sainte-Coquille, agree to dance with me, the quiet doctor-in-training at the Alvarna Clinic (who wasn’t the best dancer ever), childhood friends or not. Well, she might agree, but not in the way I wanted. Not…romantically. Just as friends. It has always been just as friends. I didn’t want to be just friends anymore, not since…well, a really long time ago, when I figured out that my feelings towards her bridged past that point. Rosalind has yet to take the hint—not that I was doing a good job at dropping them.

There was a loud thump right above my head that snapped me out of my gloomy slump, and I heard angry voices filter down from upstairs. I sighed. Mom and Alicia were fighting again. I guess they decided to start early today; they usually don’t start bickering until they come downstairs. I took a sip of my coffee and leaned back into the chair. Today was going to suck, I decided. So much for waking up in a good mood.

Alicia came stomping down the stairs a few minutes later, looking positively livid and mumbling under her breath—one didn’t need much of an imagination to guess at what she was saying and who it was directed at.

“Good morning,” I called out, which she grumbled back before walking out the door and slamming it behind her. I gave the door a sour look before turning back to my coffee. Perfect way to start the day, definitely. At least my coffee wasn’t rude. Mom came down with much the same expression, locking herself up in the infirmary before I even had a chance to say hello. What a wonderful family I had, totally supporting and loving, right? Here I was, spiraling into a nervous wreck, and no one noticed.

I guess I have no reason to be upset at them; they have their own things to worry about, but still. It would have been nice if someone noticed and gave me a little moral support. But no, no one cared.

“Good morning!”

Well, that was a little better. I looked up to see Max closing the door behind him, a great big grin on his face like he as the king of the world. It was a little annoying, to tell the truth.

“Good morning,” I replied automatically, taking another sip of my drink. Max came around the desk and sat on it in front of me. I glared at him. Why was he so happy?

“Why the long face?” He grinned, leaning back on his hand.

“You’re sitting on my papers,” I answered sullenly, but his grin only turned into a knowing smile.

“Come on, that’s not it. Tell me.” I frowned, avoiding his gaze. He was just going to make fun of me for chickening out, that little insecure voice in the back of my mind that was slowly getting stronger told me. I decided to ignore him. Max, not the little voice. The little voice was becoming very convincing right now—this was never going to work, I was just going to make a fool of myself, she was going to say no and not want to be friends with me anymore or ever speak to me again, she’ll get angry or creeped out or-

“Hey, I’m talking to you, pay attention,” Max said, snapping his fingers in front of my face. I jumped slightly, looking up to glare at him.

“What?”

“What are you getting all depressed about? You’re supposed to be excited!” He said joyously, gesturing eagerly. “Today is the day you’re finally going to ask my sister out!”

“And why am I supposed to be excited?” I grumbled. “I’m just going to make an idiot out of myself.”

“Hey, don’t say that. You’re not. We discussed this, Ray.” He jumped off the desk—spreading papers everywhere, much to my dismay. “You’re going to go up to her, start a nice conversation, then sweep her off her feet for the best time she’s ever had. You’ll dance all night,” he started moving around the room animatedly, dancing with himself and humming while I stared at him in credulously, feeling a small smile tug at the corners of my mouth, “and when the night ends you’ll tell her how you feel and she’ll be so love-struck she’ll have to say yes.” He turned to me, his grin from when he came in back. “And then you’ll wonder why you were being so silly and didn’t just ask her out weeks ago.”

I chuckled. If only it was that easy… “Do you really think she’ll say yes?” I asked quietly.

“Of course!” he responded quickly, “she’d have to be out of her mind to say no to you.”

“But…”

“But nothing, Ray.” I frowned.

“No! But… but what if she does say no? What if I make a mistake and make a fool out of myself? What if she’s disgusted by the idea and doesn’t want to talk to me anymore afterward or—“ Max slammed his hands on the desk, startling me out of my rant of all the insecurities that had been plaguing me all morning. I looked up, but his gaze wasn’t angry, just concerned.

“Do you really think she would do that, Ray?”

I let my head fall to the table with a thump and a groan. “I don’t know… no, probably not. I’m just… nervous.” I was just making up excuses to not do it and save my dignity. Or possibly save myself from heartbreak. Both, probably.

“Ray…” Max said softly, his coat rustling just above my head. I wondered for a second why he was wearing it on such a hot day, but dismissed the question immediately because it was Max I was wondering about, and who ever understood why he did anything anyway? I shook my head in response, heaving the what, fifth sigh of the morning?

“It’s stupid, I know, I should just ask… there’s no point in building myself up and then not doing anything about it…”

“That’s better! Now,” he pulled me up from my chair by the hand, ignoring my protests and practically dragging me to the door, “go out there and ask her.”

“But—“

“Go, silly!” he demanded, pushing me out the door and closing it behind me.

“Hey! You can’t lock me out of my own house!” I yelled through the door, knocking on it insistently. I wasn’t ready for this yet!

“Sure I can! Go already; Rosalind is probably hanging around the West End by now. You don’t want to keep her waiting, do you?” I heard him respond, slightly muffled through the door. I glared at it; this wasn’t very fair… mean door. Did it have to be so solid and prevent me from hiding from inevitable doom?

I groaned, turning around and staring in the direction of the Park. I could already hear music playing - lighthearted with a steady beat. Well, it was now or never…

.~.~.~.~.