Arrant Nonsense

I can't write. Like, at all. I read stuff like this, by quigonejinn, and realize how very much I suck. That punch to the gut? Yeah, haven't perfected that yet. Maybe if I write another 500,000 words, I will. Maybe. And maybe Santa will leave me that pony I've always wanted in my back yard this Christmas.

In other news, the Marvel peeps on my flist need to go watch this vid, right the hell now. Seriously, I'll wait.

Okay, are you back? I am in total awe. Are you in awe? I'm in awe.

And now, speaking of writing. It's not going to write itself, is it? And even if it sucks and it's a waste of time and I should be doing something else, those 500 words aren't going to appear out of thin air, so I should just do it and be done. *eyes clock in story* Yeah, they could be getting a phone call just any time.

Or maybe not. Maybe the Bad Guy just shows up on not!Tony's doorstep with an army and starts beating the doors down. Would he make the mistake of calling first? "Hey, there, not!Tony. I'm coming over to kick your ass. Can you squeeze me in between your four and four-thirty appointments? Thanks."

ETA: There's a teeny little snippet in the comments, for anyone who cares.

However, I've committed snippetage at the lovely and effulgent difrancis's LJ again. :)

And I added a little descriptive sentence (not to the snippet, to what I wrote last night) about how not!Harmony knows that not!Harry is back to being...fragile.

Poor guy. It's not over for him yet, either.

Yeah, 70,000 words in and I still don't know if he's going to die or not--although I'm pretty sure he lives. Not!Harmony, on the other hand...

I've just got this image in my head of him, all perma-wolf, out in the scrub by his wild lone, because she jumped in front of a silver bullet to save him and then died in his arms...

Seriously, though, that would be piling on. Wouldn't that be piling on? I think that'd be piling on.

Not that I'm opposed to piling on, in principle, and we always hurt the characters we love, but there comes a point, you know?

Long snippet was long, but...

I have committed snippet-age.

Poor not!Tony. He's all sleep-deprived and now has to deal with a werewolf in the operating theater in his basement...

Meme stolen from inlovewithnight, because that's how I roll...

Post the beginning of your current WIP(s).

I have one that's eating my brain right now, as you all should know. And thus, the beginning:

Ben Lockwood's entire body was one mass of raw red pain. These people had snatched him off the street over a day ago, he thought. At first they wanted information about the boss-lady's new job and new employer, and they weren't shy about using brass knuckles and a knife and a cattle prod to pry it out of him.

Once he convinced them that he didn't know much, they changed tacks, although not tactics. Pain was still their weapon of choice, only they shackled him to a stained oaken post the diameter of a telephone pole and proceeded to beat him with a cat o'nine tails, over scars he already had from Afghanistan. The last scream had been wrung from him quite some time ago and all he could do was gasp his name, rank, and serial number, his training taking over. He was having trouble remembering where he was, here or there--the experiences were bleeding together in his head and on his back and he didn't know what anyone wanted from him anymore. Maybe they didn't know either. Maybe it didn't matter.

Gee. With an opening scene like that, maybe this is why the story is All About Him...

Is this thing on?

I realized this morning that I have several new friends *waves at them* who weren't around when I posted this snippet. Which I have now edited (not at that link, alas, since I can't edit comments) into something even more horrifying, because Antubis is being recalcitrant and I have no idea how to make a CAT scan anything but boring boring boring. Le sigh.

Anyway. That snippet gives the one I posted last night some actual context. Janni telling Ben "try not to die" is just that much more blackly funny when you realize that, you know, he already did.

Why, yes, I've been accused of having an odd sense of humor. Why do you ask?

Man...is it tomorrow yet in the story? Is it time for me to smack him over the head again?

Also, this right here? COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN. Steampunk Victorian all-in-one computer. Seriously.

how much I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS???

Because I do. So very very much.

I have no idea what's next, which is frustrating me on a writerly level, but I really like what I wrote last night and the revisions I did this morning. We're back in banter-and-snark mode. Have a taste:

"Can I borrow your driver, Alex?" Janni asked. "I want to go back to our place and pick up some clothes and stuff."

"You can borrow my driver and my chief of security." Alex grabbed his phone and made a couple of calls. "They'll meet you in the garage."

"Great. Thanks. Will you be all right?" she said to Ben.

"Sure, honey. Try not to get kidnapped."

She gave him a wry grin and kissed his cheek. "Try not to die." She left, flipping them all a wave.

♥ ♥ ♥

I've posted one here at difrancis's LJ.

Not!Harry? Holding a grudge? Naaaaaaaaaaah...

GAWD, I love him. Can't you tell?

I have no idea if I made word count yesterday. At this point I'm sort of winging it, and considering the fact that I deleted a bunch of words just now, who the hell knows. If I crack 45K, I think I'll decide to just be happy with that. It's not quite at 44,300 right now.

However. I added a nice thing in the opening scene about not!Harry reverting back to training vis a vis the name, rank, and serial number thing. I know what not!Harry is going to be looking up next--because the Bad Guys planned on killing him and weren't especially careful about hiding who they were. So, he has a name as a starting point, other than the Big Bad, whom they knew about already.

And not!Tony has a new puzzle to solve. I particularly like this 'graph I scribbled yesterday:

At least Alex asked permission before getting a blood sample from Ben, rather than phrasing it as a given, and Megan counted this as progress. Ben clenched his teeth and took deep breaths and carefully didn't look at the needle in his arm, letting Janni hide his face in her shoulder and stroke his hair. But he didn't freak, so Megan guessed they were all making progress of sorts.

Oh, not!Harry. Not!Harmony isn't the only one who wants to snuggle you like whoa.

I wonder if he's going to die.

Really, I do. They've just been through this horrific ordeal, and they're engaging in witty banter. This is probably so they don't run screaming down the street, but still.

Here, have a snippet, because I like to share:

Ben came over from the front of the truck and squatted on his heels at the opening. His eyes had turned yellow. He wasn't angry, Megan could smell that much, but he was...determined. "I wouldn't hurt Megan, Alex. Or any of you. Under any circumstances."

"Why not? Also, the eye color isn't helping your case."

"Sorry." Ben closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them they were back to their normal blue. "You're pack. And pack looks out for each other. Simple as that. Also, Megan's alpha around here, and I'd never try to challenge that in a million years."

"Megan's alpha?" Alex looked offended. "What about me?"

Ben snorted. "She runs your life, man. You couldn't function without her telling you when to actually eat."

"I sign her paychecks!"

"A machine signs my paychecks," Megan pointed out.

"Well...I signed the machine that signs your paychecks."

"You just go on thinking that," Ben said as Megan climbed into the truck and stood beside him. "See? Alpha."

For those of you who have been playing at home, Alex=not!Tony, Megan=not!Pepper, and Ben=not!Harry.

And now, they think this is over and they can relax. ALL of them think that, including my bad guy. There will, of course, be ordinary fallout that will happen to their relationships as a result of this. So they'll be winding down and dealing with that and...

WHAM.

Because I'm evil. I'll probably give them...two days? To think they're back on what passes for an even keel.

You know, putting this:

Because he wasn't dead. She refused, utterly, to believe that he was.

Right before the scene where not!Harry wakes up? Is the exact opposite of "ratcheting up the tension" here.

*growls and fixes*

She hated to admit it, but she honestly thought that Janni was right. If Marilyn and Alex brought anything back...it would be a body.

Yeah, that's better.