Happy Birthday Gigs! :D
Jun. 30th, 2016 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickApparently this is our ten-year anniversary of me writing birthday fic. To celebrate, let's have a short Secundus piece inspired by a comment she recently left on an earlier post:
"So – Mr. Wonka bred these cows himself?"
"With a little help from yours truly," Lewis said, smile bright and proud. "Never met him in person, but we shared a lively correspondence with the help of his staff. After I helped him crack the genetic codes he needed for the milk, I was guaranteed free milkshakes for life at any of his stores. Plus a previously-agreed-upon fee."
"I would have been happy with just the milkshakes," Victor confessed jokingly (. . .mostly), petting the nose of the deep brown cow. It mooed and waggled its ears. "Amazing. . .and it really produces chocolate milk?"
"Yup! Obviously the raw form still requires some processing, but – thanks to some very careful splicing with the cocoa plant – the flavor is there from the start! We did the same with other cows to make ones that produce strawberry milk, banana milk, and coffee milk! Though I don't think that last one turned out quite right. . . ." Lewis scratched his head, then shrugged. "On the other hand, I've never liked the taste of coffee."
Victor chuckled. "Me either, honestly. . .so why is Betsy here, then?" Said cow let out another loud moo. "I thought Mr. Wonka didn't like any of his Inventions getting out into the wild, even collaborations."
"Well, funny you should mention collaborations – we're trying something new, and Betsy is helping us," Lewis said, patting the cow's flank. "Mr. Wonka thinks it would be useful to have cows that you could milk right into candy-making molds. So we're looking for ways to up the chocolate content, for a start." He gave Victor a knowing grin. "Want to help?"
Victor's eyes lit up. "I would love to."
Yeah, pretty much the moment you suggested 'brown cows that give chocolate milk,' I knew what I was doing this year. XD I'm actually pretty sure this is mentioned somewhere in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, so I didn't even have to stretch canon that far! I deliberately left the time period vague, so you can imagine it set either somewhere in the actual "Secundus" story before Lewis dies, or in an AU where he makes it through (this honestly would be well-suited for Butterfly Boy's tumblr-verse). Either way, I thought it was cute -- and very appropriate for the chocolate-loving Victor :P
I also bring fic updates of a different sort -- the brand-new chapter of "In The Land of the Dead!" Read your fresh-as-a-daisy Chapter 4 on FF.net, AO3, or my website! You may notice that, unlike with "Losing You," the rest of the fic on those first two sites hasn't vanished -- that's because I found a way to insert a new chapter earlier into the fic on each one that stopped me having to do that! :D AO3's was easy -- just make a new chapter, and then change the "X of X many" to the appropriate number (in my case, 4 out of 12). FF.net though -- there you have to upload the new chapter first, then click the pencil next to the chapter title, which lets you edit that -- and change the ordering, I discovered.
After I'd already uploaded the new Chapter 4 over the old Chapter 4 (now Chapter 5).
So, if you got to FF.net and head forward one, you'll discover an extra surprise -- a partially-edited Chapter 5! The version as it stood made a comprehensible chapter, so I slapped it up there so I wouldn't have to get rid of all the others. It's not complete yet (edits stop around the "Hedgehog Song" line, as is probably obvious), but hey, it'll give you an idea of how the new version of the chapter will go. :)
And that's about it for today. Work was frustrating, and I'm very glad that we're only in for a half-day tomorrow. DragonVale's latest event has started -- I haven't sworn my house allegiance yet, but I'm thinking I will tomorrow. Mainly just working on getting a good collection of rings going, and trying to breed me a Fates dragon. We'll see how it goes! For now, though, I have a few last tumblr things to take care of, and then it's off to bed. Night all!
"So – Mr. Wonka bred these cows himself?"
"With a little help from yours truly," Lewis said, smile bright and proud. "Never met him in person, but we shared a lively correspondence with the help of his staff. After I helped him crack the genetic codes he needed for the milk, I was guaranteed free milkshakes for life at any of his stores. Plus a previously-agreed-upon fee."
"I would have been happy with just the milkshakes," Victor confessed jokingly (. . .mostly), petting the nose of the deep brown cow. It mooed and waggled its ears. "Amazing. . .and it really produces chocolate milk?"
"Yup! Obviously the raw form still requires some processing, but – thanks to some very careful splicing with the cocoa plant – the flavor is there from the start! We did the same with other cows to make ones that produce strawberry milk, banana milk, and coffee milk! Though I don't think that last one turned out quite right. . . ." Lewis scratched his head, then shrugged. "On the other hand, I've never liked the taste of coffee."
Victor chuckled. "Me either, honestly. . .so why is Betsy here, then?" Said cow let out another loud moo. "I thought Mr. Wonka didn't like any of his Inventions getting out into the wild, even collaborations."
"Well, funny you should mention collaborations – we're trying something new, and Betsy is helping us," Lewis said, patting the cow's flank. "Mr. Wonka thinks it would be useful to have cows that you could milk right into candy-making molds. So we're looking for ways to up the chocolate content, for a start." He gave Victor a knowing grin. "Want to help?"
Victor's eyes lit up. "I would love to."
Yeah, pretty much the moment you suggested 'brown cows that give chocolate milk,' I knew what I was doing this year. XD I'm actually pretty sure this is mentioned somewhere in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, so I didn't even have to stretch canon that far! I deliberately left the time period vague, so you can imagine it set either somewhere in the actual "Secundus" story before Lewis dies, or in an AU where he makes it through (this honestly would be well-suited for Butterfly Boy's tumblr-verse). Either way, I thought it was cute -- and very appropriate for the chocolate-loving Victor :P
I also bring fic updates of a different sort -- the brand-new chapter of "In The Land of the Dead!" Read your fresh-as-a-daisy Chapter 4 on FF.net, AO3, or my website! You may notice that, unlike with "Losing You," the rest of the fic on those first two sites hasn't vanished -- that's because I found a way to insert a new chapter earlier into the fic on each one that stopped me having to do that! :D AO3's was easy -- just make a new chapter, and then change the "X of X many" to the appropriate number (in my case, 4 out of 12). FF.net though -- there you have to upload the new chapter first, then click the pencil next to the chapter title, which lets you edit that -- and change the ordering, I discovered.
After I'd already uploaded the new Chapter 4 over the old Chapter 4 (now Chapter 5).
So, if you got to FF.net and head forward one, you'll discover an extra surprise -- a partially-edited Chapter 5! The version as it stood made a comprehensible chapter, so I slapped it up there so I wouldn't have to get rid of all the others. It's not complete yet (edits stop around the "Hedgehog Song" line, as is probably obvious), but hey, it'll give you an idea of how the new version of the chapter will go. :)
And that's about it for today. Work was frustrating, and I'm very glad that we're only in for a half-day tomorrow. DragonVale's latest event has started -- I haven't sworn my house allegiance yet, but I'm thinking I will tomorrow. Mainly just working on getting a good collection of rings going, and trying to breed me a Fates dragon. We'll see how it goes! For now, though, I have a few last tumblr things to take care of, and then it's off to bed. Night all!
no subject
Date: 2016-07-02 01:53 am (UTC)Hey is Bonejangles teaching Lizzie how to do that trick with the shadows on your "show, don't tell" list?
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Date: 2016-07-02 03:23 am (UTC). . .Well, it definitely is now! (Seriously, it probably would have made that list once I got to that chapter, but thanks for the head's up.) Maybe I'll revamp the beginning of the chapter where she recounts learning it? Though I like that story -- maybe he'll show her in the bar instead. . . You're totally right that it should be an on-screen moment, I just gotta figure out where to fit it.