Ah, fics.
So writing time in August has been very occupied, both with the 31_days challenge each day and the 1987 Turtles fic involving Baxter Stockman. I'm in the middle of chapter 6 of the latter. The chapters are short, but still. I love how this story is flowing!
I decided to bring his twin brother Barney from season 4 into the action, and while an early, long oneshot draft of the fic included an ending scene where they reunite, that has ... pretty much been changed and scrapped. I knew that I couldn't really tell the whole story in a long oneshot, and I knew I wanted it to all be one story, so it became a multi-chapter. And then I decided that there would be a rift between the brothers that wouldn't be so easily overcome. Canon slightly indicates it's a possibility. Then Shredder got into the act and decided to recruit Barney to work for him. Barney accepted.
The first draft of that plot twist involved him finally getting out of it at the end and reuniting with Baxter, who had tried and failed to convince him not to work for someone abusive like Shredder. But I'm seriously thinking I won't do that. I kind of like the idea of one of those guys working for Shredder indefinitely; Baxter was really underused in the series and transformed too fast. It could have been really interesting if he'd been there longer. It probably wouldn't have worked, though, because Shredder seemed to hate him more than Bebop and Rocksteady, and unlike those idiots, Baxter soon had enough of the abuse and just wouldn't put up with it anymore. I don't want him to go back with Shredder in the story, both because I really don't think he'd do that after everything he's been through and because it's canon that he originally tried to work honestly. I want to give him a break now.
Barney, on the other hand, we know very little about. He throws fits if people think he's Baxter and he's only ever seen working for a gangster. If Shredder liked his work, he could easily stick around indefinitely. So now the story is set to end with that still as the case, but with Barney occasionally trying to help Baxter if he's in trouble from one of Shredder's plans and/or from trying to talk to Barney. There's a years-long rift between them, yet Baxter still hates to see his brother work for Shredder. Ending the story with Barney still working for Shredder opens the door for many possible stories in the future. Depending on how it goes, I might write some short episodic-type fics continuing the concept. It was kind of fun how each season of the 1987 series did employ some level of continuity by the Technodrome being stuck in specific places each season and such.
I'm also debating how permanently scarred Baxter is from what happened to him. I previously explored the effects of extended cross-fusion with Yami Bakura and Zorc, and they are probably the grand-masters of it. But Baxter was cross-fused with a fly for months, if not years, and that canonically took a serious toll on his mind. Each time he appeared, he'd regressed further and become more fly-like. It was quite tragic, really.
In the story, now that he's finally free, I decided it wouldn't be logical for him to be able to quickly bounce back, like April did after being cross-fused with a cat for just a few hours. After a spell of fever and delirium he seems to come back to himself and is definitely more sane than before, thanks in part to the kindnesses shown to him by Splinter and the Turtles. But I'm thinking he has what will be lasting fears of both flies and spiders, and that for at least a while he may unconsciously exhibit fly-like behavior on occasion, such as grabbing somebody's fruit off the table to eat or as Crystal suggested, rubbing his hands together. When he realizes what he's doing, he hates it and wants it to stop, and he will probably eventually be able to get it under control.
I've also been involved with Ghostbusters stuff. My movie-going friend and I finally got to see it on Tuesday, following a disappointment where the theatre claimed they would air it at the time we could see it on the previous Friday but then changed their minds and the times when we got there. WTH. (I'm blaming Suicide Squad for that....) Immediately after seeing the movie on Tuesday, we had to stop at Wal-Mart, and that was great for me because I wanted to get the original film and take it home to compare.
My end determination is that both films have pros and cons. Each has a specific type of crude humor and I don't like it in either film (scatological stuff in the new one and other rude comments and a creepy succubus bit in the old one). Both also have more swearing than I'd like, particularly the old one. The new one, however, has much character-bonding, something the old one doesn't have a lot of. The old one has Janine, who is awesome. She really didn't deserve having her male counterpart in the new one be a complete moron. What a slap in the face! I also like the library ghost scenes more than their counterparts in the new film, and I adore chasing Slimer through the hotel. Classic! But Slimer stealing the car for a joyride in the new one is priceless too. LOL.
I like the cartoon best overall, really. It has ghost-busting, friendship squee, and family-friendly content. I wonder if they're going to try to make a new cartoon based on the reboot. I'd probably give it a try if they did.
I decided to bring his twin brother Barney from season 4 into the action, and while an early, long oneshot draft of the fic included an ending scene where they reunite, that has ... pretty much been changed and scrapped. I knew that I couldn't really tell the whole story in a long oneshot, and I knew I wanted it to all be one story, so it became a multi-chapter. And then I decided that there would be a rift between the brothers that wouldn't be so easily overcome. Canon slightly indicates it's a possibility. Then Shredder got into the act and decided to recruit Barney to work for him. Barney accepted.
The first draft of that plot twist involved him finally getting out of it at the end and reuniting with Baxter, who had tried and failed to convince him not to work for someone abusive like Shredder. But I'm seriously thinking I won't do that. I kind of like the idea of one of those guys working for Shredder indefinitely; Baxter was really underused in the series and transformed too fast. It could have been really interesting if he'd been there longer. It probably wouldn't have worked, though, because Shredder seemed to hate him more than Bebop and Rocksteady, and unlike those idiots, Baxter soon had enough of the abuse and just wouldn't put up with it anymore. I don't want him to go back with Shredder in the story, both because I really don't think he'd do that after everything he's been through and because it's canon that he originally tried to work honestly. I want to give him a break now.
Barney, on the other hand, we know very little about. He throws fits if people think he's Baxter and he's only ever seen working for a gangster. If Shredder liked his work, he could easily stick around indefinitely. So now the story is set to end with that still as the case, but with Barney occasionally trying to help Baxter if he's in trouble from one of Shredder's plans and/or from trying to talk to Barney. There's a years-long rift between them, yet Baxter still hates to see his brother work for Shredder. Ending the story with Barney still working for Shredder opens the door for many possible stories in the future. Depending on how it goes, I might write some short episodic-type fics continuing the concept. It was kind of fun how each season of the 1987 series did employ some level of continuity by the Technodrome being stuck in specific places each season and such.
I'm also debating how permanently scarred Baxter is from what happened to him. I previously explored the effects of extended cross-fusion with Yami Bakura and Zorc, and they are probably the grand-masters of it. But Baxter was cross-fused with a fly for months, if not years, and that canonically took a serious toll on his mind. Each time he appeared, he'd regressed further and become more fly-like. It was quite tragic, really.
In the story, now that he's finally free, I decided it wouldn't be logical for him to be able to quickly bounce back, like April did after being cross-fused with a cat for just a few hours. After a spell of fever and delirium he seems to come back to himself and is definitely more sane than before, thanks in part to the kindnesses shown to him by Splinter and the Turtles. But I'm thinking he has what will be lasting fears of both flies and spiders, and that for at least a while he may unconsciously exhibit fly-like behavior on occasion, such as grabbing somebody's fruit off the table to eat or as Crystal suggested, rubbing his hands together. When he realizes what he's doing, he hates it and wants it to stop, and he will probably eventually be able to get it under control.
I've also been involved with Ghostbusters stuff. My movie-going friend and I finally got to see it on Tuesday, following a disappointment where the theatre claimed they would air it at the time we could see it on the previous Friday but then changed their minds and the times when we got there. WTH. (I'm blaming Suicide Squad for that....) Immediately after seeing the movie on Tuesday, we had to stop at Wal-Mart, and that was great for me because I wanted to get the original film and take it home to compare.
My end determination is that both films have pros and cons. Each has a specific type of crude humor and I don't like it in either film (scatological stuff in the new one and other rude comments and a creepy succubus bit in the old one). Both also have more swearing than I'd like, particularly the old one. The new one, however, has much character-bonding, something the old one doesn't have a lot of. The old one has Janine, who is awesome. She really didn't deserve having her male counterpart in the new one be a complete moron. What a slap in the face! I also like the library ghost scenes more than their counterparts in the new film, and I adore chasing Slimer through the hotel. Classic! But Slimer stealing the car for a joyride in the new one is priceless too. LOL.
I like the cartoon best overall, really. It has ghost-busting, friendship squee, and family-friendly content. I wonder if they're going to try to make a new cartoon based on the reboot. I'd probably give it a try if they did.