Monday, November 16, 2015

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

I asked not to be scheduled five days in a row, since that's probably how I came to be so run-down that I needed to go to the hospital. However, they have banned me from going outside and moving carts instead. As usual, they fixed the wrong problem. I feel like I'm being punished, even though I know it's for my own good.

Only one more story to go before my current series is over. I'd like to have it finished by Christmas, but the end of the year is the official deadline. It's going to be really hard, as the previous one didn't end the way I'd originally intended, and everything has sort of collapsed into this final volume. Pulling it together will be a challenge, as there are scenes or visuals I wanted to include earlier but couldn't. I may have to add an epilogue to the end to balance it out.

I extended my Raven and Ienzo fan fiction into Teen Titans Go a little bit. As always, I have to keep the madness going somehow.
Ienzo stopped by the Tower as often as he could to visit Raven. Once in a while he would bring flowers to give to her. One visit did not go as expected. "Hi, Raven," he said, offering the flowers.
"You can't be here right now," she whispered urgently. "My dad's come to visit."
"Oh, sorry," he whispered back.
Before he could leave, Trigon appeared behind Raven. "What's this? A suitor, Raven?"
"No! He's just a friend," Raven insisted. Ienzo shrank back nervously and tried to hide the flowers behind his back, but Trigon wasn't fooled.
"Then why does he have flowers?"
Raven quickly made up an excuse. "His family owns a flower shop."
***
Raven typically invited Ienzo over whenever the other Titans were being annoying. They either quietly read together or complained about other people. One day, Trigon reappeared, and Ienzo hid under the bed. "Your dad is one of the few people who still scare me," he explained when Trigon vanished.
"I don't expect you to stand up to him," Raven said.
Trigon had cursed Raven to be nice, even when it would be better to be cruel to be kind. "Are you sure he didn't curse your friends with stupidity as well?" Ienzo asked sardonically, only half-joking.
Eventually Trigon regretted his decision, as he ultimately still wanted his daughter to follow in his footsteps. He tried to take back the curse, but Raven tricked him, putting the curse on him instead. "There. He shouldn't bother us anymore. You can come out now," Raven stated. Ienzo came out from hiding behind a bush.
***
Raven invited Ienzo over again when Robin forced the Titans to go camping. "I hope you don't mind. Having you here helps keep me sane," she explained.
The other four Titans took turns telling scary stories, which Raven didn't enjoy. When it was her turn, she told the story of a demon who went to the surface world, covering herself in a cloak and closing all but two of her eyes. She made friends, but those friends annoyed her, so she ate them. Then she turned into the monster, scaring the Titans back to the Tower. Ienzo lay stunned on the ground. "I didn't know you were going to do that," he said. "I liked your story, though."
Raven turned back into herself and helped him up. "Let's go before they eat all the popcorn."
At another point in time, Robin tried telling stories to teach the rest of his team morals only to have them hijacked and fractured. When Raven retold Rapunzel with the moral of "Forget boys, get paid!" Ienzo left.
"If that's the way you feel, I've got somewhere else I need to be," he muttered, opening a portal.
"No, wait! I didn't mean you!" Raven called out after him.
"Incidentally, the actual Rapunzel needs my assistance." With that, he disappeared.
"What?! Ienzo!" Raven piggybacked her own portal off of his and went after him.
Ienzo used his magic to help clear the Heartless from around Rapunzel's tower. Raven cleared out any that he'd missed. "I'm sorry, okay? There's no one I'd rather fight alongside." Ienzo looked at her forgivingly.
With the Heartless gone, it was safe for Rapunzel and Flynn to leave. Ienzo and Raven watched as Rapunzel lowered herself down using a system of pulleys. "Whoa," Raven exclaimed quietly.
"Sora and the others can handle it from here," Ienzo whispered. "We can go."
"Come back with me to the Tower. Give me another chance to tell this story." Ienzo agreed, and Raven opened a portal.
When they returned to Titans Tower, Raven amended her version of Rapunzel's story. "Once upon a time, there was a girl imprisoned in a tower by her demon father. She was supplied with books and nothing sharper than a butter knife, so her hair grew and grew while she spent her days reading. One day when her hair was long enough, she built a system of pulleys to lower herself down so she could escape. Unfortunately, her hair was too thick and got stuck. A boy passing by saw her and ran over to help. As he got closer, he was attacked by her father's demon underlings. He took them all down with his enchanted daggers before cutting the girl loose from her cumbersome hair. The two of them went on many an adventure together. The end."

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