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not-poignant · 2 years

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how does it feel to be done with (the main) fae tales verse as far, as far as writing goes? is mallory and mount going forward or do you have other plans? :o

It still doesn't really feel real honestly! I don't think it will until like we all get to experience the end of the canon together? Right now I kind of feel like I'm in a holding pattern. :D

I felt sort of sad that it was ending a while back, probably a year ago. And then I felt kind of relieved too, because The Ice Plague has had...a lot of teething issues re: dropping popularity and just general engagement (it's still good! But it's just...it will never be like Game Theory or The Court of Five Thrones, and book 3 will never be like book 2 and that wasn't like book 1).

I've been doing Mallory & Mount worldbuilding but I actually haven't written anything yet and I don't think I will for another couple of months, which doesn't bode well for launching M&M straight after Fae Tales. Because I'll need a buffer of chapters for that story. Realistically speaking I'll probably have to maintain the Patreon with a Gary/Efnisien omegaverse AU, while I write buffer chapters.

Some of the lag is just that the worldbuilding is much more complicated (new days of the week, new names for months, new names for currency, new values of currency, inventing an entirely new language, drawing a world map, etc.), and some if it is that I just actually think I need a break from really intense, complicated writing.

Some of it is also just fear that it will do badly. Logistically in 2022 the Patreon does increasingly worse every single month, and it's been that way for 8 months. By the time Fae Tales is finished, I think I'll be looking at a year of downward trending (after 7 years of only upward trending). It's quite a blow, even though there are understandable economic reasons for it, and it has me questioning if this is even sustainable. It can be hard to...motivate yourself to write or commit yourself to a story that will take 4+ years to write properly, or months of really intensive worldbuilding, when it might be 4 years that are better spent elsewhere, y'know?

Like I think the story and characters are good, but are they good enough? I don't know. I won't know until I write it, and I am not motivated or inspired to write it right now. Though I will say certainly part of that is simply that I am still writing big wordcounts. I wrote 38k last month, most of it on FFS, and I've written 19k this month already, most of it on FFS and Smoke in Autumn. FFS is the most word hungry story I've ever written.

Tbh I had to also take a pretty big hiatus (like a year) between Court of Five Thrones and The Ice Plague, so I'm not entirely surprised this is happening. Some of this is certainly burn out, I may actually need a break from that level of writing (I can write 5 chapters of Falling Falling Stars in the time it takes me to write one chapter of The Ice Plague - and FFS is like...3 times as popular lmao). I really enjoy writing complex narratives, characters, and politics, and original worldbuilding, but it is more effort, and Fae Tales has been going for nearly a decade. Maybe I just need some breathing room before launching straight off with another half decade commitment!! aslkfjsdaka :D I'm sure that's a big part of it.

Incidentally my worldbuilding folder for Mallory & Mount currently looks like this:

As you can see, I have been working on it pretty recently! Though I've taken a little break this month. So even if I take a break from it, I'll probably still be thinking about it and working on it in the background. I am almost certainly going to do early release re: Mallory & Mount - i.e. it goes up first on Patreon, and then it goes up on AO3 2 weeks later.

Whatever the case though, I'll still be writing something! I actually wrote 500 words of the Efnisien/Gary fic last night after busting out 4,600 words on the next FFS chapter sdslkajfsa the writing always continues, even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing with it.

As for the end of the Fae Tales canon, I think early August will be...Feelstown lmao. It's so soon!

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afoxysunny · 4 years

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Ziggy as Mouse the Mighty

I struggled so so much with him on every stage until completion that's why he had to wait for last

With just Stephanie as his main positive influence while growing up Ziggy took a lot longer to get a handle on his sugar addiction. As a kid he regularly ate nothing but candy until he got sick to his stomach. Only once he started puberty his tastebuds changed a little and slowly he was able to tolerate too much sweetness less and less. He still loves to eat everything sweet but mostly things that actually can count as meals instead of just lollipops all day every day.

Here are the references i used for his design

I was so lost and absolutely clueless what to do for his design even after settling on giving him the Mouse Miraculous. So much so that i ranted about it to my mom who just said "a mouse superhero sounds really simple, just a mouse and a superhero" and, god, bless her, that just clicked for me

Why does he look most like a magical girl out of all of them? I sure can't tell you but I'm kind of loving it!

Design Notes:

Mouse Superhero - look, Ziggy is a simple guy and Superhero trash. He hears he gets to be a mouse superhero so when he transforms he gets the most cliché parts of mouse and superhero. Once that idea clicked with my mind the design itself luckily went pretty smooth

Cape - of cause he needs a cape, there will never be a Ziggy without cape that's just not an option. How fortunate that this entire outfit is magic, otherwisr the cape and the jumprope would absolutely get tangled with each other

Hair - he already has very light blond hair canonically but i think they'd be a little darker now that he's grown up a bit. With the transformation they turn light again almost like loosing a little bit of their saturation to be a little closer to the Mouse Miraculous, Mullo's colour. Also i went for the cliché hairstlye of "lol buns for ears" that is the most obvious answer for when you want to combine a human and an animal

Jumprope - I debated a lot whether he gets actual mouse ears or not but because i wanted the jumprope to kinda act like a headband i didn't think that'd be pleasant to have around actual ears. That mostly came about because i really wanted to give him that iconic superhero belt with the same symbol that's on his chest; it's the symbol for the mouse Miraculous

Miraculous Necklace - with the transformation the pendant from the necklace turns into the closure of his cape. I'm so happy how well that blended into the design

Colours - hot take incoming: Ziggy may be my least favorite out of the Lazytown kids but i still like him a lot, i just happen to like the others better. Still i can say with great confidence that his in show design is so cute and colourful and recognizable i was so so lost, like how do you combibe that with a literal grey mouse? His outfit is blue, red, yellow and white while Mullo's colours consist of grey, black and pink. I ditvhed the red for the pink, the white got replaced with a light grey, dropped black and yellow almost completely they remained for just one detail each his hair and the pendant, the blue goes well with pink so that's what i settled on. Pink, blue and grey

Reasoning:

Like i said, he was the last one i found a Miraculous for. He and Jives tied in my decision for which one of them should get the monkey or the mouse. In retrospect it shouldn't have been so hard but I'm choosing to believe that just feels this way because the choice i made fits so well.

Ziggy is a little coward in the show and even dresses up as a mouse at one point when he, Trixie and Stephanie play wild animals. He also was the smallest (not anymore) and of cause still is the youngest. It just overall fits him really well. (as funny as i found the idea to give Jives, the tallest one, the mouse miraculous)

Story:

I'll be real with you, i thought up the least story for him simply because while i was still busy struggling with his design the others were already done and started spawning stories on their own. And Ziggy, in the show and even both musicals, just fits into the plot more for worldbuilding than to actually impact the plot so finding a place for him in a whole new story is a little hard for me.

Not to say i have nothing though.

Having always been borderline obsessed with superheroes but equally so with sugary sweets Ziggy mostly just dreamt of saving the world like they do in movies. However, every Miraculous grants everyone super human strength, agility, almost completely immunity to damage and other capabilities. Getting literally handed a free ticket to badassery Ziggy quickly becomes the posterchild for what is possible with such an opportunity. Simply through the concentrated power of will and excitement and his theoretical knowledge of how to be a cool hero he excels in training despite being easily the least fit out of all of them.

Yes, the first couple times when facing danger he has the impulse to use his Miraculous to run away and hide but when push comes to shove he's always there to help his friends any way he can. He's not the best with thinking of innovative ways to use his powers but he's great at following orders and putting his trust in the others thanks to his deep rooted respect for all of his friends.

Sometimes his seemingly natural talent can create trouble though. For example Pixel gets a littlw jealous over how effortlessly Ziggy seems to beat him in any aspect of their training despite logically not being in shape for any of it. But they're friends, they can talk about things, and Pixel knows that Ziggy isn't doing any of this on purpose to show off or anything, he's really just enjoying himself and their powers come easier with confidence

It also has a few drawbacks for Ziggy though. Literally not having to work hard at all and still getting to be an absolute powerhouse does not do well for his already bad habits with junkfood and exercising. He and Jives once agreed that Ziggy gets to eat anything Jives doesn't want but in the end that just leads to both of them getting extra meals from Sportacus and Robbie to make sure they don't go overboard in either direction

Name:

God, names are so not my strength, yet i think it kind of works for Ziggy here. His name is structured differently than any other alias because when he first transformed he had to hold a short over the top inspirational speech and end with "for I will do all i can to bring peace and normality back to this town for i am Mouse the Mighty!" He's extra like that. Even as a teen he's still baby.

Wow, damn, you really read all of that! Thank you so so much for listening to all my rambling this means the world to me. Thank you

#Lazytown #miraculous ladybug #Lazytown au #Miraculous Lazybug #Revive the lazy #ziggy zweets #ziggy lazytown #Ziggy sweets #Mullo

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