before i begin, i shall declare that i've been on 9gag too much, it's ruining my life XD

Then, some quick words to my reviewers:

TWA: i like kunsel, but im thinking that soon he'll stop appearing in my chapters, wahahaha!!! maybe someday i'll do a spin off :DDDD

LilPadfootChicky: thank you for the lovely review. (you've probably received a much longer review reply so i won't say more) i hope you'll continue to enjoy the story :D

woots, chapter 38! a long way we've come, yo? :3

at last! the junon episode has ended, time for some kickback and relax? nah, unfortunately it's gonna be hard for me to relax till the entire story is done, muahah XD

sometimes i feel like i'm shortchanging you guys. there are dozens of chapters (literally) where i wish i can describe and write more in detail but i can't because i don't want to waste too much time on too many unnecessary stuff. for example, when writing this chapter i had a hard time trying to cut down the scenes to fit in one chapter, but still have enough content to make sense XD

still, i pat myself on the back for another successful attempt at ensuring my story flows as if it's canon and keeping meia hidden (well, except some parts but... :X). every chapter is a cause of celebration for me, heheh.

kk, enough self-praise and complaints. back to story. yeah, i never really disliked heidegger so much till i read the script for BC. he really don't give a damn for the Turks. probably not anyone except his soldiers. In fact, I believe i carried out my dislike for Heidegger in the chapter, because I pretty much made him an a-hole, if you know what i mean.

Just so you know, the power hierarchy for the SOLDIER side is like so:

Shinra

|

v

Heidegger

|

v

Lazard

so yeah, no clashes. Lazard is the director of SOLDIER but Heidegger is the ultimate big guy overseeing SOLDIER and Security.

ahh yes, Meia being hot-headed again. I think her temper will remain a terrible issue, I do want to make it more realistic by getting her into trouble because of her temper. however i haven't written anything about it. all i mentioned was that tseng taught her (the hard way) of being in control of her emotions, but i think she's not coping well, huh? XDDD FYI, her usage of "MEANIE" to Heidegger is totally making a reference to Rikku from FFX, FFX-2. i absolutely adore her, she was my idol when i was a kid (i wanted to be like her! ... i still do XD)

i shall end by saying chapter 39 is when the main storyline starts to get a little serious. haha... not quite but you'll soon know what i mean, stay tuned for the update!

alright, here's me signing out. Please review if you like the chapter!

GYA HA HA!

just so you know...

updates on my writing on "I Want To Be A Turk!".

As some of you know, I love prefer to write at least 5-7 chapters ahead. (you didn't know? where have you been?) I'm currently finishing up the Costa del Sol scene (yes, the one shown in Crisis Core) and the Nibelheim scene (BC version) concurrently and...

I'm tired.

before you guys gasp and scream "not another incomplete story!", i just want to complain, that's all. i've been writing this story non-stop since May. Everyday (well, almost) I write a sentence or two to the story. Sometimes I get high on writing and churn out 4000 words a day (yeap, i finish chapters in a matter of hours!).

finally, after 45 chapters (yeap, I'm writing Chapter 46 now!), I'm starting to feel tired. It's really tiring to link and link and link canon details ACROSS different games. I had to switch on gunshotromance for BC content, sorumian's crisis core walkthrough and my own chapters to cross-reference, to ensure i'm not creating loopholes, to... GAHHH XD

i don't plan on giving up yet. i'm still damn determined to finish whatever i've set out to do. and damn well i want to finish this.

forgive me. it's just that the nibelheim incident, one of the BIGGEST milestones in FF7 timeline, is such a "pansy" to write. some parts of the story really flow through smoothly, then there are discrepancies between BC and CC themselves. *sigh* SquareEnix, Y U NO CHECK YOUR STORY?

anyway, the Nibelheim incident is just the tip of the iceberg to everything that I have in plan for you. I could only hope that you guys don't get bored and give up. (This is why I fight so hard to ensure I post a chapter once a week... it'll be hard to attract or keep readers if i update irregularly.)

also, I intend to cheat myself a little and jump here and there. Perhaps I'm not doing you guys enough justice, but I'll most likely cut some BC scenes and make the story go a little faster. So to those who knows their BC stuff, I intend to cut away the Wutai and Rocket Town scene. Yeah, Yuffie and Cid just got to delay their cameos a little later.

After the Nibelheim scene, which is Year 0002, I'm going to a particular BC episode in Year 0003. Then we'll jump straight into the juicy bit... when Zack escapes after being locked up for 4 years (Year 0006). Sounds good?

i've got a long battle ahead. *check Materia* i'm ready.

reviews are absolute LOVE

just sharing some messages that i received this week that seriously made me smile. (some names are kept anonymous. but you know who you are :P) the fact that i highlighted some of them shows what i'm aiming for in each story too, that's why they make me happy, because it means my objectives were met :P

Moves Like Jagger

"I definitely imagined them playing the song for real"

"that song is epic! it's really addictive.. been listening to it since reading this story."

The review above is what inspired me to write this blog post. this was not an aim of mine (to have readers liking the song because of the story) so when i read it, i cannot describe how pleasantly surprised i felt!

I Want To Be A Turk!

"I'd rather have more I want to be a Turk! chapters more than anything else lol :}"

"the ending [of a chapter] was absolutely AWESOME"

funnily enough, they all came from different people! :D i really feel thankful at how my small and humble base of readers have expanded. i started out in the FF7 fandom with only Samantha Sheffield and TWA (btw, i pronounce it as 'twah' XDDDD) to offer their reviews. then... out of nowhere... i see new names and names becoming regular reviewers.

i cannot say enough how thankful i feel that there are people out there who bothers to read the (ten thousands of) words that i write. surely i'm not the best, but i am glad that you gave my story a chance to exhibit itself. its playful side, its solemn side... the ups and downs of the story plot that also reflects the efforts that the author puts in when she writes.

it must the CHRISTMAS season, i feel extra appreciative. Oh, just so you know, Singapore doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, so our time of mutual appreciation is during Christmas :P

actually, i feel like writing a new story concurrently, but after much thought I decided against it. i'm starting to slacken on the pace of the Turk story, so I need to double up and write a little faster :P

okay, i'm going to sleep soon. hopefully i can force myself to write a bit more before sleeping. but i've got some stuffs to do first. MERRY CHRISTMAS, lovely readers! May things be brighter in our 2012 horizon!

I Want To Be A Turk: Chapter 37

Gya Ha Ha! Chapter 37 is out!

Just some quick author's notes!

Firstly, yes, I admit, the Takara cameo is really one of the randomest things i'll do to my story! but she deserves it, since she pointed out a loophole in my story :P i said i'll give her a chocobo plushie but i remembered that she likes tseng so... Takara, I hope you like the Tseng plushie I gave you :3

Next. This chapter is easy and difficult to write at the same time. Easy because well, half the dialogue is taken from the BC game itself (credit to gunshotromance!). So I enjoyed (fully) copying the dialogue into my word document and adding the apostrophes here and there. :P

Writing this (and chapter 38) is difficult because I still have to describe actions, emotions and setting. on top of that, the given dialogue limits my ability to add information here and there. It was tough manipulating what was given as canon and inputting your details that are required for your story. :P

example, to me it was weird that when heidegger said martial artist female (or leia) was asking stupid questions, i seriously believed that leia must be furious at his opinion, just wise enough not to voice it out.

of course, this story is best enjoyed if the reader knows his/her BC content very well, but oh well. i hope to those who knows nothing about Before Crisis, that you're not lost so far XD

there we go. enjoy this chapter, your christmas holidays and i'll see you in a week's time!

the habit of thanking fans?

in regards to my title, i've noticed that nowadays it has become necessary, even habitual that whenever i'm notified that someone alerted or faved my story. as long as the option to PM the user is available, i'll send them a message thanking them for their support.

why did i ended up being so... desperate to get reviews? hurhur, i admit. the initial aim of messaging everyone to thank them for their alerts and faves is to hope that they might realise 'if the author bothers to thank each one of us, surely i can write one review in return?'

heheh. sorry for such a selfish motivation behind this seemingly humble act. i guess if you must know, my messaging definitely DID NOT work. because my reviews did not increase exponentially or whatever :P soon enough, i couldn't bear to stop messaging and now, it's more of a habit than a selfish act.

of course, i DO want to thank you guys for even bothering to check the 'subscribe' or 'favourite' box. for all i know, you could very well just be alerting to see where i go with this story and dump me once u get fed up with it!!! sometimes i tell myself that if people bothers to fave and alert this, it is just as good as a review!

still... sometimes it would be nice just to know what you guys think. i don't believe that my story is perfect, and there will be times where you read and go 'oh, there's a loophole she missed out' or 'ahh... this could've been better written like this.'

that said, i am a pretty arrogant for an amateur writer! so i should say this: i AM affected by your criticisms and advice, but the wiser side of me chides myself to look past the negativity and work on improving. im not 100% immune to constructive reviews [so why am i so blunt in others'? :(] and everytime i see someone who points out my flaws, i'll tell myself not to be immature and go depressed about it. hurhur.

(okay why did i deviate to this topic?) ANYWAY. i just want to say that i PM everyone of you to thank you for your support... and i am genuinely thankful. there are many ways to make me smile, but seeing the amount of emails notifying me on who faved/alerted/reviewed when i check my mail at night definitely made me more eager to go home early, made me happier when i sleep.

so.... yeah. that's my random thought of the day.

P.S: it makes me smile when i see the visitor counter of this blog increase too :)

I Want To Be A Turk: Chapter 36

Finally, I've convinced myself to upload and not nitpick on my chapter anymore.

Yeap, chapter 36 is out!

Like I've said in my previous blog entry (anyone reading? :X), Chapter 36 is a huge mental obstacle for me. although i've read a million and one abduction scenes (okay, more like read AND watched), inclusive of scenes where the girl could've almost been violated, i find that i just. can't. write. one! i sat in front of my computer, ipod touch (While i was overseas) and all i did was stare at the screen and wonder how should the scene even unfold.

Months ago, I gave myself a mini challenge to write a sexually explicit story. The SDK readers will know as "Dress Off!" It started out as a 'let's do something i've never done: write (without planning) a sexually explicit story'. in the end, i couldn't because i just... chickened out everytime i want to write something sexy. XD yeah so in the end, my readers told me (gently) that it was not lemon. in fact, it's not even lime (WUTTT???) So i gave up on doing such stories, though it was a good experience :P

Back to our turk story. So yeah! i can't write it!! it's not like i don't know what's happening, it's just all my writing skills fail me when it comes to the intimate things!!! i wish that for this chapter i can go something like this (change is made in bold. adapted from published chapter):

Her head was pounding when she felt consciousness again.

What happened?

I remember that I’ve barely reached the doors of the Wall Market when… Ow!

Meia groaned and felt the ache on the back of her neck.

Someone knocked me out.

“Awake, my princess?” A male voice greeted her, chilling her to the spine. Meia looked up, her eyes focusing on a group of males in a room that she didn’t recognize.

“…” She stared at the group of men who were smoking, gambling or just relaxing. As soon as the male voice spoke, the rest stopped whatever they were doing and stared at her. They tried to have their way with her but Reno and Rude suddenly busted through the wall.

Walking over to the nearest man (who happened to be Pascal), Reno grabbed him by his collar and growled. “You dare to even lay a finger on our Turk?”

“T-t-t-turk??????” Pascal stuttered.

“She’s a Turk?!?!” Pero stared at Meia.

And so on.
HAHAHA! Obviously, that's not gonna happen!
Damn it >.<
So I forced myself to write it and err... this is the best I could do.
I admit, I took inspiration from "What's This?" by inu-shinai-kirara.
the whole feeling of the men wanting to take turns... why didn't i think of that? *smack forehead*

Anyway! I'm just glad it's over.

oh yeah, moving on. This chapter experienced one of the most changes from its initial stage. It's supposed to be shown that Reno spent the night with Meia (not in THAT way!), accompanying her till she fell asleep. But i did it away because... yeah, it's another long chapter. it's hard to keep the story short to grab the readers' interest, but good to make the story of quality. i believe that if i had my way of describing every tom, dick, harry, flower and bird, the story will hit 200 chapters (WOOOOOOOOOOOOTS!)

Lucky you, I won't hit 200. maybe a hundred :P

Am I scaring you yet?

P.S: my favourite part in the whole story? Reno saying "in the softest voice that [Meia] never knew [he] could muster", "It's all yours."

Moves Like Jagger: Chapter 6 (last!)

hurray hurray hurray!

it's over!

what started out as a frivolous earworm (that stupid song was stuck in my head for two months!!!!) resulted in a fanfiction product.

am i proud of it? well... i can only say that i can always do better. the story is kinda written in a way when i first started writing, which was girl manga style (shoujo). that was the main influence of my writing then and so you can imagine when i wrote "KISS Me!", it contained all elements (and more) of fluff and the whole... 'roses in the background' feel (only shoujo readers will get what i mean!)

ANYWAY, it wasn't meant to turn out this way, wahahaha. the very first Moves Like Jagger was supposed to be a one-shot on how Elena was dragged into training and then performing... all in one chapter. Of course, that would likely result in a 10 thousand word chapter so I figured I'll break it up into three.

Then, somewhere in the recesses of my old writing days (not that I've evolved much), the shoujo-manga side of me goes 'ooh, how about Elena get into trouble for hanging out too much with Reno and the guys?' and then, that's where it exploded into 6 chapters. wahahahaha XD

If anything, I'm glad that a simple thread of wanting Reno, Rude and Tseng to perform "Moves Like Jagger" could evolve into a decent work like what you see now, that's something I'm proud of. Also, from this fic I gained another plot bunny which I call "AVALANCHE!" (three guesses to what it is about!). However, i doubt this new story will be birthed so soon, because the details to starting the story is simply too little and weak. and yes, if you know me, i only write stories when i have the entire skeleton out so... nahh, not yet.

Back to the chapter. I don't really have much to say about the chapter per se. Just two things:

1. Tifa Lockhart. Why was she so tense with Elena? I guess Elena truly will never know... and you guys won't either till "AVALANCHE!" is written. Okay, no more about that. I won't have you all imagining possibilities, when the story is not going to be written in the near future.

2. Throughout the story I kept quiet about the settings and venues. The only thing you knew was Ackee (the school?) Well, only at the last part I mentioned Kalm. So yeah, I decided in the end the world is still set in the Planet, just that it won't be as... 'medieval' as in the game. It's a modern version of the Planet. Oh well, not that it matters in this story :)

Nevertheless, the story is over! And it wouldn't be possible without these people!

TifaRokkuhato

The Writing Artist

XXTakaraXX

Muffin7

zexydemyx66

Silver-x-Crimson

Thank you for reviewing my humble story :)

Not forgetting...

manga'slover1996

Etuvix

Agent.Kacheeky

Holly-Batali

little miss piplup

Who alerted and faved my story :) Yes, the ever-stalker me keeps track of who faved and alerted.

But of course I might miss out some more so... my sincere thanks for your support!

now to upload this and play Final Fantasy XIII :)

aichioluv, signing out.

COMPLETE!

Yeah baby, "Moves Like Jagger" is complete!

All that's left is to proofread and (hopefully) cut down words.

I've written 5000+ words for this chapter but I think you'll like it. There were some parts that I thought was a little... weird but GAHHHH i want to sleep already so I'll look at it again tomorrow =P

Yes, that means I'll upload it tomorrow! (i.e. Thursday 15 Dec!)

Yes, I know I should update...

But the truth is, I'm not really done with my chapters yet.

For "I Want to be a Turk", I needed to proofread my chapter. honestly chapter 36 was one of the chapters that i had a mega mental block. from the start of writing chapter 36, i've completed chapter 35 (yes i don't write chronologically!), 37, 38.... all the way to chapter 40 and half of 41 XDDDD

(now you must be thinking to yourself 'damn it, the crazy author is holding back chapters!!!' XD)

so yeah, after finishing chapter 40 i thought that i should force myself to fill up the gap in chapter 36. so i returned and finished it up in my trip back to Taiwan :P

being prepared (usually) at least 5 chapters ahead of what i upload, i'm a little insecure if i upload chapters immediately after i finish so.... yeah, give me a day or two (or three!) to mull over the chapter and convince myself it's worthy to be shown to you guys :P

as for moves like jagger.... i'm only halfway done. opps.

enough said, hehe.

... okay okay, i know what i intend to write already, it's just... getting down to write it :P

on a totally unrelated note, i realised one thing about my wardrobe as i was hanging back my recently washed laundry.

i have a lot of shirts. a lot.

i figured that if i wear a shirt everyday, i have enough to last me two weeks? or just a little less.

why so many? i've no idea.

most are hand-me-downs from my older sister, who prefers androgynous outfits as compared to frilly dresses and lace.

so that probably explains it. Come to think of it, about 7 of my total shirts came from her.

okay, unrelated issues aside.

i'll probably get moves like jagger up the following weekend (i.e. 17-18 Dec) and then the new Meia chapter slightly before that :)

last thing. i received a lovely surprise when i returned from my three-week trip (i went to Taiwan and Macau). i had a ton of faves and alerts :) i don't know why but seeing them always makes me smile. though i love reviews and would love to get more, i suppose that there are readers who are shy to review, or they don't know what to say because they don't want to give a un-constructive review like 'it's good.'

in some sense i've convinced myself to believe that if people bothered to fave and alert your story, that is an achievement in itself. :) so ANYWAY, if you are one of those who faved and alerted my stories,

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I Want To Be A Turk!: Chapter 34 and 35

Yes folks, I'm back! I'd talk more about my trip but that's not the purpose of this post.

Two words for me: Happy Birthday!

Yup, it's 5th December, 1:15 AM. So to share my joy (which isn't a lot as of now because I'm dead tired from my Taiwan trip), I've posted two chapters for your viewing pleasure. It's also to compensate the two weeks that I disappeared.

Chapter 34 is pretty straightforward, in my opinion. Reno realises that he has feelings for Meia, and spends a laughable amount of time convincing himself otherwise. How would he behave from now on? The first climax of the entire story is fast approaching and I can't wait to see your (disappointed?) responses at the turn of events. XD

Just an FYI, I wrote in the chapter that Reno's birthday falls in August. It's not canon, I just thought that he'll be cool as a Leo. I've always thought his horoscope should be Aries, Leo or Sagittarius.

Chapter 35 is interesting in my opinion. I had a headache writing it because I have to try and reconcile the massive boo-boo that SquareEnix made. You see, in Crisis Core, Wall Market is in the Sector 5 slums but in FF7, it is technically in Sector 6. But eventually I found a way to weave through the loopholes and hopefully it works.

I was particularly not satisfied with the conversation with Cissnei and Meia. I was cringing from the fluff and all while I was proofreading it. So I kinda made Cissnei a little less.... giggly and chirpy. Still, it's not the best I have for you :(

the rod scene was pretty fun to write for me, i kinda like the dynamics i've tried to create with rod and meia. it's kinda like a frenemy (a portmanteau of friend and enemy).

Now that most things are said and done... I gotta say Chapter 36 will be fun :) I just finished the chapter today. I left a gaping hole in the chapter because I didn't know how to fill it up till today (yeah, it took me almost two months to come up with something!!)

Thank you for your reviews!

TWA: description, huh? perhaps. sometimes, when my chapters go all the way up to 4500-5000 words, i'll cut down on description. a lot. well, in the first place i never considered my writing to be flavourful and full of description. i simply don't have the stamina to keep the description muscle working :P i'll take note and will spruce it up... the next chapter :P

Takara: thanks :D now that i'm back for a while, i hope you enjoy the chapters I've posted!