It's been pretty much exactly four years since I finished House of Cards, and it's still a work in progress. I'm still occasionally busy re-reading it, editing it, deleting bits that are superfluous/gratuitous, and rewriting the odd sliver here and there.

I re-read HoC again over the Bank Holiday weekend. It'd been a long while. And along with the inevitable bout of correcting/editing/tweaking that was going on, I wondered whether there was ever going to be a point when the story would be 'finished'. I mean, a version that would be as complete as I could get it and would never go through the editing process again. And I don't know if it will get to that point any time soon. When I first posted it to FF.net it was pretty much a draft that I hadn't changed from the first moment it was put down on paper (or laptop screen).

There's a lot I still want to say about HoC. I left so many threads dangling because it would've taken me an age to pick them all up, and because spelling them out would've been an exercise in pedantry that most would've found boring. So I left some things open to interpretation, and many of the questions - particularly at the end - unanswered. But here's just a few points I wanted to pick up, just because the recent re-read has made them fresh in mind, and just because I'm a writer and we're generally self-indulgent creatures (and just because there may be some of you out there who are genuinely interested).

So if you want HoC to be (slightly) de-mystified, read on.

#1 - First point - and this was *so* important to this universe, but I couldn't bear to make it known because I didn't think it would've made the story 'real' if all of the characters had known it. Irene Adler was the one who killed Senator Kelly and started off the whole anti-mutant regime (cf Uncanny X-Men #142). She, in essence, started off the whole Days of Future Past timeline. That was her sin, and that's what she spent the duration of the story doing penance for. Why did she do it? I don't think even she knows. I haven't been able to pick her brain on that point. Gambit found out the truth about what she did, and wasn't happy about it (see Threads #8).

Honestly, I really geeked out writing Irene. I mean, she was one of the most important characters in HoC, if not the most important, and I tried to make her an ambiguous one, because really her motives are shrouded to everyone but her. Rogue realises, for just a split second (in the chapter 'Revelations'), that she has no idea whether Irene is really her friend or her enemy - because Irene could tell her to do anything for any reason, and she wouldn't know whether it really was for the greater good, or actually for Irene's own ulterior motives. And that was an undercurrent that was really important to me and that I wanted to play up but didn't.

I had the idea that the three main (or should I say, pivotal) characters - Rogue, Gambit, Rachel - would each be pawns in a whole bigger picture that neither of them really understood, being pushed around by the 'master manipulators' who make things happen. Rachel had Ahab, Gambit had Essex, Rogue had Irene. I wouldn't say Mystique, because what she knew was based on what Irene told her, and as Irene admitted, she never told Raven the full truth. Irene was always meant to be the far more sinister character of the two.

#2 - Sinister. Gambit. Oh, how I do love those two. The story is... No, I can't tell the story, because that was going to come up in the hypothetical sequel, but let's just say that Gambit was pretty much always in Sinny's pocket. Sinister did his lobotomy. Gambit owed him one. He stuck around and did a few jobs for Essex, and then he stuck around a bit longer because - well, why not? Just cos. The Morlock Massacre never figured into this Gambit's backstory. Don't ask me why, it just didn't. Gambit got up to a lot worse, to be honest. Then Sinny sent him to infiltrate the X-Men. He wanted all the X-Men, but most of all he wanted Rachel. The mansion went up in flames and most of his potential subjects were killed. (So, he thought was Rachel, until she later resurfaced as a Hound.) Gambit is whisked away, and the rest is history.

BTW, Essex didn't only want Rachel because she was daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, but no one knows that, not even Remy, and that was something that was going to come up in said hypothetical sequel.

Yeah, and Essex is pretty much to Gambit what Mystique is to Rogue. In a way, it's real affection that he feels for Remy. Just like Raven (perversely) loves Rogue.

#3 - Rachel is a main character, but she only turns up in the last couple of chapters. Well, I'm selfish. I like my Remy and Rogue. But seriously. Rachel is *the* pivotal character in the story/timeline, only her story was already told in the comics and if I retold it all over again, it would be kind of redundant. Rogue and Gambit's purpose was pretty much just to set her free and let her take the reins from there, but where she led those reins was going to be reserved for hypothetical sequel anyway.

(For those not in the know - Rachel helps divert the killing of Senator Kelly in the 616 universe. She manages to end Sentinal rule somewhere down the line. She travels to 616 and does a whole bunch of things. She becomes Mother Askani and brings up a young Nathan Summers. She creates Stryfe. She's there at the end of Time with Cable. So yeah. She has a pretty important role to play in the grand scheme of things.)

#4 - The NPCs/OCs/minor characters. Okay, *most* of the minor characters weren't original ones. They were borrowed from the comics.

Gambit's nameless contact was partly influenced by a very minor 616 character called Clarity who was so cool I had to use him. He was this guy who used to help Cable and was basically able to absorb and analyse data from everything around him. The 616 Clarity was kind of screwed up, emaciated, and on a permanent information overload, but I thought, wouldn't it be cool if Remy had this quirky, invisible sidekick, whose mutant power was to be this huge intel machine that could get the lowdown on practically everything he put his mind to???? Remy could really do with someone like that. And I kind of put some of that into the character of Louis too (who *was* an OC), although I left it ambiguous as to whether he was a mutant or not. I don't think he was.

Rita was Ricochet Rita from 616, who would later become the character Spiral. And her husband, Murray, was Murray Reese of the Reavers (for no reason other than that his was the first name I picked out of the Marvel encyclopaedia. Yes, I'm a geek).

Guess was another OC. Yeah, another telepath... kind of boring, but I liked the idea that he was creepy enough to rip out people's memories and record every single one of them into this whole database he was collecting.

Oh, and Caliban does get kidnapped by Ahab and turned into a Hound. ;)


Ok, I think that's it for now. Any questions? Anything been really bugging anyone? Let me know and I'll try to answer...

My God, it's just over 3 years to the day that I last posted to this journal. Holy crap.

Anyway, I'm just coming to the tail-end of the Easter holidays, during which I had something of a creative spurt - I picked up some old writings still buzzing around, and... and...
I just thought that I would let you know - because it's amazed me beyond belief - that Threads is just about finished!!!!!!

And you have no idea how much of a relief that is to me, because on and off for the past few years, that story's been irritating the hell out of me.

So the question is - what am I going to write next?

Ideas on a postcard, please.

Yes, I'm in Japan. Yes, I have been in Japan for the past 6 months without updating.

Why haven't I updated?

Because if I did it'd mostly be whining and because I don't have anything interesting to say. I could pimp my stuff, but I have practically nothing creative to show for the entire past 6 months. So...there's no point in updating, except to tell you that there's really no point in me updating.

And to let you know that I'm still alive and well.

And to say I'm going to Hong Kong on holiday tomorrow and that makes me happy.

And that I'm still obsessed with the X-Men.

Woot.

So now you know. Let's hope I update again soon. Or not, if this is all you're gonna get. :p

...In a few hours time I'll be on the plane. OMG I'm so freaking all over the place, I don't know what to think!

Wish me luck, guys!!!

xxxxxx

I was getting super-freaked the past couple of days over some stupid headache I had, which was probably caused by me sitting in bad light doing close quarter drawing for the entirety of Thursday. I never knew that drawing butterflies was such a bloody mind fuck. The symmetry... those tiny patterns on their wings... the tiny veins on their wings... I was poring over my encyclopaedia for the better part of Thursday evening trying to get the frikkin' creatures just right, and then on Thursday night I was sitting up in bed freaking out because I thought I had an aneurysm. Yesterday I couldn't even open my eyes without squinting and was seriously convinced I'd have to be taken to A&E, until Jeanne told me I probably had a drawing-headache. Hmm. I thought I'd got over my hypochondriac tendencies but obviously not. :/

Nevertheless, I got the Rogue/Gambit/butterflies picture finished. I'm so proud of this one. :)

And I posted the eleventh chapter of House of Cards. Remy's POV, Remy's turning point. How I love my Gambit... Heheheheheheheh...

The drawing mood is descending on me. About bloody time too, since I now have a tentative date of 17th October to leave England for Japan. i.e. nearly 2 months of nothing to do but bum and write and draw. Unfortunately, writer's/drawer's block always seems determined to thwart me during my periods of bum-dom. Ah-hah! But not this time!!! And lest I tempt fate I shall not ask drawer's block to kiss my ass by way of reparation. :p

I figured on doing some illustrations from House of Cards and maybe some other fics if I get the time and drive. A little peek at the cover sketch for HoC so far...

I guess it's about bloody time to show some pix. ( Yup, I finally managed to sort out some of the photos from Angy's trip to the UK. Take a look. :) )

If you want to view the whole thing with a commentary about the various locations, etc., click here

I may post more later... It's just so time-consuming to put everything up, so that's all for now. :p

And for all those interested, I posted the tenth chapter of House of Cards.

.I.

Angy left this morning. Very sad. T_T We had such a great time, and it was the coolest thing to finally meet her and just hang out. I'm going to miss her something rotten. :(

Photos shall be forthcoming, but they will be posted soon - I just have to sort through them first. There are an amazing number of amazing shots, but I have to ask Angy permission to post some of them first, since she might be tweaking them and turning them into proper art pieces. So gimme a couple of days or so and they'll be ready. :)

.II.

Something I nicked from luciademedici, lisacharly, katjenfic, and just about everyone on the fanfic circuit...

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post exactly one sentence (or more) from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favorite or most intriguing sentence so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else -- this is merely to whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

I posted the ninth chapter of House of Cards.

The past week has been kinda schizo. So Angy managed to get over despite severe delays, but I still happened to be working morning shifts in my last week of non-bum, employed status. Nevertheless we still managed to get to Hampton Court (that very house of Henry VIII and at least a few of his six wives), not to mention do the whole tourist thing in London (the Houses of Parliament, the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, the National Portrait Gallery, fish and chips and er, my old Uni). London, however, is going to need a couple more days to be fully appreciated. Next week we're going for Les Mis and karaoke. And shopping! Yay!

Angy, as you may or may not know, is something of a photographer. Naturally some snaps shall be uploaded in due course (when we have time to upload anything at all).

My last day at work was, in one word, crap. 'Nuff said. And not in the kind of weepy, I'm-going-to-miss-you kind of way. Lucky Angy was here in all her sweetness, because otherwise I would've been a total pain to be around the rest of the day.

Anyway, gotta dash 'cos now we're off to a Chinese feast! Will write more soon!

-Ludi x

After a huge palaver over flight delays and such, Angy finally arrived, albeit not particularly because of any terrorist threat in England's airports, but because the freakin' captain was sick and they had to find another pilot.

Still, we're expecting liberal amounts of delays and cancellations when she flies back, thus making up for lack of terrorist-induced inconvenience. Yay.