Super Zombie Slayers - Commentary - Ch 7-8 (Patreon)

Alright, friends.  It’s officially February!  You know what that means?  We’re 1/12th of the way through 2022 already!

It probably doesn’t feel that way because life is still weird, but time is still passing pretty fast.  Volume 8 will be here before you know it!  Or is it Volume 9?  I honestly don’t know, nor do I know when it’s being released.  I thought it was supposed to be out already, but there’s a conspicuous lack of frenzy on all my timelines.  I’m guessing there was another pandemic-related delay, but hopefully it’ll be out soon.

I’m vaguely terrified that Winter will die.  She’s my favorite non-Team RWBY character behind Pyrrha but, from what I understand of the story so far, it just feels like she’s not in the best situation.  Of course, I really don’t know much of what’s going on, so I’m probably just being paranoid because RoosterTeeth already took Pyrrha away from me (and hasn’t given her back yet!).  Maybe at the end of the series, they’ll all wake up and realize it was just a dream.  Or something like the Matrix.  Wouldn't that be a surprise…

On the writing front, I’ve still been struggling with concentration recently.  That’ll carry on for another couple months, so I just need to accept it as best I can.  I did start a new story though!  Well, I outlined a new story.  I can’t dive into it yet, but I think some of you will be excited.

I haven’t posted my smutty Bees story yet, but I believe White Rose deserves their own version.  Obviously.  Because why not?  So, I had an idea, and then I had an even better idea because I remembered that Oscar exists.

Oscar hardly exists to me because I’ve never actually watched him in the show.  I’ve never even heard him speak!  I’ve just seen photos and the inevitable commentary from the White Rose community.  (You don’t like him, you say?)

Recently, I was reminded of his existence and had an epiphany: why am I using Penny to make Weiss jealous when Oscar’s right there?  Penny always made sense because she and Ruby get along, and she’s sweet and pretty, and also a robot so theoretically a genius.  Of course, Weiss would be intimidated by how well Penny and Ruby get along, and by Penny’s intelligence.

Oscar, on the other hand…

I think he and Ruby get along really well too.  Like, they become fast friends.  But he’s also a boy, and that adds a different element to Weiss’ jealousy.  He’s not just another pretty girl (although I guess he could be if he wanted to!).  He’s a kind of normal, happy dude?  (I realize in canon he’s got some stuff going on, but without that he’d be normal?)  I don’t know, but it works.

Anyway…my original idea was simply going to be Weiss and Ruby being friends with benefits but Ruby doesn’t think Weiss will ever date her for real.  The amended, more-awesome idea is that Weiss and Ruby are friends with benefits, then Oscar appears and Weiss is less than thrilled.  Plus, you know, they have sex a lot.

You’re probably thinking, “But what if I just want to read about them sleeping together?”  Well, you came to the wrong writer for that!  If you want your smut, you’re going to have to take all the feelings too.  Jealousy, betrayal, rejection, the works.

Disclaimer: there won’t be any actual Rosegarden and it probably won’t be that angsty.  I’m trying to keep it to around 10 chapters so that I’m not killing myself over a smut fic.  I currently outlined 10 chapters so…now I just need to sit down and write it! But first, I need to take care of a bunch of life stuff and write this commentary.

Zombies and unfortunate Yang - that’s our two chapters in a nutshell.

Because we’re already 8 chapters into the story and Yang’s no closer to getting together with Blake, I snuck in a steamy scene via dreamworld.  Everyone’s getting antsy for it to happen by now, right?  Or maybe I was the only one getting antsy, hence why I gave us a glimpse of Yang’s dreams.  We typically have to wait until 3/4ths of the way through the story for this type of scene to arrive, but surprise!  We get a glimpse of the future before Yang wakes up.

Admittedly, I found it hilarious that Yang thinks she has a better chance of getting together with Weiss than Blake at this point in the story.  I think Yang underestimates just how fervently Weiss will reject her.  Blake, meanwhile, is completely open to the idea, as we learn in our unexpected-yet-hopefully-still-fun perspective change!

No one expected the change of perspective, right?  And I think it went over pretty smoothly!  One second, reading Yang’s lines.  The next second, we’re in Blake’s head as she mows down zombies with ruthless precision.  And lusts after Yang a bit - Blake definitely does that too.

Originally, I considered writing this story from both Blake and Yang’s POVs, as I tend to do in many stories.  I’ve stopped doing that as often as I used to because I realized how much longer and more complicated it made each story.  Or maybe I’m just bad at writing from more than one POV…

I always feel like I have to alternate every other chapter, which means that the plot has to progress perfectly in order to line up.  And if you wanted two chapters in a row from one character’s perspective…forget about it.  I actually mixed this up with Dream Theory - that one has groups of 4-6 chapters from Yang or Blake’s POVs before switching, but that one made sense to me because we thought Blake was dead for the beginning, and then Yang got kidnapped, so they’re basically “out” of the story during that time.

So alternating chapters is a (personal) problem, but I also feel like I end up writing longer stories just to get enough time from each person’s POV.  Like, if we’re getting Blake’s POV, we want to see enough to feel what she’s feeling, right?  Same with everyone else in the story.

I feel like I threaded the needle on this with Queens of Remnant, which you’ve yet to see but will eventually!  All 4 POVs…and we need to see enough of all of them to make it truly worth it.  There are 12 chapters each though.  At about 5k words a chapter that’s…60k words for each of them.  Basically, a short novel for each!  I still think it should be more, but I also didn’t want to drag things out.

One of the coolest advantages of only one perspective is that you can keep so much information away from both the character and the reader.  It’s also pretty awesome when the readers do know more information from the other characters (this will be especially so in Queens of Remnant), but hiding information is fun too.  So, for Yang in this instance, she has no idea that Blake is literally just waiting for her to make a move.

This was a really long way of saying that I considered multiple POVs for Super Zombie Slayers but ultimately decided against it because I wanted to keep the story shorter.  But!  I still slipped in a little slice of Blake’s perspective to give us her direct answer to Yang’s non-advances, and because I thought it was another way to make this story even less serious.

So in Chapter 7 when Blake asks why Yang chose an action-adventure instead of a romance story, that was also me questioning my own decisions.  Why didn’t I write a traditional romance, set in the apocalypse?  Why did it need actions and zombies and some weird side plot?  I have no idea, but I came to the same conclusion Yang did - it was already too late to change the genre.

But if I could go back in time…I don’t know if I’d write this at all, actually.  Because I would remember already writing a zombie story, so I wouldn't want to write another zombie story.  Of course, if I went back in time but forgot what I’d already written, then I’d end up writing the same thing…

Well, it is what it is!  If it’s any consolation, we got another snarky version of Weiss out of it.  And I love snarky versions of Weiss.  Can’t get enough of them, actually!  Although I do love when she’s just a bit awkward and endearing, you can’t beat when she lets that intelligence and general disdain for the world come through.  Or, if not disdain, then her predisposition for teasing Yang.

In some ways, Weiss is Yang’s rival.  In this particular story, Weiss is handily winning though.  Not only does she already have the girl - Yang’s little sister, even - but she has the upper hand in just about every other category as well.  Objectively, where does Yang have an advantage?  I don’t think she does, mostly because she’s both the main character and comedic relief.

Nora also offers some comedic relief, but she’s also the subject of our not-very-serious suspicions.  Blake, however, is truly suspicious of Nora’s intentions.  I would be too given the circumstances!  Imagine not seeing any other living, breathing humans for forever, then suddenly being lured into a trap obviously set by a human, and then a random person just shows up.  That’s mighty fishy, if you ask me.

Of course, it’s Nora, so I doubt anyone truly suspects her of anything.  This continues to be my biggest issue with using established RWBY characters, but it worked in this story because you’re not actually supposed to suspect her of wrongdoing.  You’re only supposed to wonder what the heck is going on because clearly the redhead isn’t the evil mastermind but there’s something going on there.

If you haven’t noticed, Nora’s doing nothing to prove her innocence.  She’s literally saying and doing all the wrong things.  Making reckless decisions that nearly get everyone killed, check.  Sneaking off when no one’s paying attention, check.  Abandoning her new friends when they’re stuck in the mall, check.

I’m fairly certain those security gates at the mall are actually very easy to open, but I took a bit of literary liberty with that one.  I needed them to get stuck, while separated, so that they’d use the back alleys of the mall to escape.  Only then could I get to the back-to-back standoff between the Bees and an onslaught of zombies (I probably could’ve gotten to that scene another way, but that was the first idea I had and I’m lazy sometimes).

I also took some literary liberties with Yang out-driving a missile.  Pretty sure those things go about a billion miles per hour and there’s no realistic way to avoid it in a mere vehicle.  Xander might be awesome, but he’s also massive and must move like a tortoise.  But let’s just pretend that it’s totally possible because look!  Yang did it!  They survived another day and a pretty lethal attack by some unknown third party.  Who might it be?

If you’ve ever watched CSI: Miami…the end of Chapter 8 was absolutely a reference to Horatio’s groan-inducing lines.  I just couldn't help it.  Yang strikes me as a Horatio Crane type of leader.  Gets stuff done but not above using the best puns or doing the awesome sunglasses thing.  Honestly, I’d be doing the same if I was in their position.

Anyway, I think that’s all I have to jabber on and on about today.  Zombies, White Rose, random crap…the usual.  There are now ten chapters left, and I should be moving at about the five-week mark.  That gives me the perfect amount of time to get the next story ready, right?  Oh shoot.  I keep forgetting to put up that poll so I know which story is next.  Expect that soon!

Until next time,

Miko

P.S. - I found a place to live so won’t be homeless!  I will, however, be moving in about a month.  Time to bust out the packing tape!