The Marci Rating System

I wrote these words a while ago, but I'm finally (sort of) at the place in the story where they go:

“Can I call you Chris?”

"When you make Captain, you can call me Chris.”

“Deal.”

It's been a little bit of a "head empty" day so far for writing, but here's a few sentences from earlier:

“I genuinely can’t tell if you’re lying or not,” she said. “It’s very impressive.”

Six random thoughts about Star Trek, not really related to nanowrimo in any way.

*Huge kudos to the author who wrote a Strange New Worlds fic and was like 'in this fic Hemmer is alive because I said so.' Genuinely a brilliant solution, and a role model for me.

*Wound up re-watching the Strange New Worlds season 1 finale twice yesterday (for reasons), and still do not believe that if Una was really put in jail for seven years with no outside contact that La'an would 1) still be in Starfleet; and 2) be on hugging terms with Chris.

*I can't remember anything about the Star Trek movie with Sybok (I had it confused with the next one, about Klingons), but I've read some fics where he's like, the cool rebellious older brother. Seems legit.

*Also re: Spock's weird family: I've seen exactly zero episodes of Discovery, but Michael is his sibling too now? Congrats on the new middle child status, Spock!

*I've realized that I am in no way prepared or qualified to write a Star Trek story. I do not expect this will stop me.

*I remind myself that in one episode of Enterprise, two ships smooshed their warp bubbles together (one ship was upside down at the time!) and a person climbed from one ship to the other, WHILE THE SHIPS WERE IN WARP. He was fine. Surely nothing I come up with could make less sense than that. Right?

BONUS THING:

*But consider this: smooshing the warp bubbles together was so cool! Who cares if it made sense? Also, I'm sure there was a perfectly valid in-universe explanation for why it worked, though to be fair, Strange New Worlds basically used "we'll just all believe really hard to hold the ship together" at one point, and THAT worked, so I think there's some wiggle room.

Who knew? Everyone? No one? Certainly not me.

“She’s right,” Liang Qiu said. She made a face behind her back. The sword spirit had definitely known the whole time and not told her. “Also, the Sect Leader is outside.”

Xiaohai made a panicked noise, and Liang Qiu raised her eyebrows. “You think he didn’t know?”

Okay, it's only five sentences. That's 83% of the goal!

He almost said, “That’s fine,” but he thought that might be too close to a lie. Instead he offered a truth he held in unshakeable confidence. “I trust you.”

Her successor disciple was almost absolutely going to get himself killed. She might kill him herself!

*This week's writing could probably better be summed up as "six times I planned to think about my story and fell asleep instead."

*Or, "I wrote six words and called it a day."

*But here's four sentences, which is two-thirds of six, and I'll give it the 'gold star you tried' prize for the week.

“I remember you saying you burned down my house,” he said finally.

“I never said it was my fault,” she answered.

He rolled his eyes. “It was implied."

I wrote all of these words yesterday! I have no idea what's happening!

“The three disciple technique?” Wang Lu guessed. “Is it that serious?”

“It’s not for Xiaohai,” she said. “Ling-er is with him; you really think there’s anything he can do that she can’t handle?”

“Then what —“

She rolled her eyes. “Am I blind now? It’s for you, obviously.”

Still not sure whether I'm actually writing this fic or not, but I've had a lot of fun thinking about it.

“What do you mean?” Wang Wu said, all breezy innocence. “Of course you must have spent the time diligently developing your own sword style, just as your master directed you to do.”

“You excused me from classes.”

She shrugged. “You asked me to. I assumed you were pining for Xiaohai.”

*Logistically, I may or may not have enough story left to make it to the word count goal. Luckily, that's less of an issue when there's not much plot to speak of anyway. It's less a 'oh no I've wrapped things up too quickly' and more a 'guess I need to ramble on a bit longer, must be time to write some more about the cat.' (Note to self: make sure to mention the cat again before the end of the story.)

*Emotionally, I'm not really at the 'I like this fic a lot' stage, but I recognize that the story is Doing Its Best Under Challenging Circumstances. Also, I wound up re-reading a couple sections yesterday to figure out how I'd described something the first time, and I had that, 'oh hey, I like these people' feeling, which is always nice.

*Actually six sentences, not written today, because why break the pattern:

“I want to call it ‘Revenge of the Blue Silver Plant.’ What do you think?”

“It has a certain ring to it,” he said finally. “But I’m not sure it’s entirely true to the story.”

“Yes!” He shook his finger at Ye Zhi Qiu. “That’s exactly my dilemma!”

This isn't really six sentences, nor did I write it today, but it *is* about a cat, so I guess that's right in line with all my other Sunday six posts.

“Xiao Gang!” Lan De said, taking the book right out of his hand. “I have a much more interesting question. Xiao Gang, where’s your cat?”

He looked up. “My cat?”

“When you were at the Rose Inn, you walked in with a cat. Small, gray? Looked like a good mouser?”

“Ah.” That cat.

He accidentally met Er Long’s gaze, and she raised her eyebrows. “Yes, Xiao Gang, where is your cat?"