Well. I’ve finally done it. I’m online.

Or maybe “finally” isn’t the right word for it. I started Kage to Odoru on a whim late last November. Nothing came of that, however, except for twelve pages, almost all of which have beenthoroughly destroyed. I found them that awful. It probably took me almost three weeks to get even that much drawing done. I remember sitting under our Christmas tree using a 4B aquasketch graphite and school-quality Ticonderogas, scribbling my crap on a 9 x 12 Strathmore sketchbook. Then, I tried a second time. And a third. Niether even got to twelve pages.

And then, on a "fateful" Saturday afternoon at the start of February, the Kage to Odoru you see now was born. I simply decided "I’m going to do this, dangit", and from then on, I was temporarily unstoppable. Most days brought out two whole pages. While a lot of that attempt had to be re-done, this was what finally worked, and is working still. But I shouldn’t say “finally”, because for me, it took only a few months, while Kyoko Shitou, author of the manga Blue Inferior, had to put her project on hold for five years at one point.

The 46-page first chapter was finished some time ago, and I’m working on the mid and late 20’s pages of Act 2. May 27th is the deadline for Act 2. I hope setting another deadline, like I had before, doesn’t trigger another catastrophe. After that Act 3 will be put on hold briefly so I can take the time to re-do the crap pages (of which there are many) of Act 1. Seriously, probably half of Act 1 has to be scrapp’d. Ugh, and page 27….! *gets out lighter and holds up page*

And I’m saying this in advance - somewhere in here, there is a plot. I promise. Even I haven’t quite gotten to writing that part yet, it starts at the end of Act 2 and takes off in Act 3. This is shoujo, and it can take a while to get off the runway. I’d also like to apologize for the first page - it doesn’t exactly draw you in, but please keep reading. To date, it’s the only page with no drawings on it. KTO really would work a lot better as a book, but I have no way of doing that. It would help if I could update more often, but since I’m just starting, it’s best to take things slow.

The one running the site is Danny, or as I like to call him, Tech Guy Dan. You might see him in the second blog entry from time to time. Danny tells Butch (the Keenspace server) what to do. He complains a lot, but you know he actually enjoys it. Whether it’s the truth or not, Danny will probably make it well-known that he thinks I suck. He just so happens to be related to me, male, and older, so it’s his duty to be my own little howler leech of hatred. More often, you’ll see Chey doing the second blog entry. She has near nothing to do with Kage to Odoru, except that she’s my “Editor”. This really just means she’ll bug me/threaten me with bodily harm if I start slacking off. She’s my best friend, despite that I live in Ohio and she lives in Virginia, and we have never met in real life. It’s even a possibility that she’s a 43 year old axe murderer living in his/her’s parents basement in Nevada. But I doubt it. In truth, Chey-chan is an undeniably insane girl who is obsessed with snakes, Kiba, and potstickers. Pay her no mind.

Anyway, welcome to Kage to Odoru, I hope you like it. If you do, tell all your friends. In fact, if you DON’T tell your friends, I shall indeed pursue you with wrench-wielding koala bears. So tell your friends and avoid comedic doom.

~~~ bai bai~~~

Hi! Welcome to Kage to Odoru, my name is Chey and I'll be your ranter for this evening. I hope everyone will enjoy KTO, and if they don’t I will cause them large amounts of pain.

So, what should this rant be about? I'm not quite sure. I'm actually writing this inside a hospital, waiting for Momiji-chan (AKA my mom) to go into surgery. Pleasant, isn't that? Thank goodness for laptop computers - in addition to this, in order to pass the time while she's in surgery and recovery I have also brought the W Juliet volume 4 manga and two Fullmetal Alchemist DVD's. Ah, life as an otaku is good. Still, this will hardly last me the amount of time we are going to be here at the hospital (this ended up being eight hours, actually...). At least I have my older brother sitting next to me to amuse me, he's being a pig in the waiting room, and making the funniest smacking sounds. Well, I guess I'd better get on with the rant...

Ah, I know... Ears. This rant shall be about ears. Why ears, you ask? Because I'm wearing them right now, that’s why. You see, furry ears have a way of making people happy. Admittedly, I do sometimes get strange looks, but all too often I'll walk away and overhear people whispering "How cute! She's wearing ears!" or people will flag me down and ask about them while smiling. When people are having a bad day at work, and I walk in wearing them, they stare for a second and just start grinning their heads off at the fact that someone is wearing cute fuzzy ears in public. That’s why I decided to wear furry wolf ears to the hospital today. When you think about it, most of the people here in the waiting room are either about to go in for surgery, or one of their loved ones are. Being able to take their mind off that, even if in such a small way, makes me strangely happy. Therefore, I think it would be nice if more people would randomly start wearing ears once in a while. After all, what’s the harm?

"I want to be cremaried."
"What?! Josh, thats not right!"
"Oh, I meant crematoried!"
"..... Josh..." *insert sound of head hitting solid object*

Hehehe, sorry, while I was sitting and writing my brother said that when he died he wanted to be cremated. However, as you can see, it came out wrong and I just couldn’t resist writing it down. *sighs* And to think he's 23. -_-U

Back to the hospital stuff: I just realized I've been getting more and more nervous, to where I felt sick. I had to flip my headphones on and start playing my music (everything from a Christian emo band to J-rock) to calm myself down. Well, I'll leave you with this pathetic excuse for a rant and... watch some FMA now. Until next time, peace out.