In my head, I mentally composed the tune for a new song...using the tunes from my cell phone ringers, my old phone being the verses and my new phone serving as the chorus once placed in double-time. The text sound from my current phone (don't remember the one for my old one) could act as a bridge, too. And it's surprisingly coherent.
All I need to do is write the lyrics.
All I need to do is write the lyrics.
I could make this a new blog post, but decided that since I'm typing this up at the same time (in spite of the above being written earlier), not much point. (Really need to consider timestamping my blogs, though. For the record, this began as a thought at 1:15, but I've held off on it 'til 4.)
Anyway, so you know that I really like dancing, right? When there's a good tune on, I can't help but do my best to dance along to it, regardless of the circumstances around me. Including during a class the song's meant for, while I'm eating my lunch. (It was disco music, I believe, for the curious.) So something interesting happened. I was doing my dancing, having a little bit of harmless fun, and suddenly, everyone in the class turned to look at me and started giving applause.
I'm not sure that I have the genetics in me to blush, so my face probably didn't turn red.
But, hoh, boy, did I wish I could given how embarrassed I felt. Lacking a blush response, my reaction was basically laughter as my head tilted down a lot (and back up), and me trying to dodge out of the way only to come back out a couple seconds later, still feeling like I should be blushing.
I mean, I've gotten individual comments that they like my dancing, awkward and cheeky as it may be, but nothing like this has ever happened before. Way to put me on the spot. (I know a few of the people in there--rather, they know me--but don't know which of them came up with the idea. If the idea was to catch me off-guard...they definitely succeeded!) It was highly awkward, but at the same time...I did appreciate it.
Naturally, after they were done, I got more than the normal amount of comments. A fair number of them commented on my smile, too. See, I'm not very emotive. (Part of the whole, "Most likely have high-functioning autism" thing.) I smile all the time, but it's so subtle that nobody other than me can tell I'm smiling. (My smile looks more like a neutral face. Incidentally, my neutral face looks like a brooding face, and my brooding face like a depressed face.) I can put on a cheeky grin, I can open my mouth and leave it there for another type of cheeky grin, but an actual legitimate teeth-showing grin is something that--while it does happen--only appears for sort bursts mostly.
...Yet when it does, according to them, it is absolutely a wonderful smile. (I've heard this from my parents, but them being my parents, there's that bias. Coming from people who don't really know me, on the other hand...and you know that when they say I have a magnificent smile...they MEAN it.)
They did a good job at bringing it out for a prolonged period of time. Sometimes, I grin like a madwoman for no reason. But this happiness emotion I was showing was real, not faked, not forced, gleaming for quite a while. So while I was highly embarrassed, the experience was worth it, I'd say.
In Rubyverse news, I got a little bit of Gary info done. I decided that he has a hobby as a musician, mainly working with the guitar, with aspirations of forming a band with him as the lead singer and main (electric) guitarist. This actually becomes viable after members join the Ruby Gang. Dark Ruby has eidetic memory via her vampire side, thus, quickly masters becoming the percussionist and other main singer. D.D. joins as a bass guitar player, and Vili as a second guitarist. Their band name I want to not be the name of a real band, so I'd have to do some creative searching, but something with regards to Riders. So for now pending actual research (because I'd be flabbergasted if there wasn't a band with that name), their band name's The Riders.
He also manages to get a power-up in his abilities. All Riders expand in some manner. Ruby/Sally most of all, but D.D. grows a lot, Vili is incredibly versatile in her powers, and Amy has basically unlimited strength. Hannah doesn't grow much, but that's because she's technically already one of the strongest Riders and doesn't like to fight (so she does grow, in what she can do, but it's things like learning to teleport people rather than learning how to blast someone to smithereens), and Whitney being older has already undergone most of her growth. (She still has room to grow, but not nearly as much because she already knows how to use her powers very effectively.)
So it figures that Gary grows, too. His role as the medic can't grow much (basically all it can expand to is helping to heal mental wounds, which it does), but it does get some; he can apply knowledge of injuries inflicted to know where and how to push, effectively allowing him to be an effective strategist (hitting psychological weaknesses), adviser, HeelFaceTurn-inducer, and precision fighter.
Basically, though Sally is officially Ruby's Lancer, Gary is basically a co-owner of the slot. (There's a reason that it's both Gary AND Sally in charge when Ruby goes MIA during the traitor arc.) He starts as a fairly normal guy. Once he becomes a Rider, he's a fairly weak Rider comparatively speaking. (His role technically being that of a medic is a sore spot.) He remains there as one of the weakest for quite some time, but all the while, he continues to hone what he has.
This is why while he doesn't have many abilities, he uses them well enough to compensate. After he learns how to shrink his sword, he gains a blade that is able to cut through nearly anything. He learns to control his shield-powers with incredible skill, launching multiple barrages. His tsunami slash/crescent cut skills in his shrunken blade he learns to fire remotely, albeit at highly-reduced strength to be effectively a mere distraction.
And he gains one ability. That one ability, though, is theoretically god-tiered. (Even at the story's end, he doesn't have mastery of it. It's simply too tough for him to fully control. However, even partial control is more than adequate to be immensely powerful.) In it, he basically ties water having waves to light having waves...and on a local scale, manages to manipulate them. In short, he compresses all the light around him into a tangible, handheld form, then expands it out into a wave to launch it as an attack that can bypass even many supposedly-invincible defenses.
It's incredibly hard for him to do, dealing with advanced concepts he can barely grasp, but is added to his arsenal. (Incidentally, a secondary aspect of this is that he becomes perfectly in tune with soundwaves, making his hearing be even better than a vampire's. But he being an average guy, just uses it to achieve total perfection in turning his instruments for his band.)
In short, Gary goes from the average guy to being one of Ruby's best allies, formidable in combat, comforting outside of it, smart, intelligent, and generally competent...while still mostly being, well, Gary, and not really stealing the spotlight. Good, not godly, and the overall third-strongest member of the Ruby Gang. (Overall being the key word--that factors in all aspects of their contributions.)
I also as a thought experiment went about the "What if?" scenario of what the Rubyverse would be if Ruby weren't in it, similar to the "What if"s I explored of her not being a magical girl (result: Lord Darkblood turns Ryan and Ruby never exists) and her not being a magical girl nor a vampire when such things. The overall conclusion in this case being InSpiteOfANail: the world would exist mostly as-is, just slightly worse off.
Sally would be TheHero, not TheRival-turned-Lancer. Gary would officially be TheLancer, and much closer to Sally as a result. Not so bad. But then you get into other details. The traitor arc wouldn't resolve nearly as smoothly; the traitorous magical girl would still do a HeelFaceTurn, but forever be haunted by the darkness rather than having it be purged, and the villains of said arc would still be running rampant. (Because Ruby was directly instrumental in crushing them.) Whitney would be much more cold and less open, treating the gang with caution. Dale would either not be around or be a Noble Demon antagonist, and Dion would be a Tragic Monster, forced into being an antagonist. (Because Lord Darkblood would still be alive and not approving of all the superheroics interfering in his business.) He would eventually be able to get out and become the darkness Rider, but he would not be a good man for it. Amy wouldn't be born, so a different Light Rider would be needed--probably Ana, placing further strain on her. Herald would have no reason to work with the heroes, thus, be unassociated with them.
Again, nothing really bad, and actually some little bits of good in there...but mostly not nearly as happy an outcome as what things look like WITH Ruby. She's overall a net positive influence on the Rubyverse. It was certainly an interesting thought to pursue.
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