So lots of stuff happened today, but it's late (3:30 am), so I'm not going to talk about it all. I'm not going to talk about most of it, really.

But basically, extremely productive real-life day. I got some awesome resume advice, and an appointment this Friday to go over stuff in more detail. I discussed with my mom that I want to write novels, along with having an offer of maybe reading what I have so far.

Dancing With The Stars also happened, and that was a really, REALLY huge tragedy. (A perfect-scoring couple should NOT be the one sent home.) There's tons of other stuff I'm skipping, but this'll do for now.

...Juuuuuuuuust, not what I needed to. I wrote a basic outline for an entire episode of Red Hood Rider, one down the line. It's not a full script, just a few key lines here and there with the general flow, but I basically got the whole thing written down such that I can remember all the details for later.

Ah, well. I did plenty of work on my novel yesterday, and may get some more on it today. (Doubtful, though, since I have CF stuff I didn't do yesterday...or Friday...to attend to tonight.)

A note I forgot is that blood masters hold extraordinarily-fast regeneration, akin to high-tier vampire regeneration, able to quickly heal from all but the most devastating of wounds, and even said devastating wounds will rarely if ever prove to be permanently crippling, healing to the point of non-lethality. They also, as I mentioned, produce blood at a much-accelerated rate. This means they are all big eaters (that blood doesn't come from nowhere), but also explains why they don't pass out from blood loss when using their abilities: they do have their limits, but said limits are so high that most blood masters never reach them in a fight.

What I wanted to talk about, though, is this. Blood masters have tiers to their power levels. For the most part, these scales are relative, not absolute. A blood master can progress through the tiers with training and experience, even though most blood masters peak at around the fourth tier. These tiers are:
-Tier 1: the blood master is only capable of using blood magic when they are gravely injured and in a dire emergency. However, they hold an instinctive mastery of their great blood loss so strong that they can pretty much instantly resolve any problem they are placed into.

-Tier 2: the blood master is able to deliberately use their power, by inflicting bodily harm on themselves. However, their process is inefficient, using up a lot of blood, and generally requires an object to channel their powers through. (Thus, why blood master clans all have a signature weapon: it's what they used to train.)

-Tier 3: the blood master is able to use their power by inflicting bodily harm on themselves, and has now refined it to be efficient when using their focus object. However, they can't use it without an object, and when not using their preferred object, it's still inefficient.

-Tier 4: the blood master is able to use their power by inflicting bodily harm on themselves, and has now lost the requirement of having an object to focus their powers through. While focusing through objects can help channel their powers more effectively, especially the weapon they're most proficient in, it's not more efficient, just more comfortable and easy to manipulate.

-Tier 5: the blood master no longer needs to inflict bodily harm on themselves, able to directly draw their blood from their system and use it.

-Tier 6: the blood master gains the ability to manipulate spilled blood that is not their own.

-Tier 7: the blood master gains mastery of all blood.

-Tier 8: the blood master can separate out the elements in blood and divide them out to control them, even though they are no longer in the form of blood, because they used to be in the form of blood.

Each of these tiers also grants a gradual power increase. Around tier 4, blood masters begin to gain resistance to the prime elements based on blood. Around tier 5, blood masters begin to be able to more directly influence objects, like, say, sending blood into the ground and having it form a gigantic wall of earth. Around tier 7, the blood master is at peak levels; it is called the grandmaster level, even though you don't necessarily need to be at this level to be a grandmaster and being at this level doesn't mean you are a grandmaster.

Tier 8 is extremely rare, and is basically the ability to manipulate reality, altering and changing it with their will. Blood masters of this tier have existed, but are pretty much considered legends, because it is, quite literally, god-tiered power. It's rumored that the blood masters who achieve this level of power can't maintain their power in mortal form forever, and thus, ascend to godhood.

Different clans have different standards for who can be a grandmaster. For instance, the clan using sword-and-shield has its roots in the common footsoldier. They weren't even originally blood masters, and for the longest time were primarily first-generation users. (Even after a hundred years had passed.) As a result, their standard isn't based off of tier, but rather, a combination of leadership, skill, experience, wisdom, intelligence, and attitude, with the person chosen as a grandmaster theoretically being able to be a tier two blood master. (Most end up being tier 4 or so.)

In contrast, more difficult styles like the dagger/whip and drill styles generally require at least a tier 4 or tier 5 in order to be a grandmaster, simply because their style is elite and tradition dictates that only the finest of them would be able to lead. Both spear clans require tier six, mainly because grandmasters of their clans are expected to traditionally be among the strongest. And the bow-and-sword clan never has a grandmaster below tier 7, because traditionally, their first grandmaster was one of the first tier 7 blood masters, and every grandmaster to follow him has also therefore been a tier 7.

Mainly because I'm fairly positive I remembered what the third style was: a rapier.

So the seventh style doesn't use a secondary weapon of a longsword; it uses a katana.

And let's remove the bit about the one style being extinct.
All seven are alive and well, since all seven are alive in my mind.

Nice to see typing it out helped!

In which, I try to bring more elements of previous settings into Red Hood Rider.
So basically, some time after Gary's power-up, he comes to Whitney for help trying to master manipulation of blood, something he should theoretically have the power to do but which he is struggling with. He figured that while Ruby would be more suited for the task abilities-wise and may even have better contacts for resources, she'd only be able to do so with delay for the resources and with extreme difficulty teaching-wise given her fighting style.

In contrast, by technical skill and wisdom/experience, Whitney is who he bargains would be his best bet for being a good teacher for the skill--as he turns out, he's quite right, because Whitney does in fact have experience with the subject. (This serves as the second time Whitney is a teacher, since this is after Whitney powers up D.D. the first time, given that D.D. is powered up during the arc that Gary gets his power-up.)

Whitney explains to him that Blood is a proper element in of itself--it may not be one of the Primary Eight elements, but it's one of THE largest elements outside the prime eight. It just so happens to be a rather significant source of magical power, near-universal across all sorts of magic, holding all sort of symbolic power. It's fundamentally featured in nearly every style of magic, in large part because blood is a REALLY big thing in the world of magic, almost as big as the concept of yin and yang.

She goes on a bit of a tangent, explaining that the most prominent users of Blood, the Blood Masters, are like inverted vampires, using their blood magic to fundamentally alter the nature on reality, sometimes on rather large scales. While far from the only specialists in using blood magic, Blood Masters are called Blood Masters for good reason, having full control over their blood. (This, incidentally, gives them vastly-increased lifespans, though does not grant them immortality. The greatest grandmasters lived for about 800 years, ten times the normal human lifespan, before succumbing to magical fatigue.)

They are the absolute authority on the subject, inspiring all other sources that don't predate them. While various wars throughout the centuries (in particular, a rather devastating one akin to the war between the seven races, only in this case being a war between several different unique-element-imbued clans) left them virtually extinct at a point in history, they've been slowly rebounding thanks to surviving with the help of vampires.

Vampires find their blood extra-sweet, and since blood masters naturally produce an overabundance of it (they literally feel compelled to bleed every day if they're powerful enough), the symbiotic relationship was only natural. While one of the seven great blood master clans was left extinct with all records of its existence wiped out and no living people having personally seen their members in action, the other six were preserved.

(For the curious: the first of the seven great blood master clans was founded by the founder of the blood masters. He was a baboon-spear-wielder, and his style of combat dealt with channeling his blood through the spear; he passed this on to all of his soldiers.

His rival used a similar spear-based style, but had the spear be heavier-built: thicker wood with a narrower hollow center, as to allow for more powerful and precise blasts, at the cost of speed and dexterity. Said rival eventually joined him, being one of the founding council members and leader of the second clan.

The third of the great blood grandmasters and founder of the third clan is the one records have been lost. Read: I forgot who he was and what he did. He was important, but I don't remember how. It was his presence that made the blood masters really become unified as a force, though.

The fourth style was a sword-and-shield style founded by the right-hand-man of the first grandmaster, whose powers were originally latent until later activated in the midst of the battlefield. He sought after and recruited similarly-latent blood masters, effectively doubling the size of the order, and went from the Normal of the group to effectively tied for second-most-relevant.

The fifth style was formed from a rounded dagger, with blood being used to turn it into a whip. While difficult to master, this style of combat was one of the most devastating in battle, basically being the elite clan of the blood masters.The sixth style was formed from a grandmaster using a drill, who emphasized redirection: catching an attack, and then spinning it back to spiral back towards the attacker, counter-attacking with blood backing up the original attack.

The seventh and final style was created by the man who ultimately ended up saving the blood masters from extinction: using a combination of bow-and-sword, he was the one who first bonded to a vampire, via his friend...Victor Zu, pioneering their ultimate relationship. He was a prodigy in spears, katanas, longswords, shields, and bows, but for the sake of creating his own style, he chose to focus on the bow and using the longsword as a secondary defense weapon--I think the katana might've been the weapon of the third style, not sure.

Butyeah, that's the seven styles of blood masters, six of which still exist in the Rubyverse.)

Anyway, the point of this Whitney brings up is that she had the pleasure of working with a vampire-blood master duo (the blood master being a descendant of the seventh and using his style, but since the child of a blood master isn't necessarily as strong as the parent, he's the first blood master of his family since his ancestor to obtain the power level of a grandmaster), one Ruby wouldn't be aware of because the duo doesn't stick around in one place for too long.

Said blood master explained that Blood has loose ties (really loose in some cases) to seven of the eight primary elements, with her element of ice ironically being the only element not having those involvements. Blood gets oxygenated to turn red, thus, it has a relationship to air. (Very weakly, though.) It is technically tied to things like iron, which have strong ties to earth, so it does possess a weak tie to the element of earth. It has something called plasma, and is symbolically the source of energy for the body, thus, it has moderate ties to the element of energy.

Similarly, blood has some rather strong ties symbolically to life, and life is generally something associated with the light element, making a strong connection there. While not quite as strong, equally as important is the opposite, noting that blood has a dark side, representing violence, destruction, and the occult: because it is associated with the forbidden, it has ties to darkness.

Then, it has very strong ties to passion, just like fire, which it also shares colors with. But strongest of all is, in fact, water, thanks to blood primarily being made up of it, so Gary's right that he can control it...he just needs to recognize the presence of the other elements there and help 'persuade' them so to speak to listen to him.

She recommends a day of training with each Rider, emphasizing repeat sessions with Ruby, along with training side-by-side with a vampire: Dale being an obvious choice, with other vampires from any resources Ruby can offer him freely. In the mean time, she would go schedule an appointment with the blood master while he trains.

When they meet, they run through the process, and while Gary can't master everything--his element is Water, not blood which is made up of multiple elements--he does grasp a lot of magical-based moves, among them being use of his own blood, along with temporarily restraining or even controlling the movements of an opponent. (Given the tangent that they're not horrendously stronger than a human would be, in which case his power would be useless.) He's warned not to rely on the tactic, especially given its questionable morality, and he agrees.

So I'm doing NaNoWriMo, that much you know. I'm not sure I told you that my plan was to simultaneously pursue two novels, though. That bit might be news.

...And, well. I am. I figured I would be cheating for both either way, so by cheating with both, I get double the amount of effort to force upon myself, bringing myself about up to the level of a normal person. (Basically, say I achieve the word goal no matter what. Now say that I achieve the word goal by cheating, and it's twice as easy. By that logic, doubling the number of novels means I'm still cheating, and will get the word count, but I'm putting in the same amount of effort I would be if I wasn't cheating.)

Surprisingly, it's going over fairly well! Day's not done yet, and already, I'm at exactly where I need to be for one novel's worth of work, according to my calculations. (Though that means I'm at half of what I WANT to be at.) Basically, I calculated that 50,000 over 30 days is 5,000 over 3 days, and at 6 days I'd have 10,000.

On Disease, I have 4,556 words written down. That's about a third of what I wanted, but it'll do for now. For the novel I should be working on, I got 6,340 words written. Between the two, that comes out to be 10,896 words, right on schedule pretty much.

So I just need to keep doing what I'm doing, and we should be golden!

So you know that bat-ring I have? Well, today, this morning, I discovered a problem with it: after just over a week of wearing it, it is very noticeably loosening up. I can barely keep it on my ring finger anymore--in fact, I woke up early today because I couldn't feel the ring, panicked, and eventually found it had fallen off.

So I didn't put it back on, instead getting a death grip on it while I finished my dream. (It was a very good dream, dealing with a blend of fantasy, dystopia, and the bridge of worlds, giving many metaphors about crossing the gaps and change, one long, continuous, yet surprisingly coherent epic dream, but try as I might, words to explain it escape me.)

That lasted until my timer (read: makeshift alarm clock I've been using) went off, waking me up at the time I had originally planned to wake up at. (Still early-ish, by my standards, but not by much.) I put the ring on, but I'm still concerned about it. I can still feel it just as clearly, it's just that the hold, the grip, it has on me feels weaker, and there's less of a phantom feeling when it's gone.

In vaguely-related news, I did get up decently early: at least an hour earlier than necessary. Why? Because I have this strategy...and I think it's actually going to work! (Motivation pending.) I knocked out all my mafia obligations for the day, freeing me up for CF things later in the evening, but also?

With luck, you'll see this blog at around five (or even earlier), at which point, I'll have about an hour free; no food (well, actually, I think I can eat any time I need to, but I only need to eat once), no CF (too short a time), no games (wrong computer). In other words? Nothing to do but WRITE! (Or draw; not ideal, but win-win either way in my mind.)

So wish me luck. I might need it still!

It really was stupid...of me to ever think I could have succeeded. See, I went in expecting that for today, I'd be dead tired, but I'd be able to work through a significant portion of the night. Turns out that's not the case, though. While I'd undoubtedly have become tired today, I also would have become tired to the point of being incoherent last night. See, it's a two-way street. Go to bed when feeling like needing rest, wake up rested. That's what happened. Plan to put off sleep and deal with being tired, and if the plan is followed, end up beyond-exhausted during the night to the point of uselessness.

So it was a doomed effort. Either I was going to not succeed and be tired, or I was going to not succeed and only be a little bit tired. While I did get some work done, ultimately, the latter won out--I was not going to get what I needed. But I did cut down on my workload enough that I think if I can repeat the effort tonight, I might be able to get it all out. Well, maybe not all out, but mostly.

And I need that. My sister said it best. "You're running out of time." And I am. Very much so.
I need to get started.

I'm going to see about staying up REALLY late tonight and getting rid of ALL the distractions I could have, in order to hold focus tomorrow. Cut my losses, so to speak. Today's a lost cause. The thing is, if something doesn't change, every day will be, except maybe Sunday. Monday I have counseling, and then four hours if I'm lucky before Dancing With The Stars eats my evening--said four hours may not be ideal time, either, depending on computer accessibility.

Tuesdays I go to work, stay for TKD, and come home for Agents of Shield. Zero time.

Wednesday, I go to work, then have what effectively is one hour before dance. Basically nil; that hour's more pragmatically half that length at best.

Thursday, I go to work, then have a two-hour break before dance. Better, but not by much--still bad work conditions.

Friday, I go to work, then have two and a half hours or so before family arrives. That time passes in a flash.

Saturday, I'm increasingly not having access to the resources I ideally need to have, and Movie Night would happen even if I did. So not ideal.

Sunday's my best day, and only if my mom doesn't hog the computer to herself.

So I need to get rid of this problem. Get all my backlog finished. Tomorrow will be a bad day, but I'll live.

Ahg, two days into NaNoWriMo, and not a single word written!

I really, really, REALLY need to set a schedule for myself. Beginning a new work session, so we'll see if I can manage to figure out the times for that.

Just...gah.