AO3: CrimsonWriter

twitter (basically unusued): @redheadauthor

tumblr (I'm on almost every day): @rubythecrimsonwriter

It was previously my policy to not post WIPs on here. Because of a previous poll, I will start cross posting both WIPs and complete works on both sites.

Timeline of ATC

I wrote a timeline for All Together, Cousins, just so that I could keep track of what the heck is going on. In case you were wondering where I got some of the dates--some of them are from history itself, some of them were from the books, and some of them I got from the publication date of the books. Most everything is centered around Percy's birthday, so Percy turns twelve in 2005 (which is the year that the Lightning Thief came out), just after his first quest. :)

December 1930—Hazel born

May 1935—Bianca born

February 1937—Nico born

Summer 1943—Hazel dies

1945—Great Prophecy by Oracle, Nico and Bianca shuttled to Lotus Hotel

December 1988—Thalia born

August 1994—Percy born

July 1995—Jason born

January 1998—Thalia runs away

Late August-Early September 2001—Percy joins Thalia and Jason

Late Spring 2004—Nico and Bianca are released from the Hotel

August 2004—Percy turns ten

July 2005—Jason turns ten

April 2007—Hazel escapes the Underworld

Winter 2007—Camp meets the Cousins, Nico and Bianca join

June 2008—Hazel joins the Cousins

I like writing cryptic prophecies, but I don't have anywhere to put this one. So, here it is. I'm throwing it out to the wider web, because I have no idea what the hell I was thinking, and if you want to tweak it and run with it, please do. Or, if I've truly done something weird like come up with the perfect prophecy for your story, you can still take it and run with it, but let me know. I want to put it on my list of the weird and freaky things that I've done.

Loved by many, adored by all
He who rose shall take the fall.
Myths and fables, lie and cheat
Eris is coming, so shall we meet.
Careful trusting, cautious turning,
Beware, behold this warning:
Some shall stay, and some shall go,
Beware of one from long ago.

Thank you for being so patient as I battle schoolwork and illness and family drama and hurricanes and death and grief and surgery (all of which have happened in the past two years...). God, that looks horrible compiled together. You'll be reassured that the majority of it has been spread out pretty evenly so it's not just heaped on me all at once. You guys don't deserve to be left hanging, and I can't seem to do anything but. :(

Fingers crossed that RL gets better,

-Ruby

*pro-tips about college since no one told me anything*

I am a transfer student. This means that I went to community college and then transferred to a four-year university.

Pros:

1. Money. Community college is infinitely less expensive than university. Most have ACT scholarships that will give you full rides with a score of 28 or above. My community college was actually paying me to go to school there, instead of me paying them.
2. Adjustment. Depending on how desperate you are to get away from your parents, community college can be a nice adjustment piece to college life in general. Some community colleges have dormitories, some don't. Most of the time, ACT scholarship will also cover (partially or in full) the rooming costs.
3. Kind of reluctant to put this here, since I'm not sure if this counts as a pro, but Social Life. I actually had one for the first time in my life at community college. It was electrifying to have ten or twelve different people putting our heads together and making change in our community, practically living in each other's pockets and studying together, taking uncomfortable naps in the same room, and complaining about cafeteria food. (Marginally better than high school cafeteria food.) (I don't have a Social Life at university. I'm not sure how much of it is my fault. XD)

Cons:

1. If you have a 28 or higher on the ACT, it's probably better financially to head straight to university. The scholarships at a university are primarily geared toward freshmen. Transfer students don't get much. Community college is for those who can't afford college period or are getting a technical degree.
2. Unlike at a university, community college doesn't teach the higher courses, so there's no guarantee of getting the background necessary in your pre-reqs in community college that you'll need for the higher courses that you'll take in university. ex.: passed Statics with an A, have no idea what my Vibrations teacher is talking about when she says that we should have learned this in Statics.

General Info:

First semester, do what doesn't feel hella intimidating. If that means taking 12 hours instead of 15 (barring scholarship requirements), do so. If first semester goes smoothly, load up on freshmen classes second semester. If you end up taking 19 credits (been there, done that) and almost kill yourself over it, dial it back. Find your limits and don't go over it. Your limits will change as you graduate years. Freshmen courses are safe to load up on. Sophomore, less so. Junior, don't take more than sixteen hours unless your time-management skills are Pepper Potts level of competence. I don't know about seniors yet since I'm not there, but I assume that it'll be worse.

STEM majors: TAKE A PROGRAMMING CLASS ASAP. C (plus sign) (plus sign) is ideal. Even just the Intro or first class is fine. If you have an introduction to it and an idea of how its supposed to work, uni homework will be easier for you. The program MATLAB (costs $99 bucks, just a forewarning, they'll probably make you buy it) is used frequently, along with MathCad (isn't really a program, but it is really useful).

Seniors in high school: if you're just starting to look at colleges, YOU'RE LATE. Most applications for next fall semester open up in December and general scholarship applications CLOSE the beginning of December.

Assume no one is helpful in university. Especially financial aid. Your adviser is kind of a hit and miss. I drove for five hours, put on my Big Girl Shoes and some blood-red lipstick and stormed the fortress. *coughs* I mean, the Financial Aid office. They're secret agents. They are agents who keep the secrets of financial safety from college students, and are trained to withstand torture. Thorough and repeated kerb-stomping with delicate stiletto heels and implications that I had to withdraw from the university because I couldn't pay the tuition (completely and utterly true, sadly) was the only thing that has kept me (barely) in the black. If you are following in my stead, SEND YOUR TRANSCRIPTS to your university that you're transferring to. Repeatedly. Once a month, if necessary, from a full year before you transfer. At least once a semester. Transferring in August of 2019? Send one now, if you haven't already, then send another in January, and another in mid-May. MINIMUM. Specifying mid-May because you should be done with your spring semester by mid-May.

January 22nd, 2019

I've been gone long enough on my profile that there was, apparently, some concern.

I'm not dead. I've not yet abandoned any of my stories. They will continue if they're marked Incomplete or if I've said that I have further ideas for them.

I'm dealing with bad mental states that none of y'all want to read about that's the result of spending eight months last year ill and on death's door or in continuous pain. I'm dealing with school and sudden mobility issues and I'm not dead yet so you guys don't give up on me. I have a couple thousand words written of ATC's next chapter.

You guys are the absolute best and I'm working on getting better so that I can write again and not have to worry about depressing everyone else :')

-Ruby

April 30th, 2019

I am feeling better. I'm discovering work arounds to my new disabilities, my depression is fading, and I'm in less pain. I wrote like five thousand words this week, which is the most I've written in that "short" of a time period since I graduated high school.

I might have to get creative on posting on here, since my laptop (my very old laptop, it's having it's sixth birthday soon) is refusing to let me sign into fanfiction.net. So this will be interesting. But I will continue to post, even if it gets awkward because I have to translate my word docs over to my OneDrive and access it on my phone to post.

Love you guys, hopefully you'll hear from me soon,

-Ruby

March 4th, 2020

It's been far too long since I updated this, and I apologize. I'm still alive, if only just. I've been having some real issues writing creatively, but I'm having no issues writing science and math related stuff. I'm on tumblr fairly often now, under @rubythecrimsonwriter. I'm hoping that if I can get back into writing in general, I can actually write productively. Recently I've been doing a lot of creative outlines and research papers and screaming about Middle English. (One of my professors ended up cancelling class and I forgot, so I ended up coming to class and sat there for an hour with another person and did a fifteen-minute dissertation on why Middle English is the bane of the English language's existence.)

Anyway.

I had a few thousand words of ATC written, but I recently realized that I needed a different POV, so it's mostly getting scrapped. And part of it was...weird. I have a full outline for Kronos's Revenge, since someone asked me about that recently--you guys definitely don't have to worry about that one getting scrapped because I didn't know where to go with it. The full story made like Athena and fell out of my head fully formed. It was a little crazy.

Also, I fixed my issue with logging onto here. No more worries about that, at least.

Love you guys,

-Ruby

April 18th, 2020

I am, actually, finally getting back into the swing of things! I'll update this in a little while to give an idea on what I've updated/uploaded on here, but I can give a short rundown on some questions that I've been getting repeatedly. I'll be completely honest, I can't remember which site was asking which questions, so both get to be addressed here:

Questions that I've been getting asked:

All Together, Cousins update?

(Which is probably the one most of you are dying over.) So. Here's the thing. I just went back and re-read it.

And. Y'all. I love the premise for it. And there are some pieces that are great.

And then there are some pieces that made me downright cringe.

So I promised you guys like five years ago that I'd be doing an edit, and guess what. I've finally gotten to the point where I can't stand it anymore and the entire thing is getting a total revamp.

Over the next couple of months, you guys are welcome to head over to my tumblr (I would put a link but ff dot net is less than stellar about links) @rubythecrimsonwriter and you guys can watch my writing and editing process. It's kind of a mess, but you guys normally get the finished cut. Idk if that interests anyone, but it definitely updates more often than I do on here, because I tend to post at the end of the day whatever I've done, regardless of whether or not the scene is done or if I've edited it at all.

Kronos's Revenge update?

I haven't done a re-read on this yet, but when I do, I'll let you guys know if I'm doing a fast edit (fast, because 1. I started this sooner than I did ATC, and 2. it's way shorter than ATC) and then I'll see about another chapter.

Fury's Stresses series update?

I actually have had the next one half-done for a while now, I just have to finish it. From what I remember, I think Fury was terrified over three of the most efficient people he knew having a lunch break together.

Kidnapped additions?

I have so many ideas and so little time. This is on the lower end of my priorities, so if you want some fun, go over to the comments section on ao3. I outlined some fun ideas that I'm planning on running with when I get a bit of breathing room and less WIPs.

This Death and That Death and That One Over There updates?

This one actually has an update planned over here. I updated it on ao3 when I couldn't access this account, and I'll be uploading chapter 4 in a moment. Chapter 5 (maybe) should finish out the work. One less WIP, yay!

New Stuff:

I'm going to be posting the thing that I've been breaking down the writer's block with in a moment. Flipping Legacies is going to be a Batman/Marvel crossover featuring Natasha essentially taking one look at Jason, going, "fucking superb you funky little assassin," and adopting him. per one of my commenters on ao3.

COME BUG ME ON TUMBLR, I'D LOVE TO SEE YOU GUYS THERE!!! @rubythecrimsonwriter