Near the end of the stream, on November 6, both Capitolium and Caro are well over the daily rate required for victory. However, Capitolium has a few words of caution for Caro on VC:
“As a NaNo veteran, week two is where the initial excitement of starting a writing project can turn into a nightmare” Capitolium tells her. “You will be more vulnerable to writer block”
“Really? I had no idea!” Caro rolls her eyes.
Like I still need to decide where in the QMJHL I want to place my player, do I want it in Quebec or outside of Quebec? I left it vague for now, and the team name along with it. Then again, I could always have, say, the Armada, the Drakkar or one of the Abitibi teams relocated to either Trois-Rivières or Rivière-du-Loup if I feel it best serves my story, but academic considerations might force my hand into setting my story somewhere in Atlantic Canada, Capitolium feels the urge to resolve something that has been left vague so that he can push through week 1. At the same time, choosing to have my character play in the Q would also force a state of origin for my MMC, since the Q has first dibs on New England players.
“And there will be times when you might be tempted to scrap certain passages, or details, because a newer passage contradicts an older one, or vice-versa. You will be able to edit your own work later. All I really ask for this month is to finish the first draft” Capitolium re-states one of the conditions attached to the challenge.
“I’ll think about editing when I’ll get there. It’s premature, you’re right. But I still have a long way to go to win, and earn all the cheevos”
“There’s no shame in missing out on cheevos, especially the daily par. You’re one of the first NaNo participants I ever heard about that treats it like cheevos in a video game”
Caro’s blood starts boiling upon hearing about how there’s no shame in missing out on the daily par. I promised my viewers that I will 100% NaNo this year, I’m not about to renege on it! I don’t want to disappoint my viewers if I can help it! If it means some stuff can be cut out a month from now, so be it! I still need another 40,000 words, and that’s the bare minimum just to get to the daily par! On top of that, there are days where I write more than 1667 words, so I’ll definitely need to write more than 40,000 extra words to get to the daily par!
The stream ends with her getting malaises due to her blood boiling. Yet, she makes it to exactly 15,000 words with a few extra sentences, after which she updates her word count. And with only a few seconds to spare, or else she would deprive her viewers of the opportunity of showing them another cheevo being unlocked on air the following day.
It's then that, a little past midnight, she feels the headaches mounting, as she hastily brushes her teeth to go to sleep, because it seems like NaNo has consumed her.
Once in bed, she shakes in her bed as she tries to fall asleep, especially when she is left wondering what to place between the hockey games.
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This time around, one of her former teammates at the Pee-Wee Worlds, visibly drunk and hence felt safer to sleep at Caro’s home before returning home, was preparing to high-stick her, over the holidays. But there was no stick around for actual high-sticking.
“You think discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to intellect?” her former teammate asked her, menacingly, in a joual-laden accent. “Then why is it that, after having scored three power-play goals against Latvia, you saw fit to hit that girl at center ice, during the final?”
Oh boy. No one ever told me about that hit in the past few years, Caro, frozen in place, tried to remember what she could about that hit, and heard the voice of the referee working that game in the back of her mind:
“Pénalité majeure et d’extrême inconduite pour mise en échec corporelle au numéro vingt des Valkyries, Caroline Fauchoux!” (Major penalty and game misconduct for bodychecking to Valkyries’ number twenty, Caroline Fauchoux!) the phantom ref’s voice rang in her mind.
“Écrase-Joueurs, you cost us gold at the Pee-Wee Worlds! We were tied at that point in the game, and you injured that poor player trying to steal the puck and prevent her from scoring!” her ex-teammate yelled at her.
“And being the one blamed for single-handedly losing the gold medal game on home ice was the final nail in my hockey coffin!”
As much as the Pee-Wee Worlds made me feel like I was playing for Canada, as opposed to just the Capitale-Nationale region, it just doesn’t feel like Capitolium’s characters, especially those who make it to the ÉCJ, pressure-wise, Caro’s oneiric self struggled to process how the events leading her to give up on hockey happened.
Glitter’s oneiric self materialized next to Caro’s ex-teammate.
“You want people to swoon over Player Masher, you must dilute the hockey! Try to have Emma think about Gustavs as he improves his French!” Glitter’s oneiric self yelled at her. “I get that you fell back on the hockey because that’s what you knew best”
“I decided against writing more games, or the lead-up to the trade deadline, for the time being because I feel so much depends on how stuff before these games, or the trade deadline, unfold” Caroline retorted.
“How so?”
“I might have Gustavs play team C, whose plot relevance will become clear later, and have Buffalo as a buying team going into the trade deadline! My hands are tied because of this whole draft chapter in that respect!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And then I’d have the Constellations’ GM try to field offers for Gustavs when another D-man is cleared to play. Buffalo would still be a division rival, whereas the Backcrackers wouldn’t be, and neither will team C, Caro’s oneiric self started thinking about the whole trade deadline chapter, which she had kind of an idea of how it would create tensions among the couple. Damn, so many ideas, and I can’t even act upon any of them because I’m still stuck having to write more off-ice scenes I feel are necessary to get the plot moving!
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After the brutal awakening, around 1 AM EST, she feels like she needs to read other romance manuscripts, on whichever servers whose members actually had links to WIPs, to find some more inspiration for said scenes. Drat! It seems like Legnica wrote her very own romance NaNo as all-consuming, whereas I feel obliviousness to love works for me specifically because the relationship wasn’t all-consuming! I can’t ask in my own server because I feel like the only person who can answer to my satisfaction, Glitter, still holds a grudge against me over Player Masher deemed having too much hockey.
Speaking of Legnica, Caro posts on her Discord server a question, while making sure there’s no reference to Legnica’s manuscript in the message she sends in the chatroom. Which she also DMs Glitter about:
Caroline: Is it normal for romance books to portray love as all-consuming?
Since it’s 7 AM in southwest Poland, Legnica awakens, and her face shows some surprise when she sees Caro, of all people, ask about the portrayal of love as all-consuming in romance. Ojej! She writes romance and she comes to me asking about whether it’s normal for love to be portrayed as all-consuming? Most romance readers tend to take that for granted! The only thing she takes for granted is a happy ending.
Legnica: Outside of star-crossed lovers, or obliviousness to love, yes
However, Glitter, upon awakening, when it’s 7 AM in Glitter’s time zone, and hence a few hours after Legnica answered Caro, checks her own Discord DMs.
Glitter: You do realize that a lot of romance readers wish for one such relationship
Caroline (on the defensive): I tried to write my own scenes away from hockey, and I looked to others’ manuscripts for inspiration
Glitter: The way you’re headed, you can have Emma think of him while working with some online podcast on during a game
Caroline: And make her look at hockey differently now that she attended a game in person at not-Centre Bell
Sometimes, an all-consuming, yet seemingly non-abusive relationship can be dangerous. My last read is about how a relationship, starting out non-abusive, and feeling like a dream come true at the onset, but turns into a problematic relationship later. And problems appear on both sides, but not the same on each side, Glitter reflects on her last read, while Caroline is about to go to work. This romance book is showing signs of codependency, but some people would find themselves re-reading either the first half or the last quarter.
Glitter: Another thing you should remember: not everyone is looking for the best writing they can put their hands on, and some people reading lots of near-identical books don’t care so long as certain criteria are met
But after a stressful day at work, Caro struggles to write about how Emma would look at hockey differently when working on a project while a game is underway. Damn… how am I going to 100% this year’s NaNo if I can’t even write this scene about how Gustavs giving her a ticket to watch a game at not-Centre Bell in person made her look at hockey differently? I can’t just play the game in hopes inspiration comes like this!
Yet, a few of Legnica’s North American viewers start to tune in after Caro posted a link on Legnica’s Discord server about her going live, during the beginning intermission.
When her daily battle pass quest is finished, Caro issues a warning to her viewers:
“I must warn you: the passages ahead may, nay, will be crappy writing, but there’s only one way out of this mess for me now, and still hope to get to the daily par. A ten-minute sprint, and once it ends, the participants have two minutes to post their word counts. You will then get a shout out from me!” Caro feels a little uneasy.
Come on, mind, I need it to function! I must get whatever words on this document, no matter what! Caro starts sweating on air, while writing about how this whole experience with Gustavs gifting Emma a ticket to a Constellations home game makes her realize that hockey players have lives off the game, too. In fact, I think Glitter would show signs of being… less bitter about the excessive amounts of hockey if she read about that.
And yet, the resulting text feels a little too corny to her taste, and she feels the clock ticking in on her. Especially with a few of her viewers who also write fast and loose for a few minutes, too. However, she feels like there’s only so much emotion she can possibly make Emma feel at this point of the story.
She also struggles recalling what advice Glitter’s oneiric version gave her in this nightmare of having her ex-teammate at the Pee-Wee Worlds trying to high-stick her. What did Glitter tell me to add last night? My memory failing me like this isn’t something that happens often, but why now? It seems like this memory blank has cost me precious words!
Marie-France (reading Caro’s manuscript as it gets written on air): How could you possibly have forgotten about Gustavs needing some help learning French?
When Marie-France’s comment arrives on her chat, the siren signaling the end of the sprint rings, and Caro must stop writing to take a word count for the 10 minutes. She quickly realizes that, for this specific sprint, she was beaten, and pretty badly.
Once all the results are in, she opens her NaNo interface, and enters the current word count into the system. By doing so, she manages to have written a grand total of 120 words. Not the best sprint by any stretch, but enough to unlock the ninth achievement.
“Woohoo! This isn’t much, but here’s the seven-day streak cheevo!” Caro shows off its pink-and-orange hexagonal badge. “Shout out to Capitolium, who wrote three hundred fifty-one words of his very own major junior-themed hockey romance in the past ten minutes!”
Maridun: This is completely unlike you! What made you run writing sprints on air?
Marie-France: Your memory blanking out isn’t like you either!
I really hope that this shiny new cheevo will help me overcome this mental roadblock. Also, I’m not familiar with how it feels to a newcomer to do francisation, Marie-France’s comment about Gustavs needing help to learn French seems to get to her. and then she asks for help about how it feels to learn a foreign language.
And yet, because some of these new viewers kept reading about allusions to hockey, they ask Caro some variation of “what’s a hockey” or “what’s an NHL” while she redoubles her efforts about writing the banter from Gus in some broken French, and make him struggle with even relatively basic things as he could say in everyday life.
Which leaves Capitolium to deal with the viewers asking questions about hockey and the NHL while Caro just keeps writing what one of these viewers feels is wordwang.
And Caro keeps writing at a breakneck pace about Emma’s newfound appreciation for pro hockey players’ lives off the game, as she helps her improve Gustavs’ spoken French. Her wrists in pain from such rapid writing, she continues writing as quickly as is feasible, feeling like she’d let her viewers down if she doesn’t reach 1667 words for the day.