textahoy

Hi. 
          
          I hope you are all right as I haven't heard from you for a while; we've been having fun and games involving a friend's new puppy, and a large ragwort plant we found in our back garden.
          
          How do these sound to you as ideas for my Lion Guard story:
          
          Vitani likes to think of herself as highly organised and very efficient. She also likes having an established, repeatable routine in her life and is often upset and sometimes distressed when this is not the case.
          
          A while ago you suggested to me that perhaps Kion could come to her aid while she's experiencing a flashback and then help encourage her to open up about her PTSD. How does this sound as a continuation:
          
          After opening up to Kion and her therapist about her PTSD, Vitani's friends encourage her to form a plan to try and overcome it by deliberately putting herself in situations which might induce fear/anxiety, with at least one other member of the LG present in case of emergency. She also starts taking medication to help deal with her anxiety and PTSD ~ induced nightmares on the recommendation of her therapist.
          
          Unfortunately, her early attempts result in two very public freak outs, but these do have the effect of the teachers realising just how much of a problem her PTSD is for her and some of them decide to try and step up to help her overcome it. Tama also finds herself having to step up as a more motherly figure towards Vitani to give her the extra push she needs to keep her from giving up on her attempts.
          
          Meanwhile, Tama has a problem of her own to try and overcome: an awkward friendship with a family member of her employer has become a much more serious, romantic relationship, and she is seriously considering remarrying, but doesn't know how her blood daughter, Zuri, will react, since Zuri was very fond of her Father and reacted very negatively when he left them. [Worrying that Zuri might think she is trying to replace her Father or something along those lines.]

textahoy

Hi.
          
          We're back home now, so you can contact me again if you want.
          
          I hope all is well where you are. We had to collect the cat and the dog today, and apparently the cat gave my mother a scratch when they tried to put him back in his cat carrier!

textahoy

Another short line to say Happy New Year 2024, and I hope things improve for you. :-)

textahoy

@JulimasterHD Cool; I'll keep an eye out to see what you come up with. 
            
            I actually did think about joining the military when I was much younger, but, alas and alack, things have since happened to me which now mean that I would be very surprised if I was allowed to enlist.
            
            We were also worrying over one of the farm cats because someone found what they thought was a tick in her furr, but it turned out to be a growth, so they were keeping an eye on her. They were also wondering if it was safe for the sheep to stay in their pen overnight just before Christmas, as they'd recently got their lambs back from another farm they'd been staying on, and somebody had seen a fox on their land in the field in which the sheep usually live.
            
            I was recently envisioning a conversation between Rafiki and Vitani shortly after Vitani's pregnancy becomes known to her teachers at School, and he tells her that the Governing board have decided to allow Vitani to wear pregnancy clothes to School as her pregnancy progresses, and Vitani asks him if he is a Father, to which Rafiki replies, "yes, and a grandfather, and a great uncle. In fact, my youngest son, [insert name here], and his wife are expecting their first child together. You could say I had something of a reputation among the ladies of the Pridelands in my young days."
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JulimasterHD

@textahoy Thank you and a happy new year to you as well. Let's hope 2024 will be better than the last three years. :-) I for one hope the get some things done and under control before I'm of to my mandatory military service during fall.
            
            As for why I haven't responded to you in our private messages, I've actually decided to give writing another chance so I've used quite a bit of my time for that, the first chapter is no where near completion yet, but I've gotten about 2300 words so far, so I'm at least a little proud of that.
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textahoy

Just a quick line to say I hope you have had a good Christmas and I hope you are all right, since I haven't heard anything from you since February.

textahoy

@JulimasterHD Well, I have been writing two chapters at the moment; one introduces Kiara and her cheerleading friends, a large number of whom need names [and a few ideas regarding their physical appearances] and another focusing on Vitani's attempts to get herself elected to the student body, her main opponent being Anele, who, surprise surprise, is cheating, although I could use some ideas as to how she and her friends cheat; I thought it'd probably make more sense if the members of the student body were elected.
            
            I also had one in mind with Vitani sharing some of her childhood memories of Kopa with Simba and Nala, and she recalls an incident in which she snuck away from the Outlands while Zira was watching the other Outsiders training, and bumped into Kopa, who was playing around with some of his friends from the School he went to, who, having no idea she is an Outsider, invite her to join in their game, and I could use some ideas for their names.
            
            P.S: I'd be very interested if you have a go at writing something, and I'd definitely give it a read!
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JulimasterHD

@textahoy Thanks and a merry Christmas to you as well. Yeah I'm sorry I haven't responded in our private chat since August.
            
            Life has been difficult, lots of big drastic changes happened at work (and are happening again) while at the same time we've had some huge projects (which is never a good combo), private life wasn't much better, some family issues, among lots of other things, all of which at one point caused me to more or less have a emotional/mental breakdown. 
            
            Thankfully I've got some down time now. I'll definitely read (re-read?), at this point I'm not even sure if I read your latest chapter, and once I've got that done I'll make sure to respond to your last message in our private chat. Maybe I'll even try my hand once again at trying to write something myself.
            
            But until then, have a merry Christmas!
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textahoy

Just thought I'd drop a quick note to ask how things are with you since I haven't heard back from you in a while.
          
          I've taken time to answer some of your comments on my work and they should be in your notifications.

textahoy

Hiya. Just thought I'd check up on you again; I hope your earlier issues have either cleared up or are being cleared up.
            
            Our news was that we have got a puppy on reserve from a charity called HypoHounds, who train dogs to detect when a person's sugar level has dropped and then to alert that person, so there is obviously a lot of excitement about that, although I am wondering how our three ~ year ~ old cat is going to react to a strange dog in the house.
            
            Aside from that, I've just been working on my Wattpad project; I have completed several draft chapters but I have reached an impasse because I need dialogue ideas for an argument between the characters, the full details of which I will go into on our private thread.
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JulimasterHD

@textahoy Yeah, I'm sorry about taking so long to answer all your messages but 2023 has been keeping me busy.
            
             I've got so much to do at my apprenticeship that I don't have much energy to do anything else after work, I'm studying for my driver's license, etc, and to top it all off, I got a letter from the military saying that they might call me in for my mandatory 6 month service in the next couple of weeks, even tho I'm not supposed to be called in for my service until late 2024. So I've been busy trying to contact them, but I've got no answer so far, so I'm also quite worried about it.
            
            So yeah, that's why I've been taking so long to answer all your messages for the last couple of months. I'll answer your other messages and comments when I have some time, I'll you promise that, I just don't know when that'll be. I really do appreciate you checking in on me tho!
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