oswaldthatendswald

[oswaldthatendswald]

Walked out of Sonic 3 and unfortunately I am now 12 years old again. Yeah sorry the Sonic obsession is back. I'm reading Sonic fanfiction again. Back at the beginning. With Sonic.

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2024 Writing Roundup

I kept meaning to do this, but I haven't actually had time until now!

Words posted: 168 933 (holy shit that's more than I realized)

Additional words written: I am assuming this is things I wrote but didn't/haven't yet posted? About 44 588 words (that's not including deleted scenes and a few other small pieces that didn't seem worth counting)

fandoms: Almost entirely One Piece, except one Gargoyles fic in January

highest kudos: Somewhere to be Safe with 1007 kudos

highest hit one-shot: First Bounty with 6102 hits

new things I tried: finishing a multichapter

fic I spent the most time on: Cry "Havoc" and Let Slip the Dogs of War (by far. It's so much more work than I'd anticipated)

fic I spent the least time on: In terms only of writing/editing time, probably More Than Kin and Less Than Kind, but I spent a while thinking about that before I wrote it and Years was conceived, written, and edited entirely in one day (my birthday!)

favourite thing I wrote: those are my children I can't pick a favourite!

favourite thing(s) I read: Man of No Sea by HyperbolicReverie, or Crown of Flowers, also by HyperbolicReverie. But I read so many incredible fics this year that I can't even try to name them all.

Writing goals for 2025: Finish Cry Havoc.

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req'd by @ourstochoose9

sigh such is their fate

text: The blorbos are going in the blender whether they like it or not

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Have you ever gone that extra little bit on a project, only to completely ruin it? We all have. Being human is about trying harder and then immediately regretting any additional effort we spent on it. Whether it be running your sleeve through some fresh paint, trying to adjust some setting glue, or even going back for that last little polish only to fuck the whole thing up forever, never doubt your ability to snatch failure from success.

True experts know the secret to delivering consistent results every time: slack off at the end. Just resist that urge to go the extra mile, and be happy with the miles you already accomplished. Learn to use the magic phrases "good enough" and "I'm happy with it." In this way, you will avoid disaster. Hell, the bible says they took the seventh day off after creating all of existence, and things turned out kind of sort of okay even after coasting to the finish on that one.

There is, however, a hidden risk. Bear with me now. If you are constantly half-assing to the certain amount, eventually you will get a lot faster with practice. Soon, you'll be able to get done in a half-ass what you once needed three quarters of an ass to complete. It is in this extra quarter-ass that danger lurks, for this is the new place where you will be tempted to go above and beyond. Oh, things finished up so much faster than before, I still have time to– No. Stop it. Now you have more time to post about how great this one went on the internet, and then start a new project!

I hope that this is helpful and instructional for all of you. I'd write something more after this sentence, but I think things are going pretty well already, and I'd be afraid to fuck it up with some incomprehensible analogy to giraffes that would get etched on my tombstone. See? I went too far as it is, now it's all weird.

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Rocinante, a name that means "a broken horse" or "a foolish man"

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I think that if Rocinante is represented as a bird, I like owls best for him. Owls can fly silently, which is a fairly unique trait! They are also: Cool As Fuck.

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I really thought ten books was too many books for a two week trip but. Uh. No. Nope. I have read ten books in two weeks.

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I have, occasionally, seen discourse about whether Law and Cora's relationship is coded more as father and son or brothers. And while I think there is something to be said for acknowledging that not all relationships fit into conventional family structures, I also think the real answer is: neither. They, and we, don't get to find out.

That's the tragedy. No time to find out who they might have been to each other. Their relationship starts out antagonistic at best. I might argue that they seem to have a strained truce by the time Cora learns Law's name, but that's based more on what we don't see in canon than what we do. Then for most of the time that they're looking for a cure, Cora might be trying to be kind, but Law seems to be downright hostile. And, I'd argue, he has the right to be. He has been kidnapped, after all.

It's only right at the end-- barely weeks before Cora dies-- that Law decides to believe that Cora actually cares about him. And immediately after, Law's sickness gets much worse. There is a desperate scramble to Minion Island while Law's life seems poised on a knife's edge, and then. Then Cora's gone.

In all of that, there is no time for a real positive relationship to grow. Cora cares for Law, to be sure, but that affection is only reciprocated at the end, and once it's too late. What could they have become? I don't know. Neither does Law. The way I see it, that has to be part of why he's still unable to move on, years later. Because he realized what he could have had too late, and regret is one hell of a burden.

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"you should be at the club" I should be working on my fanfic

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It's a shame that Mark Watney and SecUnit live in entirely different fictional universes, because they would absolutely be best friends.

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Cry "Havoc!" and Let Slip the Dogs of War

Chapter 10: Kiss the Most Exalted Shores

On the ship, and on to Marineford.

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Merry chrysler

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God I hope this chapter is still good when I'm coherent enough to edit it because writing most of a chapter while magnificently sleep deprived in the Amsterdam airport will make a GREAT story.

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Waiting game

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20, 22, and 30 for the 2024 in Review please!

20. ah, I just answered this one in another ask

22. What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

Look, you have to promise not to judge me. I use wordpad on my computer, because it is very stupid and cannot try to be smart and fix my writing, and then I edit in Word (although its spell/grammer check software is getting worse and worse, in my experience). When I'm writing on my phone (usually on my commute) I write in the drafts of my gmail (this is how almost all of portraits across six months was written!)

30. What would you like to write next year?

I have so many plans. Finishing Cry Havoc is at the top of my list, but then I have a stack of AUs I've been playing with lately, and I'd really like to turn two of them in particular into longer stories. I've also been thinking about expanding More Than Kin and Less Than Kind into a full AU, which would be so fun. And I have tentative ideas for a sequel to Lying to the Government, too. I don't know how much of that will happen, but I'd like to do some of it at least!

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20 from ficwip's year in review!!

20. Share your funniest line

I don't think I'm a particularly funny writer, but I do have a whole folder on my phone of lines that made me cackle while I was writing them. I think my favourite at the moment is "I'm not gonna bother finding a new place for your bones." (From Lying to the Government for Fun and Profit, chapter 2).

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Hello, 23, 24, 26 of the 2024 in review please ! (or any other you want to share!)

Thank you for writing this year. I enjoyed reading from you very very much.

Thank you very much! I really appreciate it!

23. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Man, hard question right out the gate! Probably writing More Than Kin and Less Than Kind-- I'd had that scene rotating in my head for weeks, but I didn't know what to do with it. When I actually wrote it, it came together all in one sitting and I loved it so much. That was really satisfying.

24. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

Yeah, I started a new one 😂 Seriously, though, I don't really do anything to celebrate finishing fics. Posting it is the celebration for me.

26. Did you create fanworks other than fic?

Nope, I'm a writer only!