#ANYWAYS. i'll reach out to people about plots and stuff when i can but if i'm slow to respond/reach out to you then

[ripgray-moved]

bhjdkfjd— just a tiny heads up that i'm mostly mobile-bound for now because of uhhhh physical pain lol. i'll be back to making starters and messaging people about them when my body chills the fuck out!!!

[illbegottenfaith]

hey!! i loved ur handwritten fic with the notes it was absolutely amazing, do u think u could make a pt 2 of that or just another fic with that format? thank u!! <3

handwritten pt 2 - theo nott x reader

yours and theo's story as told through notes passed in class

Part 1 | Part 2

a/n - thank you so much for this lovely!! it gave me the motivation I needed to clean up the dribs and drabs I had drafted out so here it is <3 I have plans/ideas for future chapters too (similar format but might not be restricted to just notes 👀) but I'm not sure how long of a series it'll actually end up being. enjoy!

tropes/warnings - fluff, a little more angst than the last chapter, newstudent!theo, estranged friends to lovers

word count - 1.9k

Saturday, 9.48 pm, The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade

You okay?

Yeah, why?

You’re awfully quiet. And you’ve been staring into your empty butterbeer for the past ten minutes, so either it was terrible or you’re plotting something.

Ha-ha.

You hate this, don’t you?

They’re just not the kind of people I hang out with.

Let’s get out of here.

Are you kidding? This party is for you, Theo.

Look at them. They’re drunk off their tits. No one’s going to mind.

No, stay. I might call it a night soon, though.

Are you sure?

Yeah. Don't worry about me, I’m just not used to hanging out with these kinds of people.

What kind?

I don’t know. Quidditch players. Hooligans. It’s not really my scene.

I didn’t know you felt that way.

I didn’t want to spoil your night.

Listen, it’s getting late. I should probably head back.

Okay. Get your coat, I'll settle the bill.

No, it’s fine, I can pay for my drink. Besides, you should stay.

At least let me walk you back.

Stay. I mean it.

Fine, but I’m paying for your drink. And before you say anything, it’s one lousy butterbeer. Consider it compensation for ruining your evening.

You didn’t ruin my evening. I liked the part when we walked here together. I don’t mind this too much either - scribbling on napkins.

Let me walk you back. Please.

Saturday, 10.19 pm, Ravenclaw Dormitories, Hogwarts

What's with the notebook?

Sorry, Ivan's finally passed out and I don't want to wake him. He hasn't been able to sleep all week, can you imagine? It's that stupid Herbology project - y'know, the one that Katie's been simmering those mandrakes for - I swear, he's so tense in the shoulders. I finally got him to nod off after dinner and it just seems cruel to wake him up and make him go allll the way down to his dorm :(

Fine, but Merlin help you when Katie wakes up and finds him still here. I still can't wrap my head around how much he lets you baby him. He's a Slytherin, for God's sake.

Please, he knew what he was getting himself into. If anything, I think the babying might have been a motivating factor. Anyway, how was the party?

Okay, I think. I kissed him. On the cheek.

YOU'RE going to wake Ivan. Have some goddamn self-control.

OH I KNEW ITTT I knew it the moment he walked into Charms class and you looked up and your eyes met and you lost your tongue and when you looked back he had that shy sort of smile I just KNEW he was going to be so good for you. Because he is, Y/N. He might be the best thing that's happened to you.

Gosh, relax. It's not like it meant anything. What's a little friendly peck between friends here and there? I just did it so he wouldn't follow me back to the castle like a lost puppy. Besides, he's not that perfect.

A real human being with real human flaws? You don't say.

It's hard to explain. He's only being this nice because he knows what he's done.

What has he done?

Some pretty hard-to-forgive stuff. I don't want to get into it right now.

Have you?

Have I what?

Forgiven him.

I don't know. I mean, I see him trying to reach out, but every time, even now, with the party - something stops me from...fully connecting. Something holds me back.

I don't think I have.

Monday, 9.13 am, Charms

Did you get back alright?

Yup.

I wanted to come check, but the guys...

I told you they weren't going to let their guest of honour run off. So how was the rest of the night?

Middling. They started up a game of strip poker when we got back.

Oh.

Allegedly, normal poker was too ordinary for a night as special as that.

You're kidding, right?

Oh my fucking god, you gamble??

Who said the poker had anything to do with gambling?

So you don’t gamble?

I didn’t say that.

Theo.

OUCH enough with the pinching! I've already had ten years too many of it.

I can't help that it's the only way to get you to behave.

I don’t see what the problem is. It’s my money to use as I see fit. Plus, I'm very careful about the people I play with. Merlin knows we have too much anyway.

Unbelievable. Gambling, really? Why not just drop out of Hogwarts and live slot machine to slot machine, huh? Why don't you just set up shop at some casino in Las Vegas?

I'm very confused. Do you want to go to Vegas?

You have the attention span of a fruit fly.

Because that's not a half-bad idea. We could make a whole trip out of it over the summer.

Your friends need to introduce you to more legal forms of recreation. What are you doing Wednesday night?

Nothing yet.

Good. I'm teaching you Exploding Snap.

Isn't that a kid's game?

FUCK I'm SORRY but DO NOT pinch me in the same place twice.

Oh, quit whining. You'll live.

Barely. If you keep this up, I'm going to start sitting far far away from you and those PINCERS you call fingers.

Wednesday, 1.02 pm, Potions

I ran into Katie on the way here and Merlin, she was in hysterics. I'm out of the room for one night and I miss you making out with Loverboy in our dorm??? Geez, at least put a sock on the door.

We were not making out!!! Katie just walked in at an unfortunate time.

Uh-huh.

Look, he was the one who showed up at the window on his broom, drunk out of his mind.

Drunk??

I know! What was he thinking, risking his neck all the way up there at the Ravenclaw dorms?? It was like he didn't even notice too. I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I opened the window and nope, that was him, and then I screamed and he nearly fell off his broom so I hauled him inside. He practically faceplanted on the floor. I was terrified - I thought he was poisoned or something, but then I tried to prop him up and he had this dopey look on his face and he reeked of firewhiskey. Ugh, it was so annoying. I don’t want to talk about it.

You know what he said to me? After all that?

I thought you didn’t want to talk about this?

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh?

Uh-oh. Like a goddamn Looney Tunes character.

Looney Tunes?

Never mind. He was all ‘uh-oh, you’re mad at me’ while I was trying to get him to drink some coffee and I was like yeah, no shit, you look like you’re seconds away from puking all over my dorm. And then he started…he started talking about the party, and me leaving, and how sorry he was he brought me in the first place.

Aww.

I know, right? I felt like crap. I didn’t think it would be such a big deal to him.

Of course it was a big deal. That was him introducing you to his new friends.

Exactly, new friends. What does he want with me?

Y/N, are you daft? Do you not see the way he looks at you? He so clearly cares what you think about his friends.

What on earth are you talking about?

Ivan's on the team so they hang out together sometimes and he says Theo's a lot different around you. He doesn't swear as much, he drops his voice a little and he's extra attentive. Hell, he nearly got into a fight with some dunce in our year over the way that guy was talking about you. Y/N, he obviously cares about you so, so much. Please tell me you didn’t say anything too harsh.

I called the whole lot of them hooligans.

NOOOOO

But t's true!! Have you seen their matches? How they don't rip each other to shreds is beyond me. But I didn't mean that he was like that. Theo could never be like them. He'd play a good, fair, clean game.

Yeah. Sure.

What's that supposed to mean?

You haven't watched a single one of his practices, have you?

No. Should I?

Never mind. What happened next?

That's when things started going downhill. He started trying to remove his shirt because it was so hot from Katie’s blasted simmering pot of mandrakes. I was trying to stop him, only he wasn’t listening, and apparently he gets rather clingy and touchy when he’s, y’know, tipsy, and then…Katie walked in.

Damn.

Of course that's when he decides to sober up, so I look like an idiot while everyone in the room - yes! even him!!! - wants to know what I’m doing in his lap. He was sooooo polite too, as if he hadn’t just rudely breaking-and-entering’d his way into my room. ‘Oh, hello, Y/N. What a tastefully decorated room you have, Y/N. Is there a reason we’re sitting so close, Y/N?’ As if I want to be sitting in his lap!

Right.

Because I don’t.

Okay.

‘Cause that would be so weird.

Mhm.

Like…ew.

Okay, okay. I get it. I believe you.

He wouldn’t even let me get up or anything. Just kept talking to Katie about the weather with his hand on my thigh, casual as ever. I swear, if that teammate of his - what's his name, Mattheo? - hadn't come looking for him, I don't know how I would have gotten him down to his dorm.

What a thriller of a story, from start to finish.

Yeah, well, I could do it with a little less thrill in my life.

Aw, I think it was sweet. That disaster of a party was clearly eating at him.

Yeah. I mean, we're friends. It should bother him if I've had a shitty night, right? But also...we're just friends.

For the record, you're a different person around him too.

Psh. Yeah right.

Different how?

Ivyyyy

Thursday, 3.07 pm, Defence Against the Dark Arts

How’s your hand?

Doing very badly, thank you very much.

I have to say, I didn’t take you to be this sore of a loser.

My fingertips have been singed off. Forgive me if I seem a little sulky.

Aww. Was the kid's game a little too hard for the big, manly, Quidditch player?

You tricked me. You didn't even tell me all of the rules before we started playing.

Oh, come on. You knew enough to play.

But not to win!

Yes, well, I wasn't about to hand you a victory on a silver platter. I thought Slytherins were supposed to be clever, or something. Maybe you're the 'something.'

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. We'll see who's laughing after next week's chess match.

Does it hurt a lot? Your fingers?

For a lesser man? Perhaps. I think I'm dealing with the pain quite well, actually.

So if we didn't have class, you'd be -?

Writhing on the floor of my dorm.

Ah, I see. Poor baby. Want me to kiss it better?

Promises, promises.

But you still had fun, didn’t you?

It is quite the adrenaline rush.

I knew it.

Alas, my fingertips…

Oh, sod off. You always were the biggest drama queen.

[holorform2009]

Ok. I've been reading yandere DC x reader stuff and all.

They all have their own unique way of writing and the plots too. But have you ever thought of making the reader a sprunki like?

I've seen others make reader a mermaid, animal/shape shifter, robin, a villain, and etc. But I have never seen someone make reader a sprunki, I know the sprunki just came out a days ago but like.

What I'm trying to say is

What if reader has a Music syndrome? (I made this up, this syndrome does not exist.)

Music syndrome is a person who only speaks music or sound to communicate people or express their feeling or wanted to talk. And of course, this syndrome has no cure. But anyways, if reader has a Music syndrome, they can only let out a noise of what it sounds like a music. Just a single tone. I image reader as brud in sprunki, and I would like to imagine how the DC characters interact reader who speaks music. Their confused expression as to what the reader is trying to say to them.

They tried to understand you but failed to do so, and I also wanted to add a bit of spice here. Since there is a horror version of brud, why not make music syndrome!reader have a trauma ✨

Reader does not like black top hat and it will trigger them, because it reminded them of what he did to their friends, especially wenda— *cough cough* Anyways! And I wanted to imagine the face of every DC characters to reader's head that got bitted by Simon and how shocked they are when they found out you have the tiniest brain that the bite could not reach it and you manage to survive Simon's bite. Walking around like that will give them a fright because you look like a zombie.

How did reader end up in the DC ? Well I want to image a scenario where reader escapes the bloody chaos, managed to escape wenda's wrath and also Black. They see a light grey door, they opened it and poof! They are now in the DC universe!

You are so confused when you enter this universe, when you looked down to yourself you have an arms and a digits. What is this you thought. You take a look around your surroundings and noticed you are not in that hellhole anymore, no more Simon eating what's left of you, no more Wenda stabbing you, and black... You shake your head. You do not want to remember that mean guy.

As you explore this unfamiliar world, you heard what it sounds like a murmur, the tone sounded worried. You looked at the source of sound, wondering who was looking at you. I mean. You head a fricking huge bite mark on your head, who wouldn't be worried about that? Furthermore, who wouldn't be surprised that the fact your still alive from that large wound? You have a smallest, tiniest brain of course.

"yo buddy"

You stopped, and turned around to see a man with black suit and a blue logo on his chest. "You need a medical attention there little guy!" When you blinked, you were snatched into his hold and held you up like Mufasa in the lion king. Startled by his sudden actions, you let out a noise of surprise but to him, he heard you sang.

"🎶🎵🎵🎶🎶🎵!"

So yeah, that's how you met Nightwing.

You are now at the hospital, your big ass bite mark is wrapped up in a pure white cloth. To be honest you didn't fell any pain from the biting or stabbing but it hurts to see your friend hurting you.

A tall lady approached you, gently rubbing circles on your back as she spoke to you "Where are your parents, little one?" What

What's a parent?

"🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶?" You sang. The nurse was left dumfounded at your response, not sure how to reply to that but she only said "Okay..." definitely did not understand what you said right there. "Do you feel any pain or anything that makes you uncomfortable? Just nod if yes and shake if no"

You shake your head no.

"Okay, I'll ask the doctor if you are ready to go"

With that she left, leaving you there. Sitting on the bed as you wonder what are you going to do now since you escaped from hell.

And that's how you end up here.

[mikayuumouse]

Dumb Bsd theory I came up with that's probably already been said but idk I wanted to discuss it;

So Fyodor was all like "I'll let you use the backside of the Page from the Book if you join my side"

Atsushi of course agreed to this, but then Amenogozen stabbed him and Fyodor said this;

So Fyodor really only wants Byakko. He doesn't give a crap about Atsushi

Then he commanded Amenogozen to decapitate Atsushi, and Atsushi almost was killed until someone cut Amenogozen's arm off

And who was that? Atsushi's knight in shining armor, Akutagawa

Anyways, blah blah blah, more stuff happened, as you all know, I don't wanna just recap all the latest chapters, I just want to talk about a specific aspect

Fyodor is most likely desperate for the Bookmark/Byakko. I don't think we really know anything about the Bookmark(?) except for the fact that Atsushi's ability slicing claws are valuable. But like, Fyodor's been doing all this plotting and scheming for years, just to get the Book and maybe the Bookmark

I have no idea how Fyodor was going to get Byakko out of Atsushi if Atsushi had actually been decapitated by Amenogozen, but I Atsushi's gone now. He's not dead, but he's in the fourth dimension with Ueda, where Fyodor (probably) can't reach him. If Fyodor can't reach Atsushi (whether dead or alive), he can't get the Bookmark

But who's someone Fyodor can get to? Akutagawa

Also this was Fyodor's face when Akutagawa cut Amenogozen's arm off,

and he looks genuinely shocked, because I think to his knowledge at the time, Atsushi's claws were the only thing that could hurt Amenogozen (as he said while guilt tripping Atsushi into thinking Kenji, Tanizaki and Kunikida's blood were on his hands). Fyodor most likely sees Akutagawa as a threat of some sort, especially since he's so unprecedented

But Akutagawa isn't stable right now

Akutagawa is injured, alone, enraged and just very recently got all of his memories and trauma returned to him. He's not in the best of shape, and also, he is desperate. Perhaps even more than Fyodor. Akutagawa wants and needs Atsushi back, because Atsushi is his reason to live and his heart

Now, Fyodor ripped up the "Page" but c'mon that was most likely a fake. Fyodor's got the real thing kept somewhere else (maybe just on his person). Or maybe he has more fake Pages (if the original Page he decimated was even fake)

So what would happen if Fyodor pulled out another Page, whether fake or real, and offered it to the feral, desperate knight known as Akutagawa? What if Fyodor told him the power of the Page, and how Akutagawa could bring his beloved weretiger back?

Akutagawa doesn't know people who die by Amenogozen's blade get transported to the fourth dimension. He thinks Atsushi is dead.

What if Fyodor manipulates that aspect of Akutagawa? Like, what if Fyodor's plan has altered, slightly, to where he uses Akutagawa's desperation to get Atsushi/Byakko

There could be a lot difference ways of executing the whole thing, but I assume Akutagawa would be tricked by Fyodor and then somehow imprisoned and then once Atsushi's back from the fourth dimension (does Fyodor know about the fourth dimension? I don't remember if it's even revealed if he does or not), he'll use Akutagawa against Atsushi. It's guaranteed that Atsushi would join Fyodor's side to save Akutagawa, as he agreed to it to save the Agency, although Atsushi probably wouldn't trust Fyodor's promises

Idk this is a very random theory and probably stupid 😔 but I do wonder how things would play out if the story took this direction

[alexanderlightweight]

okay so this is a super short article and definitely isn't the best one but basically, there is a Turkish language that originated for long-range communication in the mountains of Turkey. Which I realize is random but:

this is really cool and interesting and also there sadly aren't many people left who speak it (as often is the case with older and ethnic languages and dialects since colonialism AND capitalism both stamp out culture and individualism etc)... anyways.

so perhaps nephilim have slightly different vocal cords and their version of enochian (I do have a fic planned for them being able to speak and read in an angelic language but thats different) or a demonic language is in fact, through whistle/chirp/singing noises that are both ideal for battles, but also while they're in the air since wind and movement makes it hard to decipher words (i'm looking at you house of dragon fanfics where the dragonriders can communicate just by talking (not even shouting) across DRAGONS. i'm sorry you can hear over the sound of the wind and their breathing and their wingbeats and the feel of their heartbeat that probably can be felt even through the leather of a saddle? one of my partner's (say because i'll throw them happily under the bus) has several special interests from star wars (obi-wan) to GOT/House of Dragons/TSOFAI (basically both literature and media) along with a bunch of other stuff.

so yeah. anyways. yes most things I see in RL get filtered through a 'can I make this malec' lens. most of the time its 'yes' whether I like it or not and sometimes it's 'this is garbage and not worthy of turning into malec'.

because of say loving got/house of dragons did I mentally figure out exactly how malec would exist in that universe? yes. do I feel pretty silly about it since I'm not planning on writing it? no, because I had to do something with all the trivia knowledge I learn from the background noise of Say watching lore videos and since i'm not going to waste mental time plotting without malec involved... so basically any time I see something interesting I use it as malec inspiration fodder instead

Nightshade is really mad at me (and when I say mad I mean he's upset and a little angry and the only way he knows how to deal with that is to either throw a tantrum (barking and zoomies) or sulk. Currently he is just out of reach. like, if he moved his nose it would touch my toes or I stretched my leg out (which I can't do because bad leg) I could maybe touch his ear but otherwise he's next to me but just out of reach and he's like 'see. we could be cuddling but you don't love me enough to move the laptop so... here we are. together but apart.'

i need people to understand how melodramatic this dog is. the moment I finally concede and move the laptop, he will be in my lap and 'forgive me' for my sins and the travesty of not giving him the highest priority in the lands.

[lightandfellowship]

Going over the KHDR Completion Commemorative Q&A

As requested by @starlightwayfinder a while back.

Taken from goldpanner's translation hosted on KHInsider.

Under the read more. I discuss some KHML trailer details in one of the sections.

Nomura saying that the installment was physically going over capacity makes me think that he's talking about the size of the app. As in, they fit as much data as they could onto the app's storage space before reaching a hard limit that couldn't be overcome, leading to them having to "cut the fat" as it were. Which I think would make sense given that (1. KHDR shares space with the KHUX side of the app; they're not two separate apps with two separate storage spaces and (2. both games are completely offline now and thus all the relevant data has to fit on the device itself and none of it can be "streamed" from a server (I assume.)

(Speaking from a very general understanding of how live-service mobile games work; take with a grain of salt...)

KHDR having connections to KHML is kind of a given, but Nomura saying in no uncertain terms that plot details from KHDR will be relevant to KH4 is...interesting, and encouraging. I suppose we could have guessed that given the Child of Destiny stuff, but it makes me wonder what other less obvious details from KHDR will turn out to be relevant down the line. We might be surprised by the plot threads and maybe even...characters? that make a return.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I completely buy his explanation here (even though the "recycling assets to save space/time/money" part makes enough sense from a game dev perspective). Nomura is known for being fickle about the specifics of plot details and changing his mind about things over time; it wouldn't surprise me if he initially conceived Destiny Islands Xehanort to be a young man before deciding Xehanort needed to leave Destiny Islands at a much younger age in order to have the new "spending his teen years in Scala" backstory make sense. But, it's not a big deal; if the "catch-all symbolic representation" thing is the artsy explanation Nomura wants to use to avoid calling it a "retcon", then sure, fuck it, who cares. I don't care.

Seems Nomura was hoping that default male Player would be recognized as merely a default representation of Player (so, not canon, just one of many possible representations) but then realized people were going to take it as canon anyway. Which, yeah of course they would. You're implicitly favoring and legitimizing whatever version you choose to depict in the canon, immutable cutscenes, because the fact you chose it out of all possibilities suggests you prefer it. I'm glad the devs changed the cutscenes to make Player's gender ambigious, though they didn't go far enough to obscure Player's skintone, leading to people having to headcanon that Player is just wearing...light flesh-colored gloves? Frankly: yuck, but here we are. Maybe KHML will retcon this too and do a better job of hiding their skintone.

Also, I'm not sure what Nomura means when he says that Player showed up in Xehanort's "final battle" when they...didn't? Unless by "final battle" he just means the final episode in general? Idk, weird wording there, might be a translation thing.

I get why people felt that the bald explanation was kinda unnecessary and out of left field, but as user isan0rt points out in this post, the distinction between "his hair fell out" and "he shaved it" is actually pretty important from a character analysis perspective. I don't blame Nomura for wanting to further clarify and highlight the Buddhist monk themes at the core of Xehanort's character when, I guess, it was flying over a lot of people's heads (pun not intended).

It's unfortunately just one of those things where Nomura drawing attention to this "lore reveal" in pre-release interviews primed people to take it less seriously than if he had just...put it in the game with no fanfare.

Not sure why Nomura ended the answer talking about the Queen of Hearts and her not remembering Xehanort. I guess because the Mirror managed to remember him after like 60 years and him losing all of his hair but the Queen forgot about him after only, like, four years?

KHML trailer spoilers below.

The KHML trailers say that the Emblem Heartless reach Gothic Scala via the Astral Plane, and well, if KHDR's Emblem Heartless and KHML's Emblem Heartless share the same explanation for their anachronistic presence as Nomura implies here, then I guess the Astral Plane is where the KHDR Heartless are coming from? That's my theory for now anyway. The question just becomes, why were they arriving from the Astral Plane during the events of KHDR? Did somebody...let them in?

But then, "vessel" characters like the Queen of Hearts and Baldr also summon + control Emblem Heartless of their own that seem to originate from within them, so like. The Emblem Heartless situation seems a bit more complicated than just "they're coming from the Astral Plane."

And yes, the question was labeled "O4" rather than "Q4". There was a lot of speculation at the time about what this meant and whether or not Nomura was trying to send a secret message, but to this day we still don't know what this was about, apparently.

"Someone who bears the heart of the Player" is very interesting and specific wording. Is Nomura merely using the word "someone" to indicate that this is an entirely new body and life for Player, or is he using the word "someone" to indicate that this was an entirely different, fully-realized person before Player's heart "took over"?

The rest of this answer is worded...kind of unnaturally and strangely and I have no idea what Nomura is saying here, tbh. Again, might be a translation thing. But Player talking about a "second life" still exists in the most current version of the game, so Nomura can't possibly be talking about patching that line out, right? Like, it's still there! It never got "withdrawn". Unless he changed his mind after this interview?

Though, looking at the "that heart will once again melt into the heart of another person" bit, I think I now see where all those "Sora is reincarnated Player" theories come from?

Not much to say about this one. I still feel like the transition from KHML Scala to KHDR Scala had some magic involved, though. Between the Land of Departure's transformation feature that specifically activates with Master's Defender (turning LoD into a white roomed castle not unlike the white buildings of KHDR Scala), and the two Scalas looking so drastically different, it just makes sense to me.

Nomura isn't wrong here. I do think it's not too difficult to imagine what happened post-KHDR. Though it's still a shame that we didn't get to see those chapters of Xehanort's life.

(I know some people would probably argue that the game shouldn't have been called "Dark Road" in the first place then, if the game was just going to be about the events that led Xehanort to that road, but eh, I feel like that's semantics.)

If there's one thing I can respect and appreciate about the KH series as a whole, it's the commitment to focusing on character relationships. I think it was a good call by Nomura to prioritize depicting Xehanort and Eraqus' friendship in their youth.

Honestly? I actually really appreciate that Nomura seems to give a shit about the KHDR cast and feels genuinely disappointed and apologetic that he couldn't show them off more. Like he could've so easily just been all "Xehanort Xehanort Xehanort" about the game since Xehanort is his favorite OC, his favorite blorbo, but no he actually wanted to give the other characters their time in the spotlight, too. I really want that novel to happen eventually and I'm crossing my fingers for it. Please Square.

For context, apparently in the JP version of KHDR, Odin more directly references his teacher at the end of the game. While in the ENG version...you'd basically just have to guess at the existence of such a person from Odin's line "I finally see the truth of those words." or something? I have no idea why this wasn't made more obvious in ENG if it's more obvious in JP, but the series has been known for sometimes baffling localization choices, so like, eh.

It's interesting to think that Odin might have known Player2 in the past, and that they might have been working together on the Child of Destiny stuff. I fully expect to see a younger Odin in KHML, tbh.

By the way, I think Nomura calling KHML "a later period" is just some poor wording or translation hiccup and he meant to say "earlier"; I don't think he's saying some PLOT TWIST! thing about KHML somehow actually taking place after KHDR. (We'll see if my statement here ages poorly like 5 years from now lol.)

The Q&A response that made the entire "Skuld is Subject X" theory community freak out.

Yeah who the heck knows. "Connected" can mean so many things in this series, and following up that sentence with "Missing-Link is also a story about bloodlines" could be an intentionally misleading non-sequitur on Nomura's part.

Yes I'm speaking from bias because I want Skuld to be Subject X, what of it.

Another question labeled with "O" instead of "Q" as well. Both questions like that so far have been Missing-Link related.

Not much to say on this one. I personally think that Brain is indeed Eraqus' grandfather and I don't imagine Brain and Ephemer's bloodlines overlapping, but we'll see what KHML reveals about Brain's future family.

Oh and I think the secret report this question is referencing (Secret Report 2 from KH3) said "descended from the very first masters in the age of fairy tales" not "master", so it's not specifically talking about like. An individual person who could be considered the one and only "first", like the MoM or Founder Ephemer or something. It's Keyblade Masters from the age of fairy tales in general, at least, the earliest ones to exist. Which can potentially include Brain, I think?

Question 12 was just about when we'd get Missing-Link news, so skipping that one straight into Question 13.

What's interesting about this question and answer is that right below it is the Nomura artwork of Young Xehanort wearing modern clothes in Miyashita Park. Could that artwork then be hinting at what this "good opportunity" might look like?

Below is how the original Q&A and artwork looked together. You can see that Q13 was the final one, almost as if this question was asked last on purpose in order for the artwork to follow right after it as a sort of "unofficial" answer.

[triggerhappyhavac-academy]

intro post !!

Greetings to all you degenerates out there! Monokuma out there. Welcome to Hope's Peak academy. The school that brings in only the students who are the absolute best in their field,

And that now, will only serve for them bring out the worst of themselves! Puhuhuhu!

There's no need to tell you the rules of the killing game, you already know how this works, don't you? Let's not waste our time with unnecessary explanation.

Now that your here, it's only fair I let you interfere at least a little! Would be kinda boring to see the same plot play all over again, don't you think? So I suppose, with minimal limitations, you're free to send in your questions and advice.

But don't get any crazy ideas! If you think you'll get away with just outright telling them what happens next, you have another thing coming! Each and every request sent in will be checked by me before the student receives it!

Where's the fun in that anyway? It's like, spoiler alert, duh! People are supposed to figure things out on their own, ya know? Or else it's some unnecessary and nonsensical plot device that allows them to see the future, it's the equivalent to throwing them in a room and forcing them to watch videos of their own futures before they even live it. But who would do that?

You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Puhuhuhu!!

Well, now that I think about it, I can't let you animals just start sending in whatever you want! Who knows what kinda weird stuff you'll start sending in. I guess that means I'll have to create a list of regulations for you freaks!

1. This is the most important rule. Not exactly a guideline for what you can't do, but what you need to do. Tell me who you're sending your ask to in your message! Even if it's for everyone, you gotta specify, or else, what am I supposed to do with it? I can't just assume your intentions, y'know??

2. I know how disappointed all of you will be to hear this, but unfortunately in order to keep a school-appropriate environment for our students, their's a strict no-NSFW policy. So keep your perverse thoughts to yourself, weirdo!

3. As stated above, you're under no circumstances allowed to spoil the game for them. Interfere and change the story as you wish, but spoilers will not be tolerated! At least TRY to be creative! Oh, and don't get mad when some students ignore your advice. You can't just expect every student to obey your every command like rats! Only the stupidest of the bunch would do that!

4. The characters may be slightly different than what you remember them to be. Unfortunately the owner of this account is some gayzo who likes to change all her favorite characters to be more to her liking! And who does that anyway? I thought if they were already your favorite they didn't need changing? I guess I'll never understand kids these days. Needless to say, his own 'headcannons' have been imposed onto these characters and there's nothing I can do about it!

5. There's no strict policy on shipping, you can try and pair up whoever you see fit together, but don't be surprised when it comes crashing to the ground and one of them finds the other dead! Puhuhuhuuhu!!!

6. One last thing: Feel free to be as mean as you want to the students of Hope's Peak! What you say to them is typically no concern of mine, you think I care if you hurt their feelings!? But even if you do want to make your favorite ultimate student cry like a baby, offensive language like racism, homophobia, and slurs won't be tolerated! Sorry, that's just no the kind of language we condone here!

And with all that out of the way, here's a note from our mod:

//OOC: Hi, my name's Ember but you can call me Emie if you'd like. I'll be the person running this blog, so I'd like to give you a little more info on it's content and about myself.

This blog only contains characters from Trigger Happy Havoc and no other games, so don't try to reach out to those other characters. I'll have an introduction post to showcase all the students currently in attendance. As you can probably tell, all this takes place during the killing game.

I want to clarify for future notice, no matter how mean I act when in-character, that's not how I am irl at all! I'm sure that's always implied but I just want to be safe.

When it comes to the characters, I have specified that I've implemented my own headcannons, though I did refrain from including some I felt weren't right for this blog, and although most fan content from me tends to be dark and depressing, I'm going to exclude some of the more horrifying concepts I would typically include in my fanfiction. Not to say this won't be as dark as the initial game of course.

And yes, I'm a multi-shipper so I'm pretty okay with any ship, though I'm not comfortable with implementing incest ships or anything like that. I'm mostly a Naegami or Naegigiri shipper but if anything else happens I won't be complaining.

In case you ever want to refer to me, I use any pronouns so anything is fine. That was pretty much everything I wanted to get out of the way, sooo, without further ado, let the killing games begin !!!

[ratasum]

So about that big rewrite with @wall-legion. (Spoilers and some salt ahead, and significant changes.)

Again, as per usual, keep in mind that we're doing this based on personal opinion. If you enjoyed your time, I'm INCREDIBLY happy for you! But we did not.

Zojja isn't the one who goes to the wizards (at least not at first). I've mentioned before that Jenn and I had been treating it like she'd been There All Along the last eight years, and we're not changing that.

Instead, since in our plot Logan dies for real in Arah, he's the one in Wizlandia. He got picked up after being left there with the intention of people returning to get his body. The assumption is that he got awakened or something. Turns out that's not the case!

Zojja has some roles in the other plots that I'll write out when I get around to actually writing cohesive fic stuff, but it's limited bc of chronic pain and fatigue from what she went through in Maguuma. She's doing her best, but still struggling with what she's no longer able to do. Which leads to her vanishing in the middle of the night roughly a month before SotO starts.

Odetta and Leyya eventually find the letter she received from Logan, leading them on the goose chase that takes them to Wizlandia as well. Plot roughly follows canon from here in points, with Logan in Zojja's role and Zojja present and Mabon mentoring her to unlock more of her magic.

Mabon lives! He also gets some of his memories back because of the possession, and he starts spilling the beans. He keeps mentoring Zojja despite his apprehension with Isgarren, who starts helping in the convergences, and she starts getting pressured towards ascension as well... genuinely considering it because she's so tired.

All those loaded Chekov's Guns about the fractals and how horrific and unethical they were, the wizards never stepping in even when the world is at risk (Void?? hello??), and Isgarren's seeming lack of care for anything outside of the Kryptis gets tied up. How? He, Eparch, and Vass had a shitty breakup and Isgarren is obsessed with "punishing" him for his supposed betrayal over Vass's death. There's some JUICY DEETS here I'll go into later.

Galrath is replaced. Because why the FUCK is he even there???? We killed him to keep him OUT of the wizard's tower in GW1.

Anyway Isgarren tries to genocide the kryptis to "keep Tyria safe," leading to a big kerfuffle and a final fight with him. He ends up killed right before we fight Eparch and kill him. Peitha gets made king!

Logan decides to ascend in the end and stay with the wizards. He knows he can do well here, and everyone thinks he's dead anyway. Dagda takes on Isgarren's role. She also gets to learn she shouldn't tie her worth and willingness to exist to one person and stops trying to cling to the memory of the kodan and wrap up Zojja.

Lyhr leaves to find his partner. He may return to the wizards eventually, but he needs to do this.

Zojja decides to stop trying to be better and to work within her means. She also decides she's going to burn the system in Rata Sum to the ground, but needs time to plan. Opts to go back to Lion's Arch for now.

The wizards agree they can no longer stay in their tower doing nothing. They start reaching out more to core Tyria. No hiding anymore. If they're going to protect the world... they need to be part of it.

And unrelated to any of that, the Rata Novus fractal is now the Thaumanova city cube.

But yeah, we're gonna have fun with this.

[skuppo]

Heyy skuppo I like your fanfic a lot and I’ve noticed u haven’t been online at all, u okay? I’m not trying to be pushy for a new chapter, sorry if it comes off that way. I was just wondering if your were alr?

Hi hello! It's very kind that you're reaching out here like this! 💖 It made me happy to see when I noticed, which admittedly took awhile (I'm so sorry!), because I have been very disconnected from everything lately!

This is kinda rambly so I'll give it a cut!

I am doing ALL RIGHT (right now, anyway, because before, I was doing TERRIBLY AHHHH like seriously some of the worst months of my life there for a bunch of stupid and also personally catastrophic reasons). I don't really want to get into all that because it's a huge bummer and it all REALLY SUCKED and I don't want to trauma dump! I'm sure I'll get into it a bit on my next author's note! BUT FEAR NOT, I'm not one of those people who gets upset even if people are like, "YO WHERE'S YOUR FIC" even if that was your intention -- long as it's respectful! It actually makes me more happy than anything to hear people still care about my story when I go into social hibernation mode 😭 selfishly my story means the world to me, so anytime anyone likes it, I'm like, yesssssss, my life is validated!

And on THAT front, I'm done with a chapter! I'm gonna do one quick and final pass-over edit and then it'll get posted tomorrow, either before or after work! (It's currently 11:00ish pm here in CST land, so expect it somewhere between like, idk, 8:30 AM and... 5? tomorrow??) Gonna take some brief time to ramble here because WHY NOT and also I AM ANXIOUS and gotta word vomit to STOP IT (it won't actually stop any of the anxiety BUT I CAN TRY) and am I really myself if I am not taking a short, sweet comment and using it to BLAB FOR DAYS???: it's not as long as my last couple of chapters because those 20k+ behemoths were exhausting as fuck to edit and really killed my drive to write. This is more my old style of 10-14k sorta chapters, and the one AFTER it is also actually written, too, it just needs a lot more editing. And then there's a TON of stuff after it I've also written too. In my long sabbatical, I basically let myself write scenes from parts of my fic as I was inspired to write them and not necessarily chronologically! This kinda resulted in me having TONS of shit written but nothing I could post, but it was also all I could really emotionally manage at the time. Between that and letting myself go back to smaller chapter sizes, I'm hoping it means I can go back to posting with a lot more regularity -- like, idk, once every week or two. I kept falling into this DUMB TRAP where I'd get anxious about a long portion of the story being more introspective/emotion-exploring than plot advancing and think, well, I have to hold on until I get some introspection AND some plot advancing moments, and that meant I'd end up with some INSANELY LONG CHAPTERS and editing those things made me really wanna walk directly into oncoming traffic. They were especially torture when I was NOT doing so hot on the brainmeat front, which is... OFTEN. Like who isn't emotionally and mentally a mess these days, the world is a DISASTER Anyway, long story short, I'm going to stop holding myself to arbitrary goals and allow myself to sometimes publish a chapter that's more about some horror-drenched domestic nightmare-fluff even if it doesn't have anything SUPER plot advancey at the moment because it's what makes me happy! AND HEY, character development is plot advancement too! (THAT'S WHAT I'M TELLING MYSELF ANYWAY AHHHH)

(In actuality I feel like I'm constantly terrified I'm letting the 20 people who consistently read my stuff down, but I gotta like, try really really hard to NOT think about that, HNNGH.)

I really think it'll be better for everyone tho. I'm more motivated to write when things don't take me a month and a half, because when it takes me a month and a half to write ONE CHAPTER I want to take a 7 year sabbatical not only from writing, but from life. I don't tend to get near as exhausted churning through smaller chapters though! Also, I hope you're reading on Ao3 and NOT FF.net cause I probably won't be posting there immediately! This chapter gets more overtly sexual than previous ones and I know FF.net isn't down for that so I gotta... find some way to edit it so it's not as heinous? Which is like HALF THE POINT OF THE CHAPTER, so I'm concerned! 🫠 Not that FF.net has any moderation anymore, but y'know, just in case! PS - for the anon who sent me the ask asking when the fic was getting updated sometime in mid January, the answer is: TOMORROW! <3

[jaeyongdx]

hello ❣️

hiiiii everyone! so excited to be w everyone on this opening night/day/whatsever time it may be for u...i am actually prewriting this intro because i'm bored on a thursday night and too excited about opening 🫣 but anyway!! i'm carly (she/her, 25+) and this is jaeyong aka my worst boy and problematic fave. you may have seen him (and/or me) around before, and if so, hello again 🥳 otherwise it's great to meet u and i'm so excited to plot and write with everyone! i'll do the normal intro shindig and ramble about him and offer some plot ideas under the cut, so please like this if you'd like to plot! i think i'm going to try to reach out to everyone individually so this may be completely unnecessary but still adjlkfksldf here's jaeyong's about page, and here's his playlist just for fun! 💕 (as a sidenote, i also rp @dxmiyoung! she's a sideblog so i can't follow back from her but she will have her own intro shortly)

ABOUT THE MOST ANNOYING MAN YOU'VE EVER MET JAEYONG

jaeyong is the older twin of @daeyongdx

he was born into a batshit crazy family (mutagen supremacists)

they were so desperate for their children to be powerful and wrestle power away from humans that they Trained Them from essentially birth

training methods were very abusive and also all consuming

they went to school and they trained and that was it

training did also involve classes for dancing and archery and gymnastics and fencing tho, which was about as fun as it got

any fun shit jaeyong did as a child he did by lying to his parents and/or sneaking out the latter of which rarely worked

manipulation and lying well and persuasion and making yourself look good in every situation was part of the training too btw. thanks mom

their mom has the ability to insert thoughts into people's minds and is very good at it, she can make them think they're their own

so she did it with her kids too to make sure they never Really questioned training

jaeyong was remarkably social and well-adjusted in school and public all things considered

class clown type that was good at everything when he actually tried aka the most infuriating person of all time no he never grew out of that part

he ended up getting into pinnacle at 18 and daeyong did not it was a bit of a mess

but daeyong was recruited for another program that was a great and important opportunity!

aka daeyong got sent to the labs to be part of a study on twins nepa was doing

once jaeyong gets into pinnacle his parents give him infinitely more freedom

jaeyong makes it through pinnacle thinking this whole time his brother is just busy with other training and that they'd see each other once they graduated

so once he becomes a d tier hero officially he's like hey when do i get to see my brother again

he asks the right people the right questions and gets some helpful nudges along the way for him to eventually find out The Truth

he utilizes those persuasion abilities to talk nepa into letting daeyong out and experimenting on him instead. thanks mom again

daeyong doesn't know why he was released

jaeyong goes to the lab three days a week after his normal d tier hero duties and he can't say a word about it to anyone or else nepa will lock them both in there for good

he's training to be an a tier hero and he hates it actually. he's like i went through the training i did for WHAT. to smile pretty at a press conference and maybe make a couple speeches. i want to change the world!!!

but he also realizes being an a tier hero will put him in the best position to accomplish his/his parents' goals so he's like ok Fine.

he has scary powers (unhealing, blood manipulation, power detection, twin telepathy) but he's hot and it would be good optics for someone "dangerous" to be A Hero to the public so that's why nepa did it

he doesn't have much free time but he's great at time management so u will still see him out doing stuff. he plays guitar in a band. still goes to dance lessons. loves 2 party. annoying. etc

PLOT IDEAS

jaeyong is a bit of a slut so! do with that as u will.

classmates, in regular school when they were younger or pinnacle

his dad is a taekwondo instructor and his mom is a teacher at the cram school so. former students of theirs could be interesting

jaeyong's grandparents are also NOT insane and do like. private lessons to help people learn to control their abilities (they ran a school for mutagens pre-district x) so students of theirs is also an option

Rivals/Enemies. this is not that hard. just be better than jaeyong at something he's supposed to be good at and it's over LMAO

people that think he's so annoying (correct) that he continues to pester anyway for some reason or another

someone that has a crush on him because he IS unfortunately charming. to some people. bitch doesn't really know how to care about anyone other than himself and daeyong so it'll probably be one-sided though

fans of his band? he loves that band tbh. he thinks in another life he was a rockstar

his unhealing ability works on scars and bones and illnesses, including mental illnesses - but those are complicated. i'd love to do something w this but i don't know what yet lajsdjlfksjdl

people with connections to the labs! jaeyong knows the truth of what happened to you and it takes everything in him to not tell you but his and his brothers' lives depend on it

people he is using for Something. he thinks pretending to be friends with you will benefit him in some way. almost definitely related to power and influence of some sort

his power detection ability is very fun to work with. if u have any powers that might distort reality and/or trick people, he'll know they're a mutagen ability, so i'd love to do stuff w that too!

fans of "gawi," his superhero identity. he's obviously not a celebrity yet bc he's just d tier but he is sometimes in the background of a-tier business because of his training and he would love to feel famous. lmfao. but he is very friendly and all over the place so it's possible for people to find him really cool

OK I THINK THIS IS ENOUGH i actually like brainstorming way more so 🫶 LET'S GO!!!!!

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics:

Big big week here on what came out 4 weeks ago! I have many opinions! You all have to put up with me being insufferable over A Nice House by the Sea (but you should totally read the Nice House series if you have not).

I am also going to contain my comments on Absolute Power stuff in this to titles I'd be reading anyway; I'm putting together a separate post for my feelings on the first 4 weeks of the event.

The Nice House by the Sea #1: So I have been so excited for this and I am delighted to announce it lives up to my expectations.

If you are new to this, I do suggest going back and reading Lake, because Sea is written with clear expectation that the readers already know the conceits of the mysteries of Lake, as this household does as well.

But I love the way Tynion's connected the two households, with one of the members of Sea (Oliver Landon Clay) being a friend of Walter's who didn't go into Walter's house, and instead was invited and accepted Max's invitation instead. And the reasons why that we get in the first issue are so juicy - Oliver is clearly set up to be an echo of the decisions made by Reg, which is going to be fascinating, in that they both have responded to their childhood knowledge in such different ways.

Also there's an fun Animorphs joke and I was reminded that yeah, Tynion is exactly the right age to have been an Animorphs kid.

Zatanna: Bring Down the House #2: this remains enjoyable, though I was reminded with this issue that it is definitely Black Label, because all the explanations going on here do not match my understanding of any of the Homo Magi stuff or versions of Zatara's fate that I've encountered previously. However! Still a rollicking yarn!

Green Arrow #14: yes this is a tie in, Thunderbirds a Go!

Okay, okay, there are a bunch of cute references and throw backs in this. As someone who has a lot of feelings about 90s Green Arrow plots and Ollie being awful in them, I really wish someone other than Joshua Williamson was writing this. (mostly because I suspect we are going to get soft soaped on the 'no seriously, Ollie failed people and was terrible' front when Ollie eventually gets around to his triple cross)

The Flash #11: God. When the art in this run is on it is ON (though. How is Bart shorter than the twins now. What is going on).

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #15: ...it is incredible how this story reminds me of how much Tim Seeley irritates me as a writer, largely because he loves using beats I prefer to diminish.

Important note: The Renee story looks like it is the bridge into the new run? Same writer. So if you're down for The Question: All Along the Watchtower, you should probably look at BatB #15 & #16.

The Warlord #62: this week in Skartaris! A fantastical world within our own, lying undetected in primeval splendour! (thanks Grell)

Tara and Graemore are still angsting about their affair and whether to tell Travis.

"Organise a Royal Hunt--and make it a real outing! I'll get to try some of my bawdier material, Morgan blows off some steam, you rest easier, and the farmers are rid of their problem!" "Brilliant, Graemore! Thank you! I'll go sound Morgan out on the idea right now."

Seriously why will the three of you not contemplate polyamory???

Well, if you won't, then Travis is going to find himself having an extremely manly wrestle with *checks notes* Rostov, the local werewolf.

(Grell, thank you again for your bondage and power dynamics kinks)

Tara decides to deliver an ultimatum when Travis heads out to try and help Rostov find a cure for lycanthropy by visiting Jenny to see if she can help; apparently she has finally reached her limit in terms of "Travis's attention span is half an issue long" for the present. Tara! Let a man go visit his daughter!

[tryingtimi]

10 for the Spotify game? Also happy start of the holidays friendo 💖

The King and The Brute | A snip

Happy early holidays, too, sweetling! 🧡Thank you so much for the number! You've just pointed at one of the Sasinest Sasin song too! Well, it's one that I already listened to so much, that it kinda goes with some stuff from the first draft. Therefore, I think I'll share one of the interactions that you already know (I'm sorry it's nothing new :(), but I'm kind of proud of it. (and which was written half-under the influence of this song and the Seven Nation Army Jukebox version)

HALF-CANON | KINDA DYNAMIC AND PLOT EXPLORATION | WC: 1,272

Kil cracked two of his ringed fingers as they slid past businessmen and congresswomen, aiming towards the right corner of the place. A single diamond chandelier brightened the circle booth as a clear sign of where the most important person had been sitting. Three women in flappers giggled on the divan, in the centre of their little group the man in a dark blue suit and smoothed-back hair. Do Raten’s head gleamed from pomade, his expression smug enough to make Kil’s palm itch. They had a handful of pricey bottles before them on the table, every young woman having a slender glass wrapped in their hands. 

Do Raten pulled his uncomfortably thick lips to a half-smile. 

“Hora-gon, I didn’t expect you until Wednesday.” He immediately brought his eyes through Liahn when he noticed her. Kil stepped closer, looming at the edge of the table and earning back his attention. 

“I have a deal for you, Do-gon.” 

As much as he would rather work with a Northern snake than Do Raten, he couldn’t deny the usability. He held most of the information about what happened outside the clan. Kil wasn’t sure how deep this fucker’s hands were reaching, but he was here to find out. 

The man’s light brown eyes glinted in the chandelier’s light. His smile widened as he gestured with his hand for them to sit. 

“Go find Manager Ote, dolls. He will give you the shade you’re craving.”

They stood without any complaints, giggling and one of them trying to slip past Kil suggestively. He stepped away from the touch, waiting patiently until they all were on their way. Then he sat, Liahn close beside him. 

Good. 

“They already got hooked on this foreign drug, can you believe it? You can’t complain of them, that’s for sure. Would you like to try some? Or a tasting plate of our finest mejos and import wines?” Raten said in his deeply unsettling manner. He could fuse a diplomatic tone with a hint of slimy seduction and a business-like attitude that almost made the receiver dizzy with syrupy hospitality. 

“No.” 

“Suit yourself.” Raten gestured to a staff member in a glittering dress but shrugged to them. He did a movement of opening his palms silently then as if signalling that he was all ears. “What can I do for you, Hora-gon?” 

“I need information of the most sensitive kind. Alongside reassurance that this business stays between us — no need to involve the old bears.”

The band in the background kept its pace energetic enough to lure people onto the dance floor. Kil wasn’t beyond this kind of entertainment, however, it never appealed to make a business of any kind in the mids of it. Although, doing any business other than negotiating who and where to fight with, or where to assign his men was a headache for him anyway. 

He leaned over his knees when Raten’s smile continued to beam uncomfortably. 

“You can count me intrigued now, sport.” He extended a hand to Kil. “We’re not exactly close with my old bear, so that shouldn’t be a problem. You have my word.” 

“I need more than that from you,” Kil let his voice drop a touch. They had known each other for a while now, though there was not much communication between the two. He usually came to Raten to take up a handful of documents on data about anything the Prime needed as per their arrangement. They never interacted longer than a greeting before. Yet, Kil knew that this man was someone who’s word alone worth as much as dogshit.

A scoff left Raten’s throat, a hint of irritation flashing through his oiled face. Even Liahn nudged Kil on the leg subtle enough so the Do son didn’t notice. He ignored his sister’s worry. Raten might have been the information king in Tawon, but that didn’t mean they were going to gain what they wanted if they would let him have his way. 

And soon enough, the man took out a pre-written contract from a drawer on his right. Kil was sure that it didn’t specify a single thing, but it was better than nothing. Raten poured a few drops of wax on its bottom with a candle, then pushed his signet ring into it.  

“Here, you have your assurance. Now speak, and it’s better worth my wax.”

Kil pulled the paper closer with a finger, glancing at it as if studying the text. It was a common contract of confidentiality. Good enough. 

“We’d like to purchase information on the North from you. Anything and everything that might seem relevant. What are their current focuses, how is their Blessing, what were they doing in the last decade, what business are they in, who are their supporters, tributaries, where does Won Jughon reside and the like.” 

Do Raten nearly choked on his champagne before he put it down and patted at the small patch of wetness on his collar. Kil felt a nasty glee seeing the disbelief on the other’s face. It didn’t last long as he laced his fingers together, leaning over to meet Kil’s eyes with raised eyebrows and a mocking smile. “Is that all?” The man paused for a second. “Wouldn’t you want to know his shoe size, blood type and exact time of birth, too?” 

Liahn tensed beside Kil even more, deliberately pushing herself into his side as a sign to stop. But she didn’t know how to deal with the shits like Raten. 

The brother smiled back at the man, genuine. 

“Why, would that be beyond your network, Do-gon?”

The son’s eyes darkened, lips pulling back slightly. He crossed his legs, leaning back, an arm draped over the divan’s headrest as if saying “Nothing is beyond me, you little shit.” Raten turned towards the betting table and the band that restlessly played its upbeat music. One finger rotated his signet ring on his forefinger. Then, he gazed back at them, his face losing all the well-crafted, overly suave quality. Then, there was the true Raten, cold and arrogant, ready to strike a deal. Finally, he and Kil were talking the same language. 

“It’s going to cost you.”

“Name the price,” Kil said without hesitation. A new kind of smile found the Do son’s lips. One that now openly said they certainly didn’t have the means to pay. Still, the man rubbed his fingers together softly, with slow, deliberate movements, thinking. Eventually, he gestured with his hand.

“Free pass of the shade on the streets.”

It was fortunate that not Kil, nor Liahn weren’t drinking. They would have made it too obvious how outrageous that request actually was. Not that it should have been spelt out to Raten, he was clearly perfectly aware of the metric of it. Was that a fair trade? They have had some drugs on the street, though mostly uncontrolled personal endeavours that they weren’t able to, or had any particular reason to oversee. The Prime made it clear that open, unstable drug business was not only unsupported but straight-up prohibited. 

It was a nearly impossible request. Even if they were going to agree — because godsdamned they needed that information — Kil didn’t know how to play his mother on that part. He didn’t want to know. It was simply way over the bar he was willing to hit. 

[komatsudaya]

hope you dont mind random asks ! im a huge fan of your fanfiction work and im always amazed by these sort of beautifully complex character dynamics you're able to establish and build upon from the source material. what's your process for when you're writing something? any advice for someone starting out? ^^"

I definitely don't mind random asks, I love talking to other people in the fandom! Thank you so much for the compliment and for reading my fic and reaching out!

I've never given out advice or talked a whole lot about my writing process, so forgive me if anything here isn't terribly interesting or helpful. Also, take anything I say with a whole salt mine, because I'm an amateur who only slightly knows what he's doing lol.

When I'm hit with an initial idea (out of nowhere, after watching an episode, talking with other fans, etc.), I'll note it down and let it cook for awhile, adding onto it if I'm struck with more plot points, dialogue, prose, etc. I personally have a text file on both my phone and my computer so I can write down everything that comes to mind no matter where I am. Once I think I've got enough to go off of, I'll start outlining. I used to switch between lots of outlining or vague notions of what I wanted, but I'd end up having to outline mid-story anyway because I'd realize oh no, I don't know what I'm writing.

When I do outlines, I start with listing the main story beats and plot points, noting where I want to put any specific dialogue or prose that I may have already thought of. I may also break down each scene into what I want it to achieve - mood, plot progression, stuff like "this is where X begins to see Y in different light." The outline can be changed and stuff can be added to it at any time as I write the story. For an example, here are parts of the outline for my YuuDemo fic "Just Not Out Loud":

You can see some details which ended up changed in the final version.

The first draft, I try to just write it without worrying too much about how great it sounds (I say "try" because I still haven't quite gotten over my habit of sitting on a sentence while writing until I think it's perfect). After the first draft is done, I'll go back and fix all the areas that seem limp or in need of rewriting. I've got a biiiiiig file of descriptions, phrases, etc. that I'm constantly adding to that I'll pull from when I'm in need of something evocative for my fic.

I don't have a beta reader, so when I'm done with the first draft of a fic, I'll put it away for two weeks so that I can then look at it again with fresh eyes. I'll read through the whole thing, making notes when I see something that needs to be changed. Then I'll go do a bunch of rewriting. Eventually, out of all that rewriting and editing comes the final version that I then publish online.

For the second question: I don't know what your writing background is, so I'll skip all the basic writing advice (read all sorts of different writing! learn spelling and grammar! vary sentence length for impact!) and focus on fanfic writing.

So you've got an idea. What to do with it? I think the hardest part of fic tends to be actually starting it. Staring at a blank screen is one of the most intimidating things in the world. To get over that, I'll often start the fic by writing the parts I want to write the most or which I've already got a solid plan for, then filling in the blanks between scenes later. Sometimes all you want to write is a scene, and that's okay, too! Lots of people write drabbles and flash fiction, and those are really good for dipping your toes into fic, trying out different characters' voices, etc.

Other general advice:

If in doubt, absorb more of the source material. If you're writing Nintama fic: there's literally thousands of episodes, it's likely that the character you're writing has gotten angry/sad/happy and you can study those episodes to see how the character would act in all sorts of different situations.

See if you can imagine your dialogue coming out of the character's mouth (as much as you can when writing Japanese-speaking characters in English… sometimes I end up with the very weebish problem of knowing what the dialogue I want to write is in Japanese but I have a hard time translating it into English).

Have fun! Ignore the doubt and second-guessing! Easier said than done, of course, but sometimes you have to tell your inner voice to shut up because you're here to have fun writing about characters you love.

If you're a Reddit kind of person and want more advice and discussion, the subreddits r/AO3 and r/FanFiction are pretty solid, and I know r/FanFiction has weekly concrit threads for getting feedback.

Hopefully some of what I wrote helped in some way? Like I said, I'm not used to giving advice or anything like that. Thank you again for such a wonderful message! And good luck with writing! If it's Nintama fic, I hope to see it when you finish it!

[an-au-blog]

hello! a different anon interested in the unclenapped au here! (and other aus where buggy is with the strawhats i guess)

not to bring PLOT into a mostly character-focused au, but with extra strawhat crew aus i'm always curious where the author would have kuma send the new guy(s) post-sabaody. basically, where would you send your au buggy to learn & grow over the time skip? is he learning new skills somewhere, or landing on the red force (or wherever luffy & rayleigh ended up) and learning about his past?

thanks!

Hello other anon! Can I call you Difan (get it? because different anon (I'm so funny ik))

And no, no, no, don't worry, I LOVE plot! And I was actually recently thinking about the whole Kuma situation. Because he sent each one either to a friend/somewhere to make connections with the revolution, or to help them train/help with personal growth.

At first I thought maybe I should make up an island that would fit this version of him. Something that would maybe make him conquer his fear of being trapped and claustrophobia, or maybe something to better help him use his powers.

Maybe something like an island where everything is small and all the inhabitants live in dark holes in the walls (picture something like the kindergarten from Steven Universe). And Buggy is freaking out because he can't live in the whole in the wall, he just can't! Not again! Not to mention the food, there's so little food for the small people there, what would he eat - as someone probably two times their size?

He just wasn't ready to go back to not having anything. So he starts helping them grow their farms and defend themselves from wild beasts and in return they help him reach inner peace and face his trauma. Maybe he'd even have a Sanji moment where he finds out that the people can teach him fighting skills he didn't know they had?

idk...

But I also started looking into places or different arcs and two specific ones actually seem pretty fitting. (can you tell I've actually given this quite a bit of thought hahaha ':))

The first place I thought of was Impel down. It would also cross with the canon timeline and events. Think about it: he'll get over his fear of imprisonment, make connections with the revolutionaries living in the walls. It would be just like in canon for the exception that Buggy is willingly helping Luffy and he's been in there for a shorter time.

Not to mention that on the ship when they tell everyone that he used to sail with Roger, he would be finding out something new about himself. Maybe even remember something.

(And here I go pushing my shuggy agenda again) And that way Shanks's return would be have more weight as well. It would impact both of them so much because 1. Shanks not only lost Ace but now he finally found Buggy and 2. Buggy went through so much trauma and then some greasy redhead claims to know him??? And what's more, he doesn't have this spike of anxiety upon meeting him?? (but maybe I'll make a separate post about that specifically)

Although I don't know if after that I'd want him to go back to Amazon Lily with Luffy and meet Rayleigh (because again: revealing past and all that fun stuff), or if i want him to be taken in by Shanks and his crew instead of Law (and he'd still have the reveal of the past but differently that with Silver...)(idk just food for thought)

Anyway though,

The second place I thought of is a bit of a stretch. I thought of Arabasta. It's a bit of a stretch because, why would he be there?

Well they're alleys of the straw hats and had recently gotten out from under Crocodile. Also if I'm not mistaken the revolution army had it's foot in there as well right? Also I'd absolutely love seeing Vivi and Buggy interactions. I feel like she could teach him a lot in just general. Also he'd love the sun so much.

I'm also thinking maybe he could train and learn quite a bit history there. But I hadn't had that much time to think about this option to be honest...

[castlebyersafterdark]

I even heard an irl casual fan who is super knowledgeable about film

interesting! i guess mistakes do happen in moviemaking. idk why i never believed it though. i just think that even as an amateur writer myself, the idea that professional writers would forget such an important character detail as a birthday makes them seem very dumb. but the fact that will's specifically is stated in the show??? explicitly??? and also the spring break setting of s4 itself lands on his birthday??? come on man. you'd have to be literally a dumbass to make that mistake as a filmmaker. i think fans need to trust their own guts more and stop listening to what other people say is true.

actually that goes for all situations not just fandom lol

actually maybe the reason i didnt believe it was because anti-bylers were SO happy about it. the fact that they grabbed on to that nugget of info just made me narrow my eyes even further lol

Varied thoughts on Birthdaygate 🎂🎉🎁🥳

There's a few schools of thought with this topic. One is that there's a desperate hope that a show of this budget and the size would have continuity contingencies and fact checkers in place for details. And Will's birthday is the only named birthday in the show, right? So do they then arbitrarily pick a date for Spring break and oops, then it's utterly forgotten in canon by the characters with reason or not acknowledged and it makes you wonder as a fan who cares about details.

And then they give their goofy little interview where upon whatever number of readings, does feel very, very telling and pointed / sarcastic, but I do think in a way, we can't really fault people who read interviews like that at face value, because yeah, we're discussing the sarcasm, but not everyone is looking for it or great at detecting it.

Not everyone interprets what the creators are saying looking for lies and veiled answers, though we really should tbh, and we shouldn't assume everything in any article is face value, when words are twisted purposely. It's kind of a double edge thing where I'm being supportive to either side of this whole issue here. Diplomatic, you know.

In general, it's hard to just put blind trust into every little aspect of a show, even one we adore. It's a TV show. We love it. We're obsessed with it, but it's not without flaw. And this flaw? Could be disappointing. But, realistically this kind of stuff does get missed in some of the biggest movies out there. I mean, look at the goddamn new Star Wars movies. These things are infested with obvious continuity issues. And it frustrates me to know that, and - I'll talk for a year about it I need to stop getting riled up about SW.

Anyway, it could be not wanting to give away all their secrets, they're going to lie and of course, it could seem obvious because they have to lie and we know they're lying so I don't know, I'm very much rambling, I think we can tell that this one was talk to text, I'm gonna go back and edit for grammar and syntax so I hope it all makes sense.

Though... more. My thoughts about birthday gate are vague theories. Does anybody have any good posts to read up on the hidden / forgotten birthday theory? What are yalls thoughts on what it means for season 5 cause that's all well and dandy, saying that something was happening in the plot, like maybe suppressing Will's memories, the memories of everybody out west. But how and why? How and why did influence reach that far on the other side of the country? What do we think that means for the show, that's what kind of stumps me. What is the reason other than further getting Will isolated and sad. But there are a lot of ways to do that. And then, combined with the anniversary of the Creel murders. What do we think?

[dallonwrites]

bestie how the fuck do you start writing again when you haven't written in years bc you're so paralyzed with Fear of Writing Badly mixed with How Do I Get Started and also WHAT do I write about HELP

I WANT to write but every part of it is. so. DAUNTING

Ohhh bestie I have BEEN there. Whenever I take breaks from writing I find myself scared that I'll have just….forgotten to write?? I think the fear of "bad writing" is amplified when you don't write for a while, however long, because you have to like hype yourself up to go back to writing and it's like what if I do all that and then I just can't do it? Returning to writing, especially after a long time, for me has taken a lot of mental work, trying to understand what will make writing fun and healthy for me. A lot of it, honestly, is easier said than done, but also it's mental work you'll keep doing after you start writing again and as you write, and for me it's easier to process my relationship with writing when I am actually writing.

A big part of that mental work for me, and something I think is so valuable, is to reconsider what "bad" writing is and give yourself permission to write it. Sometimes you will think your writing sucks, happens to all of us, but that isn't all it has to be. Like yeah, I'll think something I wrote sucks, but I still wrote it. I can revisit it and work on it and maybe I'll turn it into something I'm happy with. And even if I don't, I still wrote it, I learned from it. Writing does not need to be "good" by whatever standard we're holding it up to for it to have value. And you can delete it! Nobody has to see it! Also you can have fun writing something and still think it's not your best. I've written a lot of "bad" scenes that I had fun with because the scene was entertaining to me! I love when writing turns out how I like it, or I write a banger prose line, but equally I found it helpful to give myself permission to not worry about that all the time and just focus on my interest/enjoyment in what I'm writing, regardless of the "quality". Again, easier said than done, but something I've found easier the more I write, because you'll have bad writing days but you'll also have writing days that are so good

I know a lot of people see writing as a skill that they want to improve, and like I agree it feels really good to see your writing grow, but writing is so much more than the skill and the craft and the theory. There is no objective "perfection" to reach with writing like we are not Sims with levelled skills LOL. Writing is art and creativity and it should be fun and fulfilling. And IMO, the more you focus on what makes writing fun, you will grow and "improve" as a writer a lot quicker and in a way that is a lot more enjoyable than if you treat writing like some icy quest for perfection. You also get to decide what "good" writing is for you/your story. Some of my stories are more prose focused and I'll play more with language, imagery etc. Others are more about the plot and just having fun imagining this scene. Sometimes it's a mix of both. What is "good" writing depends on the writer, story, genre, etc. There is no one way to write.

I'm rambling a lot because I'm just really passionate about this and I cannot express enough how easier writing got, including all the difficult and ugly and frustrating parts, when I gave space to prioritise my enjoyment and fun. People love to romanticise the idea of the "struggling" writer. I see stuff on here and I'm like you guys….writing should be fun. Like yeah sometimes it's hard and we should talk about that but like, you Need to make sure you are having fun. Anyway I'm going to try not to ramble and bullet point some things that helped me:

Make Writing Fun: Lol! Literally whatever makes writing fun. Sometimes I just write super indulgent scenes and the fun of that sets me up to work on my projects. When I work on my projects I try to find what in each scene I'm going to enjoy the most, and focus on that to help me write the rest. I make playlists, moodboards, memes, art etc for my story because it's fun, and it helps me be engaged with my story outside of writing it. Just, have fun.

On productivity: some people will benefit from setting clear goals and running towards them. Some people don't. For me it depends on my headspace. I don't think productivity is a bad thing, it can feel good, but productivity should not be the only reason you write. And the most productive writing process is whichever one makes writing enjoyable for you, because that's how you'll get words on the page

On that note, please be wary of anyone online who who treats the writing advice they share as Fact. I'm not saying every writing teacher out there does...but some of them market it that way! And creators do not have an authority on writing just because they have a platform however big. There are some AMAZING content creators out there who talk about writing, and I have found them motivating, but like just let yourself be picky about who you listen to/engage with. I say this because I consumed some very Strict writing advice when I was younger and it literally contributed to my years long slump so like...I'm picky now LOL

About goals: Personally, gentle goals are what help me get back into writing. Maybe just write for 20 minutes, or write every day for a couple days. When I do word count goals, I base them on how I feel that day, and recently I don't make a word count, I'll transfer it to the next session but smaller. So if I try to write 500 words but can't I'll say okay, lets try 250 next time. Goals can be a great motivator and way to feel achieved, and maybe bigger goals will help you, but you're also allowed to adjust them as you go to make it easier

On finding new ideas, having been there before, you don't need a fully fleshed out idea to start writing. My longest break I came back to writing with...one character and a backstory? If you have stories/characters already you can revisit them, either build on what you have or completely change it. Or if you don't have that, if there's a piece of media you like you can take that concept and play around with it in your own way, or you can even just write fanfic until you have your own idea (if you want your own idea, fanfic is cool too!) You can even just find a cool pic on pinterest and play around with describing it, writing about it, seeing if you can get anything from that. Ideas are everywhere and they can be tiny, and I think if you have that want to write you Will find your story eventually. All writers have had the Idea struggle, but I think the more you engage with writing and think about what concepts and stories interest you already, the more you'll like train yourself to get ideas

That was very long and maybe a lot but like, I am very passionate about this! I've been in writing "slumps" where I didn't know if I would write again, I've started writing again with no ideas, and in those times all I had was the fact I knew I wanted to write. There are a lot of reasons why we end up having long breaks from writing and it is totally normal, sometimes beneficial for us, and we should never give ourselves a hard time for not writing for however long. But also remember that you can always come back. Every one of us has the capacity to create, whatever that looks like, and you can make it as self indulgent and self serving as you want.