#Also TPOFATGIF

[gallusrostromegalus]

Sometimes you need to put the most annoying music known to man on loop because it jiggles some brain wrinkle just right and the words fall out again.

Anyway. RIP to my housemate who could apparently hear me writing to the original mix of The Macarena on loop for the last three hours.

[jawbone-xylophone]

Godspeed on the TPOFATGIF read, also your comments made me very happy

I am always down to make other authors happy. The real circle of life is reading good fic, flinging positivity at the creator, and then receiving more good fic to read. I haven’t read Yugioh in YEARS, but this compels me. Your premise is decently interesting, but what has me obsessed is how the fuck mermaid lore comes into this. I don’t even mind if it’s barely relevant at all. You invented whales. That smacks of dedication. I’m pulling out my metaphorical smoking coat and carpet slippers, lighting up a metaphorical nightshade cigar, and shaking out your fic like the morning newspaper. Come at me, nonbinary bro. Let’s see what this is all about.

[the-pigeon-queen]

So, I’ve been reading @gallusrostromegalus  fic ‘The Power Of Friendship (and This Gun I Found!) on ao3, and I can’t recommend it enough! It’s got a super interesting plot, great characterizations, and plenty of humor. 

These are two of my favorite scenes from the latest chapter :]!

[humunanunga]

You know, there's a few things I coulda expected myself drawing from a particularly endearing fic or another......... this sure as hell didn't make it on that bingo card, and yet here I am. Because you can’t tell me this isn’t exactly how chapter eight of @gallusrostromegalus‘s The Power of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!) went.

[thedorkmagiciangirl]

Results: Wishshipping is by FAR a more popular pairing than i anticipated. *strips of its rarepair badge* you've graduated. you don't get to be a rarepair anymore. Be free.

In all seriousness, where have all the wishshipping fans been hiding in this fandom? i didnt see u guys. where have you been?

In hindsight, I should have just picked a character and then polled for rarepairs involving them. That would have been more manageable.

Ships mentioned in the notes:

Snareshipping (Jonouchi x Otogi), Deathshipping (Yami Malik x Bakura), Twistedshipping (Shadi x Pegasus), Yugi x Serenity, Occultshipping (Yami Bakura x Bonz/Ghost), Kaiba x Serenity, Casteshipping (Thief King x Atem), Dark Magician x Yugi, Compass shipping (Ishizu x Dark Bakura), Mokuba x Sera, Yugi x Anzu x Jonouchi x Ryou, Ishizu/Kisara, Mai/Kisara, Mahaad/Ryou, Mahaad/Kisara, Mahaad/Atem/Seth, Otogi/Honda, Redeyeshipping (Jonouchi x Dinosaur Ryuuzaki), Devotionshipping (Joey x Anzu), Encourageshipping (which i think is Anzu/Yugi/Dark Yugi), Apprenticeshipping (Mana x Mahado), Euroshipping (Kaiba x Ryou), Fragileshipping (Yami Yugi x Ryou Bakura), Stubbornshipping (Kaiba x Honda), Rescueshipping (Kisara x Serenity), Jiishipping (Arthur x Solomon Mutou), Silentshipping (Seto x Serenity), Azureshipping (Seto x Tea), Vaseshipping (Mana x Atem), Protectshipping (Tristan x Bakura), Yuumeishipping (All Yamis x Ryou, Malik, Yugi), Trapshipping (Dark Bakura x Dark Yugi x Yugi x Bakura), Conspireshipping (Dark Malik x Dark Bakura x Bakura x Malik), Dark Malik x Dark Bakura x Bakura x Malik x Kaiba, Danceshipping (Mai x Tea), Powershipping (Seto x Malik), Hostshipping (Tea x Ryou Bakura), Guardshipping (Roland x Kaiba), Mahad x Seto Kaiba (not priest Set), Kaiba x Yugi x Kisara, Angstshipping (Marik x Bakura), Flareshipping (Atem x Yugi x Kaiba), Trustshipping (Seto x Ishizu), Scandalshipping (Priest Seto x Pharaoh Atem), DnDshipping (Otogi x Kaiba), Feathershipping (Yami Yugi x Yugi x Jonouchi), the polycule in TPOFATGIF, Outcastshipping (Kisara x Thief King Bakura), Anzu/Mana, Coinshipping (Anzu/Miho), Mako/Yugi, Stageshipping (I'm unfamiliar with the name of this one, tbh), Jeershipping (Joey/Valon), Yami Bakura/Mako Tsunami), Ettushipping (Joey x Seto x Mai), Teaseshipping (Seto x Joey x Bakura), Seto x Amelda, Carryshipping (Ryo x Joey x Tristan).

Pay no mind to me swapping between American and Japanese names in that list at will.

I have listed out basically all the ships written in, so I would like to add a disclaimer that I myself do not claim the above ships are rare. They were simply what was written in the tags and notes as votes.

Also there is a lot more disagreement about what constitutes a rare pair than you'd think based off of this feedback.

Of write-in votes I believe Deathshipping won, though it was hard to tally. Euroshipping also had a somewhat surprising number of write-ins. Those were the two written in most often.

Sorry if I didn't include your favorite rarepair on the list; limited space so I had to pick a few of admittedly my personal favorites.

So which rarepair do you think deserves more love in the yu-gi-oh fandom?

[clannfearrunt]

im sooooooooo good at knowing who’s in discord servers im in hello to everyone who knows me through discord who I don’t recognize elsewhere

[cesium-sheep]

constant crocheting also means shoveling so much content into my little coal-fired brain to keep it running contentedly. thank god gallus is posting a bunch of tpofatgif lore and I’m behind on rtvs vods.

[gallusrostromegalus]

A Brief Insight Into The Creative Process

Gallus Rostromegalus Digital On Too Much Coffee And Not Enough Emotional Stability 1/2/23 at 2AM

[humunanunga]

TtPoFaTGIF is the most violent pacifist route I have ever read. It’s as feral as the early manga, as heart-warming as the Konami anime, and somehow more (deservedly) unhinged than either. Also it has my favorite tag on any AO3 fic I’ve ever read, which isn’t exactly a long list but that’s not the point: The Internal Structure of the Endgame Polycule looks like an amino acid. Anyway.

I am as in love with tPoFaTGIF as the official Duel Monsters. They are equally canon to me. Fuck Hollywood, fuck Netflix, this is how do a gritty reboot.

(Also Mokuba bites a man’s fingers off. Good for him tbh.)

I want to confess to you that I've been following you for multiple years now and it wasn't until today when i saw your post asking questions about AO3 and then me subsequently looking it up as a result that i realized that TPOFATGIF was an actual fanfic. Until this point it was all Goncharov to me. Existing nebulously and talked about but never actually written down anywhere besides in the occasional tumblr post talking about certain details

"You fanfic was all Goncharov to me" is the funniest fucking thing. Thank you for giving me the confidence to promo it, I was worried I was over-promoting it but APPARENTLY NOT?

But yes, it's a real fic, it's really long and I'm really proud of it tbh.

The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!)

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel monstersRated: mature for violence and adult themes

[gallusrostromegalus]

After that remark about Yusuke serving Ichigo ramen, I now have a mighty need for an AEIWAM/TPOFATGIF-style fic for Yu Yu Hakusho. I know you have a lot on your plate right now (so no pressure!), but I also know whatever you decided to do with YYH would be *sublime*.

...aside from making it like 500% gayer and letting Keiko beat a few men to death? Not much, really. It's got some pacing issues and I could build an extension outback re: spirit world beauracracy, but it's not as full of lost character arcs and gaping holes in the world building as Bleach and Yu-Gi-Oh are. There is simply less to do?

Keiko should have been allowed to beat the shit out of some people tho.

[gallusrostromegalus]

If AEIWM and TPOF take place in the same universe as the Kid's WB bumpers, does this make Jackie Chan a secret agent in their world's in addition to being Jackie Chan?

In TPOFATGIF, Para of the Paradox double act in duelist kingdom is a convoluted relative of famed exorcist "Uncle" Chan. Like Jackie, he's not *exactly* sure how he's related to Uncle but the old man has gotten him out of some serious jams so if Uncle calls, Para (actual name Hector) answers.

Tristan is a HUUUUGE Fan of Uncle's work, coming from a long line of Dungeoneers, and Hector knows Tristain's dad as "THE GUY WHO WRESTLED THAT YASHA APE SOMEONE WAS SMUGGLING THROUGH AN AIRPORT!! He's so badass."

Tristain: Yeah. Unfortunately, he's also a Jackass.

[gallusrostromegalus]

You mentioned once that Mai Valentine likes her sweets boozy and also you had a bunch of other preferred flavor profiles for TPOFATGIF. Any chance of something similar for AEIWAM?

I know Kubo made canon notes on everyone's favorite and least favorite foods, but this is for the AEIWAM versions of the characters. Here's much of the cast's food preferences, as characterization practice:

Ichigo:

As much as he gets teased for it and his name, Ichigo loves him some fruit. He will inhale any fruit or juice left unattended within arm's reach of him in seconds. Melons, berries, pineapple, pears, guava- he does not care. There is fruit, it's going in him. Isshin is pleased his son likes healthy snacks but sometimes the grocery bill can get alarming. Ichigo's least favorite food is anything with capsaicin in it- being a ginger means he's unusually pain-sensitive and with an equally touchy tummy. It burns on both ends and all the way through the middle too.

Orihime:

Tatsuki likes to joke that the gods were drunk when they made Orihime, and they put her taste buds in backwards. Truth is, Orihime is a sensation-seeking kind of autistic girl and loves novel flavors more than anything else. She read "salt, fat, acid, heat" and took it's advice very literally, so you end up with things like "cream (fat) of tuna (salt) balsamic vinegar (acid) sriracha (heat) casserole" . The only thing Orihime really dislikes is foods she's gotten bored of.

Chad:

Beef. The boy needs beef. Chad spent his early adolescence on his Grandfather's Cattle Ranch in Mexico, allowed to eat as much red meat as he wanted and his physique shows it. Now he's back in Japan where it's prohibitively expensive and he is DYING. Please. He is a large carnivore. He can't live like this. Chad's least favorite food is ironically, his most reliable source of red meat: the fast food burger. It's not the same. It mocks him.

(More Karakura Gang and Some Captains under the cut)

Uryuu:

Uryuu is the son of a doctor and a little weirdo in his own right and he will assemble a baked potato or disassemble a slice of pizza with surgical precision. He just sort of likes customizing his food before he eats it. Hence, his least favorite foods are things where all the ingredients are mixed together and inseparable, like stews and casserole.

Tatsuki:

Tatsuki is a hot wings afficionado- she likes all the flavors, because there's a lot of really nice flavor interactions in the milder sauces, but also, the hotter the better. She once entered a hot wings eating contest in middle school where every round was hotter than the last and sailed easily into the "scorpion death pepper" round before being declared the winner, much to her disappointment. She was still hungry, and those were a 5/10 at most for her. Tatsuki's least favorite food with anything with even a hint of clams or other mollusc shellfish in it. She hasn't been diagnosed with an allergy, but given her extreme aversion to shellfish, she's not going to press her luck.

Keigo:

Keigo lives on a rancid diet of junk food, novelty soda, and instant ramen and likes it that way, thank you. Ichigo periodically makes him eat an apple at sword point to get some kind of fiber and vitamin into him. Keigo's least favorite food is anywhere can't cook in a microwave, and all vegetables.

Mizuiro:

Mizuiro is way too vain about his skin and hair to live on Keigo's garbage raccoon diet, but he can't cook to save his life. His favorite foods are multivitamins and everything he can get delivered, and his least favorite is anything deep-fried and greasy

Rukia:

Rukia was raised in fantasy medieval Japan, but is a "I'll try anything once!" Girl and this has lead to her favorite food being Oregano. Favorite condiment. Puts it on everything, even ice cream. Once things calm down a little when she returns to soul society, she gets Orihime to send her a "care package" of assorted spices, snacks and modern "puzzle" foods (juice boxes and ramune) to show to Byakuya, who starts inviting friends and coworkers over to try these things too, and the resulting video makes Ichigo laugh hard enough to rip out a few of his stitches. Rukia's least favorite food is jellybeans, because she can never remember the flavors and keeps putting bad combinations of them in her mouth.

Renji:

Like Chad, Renji needs his fucking protein, and sure loves him some beef, but he's also got that ADHD Hyperfocus going on and regularly forgets to eat so while he's not specifically partial to the flavors, his favorite food in terms of 'keeping him alive and hale' is nutritional protein shakes. Like Ichigo, Renji is also partial to fresh fruits and has the spice tolerance of a recipe blogger from Kansas, but he does have an extremely strong aversion to Bananas that he refuses to explain.

Byakuya:

Byakuya is a sensation-avoidant autist who has had his aversions largely ignored in favor of "you need to uphold the clan honor by being POLITE at this dinner and EATING WHAT YOU ARE SERVED, you can throw up in private later", so his regular diet is quite mild and limited, which moderately terrified Unohana (she IS partially responsible for keeping him alive). A chance encounter with Zaraki Kenpachi accidentally saved the Kuchiki line because he introduced a New Food to Byakuya by being normal about it, and now Byakuya loves BEANS. All of them. Red, Black, Soy, Kidney, Mung, Great Northern, Purple String, Adzuki, Anasazi, Edamame, Pinto, Pole, Striped, Yard, Garbanzo and Navy. Peas too- English, snap, snow, lentil, black-eyed and split. Paired with already-acceptable rice, this makes his limited diet startlingly nutritionally complete and high in fiber. He'll never eat squid or octopus again if he can help it though.

Kenpachi:

AEIWAM Zaraki Kenpachi was raised by eagles and it shows through in weird places, like how he insists on eating poultry and fish bones like his mother taught him to. In fact, the bones from deep-fried chicken are his favorite, and he will help himself to the bones other people don't want. He has a cast iron stomach that rarely gets upset and a notable sweet tooth, but is extremely picky about texture. This surprises some people who think that living as a beggar for a few centuries means he'd eat anything, and comes as no surprise to anyone who HAS been that destitute- an off texture is often your only warning before a potentially lethal case of food poisoning. Hence, Kenpachi's least favorite foods are anything "slimy", which puts him off many sauces and seaweed-based dishes.

Yachiru:

AEIWAM Zaraki is significantly more amiable and cunning than his canon counterpart because, realistically, he had to keep Yachiru fed. No village will let a random murder-hobo in to eat, especially if he's broke, so Zaraki got exceptionally good at ingratiating himself with strangers and getting hired at odd jobs in a hurry. This was an extremely sharp learning curve because he found Yachiru when she was an infant and not yet weaned, and he had to go to some fairly extreme measures to get milk for her. It's a point of pride for him that his little girl has never gone to bed hungry, even if he did. Yachiru is very aware of the fact she has historically eaten better than her father, despite his best efforts to disguise it, so her favorite foods are anything she can share with him- bags of small candies or chips or other snacks she can divy up and insist he eat too. She gave Zaraki his sweet tooth sharing candy like this, but anything she can share while eating is a favorite. Her least favorite is boiled vegetables. There is nothing that can make boiled broccoli worth eating.

Unohana:

Retsu Unohana has severe ADHD and makes food choices based first on the dopamine reward she gets from eating them, and the medical knowledge of "you need vitamins and fiber too, bitch" second. She would live on high-octane coffee with an excessive amount of sugar and cream if it were nutritionally complete, but alas. She does have a notes fondness for organ meats like liver, kidneys and lungs because they taste "richer" to her, and the novelty appeals as well. However, she has seen the horrors of what The Wrong Mushroom will do to a human body up close far too many times, and it's put her off eating fungi entirely. She'll eat her own hand before she'll eat a mushroom.

Komamura:

Food is both a joyful and distressing experience for Sajin. Joyful, because his exceptionally sensitive sense of smell and taste means he gets to experience layers to even the most simple foods that humans can't even begin to comprehend. Distressing, because humans have a very weak sense of taste and over-season their food accordingly, often with poisons. A lot of the reason he started wearing a helmet was less about fear that humans would attack him for being a wolf man, or that he would inspire undue fear in others, and more that he has a hard time saying "No" to people, who keep unwittingly offering him food full of toxic onions or worse, grapes. The helmet was not easily removed, and kept the dangerous gifts at bay. Fortunately, modern humans are more aware of things that will poison him and more willing to make accommodations on his behalf. Still, his least favorite food is Raisins, which keep being added to otherwise perfectly good dishes, like someone deciding to sprinkle a bit of Water Hemlock in their tacos. He still keeps the Occasional "Carnivore Outing" he and Zaraki take to the distant mountains to celebrate their shared cultural heritage a secret though, because he's not sure most of his friends and colleagues are ready to learn that his favorite food is "Elk bone marrow, either still hot from the kill or after it's been buried in dirt for a week", but at least these days he has Zaraki "You know how it is with Liver and Eagles" Kenpachi to commiserate and split the carcass with.

Tousen:

Kaname did his required tour of duty in the living world in Oaxaca, Mexico and while he was there he developed a taste for Chapulines, or fried grasshoppers. He didn't mention this delicacy when he returned to soul society, not out of fear that people would think he was a freak- his coworkers already largely did, either because of his blindness or his Blackness, if not both- but because one of the few coworkers who he genuinely liked and got along with was Lieutenant Mashiro, whose favorite animal is Grasshoppers. His least favorite food is any alcoholic beverage or boozy dessert, because the one time he tried drinking with some friends from Shinigami academy, he developed a case of the spins just two drinks in and immediately became completely disoriented and couldn't right himself, and quickly became too nauseous and panicked to speak. His friends were having a GREAT time and thought Kaname was doing his usual wallflower nonsense until Liza Yadomaru finally realized something was amiss and she and Love Aikawa ended up taking him on a drunken sprint to the emergency room. He got better by morning but now even the smell of alcohol makes him feel sick again.

[gallusrostromegalus]

For thinkmeat jiggling: Does that Don Kanonji guy have much of a role in AEIWAM? (Also, I spent a joyful few hours today putting together a Ritual/Fusion-themed Deck from only my vast collection of loose YGO cards, because TPOFATGIF's mere existence put me back in touch with a long-dormant fandom and I'm SO HAPPY right now -- thanks much!)

HE DOES ACTUALLY!

I know that the point of all the terrible/absent parents in children's/young adult fiction is that they're being set aside from the narrative so the juvenile protagonists can shine and instill confidence in the reader to overcome challenges in life.

But I'm 33 now and this is my fic and I'm writing out my middle-aged Queer/ND fantasy of ADULTS WHO SHOW THE FUCK UP FOR THE KIDS WHEN NEEDED, so Mr. Don Kanonji is an important member of Team Ichigo. Namely, the Adult Supervision who knows how to file paperwork, occasionally say "Kids, that's illegal" and putting himself between them and Problems. Kon also gets a new narrative life, and Don takes over the Supervision of Karkura Town for him when Ichigo is away, along with Uryuu's Mom, who also got an excavator to her story and as one friend put it, "I can't believe you Un-fridged her by killing her like that??".

He was also an auditor for an accounting firm before he decided to quit, spend a few years in Europe as a fashion model*, and then stumbled into his televised ghost-hunting gig on accident, but that first job and his spiritual awareness mean Don Kanonji is the BANE of Kisuke Urahara's existence :)

He continues to be the Bane of Urahara's existence after the fic, because since he's already acquired this much spiritual ability in the living world (He's got a beam attack. Ichigo doesn't have a beam attack.) , he's stupid powerful once he passes on and enters Soul Society, and Now-Captain Rukia is still a fan, so he gets to continue to torment Urahara as a seated officer, if not an actual captain. :)

*that's canon actually.

[gallusrostromegalus]

TPOFATGIF: You mentioned before that Marik is a vegan; how does he feel about honey?

Marik is Vegan because:

Pretty much all meat, but especially raw meat, reminds him of the scarification ritual and also what eventually happened to his father, so he eats it never out of a trauma aversion.

He loves this beautiful, sun-filled world, and is staunchly protective of the environment (The Chariot of Ra runs on Biodiesel) and believes in fair compensation for labor (this is why he's so popular to work for despite his... unhinged goals, as a crime lord), so his objection to eggs and dairy has more to do with the environmentally unsuitable practices they're produced with and the way farm labor is exploited. He'll eat eggs and cheese if he knows the specific animals they came out of and the humans that care for them.

Hence, he LOVES honey- it's 1998 in the fic and he's not aware of some of the finickier aspects of beekeeping and environmentalism, but his understanding is that bees can leave whenever, and they make all the fruits and vegetables he eats, so bees and honey are GREAT.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Greatly enjoying the AEIWAM snippits you’re putting up, and just like with TPOFATGIF I’ve been loosely playing “canon, modified canon, ascended extra, original” with the characters! It’s a lot harder this time, because I have even less background knowledge and also because there’s Far More Characters to keep track of this time, but that only makes it more fun! Thanks for providing me with sorting enrichment alongside your incredibly good prose, humor, and interesting characterizations!

I am once again, I am very intrigued to see who you think is what! There's a lot of Heavily Modified Canon and Ascended Extras in this one, and more OC's than usual in terms of Numbers, but I think a smaller percentage of the total cast.

[gallusrostromegalus]

so i’ve been reading (and greatly enjoying) TPOFATGIF completely canon-blind, is that also possible with AEIWAM? or do i need some knowledge of Bleach canon to understand it?

I do not know yet.

To be perfectly honest, I'm stunned people are reading TPOFATGIF fandom-blind and enjoying themselves. I didn't intend that, I just try to follow the principle that if something happens in the story, the reader has a fair shot at guessing any plot twists/knows WHY things happened that way, based on things that appear within the text itself, rather than fandom knowledge.

I'm going to be writing AEIWAM the same way, but I'm still in the Outline Phase, so I won't know until I actually post a chapter and people tell me what they think.