#I should write about Windfighter sometime

[windfighter]

Why Windfighter

The wind was dancing and she was dancing with it. Leaves whirling around her as she moved. Yamato leaned against the wall, watched her. She looked carefree, relaxed. What music was playing in her head, he wondered. The trees moved in the wind as well. Background dancers in whatever fantasy she was living in at the moment. Yamato crossed his arms over his chest. How long until she noticed him?

It was relaxing. Listening to the wind and watching her. She seemed at home where she was. In the world of her own music, the wind carrying her as she danced. So often this side would be hidden, pushed away in favor of the ice-cold murderer she viewed herself as. Wind, she claimed, wasn’t her element. The scene Yamato was watching spoke differently. He had never seen her dance with snow and ice in this way.

”Windy”, he said.

She froze and the magic was broken. Leaves fell to the ground. She quickly pulled her fingers through her hair, tried to make it less wild again. It never worked. Her shoulders tensed up.

”Why did you give me wind as element?” Yamato continued.

A question he had wondered but never asked. Windy tilted her head, looked at him. Looked at her feet and walked over to where Yamato was, sat down in the grass. Frost covered the grass as she walked across it. Yamato sat down next to her and she looked at the sky.

”I think… it was because I was desperate to fly away”, she said.

She had been 14. Had escaped the hell of the Factory, of the Digital World, and ended up in another hell in the human world, haunted by her own thoughts and punished for them by the family she had moved in with. Had discovered the world of fanfiction, had found the movies with Yamato’s adventures through the digital world. And she invented Windfighter. An evolution for Yamato, who fought using the powers of the wind.

”Why didn’t you?” Yamato asked.

The air grew colder around them. Yamato shivered, but didn’t say anything. It was… he liked seeing her use her powers casually. Not keeping them locked up inside like she had when they met the first time in the human world.

”It was the capital”, Windy whispered. ”Someone would have seen me, and they’d have taken me to the factories, studied me. Turned me back into a weapon.”

She laughed. Desperation.

”I’m not sure I would have been able to even if I wanted to. The elements are… different here.”

She had explained it a couple years earlier. Said they were thicker, stronger, more resistant. Unused to being bent, being ordered, being moved. Yamato hadn’t even pretended to understand. He leaned against his knees, listened to the wind. It was calmer now, no longer dancing like it had.

”I think…” he thought out loud.

Windy looked at him and the air got warmer again, the cold thawed by the heat of spring. After their latest adventure her powers were just… part of their lives. Normal. Yamato swallowed. He never believed in magic as a child and now this. Windy wouldn’t call it magic, but she didn’t have a better word for it either.

”I think”, he repeated, ”you should practice using your secondary element a bit more.”

For Iceangel, Windy’s evolution, air might be secondary, but for Windy, the person sitting next to him right now? He was pretty sure that if she could just think of herself as something other than Iceangel, the person she grew up as, then the air would listen to her every wish.

And let her finally fly away.

Windy laughed.

”I can’t”, she said. ”It knows what I am, and it won’t listen.”

But Yamato had seen them dancing, the air following her, carrying her, being carried by her. Each an extention of the other, part of them. He wished there was a way to make Windy see it as well.

”Yeah, maybe”, Yamato agreed.

Because it was better not to argue, even if they often did. Friendly banter, teasing. This wasn’t really the time for that.

”Did you know”, he said instead, ”that in some magic cultures ice is the combination of air and water?”

She shoved him to the ground, laughed. Yamato laughed as well.

”Are you saying I’m actually Waterangel?” Windy asked.

Smiling. Yamato sat up again. Shrugged and laughed.

”Maybe you could be. If you wanted to.”

”Hmm.”

Windy looked to the sky.

”Maybe”, she said.

The wind picked up again, whirled around them and continued towards the lake. Yamato wondered if she noticed.

”I haven’t even reached my champion-evolution yet”, Windy laughed. ”Who knows what happens when I go ultimate. Or mega.”

A shiver ran down Yamato’s spine. What would happen? He wasn’t sure they wanted to know. He stood up.

”Who knows”, he said. ”Better to practice your water-magic before that, so you’re prepared.”

Windy laughed again, looked towards the lake. Smiled, but it was a different smile. Haunted, in a way, but still genuine.

”Maybe I will”, she said.

Stood up and started walking to the lake. Yamato leaned against the wall again, watched her as she left. He hoped he hadn’t doomed them all.

[ran-orimoto]

The basics

•Do you listen to music when you write? Never, but music is often helpful before writing something. It has some inspiration fuel inside XD.

•Are you a pantser or plotter? Definitely both.

• Computer or pen and paper? I regrettably use my phone because inspiration can run over me wherever I am🤣.

• Have you ever been published or do you want to be published? I played with the idea many times, but it’s one of those daydreams sometimes I concede myself. There’s no fun in starting making a hobby, -like writing is to me-, enter a professional dimension.

• How much writing do you get done on an average day?? My writing has got no laws and rules. I could also stay a week without writing because sometimes drawing is just more congenial to my heart’s needs (🤭).

• Single or mutiple POV:? I’d say multiple because my writing is a cloud of chaos like my head.

• Standalone or series? I prefer standalone stories but I often come up with some series in my head.

• Oldest WIP: Hmmm some weird story about Frontier spirits getting to Venice ✨🤣.

• Current WIP: Some depressing trash about how difficult choosing your future in a single instant might be.

• Do you set deadlines? Ehw, I’d never do that, even if I should to finally take writing a bit more seriously……NAHHHHH XD.

The specifics

•’Books and/or authors that influenced you the most: “The white nights” , “Crime and Punishment” and “The Idiot” by Dostoevski; “Kafka on the shore” by Murakami; “La coscienza di Zeno” by Italo Svevo. Collodi too. Yes. Collodi.

• Describe your perfect writing space: None lol. I think a sofa can be enough🤣🤣🤣.

• Describe your writing process from idea to process: What about it being just pure chaos and keeping on being such on paper too?

• How do you deal with self-doubts? Honestly, I have 0 self-esteem about my writing (or drawing, or whatever I can do!) , but it’s just a way to spend time so I don’t care about being good, even if personally I consider myself way too perfectionist even when it comed to writing for myself🤣!

• How do you deal with writer’s block? Drawing or plunging in fictional worlds than can inspire me🤣!

• How many drafts you need until you’re satisfied with a project? Way too many, and even that many is not granted to lead me anywhere✨.

• What writing habits or rituals do you have? I think I have got none. I wonder if constantly struggling to find titles might be one, though ahahah.

• If you could collaborate with anyone, who could it be, and what would you write about? Look, writing is a very subjective activity ,in my opinion. I’m not against collaborating with people, but I think sharing writing experiences with them is what I love doing more. Collaborating can also just mean to help someone finding the right way to write a sentence or give an opinion…I’ve discovered I like doing that, being more opened about my ideas, thanks to @ofcharactersandplayers and @windfighter 💕

• How do you keep yourself motivated? It’s very similar to how I deal with writer’s block! I need fuel!

• How many WIPs and story ideas do you have? Endless like the universe🤣.

The favourites

• Who is/ are your favourite characters to write? I really like characters with a messed-up and complex interiority. Kind of people who constantly lose themselves in their thoughts and eventually project the story in their soul itself; theatrical/dramatic characters who are just masks on a stage at the end of the day. I also like characters who are totally oblivious about their feelings and issues, and keep on revealing themselves being unable to realize how their problems uncounsciously affect their reality. I like characters coping with loneliness or characters who lose themselves and wish to finding for their identity again. I love grey characters sometimes you feel guilty at adoring🤣. Finally, I like characters contextualized in a family environment, and sometimes it’s just entertaining for me to write about families XD.

• Who is/are you favourite pairings to write? I guess I really like pairings that have got a very solid platonic base. I like it when two people can learn something from each other, growing up together, get over trouble and personal issues thanks the help of a special someone. Another pet peeve of mine are unrequited relationships because they open ton of possibilities for dramas and it’s interesting to analyze bittersweet feelings. I guess I like writing about characters longing for someone they can’t get.

• Favourite author (in no particular order)? I’ll be very brief: Dostoevskij, Orwell (but also Dan Brown ahahahah).

• Favourite genre to write or read? I’m a simple pleb who likes munching on classical novels. I don’t really think I have got a favourite genre? At writing as well…? Even if I can’t deny I often go for the hurt/comfort genre with pinches of oneric trips XD.

• Favourite part of writing: I suppose it’s a miracle to come up with something you want to write. Even if you don’t actually end up doing anything with it, it’s still a process of writing.

• Favourite writing app: ………Iphone notes ahahhahahahahahahahhah

• Favourite line(s)/ scene(s): “But how could you live and have no story to tell?” -The White Nights

• Favourite side character? I wonder if Junpei and Izumi could be considered side characters at the end of the day?🤣 C’mon.

• Favourite villain: I guess Mr Charrington from “1984”.

• Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet: Hmmm, I have so many I can’t choose one.

The Dark

• Least favourite part of writing: Weirdly, the endings. Sometimes I have got an ending in my mind, but when I find myself writing about it I’m just never accomplished. Still, reading it more and more makes that ending more pleasant to my heart.

• Most difficult character to write? Among mine? Let’s see…It might be Ran as she’s the one I’ve developed the most in my head, so I want to convey a specific idea of hers, which isn’t always an easy goal to reach! Kou is hard too but it’s because I don’t want people to either pity or hate him. He miust be the greyest character of mine.

• Have you ever killed a main character? No, but I like getting Yang to the edge of life for sure🤣🤣🤣🤣.

• What was the hardest scene you had to write? I admit once I wrote about Kou getting in a Digitear (digital vortexes full of water from diginet) and being rescued by Itsuki. That part was pretty hard but it got to see light for some days. Then I told myself I could have tortured Kou an Itsuki more properly.

• What scene/story are you least looking forward to writing? Writing everything I have got in my mind is both a croce and delizia, both pain and pleasure.

The fun

•Last sentence you wrote: “That was what was happening that day too, while exasperated voices were insisting on barging in her bedroom to reach her exhausted frame, curled on a squat trunk bench next to a window.”

• First sentence of your current WIP: “The more time passed by the more it would become harder for her not to notice irritating details about herself.”

• Weirdest story idea you have had? Any story of mine is so freaking weird, so I don’t really know.

• Weirdest character concept you’ve ever had: I think it might be a Kudamon who was a mixture between Holy Mary and Isis. That was really fucked-up and the fact it’s still in my head is concerning aahahah.

• Share some backstory for one of your characters. Kou used to live in Milan with his family but he eventually had to move to Tokyo along with his mother and little brother. Being stout, not really being that fluent at japanese and having a way too colourful personality, he struggles to fit in since the beginning and also ends up being victim of isolation and bully. Tired of his situation, someday he gets to talk to one of his classmates and understands the only way to feel worthy in his new reality is to sell his values and join them in their dark path.

The rest of it

• Any advice for new/beginning/ young writers? : I’m in no position to give any advice to people, but I admit sometimes I’ve found myself doing it. Well…If you feel like writing, do it. Write whenever you feel like you’re becoming a bottle with too much water in itself; write wherever you can. And ,most of all, write for yourself, to understand yourself better, to give voice to echoes from your heart you’ve been repressing, to create a new world, to feel like God for once.

• How do you feel about love triangles: I’m not against them since I also like them sometimes. Still they have to be meaningful. They have to own a strong basis starting from the clash of each character ‘s personality.

• What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline: It has never happened to me because I usually shape situations starting from the characters. Still, if it happened…? Rewritingtime ✨.

• How much research do you do? It depends. Sometimes I think researching too much might put boundaries to a story and I’m not a fan of this idea. My research is mostly focused on classical music, opera and ballet. Yet I tend to stay far away from a technical approach. I mostly do research about those to exrapolate some symbolism from those and project it on my characters.

• How much world building do you do? A ton in my head, but in writing I like making ideas appear here and there not to be too exhaustive from the beginning.

• Do you rearead your own stories? Why not, surely I do. And I’ll tell you more: the most frequent reaction is “Have I really written this? How?”

• Best way to procrastinate? Oh, listening to music, reading, drawing, watchhing shows. Whatever might give you fantasy fuel, which is not procrastinating at all! Procrastinating from writing is…Studying and turning imagination off.

• What’s the most self-insert character/story you’ve ever written?: I suppose it’s impossible not to put a bit of yourself in each character you create, so every character of mine!🤣

• Which character would you most want to be friends with? Now this is weird but I don’t have any because I tend to see characters as kids to take care of🤣💕💕💕💕.

• Any last words: I might have skipped ton of points but I had fun, so that’s what matters the most, clumsiness aside!

Writer Questions

The Basics

1.     Do you listen to music when you write? Usually. Sometimes I don’t but most of the time I do.

2.     Are you a pantser or plotter? A little bit of both lol.

3.     Computer or pen and paper? I use an app on my phone to do a lot of my stuff but there’s nothing like handwriting a particularly moving scene.

4.     Have you ever been published, or do you want to be published? Being published would be neat. It’s not my ultimate goal.

5.     How much writing do you get done on an average day? About a page. It’s fairly sporadic.

6.     Single or multiple POV? Single.

7.     Standalone or series? Series.

8.     Oldest WIP - post-apocalypse digimon story

9.     Current WIP - see above as well as various smaller oneshots lol

10.  Do you set yourself deadlines? Never!

The Specifics

11.  Books and/or authors who influenced you the most: Jay Bonansinga

12.  Describe your perfect writing space: outside in autumn

13.  Describe your writing process from idea to polished: for school/work it’s just kinda one and done lol. personal projects just never seem to get fully done.

14.  How do you deal with self-doubts? Self-doubts in writing generally don’t affect me because I don’t really write with the purpose of sharing with other people. I write for myself. Who cares if it’s bad or dumb or not well-written? It’s for me.

15.  How do you deal with writer’s block? Turn to another project.

16.  How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied with a project? Forever.

17.  What writing habits or rituals do you have? Not sure I really have any. When I first started writing it was only by hand, with a black pen, and in cursive. Over time that grew to be blue pen/cursive, back to black pen/cursive, then in pencil/print, then black pen/print. Now it’s whatever is on hand.

18.  If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about? Prb @jumper-zuzu

19.  How do you keep yourself motivated? If one thing isn’t working out try something else. I’m writing a personal world. I control how things go.

20.  How many WIPs and story ideas do you have? Countless.

The Favourites

21.  Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?: Folks with dangerous backstories, folks that eventually HAVE to ask for help after exhausting all other options.

22.  Who is/are your favourite pairing(s) to write?: Chicago PD fanfic, Adam Ruzek and OC Phoebe Driscoll.

23.  Favourite author: In no particular order - CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Philppa Gregory, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Ted Dekker, Andrew Klavan, Jordan B Peterson

24.  Favourite genre to write and read: action/adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, heroism

25.  Favourite part of writing: the bolt of inspiration that makes an entire scene come together.

26.  Favourite writing program: PureWriter (samsung app)

27.  Favourite line/scene: “You don’t know what I have, but I WILL tell you, despair is definitely not on the list.”

28.  Favourite side character: Calumon (no I refuse to explain)

29.  Favourite villain: Lucemon

30.  Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet: I had a concept where a child in the care of an OC was tragically lost and it spurred OC to a line of anti-heroism.

The Dark

31.  Least favourite part of writing: the spans of time where nothing seems to be happening

32.  Most difficult character to write: romantic interactions (no seriously I’ve never dated so I have no idea how to write romance situations)

33.  Have you ever killed a main character?: Not yet. Side characters and enemies, but not a main yet.

34.  What was the hardest scene you ever had to write?: I’m still trying to figure out a first date situation in a Chicago PD fic.

35.  What scene/story are you least looking forward to writing?: killing an MC.

The Fun

36.  Last sentence you wrote: “You know I’m taking all that as a ‘no’ to my question, right?”

37.  First sentence of your current WIP: The sounds of the house collapsing behind her barely reached her over the sound of the storm.

38.  Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had: post-apocalypse digimon

39.  Weirdest character concept you’ve ever had: cousins-turned-sisters, opposite in every single way.

40.  Share some backstory for one of your characters: Phoebe lives with her uncle on a ranch in America. Her sister disappeared in a bad thunderstorm while sophomores in high school and 2 years later Phoebe still battles with the guilt of believing she was to blame for the disappearance. Her uncle, fearful for the blatant social withdrawal of his adopted daughter, signs them up for a foreign exchange program.

The Rest of It

41.  Any advice for new/beginning/young writers?: Do it for you. Above all, do it for yourself.

42.  How do you feel about love triangles?: Useful in certain situations but I find them to be far too used.

43.  What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?: Follow the characters. Better yet let the characters write the outline.

44.  How much research do you do?: A lot. I do whatever I can to make sure I’m writing believable situations that actually work as they should. I don’t like to use a lot of “It’s fiction! It works because I say so!”

45.  How much world building do you do?: a LOT lol. I can go for HOURS.

46.  Do you reread your own stories?: All the time.

47.  Best way to procrastinate: Listen to music and stare at a blank page.

48.  What’s the most self-insert character/scene you’ve ever written?: When I first started writing (6th grade) I LITERALLY REWROTE episode 1 of Digimon Frontier to replace Kouji. Hey, everybody starts somewhere.

49.  Which character would you most want to be friends with, if they were real?: Takuya Kanbara, prb. Dude is just out there and I’m a lot like that. Kouji would have his hands full trying to keep us wrangled.

50.  Any last words?: Writing is an outlet. Writing is limitless. Writing is yours.