#and all three other scenes that were originally there are still unfinished

[vv-ispy]

GOD

[luna-rainbow]

Thanks for your answer for the last ask.

What is wrong with the writers of the new MCU material? Do they just hate Bucky, especially the writer of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier (he's NOT the Winter Soldier anymore!)? Did Bucky kick their cat or something? This hatred and victim blaming is not justified! "Oh Bucky's just a cray-cray psycho killing machine with cool metal arm but probably belongs in a padded cell. Lol he says he had no choice such a lame excuse..."

Soo…I don’t know if people still remember the rumours from back in 2021 and I don’t know how much of it is true, but my guess at it is this: there were supposed to be two main writers on the series. Spellman was supposed to take Sam’s story, while the other guy wrote Bucky’s story. For whatever reason, the other guy quit before he finished, and didn’t give the writing team enough time to put things together.

From a story craft point of view, Bucky’s story in TFATWS reeks of first-draft-ism. It’s a scattered plot of events that don’t quite string together, and a self-contradictory characterisation that hasn’t yet been smoothed over (but was made a little more believable by Sebastian’s efforts). You can tell some central character themes had been planted in the first draft — the PTSD, the guilt, the messy way he’s trying to relearn how to interact with people (Yori, Sam and later the Wakandans), the struggle with breaking free of his past. These were all strong, interesting character beats for Bucky to work through, and it honestly could have been a good story. And I think that’s when the original writer bailed.

When Spellman picked up this draft, he was pressed for time, he hadn’t watched CATWS and he never thought he’d needed to know about Bucky’s story, so he reads TheMovieSpoiler summary of the movie and tries to piece the rest of the story together. But Bucky’s not his priority nor his interest. There’s already beats of the story that were planned and have to be there for IP reasons. So beyond what was already in the first draft as mentioned above, Bucky is made to be the fall guy to make the rest of the plot happen. Zemo’s release — well we can’t make Sam help break out the criminal that killed an African king so we’ll make Bucky do it, who cares if it makes no sense for his character. The counselling session — the show’s few moments of levity, doesn’t matter that it makes no sense but hey, forced homoeroticism is hilarious, isn’t it? The Wakandan three-way fight — I may be remembering this wrong but I think Skogland said it was one of the first scenes that she had planned for. That fight had to happen, and again Bucky was made to provoke the Wakandans to the point Seb had to step in and say, almost literally, “he would not fucking say that” to make them wind back the animosity between Bucky and Ayo. Sam’s suit — oh no we can’t have Sam asking for it himself that would be too egocentric, we also can’t have Wakandans offering because well, not like the plot actually made Sam a strong ally for Wakanda, so we get Bucky asking for Sam’s suit to be made minutes after he fixes his mistake of releasing Zemo. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense if it’s Bucky doing it, cos I really think by this stage Spellman didn’t give a shit about a character that wasn’t supposed to be his responsibility in the first place. It’s like when you’re doing group project and your teammate bails on you, you’re gonna do just enough to get that pass but you ain’t putting in the effort for a distinction cos just looking at the unfinished work is pissing you off. So then Bucky also becomes the token white male who pushes all the wrong buttons during the few token racism scenes cos we gotta make Walker have some redeemable qualities and he’s already a dick so we can’t make him racist too.

So instead of having a thoughtful story about a veteran trying to grapple with his guilt and PTSD and lack of agency and making some mistakes along the way, you get a weird disjointed plot of some guy…with some bad dreams…who randomly does things for no good personal reason…who gets made the butt of the joke for the stuff he’s experienced cos he’s got a metal arm and super soldier serum how hard could it have been he just needs to go and apologise for killing people while simultaneously having multiple poignant scenes portraying his lack of agency.

Every writer who tells you “a hero is only as interesting as the villain” just secretly wants to write a simpable villain. And when that writer isn’t very skilled, you get the disaster of TFATWS where a lot of effort is spent on making Zemo funny and personable, and Walker nuanced and sympathetic, instead of making either of the titular heroes funny or personable or nuanced or sympathetic. And yeah, I really don’t think Spellman ever cared enough about Bucky to want to make him sympathetic…or a hero. Remember when he said Bucky pulling open the van door was the first time Bucky has ever been a hero? Fuck right off with that.

[catflowerqueen]

In Stars and Time AU where it literally is just a stageplay. The "loops" are just them having to redo scenes over and over because someone forgot their lines. Or the director wanted to take things in a "new direction." Or it turns out that the "script" they were working with was actually just different unfinished drafts of some larger work that are being stitched together in an attempt to be "avant garde."

The actor playing Loop was originally going to play Siffrin, but then they literally broke their leg and the character was basically made up on the spot by rewriting a few of the monologue scenes Siffrin was supposed to have so that they could still participate. So their bitterness and the understudy now playing Siffrin's feelings of inadequacy are totally real, and just adds to their "performance" and makes everyone think they are "just really good at method acting."

The Isabeau and Siffrin actors are pining madly for each other, but don't dare try and act on it "for the sake of professionality" and also because of the aforementioned "they're just really good at method acting!" issue.

Speaking of Isabeau, this is his first big break as an actor--previously he worked in the costuming department.

The actor playing Mirabelle is the daughter of a famous movie star, and worries about living up to her mother's fame/that she only got the role due to some sort of nepotism deal, especially since her mom is doing a small cameo as Euphrasie.

The actor playing Odile originally thought she was auditioning for a role in an improv comedy performance since she is still learning the local language and got the street address mixed up with a completely different theater.

As a slight irony, the character playing Bonnie is actually allergic to pineapple while it the favorite food of both the Loop and Siffrin actors. Obviously, they only use fake pineapple slices during the show itself.

The entire cast of Dormont is just played by, like, three people who are just really good at quick changes.

The guy playing the king was literally just picked because he had the most fabulous hair out of all the people who came to audition. Even though in actuality he is in the same boat as Odile and, in fact, the two are a foreign comedy duo. He usually plays the straight man.

[fiddleyoumust]

Top 10 QLs of 2024

My Stand-In

I love a deranged character, and Ming delivered that in spades. This could have been a story about revenge, but I liked it better for being a story about learning from your mistakes and granting second chances. Ming was still deranged, but at least he learned that Joe deserved to be treated better, and Joe learned to demand it.

Unknown

Listen. Me🤝Taiwan = shipping brothers. In all seriousness, though, this show was beautiful. The love and care these three siblings have for each other was so wonderful. It felt like being invited into their home, and I was a very satisfied guest.

We Are

I can't be objective or normal about this show. Every complaint I've seen about it fell on my deaf ears. This is my family. Phum and Peem are my parents even though they are half my age. These friends and their love stories made my 2024 brighter and filled me with so much joy that I will take them with me in my pocket wherever I go, and pull them out when I'm feeling lonely so I can remember, I'm not alone.

4 Minutes

This show probably won't age well, but watching it week to week as it was airing was an incredible experience. Thinking about, theorizing, and yelling on Tumblr about it ate up 8 weeks of my life, and I loved every minute of it. The acting was aces, particularly Fuaiz, who really dug his claws into his character, Tonkla, and stole every scene he was in.

Let Free The Curse Of Taekwondo

Korea, my beloved! There is something about the repressive culture of Korea that really gets me in their BL. For a people who keep it very demure, very mindful, adding a layer by piling on angst around sexuality hurts in the best way. LFTCOT embodied that feeling perfectly. It was the sweetest ache. A hurt so good.

Takara No Vidro

I'm not going to lie. Part of what made me even finish this post is this show. I haven't seen it on many lists, and it was my favorite from Japan this year. Watching Takara's obsessive love for Taishan slowly reveal itself was a true pleasure. Takara's subtle yearning, his repression, his holding back as a punishment for wanting too much, and his fear of becoming a monster in love were so, so delicious. I thought Iwase Yoji portrayed him beautifully, and I loved every minute of this delightful little show.

I Saw You In My Dream

WeTV knocked it out of the park this year, but this one was my favorite of their offerings. All of their shows had couples with great communication, really good examples of enthusiastic consent, and really wonderful depictions of friendships and friends groups being supportive and as important as romantic love in their character's lives. ISYIMD gave me four boys who were part brothers, part friends, and part something more. Their love stories were held back by fear - fear of losing the love and relationships they already had for and with each other. Ai's premonition dreams are the catalyst that makes it possible for him and Yu to finally realize their feelings for each other. I love a genuine friends to lovers story, and this one was beautiful.

The Only One

I don't mind an open ending or a story left unfinished, so this show didn't leave me feeling disappointed the way it did some others. I still hope we get a S2 and the conclusion of Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang's love story, but even if this is all I ever get, I'm satisfied. Again, I'm a sucker for complicated love, so two boys falling in love despite their parents also being romantically involved was always going to get me. Watching them navigate their growing attachment to each other, their fear and anticipation at finding a kindred spirit, and then realizing they want each other in an impossible way was the most delicious angst.

Cherry Magic TH

The original Cherry Magic is a BL cornerstone, so imagine my surprise when I walked away from this show feeling like Thailand outdid the original. And GMMTV Thailand at that! Tay and New have great chemistry, but it's their familiarity with one another, and their obvious love and care for each other that I think really made this adaptation shine. Karan was the best green flag, and it was a joy watching him get all the love and devotion he deserved from Achi. Achi's journey of self-discovery and self-love was beautiful, too. It was an absolute joy watching these two fall in love.

Love Sick 2024

Full disclosure, I never watched the original Love Sick, and I probably never will. What I loved about this show was its perfect depiction of teen angst. These kids were all hormonal messes -- navigating parental expectations, sexuality crises, crushes, and academic pressures. They really were love sick with all the angst and melodrama that entails. Not a single one of them knew how to talk to each other. Their insecurities were bigger than Texas, and their lack of communication was often frustrating, but all of that just made everything more realistic. These were children, navigating love the way children often do -- badly 😂. I loved that the show cast actual kiddos (no one in the cast is over 19), and all of them were phenomenal. I can't wait to see more from them in the future, but especially Almond, who played one of the main leads, Phun. He's an excellent little actor, and I'm excited to follow his career in the future.

[do-it-uncomfterbl]

Evaluating Which Details Pose Continuity Issues (yeah, it’s long, sorry)

I’m being relentlessly annoyed by (some) people mad at the show and by (some) people mad at people mad at the show, so let’s clear up where the issues are and aren’t so we’re not just talking over each other here.

Destroying the Strip

Obviously not a retcon. Retcons refer to previously-established events. Some people might have their own problems with it (I definitely saw it cited as evidence of a coordinated attack on New Vegas), but it presents no continuity problems.

2. What exactly is a vial?

I don’t think this changed ghoul lore. They can still go 200+ years without turning, or they can start turning as soon as they get ghoulified. There’s just a new plot element where they can stave off the effects of going feral for awhile if they take this mysterious drug - without the drug, the rules are still the same. The story was NOT clear on this, and it confused me, but if ghouls need drugs to stay sane, Oswald, Dean, Billy, etc. could not exist even if there’s a massive industry in vials of goop that’s never been mentioned before.

3. It took Vault-Tec decades to build all the vaults.

This is something I worried about because there couldn’t have been much time between the boardroom scene and the bombs falling (Janey doesn't age). But I think it makes sense if you assume the vaults were already built and they filled them with experiments afterward. It does leave the problem that some vaults were unfinished but Vault-Tec also dropped the bombs - why would they do that before finishing their vaults? It’s possible that they planned to drop them but got beat to the punch, or any number of other explanations. Clear retcon but not a huge plot hole.

4. House is worse than Caesar all of a sudden?

This one’s a private gripe of mine because House and Sinclair were not originally written to be Actual Sadists Who Hate Humanity. There’s also House’s mastermind prepper attitude toward the apocalypse, which doesn’t indicate that he had a hand in orchestrating it. While the change doesn’t conflict with the text as far as I know, it really changes the flavor of the game, but not as much as:

5. The Fall of Shady Sands

Let’s say that this happened after the first battle of Hoover Dam, so no continuity issues with their ability to win that. (That’s probably why they set it in 2277, so the NCR would have almost four years to recover before NV. As if Caesar wouldn’t have taken half of their land by then, even with his armies crushed, but ok fine he’s going through a divorce, he’s busy right now.)

But are you telling me that a country can lose a massive city containing much of its infrastructure, most of its central government, and ~5% of its population and still be trying to manifest destiny four years later with no mention of it?

Losing the Divide as a travel route almost crippled the NCR in the Mojave for awhile. Now, not only have they lost the Divide and their capital city, but one of their other biggest cities, the Boneyard, is abandoned and inhabited by an apparently-unaffiliated town. (Yeah, Los Angeles is big, but we don’t see any NCR or Followers despite three main characters traveling through it.) Even if there were still people there during New Vegas, how is the NCR still conducting a campaign in the east?

Also, who is Muldover and what’s her position? Why does she have raiders at her disposal? Is that really supposed to be what remains of the government? I get that some of this will be resolved later, but short of complete societal collapse, there’s no explanation.

We don’t see any of this in New Vegas. The president (who was in office in 2277) is still alive. No one mentions losing family in the explosion. Caesar, Ulysses, and House, along with the many other characters who complain about the NCR’s weakness and instability, don’t bring it up. People even mention the politicians in Shady Sands specifically. PEOPLE ARE MAKING JOKES ABOUT WANTING A NUCLEAR WINTER-

Now there’s a saving interpretation going around that “the fall of Shady Sands - 2277” refers to a metaphorical fall, and the explosion was later. I’ll accept this if I have to, but don’t pretend it’s not a strained reading. Every entry on the board is dated. Why would you date an amorphous event and not date the city exploding?

The explosion was nineteen years ago, and it had to be that early because Lucy and Norm don’t remember living there. (Not clear how old they are but probably in their early-mid 20’s.) The earliest you could place the event without it making no sense is late 2282, because with the time skips in DLC, the events of New Vegas are about a year long. Maybe you could put a gap between Lucy returning to the vault and the actual destruction, but not a five-year one. And if it was in 2282, Max would still be a teenager.

There are legitimate concerns here. Between House and the NCR, the show changes a lot about the main conflict of New Vegas. It’s not just side details.

Not telling you how to feel! Just don’t pretend nothing poses any problems and people are crazy for being concerned. I think the vibe right now is to dismiss me as a hater, but I hope you can see I’ve tried to make it all work. Continuity is really important in a multi-decade story, especially to writers.

I will be appeased by a respectful and thought-out New Vegas remake that preserves as much of the original continuity as possible and is also really good and costs $4. Thanks in advance Bethesda.

Edit:

6. Tatoes in the vaults

TATOES IN THE VAULTSSSS? THIS IS MASSIVE DISRESPECT TO THE LORE. EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS DESTROYED. UNFORGIVABLE.

(but yeah there shouldn’t be tatoes in a vault that hasn’t opened)(maybe norm and lucy had seeds in their pockets when they came back, sure)

[getvalentined]

@skadren tumblr isn't letting me answer your ask no matter what I do so I'm just gonna put it here!

✄ DVD BONUS: pick a fic and I’ll describe or write a deleted scene!

So I actually have a probably-forever-unfinished interquel for Smoke and Mirrors that covers "the 'Vincent Valentine assassinating the board' thing" as it was referred to in the epilogue; the pacing on it is fifty shades of inconsistent, which just one of the reasons it will probably never be finished, but I think it applies in this context since it takes place between the final two installments of the fic!

This excerpt is quite long, so I'm gonna put it behind a cut!

[ for the fic ask game part 2 ]

———

Hojo went down fast.

It was honestly a surprise how quickly it happened, given the time and effort it had taken to arrange for the hit in the first place. He raised his head, blinked, something like recognition flickering across his deeply lined features—and then in a now-familiar quartet of gunshots, he was dead. Strange, that someone who was responsible for so much harm would go down so quickly. It almost seemed…merciful, if Cloud thought about it. Particularly considering what he’d done to the man from whom those gunshots originated.

Cloud holstered his own weapon—a newer model Quicksilver, descendant of the one responsible for today’s carnage—and straightened up from where he’d been lying in wait.

“Smooth,” he said plainly, making his way over and stopping just to one side of the body, putting his hands on his hips. “Almost think it was too fast, though.”

“Perhaps,” came the deep rumble of the aggressor, still standing less than a meter away, having morphed in from the dark in a swirl of scarlet to enact his revenge mere seconds before. “Unfortunately, the more time these things take, the more opportunity there is for mistakes.” He stepped over in one long stride to stand closer to Cloud, the professor’s corpse in a heap between them, and surveyed the body for a long moment. Slightly mismatched and brightly glowing eyes narrowed, tilting his head slightly to one side as he looked for something, Vincent eventually seemed to come away satisfied. He raised his head to look at Cloud, eyebrows arching slightly, expression more open and deep voice a note lighter when he spoke. “You should contact Lazard.”

Cloud made a low noise not unlike frustration. “Ugh, yeah. On it.”

He pulled the phone from the interior pocket of his jacket, flipping it open and typing the number in manually. The device was leagues behind his usual mobile with regard to functionality, but it didn’t need to be anything but a phone, and couldn’t be allowed to transmit any data that could facilitate identification or tracking of its owner.

Two rings before the other line picked up, and Cloud mentally counted down from three before speaking clearly to the empty air on the other side. “Hey, real quick, do you know what time the bar closes?”

Counting silently, Cloud measured exactly two seconds of silence. “If you’re good with a pick, it’s open all night,” came a smooth, familiar voice in response, deep in a way that didn’t even come close to Vincent’s lower register, upplate accent crisp enough to straddle the line of artificial as he flawlessly delivered the counter to Cloud’s own passphrase. With confirmation that both sides of the conversation were secure, Cloud let out a soft sigh of relief in spite of himself. Lazard chuckled in reply. “Relax. How did it go?”

“Smooth,” Cloud said, echoing his earlier assessment. “Quick.”

“Too bad,” Lazard lamented. “You’re professionals, so I shouldn’t have expected anything different, but it’s still a shame.”

Cloud gave a noncommittal hum, internally agreeing but externally leaving Lazard to his own opinions. The compliment to his presumed professionalism was nice, particularly given Cloud’s minimal experience in comparison to his partner. “He’s down, that’s what matters.”

“Of course.” The disappointment in his tone was palpable even from thousands of miles away. Cloud couldn’t blame him, knowing just how much Hojo had to answer for, but it wasn’t Lazard’s decision how much Hojo suffered any more than it was Cloud’s—if there was anyone on the planet who deserved to make that call, it was Vincent, and Vincent had chosen punctuality over pain. “You’ll be all right getting back?”

“Yep,” Cloud reassured, intentionally light on the details. Lazard was in charge of the operation, but it was far more secure for him to leave logistics and movements to Cloud and Vincent; just as Cloud wasn’t aware of exactly where Lazard was, Lazard didn’t know exactly how Cloud and Vincent had gotten into the Drum undetected. The success of this first decisive move in Lazard’s long game to demolish and rebuild Shinra from the inside proved the efficacy of their respective informational limitations and allowed them a level of succinctness that would have been impossible otherwise. “Vincent will debrief next time he sees you.”

“Tell him I’ll be at number eleven.”

“Eleven,” Cloud confirmed, raising his eyes at last in search of Vincent, checking to see if he’d overheard.

What he found was the older man kneeling over Hojo with his armored left hand hovering just over the bloom of crimson in the back of his lab coat; as Cloud watched, a glimmer of green flickered into being around the injury’s exit wound, little sparkles that turned lazy circles as a weak thread of light coiled up between them. The reflection danced up and down the metal of Vincent’s gauntlet as more delicate lines joined the first, coiling up over Vincent’s hand, between his long fingers, up the metal shell covering his forearm.

“Have a good night,” Lazard continued. “Both of you.” With a click, the line disconnected.

The lights playing their way up Vincent’s arm went still for a half-second, shivered in place, then flashed bright red and disappeared all at once.

Cloud flipped his phone shut, still staring at Vincent, who straightened back up as if he hadn’t done anything at all.

What was that?

———

Other issues with getting this written are that a lot of it is...boring? I mean I don't think it's boring, but I think pretty much everyone else would. I have the entire new board worked out, details on how everyone was recruited and brought on and how departments are split up and restructured—which is a big part of breaking Shinra's powerbase, and that's really the point of the story. However I am aware that most people in this fandom aren't really into that kind of stuff in a longform fic, so I figure it's best kept to myself. I'd be happy to answer more questions about if it anyone has them, even outside the context of an ask game, but I'm also pretty happy just chewing on it on my own.

If I did ever actually write it, it probably wouldn't be until after I've finished RTGT, so it'd be a long way out anyway.

[sayfin]

An Analysis on the Season 2 Trailer on Arcane (The part that caught my eye)

(marked where I stop yapping and actually start theorizing)

I recently watched the season 2 trailer of Arcane and was absolutely mesmerized by the visuals and upcoming plot developments that hints have been dropped on. Lots of things caught my attention for a while, but the one thing that I cannot get stuck out of my head for the life of me is this:

-Who is this character??

-What do they have to do with the plot?

-How awesome is this design I mean seriously

My first thoughts when I saw this character is that they could be another new character being introduced in Season 2, like Warwick. This would make sense as a plot device, complicating the story further and adding more tension with more characters. Reasonably, they would also have something to do with one of three things- Hex tech, the (true) Arcane, or Shimmer. Otherwise, we haven’t seen any sort of world building that would showcase such a mystical being or species. Realistically, this being is either otherworldly or unnatural.

My thoughts after this were considring whether or not this character would be an ally to the main group of protagonists. (Jayce, Vi, Etc. Our stereotypical “good guys.” ) (If it interests me I may do an analysis on which characters I think survived the explosion.) -Any otherworldly tech or otherwise that has been shown on Arcane has either been created with malicious intent or turned to be used for malicious purposes. (Eg; shimmer, hextech war hammer, Arcane genocide.) This would point to this character being malicious, or at the very least a neutral party, similar to the firelights.

My focus was then turned to the creators, intentions and effects of each otherworldly material. The Arcane did not have much to bring me on this front besides the obvious information, and Shimmer has demonstrated it’s effects thoroughly and is a nearly confirmed tied up plot point, considering the production of shimmer is allegedly being stopped. This leaves only Hextech, or rather the Hexcore, which is what caught my attention at this point.

The Hex Core is a relatively transparent device, completely demonstrating in the show that over time it has been slowly corrupted and causes deep corruption, to the point of resistance to its handler. This is what leads me to believe that this is actually Viktor, gone through some sick character corruption.

-Reasoning

-Viktor is the main handler of the Hex core, and is the one who has corrupted it, and himself, using it. The effects on his body are dark purple, and like the figure in the trailer, periodically emit wispy strands from the affected areas. Viktor is also the only character we witness willingly performing these large-scale transformations on his body.

-Viktor could not be reasonably and effectively killed in the finale of Season 1 given his unfinished arc and previously expected ‘final form’ in the LoL game. His arc was not finished, and other scenes in the trailer are all signs of Viktor still being alive.

-This ‘final form’ that Viktor has, as interesting as it is, does not make very much sense to me. Despite the foreshadowing considering the hex claw, a true final form including an arcane corruption would make more sense. The inclusion of the hex claw could have been for multiple reasons. It could have been excellent foreshadowing, or It could be a nod to the original design and the LoL game. I’m not sure.

-It was Viktor’s intention from the beginning to use the hex core and shimmer to extend his own life, for reasons both selfish and selfless. This is a plausible arc that Viktor could go through considering the body modifications he’s already performed on himself.

-The actual proof that makes me think I have a shot at being correct

After thinking about my analysis, I decided to take a closer look at the silhouette figure, comparing it to Viktor’s face.

-Look how similar they are !!!

The eye shape, facial planes, jawbone structure and proportions are quite similar to each character, past the point of coincidence. The only visible features that I can point out a difference in is the shape of the ears and lack of hair. Even then, there are not many characters with a frame such as Viktor’s except for this one.

In conclusion, I think that Viktor is going to become a force of nature in Season 2. My hopes are that he will retain his sanity/humanity, and I’m not sure if I’ll be happy or disturbed if my theory turns out to be correct.

I had a lot of fun writing this theory and I can’t wait for season 2 next month I hope my theory is correct !! Maybe I’ll do another theory off of the trailers if this post gets more than like 5 notes lolz I wanna hear people’s thoughts

#Lolz this was a really long first post

[shiki-aki]

“You told me to go wherever I like, but I want to be with you until the end.”

A Shikiaki Meta

Part Three: Shiki and Akira’s Encounters (II)

“Don’t ever show me fear again.”

[Previous] Part Two: Shiki and Akira's Encounters (I)

I ended up having to split this part as well because there were too many images from the manga I wanted to include. I originally wasn't going to include much content from the manga unless it was a manga-exclusive Shikiaki scene, because my thought process was that since the manga basically copies the scenes/dialogue from the visual novel, I might as well just analyze the original source, especially since the visual novel has more text and the narrative isn't a clusterfuck of all five routes shoved into one storyline.

My intention was to place more focus on the visual novel because it's the one that most closely aligns with the author's vision considering Fuchii Kabura herself wrote it, but I decided to include some scenes from the manga as well because I realize they actually just reinforce my interpretation of Shiki and Akira's dynamic in the game, lol. And I won't deny that the Shikiaki scenes in the manga do color my interpretation of these characters, mostly with Akira's nihilistic attitude and Shiki's strong sense of purpose. Shiki's characterization is different in the manga in that he doesn't toy with Akira as much and is more focused on his goal of finding Nano, but that goal-oriented side of him is still present in the game.

Onto the actual meta.

For the next Shikiaki scene I want to analyze, I'm actually going to start off by exploring a monologue from Shiki's drama CD:

Shiki: But, the power obtained by relying on those degenerate drugs is but a facade. Those foolish people who at first strongly believed in their strength and bore their fangs, at the end shifted their gaze and shamelessly begged to be let off, or were unable to stand the fear and died with a howl like that of a monster. There are only these two types in this city, just cowardly losers. That's what I thought, until I saw that pair of eyes. Akira: I don't remember you being allowed to command me! Shiki: The flawless pupils as if they were burning, accepting and returning my stare, glaring at me like he'll never surrender. If he doesn't know anything, I can simply kill him and seal his lips. But, those eyes…

Shiki does some monologuing about how the people who rely on Rein are weak, and that there are only “two types [of people] in this city”: those who beg to be spared when faced with the prospect of death, and those who scream and run away in fear during their last moments. Regardless of which category they fall in, Shiki perceives both types of these people to be cowardly and weak, and makes a generalizing statement that these are the only types of people that exist in Toshima.

But then he meets Akira.

Shiki thinks about Akira’s eyes and the defiance he saw in them. This relates back to the motif of eyes that I brought up in the previous part of the meta, about how each time they think about each other’s eyes, it’s supposed to represent them acknowledging the defining traits that the other has. Shiki’s monologue tells us that the reason why he didn't kill Akira is because Akira doesn’t fall into either of the two categories of “cowardly losers.” Akira didn’t beg to be spared, and he didn’t try to run away from Shiki. Instead he looked Shiki in the eyes and directly opposed him.

Finally, the way his monologue trails off (“But those eyes…”) adds a perfect touch of subtlety and ambiguity to Shiki’s character. The thought is left unfinished, but we know based on the hesitation in Shiki's words and his reluctance to kill Akira that Akira left more of an impression on him than he realized.

And now I’m going to shift to the manga version of the same scene. This scene isn’t present in the game since it takes place from Shiki’s POV and the game tells the story from Akira’s POV, but it is included in the manga.

(Note: the manga scenes of Shiki’s route don’t occur in the same order as they do in the visual novel/drama CD. Most of the dialogue from the game takes place after Shiki kidnaps Akira in the manga, whereas in the game, the dialogue takes place before the kidnapping. I’m just putting this note here to provide context for why the manga scenes seem out of order when placed side-by-side with the visual novel/drama CD, but it doesn’t change how I interpret these scenes or my analysis of them.)

Love this moment of their gazes and faces mirroring each other in these very deliberately set up panels. Again, the manga has a lot of these silent, intense moments where Shiki and Akira look into each other’s eyes, and we know based on the in-game text that they’re acknowledging each other’s traits whenever this happens. What I love even more about these two specific panels, however, is the complete absence of text, whether it be dialogue or inner narration. Sometimes it’s best to just leave things ambiguous and let the visuals speak for themselves to convey chemistry and tension (or even intimacy), and honestly the Shikiaki scenes in the manga do an incredible job of relying on subtext to get their characterizations/dynamic across.

Akira asks why Shiki kills Igra participants even though Shiki himself doesn’t seem to care about collecting tags, to which Shiki replies that he only kills those who are weak. He tells Akira his philosophy, which is that “the strong kill the weak,” and that’s all that matters to Shiki because he categorizes people based on their strength.

Shiki says all of this, yet his dialogue about killing the weak is followed by this singular line in his internal dialogue as he gazes into Akira’s eyes: “Killing those eyes would be impure.” What he's really saying here is that it would be wrong of him to kill Akira (“those eyes”) because it would mean going against his own philosophy. Shiki himself proclaims that he only kills the weak, but during this moment, he acknowledges the way Akira is glaring at him head-on, and he doesn't perceive Akira's defiance as weakness. That's why he lets Akira live.

Shiki starts manhandling Akira and doing his usual stuff. He taunts Akira to fight back because he wants to see more of Akira’s resilience. Again, Akira’s resilience is the whole reason why Shiki’s even letting Akira live, because he recognizes, either subconsciously or consciously, how Akira's defiance is a form of strength in its own right.

Akira spits in Shiki’s face and Shiki commends him for it. Then Shiki comments on Akira’s “audacious eyes." It’s a stylistic word choice because the writing is intentionally drawing on the motif of eyes between Shiki and Akira. We already have visual demonstrations of this motif, as evidenced by the numerous panels of Shiki and Akira blatantly eye fucking each other throughout the manga, but now it leans into the textual side of it too as we're offered a look into Shiki's POV and see his growing obsession with Akira's eyes. And just to reiterate, the mention of Akira’s eyes is meant to reinforce a character trait about him—in this case, his defiant nature.

(And I know that this is a fan translation for the manga and not an official one, so if you really want to, you can take everything I’m saying here with a grain of salt because I don’t have the raws to confirm what Shiki actually says in this line. But based on how the fan translation seems to focus on providing a more literal translation than a natural one, I’m going to assume that Shiki does indeed talk about Akira’s eyes in this line. I’m just saying all this stuff to cover my bases lol.

Edit: Someone shared the raws with me for this page and confirmed that Shiki says 「その生意気な目がいつまで続くか......試してやる」. So he does indeed mention Akira's "audacious eyes" in this line, meaning the fan translation is accurate.)

Akira’s dialogue here is pretty ambiguous in that his sentence is cut off so we can’t tell what he actually meant to ask Shiki. But by using context clues, we can assume that this is what he wanted to ask Shiki: “If killing is such a good thing, why are you keeping me alive?”

The reason Akira is confused is because Shiki just went on a tangent about killing the weak and executing the losers in response to Akira’s question about why he kills Igra participants, but this seemingly contradicts with Shiki’s decision to keep Akira alive. As a reminder, this scene in the manga takes place after Akira gets kidnapped and brought back to Shiki’s apartment.

Shiki defaults to the typical "I am your owner" line, which makes us think that he kidnapped Akira and is keeping him alive because he views Akira as a mere plaything and intends to amuse himself by raping and abusing Akira. Which, I’m not denying any of the heinous shit that Shiki does to Akira in his route. But there’s more nuance to Shiki’s motivations than that.

What Shiki says and what he really thinks are two different things. Shiki has a bad habit of defaulting to saying possessive phrases like, “You’re mine” whenever he doesn’t actually want to express how he feels about Akira (most evident in the tunnel scene, but we’ll get to that way later). We already know that Shiki isn’t the type to outwardly express his emotions, but there’s no reason for Shiki to lie in his own thoughts to himself. I don’t see anything in these pages that would hint to Shiki being an unreliable narrator in his own POV, so we can assume that whatever thoughts he has about Akira here represent his true feelings.

And his true feelings are more complicated than just “I am your owner.”

Cue panel that features a close-up of Akira’s eye, followed by Shiki’s internal dialogue of, “His eyes. Pure, lively eyes. If he doesn’t know anything, it would be best to seal his mouth. But…”

What's really great about this whole scene, from Akira’s questions about Shiki's motivations to Shiki’s inner thoughts, is how subtly it points out the contradiction between Shiki's mindset and his actions, and how we're supposed to interpret Shiki's contradictory behavior as a sign that he has some pretty complicated and obsessive feelings toward Akira. I love it when characters exhibit little contradictions like this—contradictions that still fit within the framework of their characterizations when you think about it—because it adds depth to their characters. It shows that they're not flat and completely static, shallow characters who always act or feel or even think a certain way.

In this case, the contradiction between Shiki's words ("I only execute the losers") and his actions (keeping Akira alive as his pet) shows how affected Shiki is by Akira, because he’s never met someone like Akira. Certainly, Shiki’s behavior is unprecedented in that he’s letting Akira live and holding him captive when normally, he would kill his prey. Shiki himself tries to rationalize his decision to keep Akira alive by telling himself that it’s because it would be “impure” to kill those “pure, lively eyes,” the kind of eyes that “glare at you, unyielding.”

At this point it’s not even subtext lol. Shiki is obsessed with the way Akira meets his gaze head-on instead of looking away out of fear, because Shiki himself felt humiliated when he experienced fear and weakness for the first time. He acknowledges and subconsciously respects Akira for his fearlessness, and that's why he wants to keep Akira alive—because he sees worth in Akira's existence, even if Akira himself doesn't. And considering how Shiki kills people just for being weak, the fact that he forces Akira to live when Akira is at the lowest point in his life and has lost the will to live, is proof of how much he values Akira's existence, albeit in his own twisted way.

In this town there are only these two kinds of people. That’s what I believed.

That’s what he believed until he saw Akira’s eyes.

This is pretty much a word for word monologue of the one from Shiki’s drama CD that I analyzed earlier, so I’m not going to repeat my analysis here. I included these manga pages to show how they back up my interpretation of the Shikiaki dynamic, especially when it comes to Shiki’s side of things.

Now we get to the actual scene in the game where Shiki and Akira meet again.

Shiki’s eyes are mentioned three times in this one segment alone, four if you want to count “dispassionate gaze.” The writing is not being subtle about it at all. There’s so much emphasis on Akira gauging Shiki’s behavior just by looking him in the eyes, and I love every bit of it. Akira is able to feel Shiki's commanding presence and get a sense of his intentions just by meeting his gaze.

One thing that Shikiaki gets so right for me is the whole "gazing intently into each other’s eyes without saying anything" trope. You can feel the tension between Shiki and Akira whenever this happens. It's well-executed in the game, but it's done even better in the manga since you can actually see the visuals of Shiki and Akira gazing into each other's eyes, and it's just as intense, if not more.

The text makes a point of mentioning Akira's fear as well, which if you remember, was also explicitly brought up during their previous encounter in the game. Akira wants to escape, but something about Shiki's gaze makes him stay put.

—Those red eyes held him rooted to the spot, as if their sharp light were a wordless command that could not be disobeyed.

Their dynamic is already starting to lean into dom/sub vibes here. Honestly, I was planning to save the dom/sub analysis of their relationship for when we get to the sex scenes in Shiki's route, but it seems like a wasted opportunity to not touch upon it at least a little in this scene, so here we go.

Akira has an inclination to act defiant in front of Shiki, as we've seen several times already so far, but he also has a repressed submissive side to him that acts as a complement to Shiki's dom personality. His submissive side gets revealed when Shiki forcibly draws it out of him later on in the route, but for now, we get these little hints in their interactions instead.

Now, I don't think Akira is submissive in the sense that it's an intrinsic part of his character, but it's definitely a trait that's exacerbated when he's with Shiki because Shiki is just so dominant and aggressive. What I mean by this is that Akira's submission makes sense within the context of Shiki's route and their dynamic, but I wouldn't really expect to see it outside of Shiki's route. The submission aspect plays into the whole "obeying my will and mine alone" theme that's explored for Akira in Shiki's route, which is why I don't find it inconsistent with the rest of Akira's characterization, because the internal struggle he faces between being submissive and being willful relates to his character development.

I also think Akira has some masochistic tendencies in him that partially explain his submissive side. We're told at the beginning of the game and throughout the common route that he feels numb during fights and wants to face people who are stronger, who can make him struggle and feel the thrill of fighting again. And I've already shown in the first part of the meta how the text specifically goes out of its way to state that Akira feels excitement at the prospect of possibly getting killed in Igra, which doesn't seem like a reasonable response to have if you weren't at least a little masochistic. Of course, being masochistic in fights and being masochistic in bed are different territories, but Shiki's route specifically explores the blurring of these lines, especially as their dynamic shifts from being physically violent to sexually violent in nature after the kidnapping.

Back to the current scene.

Shiki starts getting in Akira's space and acting all pushy. You know, just Shiki doing Shiki things. Then they have a moment where they lock eyes.

From Akira's POV, this is what he thinks about Shiki's eyes:

There were those eyes again, like two sharp knives. [...] His eyes were cold enough to freeze blood.

And this is what Shiki thinks about Akira's eyes (from the drama CD):

Shiki: [Narration] As expected, his body has become stiff, but even then he is determined not to shift his stare. Those eyes as if they were challenging me, somehow got on my nerves. [End narration]

While Akira recognizes Shiki's domineering disposition during this exchange, Shiki recognizes Akira's determination and obstinacy. Again, they're able to interpret each other's behaviors and intentions just by gazing into each other's eyes, which, to me, is where their chemistry is most explicitly shown in the text. Would they be able to instinctively read each other's gazes like this if they were really as fundamentally incompatible as we're led to believe at first?

Going back to the text, Shiki calls Akira an imbecile, and Akira wonders why Shiki doesn't just kill him already if he's apparently that much of an eyesore. But we know from Shiki's POV that he doesn't want to kill Akira because he's actually intrigued by Akira's defiance and courage, and he provokes Akira because he wants to see how Akira would react when pushed around. Basically Shiki is very interested in the way Akira's mind works, and it ties back to Shiki's own struggle and feelings of powerlessness and desperation against Nano.

Akira tells Shiki off despite being well aware of how reckless and suicidal this action is, but he does it because he despises submission more than he fears death. It's the same as with their previous encounter when Akira taunted Shiki to kill him because "better that than beg." Akira is again prioritizing his pride over his life because he doesn't care much about living in the first place (or so he believes).

Shiki then grabs Akira's arm and drags Akira out to a clearing.

This scene. I'll admit, I had a hard time understanding this scene in my first few playthroughs of Shiki's route, but I think I have a good enough grasp on the Shikiaki dynamic now to understand what this scene is trying to convey. At first glance, it looks like this scene is just here to depict the power imbalance between them and show how antagonistic their relationship is becoming, but it also reveals a lot about Shiki's and Akira's characterizations, and we even get a glimpse of character development for Akira.

Shiki asks if Akira’s afraid of death and then tells him to fight back, which is probably the most overt example we've seen so far of Shiki's desire to see Akira struggle. I've been relying a lot on subtext to justify my interpretation of Shiki's character, especially when it comes to the whole Nano parallel, but here the text is very explicit about Shiki's expectations of Akira.

Shiki tells Akira outright to put up a fight against him. He specifically brings up Akira's fear of death because Shiki himself felt fear when he encountered Nano for the first time and realized his own mortality and fragility as a human. By pointing his sword at Akira's throat, he forces Akira into a position where Akira is powerless and has to confront his own fear of death the same way Shiki did. Shiki isn't just doing this because he wants to feel superior to Akira; he's doing this because he sees himself in Akira, and watching Akira persevere against him makes Shiki feel like he can also persevere against Nano.

On Akira's end, he is, understandably, very confused by Shiki's behavior. It's like Shiki is sending him mixed signals. First Shiki acts like he's pissed off at Akira for disobeying him, and now Shiki says he wants Akira to rebel against him. But I think Shiki's mixed signals are more indicative of his own emotional conflict toward Akira and how he doesn't know how he should perceive Akira, which is why he wants to see what Akira would do in this life-or-death situation. He wants to see if Akira will end up being like those other cowards who beg for their lives when faced with death, or if Akira will still preserve a sense of dignity and fight back despite knowing that he might die if he does.

Akira, of course, responds in the only way he knows how: by acting stubborn and prideful. He doesn't want to obey Shiki's demands, so he says, “…I’d rather bite my own tongue off than let you kill me.” It’s a parallel to the “You might as well kill me” line from their previous encounter. In both cases, Akira is trying to maintain agency by not submitting to Shiki and instead deciding his own fate. It doesn’t matter if he dies as long as he’s the one calling the shots.

So what does Shiki do? He calls Akira’s bluff and tells him to end his own life then if he would really rather commit suicide than let Shiki deliver the fatal blow.

I love this interaction because they are both just so incredibly stubborn and determined to have their own way. I think it’s ironic how their relationship becomes so antagonistic—not because they are fundamentally different from each other and can’t get along—but because they’re actually so similar in terms of characterization that they would never submit to each other. (But they do end up getting along by the end of Shiki's route because they realize how much they respect each other's determination).

I’m going to cut away to the drama CD for a moment because it gives us a glimpse into Shiki’s headspace during this scene:

[Narration] Even with the knife pointed at his throat, he still resists me. Unlike the despair of people about to die, those blazing eyes. [End narration] Shiki: Then, how about using this blade to cut your throat right now? Just press down to it and it'll end, really simple. I won't do anything. [Narration] I wasn't expecting anything. I just wanted to know. When faced with a situation in which he's sure to die, what would he choose? [End narration]

Even during this tense moment, or rather, it’s because it’s a tense moment, Shiki is thinking about Akira’s eyes. Akira doesn't have the eyes of someone who looks like they're about to give up, and the monologue reveals to us that Shiki is doing this because he's intrigued by Akira's unyielding attitude and wants to see more of it. Akira keeps trying to resist him even though it could very well cost him his life, but it's precisely that irrationality that makes Shiki drawn to him. Shiki keeps pushing Akira because he wants to see if Akira has a limit where he'll crumble—if such a limit even exists—and Akira's refusal to give up is also something that speaks to Shiki, because Shiki has his own demon to deal with in the form of Nano.

Now we return to Akira’s POV. While Akira is hesitating on committing suicide, he tries to understand what’s going on in Shiki’s head:

There’s so much going on here, but let’s break it down line by line.

What was the point of this? What did Shiki hope to gain?

We know from Shiki's POV that he wants to see what Akira would do when backed into a corner like this where he's sure to die if he keeps acting reckless. Shiki finds Akira interesting because Akira doesn't value his own life and would even readily throw it away just to defy Shiki. His suicidal behavior is completely irrational if you think about it, and even Shiki can't comprehend it, which is why he wants to see what Akira would do when forced to confront death with no way out.

But within the framework of Akira's characterization, his suicidal behavior makes perfect sense. He's willing to throw away his life because he's a nihilist who doesn't think there's any meaning to life (or death) and exists in a state of living just because. Those other Igra fighters who beg for their lives or run away from Shiki do so because they value their lives and want to live. Akira doesn't value his own life, which is why he's able to keep resisting Shiki even when Shiki threatens to kill him.

Could it be some kind of test?

Yes, it's a test. Shiki doesn't actually have any intention of killing Akira, but instead he wants to see how Akira would respond in this situation.

A test of what? His will to live?

Akira has a moment of self-awareness and realizes the concept of even having a will to live. Remember, in the opening narration of his POV, Akira couldn't find any reason to live, and the only reason he was still alive is because he also couldn't find any reason to die. At the start of the game, Akira didn't have a will to live. There was nothing in life he cherished, nothing he wanted to strive toward, and he couldn't find any meaning or purpose in his existence. Even fighting didn't make him feel fulfilled in life.

But now Akira realizes he might actually have a will to live, and it's because Shiki is making him confront the inevitability of his own death. Akira's nihilistic mindset starts to crack as he realizes he might not be so apathetic toward dying after all.

Or did Shiki merely enjoy watching his prey struggle in the face of death?

Akira finds Shiki's behavior incomprehensible the same way Shiki finds Akira's behavior incomprehensible. On Shiki's end, he doesn’t understand why Akira acts so suicidal and fearless. On Akira's end, he doesn't understand why Shiki wants to see him struggle instead of killing him outright. They both make each other act in a way they normally wouldn't (Shiki wouldn't normally let his prey live, and Akira normally wouldn't act so self-willed), but that just shows how much they're affecting each other.

Struggle in the face of death…

This line repeats the last few words from the previous line for added emphasis. The theme of struggling in the face of death is one that's been explored and touched upon throughout the common route (especially with Akira’s desire/anticipation in facing death), and we finally see it culminate in this moment where Akira is forced to make a choice between ending his own life or letting Shiki kill him.

Was Akira… frightened?

Akira ponders if he's afraid of death. I feel like this is such a huge moment and a turning point for his character, because remember, at the start of the game, Akira didn't care about living or dying, and he couldn't differentiate between the two. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to struggle to live, nor what it would be like to live with a sense of purpose. It's only now that he starts to realize what it means to live—or die.

For a guy who doesn't care about the difference between life and death, and thinks that death is just "the cessation of function"—and that if he were to die in his sleep one day, he wouldn't even care—he's awfully picky about the way he wants to die. I'm making these references to the opening scene of Akira's POV to show the subtle shift in his mindset. Akira still doesn't know how to feel about death or whether he’s even afraid of it, but he knows, at the very least, that he wants to be the one to decide the circumstances of his own death.

Dying by Shiki's hand or biting his own tongue off or slitting his throat—what does it matter which way he dies when it leads to the same outcome in the end ("The heart stops, the lungs stop, the brain stops")? But it does matter to Akira now, because if he's going to die, he at least wants it to be by his own will and not someone else's.

For the first time in his life, Akira understands the consequences and significance of dying. If he dies, then he won't be able to find Keisuke and reconcile with him. If he dies, then that means he's submitting to Shiki's will. It's not just "the cessation of function" anymore. There are other meanings attached to death now. Not only that, he has a reason/purpose/goal for staying alive now—two of them, at least. I’m focusing on the point that Akira has two reasons for living at the moment because it’s going to come into play when we get to the conflict with Keisuke right before the kidnapping scene.

We went from this:

and this:

to this:

"Resolve" is such a fascinating word choice. I love its usage and implication here. At the start of the game, Akira had no goals or aspirations and didn't see any reason to strive for more in his life.

But now Akira has a resolve. A reason to live, even if it's for the sake of something petty like resisting Shiki. And the more he develops a resolve to live, the less nihilistic he becomes.

None of this is hidden in the subtext by the way; the game itself explicitly brings up the notion of a "will to live" in Akira's POV, so this is all a very deliberate and intended connection to Akira's nihilism. Akira’s resolve to resist Shiki and not submit to him overpowers whatever apathy he has toward life and death, and it’s this resolve that makes Akira cling to life during this moment instead of accepting his apparent fate.

Akira chooses to take the third option and fight back instead of letting Shiki kill him or making the decision to kill himself on Shiki's sword. In a surprising turn of events, Akira lives past the parry, but he gets pissed off when he realizes it's because Shiki chose to spare him, not because Akira's attack was actually strong or fast enough to stop Shiki from killing him. This hits a sore spot for Akira, because it shows that his life is still in the palm of Shiki's hand and he doesn't actually have the agency to decide his own fate or death.

Shiki asks Akira if he's "really that stupid" because what Akira did just now was incredibly reckless and devoid of all common sense or sense of self-preservation. But again, it’s because Akira has lived without purpose his whole life that he doesn’t really fear death or have a desperate desire to live, which is why he can act so reckless and suicidal. This is the first moment where Akira even recognizes that he has a will to live upon deep contemplation.

I want to point out that while Akira might instinctively run from danger/fight for his life in Igra battles (thus indicating that he does indeed have an inclination to live), the circumstances aren't the same here. Shiki isn't actively endangering Akira's life during this moment. He straight up tells Akira that he's not going to move a muscle, and that whatever happens to Akira will be of Akira's own volition. This puts Akira in a spot where he actually has to contemplate whether he wants to live or not, and if he truly doesn't have a will to live, then he should have no problem slitting his throat on Shiki's sword.

Akira eventually comes to the conclusion that while he might not have a strong desire to live, he does, at least, have a strong desire to disobey Shiki. Akira wants to live, but it’s not because he fears death, which I feel is an important distinction to make. He wants to live because the other alternative (dying) would mean submitting to Shiki, since Shiki’s the whole reason why he’s in this life-or-death situation in the first place.

There’s a lot of power play going on here but hopefully I’ve managed to explain the intricacies of their dynamic during this scene.

Now, if Shiki actually had any intention of killing Akira, even the slightest bit, Akira would've been dead here. Shiki thinks it's foolish of Akira to act so stubborn and suicidal for the sake of his pride, but he also can't help but find that part of him intriguing, which is why he lets Akira live in the first place.

Shiki's next words are: "You're weak. You have nothing. You'll never win." To me, this sounds more like Shiki projecting his own insecurities onto Akira, especially since we know from Akira's POV that Akira doesn't care about being weak or losing; he just doesn't want to submit to Shiki. Besides, if Shiki really felt that Akira was worthless, he would've killed him by now. (And honestly Shiki's talking shit just to talk shit and give Akira some more fuel for his anger.)

Akira knew exactly what Shiki meant. He wasn’t even worth killing. Something inside him snapped.

The way Shiki doesn't even bother to finish Akira off is such a devastating blow to his pride, and Akira thinks that Shiki is looking down on him (although, unbeknownst to him, Shiki is actually letting him live because he acknowledges Akira’s spirit and resistance). Regardless, Akira is so humiliated, frustrated, and confused that he just wants to lash out against Shiki. He throws his knife away before attacking Shiki—another reckless and seemingly suicidal act, but again, it just shows how much Akira values his pride and dignity over his life.

Shiki spares Akira, and then leaves him with these words: "Don't ever show me fear again."

Hopefully I’ve explained enough about Shiki’s character at this point to make it clear that he has a huge, huge complex about fear. He looks down on those who succumb to fear because he thinks it’s a display of weakness, but he also hates that he’s vulnerable to feeling fear himself.

Here Shiki specifically tells Akira not to show him fear again because he acknowledges Akira’s fearlessness. Remember Shiki’s words when he had his sword pointed at Akira’s throat? “Or are you afraid of death? Then fight back, in whatever pitiful way you can.” He was testing to see if Akira would be able to overcome his fear (of death, of Shiki)—and Akira passed that test with flying colors.

And again, it's not that Akira doesn't experience fear, but that he's still able to fight back in spite of it. That's what Shiki is acknowledging. His warning to Akira to "never show him fear again" is basically him encouraging Akira to keep up that fearless and defiant side of him, because he likes that Akira doesn't succumb to fear.

(And then my Shikiaki heart explodes because I think there's something strangely romantic about the way Shiki unconditionally accepts Akira's traits and likes him for who he is, flaws and all. Shiki's route in particular focuses on building upon Akira's pre-existing traits and developing his character through that.)

Akira is left with confusion, not just at Shiki’s behavior, but his own. He has the self-awareness to realize that he acted in a way he normally wouldn’t.

It was the first time he’d ever been so angry, and his inability to control himself was every bit as frustrating as Shiki’s bizarre behavior.

This emotional reaction is completely unprecedented for Akira, who is normally so calm and composed during fights. But the fact that Akira is behaving irrationally here is just proof of how much Shiki is affecting him. Like the game characterizes Akira as this incredibly stoic, apathetic, untouchable, and emotionally closed off dude, and then you see him losing his shit with Shiki because Shiki is just able to get under his skin so easily and pull a reaction out of him. To me, that just shows that Shiki and Akira actually do have chemistry, because they’re able to make each other experience emotions on such a visceral level.

You know the saying, "the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy"? Yeah that's basically what's going on here. Shiki and Akira's whole dynamic at this point in the route revolves around them having these extremely intense, negative feelings toward each other, but the important point is that these feelings are intense. And their feelings only get more messy and complicated once they start having sex and seeing the more vulnerable sides of each other.

But even once their feelings shift away from animosity, the intensity is still there; their emotions just lean into something more ambiguous. (I say ambiguous because textually, the game never defines what those feelings are, but subtextually, it’s pretty obvious that those feelings are romantic in nature.)

Now, even though Akira realizes that this impulsive reaction was atypical of him, I don’t think this was a case of OOC-ness. First of all, the text itself goes out of its way to point out to the reader that Akira’s decision to cast away his knife and charge at Shiki without a weapon was unlike him, so it’s pretty obvious this isn’t a case of unintentional OOC writing, and it isn’t an oversight on the writer’s part. We are supposed to understand that Akira’s irrational behavior here is a sign of how much Shiki is affecting him, getting on his nerves, and making him experience emotions on a level that he’s never experienced before. It’s a moment of character progression if anything.

Second of all, we’ve already been shown at the beginning of the game how Akira has a general dislike toward authority figures. He’s disillusioned with the CFC government and all the corruption in it, he acts rebellious when dealing with the police and their injustice, and he even gives Emma and Gwen a bit of attitude during the visitation scene. And now you have Shiki, quite possibly the biggest bastard (I say this lovingly) when it comes to being domineering and controlling. Not only that, but while Akira looks down on the police and doesn't see them as much of a threat even when he was detained (you can tell based on the way he describes the officers/detective in his POV with an air of indifference), with Shiki, Akira begrudgingly acknowledges Shiki's strength and knows that Shiki outclasses him in pretty much every way.

This feeling of inferiority contributes to Akira's frustration, and when you pair that with Shiki's domineering attitude and the fact that Akira hates being subjugated, well, it makes a lot of sense why even someone as normally reserved as Akira would lash out as aggressively as he did. And this is after being dragged and pushed around by Shiki, having to deal with Shiki's shenanigans, being forced to confront his own nihilistic beliefs, and having his pride and dignity stomped to the ground. It makes sense that Akira's emotions and composure would go haywire after all that.

My point is: Akira's characterization is still consistent and in line with the traits we've seen from him since the start of the game.

Now, do I think there could have been more buildup and development prior to this scene and Akira's loss of temper? Yes. The biggest issues with Shiki’s route are the pacing and the lack of screen time between the two, but I feel like the former is also one that plagues every single route in the game, so I’m not going to criticize Shiki’s route specifically for that. It’s just that Shiki’s route suffers the most from this pacing issue because his relationship with Akira leans more toward the slow burn side, and the pacing in Togainu no Chi is… anything but slow, especially in the latter half when it rushes to introduce how Nano all fits into this.

But despite the pacing issues, I can see what the writer was trying to go for in terms of Shiki and Akira’s dynamic and their development, and I can appreciate the attempt, even if the execution is not all there.

Anyway, there's another part from Shiki's drama CD I want to analyze:

Shiki: What, is that all you can do? This will be just nice to bring up your desire to kill. Don't let me see that cowardly expression of yours again. [Narration] There's no reason why I said all these. This kind of person who only put on airs but is too weak, I can just kill him. But, I did not hesitate to allow him to appear again. [End narration]

After Shiki leaves, he tells himself that there’s no reason for why he spoke or acted the way he did with Akira. To put it bluntly: it’s a form of denial. He knows that it was uncharacteristic of him to not only let Akira live, but to also test Akira's will to live and watch Akira struggle against him, when normally he would just kill his prey and be done with it without sparing a second thought. Shiki claims that there's no meaning behind his actions, when there clearly is. He tries to convince himself that he can still kill Akira if he really wants to; he's just letting Akira live on a whim. Totally not because he's interested in Akira or anything…

Shiki's feelings after this exchange mirror Akira's own in that neither of them can understand their own irrational behaviors. I'm just gonna reiterate an earlier point that I stated in this meta because I feel like I already explained my thoughts there as succinctly as I could, and I don't feel like paraphrasing myself: "They both make each other act in a way they normally wouldn't (Shiki wouldn't normally let his prey live, and Akira normally wouldn't act so self-willed), but that just shows how much they're affecting each other."

And just like Akira, Shiki is aware of how strange his own behavior is, so it's not a case of unintentional OOC writing. The emotional intensity they experience with each other causes them to behave in a manner atypical of themselves, and this opens up their dynamic to the interpretation that they're more interested in each other than they let on.

Now let's look at how the manga frames this exact same scene:

Shiki, unsurprisingly, talks about fear and makes no secret of his disdain for those who either run away or cave into submission (“hanging down their heads in front of stronger persons”) when confronted with death. I feel like this generalizing statement is here to actually stand as a contrast to Akira and show that Shiki's words don't apply to him. Akira isn't running away from Shiki, and he's certainly not bowing his head and begging for mercy from him. (We know that Akira would rather die than do that).

This is further reinforced by Shiki's comment about Akira's resistance and his demand for Akira to "bark more," which, when you look past the dog metaphor, is a pretty clear statement of him telling Akira to fight back. Already this scene is setting up their dynamic to show how Akira is different from all the people Shiki has encountered before, and Akira's defiance is a trait that Shiki hasn't seen from anyone else in Toshima.

Shiki then asks Akira if he’s also started to feel fear toward death:

With his sword pointed at Akira, he’s essentially issuing Akira a challenge here: prove to me that my expectation of you being different is true and that you’re not like those other cowards. The fact that Shiki hasn’t decided to kill Akira yet is proof in itself that he has certain expectations for Akira that he wants Akira to fulfill. But if Akira does indeed succumb to his fear of death, then Shiki is going to kill him.

Wow, what do we have here… another moment of Shiki and Akira eye fucking each other. Their gazes are mirrored in these two panels—one of Akira’s eyes is covered by his hair, while Shiki’s other eye is cut off by the edge of the panel. Shiki’s eye is placed in a higher position than Akira’s on the page; a visual demonstration of the power imbalance between them, with Shiki being the one on top, literally and figuratively. Like I’m not fucking sorry for talking about their eyes so much; it’s one of my favorite tropes in manga and Shikiaki just gets it so right, especially since the act of them gazing into each other’s eyes is thematically relevant to the narrative and isn’t just there for the visuals.

“I don’t want you to decide it... for me.”

Akira condenses my entire analysis of the “Or are you afraid of death?” scene into one definitive sentence. Thank you, Akira.

Like just to reiterate, I’m showing these pages from the manga because they back up my interpretation of the scenes from the visual novel/drama CD. Akira doesn't say this line in the visual novel, but the thought process is there in his internal narration, and now the manga shows Akira explicitly saying that the reason he won't let himself die in this moment is because he doesn't want Shiki to have any influence in the way he dies. Even if Akira wanted to kill himself and end it all, he wouldn’t do it if it meant having to submit to Shiki.

And might I add, this takes place after the kidnapping scene in the manga. Akira has presumably lost the will to live after accidentally killing Keisuke. So there should be more reason for him to just end it all and kill himself with Shiki's sword, right? 

Except no. Akira glares at Shiki and then declares he's not going to let Shiki decide his death for him. He regains the will to live, even if it's just for this moment.

If the narrative frames Keisuke as being so close and important to Akira that Akira straight up loses the will to live after Keisuke dies, then what does it mean that Shiki is able to bring back Akira's will to live, and then even go on to inspire Akira to continue living during the tunnel scene, despite Akira questioning the purpose of his own existence after learning the origin of his blood?

That's a rhetorical question, but it's definitely a line of thinking I'm going to revisit later on in the meta.

Also, I absolutely do not think it’s a coincidence that the “What’s the matter?” text box is on a panel that features a close-up of Shiki’s eyes, and then the text box with Akira’s reply of, "I don't want you to decide it... for me," is on a panel where Akira’s eyes are framed as the main focus. The visual motif is undeniably there.

So to summarize all my thoughts regarding this underrated scene: Akira's nihilism and lack of purpose in life is what makes him act so fearless and defiant when confronting Shiki, but because of that, he also starts acting more self-willed and develops a will to live when Shiki backs him into a corner—not because he’s afraid of death, but because he doesn’t want to submit to Shiki.

Shiki lives with the singular purpose of surpassing the man who made him feel fear, but he also has a complex about fear, and when he meets someone like Akira who seems to be able to face death without fear in his eyes, Shiki is intrigued and wants to see more of where Akira's resilience stems from.

Additionally (and I’ll explain more about this once we get to the relevant scenes, but I’m just going to put my thoughts here for now), Akira becomes drawn to Shiki because Shiki lives with a strong sense of purpose—a trait that Akira himself lacks, and one that relates to the character arc that's been set up for him since the start of the game, the question of: "What could he hope to accomplish by staying alive? What was the difference between life and death, aside from the cessation of one’s bodily functions?”

Conversely, Shiki becomes drawn to Akira because Akira is apathetic toward living and doesn't succumb to fear even when forced to face death—a trait that Shiki himself lacks, and his character arc revolves around him learning to overcome his fear of Nano and accepting his “weakness.”

This sets up their potential attraction to each other, the whole "I can't get him out of my head" sentiment that eventually permeates their respective POVs. They’re drawn to each other because they see traits they aspire to have in the other person.

This is what I mean when I say their opposing philosophies inadvertently draw them to each other, and it's why I spent a good chunk of the previous part of this meta establishing the nihilism/existentialism connection between Akira and Shiki. The way Akira's nihilism ties back so neatly into his dynamic with Shiki is what makes me love Shiki's route so much. I truly get the sense that Akira is his own character in Shiki's route because the writing takes into consideration how Akira's nihilism would influence his characterization, from the way he talks, to the way he acts, to the way he thinks. The writing in Shiki's route actually explores how Akira's nihilism would affect and permeate every aspect of his character, and we see this take shape in the form of Akira's fearlessness.

The way Shiki constantly pushes Akira to act more willfully, thereby making him grow out of his nihilistic mindset, is what really makes the Shikiaki dynamic work for me. Shiki's desire to see Akira struggle—for reasons related to his own backstory and characterization—is what spurs Akira's character development, and that's what makes their interactions feel so organic. It feels like the characters are acting on their own accord, rather than the narrative making them act a certain way in order to push the plot forward/advance the romance, because their actions have been contextualized by their backstories and motivations (or lack thereof), and we see how they directly influence and encourage each other’s character growths through said actions.

Akira is the type of person to "go with the flow" and not exactly care about where life takes him, so it's interesting to see how he exhibits so much agency when it comes to defying Shiki and obeying his own will. It’s important that Akira develops a strong will to live, especially one where he follows his own path, because it’s the trajectory that his character arc is supposed to take, from being a nihilistic person who lives day to day with no purpose in life, to becoming someone who can appreciate life for what it is and make every action count.

---

Next part will include more analysis on some Shikiaki scenes from both the visual novel and the manga, with a manga-exclusive Shikiaki scene that I’m really excited to talk about. I’ve given up on predicting how many parts this meta is going to have though, because clearly I’m incapable of shutting up about Shikiaki and expressing my thoughts in a concise manner, so I’m just gonna fix the navigation as I update lol.

[nyankodanyan]

Nagata Ruriko Membership Number 18

Date of birth: June 23 1967 Birthplace: Gifu Height: 156cm Weight: 45kg Bust: 83cm Waist: 6cm Hip: 82cm Blood Type: O+ High School: Chiba Prefectural Tsudanuma High School Favorite subject: English and Art Least favorite subject: History Club: None Favorite type of boy: Someone who is taciturn and has no presence. Least favorite type of boy: Someone handsome and someone like Playboy who is awfully kind to women. Hobby:Cooking Favorite food: Ice Cream favorite color: White, Pink and Orange Favorite celebrity: Shibata Kyōhei About myself: Every single day I feel self-loathing. Please give me your support. (DUNK8510 P42)

She became a member of Onyanko Club in May 1985, when she was a senior at Tsudanuma High School.(OnyankoB p43) She was good friends with Nitta Eri and Nakajima Miharu, who were in the same grade.(DUNK8512 p39) In April 1986, she enrolled at Wayō Women's Junior College near Funabashi, her hometown.(Rumors p86) In terms of looks, she was at least way better than Nitta, and yet she never became as popular as Nitta.(OnyankoC p38) Perhaps she wasn't always suited for an idol, as she wasn't so cheerful and was an extremely difficult type of girl.(DUNK8510 P42) Still, she, like Nitta, really wanted to make her solo debut.(OnyankoB p43) She appealed to various parties to let her make a solo debut.(5ch1 5) However, Kasai Kazuji, the chief director of Yūyake Nyan Nyan, cruelly rejected her request, telling her that she wasn't qualified for the job.(OnyankoB p43) She was extremely disappointed and implicitly criticized Kasai, saying, “I really hate guys who wield power, and I'm fucking pissed off with such assholes".(DUNK87 P67) Still, when Onyanko Club disbanded, she said she had no unfinished business for her and graciously retired from the entertainment industry.(OnyankoB p64) She developed a unique rounded script called Rurīru, which is still in use to this day, albeit only slightly.(OnyankoC p38) In spring 1988, she married an employee of a television production company.(Rumors p160) That was just a short time before Takai Mamiko's marriage to Akimoto Yasushi, and Nagata, not Takai, was the first Onyanko Club member to get married.(Rumors p160) Some say she married Suzuki Masato, an assistant director of Yūyake Nyan Nyan.(2ch2 710) She appears to have two children (some say three), but hasn't been seen in public at all since her marriage.(Current)(5ch1 66) She's never been in contact with any of the other members of Onyanko Club, including Nitta Eri, with whom she was good friends.(5ch1 68) There are many other members who haven't appeared in public since their marriage, but she's the only one who hasn't even been witnessed by anyone.(5ch1 100) In the 21st century, she started refusing to give video permissions.(Current) Because of this, whenever Onyanko Club footage is shown on TV, her face is always covered with a mosaic.(Current) A number of DVDs were released featuring Yūyake Nyan Nyan, concerts, and behind-the-scenes footage.(Current) All of her close-ups, conversations, singing scenes, and even her profile were removed from these DVDs.(Current) Since no public explanation has been offered as to the cause of her refusal to give permissions for the footage, a number of theories have been rumored.(net) One of them is that her husband had a dispute with Fuji TV and since then she has refused under his direction.(Ruri) This is the most widely believed theory among Onyanko Club fans.(net) However, this theory ain't worthy of credence because it originated from a post written by an unidentified guy on the Onyanko Club fan site, PANIC THE WWW, over 20 years ago.(Ruri) Given her past history, it's more natural to assume that her refusal is vengeance for not getting her solo debut. This theory, too, ain't certain, though.

[koqabear]

okay i wanted to ask, because i see you writing such long fics but i can barely pull myself together to write this bomb-ass 20k word fic, how do approach a fic you know is going to be a long one in a way that you don't feel intimidated by it, or do you still get intimidated by it and just try and push through it?

okay so first off, thank you so much for sending me this ask 😭 you literally forced me to go through my writing process and caused me to make a huge breakthrough with one of my stories alfkgh

anyways, i'll try to be as thorough and clear as i can be with my process, i hope this helps! (but also im so sorry once i started i couldn't stop)

i think my process can be best described with three fics; Only You, Darling (40k), Killer Instinct (37K), and Memories We Made (unfinished but estimated to be over 30k.). With each story, I knew that they were going to be long, but mostly because I went in with the approach that it has to be long in order for the story to be executed right; characters have to be written thoroughly, and there are certain scenes that need to be written for the plot/character to progress-- like, if it's not written in, the story could lose those small details that make the fic feel more... alive, if that makes sense?

The most important part is making an outline! I know that's probably obvious, but outlines can seriously vary; like with OYD and MWM, I have a whole doc dedicated to the fic. I'm gonna show you what a bit of my OYD planning looks like, please don't point out how genuinely unhinged it is 😭😭😭 (so.. spoilers for OYD + fun fact it was gonna be Sunghoon instead of Jaemin in the story originally hehe)

This is an example of what my outlines can look like; but, it only gets like this as i write-- the first pic is my outline filled with things i added as i wrote OYD such as characteristics/important notes/things i wanna edit, and the second pic is what i started out with.

the first thing i do is brainstorm the bare basics of the plot; what kind of story is it, and what do i want to happen in it? you can see that i separated the story into the key plot points/arcs; and within each one, i also put how i wanted them to begin and end. (the numbers are the wc for each arc alskhg)

the hard part comes in when you're filling these arcs/key points in. because now the big question is, how do you get there? for example, during the first act of OYD, i wanted to establish beomjun's relationship with the mc, and end it off by having the two work together. but in order to do that, i decided to include scenes that showed yeonjun's relationship with the mc, and then beomgyu's relationship with her. now that i had the foundation, i allowed the two to interact; that let me establish beomjun's relationship with each other, and let them realize they had a common goal.

last, you add a catalyst (a character, a situation, etc.) that can get you to your end goal; the catalyst being jaemin, which brought the two to work together out of jealousy-- and that's how i was able to fill in that key point.

then i just repeated that process for all arcs! add scenes that elaborate on key points, then add a catalyst that can take you to the end!

another thing i do when plotting for my stories is record myself brainstorming! i let myself ramble and talk about the plot out loud, and that's usually how i run into plot holes/issues. i kinda let myself figure it out in real time, and once i've figured the plot out, i listen back to it and write it down. (i have voice recordings for OYD and MWM. MWM is 48 mins, if that gives you a gist of what i mean by like... brainstorming. and half of it is straight up fucking nonsense. just let out ideas, details about the characters, scenes you'd like to write, anything. it lets you become more familiar and comfortable with your story, if that even makes sense.)

also! whenever i'm writing but get tired and decide to take a break, i add a quick want to add note at the bottom; that's what the weird little spiel up there in the second pic is. it's where i wrote down the ending scene because i had a super specific idea of what i wanted and how i wanted it to happen. if you get any scene ideas like that for your fic, write them down!! there's a chance that you might forget about it/write it differently if you don't; plus, it could even help you add things in that could make the transition into the scene super smooth.

OYD was honestly a bit intimidating for me when i wrote it, because i knew that it had to be extremely detailed and long. that's why i made sure to properly plan things out, that way so i didn't forget anything that could skew the execution. but one of the biggest tips is that you should brainstorm scenes you want to add in each key point, that way you don't feel as intimidated when writing-- because now you have a guide, yk? I'd love to show how my MWM outline looks like, but the fic isn't even out yet 😭 but it's literally a scene-by-scene outline of how i want the story to go! now all i have to do is flesh out the said scenes :)

then there's fics like killer instinct. i went into that with pure vibes, no outline, no planning; more of a mental outline, if anything. so if you find the idea of the whole written outline + scene & key points boring/not for you, i'd still suggest to get the bare basics down; but what i did with killer instinct was that i brainstormed as i went, and added small notes to keep track of important things so i wouldn't screw with continuity-- age and time is pretty important in that story, and i kid you not this is the only thing i had for killer instinct outline wise (bc im not counting my doc of mma notes.)

but for killer instinct, i kinda winged it; i knew what the general plot was, but allowed myself to have fun on how to get there. the only thing i will say though, is that with every scene, you should try to plan out the next one-- like, intro to killer instinct is introducing taegyu, then i'll introduce the mc. then i'll introduce the world and background. and now that i have a foundation, i'll add extra scenes, then a catalyst! this leads into the main conflict, then y'know the rest. but instead of planning it out bit by bit, i kinda let myself go with the flow...? it also let me be a lot less intimidated by the fact that I knew the story would have to be long.

as for the story i had a big breakthrough with, i'm definitely a bit intimidated by it! i know it has to be intricate and emotional and intense, so in order to help with that, i've made playlists to get me in the correct mood, watch shows, read other fics, anything to help me get comfortable with the genre and spark inspiration. I'm currently winging it as well.... but have three key points im sticking to-- it's gonna sound a bit confusing and vague but it's like... add foundation + the male lead is introduced -> background is given to let ppl know motivations and stuff -> final scene. and whenever i run into an issue, i brainstorm and try to get to the root of why im stuck. like, is it plot, the character, or the scene? in this case it was all three so. pray for me.

anyways. i hope this helped and im so sorry if it didn't 😭😭😭 because then that just means u read this painfully messy explanation for nothing. but when writing long fics, pleeeaseee make sure to take your time with it-- if nothing's working, give it time and don't force yourself to write whatever! (mwm has been in my wip for a solid like. year..? but this is a rare case plus im insane)

and if your word count ends up surpassing/being under than what you originally expected, don't panic! (killer instinct was estimated at 20-25k. so.) sometimes certain scenes just aren't necessary, and other times, you find that you may need to elaborate more in order to make things work.

im seriously wishing you luck on your project!! and if you found this somehow did help and have more questions, don't hesitate to ask! oh and if you found something i said confusing (bc i do have the tendency to not make sense) pls lmk and i'll try to clear it up asdglsh 😭

[crazy-grrrl-on-the-computer]

2024 Archive of Our Own Wrapped

Since @spicedrobot was kind enough to share this 2024 AO3 Wrapped template, I decided to fill it out as an excuse to talk about my writing attempts for the year. And because I didn't feel like stopping there, I have also taken inspiration from another wrapped template I found by dreputationera~ ^^

AO3 Username: Girly411

Total Kudos: 6

Comment Threads: 3

Bookmarks: 2

Total Subs: 4 (I'm counting this as fic subs, not user subs)

Word Count: 13,353

Total Hits: 180

This year, my AO3 account has seen the most activity since its creation in 2015 because I finally cross-posted my backlog of old FFN fics. Five of those fics were updated with new chapters that I had forgotten to post years ago when I actually wrote them, so after subtracting them from the word count I ended up with a pretty small but not insignificant number... because I'm a wordy bitch. uwu

Most Popular Fic In 2024: Stay Cool (It's Just A Kiss)

Hits: 36

Kudos: 2

Comments: 2

Bookmarks: 0

I won't even pretend to wonder why this, out of the three new fics I managed to post this year, got the most attention. It may be about my beloved Ichiban/Ryuu rareship, but that Io & Ryuu tag is no doubt pulling in curious readers! Chapter 2 will be done as soon as I can shake the words for one more scene out of my brain, but I'm just grateful that y'all are giving my ship a chance even if I'm still slow at writing it. ;;3;; <3

Fav Fic You Wrote In 2024: Into The Deep

Hits: 8

Kudos: 0

Comments: 0

Bookmarks: 0

While I love all three of the fics I wrote this year for different reasons, Into The Deep holds an even more special place in my heart simply for the childhood nostalgia I have for the Hidden Expedition series. I started writing it because I wanted to manage my expectations by writing something short for a basically nonexistent fandom and I succeeded at that! But I expected 0 hits and somehow there are (potentially) 8 people out there staring at me silently asdhklf please tell me your thoughts X'D

Most Written Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Most Written Category: Gen

Most Written Fandom: Boueibu and High School Musical are tied, marking two distinct and formative eras of my life that will remain a part of me forever

Most Written Relationships: Ryan Evans & Sharpay Evans (my fixation on their sibling relationship in high school really says so much about me) and Naruko Io/Zaou Ryuu (where would I be without my Boueibu ships truly)

Favorite Characters To Write: Ryan Evans, Sharpay Evans, and Original Characters top the charts from my high school era because I desperately needed someone to project onto and that hasn't changed! Nowadays, I'm not sure if I have a specific favorite character to write, but I do really love writing the Loveless (and other side characters) in my Boueibu fics~ <3

Favorite Additional Tags: Humor, Fluff, Romance, Friendship, and Crack seem to be the tags I'm most drawn to. Angst should probably be in there too because that accounts for a lot of what I write! XD

Favorite Dialogue Snippet/Paragraph You Wrote: Truthfully, most of that can be found in this tag game here, but this part of A Rose's Thorns still makes my heart wibble. ;;w;;

Chizuru let her fingers find their way into the hair at the nape of his neck as she thought it through. He would need a trim soon and she was quite good with a pair of scissors. His face and voice were kind, and his heart was strong. It would be nice to come home to him. Someday.

WIP Ideas For Next Year: There is a mountain of old WIPs sitting in my archive that I plan to (hopefully) chip away at, especially my rareship fics! Boueibu is still a pretty big focus for me because I have so much left unfinished (and new ideas crawling into my brain all the time), but maybe I will manage to dip my fingers into some other fandoms as well. Goodness knows I also have so many WIPs hanging from FFN too. o.o'

What You Learned From Writing This Year: My 2017 burnout may have taken a huge toll on me, but the ability to write still lies deep within my brain. Having an ample supply of WIPs to rework/continue has been crucial to getting me back into the habit as long as I have the health/energy to stick with the simple method that I know has always worked for me (yet every time I'm still surprised):

1) write at least one sentence a day, it doesn't even have to be good or a complete thought meant to be part of the same scene, it's just practice and the rest will come together later

2) write it bad, write it the worst it's ever been written, and then rework it later with fresh eyes, just get SOMETHING out of the brain and onto the page

3) writing is fun, just do whatever sparks joy, you make the rules uwu

I'm also a lot lonelier than I ever was at any other point in my writing journey. Many things have changed in my life and I have less people (and animal companions) around me to share my enthusiasm with now. I have to learn how to cope with that because it's been very hard, especially when the larger fandom culture has shifted so completely to private groups and a reluctance to offer kind words to creators in lieu of companies largely treating us like content farms.

My main fandoms are small (or nonexistent) and my friends are busy/tired/interested in other things (all of which is fair and understandable), so part of this is my fault for not being where the people are.... but for now I will continue to reach out to writers and artists to let them know their work has been appreciated and hope that eventually comes back around to being the norm again.

[phantomtwitch]

Congrats on finishing Echoes!!!!!!!

Do you have tips on writing such a long fic? How much planning did you do ?

Ahhh, thank you!!!!

For finishing such a long fic, I have some suggestions, but I think like a lot of writing advice it's a very "your mileage will vary" depending on your own processes. Long and honestly kind of rambling answer (and some mild spoilers for Echoes) below the cut:

So in terms of planning, I'm not really much of a planner to be honest. I know plenty of authors that will do detailed outlines, map out scenes, and then proceed to write each scene or chapter in a very structured way. It works for them, and it's worth a try if you haven't done it before, but I've found it just doesn't suit my general style.

My outline was a lot vaguer. I had basic concepts ideas I wanted to explore - No One Knows AU, Hazmat AU, Danny being friends with the ghosts as Fenton despite being hated as Phantom, and an identity reveal. My basic structure at the start was split into four parts, with each part highlighting a different reveal with different people in his life, but after finishing the first one with Valerie, I found that while it worked okay as a standalone, as a long fic it just . . . didn't. When I started doing the next part, it felt too repetitive and too much like the exact same thing with just the person swapped out, so even though I liked that first bit overall, I scrapped it in favor of trying to do something else because I still wanted to get to that end point where his family and friends all knew the truth.

So instead I tried to think about what could bring some of these people together to kind of discover some things in tandem instead of separately (hence the possession bit I came up with, which wasn't part of my original concept), and then from there the second part felt really natural as I realized I had to deal with the fallout from what happened there and it allowed me to bring the Fenton parents in more, too. I knew the last part was always going to end with my interpretation of Reign Storm, so it mostly became a question of how to get there in the context of the themes that started to develop as I wrote (namely around forgiveness, trust, hope, etc).

Dividing it into three parts with a different focus that still supported the overall story and character arcs helped a ton. Not getting too fixated on editing as I went along was also a big, important piece, since that's something I've struggled with intensely in the past. I want things to be perfect, and part of finishing this meant accepting that it wouldn't be and that it was okay and that, in all honesty, some of the things that make it imperfect are part of what makes it so near and dear to my heart.

(I will say, though, that I definitely indulged that impulse to go back and edit occasionally, since it helped refresh my memory as I wrote and scratch that itch. It was just important not to fall into a trap of only doing that instead of writing, too).

I tried to do a few scenes out of order, but found that never worked for me, I think in part because I was figuring out a lot of things as I went along. I'll still, occasionally, write out the bit in a fic that I really, really want on the page if I feel like I can't continue writing without getting it out first, but that version of it virtually never ends up in the final piece.

Other things that were important for me . . .

Finishing the fic before I posted it. Other folks can write and post as they go. I can't. I don't usually figure out everything until I'm basically done, and at that point I need to go back and rewrite and add bits to make the whole thing work. I think some of the chapters I didn't have in the first solid draft of my finished fic would surprise people. The unfinished fics on my old FFN profile are a testament to this - there's more than one I stopped there because I wrote myself into a corner I couldn't figure out how to get out of, or took on something that was way too ambitious or went in a direction I found I ultimately didn't want to go.

It also helped me avoid feeling that intense pressure of not wanting to disappoint people that were reading. Like, that was still there, but because the fic was functionally done, it didn't impact my ability to finish writing it, if that makes sense, and instead really impacted how I approached editing it instead.

But posting with space between the chapters mattered, too, since it allowed me to read people's comments which sometimes brought up things I hadn't considered and that I occasionally (but not always) worked into the fic later. One of the comments from dp-marvel 94, I think, had a huge impact on me when it came to how I approached the epilogue. While some parts of the epilogue didn't change much from my initial draft, a not so small part did, and I am much, much happier for the change since it really helped to tie up Danny's character growth and some of the themes I'd written into the fic.

(I suspect a beta-reader could have helped with that, but I was too anxious/terrified to ask anyone to be honest even as I knew it would probably make the fic better).

I also let my fic sit for like a month after I finished it without touching it, and then I went back and reread the entire thing, which helped me realize what I was missing, things I should added, deleted bits that I should also put back in (I never, ever permanently delete anything I write. I have a ton of documents that are an absolutely bonkers amount of pages full of stuff I deleted, if only because sometimes I realize that there are bits of those things that can be salvaged or worked in later).

And honestly? I just type fast. That's not terribly helpful advice and I know it, but it means I can indulge a lot of the vague ideas/thoughts I have without feeling like it's setting me back much since I can easily write a few thousand words in an hour.

Really, though, it's thinking about what you want to do with the fic and pushing through the anxiety/fear/perfectionism or whatever other thing is stopping you from finishing, and picking an idea that you love enough that you want to see it through to the end despite the blood, sweat, and tears you'll be pouring into it.

[thedawningofthehour]

Hi!! Yes, hello, I cried again, thank you for that. Even though you said we „shouldn’t expect too much“, my heart is still very much cracked haha

ANYWAY, since the guessing game is still on, I was thinking a lot during this chapter. My guess is, either Raph has a really stupid idea that he‘s thinking through right now and that‘s why he‘s been so quiet OR smth happens to the Hueso place and he like sacrifices himself to get his family to escape like idk maybe EPF or smth knocks at the door and he holds them off

And so I was wondering if you could tell us when this stupid thing is gonna happen, I have a feeling it might be like the book 2 finale or somewhere close to that??

ALSO, I was wondering how you organise your chapters and the plot you write about. Do you have like a pinboard and put the NYC map on it and connect the dots with red yarn? (Detective style) or do you use some program or are just…weird and memorise it all?

Maybe he hasn't actually had the stupid idea yet, but he's definitely ruminating on everything that eventually compels him to make that decision.

The stupid thing will be a direct consequence of the final climax, so it'll be coming up here soon. I'm going to put up a poll probably after the next chapter.

I'm giddy that we're getting there, honestly. There's a foreshadow I put in literally in the single-digit chapters of Book 1 and when I wrote that I couldn't imagine actually getting to that point. I always feel like I'm going to die or something before I finish stuff, like, I was shocked when I finished doth.

Oh my goooood I am so terrible about plotting and outlines and stuff. I always, always feel like I'm in elementary school filling out a worksheet. I am basically this guy

except there is no paper because I haven't written anything down I'm just sleep deprived and rambling and smoking copious amounts of weed. (I have never smoked weed)

I know generally how the plots go, and as chapters draw closer I start thinking more specifically about where parts should go and where they would fit best. The whole war kick-off thing, that originally was going to happen after the third reverse-kidnapping, (the mall with the mercenaries one) but Gale and Mikey were still having their library trips, and that just seemed like an...awkward thing to have hanging over them. And it just didn't have to be. I could have cut that arc short, delayed the third reverse-kidnapping until after after the library meetings were discovered, or I could push off the war. And the war didn't need to happen then-if anything, it complicated the other plot points that needed to happen. And I think it worked out for the better this way.

I'm not totally satisfied with this method though. When I was writing Book 1, I had probably about half the fic written before I started posting-it was all in one document, Donnie's scenes were all together and Leo's scenes were in some incomprehensible order and often unfinished because I wasn't expecting to post anything and would just stop when I felt like it, when I finally committed to putting it to order I think I had like eight documents open at one point and three different highlighter colors to denote what I'd done in the master document, it was an ORDEAL-but it meant that I could group scenes together based on what was most effective, move things around very easily. The fact that Leo and Donnie's chapters were pointedly not happening at the same time helped a lot too. In Book 2, I end up writing with two, maybe three chapters planned ahead in my brain, and I feel like that forces me to sometimes rely on short-term climaxes that add to the word count but don't really do much for the story overall, or put off certain things that I don't particularly feel like writing at the time or don't know would work there. Book 2 would probably be significantly shorter if I'd plotted it out the way I did Book 1.

...What were we talking about? Oh! I do actually have a map of NYC open pretty much constantly in my fic window, it probably shows when they were driving around last chapter that I was literally going along the border with my pointer finger. But I'm terrible and I don't write any of this shit down. I usually remember, but there have been occasions where I've completely forgotten what I was going to do, and I think it was chapter 32 where I had pretty much finished the rest of the chapter and then realized I'd forgotten the final Leo scene-which was a pretty major scene. So I guess...yeah, weird and memorize sounds correct, but I don't actually do it that well.

[the-missann]

I just remembered something I wanted to do.

Essentially, I grew up reading and watching yaoi (and also self-identify as a fujoshi) and it's always been a dream of mine to have a queer show go on for as long as something like Naruto or SpongeBob. You know, just longer than three seasons as is typical with shows that have queer main characters.

So, I'll share some of the stories of mine that either have MCs that are gay, have queer characters, or have a plot related around something LGBT.

Also, I wanna use this as a way to detail special cases in my stories as well.

! I am but a simple ally. So if something I say is wrong or there's a better way to phrase it, please kindly let me know. I truly mean no offense by anything here !

Stories with gay MCs

Tales That Were Told (Not written)

So, this is a story that's pretty much done but I haven't written one bit of it aside from a random scene I had to get out of my head. But, originally, this was just a story where two highschool kids were dealing with highschool shit. A slice of life story with two cuties. Then, it got turned into this new story (Tales That Were Told) that is a sequel to another story I'm still currently writing (Tales That Were Lived). It's hard to summarize, but essentially the main story is an adventure dealing with three characters and a fantasy world where they're all coming to terms with finding themselves and learning to love who they are despite where they may come from. In Tales Told, I intend for this story to have like relationship shit, but the relationship is two men *gasp*. It's not gonna be some weirdly specific thing; no, they're just two kids who have a crush on each other while other shit in the world is going on. Revolutionary concept I know.

Unnamed erotica (unedited, 40k wc with a planned sequel at 10k currently)

it has a name, but I don't really like it :(

I was a little iffy about writing this one at first because I'm the type of person who's extremely tired of queer media just being softcore porn. I just want a good story and the characters happen to be gay. But, I also know it's important to write stories like these as well to show all the different sides and to show people that there's not much different about anyone who happens to be lgbt. In this story, my MC Kit is a famous voice actor (like Johnny Young Bosch) and is a total asshole that everyone is scared shitless of. His soon to be boyfriend is a lovestruck puppy boy childhood friend who is desperate to be with him. He's so sweet it's almost sickening! They deal with normal relationship issues, societal problems, workplace harassment, as well as their own personal issues and some of their issues are even from each other. scandalous. Kit as the MC has a million and one issues within himself (including some from his family), but his loverboy is right there to help him! Also, here's another summary I wrote for this on my website that better explains the origin of the story.

Stories with queer characters

Orange Perfect (unfinished at 21k)

This is had a few mentions of queerness in it. A quick summary: this is a coming-of-age story where three kids (Cassie, Lucius, and Shay) are forced to become friends after all getting targeted by a gang. The MC named Shay is discovering himself. He doesn't know if he's gay, bi, non-binary, gender non-conforming, etc... and is conflicted about his various feelings as he wishes he had a simpler answer for how he feels. Another important character is a trans man (Gabe) who acts as a physical representation of Cassie's own realization of who she wants to be. It's tough for her to live as herself, so Gabe eventually reveals to her that he is a trans man. That his struggles to realize who he really was changed once he accepted himself. As well, he wants her to be different from himself as he's still living partially in the dark since very few people know he's trans.

Any story that has one character named Ren in it (too many to count)

Ren is my MCs twin brother (whenever I want her to have a twin brother) and he is always in a relationship with another character named Mari who I originally made as a trap (I was like twelve). Now a days, Mari is just best described as a twink, but I like his name too much to change it. So that part of the "trap" still exists. Ren is full on gay and screams it from the rooftops as he expresses his interest in men quite often. He's not a flamboyant gay, but he will openly tell people he has no romantic or sexual interest in women and isn't shy to kiss his boyfriend in public. Oh and bonus that women often like him and he has a ton of female friends.

The Entire Fourth Dimension Reality series (total wc of ~100k)

Aside from this story being one long shit post I thoroughly loved making. One of the secondary main characters is suppose to be pansexual. Why this is, is because she only interacts with the other three main characters because she finds them cute (one girl and two guys). Now, she's actually pan for a reason. It's mainly due to her family that made her desire to be loved by everyone around her. This manifested into her just liking anything that would show her affection. (dw Mandy, I love you💗) One of the villains I made to be feminine presenting because he was really pretty in my head when I first developed him. He was going to be genderless, but I decided to make him more feminine and most of that is just with his appearance, but he is defined as a man and acts as so, he just happens to have traditional female attire and mannerisms :)

All The Screams (unedited at 61k)

So, the main point of this story is about Cassie who ends up finding out that she's cursed, but she only does so after going on a mission to escort the prince of her kingdom to his lover. This mission is kept secret and why lies in who this lover is. It's a prince from another Kingdom. Kyo, the prince of Cassie's kingdom, is a little selfish brat who wants what he wants. He fell in love with another kingdom's prince and immediately chose him over his kingdom. With the other prince, his parents are actually gay as well and I made this story around the time I was heavily into yaoi and BL so that may have been an influence as to why tons of characters in this story are gay or why there's major plot points relating to it.

Characters that are iffy/I didn't plan to be queer

The State of Quandary (unfinished with ~60k)/ Before the Reignfall (finished with 45k)

Technically this involves two characters. One of the MCs (Fang) and the MCs friend (Dani) are in the same boat. Originally, Dani was suppose to have a crush on the other MC (Cassie), and that was suppose to explain why Dani even interacts with her in the first place and why they have such a close friendship. However, it felt queerbaity and I felt gross having that as a plot point when it's so obvious Cassie will never even get close to having romantic feelings for Dani. Then, I thought to have Dani be a lesbian because she has trauma with men and dislikes most, if not all, grown men in the world. Fang was the remedy with that as I thought to make them be in a relationship as Fang would be the first guy she ever met who isn't a total loser. However, Fang was originally going to be involved in a love triangle before I realized there's a bit to many conflicts in the story and got rid of it. So, I ended up in a gray area where Fang also doesn't show any interest in women (the result of the love triangle being removed) So, this was my fix. People can either think Fang and Dani are cute together and he manages to break through her trauma, people can think they're both gay and just show no romantic interest in the opposite sex, or their romantic feelings for anyone just isn't important to the story whatsoever. And tbh, I don't mind any one of those options. It's cool when there's different ways to interpret character relationships and it won't lead to fans fighting each other if even I don't really know what it is.

Tales That Were Told (Unfinished at ~90k words)

This villain is a doozy. Their name is Gage and when I first made this character, I pretty much was going to make a woman. However, when I started writing the story, she turned into a he and not even in a way like I intended to change the gender, but even now whenever I write Gage, they're a he. When I think of Gage, they're a she. I don't know what that's about, but even my mental image of Gage is that of both a woman and a man. (If anything, they're comparable to Leo from Tekken). So, to fix this in my head, out loud I refer to Gage as a he. I think of Gage as a she. In the story, the narrator doesn't use any pronoun and characters have conflicting usage as most characters refer to Gage as a he, but there are some who see Gage as a she or simply they/them. Oh, and no, just because Gage might be non-binary, that's not why they're evil. It's not even a plot point in the story. No vilifying personality traits over here lol

Unfinished/unplotted stories with queer plotlines

Unnamed romance (Pink and Brown)

I showcased a snipit of this story (also thanks for everyone who liked it 💕), but there's more to it than what I shared. Back when I actually had a friend, I used to tell him about ideas I had, then he would pretty much allow me to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to make a story with these two girls I made in a picrew because they were so adorable and they ended up as a couple. I couldn't think of a name so they were named Pink and Brown based on their hair colors. I also couldn't think of the official story I wanted them to have. So, I simply came up with two of them. The first story is a slice of life where Brown and Pink are both in college (for IT and Art respectively) and Brown has a huge crush on two girls--one she knows through mutual friends and another being the artists of a webcomic she really loves. (I'm sure this isn't obvious at all). So, one day, Brown gets a call from Pink and she's really stressed out about something. Eventually, she explains she called her since an IT major could help her with someone hacking one of her social media accounts. Brown agrees and when she finds out what the account is, she's shocked to see that Pink is the artist of the webcomic she's been reading for years. I don't even have a damn conflict in this story so it is dead in the water. I'm sure I'll get some idea for it, but knowing me that'll be years from now, unfortunately. Oh, and the snipit I shared is suppose to be the comic Pink is drawing acted as an AU of the original story (if that makes any fucking sense)

Unnamed romance (Idol x non-idol)

This one feels like a fever dream because I don't even remember why I came up with it. Anyways, this is suppose to be a slight extension of the erotica. This is another famous person who ends up falling for an accountant after a random encounter he had with him after a concert. The accountant doesn't want to be involved with this celeb for several reasons, but mainly because he's known to sleep around. The celeb is determined and pretty much forces them to have a relationship by hiring him as his new money manager. He pretty much gets him fired from his old job and... that's all I thought of. It's suppose to end up being really cute as the celeb eventually reveals the kind of person he really is, but what that is, I'm not really sure.

Random Tangent

Now that I'm writing this, it does make me think about an abandoned story I wrote where a failing manager falls in love with a client who essentially saves him from losing his career. The erotica and it's extension are already related, and this other unnamed story (I'll call it The Client for now) had a connection as well. Real quick, all these stories are connected to Orange Perfect through Cassie and other relationships. Without giving away major spoilers (just in case) Cassie ends up as someone very influential in the media world by the end. As a college age girl, she's meeting with the Celeb and the Accountant; and, at some point in her journey, she meets and works with the Manager in The Client. Kit knows a ton of people in the industry and knows the Celeb, the Manager, and Cassie who he has a business relationship with. So, it's easy for me to add Pink. Pink could eventually be offered a contract to a major publication, and cross paths with Cassie through some means. There's even a chance for Kit to voice any character in her webcomic, the celeb to make music for it, and even the manager could help her somehow. Sometimes I get really good ideas for things that just are not possible. I would love to have these five stories apart of a collection in this "reality" I made up for them. Ugh. It sucks to not have this as my actual job. Anyways, I thought it would be kind of cool to have all these stories be related.

That might not be everyone, but I often use queer elements in my story so, who knows, maybe I'll update this in the future with more!

But, thanks for reading if you did~🍂

[onmywaytofanfic]

WELCOME & MASTERLIST (UNDERCONSTRUCTION)

WELCOME TO MY ONMYWAYTOFANFIC !!!

My name is Boro and well, here is my bullshit. It is strange but.... I create this with a solid idea to do one fanfic exclusively and now it is so diverse, there are AUs and other characters this is madness. So I decided to create a masterlist with everything. It must be said that this would not have happened if it wasn't for the amazing community and friends that I have found along the way in this year that I have been actively trying to create content. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!! YOU ALL KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!

I have ended up with more than one ship for the main OC that I did, Reina, whose story has change drastically and has shifted constantly, as well as her desing. On the way Eiko appeared with a solid background and a beautiful love story with Ibiki, I am soo in love with them. I know that this would be changing that this is a masterlist of everything that I have done so far and.... I thought that I did lest but oh boy! Gooddness!!

The Aburame family is still my main topic and I abbsolutely love my Reina and the family that has been built around her, but Eiko is a huge and very important OC for me too althought she is nto from the Aburamme family but the fierce matriarch of the Morino family. What a family let me tell you.

It would be divided by AU and Ship so you can check (I may try to change or find a more suitable way to do this). I will try to update it as much as possible. Also there is a ART Masterlist here too.

There are a few desclimers:

This fanfic is +18 mature content would be shown not just the yummy but also hard stuff like trauma for example. This is something that mus be said not just way ahead and it will be also shown in each chapter.

All the characters are property of their creator, Masashi Kishimoto, I have used my liberty to enhance what he has shown about his world and of course I have add OCs. So far I would not upload drawings of my OCs mostly because I suck at it, so better keep them lock. Therefore, it is forbidden to upload my content without the credit that it should be given as well as the descrimer that shows that the character are property of Masashi Kishimoto.

It must be said that English it is not my first language, I am using this plattaform for fun, to have some laughs and enjoy writing my fanfiction. It is more of a creative and linguistic output in general terms. I have thought to also upload in other languages for practicing and fun.

With nothing else to say... well I hope you enjoy it.

THE ABURAME FAMILY

REINA ABURAME HEADCANNONS (The new ones) Headcannons

Technique's headccanon - part 1

BUNA ABURAME HEADCANNONS (The grandpa)

TAKEO ABURAME HEADCANNONS (The father)

TATSUMA ABURAME HEADCANNONS (The brother- yes it is cannon Tatsuma the one that was with Orochimaru in that 1 manga panel)

KIDOMARU (Kidomaru?!! Yes someone ~~@yamanaka-shin and @waxingmoonmilktea ~~ have make this a brainworm that is quite deep now in my brain. Very deep...really deep....I LOVE HTE DYNAMIC THAT THESE THREE COULD HAVE OKAY?! okay...I am down a rabbit hole)

NEW CANNON

Reina's birth Part 1 Part 2

KAGENOGURE CHRONICLES AU

-- Original cannon (no longer Reina's (and also my Aburame family) cannon but maybe I will go back here, but so far it is just an AU)

In this AU there is a hidden village called Kagenogure, found by Sasuke and that would eventually lead to all the characters meeting. The main Reina ship is SHINO ABURAME. It has two parts, Kagenogure Chronicles which is the main story line and UNTOLD that happens three years after the first one. Both are unfinished.

REINA x SHINO

UNTOLD

Chapters: 1 , 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Dreams (Scene)

KAGENOGURE CHRONICLES

Kagenogure's truth 1

Prologue Chapter 1

TAKEO SCENES

The Phoenix's feathers

The new Queen

The old Queen

Reina's birth

Comic: Monarc butterfly part 1

Comic : If they were here

Some HEADCANNONs and a scene

BAND AU

REINA X NOBIRU @moonamayillu 's OC

Chapter 1 , 2

SCENES

REINA X MUTA AU (Doesn't have a name yet)

Chapter 1 , 2

Zetsu's backstory - Yes I am creating some Zetsu content hope to publish it soon rather than later.

STARDEW VALLEY mix NARUTO AU (NARUTO VALLEY? IT IS OFFICIAL)

EIKO AND IBIKI

EIKO MORINO YAMANADA HEADCANNONS

IBIKI MORINO HEADCANNONS

I have never forgotten you (EikoxIbiki) Main storyline of these lovebirds. It is their official cannon

Chapter 1

Pain War Arc - Scene 1 - Scene 2 - Scene 3 (coming soon)

Roasted Chicken Scene

MARCH CHALLENGE (Fail)

Days 1, 2, 3 ,4 (@shinoposting 's OC Suma :3 )

[tboy-boone]

1-15 for the wip asks :)

this is like an entire school assignment, sorry it took so long <3

how many WIPS do you have right now?

too many.... i can't finish anything

2. what is your oldest WIP?

I have this goofy sequel I made to this one story i wrote in middle school and I have to finish it. For everything else, I can't finish anything, but for this WIP, I am required to!!

3. what is your newest WIP?

The last WIP i worked on was Cold, and it's my favourite of all of them. My favourite child without a doubt <3

4. Do you have any WIPs that will never be finished?

I never ever finish anything and I love it! Some things are meant to be small and unfinished thoughts, and I will do it again!

5. What scene did you write first in your current WIP?

The first part I wrote in Cold wasn't the beginning. Since the idea came to me in a dream, I wrote it in segments. So, I wrote the beginning like 6 months later.

6. How long do you tend to spend on your WIPs?

It's usually like two days or almost a year. No in between.

7. What's the longest time you've spent on a fic?

When I was writing I Saw Your Ghost Tonight, it took so damn long.... I started it in October '22 when I was working sound at a play and..... then I hated it after trying to work on it for long. So, it took even LONGER. I have a whole hate/love thing with it, more hate than love.

8. What's the fastest time you've finished a fic?

My last fic took me a little under three hours I think. There was something in the air that night.

9. Do you write your fics as you go, or finish before publishing?

I finish my fics before publishing. I didn't always used to do that, but it helps me commit to the fic. Otherwise, all my works will never be finished.

10. Do you outline a fic before you write it?

Sometimes I'll outline a fic, but I don't usually. If it's a little on the longer side, I might outline it. It just depends on what I'm writing about.

11. How close has your WIP stayed to its outline/original version?

I never finish an outline..... but usually it'll stay pretty close.

12. Do you have a title, working or otherwise, for your WIP? How did you come up with it?

My word docs are given a working title, and it's usually the first sentence so I know what it is. I don't typically give it a good title until I publish it.

13. What's been part of your WIP since the beginning? What the newest idea that you've added to it?

Well, in unnamed wip, I have this bitchy to lovers concept that I like, but I'm thinking of changing some parts of it. I need them to be bitchier and the catalyst needs to change, I'm not feeling it anymore.

14. Rewrite a scene from your WIP from another character's perspective.

Ben had fallen asleep on the couch, but when Riley or Abigail nudged him awake, he would say he was just shutting his eyes for a moment. The occasional snore told them otherwise. Sometimes, he’d snore loud enough he heard himself through his sleep. Tonight was no different than any other, Ben woke himself up with a snort. His eyes burned after hours of reading and researching, so he lay there with his eyes closed, listening to Riley and Abigail in the kitchen. Riley’s laptop was still on, he didn’t get up that long ago. The blue glow dried out Riley’s eyes like the dizzying blur of pages dried Ben’s.

“Howdy, stranger,” Riley’s voice crackled.

There were days when they were all so invested in their research that hours went by before they spoke to each other and discussed their findings.

“You should get some rest.” The soft wrinkling of Abigail’s gloves echoed in the silent apartment. “The both of you.”

“Don’t tell it to me,” Riley grumbled. “Tell it to Indiana Jones in there.”

Despite his snarky tone, Riley kept his voice low for Ben. Although, Ben wasn’t sure if Riley spoke quietly for Ben, or because he cranky enough to start talking shit.

15. Rewrite a scene from your WIP in a different person (first, second, third, etc.)

Although, you should think about getting a new couch. You kneaded the cushions with your palm before sitting down, but it never made the seats any softer. You glanced at the clock on the wall, far too late to be awake, but far too early for you to sleep. The ticking bounced off the bare walls and through the barren rooms. There were plenty of things you needed to do, but the very thought exhausted you in an instant. Ringing echoed from the kitchen, another phone you forgot to disconnect. Can't a man sit in his home and listen to the drone of the news in peace? Once you hoisted yourself onto the crutches, you made your way to the phone hanging on the wall.

thanks for the school assignment brother golfball