#but I'd say I'm probably back in the 20s already? just eyeballing it?

[cesium-sheep]

I've always bounced back so quickly as soon as I get even the slightest bit of breathing room. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it seems to be happening again.

I was talking to matt earlier and like. I'd be happy at 50%, that's an entirely acceptable long-term quality of life for me. (I've been below 5% all year.) but I suppose I don't have to limit myself to only 50% if I'm responding so well that it seems I might get further without significant additional cost (personal or financial).

[princesscolumbia]

...hold on, hold the FUCK on...

...an anime featuring a lesbian couple front and center for a mecha series where, and this is the part I need to be 100% clear on:

TᕼᕮY ᗪOᑎ'T ᗷᑌᖇY Tᕼᕮ GᗩYS?!?!

EDIT: After having been properly educated (by both the OP and my GF, who wasn't happy with me for getting into an argument on the Internet in the first place let alone on something I was flat-out wrong about), I've promised to give Gundam another try, starting with Witch from Mercury. I'll probably be doing a "live react" or something on a Tumblr post or something. And because it must be said as publicly as I made an ass of myself: I'm sorry to OP and I'm sorry to the fandom for running off assumptions in the heat of the moment.

(This, at least, will give me something to do instead of sit in the dark and cry over the fact that my GF is leaving going back to her hometown for a month and probably never coming back because everyone leaves me eventually and I'll probably die alone ...maybe I have issues.)

Anyway, much like my issue with Warhammer 40k, I allowed myself to be completely blinded to the actual content of the IP by dudebros who gave me a completely inaccurate picture of the property. This is the dudebro's fault for being douche-bags about it and my fault for believing them, not the fault of the actual Gundam fandom or the property itself.

Why not just delete the post? Two reasons; first, it's already escaped confinement and second I don't believe in deleting stuff I've posted just because it's wrong. It feels disingenuous to me, like I'm trying to hide it and lie about it. I'd rather people find the original straight from the source with apologies or corrections (like this one) than have a game of hearsay telephone happening with possible out of context screenshots.

I've been deliberately avoiding this series because...well, it's Gundam. If there ever was a series that was overhyped it's Gundam, but mostly because it's a progressive march of fuckboys in penis compensation machines saving the day because Reasons™ and you're telling me The Series for Cis-Het Dude Protags has two lady queers front and center AND THEY DON'T KILL THEM OFF?!

I mean, okay, okay...backing up here...maybe I'm jaded. It took me 20+ years to find out there's a playable faction of women characters in Warhammer 40k because I couldn't see past the neo-fascist fanboys who have hard-ons for a zombie emperor. Maybe all I'm seeing are the wannabe otaku who saw one (1) series of Gundam and decided it was the Best Mecha Anime Ever and are just four-bajillion forms of annoying about it.

Maybe I've been watching from the sidelines as the "Yes Lesbians!" vs. "No Lesbians!" factions lob grenades at each other without ever talking about whether these two protagonists even have a story arc.

But for the LOVE of all that is good and pure would you people start TALKING ABOUT WHETHER THE GAYS GET BURIED OR NOT?!?! (EDIT: See below) I grew up as a closeted queer in the 80s! I've had buried gays up to my eyeballs! I tune out any media that features any hint of homosexuality until it's spoiled for me with the announcement that "The Queers Live!"

The elder queers are dying of thirst here! We've gotten accustomed to drinking from the poisoned well of 'bury your gays' because it was all we had for DECADES...no, centuries!!!

Please, please say the important part out loud! Tell us up front that the sweet queer couple in the series aren't killed off or married off in some hack-writer way to get rid of the queers!

EDIT: I understand that my lack of clarity was, once again, me falling into the dudebro's traps and not paying attention to what people actually said, and clearly people in the Gundam fandom, esp. the queer parts of it, have been saying it right up front for some time. The meta-message I was going for remains valid, even if my application of it to this particular franchise was wildly off-base. Please create content where the queers live, we don't want to bury our gays anymore.

I mostly think this poll is hilarious (and some people are taking it way, way too seriously) but it’s starting to get really weird how often people on the opposite side are dismissing Gundam — a giant of science fiction that remade a genre in its image — and quite literally lying about Suletta and Miorine. I’ve seen people claim they were canonically married to men, people claim the show’s ending was rewritten by interns, claim they never hugged, and other claims regarding them not being canon.

While Bandai and Kadokawa did censor one interview, and Bandai released an “open to interpretation” statement, these no longer hold true. Official material has henceforth referred to them as married. One instance of censorship and a statement they’ve clearly walked back on does not erase the fact that the show itself heavily emphasizes their wedding rings, refers to Miorine as Eri’s sister-in-law, and makes it abundantly clear that they are married.

“I knew I was going to make an epilogue, but it was a while before I decided upon the exact number of years that should pass in-between. The ending itself follows “The Tempest,” and depicts Suletta and Miorine getting married and becoming partners.”

- Hiroshi Kobayashi

They are completely and unambiguously canon, and arguably were never decanonized to begin with given the literal text of the show.

An addendum to this: I’ve also seen a strange dismissal of the history that G-Witch pulls from.

The original Gundam inspired Revolutionary Girl Utena, with Lalah Sune in particular (the creator of an iconic Gundam archetype) serving as the inspiration for Anthy Himemiya. Gundam has had a queer fanbase for decades, and has had gay characters (with Yoshiyuki Tomino himself confirming this) since the 1990s.

G-Witch draws from Gundam’s extensive, genre-shaking history, classics like Utena and Rose of Versailles, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It brings Gundam and Utena’s connection full circle, and is in conversation with every Gundam series that came before it.

It’s unfair to dismiss it as just some random show, or — as I’ve seen some do — credit its open queerness to the influence of completely unrelated American media, as if Japan is utterly devoid of gay people.

[blackbloodteeth]

I'm the kinda guy that doesn't shut up so I'm gonna answer as many of these as I can, I'll leave them under a read-more though haha

I don't think I can really answer how many fics I've done this year because I've lost track of both my WIPs and how much I've finished since there's still a lot I posted on my tumblr that hasn't been updated onto my AO3 (and especially with The Ramble Room)... I can at the very least guarantee that I'm still working on stuff so stay tuned for that hahahah

2. First-person perspective, proper. Was for a couple snippets earlier in the year but thought I'd give that a go at least. Also finally wrote SoMa lesbians (not the werewolf ones tho whoops)

3. I mean obviously Soul Eater is where a lot of my brain is because variants, but I get a lot of inspiration from a lot of different horror games. You can mainly see that in my art because I keep writing about insomnia instead

4. [dial-up noises as I try to remember how many AUs I did this year] I haven't actually written anything for my The Edge of Sleep AU, but it did happen to multiple drawings, so that probably counts for something

5. TBH some of you are probably already aware I really only care about ships that involve Soul just because of exploring character dynamics with him (and that's usually not really traditionally romantic), Maka just happens to have the most grabbable chemistry. Biggest reason why I haven't done more Crona x Soul haha I will say that I have ended up paying more attention to Spirit/Stein just because they come across my eyeballs a decent amount.

6. re: Spirit/Stein, Stein has a fun aesthetic. I think I've dipped into drawing characters that aren't Soul a little more this year haha (skater void really kicked off, wow)

7. Kinda reiterating above, but I did write CroMa and CroSo during the ship week event! I think there was also a Stein and Spirit snippet I wrote at some point, although that may not be inherently "shippy"...

8. Alright I'm gonna actually look through my ao3 list hahaha... wow okay, there's a lot from this year even without the scattered stuff on my tumblr haha Happiest to work on? Well I can say the 4/20 fic was definitely extremely funny to work on haha, so that has to count for something (especially with the silly tags and art haha)

9. Most satisfying to work on... Well the reverse vampire fic "And all that counts is here and now" took a lot of energy, it was a big fic! So I was very fulfilled when I finally finished it. I'd say it turned out pretty well, hm.

10. Oh oops, I've gone out of order haha (processing issues strike again). For question 8: What fic meant the most to write... hm. I really live for writing all of my fics, but I guess I can say "Today Is Special" was really stepping outside my norm (surrealism aside haha) by writing about characters I don't usually think about too much. This one also took a lot of work, but it is indeed rather special with the way it all strung together haha

11. Most difficult to write... Probably the previous one given it was with different characters haha, but so I don't repeat any answers... "One Shot" is relevant because I started it... two years ago? And finally came back and finished it. It's hard having so many WIPs because I want to eventually finish all of them, so it's a testament that this can be done, just at my own pace. The biggest struggle I'd say was my writing style changing but it was fun to adapt to that hah

12. Easiest to write? Probably all the snippets because they're so short lmao I guess for this answer I will say "how the Devil was made" was unique in that it spanned over several writing sprints even as I was sleep deprived, so it was something that was kind've done in a day. I suppose to that effect the Thanksgiving work also applies considering I wrote it in like a couple hours at most hahaha Did you know my record for fastest snippet is 15 minutes?

13. I'll just stick to what's on my AO3 because the tumblr stuff is a mess. Shortest: "My chest's a bird's nest and it's filled with feathers of you" (642 words) Longest: the fic under answer 9 (9,800 words), but for added trivia the one below that is "I'm falling down into my shadow" (7,986 words) look I'm having fun answering different fics for different questions

14. Oh I don't really listen to music when I write or draw, stuff just kinda plays through my head. Some fics have songs associated with them when I make them though, so spot them if you can haha

15. There's a lot of times the title ends up coming first or really close to the start of writing a fic. Sometimes, not so much. "Between Two Points" title was very much last second, and only because I was grasping at a song in my brain's playlist. I actually remember at one point not being able to think of a title/summary for a fic to the point I had it sitting completed in my drafts for over a day, but I can't recall if that was even this year hahah

16. Ooh, favourite title, that's a toughie... Not quite the same, but "Purgatory Maybe" has probably the funniest chapter titles to me. My series "The Wolf" has names and summaries that I really enjoyed as well, honestly.

17. Favourite opening line? Killing me with these hahaha Alright I don't think I've brought "What a beautiful wedding" in yet, so I'll say the opening to that is pretty fun:

His fingers brush lightly against his canvas, careful brush strokes painting a scene of darks to draw out that earthy shade of green, like a beacon shining brilliantly through the storm just waiting to begin as it rolls in over the sea to land. …Or something along those lines. He's doing his best to really bring out the colour of her eyes, is what he's saying.

18. And favourite ending? Dang hahaha Alright, wild card, if you get this you win I guess lmaoo

Some would even say Maka is so good at ordering him around that Soul was far too preoccupied with obliging to remember to flip the little demon off on its way out.

19. Man, if only I could share Resbang stuff haha What fics haven't I answered with yet... "Sorry for Party Rockin'" has some pretty fun interactions hah

"Sorry, lady," a dark voice growls from her throat, "need to borrow this for a minute. No time for answers." What are you- With a laugh that isn't hers and a few pops of her neck loosening up under what was her hands, Maka doesn't even get the chance to interrupt her interrupter as she feels her arms now moving around like a puppet show and turning off the bathroom light completely. Hey— "At least I'm saving your power bill."

20. Funniest line, might as well two-for-one it haha

"I'm never asking you for directions again."

21. It's not really surprising if something surprises me or changes the entirety of a fic considering I don't write with outlines and will usually just write the first thing that comes to mind (which is how you get gems like Soul's Hornkler moment). It's also something I like about writing linearly (although I would like to try writing a story out of order someday, not to be confused with writing a non-linear story linearly haha), is that one small action can effect the rest of scenes. First one I can think of is fic from answer 15, where one interaction between Little Oni and Soul led to it being an ongoing thing, and ultimately added the whole scene at the end haha

22. While I have actually written traditionally before (wrote in a notebook and then typed it up on PC), it very much does not play well with my brain's difficulties with processing words, and the fics written during that phase are some of my least favourite. I've jumped from quite a few things though. Google Docs on both pc and mobile, libre office, notepad, Discord. I write pretty much only on Discord now hahaha Kind've a general answer and not just for this year, but technically I did have one fic where I wrote each part in a different text editor so hahaha

23. Most satisfying writing moment? How can you have me just pick one haha Well I've already said finishing up that big fic was really satisfying, so... hm. Here, I'll answer with the first fic I have listed for this year, "I am Maka's Monster". There's a lot I love on how this came together, so I can say I am very satisfied with the way this idea was brought to life. Also the last tag is still funny.

24. Oh huh, doing something special to celebrate finishing a fic... That's a real interesting one. I'm not sure I've ever thought about it before. Oh, actually, I don't really remember if it was this year or not but, I do recall there was one fic... or maybe event? That after I had finished working on something for it, I went and got pizza because I was happy with getting it done haha I don't think I could tell ya what it was in relation to though hahaha

25. Recharging between fics usually is just me drawing or writing something else (usually a snippet), since a lot of times fics vary in size. I'll also read other people's fics but uh... I shamefully haven't done that in a long while. Trying to reread the manga really jammed me up there haha (also guilty that the last fic I read I stopped reading because I didn't want it to end, and then happened to get sucked into a lot of things haha).

26. I think you might just be able to tell I draw outside writing fanfiction. Although I guess with the blurbs, sometimes I'm doing both at the same time haha In rare occasions, sometimes the blurbs are poetry/made-up song lyrics. I'm not much of a musician, surprisingly.

27. How many events did I take part in... shoot there were quite a few haha There was definitely the Valentine's Exchange, March of Madness, Reverb, Soultember, that Thanksgiving thing- oh the trick-or-treating too haha, Secret Santa (almost done making mine), and of course Resbang haha Oh yes, SoMa Day. Looking forward to next year's :^)

28. I would like to thank the entire Grigori Wings server, it's such a nice fandom home there haha. And as always, everyone who enjoys the Soul variant shenanigans! And of course people who comment on my fics haha I don't wanna give a certain someone anxiety if they happen to read this, but shout-out to you as well; you actually make me excited whenever you show up and I wanna dump 100 Soul bnnuys onto ye

29. What's left on my to-do list this... oh fuck I forgot I still need to finish that animation. At this point I have no idea how to approach it anymore, I'm in too deep, chat.

30. Last question! What would I like to do next year? Well, just wherever the wind takes me haha. Though specific things would be working on Resbang, doing my New Years raffle, and hopefully going through and doing one final edit of all my works so that I can update the formatting an' whatnot. I also need to update The Ramble Room as well, but one thing at a time haha I always have so many ideas for so many things, so I just enjoy doing what I can whenever it happens haha. I'd also like to actually not be anxious about going through the Soul Eater tag, and also maybe finish rereading the manga / bonk my brain into reading people's fics again, so we'll see what happens haha

Whew, that should be all the questions haha Of course I always am open to questions all the time (and for those still in my ask box, I didn't forget, I just have to ration out my ability to focus haha), but this was fun to just do for a bit :-)

I will probably not be proofreading this :cartwheel:

A slightly revised version of last year's questions! Two ways to play: Reblog and have your followers send you numbers, or answer the whole list!

How many fics have you worked on since January?

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

How many fandoms did you write for this year?

What ships captured your heart?

What characters captured your heart?

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?

What were your go-to writing songs?

What was the hardest fic to title?

What's your favorite title of the year?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share your funniest line

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

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

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

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

Did you create fanworks other than fic?

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

What would you like to write next year?