#but if you remember what the original post said I'd be super curious!

[thelaurenshippen]

Hiya Lauren! I remember a while back you reblogged something about mark being romantically involved with nearly all other queer atypicals and it did mention oliver/mark as unrequited and I wonder if you could elaborate a little more on that?:D I'm just curious:) You don't have to of course! Ty!

oh gosh, I WISH I remembered this - I don't reblog very much that isn't fanart, so I'm having a hard time recalling what post this would've been and what I might've said/added to it!

I don't think of Mark/Oliver as unrequited at all. That said, in The AM Archives specifically, we were not writing toward that ship - it wasn't the intention and we had no idea that Andrew and Kristian had that chemistry until we were recording the whole season all at once. And then we weren't sure if we were going to get another season at all! So there definitely was a period when I was more uncertain about it, mostly because it was unclear what the future would hold for any of the characters.

While they don't get together in The College Tapes, I do think that they very slowly figure things out in the months and years afterward. In the TCT planner (which is technically the last bit of canon that exists in the Bright Universe, in terms of timeline), there's heavy implications that they're living together - or at least spending a lot of time together - and I think all of us who made The College Tapes were thinking of them as a romantic ship when writing that show.

They both have buckets and buckets of trauma and unresolved issues (as did Mark and Sam - and their inability to work through it together/the way they first met and got together, etc. is one of the reasons they didn't ultimately work out) so I can't say what their future holds, but as far as I'm concerned, they're headed toward romantic involvement the last time we hear from them (or already there).

I hope that answers your question!

[archivedjuice]

Thanks for the rec list! If I have the brainspace while doing college work, I'll have a look :)

Unsure if you're interested in any sort of chatter about the show (critical perspetive obv) as I know it'd just be tiring to get bogged down in complaints? If that's so, instead of starting that conversation, is there anything about any of the comics you'd want to spotlight? I've seen a couple characters I'm unfamiliar with that I'm curious about.

i'm going to be so for real i do not remember much about the show anymore; i recently got into supernatural which has fifteen seasons, 20+ books, an anime, and a lot of behind the scenes and crew content so the show's been almost entirely pushed out of my head minus how it directly affects the comics, to make room for the new interest as well as what i'm still interested in re: comics. if i talk about daredevil it's entirely from the perspective of the comics, a limited perspective at that because ive been fixated on a character with like fifty issues for almost two years.

but YES okay. i'm mainly spotlighting characters here since i mentioned mike murdock in my last post, but i'm named after sam chung aka blindspot, who is soule's original character who first appeared in his v5 run (2017). my mutual @faacethefacts is quite literally sam chung central and my favourite interpretation of his character exists in their psyche.

jumping all the way back to v1, something i remember really enjoying were the reoccurring background characters in ann nocenti's run; @murdockmeta and i were talking about it the other day and he said, "nocenti's characterization feels so authentic [...] nocenti reminds the reader that karen and foggy and the people of hell's kitchen are just as important to matt as his internal struggles. it makes him feel much more human rather than just a dichotomy [relating to miller]."

all of david mack's runs changed my perspective of comics as an art form which was a pretty low bar to reach as a first-time comic reader (who had only read post-mcu stuff) but that made his stuff all the more important to me. his character maya lopez aka echo recently got a live action adaption and while i thought it was promising that disney finally reached their own lowest fucking bar and starred a deaf actress in a show about a deaf character, i've found that disney's interpretation of echo's abilities horribly and purposely misunderstands her character and her identity as keetoowah. they tied her abilities to her native american identity, which is something mack explicitly did not do when writing her character; her abilities are her aid as a deaf person !! they're part of her conflict as a weapon !! her cherokee identity should be a fact about her, explored but not tied to the mysticism of that fictional world !! either way, do not watch the show, read the comics <3

god okay. bendis introduces a lot of his own ocs because that's kind of his thing but my favourites were milla donovan and agent del toro. they fell into the wrong hands after he stopped writing for daredevil—milla was fridged (if you know how to look at it, it can be a really good tragedy) and they whitewashed del toro in their racist the hand plotline—but their existence was super important to me and i'm just terribly fond of them :') matt's relationship with ben urich throughout v2 is also something i hold close to my heart because 1) bendis specifically does really well with writing relationships and people, and the nuance of it intrigues me; i could write meta about it if i got back into writing comic meta again, and 2) that's the last we see of them until the most recent run (word-of-mouth, btw. i haven't read v8 yet).

KIRSTEN IS MY GIRL!! she's like so important to me. i'm imprinted on her. if i was on tumblr in 2012, and she as a character existed, i'd fight tooth and nail to have her on my kin list and make sure no one else did. she unfortunately succumbed to the whitewashing demon of daredevil past but that's okay because to me, she is living her best life after [v5 spoilers tbh].

my relationship with elektra can simply be described as that of something akin to a strike. i refuse to read anything of modern daredevil if she's in the title. she has her own fucking title !! we're regressing and it makes me feel a little bit more insane every time i remember that zdarsky stuffed her into the daredevil suit and gave her ableist and infantilising lines for matt. either way i implore you to read nothing about her in the daredevil title past 2018 and to make sure you check out her actual title. amen.

also, simply, matt and foggy's relationship. and not so simply, i miss you karen you deserved better.

[effen-draws]

HUGEEEEE fan of your de!swap fic! Just finished reading chapter 5 and WOW what a chapter. I'm soooo glad to see that suzerainty popped up, the original scene with that game is my favorite scene, and I'm overjoyed to see that it carried over to your fic!!

Curious question, what was your motivation behind choosing what skills Kim has? I love all the skills you created for the fic, and I'd like to know your thought process behind it

Thank you so much!!! I’m super glad that you liked the chapter! The Suzerainty scene was hella fun to write:-D And I’m very happy that you like the skills as well! 

But, yes, the skills. Oh man, anon, the skills. You have opened up a can of worms here. You’ve given me an opportunity to rant here, anon. So I really hope you’re ready for a long post because I have plenty of thoughts, my friend. 

But before we actually get into any of my skill related thought processes and ideas I’d like to preface this post with 2 things!

Many of the skills (and generally the early parts of the fic) are inspired by a hodgepodge of many different people’s headcanons and art here on tumblr! Which, because I’m one of god’s favourite clowns with a terrible short term memory, I have no idea what came from  where! I looked at and read a lot of the things that later inspired me before I ever thought of writing the fic at all. And I never thought about writing any of my sources of inspiration down before I had already finished the draft of chapter 1! Which I kinda feel terrible about! The readers with a better memory than I might remember that I wrote in the first chapter that if anyone saw anything that looked familiar they should tell me so I could give proper credit. (Which I still implore any keen eyed reader to do!) So yeah, this is just to say; I’m not a genius who came up with all of this on my own and I was inspired by many cool people so don’t give me too much credit!

BUT! If anyone ever wants to write or draw anything using the skillset I’ve made for my version of swap!Kim, then you are so very welcome! So don’t sweat it if you want to reuse a name, concept, or the entire set! I’d just be happy to have inspired you:-]

Anyways sorry for the preamble. I just needed to get that said before I go down my rabbit hole:-)

So, let’s get to it! (For real this time I promise, anon) Here are a few of my general thoughts about my Kim skillset and some individual insight into more of the “interesting” skills! 

There were a few things I considered when making the skills. For one I needed to figure out what skills were needed because of narrative necessity and what were needed for characterisation. For an example HANDS ON is almost only a “Kim is physically interacting with his surroundings and I need to describe that” skill while TORQUE DORK, on the other hand, is a fluff skill that’s there because of Kim’s interests in machinery. Besides their personalities the skills also need to serve a role in telling a story, y’know? Whether that be description or character. That’s also one of the reasons that Kim only has 16 skills instead of Harry’s 24. A fic is a different medium than a game so it’s not necessary to have quite so many skills. But, if you want my non-boring justification for that, I also just think that Kim is far less scattered brained than Harry! The man is simply more together even when he’s falling apart so he therefore has a few more “multi purpose skills”:-]

Speaking about Harry, I felt like it would be important that Kim’s skills felt unique to him even if some of them started out as reskins of Harry’s (I mean, how do you make a skill responsible for logic without giving it similarities to Harry’s LOGIC skill??). Not that they needed to stand out completely but rather I didn’t want to feel like I was applying Harry’s voices to Kim’s head. Which also means that Kim’s skills just can’t do the same things that Harry’s can! For one they aren’t as psychically inclined even if they can take guesses and read people in similar ways (which they’re partially that good at because of narrative necessity, but hey man, don’t look at me I’m just trying to tell a good story here!)

One thing which I also really wanted to stress with the skills too is that many of them have “rivalries” or “alliances” with one another. Some of them are complete opposites (EYES vs. OUTSIDER) while others will almost always back each other up (POISE & COMMAND). This animosity is there because; one, Kim is constantly trying to keep himself in check and is very harsh on himself so therefore no skill can ever “win” for long. Two; I’m a BIG fan of the thought of “Kim’s centrism is killing him”. So therefore every skill is almost always pulling him in different directions and opposing each other while Kim is trying to thread the needle of just existing. And because there’s this constant infighting Kim’s mind becomes a very hostile place to be. One last general consideration before I get into some individual skills! I really love how having a high level skill in DE also has its downsides! They have blindspots! They have one track thoughts and motivations! And it’s dangerous to only listen to one of them! So I attempted to show that with Kim’s high level skills like VOLTA DO MAR and POISE in the fic:-]

Anyways: individual skill thoughts! I don’t have something to say about all of them but I'll quickly go through my thoughts on some of the more interesting ones in order. (Also I’m so sorry for rambling so long, anon. Here's the part of the post I think you're interested in.)

Starting off with PUZZLEBOX and NOTEKEEPER! If I’m honest I think these two are inseparable; Note provides information and Puz connects the dots. They’re quite obviously Kim’s deductive and note taking powerhouses. Note does however also have a purpose as a narrative device since it’s the one that recalls past information (that Kim can remember). They’re a little like a narrator in that sense. Anyways I don’t have many thoughts about these two but I think they’re kinda cute in how “dumb” they can be despite being intellect skills:-]

FANTASME is not a skill that gets a lot of the limelight but they do have a good amount to say even though they’re a low level skill. They’re kind of a CONCEPTUALISATION and INLAND EMPIRE mix I guess. They’re focused on Kim’s “nerd” things (that isn’t machinery or paperwork) and escapism. They know about art but they don’t really “get it” as Harry can. They’re also the driving force behind Kim’s existential dread as you have seen in chapter 4.

BLEEDING HEART is what I labelled as the “feelings” skill, and they were kind of an EMPATHY clone in the early concepts before I really figured them out. Because all they really want for Kim is for him to feel. Their second priority is making sure that Kim feels for the people around him as well. To Bleed it doesn’t really matter what emotions Kim is feeling as long as they are being felt and that he isn’t hurting or “burdening” anyone. They’re sad, suppressed, and visceral. Another thing about them is that similarly to how ESPRIT DE CORPS is the “gateway skill” that Harry uses to read Kim, BLEEDING HEART is the “gateway skill” Kim uses to read Harry in the fic. This is mostly because I don’t think Harry can be understood through the lens of the RCM like Kim can in the game.

EYES is interesting to me. Because they aren’t the RCM but rather swap!Kim’s understanding of the RCM personified. Which both means they’re brutally honest about how the police sucks but that they also cannot let go of duty and loyalty for the life of them. They are aptly named after Eyes; Kim’s last main connection to the RCM and its office culture. Which is very cool but also not my original idea! And because of the reasons mentioned prior I really don’t remember who came up with that stroke of genius but I would honestly like to thank them personally. (If I ever get my hands on the post I saw it in I’ll link it here)

I love the idea of OUTSIDER. Kim having a skill that’s specifically manifested because of how alienated he feels is so interesting to me! That how much the world has failed him is ingrained in him just speaks volumes, y’know. Outs don’t have too much of a narrative purpose compared to other skills but I do love them regardless. They aren’t completely my original idea either, but unlike EYES, I have no idea where I got this one from. (Again, if I find the source I’ll put in a link, but for now my cursed memory can produce nothing.)

JOIE DE VIVRE is the most fun little guy in Kim’s mind to me. They are what makes life fun (as their name suggests) and they ultimately represent indulgence. They are essentially good to listen to occasionally but not constantly. Because Joie is all about base desires which they want fulfilled now. “Hey! Smoke that cigarette now! Hey! Fuck that guy now! Hey! Avoid your responsibilities now!” And if they don’t get that they will immediately trash talk whoever shut them down. And, to say the least, they are constantly being repressed by the other skills. Kim can’t get rid of them but, oh man, does he wish he could.

VOLTA DO MAR is my swap!Kim’s signature skill. And it shows: they are used to being in control. They are all about keeping Kim going and they generally serve a similar role like VOLITION does in terms of keeping Kim sane. But they are really nothing like VOLITION. They’re mean. They’re efficient. They’re a completionist and simultaneously a survivor. They will shut down anything they deem unnecessary while also dealing with any odd situation which Kim simply needs to roll with. Volt ultimately thinks they know best and is thusly kind of a dick. 

NERVE is a kind of “physical skill all in one” with the added on flavour of repressed anger. NERVE’s name then, of course, both comes from the biological nerve and because of the “that struck a nerve” saying. They just want Kim to follow his gut and retaliate for once. They’re the physicality of anger and instinct. Which has pros and cons… 

POISE is an interesting little fella to me. They’re kind of like a teen who’s obsessed with being cool and keeping up face and facade in my eyes:-) And since they’re also such a high level skill they get to talk a lot, and with their focus being reputation a large part of that talk is about how embarrassed Kim should be. They’re a personification of self consciousness and intrusive anxiety riddled thoughts and yet they’re also one of Kim’s most useful skills, both in regards to reading others and not being read himself. They’re sort of a necessary evil in that sense.

Oh man. That was a ramble. And I didn’t even talk about every skill. Well, I’m all tuckered out now but thank you so much for the ask, anon! I kinda took it as an excuse to just talk for once so I hope that alright:-] 

I don’t know how many people (if any) will find this interesting so, to the people who got this far, I’ll tell you my swap!Kim’s 5 highest level skills as a token of my appreciation for reading:-) Number one is of course VOLTA DO MAR, followed by POISE, BLEEDING HEART, NOTEKEEPER, and then lastly COMMAND. Extra fun fact; EYES and OUTSIDER are always the exact same level and this makes them furious.

Anyways, thank you again for reading my fic and this long ass answer to an otherwise simple ask! I hope you have a great rest of your day:-]

[fostersffff]

Saw your post about the TTYD remake and I wanted to say that I totally resonate with your description of TTYD being a Papercraft-themed RPG with Super Mario elements. It's one of the reasons the game had never really interested me before…it always felt to me like they made a whole separate paper-themed RPG and then decided at the last minute to put Mario and co in there to increase sales, ha. Actually playing it for the first time via the remake hasn't really changed that opinion, either. At least Super Paper Mario goes full-tilt unapologetic about it being only vaguely Mario-flavored, which makes it endearing in its own way. Meanwhile TTYD is in this weird half-step area about it all.

Anyway, I was wondering about the line between SPM and Sticker Star that you'd alluded to! My assumption was that Sticker Star was an attempt to reset the involvement of the Mario elements back to Square 1 (and over-correcting to Square -1 in the process, somehow) while leaving the amount of RPG-flavoring basically as it was, but I was curious whether this idea was in line with what you were thinking 🙂

Honestly I probably should've clarified what I meant in the actual post, but I'd be happy to do it here:

In Paper Mario, the "paper" part of it was pretty strictly aesthetic. It's especially obvious when you look at how the game was marketed in Japan where it was called "Mario Story"; the "Paper" part was an admittedly charming bit of localization marketing, and to this day I think about how that Nintendo Power ad was maybe one of the greatest print ads of all time.

There is no tangible impact on gameplay (that I can recall) stemming from the fact that the game looks like a pop-up book. In terms of its story, it's also pretty safe in terms of Brand Integrity™ for Mario, even compared to Super Mario RPG: you must save Princess Peach from Bowser, most NPCs are standard Super Mario species with a fun accessory save for a handful of weirdos, all the places you go are totally in line with pre-existing environments in Mario games.

The Thousand-Year Door (tellingly called Paper Mario RPG in Japanese, rather than Mario Story 2) leaned into the paper aesthetic, resulting in the fact that everything was papercraft lending itself to mechanics: you get the curses that turn you into an airplane or boat or roll into a tube or turn sideways to slip through narrow cracks, and a ton of puzzles involve revealing that the obstacle in front of you is a piece of paper overlayed on top of the actual path. It also got a little weirder with the story: the hub is a pirate shanty town built on ancient ruins, you go to the WWE to fight Hulk Hogan and uncover Vince McMahon's sinister conspiracy, there's a murder mystery on a train, the main antagonists are a bizarrely futuristic army hunting for a treasure that is secretly An Ancient Evil. It's not at all a bad game, it's just a very different vibe than the first one.

Like you said, Super Paper Mario is where they got REALLY weird with it- so much so that maybe they would've been better off just making it an original IP if not for the loss of the branding. My post that referred to it as "papercraft" was innacurate, because I was just thinking about the perspective shifting gimmick, which isn't inherently papercraft-related. But the more important thing with Super Paper Mario is that it got Really Weird, but again: that's not a bad thing! I haven't played it in years but I pretty fondly remember SPM.

And then for whatever reason, around this time- late 2000's- Nintendo becomes INCREDIBLY brand conscious about Super Mario, basically to the extent that anything that is not identifiable as a Core Super Mario Element cannot exist. So the time comes for IntSys to make a new Paper Mario game, but they absolutely cannot have it be weird- no interdimensional megalomaniacs, no going to hell and heaven and fighting the usurper god, and for good measures, no existing Super Mario species with accessories, either.

At around the same time, the video game industry at large was kind of in a dark period for RPGs. There was still a lot of good stuff coming out, but the mainstream Western (i.e. The Biggest Market) opinion was that they were outdated and boring. So, IntSys, either by their own volition or at Nintendo's urging, needed to make a sequel to Super Paper Mario that couldn't be weird or have RPG elements from prior installments, which left them with the papercraft gimmicks they messed with in TTYD.

And that's really what Sticker Star felt like: it's just about the papercraft gimmick, which this time around was stickers. It's ostensibly an RPG because combat is turn based, but there's not really any reason to engage with it, because everything is based on your sticker inventory. The bosses are extremely obnoxious slogs unless you bring the correct item that instantly defeats them. Hell, even Origami King, which I did actually like, wasn't an RPG either; it was still turn based, but it had a lot of the same problems.

And Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam... M&L faired a little better in that it got to keep being an RPG, but the two games that came out during the same era as Sticker Star- Dream Team and Paper Jam- placed a much higher emphasis on the weird gimmicks. Like, Bowser's Inside Story's gimmick was "Bowser is a character you can play as!", Paper Jam's gimmick was "Paper Mario is here, which means we can have PAPERCRAFT TANK BATTLES and other Papercraft Gimmicks!"

[martsonmars]

How I found Carry On and its fandom – long answer because I love talking about myself.

I used to see Fangirl in bookshops all the time, when I was 14 or so, and I wanted to buy it every time, because a book about fanfiction? Sounded like my shit, but I never got to buying it for some reason.

While one of my best friends read and loved it, and when Carry On was published in Italy she read and loved it too, and probably told me “you should read it”. So it made my way into my TBR list, but I think I didn't really know what it was about, because when I grew older and deleted from my list all those books that I thought I wasn't interested in anymore (mainly books – at least the ones I hadn't read yet lol – that were super famous in the early to mid 2010s and all people in multifandom spaces seemed to have read but that felt stupid and boring to a 16yo me who was starting to read only Dostoyevsky), I deleted Fangirl and Carry On too.

I kept hearing about them from this friend (I didn't remember about it, but after reading WS I found out she has a rant about it on her Instagram page lmao) and on Instagram, but it never crossed my path intensely enough to convince me to buy it.

Then last year, around November or December, for a reason I don't remember Carry On was back on my TBR list – and it was on top of it! To the point that instead of remaining a book in a list, I even had it in my cart on some bookshop website. Maybe I had finally found out what it was about? Who knows. Anyway, I finally wanted to really buy it, but something kept stopping me.

Then last December this famous friend and I organised a “bookstagram” Advent Calendar – each day had a prompt and people posted a photo of a book that filled the prompt.

One day, someone posted a scene of RWRB. Now, RWRB had made its way to my list in the previous months, and that scene made me think “I definitely need to read it”. Put into cart, still didn't buy it.

Now we enter illegal book acquisition so yeah I hope David doesn't mind piracy hahaha. If he does mind I don't want to know

So, while RWRB and CO were in my cart waiting to be bought, I stumbled over a pdf copy of both of them. And one night at the end of January I started RWRB. It was the first, and up to now only, time I stayed up all night (like, not even going to sleep at 7am like I did the two times I was at a party/sleepover), and to finish a book.

I spend the following day, all day, explaining the plot to my best friend (not the CO one) because I needed to let it out and looking for fanart and incorrect quotes on Pinterest. And damn, I kept being bothered by stuff about Simon and Baz who are they can they kindly fuck off I'm here for Alex and Henry only. But from what Pinterest was showing me, they seemed interesting. So I googled and wow! They were the main characters of Carry On! And I had a pdf copy of it

Hence another night of intense reading (this time I didn't stay up all night – just up to chapter 61), followed by a day I spent finishing CO and reading WS.

And that's the story. But I'm not going to shut up.

Then I spent more time on Pinterest. And this time I kept being annoyed by a caption that read “you need to read rebel, rebel, it's the perfect fic”. I – as I've said many times – had never been a fanfiction reader, I could count the random stuff (that I read because I found it linked on Instagram or something like that) I've read before 2021 on my fingers. But I was curious, and needed to get my head off WS, so I tried it. And then I couldn't let go, I clicked on the Snowbaz tag and started reading most of the fic from the last published and backwards.

And I read, I read, I read, and I felt that I wanted to write fics again. (I had stopped writing fics intensely in 2016/2017, and the last last I'd written had been in 2018.) But I was in a phase where I thought “my writer block that started in 2018 doesn't even let write my original stuff, why should I waste time on other people's characters?”, so I resisted the urge to write fics. Until I read Every Line Lost by NineMagicks and I couldn't take it anymore.

I opened a doc and I started writing – in English, for the first time – a fanfiction masked by different names and some original details. (Like, I refused to write fics so I gave the characters new names but they were still Baz and Penny, and then I would've introduced Simon.)

And I kept reading fics until I finally gave in and started plotting a proper Snowbaz fic. Which brought me to Tumblr to look for beta readers.

And then I made a mutual, and we became instantly friends, and she offered to beta and then forced me to start reblogging and posting on Tumblr instead of lurking. And I did, and then I found one of aralias's invites to the Discord server. And I probably wouldn't have joined if the week before I hadn't played D&D with my best friend's friends, and they'd told me “since you don't live here we can continue the session on Discord when you're back home”, so I had downloaded it. So when I saw aralias's invite I was like, fuck it.

The rest is history.

Fellow snowbazzians, rb this and tell me how you came across the series. Mine was a stranger recommending it to me in a bookstore. Thank you stranger!!! (If one of y'all told a rando at Powells in Portland the summer of 2017* to read Carry On, thank you, you don't know what this means to me, or maybe you do ❤)

[miss-steelmind]

possibly controversial question time, favourite witch's heart and yttd ship? what was the reason you were originally drawn to it(if you can remember)? and why do you like it?

i'm just curious ig

oh boi i'm indecisive as hell (plus i'm incapable of answering anything without going on about it for hours) so get ready for a looong answer!

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my top 3 ships from WH are currently noelclaire, wilsiri and wilashe!

noelclaire is. pretty self-explanatory? i usually don't like when the writers push a ship, and at first (think like, first 2 scenarios) i didn't think i'd like them at all. but god. these two. the more i saw of them the more i fell in love with the pairing. childhood friends? check. pining? check. would quite literally die for each other? check. the "you're the only one i remember" trope? check. they mean so much to each other your honor (THAT BEING SAID it'd be nice to see noel improve himself and not base his entire selfworth on this one girl he was friends with 10 years ago. but i still love them!!)

wilsiri is just a really casual ship yk? their dynamic is great, their personalities work well together, they have the potential to be a really healthy relationship and i enjoy that a lot. i didn't think too much of them at first but during siri's conclusion i realized how similar they are (both being very reserved but caring people, both growing up with an adoptive grandparent figure, and both deciding that yes, despite our wishes, we want to protect claire) and slowly grew very fond of that pairing. i just want them to chill together tbh:)

finally, i know wilashe is a reaaally popular pairing and i totally get why some people are annoyed with it lol. but i think it's great! i'm not super into enemies (?) to lovers, but. it's about the parallels. and the piano scene. love the piano scene. i'd love to see them travel the world together or something i don't know

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okay so yttd. to make my stance on it a bit more clear, i'm not actually into shipping in the canon game. i don't want any pairings to be canon, it seems way too unhealthy. but! i thrive off AUs and post-canon stuff and there are quite a few pairings that i think have an interesting dynamic

the top 3 here is currently naoreko, ransara and alishin (shinalice? i saw people calling it shinalice like last year but i think we switched to the other name since then)

naoreko is 50% projection tbh. shoutout to my partner who'd kin both of the yabusames if they got into the game. but i also just think it's a nice pairing with great, sort-of-opposing aesthetics. their mutual care for each other is something that pushed me towards this ship a lot, as well as the fanon content and the official sketches. aaand i'm a sucker for art lesbian pairings. i think they're neat!

ransara is a hard one... i definitely understand why many people started disliking/simply not loving it anymore after 3B. which is valid! i was kind of heartbroken after logic route too ngl, i got into that ship a few months before the new part came out and literally spent my days waiting for the translation to drop reading fics of them. oops. regardless i still like it, though moreso in AUs/rewrites. i don't think ranmaru's character was handled very well in 3B which i'm very sad about because there was SO MUCH potential!! so i'm clinging onto what it could've been

finally. alishin. i'm not even gonna lie this was literally just projection because my highest yttd kin is shin and my partner is extremely similar to alice:') but also my mutuals helped me get into this one. i just like funny-but-tragic men with shared trauma ig. they should've interacted more

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OKAY IM SO SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY thank you for the question i had a lot of fun answering it<3

[snowstark]

Hello! I saw someone not too long ago ask @vaguekiwi about her writing process and was curious to see how writers have their similarities and differences. If you don't mind sharing along the same lines that VagueKiwi has done, could you explain your process too?

hi! sure sure i'd love to talk about this!!! before we begin though, i gave grace's process a quick look and WOW that's a real mf sexy explanation 🥵anyway here we go—

like grace said, what works for me might not necessarily work for someone else. experiment and stick with what works best for you, there's no right or wrong way to write!

1. how i figure out My Story Idea™️

the best ideas have always come to me when i'm doing something random. i'll be in the shower, lying in bed unable to sleep, commuting, etc etc etc, and usually an image, a dialogue line, or a scene pops into my head. i use a lot of other things for inspiration too — my fic wolves go for your heart takes a lot of inspiration from the TV show "suits" (which has a super canonic d/s relationship between the two characters btw). i'm a strong believer in the fact that all forms of art are inspired by one another; it's hard to come up with an idea that's "truly original," you know? imo, as long as you give credit where it's due, there's no problem in being inspired by another piece of art!!

i'm not very good with just sitting on an idea once it gets in my head. the moment it appears, i usually jot down a note on a blank google document or else i forget it. my google drive is filled with 50+ documents that have a Single Line of Description of the story lmao. if i get to it, cool; if not, that's okay. but if i'm feeling inspired and motivated enough, i'll start writing on the spot.

2. outlining???? don't know her

i'm also not very good with outlining, personally. the majority of the time i try to outline, i get bored of writing the actual story and so it never gets written. so, i just write the story from wherever i start and see where it takes me. of course, i've found that this has some issues in the long-run; it's harder to make sure you don't have plot holes or contradict something you said in previous chapters, etc. i've had way too many moments where someone asked me about a plot hole and i was like 😋 whaaaatttt no idea what you're saying!

that's not to say i never outline, because sometimes, when i feel like being a responsible writer, i do. i've had a couple of stories where i outlined chapter-by-chapter, which i do recommend trying if you feel up to it! (it does give you a good sense of direction on where to take the story!) but, yeah, i wing my stories 98% of the time, because that's just how my writer's brain works.

i'm also not a chronological writer at all; i prefer writing scenes in bits and pieces and then i smash all of these pieces all together and edit the final draft multiple times so that it flows well. i need to indulge myself with the scenes that i want right in that moment, or else i just can't get myself to write. this means that 80% of the time, i have the ending of the entire fic written before the beginning of chapter 1 LOL

3. keeping track of The Story™️

notes !!! bullet points !!! random bits and pieces of a scene !!!

the moment a scene or dialogue pops into my head, i write it down and save it for later. i usually just put some space between each "bit" and keep them in the same document as my story, and then i'll paste them into whatever chapter fits it later on. it's a bit chaotic and disorganized, but it is fun, for me, so i guess that's what counts!

for if you give a billionaire, i decided to try to get my shit together and organized everything really nicely. i used the same program called scrivener that grace mentions in her post (grace also convinced me to buy it; salesperson!grace au?!) because it really is a great program that helps you stay focused and organized! so yeah, for that story, i have docs of things to remember, important ideas, peter's rules/limits/etc, a folder of future scenes/bits, etc etc etc. it is pretty helpful, so i would definitely recommend keeping things organized like this! or, you could just keep things chaotic; i'm a fan of that too 😌again, see what works for you!!

4. writer's block (fuck off)

ik this wasn't really mentioned in grace's post, but writer's block is a serious pain in the ass so i think it's worth mentioning. i've been going through a mild slump in writing for a while and it's really frustrating. (un?)fortunately, it means i worked on some tactics to try to work past it, so maybe these techniques will be helpful for anyone else reading this!

i'm a massive fan of fighter's block, i will literally recommend it to anyone who even hints that they're going through a block. you can set a word count goal for yourself and with each word you write, the little character battles the monster. this program is also great because it stops me from questioning every single word that i write — that's one of the main things i experience when i'm going through writer's block. sometimes, in order to write, you just have to write. don't let yourself pause or stop to edit something, save that whole process for later. your first draft can be as shitty as you think it is; i promise you it will look 10 times better when you look at it the next day. and even if it doesn't, you now have words !! that you can edit !!

it's also kind of important to figure out why you have writer's block. for example, with if you give a billionaire, i personally struggle to put our chapters faster than every 4-6 months (that brings me so much pain i'm so sorry readers) because i've put too much expectation on myself. in my head, if you give a billionaire is a story that needs to be perfect, meets everyone's expectations, has just the right amount of plot and smut, has good witty dialogue because they're both snarky assholes, and for some reason i'm convinced that each chapter has to be about 4-6k words. i know that it's all in my head and that no one else but myself is reinforcing these words, but i can't make myself stop thinking it. and that's why i take forever to update — the expectations i've put on myself scares me from writing it because i get worried i'll mess up. so acknowledging and understanding that has helped me a bit because i can try to work past it now that i know what the problem is.

another example: for something like wolves go for your heart, i'm going through a block simply because i've lost inspiration for it. it's not as deep as it is for billionaire, and all i'm waiting for is for me to get back into the mood to write that law setting and boss/associate dynamic.

anyways, the point is, figuring out what's making writing so hard will be the first step in fighting that block :)

you can also reach out to any writing friends; talking out some ideas and AUs are super helpful in fighting a block!! if you don't know anyone personally enough to reach out and text them about it, reach out to a writer in your fandom!! i promise you that everyone will be delighted to help and talk about ideas! @thymenottime has a fantastic queens au going on that you should totally check out btw, and through asks, she talked to me about what she was thinking and we both had a fantastic time!!! sometimes just talking with friends and other writers is the best thing to do for yourself as a writer :]

okay, i think that's about it from me?? if you have more questions feel free to let me know, or you can always reach out to other writers too, of course!! other writers, feel free to chime in! i bet everyone has different tactics that work for them, and fresh perspectives too! happy writing <3

[mistresseast]

can you explain in more detail why you think the PT weren't good friends for akiren? i'm not asking out of hate or to start drama, i just never interpreted things that way and i'm genuinely curious. i don't think them being brainwashed by maruki makes them "bad friends", but i don't know if that's what you meant either. i'd love to read a proper explanation on this that isn't just people arguing in the notes of that post.

Hi! Yeah, I know the ~discourse~ climate is pretty touchy and not a good place to exchange ideas, so I’ll do my best to put my thoughts on this matter into words. 

Settle in, bc this one is long.

I’ll start off by saying I don’t dislike the PT, nor do I think they’re bad people, and honestly I think they love Joker a lot! Ryuji calling Akira after his fake death and talking about how his ideas on what makes a hero have changed because of Akira genuinely makes me emotional, along with dozens of other scenes with the thieves! They’re good kids who could be really good friends to Akira but that’s not what’s shown in the game. I don’t think it’s controversial to say Akira’s relationships with all of his friends are transactional. That’s kind of the point, all of his confidants arise out of deals, give and take, and in the metanarrative of the game, that’s how it works. You as the player help these characters solve their problems, and through ranking their confidants up, you get access to more gameplay perks. So it’s pretty even!! But like,,Akira, the character, isn’t the player. There’s no in-story mechanic by which he can cash in friendship points for being-good-at-killing-things prizes. Yes, he uses those abilities to not die in the metaverse, but there is no literal, in-universe way to explain how hanging out with someone translates to [insert gameplay perk here]. So you have to look at what is physically happening in the story. Akira hangs out with the PT, stands there while they have drama with another irrelevant character, and then one way or another their problems get solved and they swear to be Akira’s blood brother or whatever. Akira is a crutch for these characters, and they say multiple times that they wouldn’t have been able to do what they did without him. So all of their shit gets handled and Akira gets?? Like actually gets?? What? Inquiries about his well-being? Offers to help him? Questions about his life, his interests? No,,,not really,, But he gets access to a super powerful persona!! Yay!!! Bc everyone knows he’s just a little shadow-killing machine, right? And even the relationships he does get something tangible (as in separate from the mechanics of the game) out of, like Kawakami’s, are built on the notion that if Akira stops providing for whatever reason, the relationship will end. So essentially, Akira is under the pressure of filling whatever role his friends need him in for however long at any time, and he’s been led to believe that if he stops or fails, he will stop receiving any reciprocal care and acceptance.

(And I know this is all gameplay stuff, I know it has to be like this to codify the complicated process of human relationships, I know all of that, I’m just trying to find a deeper layer bc that’s what I do.)

This whole thing comes into pretty clear focus for me during the third semester when you visit everyone in the false reality. Everyone is happy to see him, of course, but they’re clearly wrapped up in their own happiness. Which is understandable, again, I’m not saying the PT need to be attached to Akira to be good friends, but it all still feels off to me.

If they know Joker, then they’d know it’s weird that he just shows up and starts asking these pointed questions while they’re in the middle of something. All of their other interactions with him have been led by them. Yeah, Joker approaches them bc the player has decided to hang out with them, but the other character always chooses the activity and leads the discussion. Akira showing up out of nowhere and asking them to “remember” and “move on” and whatnot should be raising some major red flags. And it clearly does, since their memories do start to return, but they’re all too scared of losing their happiness that they nope out of the conversation as soon as possible, without stopping to consider why Joker might be trying to reach out to them like that. They’re his friends; they should know he wouldn’t just be trying to hurt them or make them unhappy. After all, their entire relationship with him up til that point has been exclusively about Joker trying to help them. This doesn’t make the PT bad people, running away is a totally natural reaction in that situation. They’re just kids, and their minds have been manipulated to a point, but it’s not like they don’t remember Joker or the way they’ve grown since meeting him. In fact many of them mention how much they’ve matured recently, but they never actually relate that back to Akira, despite him being the primary driving force behind most of their personal arcs, even though they definitely remember him. Translation vagueness or deliberate nod to the idea that the PT don’t actually credit Akira with all the hard work he did after their initial lip service? Hmmm. Anyway, their failure to recognize that Joker is struggling just demonstrates to me what was set up all throughout their confidant links, that their relationships are transactional and that they don’t necessarily consider Joker and his individual needs outside of what he provides for them. And when they no longer need him bc that hole has been filled, he simply doesn’t occupy the same place of importance in their lives. 

Makoto’s flashback in particular stood out to me, bc it was from a moment where she was specifically talking about feeling like she finally found a place to belong with the Phantom Thieves (and by extension, with Joker), but then she desperately tries to brush it off. Obviously that sense of belonging wasn’t meaningful enough to her for her to want it back. And I’m not blaming her, of course, any teenager would choose to have their father back over being in a vigilante group lmao, I just thought it was telling that the devs decided to show us a scene that was originally meant to be heartwarming as an example of the harsh reality Makoto wants to forget. All of the flashbacks are from defining moments for the thieves, but that one specifically got me like *thinking emoji*

So his friends are hesitant, despite the fact that they must know something is wrong. It’s understandable, they all stand to lose a lot if someone messes with the status quo. I genuinely don’t think I would react any differently. But there is someone who reacts differently and against his own self-interest. It’s Goro, the one who has arguably the most to lose, who doesn’t turn away from Akira. He seeks Akira out and teams up with him to uncover what’s really going on, even though he has every reason to believe that prodding too deep will literally mean the end of his life. He forces Akira and himself to face the truth because he knows anything else would just be an insult to what they’ve suffered so far. He’s the only one who never flinches, and that, more than any of his friends’ come-to-jesusing (which Akira still has to initiate) is what Akira needs in that situation. For the first time (outside of the brief instances in the tutorial levels), we see a situation where Akira is actually the dependent one, the one who needs help, who needs support. And the only one who has ever provided that, unconditionally, without demanding anything in return, is Goro. I could go into how Goro’s confidant blows all of the others out of the water in terms of building both himself AND Akira as characters, but it’s been said already and by smarter people than me. But basically, despite competition being a core theme of their relationship, Goro is the only character who is portrayed as Akira’s equal. Their contests are all in the name of improving not just Goro, but Akira too. Goro is the only character who expresses an interest in Akira’s inner life and development, and as such he knows Akira better than anyone else. So when Maruki tries to trap them all in a gilded birdcage, Goro won’t stand for it and he knows Akira won’t stand for it either. That’s why he’s so betrayed if you choose to accept the dreamworld. You’re negating the basis of your entire relationship with him and going against your own principles. Out of every character in the game, the one who knows Akira best and refuses to abandon him even when that could mean his own death is Goro Akechi.

I want to reiterate: I do not hate or even dislike the PT!! And tbh I don’t really think they “abandoned” Akira. That post, imo, is supposed to be kind of hyperbolic. Unless it’s referring to how many of them literally sprint away when he comes to talk to them lol. I look at it more like a commentary on how thoughtlessly the PT act as soon as their wishes are granted. I know it’s set up linearly for story purposes, but isn’t it kind of sad how no one checks up on Akira in the week he’s going around talking to people? Especially after he’s been acting so comparatively weird? It’s not unusual that they might be caught up in other stuff, but while you’re going around and visiting everyone, you don’t get a single text or call from ANY of the thieves, for a whole week!! Goro even comments on it directly with his pointed little “I’m sure you’re just as close as you were before” comment. God, he’s such a bitch. Ultimately, the PT do get their acts together, and it’s partially out of the realization that Akira is struggling alone against something and needs their help, which I love and appreciate. I think they are good friends who want to support Akira, but they can’t understand him past the role they’ve placed him in, and until they do, they’ll never be able to be what he needs. Akira loves his friends and knows he can rely on them in most ways, but those relationships will always be dogged by the pervasive fear that he must constantly earn the right to have the relationship at all. What he needs MOST is someone he doesn’t have to perform for, and from what we see in the game, none of the thieves fit that bill. Except Goro. 

I know this was long and rambly and probably pretty disjointed but I wanted to be as thorough as possible and all of my thoughts just sort of gushed out. Obviously ymmv about all of this depending on how you interpret the game, but this is what I arrived at thanks to my analysis so this is what I have for you! Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

[sunshinetoshi]

@anastasijaiwaizumi asked me a super interesting question!! wanted to answer it separately bc of the trigger warnings so everything will be below the cut just in case

tw: mentions of potential abuse (physical, verbal, emotional), mention of breakups/heartache

pls make sure you read through the trigger warnings above and always feel free to exit out of this post if you feel uncomfortable <33

here's the original ask if you wanted to read through it:

okay onto my long ramble of an answer HAHA

so this really caught my eye bc i remember seeing a pinterest post about 'the 3 loves' back when i was in hs and it's wild to me how my perspective on the manner has changed quite a bit. ofc everything here is my personal opinion so pls keep that in mind

i think first it's important to add a disclaimer about the concept itself. back when i first encountered this years ago it made so much sense to me but it also put some insecurity that i would some day or eventually have a relationship that ends in heartache. there are people i know now where this actually applies with the relationships they're in or have had but as a person who hasn't been in a relationship yet (we can roast me about this another day AJHDHD LMAO) i think it's important to know we aren't bound to this concept of 3 loves because everyone's experiences are different.

the question itself is soo good imo and in case you missed it the question asked which characters i think would fit each type of love.

i think this was asking for my own personal answer and tbh mine sounds like a cop out answer ajdhhd i feel bad but also it's just true. basically i picture all my haikyuu faves as the third love. B O R I N G /j HAHAHA i know i know but when i think of their love and my self ships with them it really is the third love. okay but just so i have an answer ushijima and kuroo are my tippy top boys so they'd definitely be the third kind of love (i love them equally so i have both as my answer ajdjdj - not even in a poly way i am just too soft to actually pick just one lol)

i think the concepts of the first and second loves are SUPER interesting to me personally when i think about writing and creating fics that can delve into what those two types of love are. like the second one is what i aim for when i write angst but that doesnt mean i truly think the character would be like that you know?? like i said a cop out answer ahh but even w the amount of angst i've written i really dont think i could personally put a name down lol i really said 'no heartbreak for meee 🤪🤪' HAHA i cant w myself

OKAY i will say that in regards to timeskip jobs i can have somewhat of an answer to who would be my first type of love (also pls ignore how out of order i spoke about each). but my friends and i talked about deal breakers and what we would be okay with in a relationship and i was just REALLY curious (and really in a brainrot) so i asked about if your partner worked in a funeral home. YEAH I WAS THINKING ABOUT MATSUKAWA. they all said hard no bc of a multitude of reasons. now before mattsun entered my life i also said a hard no for my own reasons bUT NOW I HAVE READ TOO MANY FICS AND ANALYSIS OF MATTSUN AND I JUST LOVE HIM SO MUCH THAT IDK. so in terms of THAT i might put him in the first love category if i had to. dont get me wrong i'd still marry him and want to support his career and all that he's literally in my top 4 self ships BUT YOU HAVE TO ADMIT HIS JOB MAKES YOU HAVE THINKY THOUGHTS LMAO. ALSO HAHA funny story when i asked my friends there was girl who's into hq too so i was like "but matsukawa 🥺🥺" and she was like "babe i'm sorry but that's a 2d man" BAHAH CALLED ME OUT FR FR

so yeah those are my thoughts and kind-of-answers lol i think this is super interesting and it felt like i was just talking to yall like we were at a sleepover so i had fun HAHA. thank you for asking this lovely!! i hope your day/night is going well too and that you're taking care of yourself 💓💓 love youuuu tooooooo

(OH also here's the article link in case you wanted it but i think it was summarized well in the ask!!)

[sulietsexual]

Hey, I'd like to know your thoughts on this post: we-pay-for-everything(.)tumblr(.)com/post/171329280999/hi-i-was-just-curious-why-you-dislike-the-episode you've never shied away from criticizing Buffy or Willow's personal actions, for example, so, what do you think of this perspective on Cordelia? (I really respect both of you as meta writers, I was just curious about your opinion really)

I’m a little uncomfortable answering this because I certainly don’t want to come across as if I believe that @we-pay-for-everything was wrong in her analysis of the episode or that I have any issue with her opinions, which she is of course entitled to. She is a lovely person and I greatly respect her metas and arguments. That being said, I do disagree with a few aspects of her analysis of the episode but this is no way means that my interpretation is the “right” one or that her interpretation should be ignored or condescended.

I don’t know her personal feelings about Cordelia Chase all that well but if I were to go solely off the piece in question, I would assume that she is not a Cordy fan.

The way in which the meta piece talks about how the entire episode feeds into Cordelia’s ego (which is one of her biggest flaws, I’m not denying that) and that she’s so full of herself that she would instantly believe that she would become a famous actress is incorrect, at least IMO, and comes across as very harsh on Cordy. This is the part of the piece I’m referring to:

Birthday is just a vision catered to Cordelia, to prey on her ego - Cordelia’s worst flaw. She likes to feel unique, appreciated, adored; she feels entitled or worthy of stardom and fame. Of course Cordelia believed she could’ve been super famous - this is what she always felt she deserved. Cordelia also likes to feel selfless. What better way to make her want to become a demon and feel worthy of being a higher being, Skip’s endgame, than to convince her she’s selfless enough to give up fame and money to save Angel and the world? It’s the perfect fantasy to a delusional, egotistical girl [x]

I agree that Birthday is the perfect fantasy for Cordelia and I also agree that Cordy likes to feel unique and appreciated but I disagree that it was entitlement or ego which made her believe that she was “worthy” of fame and fortune or that she felt entitled to that life. 

Skip is a messenger from TPTB sent to Cordelia to manipulate her into becoming part demon in order for a bigger plan to be put into place. As such, he uses brilliant manipulative tactics in order to get what he wants. First, he tells her that if she returns to her human body she will die from the visions. He then reminds her of Doyle’s death and Doyle’s love for her, bringing up past grief and emotions. He then shows her the results of a human being forced to bear the burden of the visions with the appearance of one such human whose head has been blown out due to the visions. Then he has her revisit the night she ran into Angel at the Hollywood party and presents a scenario to her in which she doesn’t bump into Angel but, by chance, runs into a very prestigious and established talent agent. Only then does he tell her that had she actually met said agent, she would have been fated to become a wildly successful and talented actress, not making out that she was entitled to that life but that it was just one of many paths she could have gone down had circumstances been different. Then, lastly, he sneakily shows her Angel talking to the Conduit to TBTP right at the very moment Angel says that Cordelia is weak and unable to handle the visions. 

It is only after all of this that Skip offers to transplant Cordy into the other reality, the one in which she is a famous superstar. And Cordy, rocked with all this information, reeling from the emotions of seeing Doyle again, scared of what will happen to her if she continues to bear the weight of the visions, thinking that Angel believes her to be weak and herself believing that if she returns to her own reality she will die, readily accepts Skip’s offer, not from ego or entitlement but from fear and emotional distress. Skip chose the most appealing fantasy to entice Cordelia with but that she accepted this fantasy as reality because the other option was torture and death, not because she believed it was her due.

Going back to the original meta piece, I do think there are some valid points made about how the episode initially seems like a strong, character-based episode but actually falls apart under close scrutiny. This part in particular rings true:

Is it really believable that Angel would go mad with the visions if Doyle, a half-demon, and Cordelia, a human, survived that? Angel is a demon who survived 100 years in hell and 150 years on Earth (and it wasn’t an easy life). If Cordelia endured the visions for 3 years, then Angel can as well, without going mad [x]

I remember when I initially watched the episode thinking the same thing, like, why would Angel - a demon - buckle under the weight of the visions when Cordelia managed to survive them for three years? Made no sense.

That being said, that scene was very obviously set up in order to manipulate Cordelia’s emotions, to play on her love for Angel and her compassion and selflessness. Skip was deliberately manipulating Cordelia in order for her to accept becoming part demon so that the greater plan of Jasmine’s birth could take place, and since at this point in the story we are supposed to believe that Cordelia and Angel are falling in love, it makes sense of Skip to manipulate her this way. As for why Cordelia didn’t realise this was a manipulation, I think that comes down to the fact that 1) she knows of Skip and that he works for TPTB and at this point she has no reason not to trust his word, as she has always trusted TBTB and 2) as said previously, this plays directly into her romantic feelings for Angel and who among us would look at the person we’re in love with, suffering and in endless torment, and actually question whether it’s real or not? We would probably all do what Cordy did and just jump in without thinking in order to save the one we loved.

All up, I don’t think Birthday is the strongest episode but I do think it was important in setting up the Season 4 arc and I believe it is a decent character study of Cordelia, what she has endured over the series until then and her emerging feelings for Angel. The original meta piece by @we-pay-for-everything was well-written and definitely an interesting read and should not be discredited by what I’ve said here.