#chapter 1 will for sure be published after Easter

[semidecentpoet]

Aaaaaand chapter 2 is in the books, holy shitttttt. I think it’s the riptide hiatus, rip meeeeeee

Snippet:

Chip didn't notice her inner turmoil. “Look, I'm starting a band of my own, and—”

“Are you gonna order anything?”

Chip faltered. “What?”

“I said,” Jay repeated, her tone icy, “are you gonna order anything?”

“Uh, not today. I—”

“Then you should probably leave,” Jay said, “and free up space for paying customers.”

[offtorivendell]

Elain, Gwyn and a possible January birthday...

I can't believe it's the end of the Year of our Cauldron 2024 and this argument has resurfaced, but here we go I guess.

Thank you @shitwillnotbegiven for working though this with me!

Firstly, I really want people to know that none of this even matters; the interview in which Steph asked SJM if Azriel's person could have her birthday happened after ACOSF was sent* to be published. So whatever couple was built up was already set in the text. It's a complete non issue. Secondly, SJM has fudged up the numbers before; I am pretty sure that someone did the maths and, according to canon, Eris would have only been around 8yo when he left Mor at Autumn's border! These things happen, and SJM has said she's not a numbers person (no shame).

* Correction: ACOSF was not yet published, but it would have been at the printers and/or being shipped out. Thank you @valentiinexo.

Thirdly, assuming SJM honours the promise to begin with, even if the birthday request predated ACOSF being sent to the printers, it's still a non issue because both Elain and Gwyn could have been born in January. I don't know why people are saying Elain was born over the summer, besides wanting to reassure themselves that she won't end up with Az.

But let's have a look.

Elain

Nesta said that Elain was "barely thirteen" at the ball when the heiress bullied her for whatever reason.

“She wouldn’t have gone into much detail about it,” Elain said. “Nesta was only fourteen at the last ball we went to before—well, before we were poor …” Elain shook her head. “Another young heiress was at the ball, and she positively hated me. She was several years older, and I’d never done anything to provoke her hatred, but I think …” “She was jealous of your beauty,” Amren said, an amused smile on her red lips. Elain blushed. “Perhaps.” It was definitely that. Even though Elain would have been barely thirteen at the time. “Well, Nesta saw how she treated me, her casual cruelties and snubs, and bided her time. Waited until that ball, when a handsome duke from the continent was there to find a bride. His family had run out of money, which was why he’d deigned to come over at all—to nab a rich bride to refill their estate’s coffers. Nesta knew the heiress had her sights set on him. The girl had bragged about it to all of us in the powder room at every ball for weeks leading up to it. - ACOSF, chapter 44

Nesta herself was only "fourteen," born in the spring.

Cassian held her gaze as he stalked for her, then reached out an arm— And plucked the cerulean-and-cream scarf Elain had given her for her birthday this spring off the hook on the wall. He gripped it in his fist, dangling it like a strangled snake as he brushed past her. - ACOSF, chapter 1

As the map and seasons of Prythian both coincide with the map and seasons of the UK and Ireland/the northern hemisphere in general (besides the four seasonal courts), and it should be safe to assume that the ball happened during the social season, then we can extrapolate from most online sources, which suggest that would have begun when British parliament returned after closing for the winter.

Per Wikipedia:

The Season coincided with the sitting of parliament; it began some time after Christmas and ran until midsummer, roughly late June. Some sources say it began at Parliament's Easter session break. The social season played a role in the political life of the country: the members of the two Houses of Parliament were almost all participants in the season, as all Peers sitting in the House of Lords were by definition nobility, and many if not most Members of the House of Commons were gentry. But the Season also provided an opportunity for the children of marriageable age of the nobility and gentry to be launched into society.

Feyre confirmed as much in ACOTAR, because she arrived back in the human lands after the "socialite season" had ended and it was getting into summer. Elain was even wearing summer appropriate attire and was flushed - maybe from the heat as much as her excitement?

Summer—in the weeks that I’d been painting and dining with Tamlin and wandering the court lands at his side, summer had come. Did my family still truly believe me to be visiting some long-lost aunt? What were they doing with themselves? - ACOTAR, chapter 25

I glanced sidelong at her. My sister was beaming, content—prettier than I’d ever seen her, even in her simple muslin gardening dress. Her cheeks were flushed beneath her large, floppy hat. “I think—I think I’d like to see the continent,” I said. And it was true, I realized. There was so much of the world that I hadn’t seen, hadn’t ever thought about visiting. Hadn’t ever been able to dream of visiting. “I’m surprised you’re so eager to go next spring,” I said. “Isn’t that right in the middle of the season?” The socialite season, which had ended a few weeks ago, apparently, full of parties and balls and luncheons and gossip, gossip, gossip. Elain had told me all about it at dinner the night before, hardly noticing that it was an effort for me to get down my food. - ACOTAR, chapter 29

The following afternoon, bleary-eyed and quiet, we all gathered at the lunch table. I thanked my sister and father for the party, and dodged my father’s inquiries regarding whether any of his friends’ sons had caught my eye. The summer heat had arrived, and I propped my chin on a fist as I fanned myself. I’d slept fitfully in the heat last night. It was never too hot or too cold at Tamlin’s estate. - ACOTAR, chapter 31

Spring is "right in the middle of" Prythian's social season. Winter > spring (tulip season) > summer. Feyre gives us this information.

All of this is to say that it is absolutely possible for Elain to be born in January and be "barely thirteen" years of age in the late winter/early spring of the same year "weeks" later, when Nesta got revenge for her at the ball. And Nesta, who was "only fourteen" at the time, could have been nearing her fifteenth birthday. "Two under two" is a common saying for a reason, and I suspect the "only" was not to suggest that Nesta had recently turned fourteen (though two in one year is definitely possible), but that she was too young for marriage in her father's/family's opinion, and the entire situation was ludicrous.

Perhaps the wooden rose was actually a birthday gift for Elain from Papa Archeron?

She plucked another figurine from the mantel: a rose carved from a dark sort of wood. She held it in her palm, its solid weight surprising, and traced a finger over one of the petals. “He made this one for Elain. Since it was winter and she missed the flowers.” - ACOSF, chapter 55

Gwyn

If Gwyn and Catrin were conceived on Calanmai, which is the first of May, and faerie pregnancies last ten months - this is of course assuming that their half-nymph mother would have expected the same duration of her pregnancy as a high fae like Feyre - then yes, a pregnancy with a due date of May plus ten months (it's impossible to count from her last missed period as we know at least the high fae only have two cycles a year, so the conception date will have to do) could end with a set of twins born in January.

Gwyn went on, “My mother was unwanted by either of their people. She could not dwell in the rivers of the Spring Court, but was too untamed to endure the confinement of the forest house of Autumn. So she was given in her childhood to the temple at Sangravah, where she was raised. She partook in the Great Rite when she was of age, and I, we—my sister and I, I mean—were the result of that sacred union with a male stranger. She never found out who he was, for the magic chose him that night, and no one ever showed up to ask about twin girls. We were raised in the temple as well. I never left its grounds until … until I came here.” - ACOSF, chapter 29

Around half of twin pregnancies make it to term, and 90% are born after 32 weeks (per google), so even with the extrapolation between human data and the barely existent faerie pregnancy "lore" I think that a January birthdate for Gwyn and Catrin is not a risky guess. I also think it's much more exciting to refer to pregnancy "lore" than data, so can we all get that going? 😂

So yeah, there you have it. Both Elain and Gwyn could have been born in January. Though again, it was a request made after ACOSF was finished. This argument doesn't "benefit" either side, and to suggest that it eliminates either Elain or Gwyn is disingenuous. Why does it keep popping up?

[subbe93]

It Has Always Been You, Chapter 1

A/N: Finally, here we are! Here is the start for @starmia ‘s request! I tried to reread and publish this around Easter, but I couldn’t make it, so I decided that as soon as I’m free from school and start my summer holiday, I’m going to do it. And here we are!

Though this time I’m working differently with this fic. Usually, I have drafted the whole story before I have started to reread and publish chapters. I like to do that because this way I make sure that any of my long fics wouldn’t be left unfinished, and I also can promise when the next chapter comes out. But to be honest, I started to feel like I have promised to work on this fic so long and still hadn’t had a chance to start publishing. So I promised myself that as soon as I start my summer holiday, I finished this first chapter and publish it. But the thing is when I’m writing this (it’s Friday, 16.6.), I have nothing written for chapter two. Yeah, you read right: I have nothing for chapter 2, not even a word ^^’ But I start to work on it, and I promise to publish the next chapters as soon as I got them ready! And I’m really sorry about that because I can’t even guess when I got the next chapter ready ^^’

But back to the fic! The request was that Shinichi and Ran tried to date in uni but it didn’t work so they decided to be friends, Shinichi went away and years later after he comes back he is engaged but he realizes that he is still in love with Ran.

So here is a start, I hope you like it ^^

Chapter 1: Back in Tokyo

Shinichi didn’t remember how beautiful Tokyo was. Or maybe he hadn’t appreciated it back then when it was part of his everyday life scenario. But now, after five years in America…

Probably it would have been many years more before he would have even planned to make a visit to Japan if he wouldn’t have got a call from Nakamichi. After catching up, he told him that they were planning a class reunion with their group from high school. So, of course, Kudo Shinichi needs to be there too!

To be honest, part of him wasn’t a big fan of an idea, but people around him started to be excited about it. His mother started almost immediately planning the flight to Tokyo. And when Shinichi tried to get help from his fiancee to find any good excuse not to go, she had just looked as excited as his mother and told him that they really, really need to make that trip!

Well, he could understand why Julia was so eager to make a visit to Japan. That light-haired woman had lived all her life in America and hadn’t traveled anywhere. She had dreamed about traveling around the world and seeing so many different places, but because of school and everything, her dreams hadn’t come true - at least not yet. So it was only understandable that when Shinichi’s parents promised to pay for her tickets to Tokyo and back and also a hotel room - even though Shinichi had said they don’t have to! - she was so eager to go. Well, Shinichi was pretty sure that Julia would have come even though his mother wouldn’t have promised to pay anything.

But yeah. After that, he hadn’t had any chance to say no anymore.

But maybe deep done, he was happy that others were eager to make this trip. Because after stepping on Japan’s land, he felt at home. It was weird, because he had a home in America, but Japan had still a special place in his heart. He had grown up in here, learned much from here… And truthfully, he really missed his old friends. After high school, they went their different ways and didn’t see each other as often as before. He can admit that he hadn’t been very good at keeping in touch with them, but then again, they haven’t with him.

So walking those streets and seeing those familiar places - though some of them had gotten little different looks during the years - brought back so many good memories. All those adventures he had as a child, his first day at kindergarten, his first day at school, all those soccer games he played with his friends, he remembered all cases…

With all those fond memories, he realized how much he had missed it all. Though some things had changed, including his childhood home, which made him feel a little bit sad. But his parents had sold it after Shinichi was sure that he would like to stay in America, so it was only understandable that there were new owners who wanted to make that house look like theirs.

And here he was, being emotional.

“It’s so beautiful”, he heard Julia say as they walked to the park. She looked around dreamily, but that’s how she had walked after yesterday when they had landed. Everything she saw was awesome and beautiful. She had even forgotten her urge to learn Japanese as soon as she had gotten off the plane. Some of the greetings she knew and she knew how to thank, but since she had been too busy to look around while his parents had taken care of everything else, she had lost all possibilities to learn more. But Shinichi hadn’t mind, and to be honest, he was sure that it would be more exciting for her to concentrate to see everything around her instead of trying to learn a new language. At least she could do it when they would be back in America, but views? Well, of course, she could always check pictures from the internet, but to be honest, it wouldn’t be the same as experiencing them now, right here.

“Right?” Yukiko answered excitedly. “So much different than New York.”

“So much”, Julia laughed happily, and from the corner of his eyes, he noticed how she turned to look at him. “You’re so lucky that you got to live both of them.”

That’s what his classmates had said when his parents moved to America. First, they had thought that Shinichi had been a fool because he hadn’t moved with them, and later they had claimed how lucky Shinichi was, to have an easy way to make a visit to America. But he hadn’t seen anything interesting in it. Besides, it just meant packing and all if he had wanted to visit his parents, which he had considered just troublesome.

“I don’t think it’s really anything special”, he said finally and looked at Julia, but those amber-colored eyes were looking around, trying to see everything. “If you want to live or visit somewhere, you just have to do it, right?”

Yet she turned to look at him, giving him that certain smile while rolling her eyes. “It’s not that easy for everyone, you know?”

“But you can always work for it”, he answered.

She shook her head. “You don’t understand, do you?”

He shrugged. “It seems I don’t” he admitted.

Julia laughed and nudged him with her weight. “Don’t ever chance, okay?”

He grinned in answer.

“Alright, lovebirds”, he heard Yukiko say, making Shinichi look at his mother. “Should we grab something to eat? I’m starting to feel hungry.”

“Oh, yes!” Julia answered, as energetic as always. She took a few run steps to walk beside Yukiko, looking at her excitedly, wrapping her arms around Yukiko’s arm. “What do you recommend? I want something new! Actually, Shinichi mentioned…”

Shinichi shook his head mostly himself before following those two and his father. Yet, those cute, pink Sakura flowers stole his attention and his eyes went back to them. He had to admit that he hadn’t remembered how beautiful they were. And they brought back memories that he had kind of forgotten. Well, not necessarily forgotten, but dealt with them and moved forward, leaving them behind when there hasn’t been anything to remind him of them.

And those memories, they were still dear to him. Painful, but dear. But he still pushed them a little further, because now wasn’t a time for them. Right now, he needed to…

“Shinichi?”

And he stopped right there.

That voice…

His name, with that voice, was enough to make him forget everything else around him. For a moment he thought that his mind is doing tricks, because what were the odds to hear that voice just when those memories were coming back to him, but when he turned around, he saw her. That long, dark-haired woman standing there, those orchid-colored eyes looking like there were tears and lips… Those lips turned slowly into that smile. Into that certain smile that had always made his heart race in his chest.

The same smile he had fallen in love with in the first place.

She looked almost the same as five years ago, yet maybe… more like a woman.

“Ran.” It was the only word that came out of his mouth, and for him, it sounded more like a whisper, but seeing how her smile widened even more, he knew it had been much more. Or maybe she had just read it from his lips?

She let out a laugh and ran towards him. Shinichi smiled while opening his arms, taking only a few steps toward her before she jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He laughed with her, closing her into his embrace as he had done so many times years ago. He felt how she pressed against him, and he smelled that same, familiar scent that had always made him a little bit nervous, and yet, when he closed his eyes, he wanted to drown in it. That scent and warmth were so comfortable and caring, making him feel like… home.

And all those memories that he had pushed away, came back to him. He remembered that little girl, tears in her eyes when she had made him a Sakura badge. He remembered all the adventures they had had as a child and how afterward Ran’s mother had scolded them about it. He remembered years in elementary school, he remembered all events from the teen years, all the things they have laughed at, many places where they have visited, many crime scenes that he had wanted to keep her away, many tears she had shed… He remembered every time when she had grabbed his arm, he remembered every time they had held each other’s hands, remembered every kiss…

He remembered the night when he had decided to follow those men in black. He remembered how they had made him take the name Edogawa Conan, and he remembered all the lies he had to tell Ran to keep her safe. He remembered her disappointed and betrayed look when he had finally taken down the Organisation and became back to Kudo Shinichi without fearing to lose her or anyone else close to him. He remembered how after some time they had decided to date again and… and…

“I can’t trust you, Shinichi. Not like… before.”

Without realizing it, he tightened his grip around her.

“It’s been years”, he said finally and opened his eyes, ripping himself out of those memories. Even though he still held them as important and dear memories, everything was connected to everything he had done wrong. He hadn’t lost only the love of his life for that stupid mistake, but he had also lost his closest and dearest friend too. And even though he had made peace with it, learned to live with it, he had to admit that it hurt. Knowing that he had hurt the one he cared about the most…

The fact that she never could trust him as before. The fact that there were always hints of doubt.

Scars that he made, but what he couldn’t heal.

But that all was in the past. He couldn’t chance it. And even though getting over her was painful, seeing her now, looking healthy and fine, he was happy. That had been all he had wished for, that she would be safe and sound, and happy.

“It really had”, he heard her say and sniff while her grip tightened. “Where have you been, Shinichi? I have been so worried…”

It made him let out a soft laugh.

You have still been worried?

“God, Ran, how many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to worry about me”, he said, feeling somehow nostalgic. Finally, he made her move a little farther so that he could see her face, examined them, and…

She was still beautiful. She looked exactly the same woman that he had loved, the same woman that he had left behind.

The same woman that moved on, while he couldn’t.

He observed how Ran opened her mouth, like planning to say something, but then she shut her mouth, looking down with a sad smile. And even though Shinichi couldn’t know for sure, he got some kind of feeling that he knew what she would have wanted to say.

“You haven’t called.”

The same phrase he had heard so many times during his being Conan. And now that he thought about it, he could have called her more often back then. But at this point, it didn’t matter. 

But while living in America? How in the world he should have known that Ran still wanted to be in touch with him? In the ens…

“You left without saying anything”, Ran said finally, getting him out of his thoughts. She raised her head, orchid-colored eyes meeting his. “I thought…. I thought something terrible happened to you.”

Like in Tropical Land, many years ago…

It surprised him a little bit. After their break-up, Ran was the one who was okay with it. While Shinichi himself tried to patch his broken heart, Ran had been the one who continued her life without a problem and started to go on dates with others.

She had been the one who moved on.

Shinichi had just been stuck in his sorrow, feeling jealous, angry, and sad when he had seen how Ran dated others. Of course, they had greeted each other, talked if being the same group, or met somewhere and had time, but to be honest, for Shinichi, it had looked like they couldn’t even patch their relationship back to the same level as it had been before their dating. And it hadn’t been a surprise, because she had lost her trust in him. She didn’t talk to him as before, they weren’t in touch as often…

For him, it had looked like she didn’t need him in her life anymore. That she hadn’t been interested anymore to know what he was doing, how he was doing. And maybe it was only understandable. 

It had been the reason why he went to America. Well, honestly he hadn’t planned to stay there long, only enough to get his thoughts in order without seeing Ran or getting depressed to see her with others. It had been a trip that was meant to give him enough space to heal his wound. But then he got a chance to continue his studies in New York. And after some thinking, he had stayed.

So he hadn’t even thought that Ran would be interested to know what he was doing and whatnot, which had been the biggest reason why he hadn’t been in touch. And if she really had been that interested, she could have just asked. Even though he had changed his number, there were still ways to make contact. God, if Nakamichi had found his number, why Ran hadn’t had?

But he didn’t blame her. Almost six years ago, he had known that woman better than anyone else. And if she hadn’t changed, he was pretty sure that the only reason why Ran hadn’t been in touch with him, is because she hadn’t had enough courage to do so.

That’s Ran. Always overthinking even the simplest things. Or at least she had used to.

“To be fair, I didn’t know either that I would stay in America”, he answered finally. “I just planned a visit to my parents like a few weeks or something, but…” He chuckled. “Well, I got a chance to transfer my studies and continue in New York, so I stayed.”

In the end, you were the reason why I stayed in Japan in the first place…

“Oh”, Ran said and frowned. “You should have… I would… I…” Then she shut her mouth and looked away.

She genuinely looked melancholic, and it made Shinichi think that maybe…

“Shinichi? Who is she?”

Shinichi snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look beside him. Julia stood there, looking curiously at him, then Ran…

Oh, he had totally forgotten Julia and his parents!

“Oh”, Shinichi let out, dropping his arms around Ran and taking a step away from her. He wondered how bad it had looked in Julia’s eyes! He hadn’t thought, not at all… “Oh, she…” He stopped and reminded himself to use English again, so Julia could understand him. “She is Mouri Ran, my childhood friend, and… my ex-girlfriend.”

Julia's expression brightened. “Oh, so this is that Ran you had told me so much?” she asked and sounded excited - a little too excited if someone would ask Shinichi. He followed how she went closer to Ran and offered her hand. “My name is Julia Williams, Shinichi’s fiancee.”

Nothing happened. Shinichi turned to look at Ran, who just stared at Julia. Her smile had faded a little bit like there was something wrong. Shinichi frowned. But Ran had been good at English back then, why she…

“Julia, darling, not like that”, Shinichi heard his mother's voice, but he still couldn’t get his eyes away from Ran, who still stared at Julia with some weird expression. He tried to read it so he could do something to help, but… “In Japan, when we met a new person, we introduce ourselves, and after that, we bow a little”, he heard his mother explain, and finally Shinichi turned to look at them when Yukiko put her hand on Julia’s arm, making her lower it. “And it would be more polite to call her Mouri-san or Ran-san.”

“Oh!” Julia shouted out and turned to look at Yukiko confused. “But you always talk about Ran…”

“Because she is our dear family friend”, she explained gently before turning to Ran. Then Yukiko went to her and grab her into a tight hug, continuing in Japanese. “It has been years, Ran-chan! How have you been? You look as beautiful as always!”

“I’m fine, I’m fine”, Ran laughed and hugged Yukiko back, but Shinichi still could see that something was bothering her, even though she tried to hide it.

“Oh, come on, Ran-chan!”, Yukiko laughed and get away from her enough to face her. “You have to tell me more! What you have done during these years? Do you still live in Beika? Do you have a job? Fiancee? Children?”

“Mom!”

Well, it wasn’t like this should have been a surprise: His mother had always been curious, and when she opened her mouth, there could come out anything! But Shinichi couldn’t help but feel so embarrassed. Why did she need to bluntly ask everything that came to her mind? Wasn’t she the one who just a moment ago told Julia to be more polite?

If he would still be on good terms with Ran, this wouldn’t be so awkward, but now?

So when Yukiko turned to look at her, like she had done nothing wrong, Shinichi continued: “Don’t harass her like that! It’s not your concern…”

“Mou, Shin-chan!” Yukiko said. “But I want to know…”

Shinichi rolled his eyes. This wasn’t fine! “Maybe Ran tells you if she feels like it”, he answered.

“It’s okay, Shinichi”, Ran interrupted, taking his attention. He met her eyes and he knew that she meant it. She had always been kind, it seemed that she still was.

And she had been used to his mother’s curiosity, so that was probably the reason that she didn’t mind.

But honestly, the difference from the past was that he wasn’t as close to Ran as he used to be. And he didn’t want her to bother Ran too much.

But Ran smiled gently when turned back to look at Yukiko. “Yes, I still live in Beika and I’m working the closest kindergarten, and… I… I live alone.”

“Oh, but that sounds good”, Yukiko said, yet not as energetic as usual. “Though I’m sad that you are still single…”

“Mom, no”, Shinichi interrupted before she would have time start to pry anything more. Again Yukiko turned to look at him and opened her mouth.

“What about we continue our way to eat something?” Yusaku interrupted smoothly, making only then Shinichi remember that his father was also there. He glanced at him and saw how looked at Ran, smiling gently. “You can join us, if you want, Ran-chan. We offer.”

“Oh, that would be amazing!” Yukiko shouted out happily, hitting her hands together. “We offer and meanwhile you can tell us everything…”

“Mom…” Shinichi sighed. Why did his mother need to be like that?

“I’m grateful for the offer, but sadly, I need to be somewhere else soon”, Ran answered and raised her hand to glance at her wristwatch. And even though it made him happy that his mother wouldn’t have a chance to pry anything else, he still felt a little bit disappointed. It would have been nice to catch up with her, after all these years.

Well, maybe he would get that chance at the class reunion.

“Oh, that’s a shame”, Yukiko muttered. “But it can’t be helped…” Then she started to smile again. “Is it a date?”

Shinichi rolled his eyes.

“Ah, no”, Ran laughed. “I’m just seeing Sonoko.”

“Ah”, Shinichi let out, remembering that annoyed woman… “She’s still here?”

Ran laughed again. “Yes, she still lives here too”, she answered, looking at him with that big smile. “She would be so happy to hear that you’re ba-... in Tokyo. Do I tell your regards to her?”

“Please, don’t”, Shinichi answered and grinned. “Somehow my sanity has been so much better when she isn’t around.”

God, and now he missed Sonoko too. He had never guessed that there would be a day when he would have been ready to drop everything else just to see Suzuki Sonoko and hear her irritating voice. God, he would have liked to… But she probably didn’t want to see him. They haven’t been in touch either, not after his and Ran’s breakup. Shinichi was pretty sure that Sonoko was on Ran’s side and hated him for breaking Ran’s heart.

Well, he wanted to say that he was the one who got that broken heart, but it wouldn’t probably matter. He was the one who had done wrong. But maybe he would get a chance to see her at the class reunion and see how much she would hate him.

But he would never admit to anyone that he missed her. Not even for Ran.

Ran giggled. “Well, that would make her sad, just saying”, she said.

Shinichi shrugged. “I doubt that.”

Then there was a silence. Shinichi looked at Ran’s eyes before she dropped them on the ground, looking nervous. And even after years, even though he had been over her, and moved on, seeing that gesture made him feel a little sad. Somehow this moment only proved to him how much he had lost. It had never been this hard for them to say goodbyes.

“Well”, he started and moved his eyes to Julia, who was observing him. “I think we planned to go to eat?”

“Oh”, Ran let out, making Shinichi look back at her. “Oh, yeah, sorry for keeping you! And I believe Sonoko is waiting too…”

Shinichi nodded. He hated how awkward this was between them.

“It was so good to see you again, Ran-chan”, Yukiko said and gave a fast hug to Ran before moving away. “Maybe we should meet before we got back to New York?”

“It… sounds like a good idea”, Ran answered with that sweet smile.

“It was nice to meet you, Ran-san”, Julia interrupted in English. “And I’m sorry about earlier…”

“No, don’t worry about it, it’s okay”, Ran answered now, smiling apologetically. “I just… I just was surprised… Sorry about that!”

It seemed just to make Julia happy. “Don’t worry!” she answered. “And… I would also love to see you again! Shinichi’s friends are mine too!”

“Yeah”, Ran answered, but somehow it wasn’t as bright as the answer for Yukiko. “I would like that.”

Julia’s smile just widened.

“Okay, maybe we should continue”, Shinichi said because even though he hadn’t seen Ran in years, he still got some kind of feeling that she was a little bit uneasy. “I’m starting to be so hungry.” Then he looked at Ran and smiled. “See you at the class reunion, right?”

Ran smiled at him, but somehow it seemed sad. “Yeah, see you.”

Shinichi nodded before turning. He put his hand on Julia’s back to push her to move with him.

But even though meeting with Ran had gone well - much better than had thought, and honestly, he hadn’t even thought of chatting with Ran even in the class reunion -, something still bothered him. Why Ran had looked a little bit sad? If she hadn’t wanted to chat with him, she probably wouldn’t have stopped him. But he hadn’t blamed her for anything either, right? Or maybe she was just uneasy because it was their first meeting after five years and there were also others…

“You have to continue teaching me more Japanese, Shinichi”, Julia said, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked at her and saw how those amber-colored eyes looked at him. “I have forgotten the whole thing when we arrived yesterday, and I’m kind of sad that I couldn’t greet your childhood friend correctly!”

“I don’t think Ran minds about that”, he comforted her. “Besides, I thought you would like to concentrate more on views,” he said and nudged her a little bit. “In the end, you don’t see these every day, but making me teach Japanese to you can happen whenever you want to.”

She pouted. “I know, but…”

“Shinichi!”

Shinichi stopped and turned around. Ran was still standing where they had left her, still looking at him. But now she looked a little bit shy. There was a hint of insecurity in her.

“I… I wonder… Would you like to meet before the class reunion?” she asked before letting out a nervous laugh and looking away. “If you have time at some point? I…” Then she met his eyes again. “There are things I would… like to clear up between us. If… if you want give me a chance, of course.”

And even when she smiled, there was glimmering in her eyes. Like…

Like he could say no to her. Has he ever? Besides, that is what he would like to do. If it would mean that they could get back even part of the relationship that they had before the Tropical Land, he would do it. Even though they wouldn’t love each other as they had, she was still dear to him, and he would give pretty much if she would still be part of his life.

“Fine by me”, he answered finally. “If you have the same number as before, we can settle where and when, okay?”

Her smile widened a little bit. “Okay.”

Chapter 2

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

Goddess of Secrecy & Mark of a Hero: Should You Read Both?

Ok, I know I've talked not amazingly about GoS some on this blog so far. Most of that is because I'm stuck in the middle of edits with it and so you know. My opinion of it isn't the best right now.

That said, I do still adore GoS. It's a story I'm proud of. It's a story I will be prouder of after edits. And it's a reflection of my growth as a storyteller. I'm sure the chart of what that looks like is interesting with the hiatuses mixed in there, but here we are. And on top of that, GoS was/is really well liked over on Wattpad. It is creeping up on 300,000 reads and it didn't get there for nothing. Is it big? Yeah, absolutely. It's got nothing on MoaH though in size. GoS will likely reach about 500,000 words by the time it's done with edits. MoaH hit that word count at the end of act 3 of book 2 (of 9).

That said, GoS & MoaH do share lore connections. MoaH continues GoS's timeline with the most interconnection of any of my fics (they are all generally on the same timeline, but really only GoS & MoaH focus on it). Now, MoaH is standalone, you don't have to read GoS to enjoy MoaH's lore. But. If you have read both, the lore does expand on each other. There are also easter eggs in MoaH based on GoS (a non-spoiler one is that GoS's Sages are on Hart's cards in their oracle deck). If that's something you enjoy, GoS is slowly releasing chapters in its first phase of edits onto AO3 now as well as the chapters are being edited and released on Wattpad with banners, I will be putting out announcements as we get through to the end of dungeons (~10 chapters). It is at probably its most approachable point right now as it goes through phase 1 edits. They said about the 197 chapter fic, I know, but like. It is at its smallest right now. I'm aiming to get 2-3 chapters out a week, so it's gonna add up eventually.

I like to think that GoS is to MoaH lore-wise what The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings. A more kid friendly, shorter, and tonally very different prequel to the main series it follows. Can you read one without reading the other? Yes. Are both expanded by how they interconnect? That's the goal. I mean, if I'm gonna put out something massive like this, I ought to at least make sure y'all get some fun out of it for reading both.

And to answer the phase 1 edits thing real fast, I realized very quickly into GoS that I was going to have to break up edits into two parts. Phase 1 is "What the fuck did I write 12 years ago" where I rediscover some of the things this brain at 16 years old thought was a good idea to write and publish. Some of these things are the reason we're putting out phase 1 immediately over waiting to get through phase 2 for releases. I don't want the original text to exist anymore. Some of it was just bad. Offensive. I mean it's offensive and I don't want that available to read for as much as I can prevent it so the Wattpad chapters have to be replaced. But also, I worked on this book for over 12 years, I forgot a lot of what I wrote and I have no notes from the entire process. So we're getting the story in order, the yikes cut out, and then we'll go into phase 2, which is:

"Ok, but some of these chapters are only 1k." Phase 2 of GoS edits aims to get the word count of chapters, minimum, up to 1.5k. Ideally, up to 2k. GoS is shorter for chapter goals, that's lower than my goals for MoaH chapters (which seems to be adding a thousand per book, but we'll see how book 3 goes), but some of these chapters in GoS barely qualified as chapters. They have plot points I think deserve the breaks! But they need more description. Less floating heads. More details. At that point, the story will be there though because of phase 1 and I will know better where they go, so phase 2 won't really add anything new plot wise, it'll just make what's there better in presentation.

As I've said previously, GoS is being backdated for its original publication, mostly for the archival process of it. It is linked on the pinned post of this blog if you wanna give it a go.

[mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: Gen Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki (TV 2023), Dogma (1999) Characters: Loki (Marvel), Sylvie (Loki TV), Mobius M. Mobius, Victor Timely, Ravonna Lexus Renslayer, Loki (Dogma), Bartleby (Dogma) Additional Tags: Loki season 2 episode 3 spoilers, Loki series non-compliant, Canon Divergent, When fandoms collide and one consumes the other, Dogma Loki is a little shit, Loki doesn't like imposters who badmouth him, Just when I thought I was out they pulled me back in, Humor, Easter Eggs, oh yeah I went there, Loki vs. Loki, Bartleby gets a new job, Loki is a good friend, No there's no shipping in this one, A slight deviation from the episode just to right a wrong in the world of fandom Language: English Published: 2023-10-20 Words: 1,953 Chapters: 1/1

Summary:

Loki and Mobius have caught up to Victor Timely in Wisconsin, and after Loki convinces Sylvie not to kill this early variant of He Who Remains, he decides to tend to a little business of his own.

Notes:

For @kleenexwoman Look, Dogma Loki's whole monologue in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot pissed me off for so many reasons - it wasn't funny, it was petty on the part of the actor, director, and the other actor who was just a hologram. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I was in the Jay and Silent Bob fandom for long enough to know when something was genuinely funny and when something was a petty-minded little slam at other actors and fandoms. So, this fic has been a long time in coming, but it took the brilliance (and placement) of Loki s01e03: "1893" to give me the push I needed to get it written.

It's full of Easter Eggs. It's meant to be humorous and a bit spiteful perhaps, but it was fun to write. Hopefully, some of you will enjoy it.

If they ever have Loki, our Loki, visiting anywhere in Kansas, I'm pretty sure he'll be going after another angel imposter next.

[gnomewithalaptop]

Ok, finally getting to those other Asks I wanted to do. So the TAU blog reblog of ur "The last time I saw you (you were so young)" fic post, u said this: "'LISTEN I know I’m meant to be working on that one longfic but my mother told me a story about my deceased grandmother & then I just blacked out and wrote this idk what to tell you", I thought for a sec, u were talking about: "The Man Who Knew the Future You" (I love the idea of Alcor meeting a past Mizar; prob. so weird for both, lol), 2/?.

(Continuing on from my Last Ask(s)): , but then I realized u were prob. talking about "Cue the Sun" instead actually, which I found out from the Ask from toothpastecanyon asking: "What is cue the sun? 👀" (having trouble linking links), & now, I am obsessed w/ that idea/it. Like, a civil war, a R!Ford Mom having a R!Gideon (of all people) Troubled teen of all people (it's also cool to see more Ford & Gideon stuff in TAU & R's of them too), trying to find something to win the civil war 3?/?.

(Continued from Last Ask(s) again, sorry for how many Asks): , but then them finding like a 2016 (I think it was 2016) Gravity Falls and meeting a skeptical and/or sus. Stan (Stan meeting reincarnations of his brother and enemy and/or past enemy, man, oh man) and the OG Mystery Twins (Dipper and Mabel, right? Awesome. That/This should be very fun), and they all think it is 2016, and not, 7098 (man, the year differences is gonna be strange &/or confusing for everyone), &/or etc. 4?/?

(Continued from my Last Ask(s) again): Like, sign me up for "Cue the Sun"! And it is gonna be a longfic (probably)? Like, even if it wasn't, I would still be interested in it, but it being a longifc is even better (as a Gravity Falls, TAU, and/or etc. fan even more esp.). The map(s) u did for "Cue the Sun", & the thought u are putting into "Cue the Sun" is amazing. 4 or 5?/?. The next 1 should hopefully be my Last Ask. I didn't realize the/my Asks would get this many.

(Continued from my Other Asks. Just 1 more after this): Is there any more "Cue the Sun" posts besides that Ask I mentioned in my other Ask(s)? When I try searching up "cue the sun" on ur blog, this is all I get "Sorry, no results for cue the sun". I didn't even get that Ask I talked about, that literally has "cue the sun" in the Ask. Tumblr's Search can be so bad sometimes. Anyways, really excited for "Cue the Sun", whenever that is. & I love ur other TAU fics and posts too! 5 or 6?/?.

(original cue the sun post)

Oh dude. Dude. Never apologize for sending too many asks -- getting this in my inbox literally made my day. To your first question: yes! The longfic in question is Cue the Sun -- I'm still working through it rn, and I'm hoping to start publishing sometime this summer/fall -- woot woot graduation time! Right now, it's looking to be about 6-7 long-ish chapters? Which is def a longfic in my book lol (I'm trying to get it all written out before I start posting -- that way I can keep with a consistent update schedule)

I am SUPER excited about it though -- I've been having a blast working through the twists and turns of it all and making sure all the pieces fit together (and dropping Easter Eggs to as many other pieces of TAU lore as possible lmao)

But yes! OG Mystery Twins are 16-17 y/o Mabel and Dipper Pines, Stan is extremely sus (but lbr that's par the course for him), and Olya and Fatima (r!Gideon and r!Ford) are about to have the worst week of their lives.

Featuring: dead sisters who haunt the narrative, utopian society models gone wrong, weapons of mass destruction, the long-term effects of magical radiation (i.e. what happens when you stick a Chernobyl disaster inside Gravity Falls), and narratively significant golf carts

FINALLY: you can find all my writing posts under #this-is-gnomes-writing-tag, but since you're the second person to express interest in this fic, I'll start tagging Cue the Sun stuff with #cue the sun. Right now there isn't really much there (read: it is a barren wasteland) bc I tend to just vague post about things, but I'll make sure to tag any future excerpts/asks/milestones

[violettelueur]

— JUJUTSU KAISEN EPISODE SIXTEEN || KYOTO SISTER SCHOOL EXCHANGE EVENT - GROUP BATTLE 2

↳ featuring : basically everyone at this point from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : mention of explosions + EXTREME grammar issues

↳ form : story

↳ published : 29 march

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 2.2k

↳ synopsis : within the jujutsu world, there were three famous clans to be aware of, the Kamo clan, Zenin clan and the Gojo clan. However, unknown to many sorcerers there was one last family that was known to be apart of the three, only for them to disappear after the golden era leading some to speculate that they had died in battle after the sealing of ryomen sukuna, but....

↳ previous episode : kyoto sister school exchange event - group battle 1

↳ next episode : kyoto sister school exchange event - group battle 3

↳ barista’s notes : it’s been a while huh? ʕ ㅇ ᴥ ㅇʔ BUT! my exams and easter hoilday is nearly here, so i will be able to update more than i have been this month, so thank you all so much for being so patient with me ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡ my heart can’t take all the kindness ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ other than that, i hope you all enjoy today’s episode since fushiugro doesn’t pop up until like episode eighteen...so hope you love all the made up scenarios that i have constructed ʕ￫ᴥ￩　ʔ

BEFORE READING, I NEED YOU TO BE AWARE OF THIS:

1. the whole story belongs to Gege Akutami and the credits go to them and them only.

2. the spell curses used belong to Tite Kubo due to them being the ‘Kidos’ being used on the manga and anime ‘Bleach’ - but none is mentioned in this chapter.

2.5. for the ‘cursed spells’/kidos (bleach) i will link this video here and tell you the time stamp to check out what i am intending to show - remember i add a few twist here and there by adding the katana to link with Y/N’s cursed technique : hopefully this video is slightly better...

no cursed spells used this episode..

but the little sword swing is inspired by this : here

3. if you are confused on anything, please don’t hesitate to message me since i know this whole thing is so confusing.

“What’s with the smiley look on your face?” you asked as you lifted your eyebrow in curiosity since the man in front of you had a somewhat goofy grin plastered on him while adding a ridiculous amount of sugar cubes into his coffee cup causing you to shiver since you couldn’t imagine how sweet the caffeinated drink would be now if you tried it right now.

“Oh, nothing~ I’m just glad that I got to spend time with my daughter since we both have been so busy lately,” Gojo answered you brightly before grabbing the small metal spoon that was placed on the white saucer below his cup to stir the dark drink to quicken the process of the sugar dissolving.

Right now in the afternoon, you and Gojo were at a random luxury dessert place in the middle of Tokyo, where he had unexpectedly dragged you out of training that you had with the first and second years - much to their complete dismay - to have some ‘father and daughter’ bonding time together, leaving them to prepare today’s training by themselves since their plans were ruined with you now gone out of the scenario.

“Please don’t call me that,” you muttered as you processed to swirl your iced orange and mango juice with your straw before taking a quick sip of the cold beverage causing the tropical flavour to enlighten a light feeling of happiness within your stomach.

“So~ how is training for the exchange event going on?” Gojo asked as he took a sip of his cup causing you to look up at him before moving your lips away from the plastic straw. “It’s going well, Fushiguro and Kugisaki are improving bit by bit as well as the second years, it’s progress,” you replied back as your head began to nod slowly as you began to process everything in your head.

“Ah~ I knew I could count on you,” Gojo mentioned with a proud smile present on his face before looking over to the side to find the waiter coming to your table with the desserts that you both had ordered.

‘Well...isn’t it really your job as a teacher to train them?’

“Thank you so much,” you said to the waiter as they placed down your plates before giving you a nod as they processed to look after the other customers that were also in the cafe right now, leading Gojo to look at the treats in such delight before handing you one of the plates since he was the one that ordered everything - which was a complete surprise since you didn’t think he would remember you liking orange juice at all.

“Here you are! Tiramisu with fresh strawberries on top,” Gojo expressed with an excited tone causing you to look at him with a perplexed expression before slowly peering down at the small white plate that was placed in front of you to only find the mentioned dessert with a small fork right beside it.

“Did...you know I like tiramisu?” you asked bewilderedly since you had never mentioned anything about your favourite treats to Gojo since he was so keen on ordering as quickly as possible the second you both got here, to get the beautiful desserts as early as possible leaving you no room to add what you wanted.

“You were looking at it on the display when we got here, so I thought you wanted to give it a try,” Gojo informed you, leading you to look at him once again in surprise before steadily taking the fork in hand to dig into the treat you were gifted with.

“Thank you,” you mentioned with gratitude before you slowly began to tuck into the meal leaving Gojo to look at you with a smile before changing his gaze towards the sweet treats that were displayed at you both right now before gleefully taking the strawberry shortcake as his first choice.

“Y/N...when the exchange event comes...don’t use your curse technique at all,” Gojo said in a serious tone leading you to look up at your teacher in confusion due to the unexpected change in atmosphere, before sighing since you thought it was common knowledge by now and there was no need for him to remind you.

“You don’t need to tell me that, I can tell that the Kyoto Principal is coming to be watching, right?” you rhetorically asked as you slightly tilted your head to the side, “you don’t have to worry about anything, I ain’t that stupid, besides...the Kyoto students from what I’ve seen are real drags,”

                                              ꕥ

‘I swear I feel like using a curse spell right now’

At this current moment in time, you were in a somewhat difficult situation as you were rapidly zooming past the forest trees that were surrounding you while continuously avoided the arrows that were coming towards your way as some flew right past you while others struck the tree trucks that were somewhat protecting you from them, leaving you with the job to find an escape route since you were still trying to find clues of the mole that Gojo mentioned to you before the Exchange Event started as well as the second-grade curse that was needed to be exorcised to end the first day of the two-day event.

Shifting your eyes to the side, you noticed Fushiguro running in the same direction as you as he needed to keep up with you to make sure that you were safe and there was a way to help you avoid attacking your opponent right now since that was a new rule implemented to keep the game fair. However, with the abandonment of the use of your curse technique, Fushiguro needed to make sure he could defend you and have your back right now.

Quickly, you turned your head back to face forwards to ensure that you didn’t bump into anything or tripped up anywhere since you still had no idea where you were heading right now. From what you could recall, the area that was mapped out to the event’s arena was quite vast and it was getting somewhat difficult for you to sense everyone’s cursed energy since they were all now scattered in different directions with different distances leading your sense on them to become disorganised around you causing some difficulty to sense the curse you needed to locate for.

During this train of thought, Fushiguro couldn’t help but notice a few odd but small objects flowing through the air in front of both of you and him, causing the erratic-haired sorcerer to slightly tense up since he wasn’t sure what they were but also knew he couldn’t act too careless right now since it could be a trap that was set by the Kyoto side. However, as you both continued to sprint forward, those same small objects gilded right past between both of you and Fushiguro causing him to able to identify what they were.

‘Flower petals?’ Fushiguro thought before noticing how a few more pink petals would flow between you and him causing the shikigami user to look at you in confusion (since it was summer meaning there was no way they were just in bloom) as a few more of them gracefully fluttered past you which lead Fushiguro to slowly remember something, yet it was blurry in his mind right now. However, before his mind could even process anything to clear up the blurry image, you swiftly raised your arm to unexpectedly grab a few of the pink petals causing him to snap out of his daze before you left him more perplexed about what you were planning.

“Gojo, what are you going to do?” Fushiguro questioned, as he slyly noticed how your grip on the petals began to tighten before a small smile graced itself upon your face.

“Right now, let’s just say I ain’t planning to follow the rules if he keeps attacking me!” you answered back in a loud tone causing the grade-two sorcerer to glance at you with widened eyes as he wanted to halt you from what you were organising to do. Although, it seemed like it was too late since your hand opened slowly to release the pink flower petals back into the air before you took hold of his sleeve to pull him further so you both can take a long distance away from the same petals right now.

Suddenly, another arrow appeared from the trees as it was making its way towards you both leading you to smirk slightly as you let out of your classmate’s sleeve to take a hold of your katana that was still within its wooden sheathe as you needed to prepare for what was about to commence. 

As the arrow drew closer and closer to you and Fushiguro, it couldn’t help but slightly grazed its sharp metal tip on one of the rosy coloured petals causing a sudden large explosion to commence right above you and Fushiguro while the other petals began to follow due to the first explosion’s residue hitting them as well leading to a row of large explosions to employ to which caused Fushiguro to look at the scene in complete shock before noticing how you were beginning to casually unsheathe your katana from its metal hold.

“You see, if I follow the rules, there is no way of telling them to stay the hell away from me,” you muttered, as you spun around to face the opposite direction before fully swinging your sword sideways leading to a crescent wave of cursed energy to speedily manifest as it flew across the whole woods while somewhat clearing the fiery explosion that was already enough to keep Kamo in place for some time leading Fushiguro to inspect the destructive site in complete surprise since he had no idea that you were able to carry out such an attack. However, it seemed like there was no more time to admire your work as you gripped onto his school jacket’s sleeve, once again, as you had already turned back around to continue running to god knows where.

‘Maybe I went a little overboard…’

                                              ꕥ

“What was that?” Nishimiya asked in slight fear, as she peered in the direction on where the unexpected explosions had occurred while noticing how some of the trees were suddenly on fire while others just seemed to be missing leading Kugisaki, Panda and Mechamaru (who were down below on the ground) to look towards the direction where they hear the destruction.

“Woah,” Kugisaki muttered in awe since she had a slight feeling that it was you, who caused the mass destruction just seconds ago.

“Well, it seems like we don’t have to worry about Gojo,” Panda mentioned to his lower classmate before he swiftly got back up on his feet to attack Mechamaru by launching a punch into the robot’s face causing Kugisaki to turn to him in shock since she thought he was still unconscious.

‘Yeah, I don’t have to ever worry about her’ Kugisaki thought confidently before turning towards her opponent with an annoyed look on her face.

                                            ꕥ

“She can do that with flower petals?!” Utahime screamed in shock as she peered at the screen that was now just a pure full screen of static leading her to nearly drop her cup of tea, while Gojo looked at the same screen in slight surprise before he began to giggle while processing to remove his hands that were resting behind his head in amusement of what he had just witnessed from you.

“Awhhh so pretty~” Gojo commented as he clapped his hands like he was applauding you, leading Utahime to turn her gaze towards him in an irritated manner.

‘You love to keep surprising me, don’t you Y/N?’

“And that’s one bird down! Mei-san, is it possible to get another?” Gojo questioned as he peered back to his colleague causing her to giggle slightly as she opened her eyes again.

“Just who did you take in Gojo? You have a good eye if you decided to take her as your daughter, how much did you pay for her?” Mei replied, only for Gojo to look at her with a cheeky smile.

“Nothing, absolutely zero yen! I got her by pure chance, don’t tell me you’re planning to take her away from me, Mei-san?” Gojo jokingly commented back, before turning his sights on the Kyoto Principal, who seemed to be somewhat shocked at the current events that were transpiring on, but managed to maintain his composure leading to the strongest sorcerer to turn back to the other multitude of screens that were in front of him right now, like he was at the cinema watching an action movie.

‘The Kyoto student from what I’ve seen are real drags’

“That’s a bit harsh and violent from those said ‘drags’, don’t you think Y/N?” Gojo muttered under his breath as he waited for another crow to replace the one you had destroyed earlier.

‘At this rate, she won’t be able to track down the mole if Kamo is going to keep attacking her...oh well~ she’s a smart person, she’ll figure it out without even facing them’

© violettelueur 2021 : written and published by violettelueur - do not steal or repost

[someone-worth-racing-for]

I’m so confused. I haven’t found the Easter egg🥺

Please tell me where it is!😬

Hey anon!

Sure I will (you can find them underneath the cut) - I have actually planned to publish all the Easter eggs from the last chapter in the beginning notes of the next chapter. So the Easter eggs of chapter 16 will be published in the notes in the beginning of chapter 17 and so on.

Beware - spoilers of chapter 16 from Becoming A Man are underneath the cut!

Okay, actually there were 1 ½ Easter eggs in the latest chapter 😅

Here is the first one with the paragraphs of the chapter:

There were so many questions he would have liked to get to know, but he was still too shy to ask to, but Carlos’ question was definitely not one of his list, when the Spaniard next to him suddenly asked “Has the team change changed anything between the two of you, about your relationship?”

Lando frowned and looked over at his friend, because this was kind of a weird question to ask or at least kind of weird question to ask at first, but the couple sitting opposite them didn’t seem to mind about it, the complete opposite actually.

They were smiling all dreamily at each other and even though they weren’t touching each other at all, just beaming at one another like that already caused Lando to blush again, before Daniel explained “Actually, it was just the beginning of it.”

“So, you mean you only got together when you have left Red Bull?” Carlos had to ask to make sure about it, almost like he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. This time it was Max, who answered for both of them when he said and his eyes were actually still fixed at Daniel’s “Yes. Only when that idiot has left the team, I realized how much I actually care about it.”

So you can tell that Carlos has actually thought that Max and Daniel were already a couple before Daniel has left Red Bull. Like you could read, Carlos was obviously surprised about hearing that they only got together after they weren't teammates anymore.

I know this probably still won't help you much, anon, but one day it will make sense, I promise 😉 So, this was the first hint in the chapter about Carlos leaving the team and here is the second one (at least kind of 😅) :

Carlos watched them with big eyes, while they told them their story and he also listened closely, especially when they were talking about their outing in front of their families and also their team bosses.

His eyes had something sad in them, at least Lando thought so when he had looked over at him once. But he was probably just imagining it or Carlos was just feeling for their friends, since it had not always been easy for them.

Why Carlos was sad listening to Max's and Daniel's journey I sadly also can't tell you yet, but it will all make sense in the end as well 😉

Alright, those had been the Easter eggs of chapter 16 - off to the next! 😅

[dimsilver]

Okay, please tell me ALL about your WIPs?

Okay here goes :)

#1: a genuine mess. Basically in 2015 I did NaNoWriMo and got to 25,000 words (I started halfway through the month so I’m kind of proud of that) - however I’m trash at coming up with plots and so it kind of fizzled out and died. It was this very stereotypical dystopian fantasy thing where all society is divided into 4 tribes and when magic stops working they have to learn to work together…and I still hadn’t figured out a villain at all. Revisiting it this year I realized I can’t really rehabilitate it as is, but I will extract and use some of the characters and worldbuilding. So basically this one isn’t active right now; it’s waiting for a plot to come along. But there’s some potential in the characters and I’ve done some character exercises to get familiar with them again.

#2: don’t have a name for this one yet. It started as a short story about this old woman, The Stone Carver, in a kind of Isle of Skye type setting, who is witnessing the slow extermination of a conquered people that she married into. She has set herself the task of making sure they’ll be remembered, so she carves the names of the dead into stones and such. (spoilers) they all die eventually and she resolves to escape to the island she’s originally from and tell her people what’s happened so after she’s gone someone will still remember the dead. Uh yeah it’s pretty depressing. However, I quickly realized that it’ll work much better as a prologue for something - so I’m kind of waiting to figure out what that will look like.

#3: Tentatively titled Remember. It’s an alternate history Texas Revolution story. My main character is Susanna Dickinson, one of the few survivors from the Battle of the Alamo. Nearly all characters and occurrences are historical, except that I’ve invented a newly discovered mineral that makes gunfire way more deadly when it’s mixed with gunpowder. However, the correct ratio to mix is a very closely guarded secret; the Texans have it, and the Mexican army will do anything to get it. So basically Battle of the Alamo with a tender (and doomed) husband-and-wife relationship, more explosions, and more espionage. I’m two chapters in.

#4: this is a lot more loosely defined than some of the others, but I plan to try publishing a book of poetry at some point. Most of my favorite poems so far have a very strong bent towards Easter, so I may theme it around that. Basically I’m just trying to write some more good poems right now.

that was long. sorry kids

[evieonic]

In Simple Joy and Peace (3/14/2021)

So I was thinking about LuSan and then the scene with Toriel where she’s pregnant with Asriel and something like this happened. I- I don’t know why but i mean, cute?? 

Although I didn't do it, I'm actually wondering if I should make a part 2 to this that contains the wedding and maybe them flashing back to when Sanji proposed to Luffy. I'm not sure tho. What do y'all think?

This story is on ao3 but you can also read it here by scrolling down past the summary!

In Simple Joy and Peace (Published: March/14/2021)

      Pairing: Luffy x Sanji

      Fandom: One Piece

     Trigger Warning: None.

      Length: 2262 Words, 1 Chapter. Completed.

       Summary: He chuckled, tightening his arm around Luffy to bring him a little closer, “Oh, i know what you mean now,” he lowered his voice to a more charming tone as he leaned forward to kiss the black haired man but then he pulled away slightly, grinning cheekily, “your birthday?”

      “Sanji!” Luffy glared at him, propping himself up on his elbows as he slapped Sanji’s chest. “You know full well that tomorrow isn’t my birthday!”

      Sanji only laughed and brought his angry love back into his hold, “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he chuckled and this time kissed him for real, making Luffy melt against him instantly. He pulled back to stare into those chocolate brown eyes he’s come to adore and decided to quit teasing the poor man.

       “It’s our wedding day,” he said softly, watching as those darling eyes widened and a blush dusted his husband-to-be’s cheeks.

      Luffy smiled as if he had been reminded of the most happiest memory he ever had and that’s exactly how he felt. Tomorrow, in the evening, the two of them were going to be wed. They would husbands, bound together in eternal love, until death do they part. And even after death, Sanji would never let Luffy part from him.

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“Sanji...” A voice whispered in the silence of the night. There was barely any sound in the wood paneled room except the soft breathing of the man in question and sound of a gentle breeze making the waves roll outside the window.

       The man in question let out a hum but otherwise didn’t respond.

“Sanji...!” The voice said again, a little harsher this time.

      “Yes?” Sanji finally responded, not even cracking open his eyes to peer at the man beside him, curled up into his chest, half naked and wide awake for some reason. It hadn’t been long since Sanji started to fall asleep but now, you could say that his plans of getting a good sleep were ruined.

      The voice only giggled, “guess what day tomorrow is~”

Sanji smiled slightly. Adorable, he thought to himself. “Christmas?” he asked, playing hard to get, knowing full well that it was currently summer.

      “Nooo...,” The man whined, a wide smile evident in his voice, “try again~”

The blond took in a deep breath, more awake now than before. He rolled over onto his side, gently placing a hand on his love’s hip, cracking opening his eyes. He saw the brown eyes of Luffy twinkling at him, expecting an answer. “Easter?”

      “Sanji-”  Luffy clicked his tongue, pouting like a child, “it’s not a holiday!”

He chuckled, tightening his arm around Luffy to bring him a little closer, “Oh, i know what you mean now,” he lowered his voice to a more charming tone as he leaned forward to kiss the black haired man but then he pulled away slightly, grinning cheekily, “your birthday?”

      “Sanji!” Luffy glared at him, propping himself up on his elbows as he slapped Sanji’s chest. “You know full well that tomorrow isn’t my birthday!”

      Sanji only laughed and brought his angry love back into his hold, “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he chuckled and this time kissed him for real, making Luffy melt against him instantly. He pulled back to stare into those chocolate brown eyes he’s come to adore and decided to quit teasing the poor man. 

      “It’s our wedding day,” he said softly, watching as those darling eyes widened and a blush dusted his husband-to-be’s cheeks.

      Luffy smiled as if he had been reminded of the most happiest memory he ever had and that’s exactly how he felt. Tomorrow, in the evening, the two of them were going to be wed. They would husbands, bound together in eternal love, until death do they part. And even after death, Sanji would never let Luffy part from him.

      It was strange to think about now. Tomorrow was the day they were going to be married, Sanji always thought when this day came, he’d be wed to a beautiful woman - someone like Nami or maybe exactly Nami-chan. But things didn’t turn out that way, he was quite happy about that.

      It took a while but after his time on the ship with his determined, brave, admirable but aloof captain, he realized he was deeply in love with him. It took him even longer to finally confess to the boy and when he did, the result was unique to say the least.

      “You love me?” Luffy had said that day, staring up at Sanji with confusion. “I always knew that, Sanji, I love you, too!” He beamed at the cook.

      Sanji blushed but he realized quickly who he was confessing to. He shook his head, “no, Luffy, you don’t understand. I love you as a man to... well... another man.”

      Luffy only looked even more confused. He tilted his head ever so slightly, “so...,” he started, “like me and Ace?”

      Quickly, Sanji shook his head, “no, not like a brother.”

“Like me and Zoro?” Luffy asked, trying his hardest to understand. It wasn’t like he was rejecting his feelings, Sanji could tell that Luffy just honestly did not understand. It was to be expected, this was Luffy he was talking to. Sanji maybe should’ve planned this out a little better.

      “No, not like captain and first mate,” Sanji shook his head, letting out a little sigh. How should he explain this?

      Luffy let out a hum, his brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to understand it. 

      “You know how I look at Nami?” Sanji asked. It was weird example to use and he felt uncomfortable using it, but it was the only way it would click for Luffy.

      He nodded, “yes.”

“And how I look at Robin?” 

      Again, Luffy nodded.

“That’s how I look at you too.” Sanji said, “expect with you... it’s actual feelings. I actually do love you and want to be with you.”

      Luffy tilted his head, folding his arms as he thought over what Sanji was saying. “So you... you think of me as a woman?” he raised an eyebrow, really trying to understand. 

      Sanji couldn’t help but chuckle. He was getting closer but not quite there yet. He sighed, leaning down a bit so his eyes were level with Luffy’s. “Listen. You know how a man sometimes falls in love with a woman, and as they fall deeper in love with each other, they get married?”

      Luffy nodded and Sanji continued, “that’s how I feel about you. But not because I see you as a woman. I see you as you and I love you.”

      The aloof captain thought about it for a second before his eyes widened in realization and his cheeks turned a deep red. Ah, he finally got it. Sanji grinned even though he intended to keep a serious expression on his face. It’s just the result of it finally clicking for Luffy was a lot cuter than he thought it would be. 

      “O-Oh...,” Luffy responded, clutching on his hat to hide his eyes, “I-I see.”

“You don’t have to return my feelings you know,” Sanji said quickly, not wanting to make the poor captain uncomfortable, “it’s okay if you don’t feel the same.”

      “A-Ah, no, that’s not it,” Luffy stammered and Sanji felt a little hopeful from his words. “N-No, it’s just... I’m not experienced with those kinds of things, Sanji. Literally not experienced with anything in that department.”

      He tilted his hat back so Sanji could see his flustered face, his eyes glued to the floor as he tried to explain his thoughts, “I don’t know why I never really- like you- with those things.” 

      Sanji knew in this moment he was supposed to be serious and understanding. He understood what Luffy was trying to say. He didn’t feel the concept of romantic or sexual attraction the way some people did, definitely not as much as Sanji did. 

      But Sanji couldn’t stop himself from just melting from the sight of a shy, flustered Luffy. It was look he had never seen on Luffy and he loved it. However, now wasn’t the time for that and he knew it. “That’s okay,” he said honestly with a smile, “you’re a little different when it comes to things like that and that’s okay. You’ll learn as you go through relationships with or without me and as time goes by, you might understand it a bit more. And if you don’t that’s fine too.” 

      Luffy’s blush deepened as he shifted on his feet, glancing away from Sanji’s kind words. “T-Thank you for saying that.” 

      “It’s nothing to thank me for, it’s an honest statement,” Sanji said.

Luffy cleared his throat, a brief silence coming over them before he went back to the topic at hand, “I know that someday I might get it but the thing is right now, I don’t. I don’t really understand my feelings for you. I can’t tell you if it’s love or something else.”

      “Do you think you could clarify it?”

The captain let out a hum, glancing away from Sanji’s brown eyes for a second before responding, “It’s... different than how i feel about everyone else,” Luffy said. He stumbled over his words, explaining slowly but carefully about how he felt, “It’s not like with Ace. You would make a good brother but I just don’t... see you that way.”

      Sanji chuckled. Always so nice. “I see, that’s fine. Do you see me like Zoro?”

Luffy took another second to think before slowly shaking his head, “no... I don’t think so. Zoro is amazing,” he chuckled, “but... he’s my friend and I think that’s it.”

      Sanji nodded, “how about Nami?”

“Nami?” Luffy frowned.

      “Like how I look at Nami. Is it anything like that with me?”

Luffy paused, tilting his head again in thought, “I don’t think so. I’m not sure what it is, to be honest.”

      “I see,” Sanji said, his heart dropping a little bit. Maybe Luffy really did see him as a friend and just a friend.

      “But...,” Luffy continued, “I like talking to you more than the others. I like being near you more than the others. I think you’re so cool and fun to be around that I like spending time with you more than... the others.” he blushed before clearing his throat, meeting Sanji’s eyes, “but I don’t know if that’s love or just... if I like you a lot as a friend.”

      Sanji blinked, mulling over what Luffy said. It could be possible... maybe... “I see,” he answered, “well to be honest, from what you’ve told me, I think I am someone you’re interested in.”

      “R-Really?” Luffy stammered, his eyes widening slightly.

“However,” Sanji continued, “like you, I don’t know if that’s love or just friendly admiration.”

      “Oh...” Luffy said, looking a little sad from that outcome. 

Sanji smiled, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in a relationship.” Luffy looked confused for a moment before Sanji continued, “most of the time, Luffy, when two people get into a relationship, there’s a mutual basis of love but it’s so unclear and weak that that’s why people go into a relationship in the first place. If we both knew for sure that we were madly in love with each other, why not skip everything and get married right here, right now?”

      He leaned up, “love is the foundation of all relationships and when you want to spend your lives together, you need to make sure that foundation is strong. That’s why people date first. It’s so they can build upon that foundation or learn that the foundation can’t get stronger. Dating is how you learn if you truly love someone.”

      “So with all of that being said,” he cleared his throat, “do you want to try a relationship with me? We can go as slow as you want and if you ever decide that it doesn't work, we can part ways.”

      Luffy glanced at the ground for a minute, thinking about it. He was silent for a long time before looking back up at the blond, “I... I think I’d like to.”

Sanji grinned, “okay. Then as of today, we are officially dating.”

      Luffy chuckled, blushing wildly, “c-cool!”

He was going to be awkward about this, Sanji could already tell but he didn’t care. It was adorable. 

      “That means no flirting or looking at other ladies. Or guys,” Sanji said seriously, earning a playful glare from Luffy.

“Oi, oi, why are you warning me? You’re the one who needs to be careful now. I’ll get upset if you look at anyone else,” he grinned and already the new relationship was starting to feel like it fitted right into place with how they usually were. 

      They took things slow. Very slow. It took almost six years before Luffy could finally tell Sanji that he loved him the same way that Sanji felt about him. And that was when Sanji asked Luffy to marry him and now, here they were, in bed, nearly an hour after midnight, excited for tomorrow. 

      Luffy curled further against his side, nuzzling his nose against Sanji’s, his eyes twinkling like a night sky during a meteor shower, “correct,” he said, softly, “tomorrow is the day that I become Luffy Vinsmoke!” 

      “Oi, I thought tomorrow was the day I become Sanji D. Monkey,” The blond chuckled. Truth be told, neither of them could really decide on a last name. They tried to figure out what would fit before finally choosing to not take eithers. Last names weren’t really that important anyway. What really mattered was the marriage itself.

      “Nooo,” Luffy whined, “I want to be Luffy Vinsmoke. Luffy... D. Vinsmoke,” He giggled, “and then you can be Sanji D. Vinsmoke. Genius idea, yeah?”

      Sanji laughed, placing a kiss on Luffy’s temple and another on his nose, “yes, very genius idea.”

      Luffy laughed as Sanji placed more kisses on his face, wrapping his strong arms around his thin waist. He melted against his warmth, feeling a wave of peace and comfort roll over him.

“I’m so excited, I can’t sleep,” Luffy said honestly, “I wish it already was tomorrow.”

      “Oh?” Sanji hummed, his voice lowering into a more sultry down. Uh oh. You give Sanji an inch, he’ll take a mile and that’s exactly what he was going to do. “Need help getting tired~?” he asked with a mischievous grin, now trailing his kisses down to the rubber man’s neck.

      His husband-to-be only giggled, carding his fingers through the blond’s hair, “Maaaybe~” he said back with an equally mischievous tone of voice. 

      He smiled as he pressed his lips firmly against Sanji’s, nearly purring at the taste of him. He couldn’t wait to be married to this man and spend the rest of their lives just like this.

      In simple joy and peace.

[smilingformoney]

Hi, I’ve been wondering (affectionate) about your writing process. Are there "deleted scenes" to Soul of Ice? Like parts that you wrote but then threw out for whatever reasons? How do you plan your chapters? Please use this ask to tell us everything about your writing process that you want to share. Thank you, your fic ist just so AMAZING - I neeeed to know what goes on in your head when you write.

love, the anon who called you a cool teacher and manifested the snitches <3

omg @sevsnapes @madameish it’s our #1 fan 🥺 (who I’m still betting is ish in disguise lol)

ok so I am so flattered that you’ve asked me this??? I assume anyone who reads my stuff just goes “cool that was fun” then forgets about it so the fact you wanted to ask about my process is super flattering 🥺🥺🥺

Background first of all: I am a massive daydreamer. I do it all the time. When I go to sleep, when I’m in the bath/shower, when I’m bored at work. Basically whenever I have brainpower to spare, I’ve got some sort of scenario playing in my head. 99% of the time it’s unstructured bullshit, hence why this story was just a concept in my head for 10 years cus I daydreamed a lot about Abbie but never really formulated a chronological story. I did try to write it a long time ago but stopped after two chapters 😆 She’s also not always been a hp character, she’s more been a concept and sometimes I’ve put her in other stories in my head, like lotr or asoiaf. But I always came back to her as a hp character as I really felt she worked best with Snape.

Then I’m not really sure what kicked it off but about a year ago maybe Persephone started to take shape in my head. I think not having the background of Snape’s relationship with the mother was what was really stopping any story forming. I always knew she would have been raised by her mother but otherwise I didn’t really have anything. Then once I had the idea that the mother was a spy who slept with him for Spy Reasons, it was like a dam broke and the story just flooded my mind and has not stopped flooding

So in terms of planning. When I started I didn’t really have much of a plan. I was originally gonna do it as a series of one shots (when I was posting the first couple chapters on tumblr they’re referred to as one shots) but it very much became a chronological story quite quickly. You can kinda see remnants of the earlier chapters being written as one shots in the way that they covered longer periods of time.

Currently I have an endgame in mind but that could change. I have an overall idea of where the story will go and where it will end up, and certain specific events are planned along the way but the gaps will fill in along the way (I hope lol)

I do have a frustrating inability to write in a chronological order. A lot of chapters are actually already partially written when I get to them bc I was super inspired at some point, then I get to them and either tweak, remove or rewrite them depending on how the story has flowed since I drafted it.

When I started writing, I wrote on my phone in my notes app because I was with my family for Christmas and so couldn’t get on my pc. Since then I’ve written in Google docs on my pc, and occasionally go into it on my phone to read over or tweak stuff. Some of the most recent chapter was written on my phone cus I just got back from visiting my family for Easter, but I still proofread it on the pc before I published it.

I usually write in an evening or at weekends. I do have a freelance writing job I also do at these times so it’s very frustrating when I have a job due but I’m also super inspired 😫 honestly sometimes I just end up jumping between the two or writing down what should happen in the scene so I’ve got the ideas down to go back to when I have time to actually write it

umm what else? when I daydream scenes, it’s usually from one character’s perspective and they end up being the character I write as. I also get super into it and really feel the emotions as I’m imagining or writing them. which makes it annoying when I’m writing something intense (eg the break up scene) and my bf comes in the room asking what I want for dinner. he’s all “do you want chicken or steak” and I’m all “I want Snape to learn how to handle his goddamn emotions!”

this is also awkward when I’m writing the sexy bits bc I’m all horny over a fictional man at my keyboard when an actual man is sitting in the other room who may be willing to have sex with me 😆 plus sometimes I have to change my underwear cus I get so turned on 👀

I think that’s pretty much it but feel free to ask anything more specific and again thank you for asking me about this I am very flattered ☺️

[rosesnink]

Your Most Ardent Admirer, Chapter 1

Author’s Note: 

*Hello, guys! Sorry I haven’t published much since Easter, my Bachelor year is highly demanding and I have been caught in a storm of exams, projects, expositions, trips that drained me... But I’m back and soon will be writing more oftenly. I’m working mostly on The Cursed Heiress and its lore, doing research and preparing new things and even planning other things that you will soon know ;) 

*English is not my first language, so please forgive any typos/grammar mistakes 

*This series will contain some adult content. Please, read under your own advise. 

Summary: Ernest decides to contact June and get to know her a bit more. 

Word Count: 1828 

The woman's laughter fluttered all over the room as the couple held some fine champagne and June patted the man's shoulder "Oh, Hamid, dear, you always make my day!"

The man suppressed a laugh as he said "So do you, dear June. How was London?" 

The woman giggled as she sipped some of her drink and looked around before whispering to Hamid's ear "I met someone that night," 

Hamid's eyes went wide as a smile spread all over his face. 

"My, my, Dante, you never cease to amaze me! Who's the man… or perhaps a woman?" 

"This time it was a man. A very dashing gentleman,". 

"Now this is the part where you say he's a gentleman in the sheets?" 

The woman rolled her eyes, smacking her friend's shoulder before her face went serious "We didn't lay together. He wasn't in a nice place and he seemed a bit tipsy, so I gave him my number and let him go. It's been two whole weeks since then," 

Hamid patted her back "I wouldn't overthink it. A grieving man usually takes his time to gather the time to be worthy of a companion. It's useless to bed someone when your mind is with another woman. Or man. And for what he sounds like, his reputation is at stake now. It's better if for now you just treat him like a friend." 

She nodded before placing her head on his chest. 

"Do you think our friendship would've been different if I hadn't used you to forget about Annabelle?" 

"Maybe. But the bad blood is now aside and we're good." 

"I don't think I'll ever apologize enough for the damage I did," 

"You don't have to." 

Immersed in her thoughts, she sighed before chugging her champagne flute. 

Ernest balanced his possibilities while he held the card in his hands, his leg moving nervously while he was seated on his couch. What if she was busy? What if she already forgot him? What if all she wanted was to be a hot fling? He bit his lip as the fine card prayed: June Dante, singer. Call this number to contact my townhouse in Madrid. 

There was one way to find out. He dialed the number as he waited patiently for the operator to announce the call. He waited as he thought of that night just two weeks ago. How she smelled like, a breath of fresh air; her cherry lips sweet and pillowed against his; her delicate hands on his hair, tugging it, begging for more; her smooth skin against his palms; the way her body could fit perfectly on his arms… He shook his head as he heard a voice, a masculine one "Hello?" 

"Good afternoon, sir, is this June Dante's townhouse in Madrid?"

"It is, who is it?"

"Mr. Ernest Sinclaire. Miss Dante told me I could contact her," 

A noise of realization sounded over the phone as he called "June, dear, your British friend is on the phone!" There was a bit of amusement on him, he could tell. 

He felt a bit foolish. Maybe he had interrupted some exciting meeting with a far more interesting man than him? He called her dear, maybe they were something and he meddled without knowing it? If she was, he would step aside. He could never steal someone else's girl, not after his experience with Roselyn. It was the worst feeling in the world. 

"Hello?" Her voice was sweet as honey, caressing slowly his ears as his heart fluttered and his cheeks colored crimson "Ernest, dear, is that you?" 

He cleared his throat "Yes, it's me. I hope I haven't interrupted anything important…"

"Of course you didn't, dear! I was looking forward to you calling me!" He could feel her perfect white smile, maybe some lipstick on it, making it tempting and kissable "How have you been, dear?" 

"A bit busy, but I managed to snag a moment to… well, talk to a friend." He smiled for a moment after saying those words. He could feel her beautiful smile widen even if he didn't see it. 

"I am so glad that you decided to reach me out, dear. Have businesses treated you well, love?" He couldn't tell why, but when she called him love, his cheeks reddened and his heart beat faster. 

"T-the usual. Busy, but necessary,"

"Hmm, I can tell. Some contracts for my vinyl can be dreadful, but I am sure you handle them very well, dear friend."

"I try," He felt dizzy and his head was spinning and she wasn't even in front of him. This woman had either bewitched him or he was just ill. 

A small giggle escaped her lips "What do you plan to do today, love?"

"Well, go to work as usual and, um, go to the pub with my friends, drink some beer." 

"That sounds fantastic, dear! I just wish I were there to keep you company," He somehow felt her pout "I had a great time the other day…" He felt his face hot as he remembered it, but told himself to gather himself. 

"I, too, enjoyed your company, my lady." 

"Mmm, my lady, so formal… I like the ring to it." She taunted, making him even more flustered. 

"I, uh, have to hang up. My friends await me and I want to be punctual. I'll… call you later, Miss Dante," 

"I count on that… sir." Her lips purred that last word and he tried not to make anything weird as he nodded, bidding a last goodbye, his body feeling like he has drunk three whole bottles of champagne. 

He hadn't felt this way before. Not even with his previous wife. It was something different. She had left him intrigued. He felt vulnerable, human, alive with her. He did not mind, and that scared him. 

The last time he decided to feel any happiness, everything fell apart. He knew by the radio that she'd be very busy with her tour, and phone calls were the least private thing in the world. Without thinking, he sat on the desk and pulled out a piece of paper, and started to write to her. 

Esteemed Miss Dante: 

I write to you in the hopes to get to know you a bit better, and as we mentioned in our call, have a friendly chat. 

Right now, I find myself preparing for a new debate about the suffragettes—I'm on the liberal party—and my good friend, the Earl of Edgewater, is aiding me. I think you'd like him, the earl. He is kind, open-minded, and selfless. Though I find him myself a bit sad: his newborn daughter was stolen from him twenty years ago, and his wife was probably kidnapped. We never knew of her again. He now lives with his new wife and two sons, though I know that there is no day he doesn't think of his daughter, who'd be twenty-one by November. Whereas, I never had the chance to have any siblings or children myself. I live on my own and as I mentioned before, I work at the Parliament and in my estate, Ledford Park. It is not the biggest estate, but it is mine and it holds so many memories. 

My time is running out and I must be away, but I hope I could hear from you again. 

Yours truly, 

Mr. Sinclaire 

A week had passed since he sent the letter to Miss Dante, but he did not know why he couldn't stop thinking about her… or her cherry lips, so kissable and pillowed, or her white-blond hair, so soft and silky against his long fingers, or her small body, so warm and welcoming… his cheeks reddened at the thought and shook it off before looking up to see what the earl had to say. 

Minutes later, he was accompanying the earl home to take tea and talk business, as usual, when an errand boy tapped on his shoulder. He whipped his body to look at him before he handed him a letter "From Miss June Dante,". He nodded thank you to the boy and gave him a coin before he tipped his hat and scurried off, probably with Miss Dante's mail. He wouldn't be surprised if she had many interesting friends in London. 

A playful nudge from his old friend woke him from his trance "Miss Dante, eh?" 

He cleared his throat "She is an acquaintance of mine," 

"One that makes you blush like a schoolboy. Come on, don't lie to me, Ernest. I saw you be born and helped your parents raise you, I know you as well as they did!" 

He tweaked him a smile before shaking his head off "She is just a good acquaintance of mine, and too interesting for a poor country squire like me," 

"I used to say that about my Mary, and then, one day she declared that she loved me, of all of her suitors," His face fell "I should have told her I loved her more oft," 

He placed a comforting hand on his shoulder "It wasn't your fault, my lord." 

He chuckled bitterly "Ah, but it is," 

After a productive day, he finally sat in his lavish, modern, and posh office and decided to open the letter:

Dear Mr. Sinclaire: 

You cannot tell how happy I was to receive your letter. It was good to get to know you, somehow, and all of your friends seem like a bunch of lovely dears. And as for me, I have little to say. My mother, a famous singer of her time –she used to sing in the Opera St. James in the 1890s—raised me on her own in a wee flat of Los Angeles, United State of America, and grew up among artists. I do not think you'd love the city, but its history and architecture would be pleasing to you. 

I did not marry nor had any children, though I used to be engaged to who is now a good friend of mine. 

My best friend, Annabelle Parsons, used to be engaged to a man called Harry Foredale, but she broke it off for reasons that are not mine to tell. But now she is happily unmarried, living her best life in France and being a highly successful painter. You should see her paintings! She is truly talented. 

There are a billion things I could say to you, but alas, my flight to Vienna is awaiting me. Alongside this letter you shall find my address to my townhouse and a photo of mine, so you don't forget about your poor friend. 

Yours sincerely, 

Ms. June Dante. 

He placed the letter back to its place, but he caught a whizz of her perfume: sweet strawberry and rosemary. His head started to spin most pleasantly, his heart beating hard as he tried to steady himself. He gulped the rest of his scotch and started to write. 

Dear Miss Dante…

[onlyhereforangst]

2020 IN WRITING

tagged by @indestinatus 💕

tagging whoever wants to go thru this journey with me & see their accomplishments in this terrible terrible year!

1. List of works published this year:

Oh god there’s a lot, like 70 total in just 2020. I’ll try to categorize them so this doesn’t get too long 😅but here’s a cut for aesthetic on your dash.

Sequels/Partner Fics: Risk It All (for @hellokaelyn), Finally Home (to Come Back), They Always Do & Could She?, Lucky Day & Completely Yours, Fiery Trance (Two Can Play series), Obsessed (Particular Taste), Soul (to Ignited)

Smut: My Turn (sequel to My Pleasure), Worth It, Maybe We Should, Make it a Double (also a fic request), Shall We (AU)

Fic Requests: Coffee Run, Hold Still, Typical, Deal, Needed It, I’m Home, For Science, Cry Me A River, From Your Dreams (AU), Crystal Clear, Tempt Me, Your Fault, Prove It, Silent Proclamation, A Hundred Suns (angst smut), Duly Noted

Stand Alones: No More, Never Let Her Go, Life is Fragile, Pandemics & Peach Drinks, To Need and Be Needed, Never Let Go, Coming Home, Priceless, Behind The Mask, Need a Hand?

Angst: My Daisy, Status Quo, Can I Stay, I Refuse, Deal

Series/Multi-chaptered: Back Off (Better Apart, Missed The Mark, Change Her Mind, But You Do, Layered Love), Electrified (Don’t Stop (Senorita)), Here By Faith, Forgive & Forget, Angstober ‘20 (Never Has & Never Will, Only In My Head, Long, Long Gone, Do Something, Take Care, Waiting to Burn, Survive the Hell, Find Her, Never Ended Well, At All Costs, One Thing Right, Stay Away, Echoed Back, Smart Man, Not Interested, Flake Again, Release, Slipping Away)

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

Here By Faith mainly because of the topic. Pregnancy & Infant loss has been such a taboo topic for so long and something I have personal experience with so writing this was very therapeutic. 

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

Shall We and only because I truly wanted way more plot in this and it turned out to be essentially just straight smut with a tiny bit of plot. But it is what it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

Ok I had 70 fics to choose from not breaking down chapters so I’m sure I’m missing something, BUT I do love - omg typing this out I realized it’s from a fic in 2019 so I can’t use iiiiiit 😩 ok so here’s a couple excerpts. I loved typing out this stream of conscious partner fics (They Always Do & Could She?):

They Always Do:

Yet this time, this time she didn’t have the chance to rebuild. Like a Trojan horse, he waltzed right up to her and slowly dismantled her defense. Joke by joke, smirk by smirk—Nick took each brick down with care. The worst part? It was so subtle, so thoughtfully done, she didn’t even notice it was happening. Didn’t see her chest being pried open, beating heart on display for him to see, and take. Never realized her greatest defenses were missing until it was too late.

That love- precious, fragile, delicate love- had managed to grow again. In her desolate, cold heart, Nick managed to bring to life an emotion she had long given up on. An emotion she was too afraid to ever feel again. Because with it came agony.

They leave, and you’re abandoned- picking up the pieces of a shattered heart.

When you love, you lose. Always.

Could She?:

But-

Even if that was love, even if he loved Ellie with his whole heart, his entire being. Was that enough? Was Nick enough? Was he deserving?

A resounding no clanged around his skull like a church bell in a Southern town on Sunday morning. He wanted to silence it, stop the shrill metal sound that started any time he pictured forever. Any time he truly thought he might deserve to love, even after all he’d done. After all the unimaginable things he’d done, the horrors he’d seen, the pain he’d caused. That bell sounded, loud and clear.

How did he deserve love when he couldn’t bear to love himself?

[...]

Could she love him despite all his misgivings? Could she love him even when he didn’t love himself? Could she love him when there was a risk he’d be taken from her too soon?

Could she?

Please love me.

But please be sure.

There’s been a couple of other inner monologues that I have absolutely loved (I like to think it’s semi my speciality? But maybe that’s super arrogant of myself?) but that’s a different post for another time.

5. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

I said it recently but I *love* when people pick out specific line(s) from my fic and choose to comment on those. More often than not it’s a line I was so proud of either prose-wise or foreshadowing-wise or whatever and I get literally giddy with excitement that someone not only noticed it but also loved it enough to comment on it 🥰but truly any kind of comment is dopamine-inducing 😉

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

As some people may have noticed (& maybe not because I did still semi-run the other main ellick blog despite it) I was somewhat absent for most of the summer/fall. I struggled for the first time in my life with mental health issues, borderline depression after being in a shit work environment, an essential worker with a company that claimed to “care” about us, a community that I once loved but showed their true colors in the midst of the pandemic & election, add in a rough pregnancy & it was a recipe for disaster. I didn’t want to even move from the couch most days let alone write. 

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

I had a lot of fun writing short excerpts from different characters’ perspectives (Jimmy, Kasie, McGee & Gibbs) in my Angstober series & honestly wouldn’t mind doing that again!

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

Honestly not sure, I think I’ve just generally grown as a writer - better descriptions & descriptors, better dialogue, better plots. But that could all be me seeing things 😂

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

I’d love to look into writing more seriously. My husband is convinced I could write an episode script or a novel, so I may look into trying my hand at that (even though I feel I’d be god-awful at it 😅)

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

Hmmmm I always appreciate the support I’ve gotten from the ellick fandom despite it being rough this year for us, wonderful people like @erinchristmaselvis, @thekeyboardninja, @hellokaelyn & @wanna-be-bold are always there to either hear me vent or cheer me on ☺️

11. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Haaaaah yes. Lots of it (but I bet you can’t tell because I only add mini snippets so have fun finding those easter eggs 😏)

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Always, always, always write for YOU. Not for anyone else, the kudos, hits, comments, none of it. Write for YOU. And I say this as a reminder to myself as well, it’s so hard to get bogged down in that dopamine-induced craze we search for in recognition but it’s so important to not externally validate yourself rather internally validate yourself on baby steps of growth & accomplishment. 

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

LOL how about all my WIPs? All of those stories I started forever ago that people call me out on not finishing months later when I swear they’ve forgotten about them 😬

14. If you could recommend only one work from yourself published this year:

Hmmmm lemme pick one from each category because I’m indecisive 😉

Sequel/Partner Fics: Lucky Day & Completely Yours (the aaaaangst)

Smut: a tie between Maybe We Should & Make it a Double

Fic Request: A Hundred Suns (because I love me some angst smut)

Stand Alones: Pandemics & Peach Drinks (hahahaha because this was in an Insider news article at the start of the pandemic hahaha so on brand #2020)

Angst: My Daisy (I looooooove this one, but also all of the angst category lol)

Series/Multi-chaptered: literally not one of these is finished and they’re all heavy angst so take your pick 😂

15. Year word count: 103,050 in 2020 which seems like so little 😅

Here’s to 2021 being the year I finish WIPs! she says knowing she’s lying

[rubyjcat]

[Behind-the-Scenes] HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase

“HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase” is an English voice fan project I worked on all by myself (barring voice actors) that took five months to make.

The original plan was to make just one video, but it ended up being eighteen of them!

Link to YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0UbdFyWSx0n_ewcd-t0iAB0adGe5lghH

In this write-up, I’ll be discussing details about the response to the project, recording all the footage, video editing, voice acting + audio processing, script translations + rewriting, which fonts were used, and even the emulator used. I’ve organized it into sections to make it easier to find certain things. Also, this is directed to English-speaking readers since I’m not gonna bother translating the entire thing to Japanese.

THE DREAM

I wanted to make this fandub ever since the game was released (in Aug 2020). I just knew that English voices would be extremely fitting to the world of HELIOS with a setting inspired by America and characters, places, and terms mostly in English. I was disappointed to hear that the studio behind the game, Cacalia Studio of Happy Elements K.K., had no interest to localize their games outside of Asia, which meant the chances of an English dub, let alone a global release were close to zero.

I was able to understand how to play the game thanks to the fan translators, some of which came from other Cacalia Studio games, and got inspired to continue learning Japanese (there was a previous attempt to translate Japanese lyrics years back).

What I thought was just the silly dream of one overseas player’s became something much more!

THE TIMELINE (BRIEF OVERVIEW)

I played the game for about two months prior to working on the project. Before starting the project, I had to sort out graphical and technical issues on my end first as I was unable to play the game smoothly until November.

November 2020

Finding all the in-game battle lines

Writing transliterations (romaji) of lines by ear

Learning and translating lines to Japanese

Started recording footage

December 2020

Further translation revisions

Held a casting call

Script rewriting and finalizing

January 2021

Completed casting

Started video editing (learning process)

Started audio processing

Recorded more footage

February 2021

Recorded more footage

Japanese script revisions

Finished working with VAs

Finished audio processing

Continued video editing

Published Preview video

March 2021

Recorded the last of the footage

Japanese subtitle revisions

Finished Showcase video

Finished Individual battle clips

Gave recommendations to VAs

The exact start and end dates were Nov 1st, 2020 to March 31st, 2021. Pretty neat.

RESPONSE TO THE PROJECT

I was absolutely shocked with the response to the preview video, which at the time of writing has just hit 10K views and almost 600 likes on Twitter and YouTube combined. Not bad for an unpaid hobby fandub (a joke only I find funny...) of an otherwise “niche” Japanese-only mobile game.

As of Apr 4th, 2021 - Thank you so much. This is more than I could’ve asked for.

The preview video blew up way more than anticipated, setting up for a bit of disappointment when the Showcase video was released.

The amount of views I expected for this project within its prime were a couple hundred views, so I’m content that the Showcase video reached that amount (it had ~500 by the end of March).

The expectations for the battle clips were an average of 100 views and a handful of likes - and each one got roughly that amount (or more) - so I’m also content with that, especially for something that’s just “bonus material”.

I tried my best to promote this project on Twitter with three main tweets. My one regret with promoting the project was making the second tweet after publishing the Showcase because the Japanese I wrote there was pretty terrible (as I was all worn out from editing and was in a haste to tweet about it). I tried to make up for it in a follow-up reply the next day, but it was too late. I was satisfied with how my third and final tweet and thread of battle clips turned out, but it sadly didn’t garner much attention. A reason for this was probably due to bad timing. I knew that the timing of the last tweet was awful as HeliosR did something special for April Fools’ day, plus the Easter event was being hyped around the same time, but I really wanted to finish up the project within March (my timezone, at least. It was already April 1st in Japan).

It was important to also make the videos accessible to the Japanese audience as they were a large portion of the viewers. This proved to be a challenge as my knowledge of Japanese is limited - at least for me, it’s easier to translate grammar-correct Japanese than it is to write my own sentences.

I ultimately decided against posting any of the videos on NicoNico because I wasn’t sure about Japan’s laws regarding copyrighted material. I knew it was already risky enough posting on social media and didn’t want to take any additional risks.

ABOUT THE FOOTAGE (1) – HEROES & ATTACK ORDER

HeliosR uses a gacha system, so to be able to even make something like this, you’d first need access to all 16 ★4 OG Heroes in the game.

I had them spread across five different accounts, four of which were reroll accounts. Asakou from the Cacalia RPG server gave me two of those accounts, and I rerolled myself for Keith and Ren during their Birthday Orders (one free 10-pull per account). Every account is also given a free ★4 selector ticket which I made good use of.

3,000 rubies (in-game currency) were sacrificed to pity the ★4 OG Dino when he was released in December just for the sake of the fandub!

Besides covering all of the Heroes, I also needed to play through each account to unlock certain story chapters, event stages, and evolve the Heroes for their shiny evolved CG art. Some of the Expert event stages (that had the Nighttime backgrounds) proved difficult to clear with a new account.

When using skills, the order of the Heroes were edited such that everyone was able to have the majority of their lines used at least once. All Heroes had two “receiving support” lines, two or three “supporting” lines, and two or three “skills against the enemy” lines. Some of the extra lines didn’t make it into the Showcase, so they were used for the individual clips instead.

I should’ve used Gray instead of Marion for the account that had Billy because you can see Marion’s sprite in Billy’s image. xD

In the Showcase, you may notice that the "Union Attacks" consist of all the ★4 CG images. These were spliced together; I never had all four Heroes of the same sector on the same account. For example, I would have Gray, Asch, and Jay on one account and Billy on another account, recorded their ★4 Bursts separately using the same background (from unlocking the Expert stages on both accounts), and then edited all the footage together.

Jay’s Burst was later re-recorded with a different attacking order so that he wouldn’t link to Billy.

It was also important to keep the same order of Bursts as well as use all four Bursts in the same turn. The ★4 Burst order was usually determined by who didn’t link skill with one another (with the exception of East sector as I was still figuring things out) because I didn’t want the link skill activation getting in the way of the animations.

As a little bonus, I also showed off the exclusive damaging skills of the Chapter 6 and 7 ★4 frames that I was lucky enough to pull from the gacha: Marion’s "Invitation To The Dance“ (roses), Faith’s “Synthetic Vibes” (beats), and Dino’s “Crow Mark Dead End” (claw marks).

ABOUT THE FOOTAGE (2) - BACKGROUNDS

Since I didn’t want to use the same battle music and backgrounds for all of the videos, I decided to use some of the themes from the limited-time events which went as far back as Nov 2020.

Each background has three variants (Daytime, Afternoon, Nighttime) and so I carefully picked them based on the colours. I ended up using mostly Expert stages - or Nighttime backgrounds, since Daytime versions were only used for Normal difficulty stages (which are too easy to clear).

The backgrounds used for the Showcase, all from limited-time events.

I decided to mix up some of the Heroes from other sectors in the individual clips for fun, basing it off of their relationships with each other. Using South sector’s background for Gast’s clip was a purposeful choice because I already used the North sector’s background for the other three North sector Heroes. I made sure to include Akira and Will of the South sector in Gast’s clip so it didn’t feel too random!

The only default background I didn’t use was Chapter 2’s because I already made use of the Casino theme for OG West sector’s individual clips. (...Plus I didn’t really like that background :p)

Here’s a list of all the backgrounds I used:

Escape the Prison (Nov 2020) - used for Showcase [EAST]

Mission of CASINO (Nov 2020) - used for Junior, Faith, & Keith clips

HAPPY NEW YEAR SHOW! (Jan 2021) - used for Showcase [SOUTH]

Help! Cooking Hero! (Jan 2021) - used for Will and Oscar clips

A Sweet Spell Garnished With Chocolate (Feb 2021) - used for Showcase [WEST]

Grandiose Chinoiserie (Mar 2021) - used for Showcase [NORTH]

The Hero Is A Detective!? (Mar 2021) - used for Billy and Jay clips

Default backgrounds: Chapters 1, 3, 4 (shared with 7), 5 (shared with 6) - used for all other clips

The Christmas event was the only event that went unused during the Nov 2020 - Mar 2021 period.

I didn’t record the East sector event (Christmas) in Dec 2020 because I was actually too busy with the casting call! I also didn’t think I would make use of it after already recording the Prison event intended for East sector. The project ended up taking so long that it actually benefited from having a wider selection of events over the months, which also showcased the beauty of the game.

ABOUT THE WORK & VIDEO EDITING

Hardware:

A decent computer.

A pair of no-name earbuds I found while cleaning out some junk.

Software:

All FREE!

*There’s a catch

NoxPlayer* emulator (debloated, read more about in its own section) and Open Broadcast Studio were used to record game footage and sounds.

Davinci Resolve was the main tool I used to edit the videos. A very demanding program that I only recommend using if you have a mid to high end computer.

MediBang was used to edit some of the art like the logos, but I ended up using Resolve for the majority of the graphics, including the thumbnails.

Audacity and Cakewalk were used to edit audio.

Many aspects for this project took longer than I had hoped because there was a learning process with using Resolve for the first time. I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, re-exporting videos tons of times just to fix small mistakes. Lastly, the time it took to make all the fancy effects was longer than I’d estimated. As the project dragged on, there was pressure to not delay the release of the videos any longer than I had to. A lot of this was self-imposed though.

There were days where I just did something else other than work on the project, which helped re-fuel my motivation when I decided to pick it up again.

Pretty much everything in the videos were taken from the game itself. The only graphics that were taken from the official website instead were the Substance symbols (the pictures with HERO at the bottom).

Additional overlay graphics were custom-made. It took two whole days to make the 3-second long sector intros and another two days to create and animate the arrow graphics for the credits. These were made using Resolve’s fusion and colour features. Much of the edit was inspired by the official HeliosR designs.

Left: Official in-game graphics // Right: My fanmade video (sector intros)

Sector intros were inspired by the four Heroes version of Union Attacks in-game.

Left: Official HeliosR video // Right: My fanmade video

The Preview video took after the ★4 Burst mini-previews as part of HeliosR’s promotional campaign, uploaded before the game was released.

Left: Official HeliosR video // Right: My fanmade video

The credits at the end of the Showcase were inspired by a different video, this time being the Half-Anniversary video.

The Showcase - which had a duration of 29:07 - was 11.5GB large in size. It took almost three hours to render (which I re-rendered to fix things) and two DAYS to upload to YouTube because I experienced multiple uploading interruptions. It’s a good thing you can re-upload the same video to continue where you left off without having to restart the entire process.

The individual hero clips didn’t take as long to make (but they took a while anyway as I re-uploaded some of them to fix minor mistakes). The recommendations for the VAs that were given alongside the publishing of each clip also spanned over another five days as I wanted to personalize and think about each one carefully.

A pretty frustrating part of the project was the prevalent lag when recording footage, which may have been due to the emulator and/or some technical things on my end. The Prison event used for the Showcase was the very first one I recorded when I wasn’t as aware about the lag, and so it suffered a bit as a result. The Union Attacks were the worst offender. I re-recorded the same battle scenes several times each just in case, then went through the footage frame-by-frame in Resolve and chose the ones with the least amount of lag. If all of the recorded footage suffered lag at different parts, I would even compare and splice together parts of them that didn’t lag. There was also audio lag (a known issue of NoxPlayer) so I had to move all of the audio forward by 1/3 of a second.

By the end of the project I had over 200 videos of game footage with a total size of over 24GB and a total duration exceeding 9 hours, not even counting all the ones that went unused.

The Heroes weren’t the only ones who evolved. MS Paint not recommended for thumbnails.

Overall, (despite the few mistakes here and there that nobody other than me would notice) I was happy with how everything turned out, down to the gorgeous thumbnails! I am an artist, after all~ :^)

I also have much more respect for video editors. They should be called VIDEO ANIMATORS!

ABOUT THE VOICES & AUDIO PROCESSING

When making a dub, it doesn’t mean we want to replace or best the original language, we just want to give it a new interpretation. In fact, the characters’ voice descriptions and direction provided in the scripts were heavily inspired by the seiyuu (Japanese VAs) and how they performed their lines.

Honestly, this was THE dream cast!! Some of the VAs had comparably similar voices to the Japanese ones which was an amazing coincidence. The ones that may not have sounded as similar had unique interpretations that I felt still suited their characters well. I also chose actors based on their performance, and everyone delivered!

Voice actors were not expected to imitate the Japanese voices and lines. They were provided direction and reference videos to help time their lines, but were otherwise given liberty when it came to their own interpretations.

You shouldn’t hear any jarring differences between the voice actors’ microphones and setups. That’s because I took the time to process the audio. Faith’s audio was submitted to me post-processed so it was used as a guideline for what the audio quality should sound like. Some of the others had comparable quality to Faith’s, so I only added compression to balance their volumes. Most of them benefited from equalization of various levels - this took some experimenting back and forth with the frequency spectrum. Lastly, a couple more benefited from clip fixing, noise gate, de-essing and/or click removal. It was very important for VAs to have at least decent room treatment; while small differences between mic frequencies can always be altered, echoes are difficult if not impossible to remove completely.

I feel that audio engineering is highly underrated and more important than ever as voice actors continue to record from home studios.

And in case it wasn’t already clear, this was purely voluntary work. No VAs or myself were paid to contribute anything for the project. Though, the experience alone was worth more than any amount of money.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT & TRANSLATIONS

HELIOS Rising Heroes「エリオスR」English Translation - Battle Lines

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ImWrAfvS_hgp6qr5qt30vCP63uHEk2o79uqY0h-3wL4/edit?usp=sharing

This spreadsheet consists of the literal translations for all the battle lines I could find in the game (it still isn’t done -yet-, plan to finish it when I get the chance). These are only fanmade and are not guaranteed to be accurate, especially as I wasn’t able to find another translator to help or proofread it.

After translating the lines, I made many additional revisions from the literal meanings such as changing the intention of the line slightly to flow better, having extra words added in to provide more context, or changing them completely. Thus, the lines used in the video are NOT literal TLs!

Another thing of note that may not seem apparent, but is what I feel an important aspect of character writing, is to remain completely unbiased towards all the characters. Personal favourites aside, I ensured that every Hero had their own spotlight as well as lines written in a way that remained faithful to their personality, no matter how unlikeable they were (looking at you, Asch Albright).

Even after giving voice actors their scripts, I made another revision in February after the release of the aforementioned Half-Anniversary video with the transcriptions for the ★4 Bursts, which is when I discovered a couple of mistakes with my transcriptions. This resulted in me having to edit out a part of one of the voice actors’ lines (Billy’s “String Show” line in his ★4 Burst) because of a translation mistake! I’m really glad I was able to double-check the correct lines before releasing the Preview video, or it would’ve looked pretty silly to Japanese viewers.

The last set of revisions were just minor edits to the subtitles (such as using kanji instead of kana) while I was working on subtitling all the videos.

Notable changes included:

WILL SPROUT

During attacking combo

Original line:

tanonda zo... ike! / “Counting on you... Reach!”

Rewritten line:

“I’ll become stronger... For everyone!”

The rewritten line is a condensed version of one of Will’s ★4 Evolved CG lines (“For everyone... I’ll become more and more stronger!”). He had “Reach!” in both his attacking combo and regular Burst, so I gave him an extra unique line.

★4 Burst

Original line:

warui kedo... kore de oshimai da! / “Sorry, but... it ends with this!”

Rewritten line:

“I’m sorry, but... it’s over for you! HAAAH!”

There were a couple of oversights I made with the script, and this was one of them that didn’t fit the animation properly. Props to Ryan for coming up with the extra shout at the end! So yeah, we kinda winged this line.

OSCAR BALE

When using skills against the enemy, during attacking combo, and in the ★4 Burst (repeat line)

Original line:

osoi! / “Slow!”

Rewritten lines:

“Too slow!” / “You’re slow!” / “Over here!”

Rewritten simply because I wanted to minimize repeated lines and change things up.

GAST ADLER

When supporting an ally, and during attacking combo

Original lines:

tetsudau ze / “I’ll help (you).”

itchouagari / “All done.”

Rewritten lines:

“I’ve got your six.”

“Target eliminated.”

I wanted to add in a few military terms to reflect Gast’s background.

FAITH BEAMS

★4 CG line (for the credits)

Original line (literal TL):

“It’s not terrible or evil, right? Surely this isn’t punishing... I guess?”

Rewritten line (with “mistake”):

“I’m not doing anything horrible or evil, alright? This is just business as usual... I suppose?”

Faith’s CG line had a mistake when I first translated and handed it off to his actor. I accidentally wrote “oshigoto” (work/business) instead of “oshioki” (punishment). The original has him pretty much saying the same thing twice anyway, so I would say the intention was still retained.

KEITH MAX

When supporting an ally

Original line:

gambare yo~ / “Do your best~.” or “Hang in there~.”

Rewritten line:

“Stay alive, would ya~?”

I know Keith’s meant to say “serious” things in a sarcastic or snarky way, but I just had to add in this fun line!

DINO ALBANI

Using skills against the enemy

Original lines:

haa! / “Haah!”

hei! / “Hey!”

Rewritten lines:

“I can do this!”

“Leave it to me!”

The Japanese lines for Dino’s offensive skills were rather basic, with the third and unchanged line “Here goes!” being a repeat line Dino also says when attacking. I wanted to give him some more lines - as standard as they are - to show his personality a bit more, along with having an additional fun West sector interaction. The changes fit the animations better too. (I actually had his VA say the "Haah!" line, but ended up using a different take of “Here goes!” in place of it.)

ABOUT THE FONTS

Fonts were taken from various sources and were either FREE for personal use or had an open font license. I didn’t have access to the commercial fonts (such as Futura) used in-game, so these were the following fonts I made use of:

Techna Sans looked similar enough to Futura when capitalized, and still looked decent in lowercase.

Jost* is a font that was derived from Futura. Some of its uppercase letters are sharper than Futura's, but it worked pretty well for the text in the credits.

Gau Font Over Drive was used for the ANIMATION SHOWCASE text.

Gen Jyuu Gothic LP was used for the majority of the Japanese text and its English letters were also used for the battle clip subtitles on Twitter.

Meiryo UI (default font) was used for the Preview videos’ subtitles.

Noto Serif JP (default Google font) was used for the serif Japanese text in the credits.

ABOUT NOXPLAYER ANDROID EMULATOR

ETA: AS OF VERSION 1.1.18 (04/23/21), EMULATORS NO LONGER WORK WITH HELIOSR (AS WELL AS OTHER CACALIA STUDIO GAMES). THE BELOW INFORMATION IS OUTDATED.

If, for whatever reason you’re interested in using NoxPlayer, you should take caution when installing it onto your machine. I don’t advocate for or recommend installing Nox. I had to resort to emulation so that I could record the footage and sounds directly from my computer using OBS. The reason why I used Nox specifically is because Cacalia Studio doesn’t like emulators, blocking most of them from running their games. I found further instructions on how to run the game in Nox from the Cacalia RPG Discord (via Twitter @HeliosR_en).

First, not all Nox versions are safe. It should only be installed from the official website, Bignox. More recent versions (I believe from 6.3.0.6 and up) may contain malware such as Segurazo and Chromium packaged with the installer which can be annoying to remove. The version of Nox I used was 6.3.0.0 (you can install older versions, then just don’t update it), which has Android 7 and doesn’t contain packaged malware (AFAIK).

Second, NoxPlayer may be “free” to use, but it comes with bloatware and profits off of its users’ data by collecting and sending it to many different servers. The below guide is what I used to debloat Nox and minimize communication to these servers. Scroll down the comments for additional domains to add to the hosts file.

Debloating & Optimizing Nox:

https://gist.github.com/Log1x/12d330ef7685d6fbc611d1d57efb5c29

This is another good guide that makes use of command prompt to remove additional bloatware from the emulator.

How to Remove Bloatware on Nox and LDPlayer Emulator:

https://codefaq.org/emulator/how-to-remove-bloatware-on-nox-and-ldplayer-emulator/

ENDING NOTES (TL;DR)

Images of the first and last video for the HeliosR project. We’ve come full circle!

One very tired and average person decided to translate, script, cast, direct, and edit an ambitious project all by herself using only FREE tools, and ended up taking too long to finish it. But at least she finished it, right?

Translators = RESPECT

Voice actors = RESPECT

Video editors = RESPECT

Audio engineers = R E S P E C T (their work is especially behind-the-scenes)

Hell, I even like Asch now.

During my time working on this, there was one question I always had in mind: “What would the fans want?”

I hope this follow-up has given you a bit of insight into the makings of the HeliosR project. Thank you for reading!

~RubyJCat

[duhragonball]

‘21

Amidst all the popular hype for seeing the end of 2020, it didn’t hit me until about lunchtime what the real highlight is that I’ve been waiting for: For the first time since 1999, the year finally ends in “numberty-number” again.    It low-key irritated me that we had to call it “two thousand three” and I was relieved when “twenty-thirteen” caught on, but it still wasn’t right because it was too short, and now we’re back in the sweet spot, and I should be safely dead by 2100, so that’s one less thing I gotta deal with.

Really, even “numberty hundred” rings true to me.    “Nineteen hundred” sounds like a year.    “Twenty-one-oh-six” sounds like a futur-y year, which is even cooler.   So did “Two thousand five”, until I was actually living in it, and it sounds even worse now that it was a long time ago and adults will talk about their childhood happening in that year.    Daniel Witwicky would be old enough to get married and grow a fancier beard than me.    That’s nuts.    My point is that, honestly, it’s the year 3000-3019 that I have to worry about, so if I ever decide to go vampire, those will be the years I hide in the ocean or force society to reset the calendar, whichever’s easier.  

I spent New Year’s Eve finishing Superliminal, which I bought on Steam after I watched Vegeta play it on YouTube.  It has a similar look and feel to the Stanley Parable, so if you liked one you’d probably enjoy the other, although Superliminal has a different theme.  I kept hoping I’d find some secret passage that I wasn’t supposed to take, and a narrator would scold me for finding the “Chickenbutt Ending”, but it doesn’t work that way.    Superliminal’s all about puzzles and awesome visuals, but it does have the same soothing design aesthetics as TSP.   Honestly, I enjoyed just wandering around in Stanley’s office, and Superliminal does the same thing with a hotel and several other settings.   It’s nice.

This got me thinking about how I kind of did everything there was to do in The Stanley Parable, and I sort of wished they would add new stuff to the game, but I’m not sure there would be much point to that.    I could play the older version, but it presents the same message, just with different assets.   The Boss’s Office would look different, but it’d be the same game.   And this got me thinking about various “secret chapters” in pop culture.  Secrets behind the cut.

I first heard about this idea in the 2000′s, when fans invented this notion that there was a secret chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.    I read a website that tried to explain the concept, and of course it lauded J.K. Rowling with all this gushing praise for working an Easter egg into the book, a literary work of “well, magic.”  

That pretty well sums up my distaste for Harry Potter, by the way.    These days, JKR has thoroughly crapped all over her reputation and legacy, but in the 2000′s it felt like half the planet was in a mad rush to canonize her as a writing goddess, to the point where fans were congratulating her for writing secret chapters that didn’t actually exist.   The idea was based on lore from the books about Neville Longbottom’s parents.    They were patients in a mental hospital, and he’d go to visit them, and they would give him bubble gum wrappers, intended to demonstrate how far remove they’ve become from reality.   The secret chapter lies in those wrappers, which all read “Droobles Best Blowing Gum” or some such.    What if Neville’s parents were only pretending to be mentally ill, so as to throw off their enemies?   Naturally, they would want to stay in contact with their son, so the bubble gum wrappers would have to contain coded messages.    Said code involves unscrambling the letters on the wrappers to make new words, like “goblin” or “sword” or “Muggle” or “Dumbledore”.    The problem is that you can also use it to make other words like “booger” or “drool” or “booobbiess.”   Play with it enough, and you can make the code say anything you want it to say, which means it’s no code at all.   

But the idea was that the not-yet-published sixth HP book would reveal all of this gum wrapper nonsense, and Neville would decode the messages and discover all of his parents’ super-cool adventures.   I’m not sure why we needed a secret chapter if Book 6 was going to explain all of this anyway in several not-secret chapters, but that was the whole point.   Fans didn’t have Book 6 yet, and they were so desperate to read it that they started trying to extrapolate what would happen next based on “clues” from the previous five.    That’s like trying to figure out what Majin Buu looks like by watching the Androids Saga.   I guess some wiseguy would have guessed that he’d resemble #19, but that’d just be blind luck.  

And when you get down to it, this whole secret chapter business is really just a conspiracy.   This is literally how Qanon works.   Some anonymous jackass posted vague “hints” on an imageboard, and people went goofy trying to interpret them and figure out what would happen in the future.   They call it “research” because they spend a ton of time on this, but there’s no basis to any of it.    It took me a few minutes to figure out that you can spell “Muggle” with the words in “Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum”, but that’s not research and it doesn’t prove anything.   But all these guys keep looking for “Hilary Clinton goes to jail next week” and lo and behold that’s all they ever find.   

In the same vein, the gum wrapper thing was really a complaint disguised as a conspiracy, disguised as a “magical secret chapter”.   At least a few fans wanted to see more Neville in their Harry Potter books, they wanted Neville’s parents, or someone like them, to have cool spy adventures or whatever else.   The point is, they clearly weren’t getting what they wanted out of the printed works, but they didn’t want to turn against their Dear Beloved Author, so they started casting about for an alternative reality, one where J.K. Rowling wrote a cooler story and hid it in the pages of the one that actually went to press.    So instead of just saying “Hey, Order of the Phoenix was kind of a letdown, I hope there’s more ninjas in the next book,” they said “Rowling is a genius because I wanted ninjas and she’s definitely going to give them to me, I have the gum wrappers to prove it.”

The same thing happened all over again when the BBC Sherlock show took a turn for the nonsensical.    I don’t know from BBC Sherlock, but I watched the fascinating video critique by Hbomberguy, and it sounds like the show did tons of plot twists until it stopped making sense altogether in the fourth season.    If you skip to 1:09:00 in the video, you’ll hear about fan theories that suggested that season four was supposed to be crappy, as part of a secret meta-narrative plan that would be paid off in a secret, unannounced episode that would not only explain everything, but retroactively justify the crappy episodes that came before.    But it’s been a few years and it never came to pass, so I think we can call this myth busted. 

Most recently, I think we’ve all seen a lot of talk about the final season of Supernatural, where I guess Destiel sort of became canon but only one guy does the love confession and the other doesn’t respond.   But I guess he does say “I love you too”  in the Spanish dub, which means the English language version was edited for whatever reason.    It’s not exactly a secret episode, but the implication is that there’s more to this than what made it to the screen.    So the questions turn to what the screenplay said, what the writers and actors wanted to do, etc. etc.    My general impression is that SPN fans are a bit more used to crushing disappointment, so they’re not quite as delusional about this show being unquestionable genius, like Sherlock and Harry Potter.     Maybe this is an Anglophile thing?   Like, if you suck at something with a British accent, people will accept it more unconditionally?   

I had seen something on Twitter about how there should have been a secret Seinfeld episode in the 90′s.    Someone suggested it at the time, they tape a whole episode, then wait until 2020 to air it, because by then it would be worth a fortune.    But they didn’t do it, because it costs a lot of money to make a TV episode, and if you don’t air the show right away, you aren’t making that money back any time soon.    Yeah, you might recoup a fortune someday, but Seinfeld was making a ton of money then.    It exposes the fannish nature of the idea.    A fan would love to discover a cool secret chapter, but a content creator isn’t necessarily keen on making a cool thing and then hiding it where few people would find it.  

I thought about doing this myself recently.   Maybe Supernatural gave me the bug, but I thought “I’m writing this big-ass story, so what if I wrote me a secret chapter for it?   Wouldn’t that be cool?”     But no, it wouldn’t be cool, because it’d be the same work as writing a regular chapter, and the same stress I feel when I hold off on publishing it.    Except I’d just never publish it, I’d put it in some secret hole on the internet and hope that some superfan who might not even exist can decode whatever clues I leave.  

I mean, it’d be awesome if it got discovered and everyone loved it.    “Hey, I found this hidden chapter!   Mike’s done it again!”   And I could bask in the glory.   But what if no one finds it?  Then I just wasted my time, right?   I want people to read my work.   My monkey brain needs the sweet, sweet validation of those kudos and comments, folks.   Once I realized that, I understood why no one else would want to do a secret chapter either.    Easter eggs are one thing, but the bigger bonus features they put on DVDs were pretty easy to find, and with good reason.

I think that’s what made the Stanley Parable so appealing to play, because it teases you with the idea that you can “break” the game and find some extra content that you weren’t supposed to see, but as you go exploring all those hidden areas, it gradually becomes clear that this is just part of the game; you were meant to find all these things, and that’s why they were put here.      It’s hidden, but he secret aspect of it is just pretend.   

I suppose that what I like about games like TSP and Superliminal is the illusion of secrets more than the secrets themselves.    I like roaming through the hallways, having no idea what I might find ahead.    I kind of wish I could open all the doors, and not just the ones the game designers put stuff behind, but the reality is that there’s nothing on the other side.    I used a cheat code once  to explore the unused doors in TSP and it’s just a bright white field on the other side.   Interesting to look at, but not much of a reveal.   Honestly, the doors themselves are more appealing than anything that could lay behind them.  

And that’s probably what makes secrets so fun.   They could be almost anything, but once you open the present, the number of possibilities drops to one.   If they had ever made that Secret BBC Sherlock Episode, I doubt it would have lived up to expectations, but fans could amuse themselves by imagining what could have been in it.    In the end, though, things usually don’t justify the hype.  For every Undertaker debut at Survivor Series 1990, there’s a Gobbledygooker debut at Survivor Series 1990.   It’s impossible to manufacture a secret with a guaranteed payoff.   

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight : Syntheticpoetry Day 3

Author : @syntheticpoetry​ 

How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Until it feels right.  I don't have a set number.  I'll just keep revisiting it and seeing if I am satisfied or if it needs tweaking.  I'm trying to expand now and invite beta readers in to overlook things for me because there are definitely things I always miss on my own.

If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

There is one that I never finished, but I hope to revisit and rewrite one day called Caught In The Lie.  I would LOVE to revamp what I have and then expand on it.  It's about Blaine being transgender (ftm) and the evolution of his relationship with Kurt (friendship to unexpected romance). 

What do you look for in a beta?

Someone who will be completely honest in their critiques and unafraid to ask questions about things they don't understand.

If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Lately I've been binge reading All the Other Ghosts and feeling really compelled to delve into writing for the superhero AU.  I have yet to read the sequel, so undetermined if I would want to write something after the fact or a prequel, but that's the fic I feel pretty strongly towards right now.

Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I definitely take liberties with canon.  I love little canon easter eggs (who doesn't, right?!) but I feel like I lean towards canon divergence.

Talk about a review that made your day.

I took a long break from writing after Cory Monteith died.  I wasn't even a huge Finn fan, but I just remember how shocking and difficult it was to return to the fandom after it had happened.  I got a review on And the World Spins Madly on that said even though the story was unfinished, they found it completely worth reading and that even though they were new to the Glee fandom I became one of their favourite authors.  The ended it by saying "Just wanted you to know that the stories you created a long time ago are still bringing new joy."  I honestly cried when I read it.  It had been so, so long since I had written anything and seeing that honestly first planted the idea in my head to return to the Glee fandom and finish what I had started.  Without it, I'm not sure I would have found my way back the way that I did, so shoutout to Klaineydaze for your review on FF.net and reigniting that spark of creativity in my life again.

Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I've honestly been pretty lucky to not have received any rude reviews.  All of my reviews have been pretty positive and the only criticism I have really received has been pretty constructive. 

What advice do you have for people just starting to write?

Write for yourself.  Write because it makes you happy.  Don't focus on the kudos, or the favourites, or the reviews— those are just bonuses.  Share it with people you love and trust and be proud that you have decided to create anything at all, because most people who criticize and complain don't even take that step.  And don't ever let anyone make you feel like you should stop.  Write as long as you are inspired to write, and don't feel obligated to do so when you are not.  Have FUN.

Which fic do you most like to discuss with other people? Why?

Probably Go Your Own Way or Little Numbers.  Predictable response, I know, but these two fics had SUCH an impact on my life and the fact that Zavocado went on to publish his own series based off of GYOW honestly just gives me so much hope and inspiration of doing the same one day.

What's one aspect of writing fic that gets you really excited?

Writing is a verbal playground.  I love getting to toy around with headcanons and seeing other people's reactions to that.  I love the meta analysis aspect of fanfiction and the conversations it creates between fans.  Writing, reading, and sharing fic just makes me feel so connected to others in a way that people who are not in the fandom may not be able to comprehend.

***

Check out Syntheticpoetry’s fics: 

The Ghosts That We Knew - Blaine Anderson is no stranger to hospitals and has been volunteering on the pediatric unit of Lima General Hospital for years when Kurt Hummel comes along. After Blaine is attacked at his school's Sadie Hawkins Dance, he has his best friend Kurt to help him deal with the aftermath. And when Kurt becomes the target of the McKinley football team's bullying campaign, he can count on Blaine to have his back.AU where Blaine transfers to McKinley instead of Dalton. Set during season 1.A story of two best friends finding courage to face their bullies and discovering love along the way.

Kintsugi - Kurt and Blaine have a mature heart to heart involving Blaine's insecurities. Tested reaction fic where I just really gratuitously expanded on the dialogue and included the missing smut scene that very obviously must have occurred off camera.

Hips Don’t Lie -  Blaine has a hard time getting dressed for school during Kurt's first day in New York. Or that time Kurt makes Blaine dance to Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie.